Hello, i want to know how can i deal with intrusive thoughts. This is not an ordinary thoughts, i think this is my karma. One woman said to me that i wasnt very good in the past and now i am having these thoughts as a result of my past lifes. Most often they are demonic, it seems like someone else sends them to me, and exactly what i scare most. Also these thoughts condemns others, but i dont want to condem them. Please, give me any ideas how can i deal with them. Thank you!
—Mark, Germany
Dear Mark,
Thank you for asking this important question. One of the best ways I know to deal with intrusive thoughts, especially those that are negative, is to strongly emphasize the light — in your thoughts, in your life, in the music you listen to, in the friends you associate with. As you live your life more consciously in an environment of light, you will find these negative thoughts losing power.
One of the things you don’t want to do is to “entertain” these thoughts. By this I mean don’t give them energy by thinking about them — why they are there, where they come from, what you did in the past to attract such thoughts, etc. Thinking about them tends to give them more energy.
An important thing to remember about thoughts is something that Paramhansa Yogananda said about them. He said that “thoughts are universally, not individually rooted.” What this means is that the level of consciousness you live on determines what kind of thoughts you will attract to yourself. By raising your level of consciousness, and you will change the kinds of thoughts that come to you. This is why emphasizing the light in your life is so important.
Does past karma from previous lives have an influence on your thoughts? Yes, certainly it does. This is because karma is the result of repeated actions resulting in a vortex of energy and, therefore, consciousness. The way we begin to dissolve our karma is to withdraw energy from these past actions and to begin to act in other, more uplifting, ways.
With strongly negative thoughts, always keep in mind that they are not your thoughts and that you are not a bad person for having them. Thoughts truly do live on levels of consciousness. Change your level of consciousness, and you will change your thoughts.
A warning about negative thoughts: They can have a strong magnetism about them; one that wants to keep you involved with them — thinking about them, etc. Resist doing this as much as possible, and strongly put your thoughts and energy in a more uplifted direction. Swami Kriyananda writes about an experience he had with this when he was living at Mt. Washington in Los Angeles. He said he fell into a negative mood one day. To get out of it, he put his mind and concentration strongly at the point between the eyebrows. He said that after only five minutes he felt his consciousness shift, and the negative mood, as well as the thoughts associated with them, went away.
I hope these ideas will be helpful to you and that by using them you will find your consciousness uplifted more and more toward the divine light.
