Several years ago I had a visionary experience. I was in a beautiful green valley on a perfect summer day. On top of the green hill before me was a beautiful white house, elegant, stately.
A 'voice' beside me said that the house was filled with "evil" and asked that I go inside to experience it. I surprised myself by agreeing, though with some obvious hesitation, but always knowing that I was safe.
I entered the house and the door closed behind me -- and instantly I was overwhelmed by a force of energy that almost knocked me off my feet and which I could only describe to myself at the time as "evil."
But just as instantly, I realized that wasn't accurate. In a way that is impossible to fully describe here, in words, I felt a dozen, a hundred, perhaps even a thousand emotions all at ounce. I felt sadness and loss and neglect and fear and hate and rejection and ignorance and guilt and shame and abandonment and weakness and humiliation and abuse and need and lack and want and cruelty and on and on and on -- all at once, all in an instant.
And then I found myself back outside, and the 'voice' asked me if there was such a thing as "evil." And I realized that there was not.
That what we call "evil" is really only the combination of any number of the energies that I felt.
I understood that when we call something, or someone, "evil" we are letting ourselves off the hook. We are forsaking our responsibility for the condition of the world and for our fellow beings on this planet.
We call someone "evil" and lock them away, or kill them, and continue on with our lives, as if we have done away with some monster from another planet. And we sleep better at night.
We tell ourselves those we call "evil" are an aberration, a distortion of life. A freak of nature.
But they aren't. They are any one of us placed in their shoes for a long enough period of time. "That child with the gun in the school yard is evil." No. That child has suffered neglect at home and abuse in the school hallway. "That genocidal general is evil." No. That general was also at one time a child and at some point was not listened to, not taken seriously, not, quite simply, loved.
And now I hear the voices out there saying: 'That's so typical of bleeding hearts. Everything that's wrong with the world is just bad parenting. Blame the parents, the society, the world, but not the monster."
No. The "monster" must take responsibility for its actions. Many people have had horrific childhoods and gone on to become powerful healers and contributors to the common good. And society has every right to protect itself from the walking wounded, who left unnoticed, can bring about horror on a global scale.
I'm just offering that if we continue to think of certain wounded people as "evil" and not like us in many, many ways -- given the right circumstances -- then we merely push the problem into the shadows and guarantee that another 'monster' will soon walk among us.
As many have written before me: There are two, and only two, emotions/energies that rule this planet: Love & fear.
"Evil" is the inevitable outcome of fear left unacknowledged and unattended.
There is no "evil."
There is only the absence of love.
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