Felicitas

"Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?" 

                                                                             Anonymous

                   
Once upon a time there was a little girl called Felicitas who was always happy. Bigger boys were annoyed with her happy smile and constantly bullied her, but Felicitas always maintained her happiness. She got into a lot of trouble, because whenever children were angry or sad she would say to them: "You want to be right or you want to be happy?" Others would make jokes about her and wherever she went she became a center of mischief and aggressions. Eventually her parents got worried that she was not a normal girl and took her to a psychologist.

When she was asked what the problem was and why she would always provoke the big boys with her "you want to be right or be happy," she said: "I found that whenever I was feeling bad and unhappy I was thinking of something bad or fearful, and when I changed my mind and thought of something happy or beautiful, I would always feel happy. So I decided to change my mind and keep it changed." "Well," said the psychologist, "there is also a lot of bad in the world that we have to look at and think about." "Yes," she answered, "but only in a positive way by looking for solutions. When I focus on the problems too much I become fearful or angry and then I can't do anything about them."

"Well, said the psychologist, "that might be true, but you can't ignore reality and pretend it's all good." "Maybe," she answered, "but why don't you teach people to change their minds, to let go of their anger and fears, and think nice thoughts? Good thoughts always make me feel good and when I feel good I want to help people to feel good, too. I think it's only anger and fears that make people bad. And that's a choice of what we focus on, isn't it?"

The psychologist didn't know what to say and sent the girl to a scientist who was famous for his critical mind. When the scientist heard the girl's story he said: "That is totally irrational and unscientific." "No," the girl replied, "every time you try it, you get the same result. That's how science works, isn't it." "That maybe so," said the scientist, "but you will go crazy if you leave out half of reality. People are half good and half bad, everybody knows that. You will not know how to tell right from wrong any more if you only focus on the good."

The girl wasn't scared. "I am not sure about that; maybe nobody is really right, or everybody is only right in his own way, but I feel good and clear in my mind, and more at peace than anyone I know."

The scientist was upset. "You are a victim of self-deception," the scientist exclaimed, "society will declare you insane, and you will be all alone with your happy thinking. What we call sane is determined by what the majority of the people believe, and no little girl like you can change that."

Now the girl did get a little frightened. She really didn't want to be all alone and without friends in the world. But quickly she reminded herself to change her mind and she said: "Maybe you can control what scientists say and what the newspapers write, but the thinking is free and you can never control that."

The scientist turned red with anger and screamed at the little girl because he didn't know what to say anymore. The girl, however, went home to her parents and began to warn all her friends that the scientists would try to confuse them in order to gain influence over their minds. The friends, however, joined together in a "Fellowship of Friends" in order to keep reminding each other that it was o.k. to think only of good things and to be happy, joyous, and free.

Soon the scientists became worried that the whole world might go insane if they let this Fellowship of Friends get away with their weird teachings on happiness. They wrote articles in scientific magazines and in newspapers and declared the fellowship a dangerous cult. They even talked to the churches, because they sensed that the priests and bishops would loose their influence, too, if this kind of nonsense spread.

The friends of the fellowship, however, were not impressed. The more they observed themselves and how their thoughts created their feelings the more they became convinced that they were doing just the right thing.
Soon they discovered, that by forgiving the bullies as well as the scientists or anyone else who tried to trouble them they would keep their minds at peace. They found that they could even let go of their life stories by forgiving themselves and everyone who they thought had harmed them, and thereby be free from all bad events of the past, which would make them feel even more peaceful and happy. They kept reminding each other to forgive everyone who disturbed their peace of mind or who did not understand what they were doing.

By this practice of self awareness the friends of the fellowship found that whenever they had difficulties with finding a good thought in a bad situation all they needed to do was to give thanks to the universe and to their minds for being positive, and they would feel happy again. They recognized that they choose their experiences by what they focus on and that the attitude with which they approach their experiences would color the feelings their bodies would mirror. They learned to direct their thoughts and choose a positive attitude so that every new thought would support positive expectations and lead to good feelings.

The "Society of Friends" grew fast and the scientists began to feel threatened. but the more the scientists attacked the Fellowship the more people heard about it. Many tried their methods and everyone who really tried them came to the same results. Soon large parts of the world were practicing "New Thought", as it was called, and the Fellowship of Friends turned into a Fellowship of Man, because all these people thinking good thoughts wanted also to do good deeds in order to express and experience their happiness.

Eventually, young scientists took up the practice of positive living and began to prove that there was actually nothing new in New Thought, but that Jesus, Buddha, Shankara, Mohammed, Meister Eckardt, and all wise men of the ages had always said the same thing. It only had been said in ways that could not be understood by many people of the 21. century.

It was found that it was only the level of consciousness that people identified with that determined if they could realize their freedom of changing their minds. As soon as people recognized that the spirit of man is their original goodness, their "good will or will for good", and that this will is identical with their true Self and their original nature, so that they only had to align their will with the purposes of nature, they would be happy, joyous and free. Only when they were overwhelmed by fears, usually related to memories of traumatic experiences from their childhood, they would identify with the old, false self of the fearful personality, or the traumatized ego, as scientists called it. Then they would identify with resentments and fears and forget to change their minds back to the goodness of their spirit.

