I recently fielded this question from a very thoughtful member of our AS Victors group:
“Can repression of identity cause pain? The internal conflict is deep… but I sense I am on a path of awakening. I long for the purest form of freedom.”
To the question, the answer is absolutely, positively, undeniably yes—repression of identity can cause pain. The body’s first signal is usually electromagnetic and can be recognized in an emotional state. If ignored long enough, it can develop into chronic pain and disease of one kind or another. In my book Help For People With Ankylosing Spondylitis I elaborate on this and cite the clinical studies that document these findings.
Following is an excerpt from my book Heal For Real which addresses the issue directly:
Disease requires us to stop distracting ourselves and shift our efforts and attention. Some diseases force us to put our lives on hold and focus solely on the condition. This is the primary function and purpose of disease. That’s right, disease has a purpose. The purpose of disease is to make you pay attention to what is really important.
As we already know, chronic illness is often caused and exacerbated by chronic stress. Here’s a powerful insight: emotional stress can be caused by an inner conflict between the determination, and the free will of the individual. That means a struggle between the “ego” or head, and the “soul” or heart of the person.
When your “head” and your “heart” are pulling you in different directions, the inner conflict creates chronic stress which roots itself deeply into the subconscious mind. An example might be giving up your lifelong dream, so you can remain in a mundane job that offers stability. When an emotional issue like this remains unknown or ignored, the symptoms of pain or dis-ease can arise, come to call your attention to the conflict raging on deeper levels of your consciousness.
That’s when people may feel trapped, victimized, with little choice in the matter. They don’t know what to do but put their energy and attention into a self-image of struggle and suffering, even living and dying with the symptoms of an “incurable” illness.
The mission for these people is epic: to discover and act upon how the dis-ease actually serves them, and learn what it can bring to their lives in terms of inner healing, personal growth and spiritual wisdom.
I believe your condition carries a profound message. Dis-ease appeared because you are ready for change, perhaps ready to make peace with yourself. Rather than act like a hapless victim, choose to see it differently. Consider your condition as the gateway to a path of personal empowerment.
You fell ill for a reason, and the reason may be this: There is a divine message trying to get through to you. Choose to recognize your dis-ease as part of that process, a messenger which can guide you back to wholeness.
Reframe your attitude and consider your condition, debilitating as it is, to be in the interest of your own greatest good. This decision can help bring relief and resolve to your deep inner conflicts, regardless of what happens in the body.
With the shift in awareness, the ill condition will abate, and you emerge the stronger for it. Thus is the purpose of dis-ease accomplished. It may now leave you in peace.
The condition you once viewed as needless suffering is revealed for what it really is—a messenger from the most high, illuminating the dim vistas of your darkness, thrusting you upon the altar of your life’s purpose, right here and now in this present moment.
Take heart, feel gratitude and sense a powerful rejuvenation flow through you, for very few of your efforts and adventures will give you this enormous opportunity for freedom—authentic personal freedom—the quest of every soul and sentient being.
Peter