Shadow of Evil
Even though your impulses may never cross the line into violence, ordinary impulses intensify in the shadow, where you cant see them. Whenever you hear yourself sounding resentful or angry without provocation, whenever you find yourself on the verge of tears for no reason, whenever you cannot explain why you suddenly made a rash decision, you are actually feeling the effects of energy covertly building up in the shadow.
The shadow has grown used to being repressed; therefore, to access this region of the mind doesnt happen easily. Nor is direct assault effective. The shadow knows how to resist; it can slam the door and hide its dark energy even deeper.
People assume that the dark side of human nature has unstoppable power; Satan has been elevated into the equivalent of a negative God. But when it is broken down, evil turns out to be a distorted response to everyday situations.
Evil is born in the gap between body and mind. There is no powerful ruler of the kingdom of evil. Satan started out as a moment of sensory input that got wildly out of hand.
Adapted from The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2004).
