It's time to rip the cover off what really works to ditch addiction, depression, anger, anxiety, and all other kinds of human suffering. No, not sobriety. We're talking the F-word here: Freedom. We'll share, straight from the trenches, what we have learned from leaving our own addictions behind, and coaching hundreds of others to do the same—and since it's such a heavy topic, we might as well have a good time while we're at it. [00:27.6]
Bob: All right, guys, welcome back to another episode of the Alive and Free Podcast. Today, I want to take you on a journey back to the origins of mankind. Not that I was there, not that I really know what happened, and there are certainly a lot of different theories about it. The scientific world has one theory, the yogic Koonin Hindu World have another theory. The native Americans have another theory of Christianity holds its own Christianity and Judaism and Islam and these places. They all have their own kind of stories, origin stories, so to speak about the superhero called planet earth, that’s life. And if we go back into the comic origin origin story books, there's some really wonderful lessons to be learned. And a lot of the work that I do and that my company does to help people with root issues, core beliefs that they struggle within themselves, addictions, depression, mental health issues, and whatnot is to identify the source of the suffering and eliminate it at the source. [01:31.8]
And the other day, when I was going through some of the Hebrew work that I'm doing and reading in the Bible, I stumbled upon an interesting facet of the Garden of Eden story that I feel like could be very, very useful because that story is in the psyche of anybody who grew up hearing it. And it starts to create in you, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors that will match it, especially if you heard it growing up as a kid and everything around it. So, I want to pull it apart because what happens inside the Garden of Eden story is a lot of misquoting of God and a lot of the assumption that what is that everything in there is 100% the truth, when in fact it isn't. When in fact it's spoken by other people other than the sources of truth, so to speak. And I love kind of pulling this apart from the perspective of the text, just because it's very, very useful in helping people let go of things that they thought were there. [02:28.8]
And so, we're going to dive back into that story back into the fact that there was the fact that it's written in the old Testament, that there was a Garden eastward in Eden, somewhere planted. And in this garden, the story that I was told was in the garden, there were two trees and the commandment was given to Adam and Eve, this is the story as it was, as I basically grew up with it. The commandment was given to Adam and Eve, don't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil because the day you eat, you will die and of course that was it. And also, by the way, you need to multiply and replenish, which means Adam and Eve were stuck between a rock and a hard place because there was no way they can multiply and replenish without having had the knowledge they were going to get from eating of the tree. And God set that up in such a way as it would produce a tremendous outpouring of life. And eventually Adam would be forgiven for his transgression, which is different than a sin for some odd reason. And he would be forgiven because it was needed, so that man could be in men and Adam fell that men might be in men or that they might have joy. [03:26.9]
The whole story happened because Satan showed up as a snake, not a snake, whatever, and tempted Eve, and she partook of the fruit and then she went and got Adam to take of the, of the fruit. And Satan was really telling her the truth, that there was no other way that she could be like, God, until she protected the tree and so she did and so on and so forth down the line. And at the end, when she finally realizes what they've done, she's like, Oh my gosh. And she turns to Adam, she's like, it's better for us to pass through sorrow so that we can know good from evil. This is a wonderful thing. Again, these are all compilations of stories and what came down to me, and this is a wonderful thing. And so, then we were taught, we need to Harold and love and honor Eve because she had the wisdom to see that what was needed to do for mankind to come into being, she was willing to do even if Adam wasn't. That's a beautiful story, it's a lot of people making sense of a story that's in scripture. And if that's your version of it, we are about to dismantle it a little bit show, but I hope in a way that will probably make you appreciate even more and Adam and the whole story. [04:32.5]
So, let's dive into what is actually in the text. Now, I'm not going to claim to be an expert on all things that are in the Hebrew text, in the there's various translations of it, each of them gives it a little bit differently. So, I'm just going to give you some observations here, keen observations, observation number one. You have more than two trees in the garden, there is an entire garden full of trees and the command was go eat all the trees, go taste all of it, go do whatever you want. Enjoy the whole freaking garden, the only tree I'm going to say, don't eat is this one called the tree of ‘knowledge of good and evil,’ which means the fruit of that tree, just like the tree of life, the fruit of that tree is life. The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil would-be knowledge of good and evil. Note, that there is a divide between your ability to partake of life and your ability to label things as good or evil, right or wrong, good or bad. Make sense? [05:34.2]
