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Comfortably Numb

I’ve spoken about the concept of being Comfortable Numb for years. It is my own term for when people lack passion and purpose in their lives and is a state of being far deeper and more dangerous than being depressed. In this state you have pretty much fallen for a lie about who you are and why you’re here. The lie has suppressed you, you’ve settled, you’re hollow and worst of all comfortable with being so. You may even be so comfortable with your lies and misery that you will fight violently to stay in it. In this state, there are people and environments around you, intent on diminishing you.

There are Three Stages to Comfortable Numbness:

Stage 1) Suppression: In the suppression stage, you are held down, controlled and/or manipulated by people in your personal life or career. I call these people Spiritual Conspirators. Usually conspirators notice that you are intellectually, spiritually or physically out of their league and so they are motivated to drain your energy to feed and advance them selves or they want to recruit you to lower your standards and be like them. There are a variety of ways conspirators do this, but the common tactics are; distracting you, playing mind games, confusing you, intimidation, abuse, using guilt, obligation, pity or drama, attacking your esteem, sleep, privacy, freedom, identity, popularity and judgment. Conspirators don’t want to see you challenged. They want you laying low. They don’t want you to move too far or do too much. They don’t want you to think to big or to be creative.

Symptoms of Suppression:
-Failure to use the head or heart effectively;
-Feeling of disconnect from something significant;
-Feeling of an external conquering over your inner desires;
-Feeling inhibited or controlled to effectively showing emotions, desires, impulses, or behavior;
-Feeling of being put out of your consciousness;
-Feeling misunderstood or kept from public knowledge;
-Feeling or dreams of being smothered, stifled or strangled;
-A mental, pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity;

Stage 2) Depression: In the second stage of depression, you have by now given up, complied or have begun to really buy into the lies, standards and manipulations. Usually in the depression stage though, you do know on some level, that you are giving into some conspiracy around you. Deep down or in phases, you know it and it saddens you. Depression is a state of spiritual sadness or regret for where you are and what you have complied to. No matter what the mind and body forgets and ignores, the spirit remembers and causes you to feel. Depression is contrast to elevation. It is a term for movement in an inferior direction.

Symptoms of Depression:
-Depressed mood or sadness most of the time;
-Lack of energy and feeling tired all the time;
-Inability to enjoy things that should bring pleasure;
-Withdrawal from friends and family;
-Irritability, anger, or anxiety;
-Inability to concentrate;
-Significant weight loss or gain;
-Significant change in sleep patterns;
-Feelings of guilt or worthlessness;
-Aches and pains, with no known medical cause;
-Pessimism and indifference;
-Thoughts of death or suicide;
-Thoughts reflect that hopelessness and exaggerated self-critical thoughts;

Stage 3) Oppression: The last stage is oppression and it is the completed state of Comfortable Numbness. Oppression is when there is a spiritual void, darkness and nothingness about you. The spirit of life that should thrive in you is almost like an electrical short. It is so weak and rare that it can hardly be seen. When you are oppressed you feel nothing. You’re numb and you like it that way. No one is getting through to you. It’s much like what’s expressed in the song Comfortably Numb, by Pink Floyd, “You are only coming through in waves. Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying.” In oppression, many of God’s people forget and reject him. In the oppression state, there is so much emptiness, cold and darkness, that the spirit of life starts shorting out. It is in these moments of disconnect that our loved ones take their own lives.

Symptoms of Oppression
-Low self-image;
-Confusion in thinking, opinions and beliefs;
-Perceiving anger, hostility, in others when it doesn’t really exist;
-Nightmares causing fear or violent thoughts;
-Envy, despondency, restlessness or fear when encountering someone involved in Spiritual work
-Irrational fears, panic attacks, phobias or irrational anger/rage;
-Calculated personality, mood and attitude changes, like irrational laughter or crying;
-A dark aura, steely, hollow look in eyes, contraction of the pupils, inability to look in anyone’s eyes directly;
-Loss of time or blackouts;
-Pretence of extraordinary abilities; ESP, Telekinesis or Supernatural experiences;
-Negative voices are heard in the mind or narcissistic behavior;
-Long and regular seizures;
-Pain without justifiable explanation;
-Buzzing in ears, inability to speak or hear, sudden severe headache;
-Hypersensitivity in hearing or touch, sudden chills or overwhelming heat in body, numbness in arms or legs, temporary paralysis;

Another way of looking at suppression is to ponder the idea of “spiritual slavery.” Some one or environment has your best inner interest held in hostage. But when depression sets in, you are like a fish in a small tank. You begin to shrink, because on some level you believe what you see around you to be true. This is where “spiritual brainwashing” has the best of you. In the later stage of oppression, it is like the spirit of life has a restrain order on it, agreed by both the conspirator and you. This kind of “spiritual rape” is accomplished when the spirit of life is severed from your identity under false pretences. In 1778, Joel Barlow, American poet, published an anti-slavery poem entitled “The Prospect of Peace.” From September 1780 until the close of the revolutionary war, he was Chaplain in a Massachusetts Brigade. I believe Barlow understood the concept of Comfortable Numbness. He described oppression as a habitual submission to external forces and that this compliance destroys human consciousness. In this, men promptly lose the power of protecting themselves and eventually the ability to discern the source of their oppression.

~Chief Liz LaSaga
Photo by Gisela Giardino