The Importance of Abnormal Behaviour

By Robert St. John

Because life depends on a fulfilment of the flow of consciousness into action, a communication of inner awareness with the actions of life, the structure of the channel of that flow must inevitably dictate the nature of the action, because this channel is also the pattern of the ‘blockages’ of the gestation period. This means that if there is a predisposition towards stress, tension or disturbing behaviour, an expression of this characteristic must take place as a ‘normal’ fulfilment. The alternative is inhibition of action. There is no doubt that it is the action of life that is of paramount importance and not the inhibition of action. If the action contains patterns of behaviour that are considered abnormal, accept the action as the natural expression of the person’s pattern of life, but, if they wish to change or if their behaviour is such as to cause trouble, then tackle the problem at the source, at the inner motivation of the subject and he will not require discipline or enforcement to make the change, he will do so simply because he no longer has the need to express himself in that particular way.

Examples of this are smoking, the drinking of stimulants such as coffee, tea and alcohol, an abnormally constructed diet, sexual malpractice’s and many other things that are the usual pattern of the average person. Smoking produces a ‘screen’ between the whole consciousness and the functional self; it prevents the division of the mind that blocks produce, from becoming too much an aggravating factor. As long as there is a need of this sort the subject actually benefits by smoking: once the block has been removed smoking produces a poisonous effect, but, usually, the subject just spontaneously gives up smoking. It is interesting to observe that as long as there is a need for smoking it is not a poison, it has a purpose in the whole pattern. Coffee has a similar effect. When there is a strong pre-birth trauma, when action is inhibited, a small quantity of coffee, preferably black, tips the balance into action of both mind and body. Once the birth trauma has been cleared coffee becomes a poison. The stronger the block, the greater the need for more and more coffee. Coffee is a stimulator of the mind but tea stimulates the muscular actions. The bodily urge to act is helped by tea. Alcohol is a stimulator of the pre-conceptual block on action and is related to the pre-birth trauma. Sexual malpractice is an expression of ‘alternative’ action and is largely related to the post-conceptual period.

Each of these conditions becomes an addiction, such as alcoholism, when the motivation changes from an expression of life to the enjoyment of sensation. Avoid telling your patient what you think he should be doing, however abnormal or unpleasant his behaviour; just get on with the treatment and he will make the changes from within himself. In this way the change is easy, spontaneous and natural, and there is no tendency to revert. This principle also applies to the behaviour of the mentally abnormal. The way in which they are behaving is normal to all that they are at the time; they cannot naturally express themselves in any other way and to enforce change on them is to further complicate the pattern of their abnormality.