It didn't take long until some young scientists became open minded enough to find that it was science itself which had excluded spirit from the concept of mind because science had no tools to measure experiences of a spiritual nature. After practicing more self-awareness with conscious deep breathing, mindfulness and insight meditation, however, scientists began to look deeper into the relationships between emotional trauma, negative thinking, and self-destructive behavior. It was found that it was emotional trauma which caused an internal split between thought and spirit, so that people kept insisting on being identified with anger and fears, which would cause them to disrespect themselves and others with all kind of destructive or self destructive behaviors. But when they learned to forgive their trauma and change their minds they would remember their true Selves and become happy and respectful again.

It was found that the trauma therapy EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) was able to neutralize negative memories and emotions and thereby heal mental obsessions based on fears from the past as well as medical illness. It was discovered that physical diseases could be healed through a mind change from fearful thinking with negative expectations to trust in the healing power of nature and the intelligence of the universe.

It was recognized that life is a process of consciousness unfolding continuously into creative manifestation, a force of unity which can have no opposition, since the essence of the universe cannot be working against itself. It became clear that just as darkness is not real, but a name for the lack of light, and just as cold is only an absence of energy, that evil had no reality of its own, but that evil was only a name for destructive emotional forces in human beings, based on the habitual emotional reactions of fear, anger, envy, or revenge. As soon as the negative feelings were experienced and released with EFT they could be easily forgiven and thereby dissolved.

Researchers found that EFT could free the healing powers of nature by releasing the fears and negative emotions that were underlying the symptoms of illness. Hypertension was treated by releasing the repressed anger from the times when it had started to be come a medical problem, and asthma could be stopped by treating the fear of the first remembered attack. Multiple sclerosis vanished by freeing the traumatic experiences that caused it and lower back pain was released by letting go of feelings of guilt and shame causing the need to try to carry the world for, others. Through expanded research more and more emotional conflicts were identified as the causes of most disease and self healing and spiritual mind healing became the most eminent resources of medical treatment.

The origins of religious teachings which said that God was another word for goodness and love was rediscovered and the phrase: "Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy," became a symbol for the ignorance of the old times when people were unaware that opinions are only temporary concepts of limited human thinking and that people must trust in the goodness of the universe and be grateful for the abundance they enjoy if they want to live in peace of mind, health and happiness.

Soon the Fellowship of Friends became renowned for their wisdom and they became teachers for one another and to the world. They showed people how to let go of fears, shame, guilt, anger, and resentments, and how to rediscover their original spirits of goodness, their true Selves. They taught each other how to use EFT to dissolve their medical problems and how to stay in their centers of self-awareness, trust, and spiritual wisdom, through the practice of the new life skills of Tai Chi, yoga, mindful breathing, visualizations and affirmations.

The fellowship developed a mentoring program teaching these life skills called "Each One Teach One" (E1T1, also standing for each one is the one), and helped people realize that their feelings were created by what they thought and talked to themselves, by their attitudes and intentions, and that they always had the choice to focus on good thoughts and good deeds, so that they would feel good. People learned to take responsibility for their thoughts and actions and found that there was nothing outside of themselves that could disturb their peace, love and happiness, if they wouldn't let it. More and more people discovered that life, love, peace, power, truth, wisdom, happiness, freedom, abundance, friendship and whatever people called their highest good, are really inner qualities of all people, which need to be expressed and lived in order to be experienced, rather than social values which have to be enforced.

Over time more and more people woke up from their slumber of absorption in self-centered fears and began to make friends with everyone they met. People realized how thinking expands the underlying assumptions and became determined to put peace, health and happiness for all over the will of being right and dominating others. It was recognized that deep down every person wants the same peace, love and happiness and to secure the best intentions for the next generation, and that the constant political struggles were about how to realize that good and not about good people fighting bad people as it appeared in political propaganda.

Movements to create peaceful, sane and happy societies were organized and  eventually a World Peace Party was founded in every country and people learned how to create healthy communities and political structures which would enable the distribution of food and other resources in ways so that there was enough for all. The new life skills of emotional self management, such as mindful breathing, emotional clearing with EFT, yoga, Tai Chi, meditating, visualizing , positive focusing, and many others were taught in high schools so that children grew up knowing how to live self-responsibly and remain peaceful, happy and healthy. The old teaching that our original goodness, our true Self is identical with the essence, intelligence and powwer of the universe, which in earlier times had been called God, Christ consciousness, bhudda nature, Allah or Atman, was reconfirmed, and the world religions made peace based on the principles they could all agree upon. The world grew into a place of conscious, positive living and peaceful cooperation, and while the people kept practicing the new found skills by expressing joy and living  love in, as and through their creative power inside, Felicitas and her friends lived happily ever after.

Copyright Michael S.