The more you are partaking of the knowledge of this is good, that's bad. This is good, that's bad; the less you are capable of partaking of the fruit of life. That's the first point. And you notice you can partake of the fruit of life while partaking of all of the other fruits you can eat of it all. You just don't start labeling it, good, bad, right or wrong or in that day you will die. Now, what does die mean? Does it mean separate from God? Does it mean wither on the inside and leave paradise? First off you should note, this is an allegorical story clearly because if the fruit of the tree is called life and the other fruit is called knowledge of good and evil, we're not talking about real fruits here. So, this is clearly an allegorical story. We're talking about something much deeper. And the entire old Testament was written masterfully by people who were putting together these kinds of allegorical things, names in the old Testament, like the word Abel is the word Hebel, which means breath. It's the same word used in Ecclesiastes when they're saying everything is vanity, it's a breath. It's fleeting. It's a vapor a steam, something that goes away really quickly. [06:42.7]
And you're telling me that Adam and Eve decided to name their first son, Oh, something that's going to go away really quickly, a breath, a vapor when he happens to be the one that was killed first, or is it possibly that that story was written and one key element of the story is the name Abel, Hebel because that name indicates that maybe you shouldn't put your trust like Eve did in having a son from God and, and loving him that way. And maybe all things are fleeting and you need to put your trust in another source. Just maybe. So, the old Testament was written masterfully with people who were putting clues in the text. And there's not a lot of, Oh, this is what this mean anywhere. In fact, you just have the details of the stories and it's the reader's job to pull out of it, what is real and pertinent and valuable for them at that time. It was also pieced together to create a national history story for the people so that we could bind them together, because the bulk of the old Testament, as we know, it was kind of compiled in the time of King David, you know, somewhere around that time. The bulk of like the early part of the old Testament and the origin story of Israel. [07:53.4]
So here we have a story, an allegorical story about the origins of the world, in which a man and a woman are told to go taste of everything, including life, all of it, just not tasting of calling things good and evil. That's the first point. I want you to note this in your life. The more you turn to your life in judgment and become a Satan for your life, calling something good and evil, the more you will suffer and not be able to taste of all the pleasure that is life. And if you want to talk about what pleasure life can hand you, there's the, a living in orgasmic life episode that you can go check out really incredible, a different viewpoint that you then you may have considered. And there's so much more to it, right? The more judgment you show up, the more you, you are complimenting people in a manner of judgment or insulting people in a manner of judgment or judging. This is right, this is wrong. The more you suffer on the inside, it's natural can see it. You can feel it in your own life. [08:57.9]
If you look back on your life, anything that you will like or dislike your, the likes and your likes and dislikes are the basis of all your suffering. If you liked everything, then we wouldn't have a problem, everything would be treated equally. If you, everything was nonsense to you and just all laughable, then you would be fine because everything would be laughable. You wouldn't take anything seriously. Everything's a joke. But it's in the middle when you have, this is right, this is wrong. This is good. This is bad. That place in the middle is where all your suffering is. And if you can pull the plug on your likes and dislikes, incredible, amazing things will happen. That doesn't mean I am totally free of it, by the way. But as I've seen certain opinions that I've had about things disappear, the amount of joy that I've been able to experience in my life has increased exponentially. So, it's an offering team. Cool. [09:49.0]
Second point. Okay, cool. So, we have this tree in there called the knowledge of good and evil. And God said, don't partake of it. Now, Eve, when she's responding back to Satan, who's like, Hey, you should partake of it. She says, no, God said I shouldn't eat of it or touch it because I should die. So, she misquoted, she misheard God. And she added something to the phrase. So, I shouldn't touch it. Which means that in the moment she touches it, she might've gotten in her mind, well, maybe God was wrong. Maybe he wasn't, maybe that's not right. Maybe Satan's right, because she didn't pay attention enough to really get clear on what was really being said. How often does that happen in your life, where you're sitting there and you think that your spouse or your partner, or your friend said something and you are dead certain, no, you said this, no, you said this. And because of that, this, this, this, and they're fine. No, I never said that. You might've heard that, but that's not what I said. There's a difference between what someone says and what you hear, please don't confuse them. I watch my kids scream and yell at each other all the time. Cause they're claiming about what the person said or did. [10:55.4]
They're claiming that they said or did something when in reality, all they can say is they heard or they thought the other person did something in a certain way. And that their intentions were the same. That's produced all kinds of suffering and fights among my kids. It is hilarious and amusing to watch at times. But it's just because you think that what you heard is the same thing that what is said, it isn't, that was a minor point. Okay. So now Satan's like, no, no, you have to eat of the fruit of this tree in order to be like, God, you have to know the difference between pleasure and pain and all the other stuff good and evil, right? That's how you'll be like, God. [11:37.8]
