So you can probably see how the teachings of Abraham Hicks could be perceived as spiritual bypassing as defined by @yourspiritualmermaid. Again, she said it is trying to force yourself not to be sad or angry and “trying to force gratitude onto yourself.” However, Abraham teaches not to use force. In fact, they say to accept the inevitable crash if your momentum is too far gone in the wrong direction. But to be fair, if I repeatedly tried to force myself not to be sad or angry so I could move up the vibrational scale, I’m sure other Abraham followers did and do as well.
I thought about the definitions of the words, bypass and bypassing, which made me think of the NC Highway 74 bypass near the Rutherford county and Cleveland county line. It was still in the planning stages while the kids and I were driving around that area one day. My daughter, age four at the time, complained from the backseat, “Mama, why are we taking the longcut?” I still smile when I think about her words. It does make sense that if there is a shortcut, then there must also be a longcut.
And isn’t the point of a highway bypass to allow travelers to take a shortcut to their destination by bypassing cities in whose traffic they don’t want to get caught?
Couldn’t Abraham’s teachings work the same way? What if the five steps are simply a shortcut which allows travelers on the road of life to bypass feelings in whose vibrations they don’t want to get caught? Feelings, by the way, although “influenced by our emotions,” are “generated from our mental thoughts” according to Rachel Allyn, Ph.D., of Psychology Today.
Also, if the entire journey was a bypass route, wouldn’t the scenery eventually get monotonous?
When I was an adolescent, I would sit on the church pew and worry, as my father preached about Heaven, a place without contrast, that I would find it boring. There would be no antagonists. And without bad guys, there would be no mysteries to solve. And without mysteries, there would be no Nancy Drew books. And without heartbreak and drama, Janette Oke’s romance novels wouldn’t have been turned into movies.
Of course, I also didn’t want the alternate destination of hell where there was gnashing of teeth and eternal fire. Since then, however, time has passed during which I’ve been to both Heaven and Hell. And because of that, I now understand, To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and time to build up: A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose: A time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; A time of war, and a time of peace -Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Indeed, if to everything there truly is a season, then I would add, A time to take the shortcut, and a time to take the longcut.
At least for me, the real issue is not bypassing, but rather taking the bypass as a shortcut when it is the optimal season in which to turn, turn, turn to take the longcut. And yet, even when I’m in the “wrong” season, where I’m at is perfect, perfect, perfect according to Abraham as stated in the above video.