The real crux of the human existential dilemma is that we are a people who are fractured and unclean on the inside. Jesus compared this inner condition to a house that is divided against itself. Furthermore he alluded to the foremost repercussion of this division, adding that "a house divided cannot stand." (Luke 11:17).
It is this inner dis integration that is the cause of most health issues. As Jesus also said: "Make the eye single and the whole body will be filled with light." (Luke 11:34). Contrarily, when our eye or inner constitution is divided, our entire being, including our body, is darkness. And it is in this climate of darkness that disease and dysfunction breed and thrive.
Inner dis integration is also the root source of all of our mental anguish and disquietude. There is nothing as distracting and disturbing as having opposition, argument and hesitation arise from within our own person. And this is exactly what happens when we are "occupied" with a foreign presence inside - that is, a presence that does not belong there. We are essentially at war within ourselves. This makes peace and happiness not only elusive but impossible.
What all this means is that in order for healing to be true and lasting it must go deeper than mere symptomatic relief. It must put to flight the inner foreign presence that divides our house and restore wholeness to our battered psyche. This wholeness will then make our eye single and fill us with light. It will also bring us true peace for the first time in our lives. This brand of integral holistic healing has been referred to by many names. In the Bible it is often called salvation or redemption, while in non-religious terms it is perhaps best described by the word: reintegration.
One question that will no doubt occur to the reader is: How? How did we become so hopelessly fragmented and divided inside? This question can only be answered as we come to learn the truth as taught by the great spiritual masters who have themselves become perfectly whole and fully reintegrated. Unfortunately, this learning is not as easy as it sounds, because in almost every instance these truth teachings have been presented to us in a hidden or veiled format. The reason for this has had nothing to do with the teacher's personal teaching technique. Rather it has been mandated by our lack of readiness and inability to receive.
Our dilemma begins at birth, when upon entering this world our two eternal inner components - spiritual consciousness and soul - are forced to separate on account of the infantile human's inability to become fully conscious. This means that spiritual consciousness must take a back seat in the human psyche and wait until the human vessel develops this capacity. But as traumatic as this separation of soul and spiritual consciousness can be, it is not the actual cause of our inner division. For, these two eternal qualities are never oppositional to one another. Rather they are, in fact, powerfully attracted and bent on consummate union.
The dividing of our house does come as an indirect result of this occurrence, however. What happens is that with spiritual consciousness being relegated to inactivity until the young human has developed a capacity for self-awareness, soul is left in an extended vacuum of unconsciousness, in which she finds herself completely unguarded and vulnerable to attack. Then sure enough, into this vacuum the natural elements of the earthly plane come and take up their abode. It is this occupation by these elemental forces foreign to our pure created inward constitution that render us divided and incapacitated.
Who and what are these natural elements of the earthly plane? They are actually a conglomerate confederacy of unclean hosts. Though the Bible focuses intently on a singular conceptual element called sin, in truth sin is a broad heading that includes Adamic dualistic intellectual processes, karma, world mesmerism, and negative emotional entanglement. These elements of the earthly plane have not always been as active as they are now. In fact in the beginning they were not a part of the elemental chemistry of the earthly plane at all. Rather they developed over time, reflecting the input of human beings upon the earthly environment. Now, however, it is a given that these unclean elements will not only find their way into any vacuum of unconsciousness in the human psyche; they will essentially swarm and infest to such a degree that we will be completely powerless to repel and eradicate them. It is this foreign presence then that makes us inwardly unclean, which, in turn, strips us of the confidence that is the perpetual quality of our countenance once we are made whole. It makes us into a house divided - a house that cannot stand for longer than 80 or 90 years.
Thus the importance of the role of conscious awareness in our inner world cannot be emphasized enough. Since it is through unconsciousness that these foreign elements of the earthly plane gain entrance and have their way with us, it makes sense that conscious awareness would be the catalyst that reverses this predicament. There is one flaw in this equation, however. It is that the infestation of the elements of the earthly plane is often so thorough and advanced and the elements' claim to soul so entrenched that only a high degree of spiritual consciousness development can turn the trick of casting out these foreigners. It then becomes a matter not only of conscious awareness, but also of true spiritual authority. In other words, the natural elements that have taken over our soul will depart only when commanded to do so by one who has true spiritual authority. In fact, when that happens, they will run and not walk. But if they are commanded by one with less than true authority, they will stubbornly hold their ground and even go on the offensive and try to attack the unsure figure who is insisting that they leave.
The challenge before us then becomes the strengthening of our spiritual consciousness, in the realization that the foreign host occupying our soul will only respond to one with true authority. This strengthening is accomplished through what has been aptly called the spiritual journey. It is similar to what we do when we try to strengthen our bodies through exercise. Only in this case the exercises that bring true authority to our countenance are meditative communion with God and the study of the holy writings handed down to us from the followers of the great spiritual masters. Like the building up of our bodies, the strengthening of spiritual consciousness does not happen overnight. It takes time and practice. But it can be done.
In the end we will also need the cooperative activity of God's indwelling spirit working with us as a scientific affirmative power. But this is all part of our spiritual journey. In other words, it is while traversing the road of spiritual consciousness development that we are shown how to bring God into the picture and how to unleash Its great power. Thus it requires no religious application or allegiance. Rather it can be accomplished strictly through the ascertaining of scientific principles.
This then is how God acts as a savior or redeemer in our experience. Through knowing God aright and receiving the key that unlocks Its activity - knowledge that the serious aspirant attains on the spiritual journey - we not only become spiritually authoritative, but we gain the ultimate assurance that we will be able to overcome our soul's captors and put them to flight once and for all. Thus we will actually experience this act of redemptive overcoming and watch with our own eyes as our inner world is cleansed, purified, and made whole again.