If you or someone you know is looking to drop the F-bomb of “Freedom” in their life, whether that's from past trauma, depression, anxiety, addiction, or any other host of emotional and personal struggles, but they just don't know how or wants some help doing it. Head on over to thefreedomspecialist.com/feelbetternow and check out some of the things we've got in store for you or book a call so we can look at your unique situation and get you the help that you're looking for. [12:06.1]
And of course, Eve is going to ask, well, isn't there any other way to which Satan says no pause. Who's the one talking, Satan. I'm pretty sure he's called the father of lies somewhere in scriptural text. But a lot of people hear this story and they take what Satan has said as the 100%, whole truth. They take the idea that you need to partake of knowledge of good and evil in order to be like, God, that you need to partake of that fruit of the tree. And is there no other way to be like, God, no, there isn't. Who said that? Satan did. So, does it mean that there's no other way? No, it means that Satan said there's no other way in order to get Eve to partake of the fruit so that he could mess with God's plan. That makes sense. So, if you're going to have Satan, sit there trying to know nobody's telling the truth and just twisting it a little bit. I hear people say this all the time. [13:02.0]
If he's twisting it a little bit, it's not the truth. You don't know which part of it's true. So why are you going to believe any of it? Don't rely on that you don't? Oh yes. But how will you know how good something is? If you, if you haven't tasted bad people who believe that go on a rollercoaster, their whole life going through miserable, negative stuff, and then up into positive stuff, back and forth and back and forth because, “it helps them appreciate how much they have.” They're so grateful that they went through all that negative stuff because now they really appreciate all the good stuff. I'm not saying that's bad. I've been done through a lot of negative crap in my life. And it really has helped me appreciate a lot of the amazing things I'm experiencing now. But does that mean therefore that it is an eternal cosmic principle, that it is impossible to experience all the good that there is without having some mental reference for bad. That true? That's only a psychological reality, only in your mind is that real. in real physiological, existential experience, having enormous bliss run through your system, doesn't require reference to pain in order for you to brace and enjoy the fullness of that bliss. [14:13.7]
The only thing that your psychology will amplify is your emotional reaction to it. That's it. You do not need to go through pain in order to experience joy, you do not need to taste bitter in order to appreciate sweet. That is a psychological issue. And it's your psychosis and your psychology that are causing you all the suffering in the first place. So, the Satan is literally pushing you into your psychology, into your discriminatory mind, into your likes and dislikes as an attempt to get you to the place where you can be miserable like he is, it says elsewhere in scriptures. Do you get this? [14:55.5]
So, anybody that's busy telling you that that's a true principle is not clearly seeing the situation they're not clearly seeing who spoke it. They're not clue clearly seeing all of the twisting that's going on and they're not clearly seeing the agenda of the person behind it. That's a very, very important when you're listening to people. I think we did a podcast episode on that anyway, a while back on how to really listen and read and learn in such a way that you're not duped by people, how not to get duped, right? This is really critical. Okay. So, Satan is making statements to get Eve to partake of the fruit. Now, inside of this experience, she partakes of the fruit, right? She doesn't die immediately. So, then she goes over to Adam and then she says to Adam, now this may not be in all biblical texts. I'm not, I haven't compared them recently to look at it. But the, what I grew up with was also a Joseph Smith sort of translation of Mormonism. And it doesn't really matter whether or not it's accurate or not accurate since this whole thing is allegorical anyway. [15:58.4]
But what does matter is that the story behind it is a really crucial one. So inside of this, she goes to Adam and she's like, Adam, I partook of the fruit. I'm going to be cast out of the garden. Did God ever say she would be cast out? No. She said that, are you seeing where this is going? She's planting the seeds in her own mind about what is going to happen to her and you, my friend are planting the seeds in your own mind every time you catastrophize about what's going on. Something happens in your life, whether you like it or dislike it, the moment you start making up stories about what's going to happen because of that is the moment you're starting to make it become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And the longer you make those stories, the more it's going to happen. So, if you're a spouse of somebody who's going through some deep stuff, and you're sitting there as a spouse going, he's never going to be done with it. I'll never be able to trust him or her. Oh, this is that. You’re creating that in your life, it is not your spouse's fault that you are making up that catastrophe. [16:55.0]
