BY RALPH LEWIS
OVER THE LAST FEW CENTURIES RELIGION HAS BEEN slowly eroding in Western societies—a process that has accelerated in the last few decades, especially in recent years. Despite this decline, many people still cling to vague notions of some sort of purposeful universe by way of a higher power and higher plan.
I see this in many of my patients, like Liam (the patient’s identifying details have been altered to preserve his anonymity). He was referred to me for psychological support after his wife Angie had been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer two months earlier. He had taken on the massive responsibility for devising a cure for Angie and this had left him overwrought with anxiety and exhaustion from staying up night after night researching alternative cancer therapies and spiritual healing. This had also left him with no energy to devote to the couple’s two preschool children during the day. Initially fired up with motivation and optimism by taking this on, his feeling of responsibility had rapidly turned into a crushingly heavy burden. He felt that her life depended on his getting it right. Liam was a devotee of Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle, taking to heart Chopra’s claim that 95 percent of our genes can be influenced by our consciousness and Tolle’s exhortation to undergo a transformation of consciousness and spiritual awakening to achieve a life of health and bliss.