"I really don't have any idea what cognitive therapists believe or don't believe," he answered. "I'm no therapist, Luv. I only know what I know, and what I am saying doesn't only apply to you four because you are therapists. What I am saying pertains to every human being in the world."
Tom continued to look away and remained aloof from the conversation, but I had a strong feeling that he was listening more closely than he cared to let on. I asked Andy to talk more about the difference between our personal thoughts and what he was calling the divine gift of Universal Thought.
The gardener's reply excited me. "The way I see it, Eric, Universal Thought, accompanied by our free will, gives us the ability to experience life. But remember, my friend, how you use this gift is entirely up to you."
Janet also appeared excited. "So what I hear you saying is, How we use our thoughts is up to us, whether we use them wisely or foolishly."
"Yes, Luv, that is exactly what I am saying."
"But Andy," Janet continued, "I can't imagine how many different thoughts everyone in the world has each and every day."
"An infinite number," Andy replied. "But remember those are personal thoughts that can be broken down into an infinite number of segments. However, the source called Universal Thought is spiritual by nature and completely neutral, just like Mind and Consciousness. All three sources are elemental and cannot be split into particles; they are the three constants that envelop all creatures great and small and allow us to experience life."
Then Tom finally joined the conversation by muttering that if he told some of his associates that psychology could be explained with three universal principles, they would ridicule him.
With his foot on the shovel, Andy casually responded, "Then I can guarantee you that your associates will never find the answers they seek."
The assurance in Andy's voice shocked the four of us into complete silence for the longest time.
Finally, Peter's inquisitive mind rebounded and he eagerly asked Andy, "What is the difference between what you are calling Universal Thought and intellectual thought?"
"None," the gardener replied. "They are both the same power being used differently."
Tom looked extremely disturbed by Andy's statements and asked him to define Mind.
The gardener dropped his head as if in deep thought, then said, "Mind, when accompanied by Thought and Consciousness, is the master weaver that creates the fabric of cause and effect."
"I don't want to appear rude," Tom interjected, "but you're making no sense at all. And besides, the things you're saying have more to do with philosophy or religion than psychology."
Andy smiled. "I am not talking religion, Tom. Perhaps I am talking spiritual truth, but I can assure you that the answer you seek is spiritual. The basis of psychology stems from spiritual truth. If you were to investigate the words of many wise philosophers, you would find they all agree on one thing: Simplicity holds the answer to acquiring mystical knowledge. In simplicity lies complexity, and complexity can be reduced to simplicity."
Tom sat dumbstruck by Andy's paradoxical reply. Clearly captivated, Janet's eyes danced from one speaker to another, her quick mind absorbing every word that was being said. I could feel Peter's confusion and Janet's fascination with the entire conversation. Then Janet asked, "Why do you refer to mystical knowledge?"
"Because mystics see beyond the contamination of their intellectual minds," Andy replied.
"I don't quite get it," Janet admitted. "Could you try phrasing it a different way?"
The old gardener scratched his forehead. "Well, Luv, you could say they talk directly from an inner knowledge that can only be explained metaphorically."
"This is heavy-duty stuff," said Peter. "I think I must be missing something. Can you tell me why these so-called mystics aren't just more direct in what they're trying to relate?"
"They probably are, in their own special way," Andy replied. "But sometimes the true meaning, the meaning beyond the words, can quite easily get lost in the transmission between speaker and listener."
Before anyone could ask another question, the gardener tipped his cap and—explaining that it was time for him to have lunch—left us to ponder over his latest statements.
Chapter 6
Original Thought
After Andy left, we made our way back to the hotel to have our own lunch. Tom, again being his usual argumentative self, brought up the amazing recovery of Mrs. Taylor. "In actual fact, Mrs. Taylor is just going into denial, is she not?" he demanded.
"Maybe old Andy just has an overactive imagination," Peter remarked with a shrug. "After all, how could he possibly know all that he claimed to know about Mrs. Taylor and her father?"
"That is the fascinating thing, Peter," I interjected. "He was dead on with his observations regarding Mrs. Taylor and her father, and I have a strong suspicion that it was not just a good guess on his part."
I explained to Tom that I too had initially suspected that Mrs. Taylor was going into denial. But the more I listened to her, the more convinced I became that the woman had undergone a unique experience beyond anything I had ever witnessed before. In my professional opinion, she definitely wasn't in denial. "I tell you, Tom, it astonished me to hear how she talked about her past in an entirely different, more positive and rational way than she had when she first came to my office. It was as if she had gone through some kind of metamorphosis."
"What was her diagnosis?" Peter asked.
"She suffered from clinical depression," I replied. "Her father was an alcoholic who was both physically and verbally abusive, and her painful and unpleasant memories made it very difficult for her to forgive him. For years, she carried this heavy load of old, unforgiving, negative feelings towards her father. They had made her a very bitter person. Now this same Mrs. Taylor says she can see the innocence in her father's behavior and feels sorry for him. She talks about how much he must have been suffering to have acted the way he did and to have found relief only when he was drunk."
"That's quite a story," Peter said. "That's true forgiveness if I ever heard it. What is the nature of their relationship now?"
"They see each other more now than they ever did before, and apparently they are beginning to become the best of friends. Something I didn't tell you was that Mrs. Taylor's father had stopped drinking approximately three months prior to her visit to my office. When she told her father what had happened during our session together, unbelievable as it sounds, her father clued in to this theory of thought almost immediately. And, to the amazement of his daughter, he announced that he realized that by constantly thinking about his own condition he had only unwittingly kept it alive. He came to realize that some of the therapy he was undergoing for his alcoholism was just aggravating his situation by keeping old negative feelings alive. He explained to his daughter that his therapy group was mostly confrontational, that it was constantly urging him to talk about his problems. He admitted to her that he regularly felt awful after attending the sessions, even remarking that he often wished they could be more lighthearted.
"After hearing Mrs. Taylor talk about her father, I sat dumbfounded, completely unable to respond to her. Neither my partner nor I had ever been taught that a persons thoughts had anything to do with their drinking habits—or any other habit or addiction for that matter."
At this point Peter commented, "I can see how a patient would be a mentally healthy person before going through a traumatic experience. That makes sense. But I just can't follow Andy's logic regarding original thought."