If you're the one that's doing those things and you're going, Oh, how come my wife or my husband won't just forgive me? They'll never let it go. They're just always hopped up on, your creating that as a self-fulfilling prophecy, by holding it in your mind, just like Eve did, right. Now, we move on. She goes and she gives it to Adam. And he's like, no, didn't God told us not to eat it. And she says, but we won't be able to have children. Don't you want to obey all God's commandments? Where did it say that? All, people when I grew up with were like, no, no, they needed to have partaken the fruit, cause then their eyes would have been opened. And that's the only way they would have known how to make babies. Hmmm…. I’m sorry. You're telling me that all the animal life on the planet has no clue how to reproduce until Adam eats a fruit. They've all figured it out. Their physiology took over. I'm pretty sure that a mature body like Adam’s and Eve’s would have figured it out. It's not like it's that hard, it's there, but we sit there and in order to make sense of what we think is happening in the text, we make up an extra theory that says, Oh no, they never would have figured it out any other way. [17:57.8]
And in so doing, we ennobled Adam's choice to do it. That doesn't help. That doesn't help the situation. Did Adam partake of the fruit? Yes, he did. Did Eve try to convince him to do it? Yes, she did. Was she manipulative? Yes. Did God say that they would never be able to have kids? No, he didn't. She made that up in order to manipulate him into getting the fruit. That's it. What reasons, I don't know, but she made it up. At this point in time, he protects her, the fruit, whatever. And now Satan's like, yes, your mine and she's like, it's better for us to pass through sorrow that we may know the good from the evil. Is it better? Again, same question. She's following Satan's line. And in when I was growing up, people would honor Eve, we're doing this. Now let's pause for a second. Let's really pause. There are a lot of reasons to honor Eve assuming she was a real person. [18:54.4]
To honor every woman, every mother of all living like her name Hava means like literally is related to the word Hayat, which is life, right? She's literally the mother, the peg, the pinpoint for all life, all human life. That's her name in the story. There's a lot of reasons to celebrate all that Eve is just like, there's a lot of reason to celebrate all that any woman on the planet is. The least of which would be that she partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and made people kind of like open the doorway for people to be stuck inside of this psychology and miss the glory of the fruit of a tree called life. Honor every woman for all that, they are. What they did is not what they are, do you understand? What they did is just what they did. Honor them for who they are and enough with all the psychology. [19:50.2]
So here we are in this garden of Eden story, recognizing that there's a whole lot of misinterpretation, probably mine is messed up in some ways too. So, you gotta make your own conclusions here, but there's a whole lot of misquoting of God, of manipulation of words in order to get people to behave a certain way and to get them to believe that there they are defined by what they do. The central point here, I want to draw your attention to, as we close, is this. The first great deception that Satan, the accuser introduced into that whole conversation was that Eve and Adam needed to be other than what they were. The way he got her to partake of the fruit was to tell her she needed to be like God, right, to convince her that she had to take this so that she could be like God insinuating and implying that she is not good enough as she was created. And I will submit to you that that very lie is the basis of most of the suffering that the people we work with come to us for. [20:59.6]
And I would even suggest that perhaps all human suffering has come down to this main idea. You are not good enough as you were created. Somehow the creator made this entire cosmos, this whole planet, all of these ecosystems, all of this intertwined, fascinating play of life. But when he got to you, he messed up. Sorry, God, I know you did great everywhere else, but I think you messed up on this one. I'm going to take it from here. And we take our limited imagination and our limited capacity and we jump in and we say, I'm going to do some personal growth and development. I'm going to fix myself. I'm going to get better. I'm going to improve on God's handiwork. And that one line that what God did is not good enough has become the basis for all of our compulsive behaviors, like partaking, partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, of good and evil and the basis for our suffering on our self-loathing and our self-hatred and the way we treat other people that one lie. And the whole of it came from Satan in the scripture. [22:06.5]
God, when he finished creating everything, he didn't just say it was good. He said it was Tov Meod. Very good. He was good again and again and again. There's a big difference in that. So, as we're finishing up today, look into your life, look at all the places where you've judged who you are as not good enough. And for a moment, step back and recognize that the very idea that it's not good enough, didn't come from the creator. You weren't born with it. You picked it up here. And as soon as you put it down, you can enjoy all that the creator made of you because there's only one of you in existence. And once you're gone, there will never be another one like you. So that's the story of the garden of Eden and the two trees. And as you're going about this week, I would ask you which tree will you partake of? Are you going to start taking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Are you going to start calling this good and that bad or yourself good and bad and doing that with everything else? Judging everything, or are you going to set down your judgments as Jesus said, ‘Judge, not that you won't be judged because you're the one judging yourself and just partake of the fruit of the tree of life.’ [23:23.4]
And that's it for todays “Alive and Free Podcast.” If you enjoyed this show and want some more freedom bombs landing in your ear buds, subscribe right now at wherever you get your podcasts from. And, while you're at it, give us a rating and a review. It'll help us keep delivering great stuff to you. Plus, it's just nice to be nice. [23:41.9]
This is ThePodcastFactory.com
