The Asylum
A parable about guilt, inspired by A Course in Miracles
THE ASYLUM
In the world, there existed a kingdom that was entrusted to maintain all the world’s insane. So in time, in the belief of specialization, the kingdom developed into nothing more than an immense asylum.
And in this asylum were locked up countless inmates, overseen by guards, doctors, scientists, administrators, and even the King and Queen themselves.
Since the kingdom’s sole function was to care for the insane of the world, and the asylum was its only source of revenue, the asylum would always need to exist. So those interned could never be allowed to be set free.
And, being it was always easy to accuse one of insanity, the asylum could only grow.
The perfect business. The perfect asylum.
One day, to encourage mental derangement of the inmates, the scientists of the kingdom invented a ball of protoplasm. This ball, upon those holding it, would inflict pain from a mild irritation initially, to extreme agony the longer it was held.
The genius of its design was that it could not be simply set down to release the pain. It could only be given to another.
So the scientist’s idea was to start it off with one inmate, and he, of course, due to the growing pain, would pass it on. A sort of hot potato game.
It was perfect, the scientists lauded themselves. They reasoned that no one had the ability to see reality while in agony, nor while in fear of receiving pain, as they awaited the coming of the ball. In addition, the disorientation would be furthered by the reaction of anger in feeling persecuted, by being singled out to receive the ball.
But the most debilitating effect, they projected, would be the self-loathing that would be experienced by giving away such torment.
And they named this ball of pain: Guilt.
However, from the onset, the experiment did not go as planned.
The first inmate to receive the ball naturally tried to set it down, but found he could not. He did not want to pass this source of pain onto another inmate, but the pain grew so acute he could no longer bear it. Yet he could not give it to just anyone, so he judged who was more deserving to receive this pain of guilt.
And it was then that the unexpected happened.
As the inmate gave away the pain, like an amoeba, the sphere divided into two, forming another ball, exactly the same size.
One guilt for each of the two inmates. Now there were two inmates suffering from the pain of a guilt. And each passed on their guilts.
Then there were four.
It did not take long before all the inmates each had pain from a guilt. Like a bowl filled to overflowing, the inmates passed on their guilts to the guards, who in turn passed it on up the social structure of the kingdom.
Finally, when the king and queen suffered as well from their guilts, in their desperation and in the hope that there was a finite level to the spread of this guilt, they had all their subjects go out of the kingdom to pass the pain onto their neighbors.
And like a fire, it spread and consumed the whole of the world.
As the last of the world received a guilt, the level of pain of one guilt became the standard of being alive in the world. And as the last one passed it on it did not take long before the level reached two.
Upward this level of pain spiraled, erasing all memory that there was once a time when the pain of guilt existed not. And the earth itself seemed on the verge of being torn apart by the screams of those upon it.
Until there came a day when one decided not to pass on a guilt just received, for a thought came to him that none was worthy to receive such pain. And instead of passing on a guilt, this one did something unheard of:
He gave a blessing to the first person he saw.
And with that blessing, the level of pain of the other dropped tenfold; as did his own.
And in the same manner that guilt had spread, now it was the turn of the blessing. Faster than the suffusion of guilt, the blessing flowered.
Until the whole of the world was born anew.
And the asylum existed no more.
—Janaka Stagnaro, excerpt from Silent Ripples: Parables for the Soul
In any union with a brother in which you seek to lay your guilt upon him, or share it with him or perceive his own, you will feel guilty. ²Nor will you find satisfaction and peace with him, because your union with him is not real. ³You will see guilt in that relationship because you put it there. ⁴It is inevitable that those who suffer guilt will attempt to displace it, because they do believe in it. ⁵Yet though they suffer, they will not look within and let it go. ⁶They cannot know they love, and cannot understand what loving is. (ACIM, T-13.X.3:1-6)
Thank you for reading. May you bless the whole world that you may feel blessed.
Written by a human.