Email Question: How do you deal with individuals who are strongly attached to an ideology and can not accept another?s point of view?

Response: For me, (laughing), the definition of ideology is a system of concepts that says "By definition, I am right and everyone else is wrong."

It is generally for extroverts whose brain programming likes to go directly from perception to a judgment or conclusion without processing feelings.

Ideology goes against my rule eight of ten rules for spiritual seekers: ?Learn to argue both sides of any position with equal enthusiasm. In this way you will be able to perceive the truth with greater clarity." And its spiritual practice: "Learn to perceive without thoughts intervening. This is the basis of all magical traditions."

In perspective, ideology is a powerful upgrade in cultural evolution since it is an attempt to grasp a large body of conflicting data, integrate that information into one system of interpretation, and then seek to change the world based on that point of view. This allows are large number of individuals to work together who otherwise have nothing in common.

As is the case with religion, fanaticism combined with religion allows warring warlords to unite and form one government. It is an upgrade allowing for more order and greater productivity.

In politics in the last few centuries, ideology enables different ethnic groups, races, and nations to begin to think internationally and globally. It is an upgrade from thinking only about one's own group to thinking about "the world" in general.

It is important to grasp the value of ideology in order to comprehend how important it is and the role it has to play before pointing out its flaws such as being brain dead to the consequences or effects of its actions on others--it has no capacity to reflect on its own destructive activities and when and where it does not apply or is totally ineffective.

Typically, I just practice active listening with fanatics or religious people who are ideological or have a well integrated and powerful interpretative system. I listen carefully to what they say, repeat back brief paraphrasing of their ideas and point out what I perceive as their feelings or emotions about their ideas. Thus I act as a mirror in which they can begin to see themselves without my contradicting them or evaluating them.

And I really go for what their experiences are personally that lead them into this point of view. When you share experiences there is no argument, not if you keep the focus on the other person.

They may think you are agreeing with them as you listen--only a true friend ever gives this level of attention. But you are not agreeing. You are just being a good listener. One woman said as she sat next to her husband and I had been listening for fifteen minutes, "No one understands me as well as you do." I replied, "You are just not used to being around good listeners."

Now a really great listener will take it even further. One of the best principles in conflict resolution is to get enemies together and have one ask the other to help out with a problem, since enemies often are the only ones who really understand each others situations. Like one group leader did in Northern Ireland between the Catholics and the Protestants, he separated the men and the women into two groups and asked them to share their experiences about marriage. Or some green peace individuals got together with a corporate head and offered suggestions on how he could make more money and gain public support in the process. Or American Viet Nam and Russian Afghanistan war veterans getting together--they both returned home for the war and were ignored or hated by the public, and so they could understand each other better than anyone else.

So you get inside of the other person?s head and figure out what he really wants and help him get it which means going beyond ideology or a powerful system of interpretation since ideology does not support the individual in any personal sense. It only addresses perceived ills which it defines in general terms.

You do this by going into the future with your mind and explaining to the individual the results of his vision so that he can look at it clearly and modify it so it is more human. Marx with the idea of a dictatorship of the proletariat did not role play how that would work. He was only focused on overthrowing the current political/economic reality which for him had unacceptable evils attached to it. Marx did not envision Stalin and Mao.

If Marx had been exposed to a really good active listener, Marx might have said, "Oh, right. There is a danger with absolute dictators and totalitarian regimes based on personality cults. The way to get around that is every five years you have a referendum by the workers to elect a new leader with term limits which everyone in the military swears on my name to uphold when they receive their first rifle."

The problem with the Democrats and the Republicans in the U.S. is that they do not want to actually solve problems because it is easier to get public support by ranting against the outrages and bad results of the opposing party. They should actually look at the opposing side and explain how to get the best results within the others framework and set of agendas. Like abortion: the first step should be to answer the question: How do we reduce the number of abortions and what are the ways to do this that we can both accept?

They should find common ground on this point and work together. But instead, neither side wants to address that issue because they enjoy the self-righteous and arrogant presentation that they are right and the other side is all wrong. They are arrogant because arrogance assumes it knows more than others. They are self-righteous because they feel their cause justifies being inflexible. Consequently, for both sides, the more abortions there are the more they feel justified in condemning the opposing ideology.

Neither one hears or listens to the others genuine fears and concerns. Rather than curse both their houses, a highly skilled empath could get inside the national leaders on opposite sides, join their consciousness together, and present both views at the same time with all aspects of the situation so they can actually feel the others feelings and perceive through the others eyes. They individually may not respond but the energy is in their auras would lead other people to respond.

The other aspect to active listening is to listen from the point of view of akasha or like the cosmic letter U. In brief, you embody the clarity and emptiness of a mirror. Or, with the akasha, if you are a vast empty space penetrating through space and time and can in stillness be totally receptive to all experience and points of view without having to any form attachment in yourself, it is nearly impossible for someone to attack you. To do so they would have to enter and look for something in your mind to attack when in fact you embody the vibration and feeling that is "the original purpose and purity of everything that exists."

It is a gift or a blessing to listen in this way. You are offering to another cosmic insight. The suggestions you make from this state of awareness are like the voice of their own deepest conscience or their own guardian angel.

And you can meditate on another in this state of mind at a distance as well.

Listening is not just a useful communication technique. It is a vocation listed on my website under Divine Missions. There is no end to the extent to which it can be developed.