The Orpheus Illusion- Life & Medicine
Why do we keep looking backwards?
In Greek mythology, Orpheus descends into the underworld to rescue his beloved Eurydice. Moved by his devotion, Hades lord of the underworld agrees to let her return—but on one condition.
"Do not look back until both of you have reached the surface."
Simple enough. This should be a piece of cake so Orpheus thinks.
Yet as Orpheus walks towards the light, doubt creeps in. He hears footsteps behind him. Is Eurydice really there? Has Hades deceived him?
Just before reaching daylight, he turns.
In that instant, she disappears forever to live with Hades in the underworld.
Perhaps the tragedy wasn't that Orpheus looked back.
Perhaps the tragedy was that he believed what he saw behind him was more real than where he was going.
I call this the Orpheus Illusion.
MY LIFE IN MEDICINE
As a doctor, one of the first lessons you learn is this:
Symptoms are not causes.
A fever isn't the infection.
Chest pain isn't the blocked artery.
Lung cancer doesn't happen in day.
By the time symptoms appear, the disease has often been developing silently for weeks, months, sometimes years.
Medicine teaches us something profound.
The visible is usually the consequence of something invisible.
Why should consciousness be any different?
Most people believe their present circumstances define their future.
"I' am addicted to cannabis, smoking, vaping, alcohol.."
"My relationship isn't working."
"My health is deteriorating but there is nothing I can do"
"This is just my life. What can I do?" " This is my nature"
But what if your present isn't showing you your future?
What if it's simply revealing your past?
There is always a delay between consciousness and manifestation.
YESTERDAY'S NEWS
Your thoughts. Your emotions. Your assumptions. Your identity. Your programmed consciousness...
All eventually become visible—but not immediately.
Your present moment is delayed feedback from a previous state of consciousness.
In other words, your present is yesterday's news. Old news, if you may!
THE SCREENPLAY WAS ALREADY WRITTEN
Imagine walking into a cinema halfway through a film. The hero is losing.
Everything appears hopeless.
Would you conclude that's how the story ends?
Of course not! You know the script was written long before you entered the theatre
Life is remarkably similar.
Many of us walk into today's circumstances and assume they are writing tomorrow's ending. They aren't. They are watching yesterday's screenplay still unfolding. Your very same habits have caused the screen to unfold the play and very often with the same "endings". And they wonder why if it is always the same stories in their life replaying- some even consult with intent to believe the soothsayers and fortune tellers telling them this is "fate". This is when our habit evolves to become an addiction silently on auto-pilot.
Have they ever thought who wrote the "screenplay"? Or they let their subconscious wants and habits auto-write the "endings" although they wanted a "happy ending"?
Sorry guys but Bruce Lee does beat up these bunch of thugs and kills the boss's son. (The Big Boss-1971)
PHANTOM IDENTITIES
One of the most fascinating conditions in medicine is phantom limb pain.
A patient loses an arm.
Yet months later, he still feels pain in fingers that no longer exist.
The limb is gone. The brain's map has not.
I sometimes wonder whether many of us are living with "phantom identities" acting out our subconscious saying one thing consciously but then actually manifesting another.
The criticism or inferiority ended years ago. Yet we still feel inadequate.
The relationship is over. Yet we still feel abandoned or wronged.
The failure is long past. Yet we continue living as if it happened yesterday living as if we must avert this.
The event has disappeared. The imprint remains.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/12092-phantom-limb-pain
The Buddha called this samsara.
Not merely the cycle of rebirth.
But the endless repetition of conditioned experience.
We look at today's circumstances and say "This is reality."
Then we believe the same things.
Feel the same emotions.
Make the same choices dressed differently & think we evolved.
And tomorrow faithfully recreates yesterday with the same effect only the actors & actresses differ.
The wheel turns because we keep looking back subconsciously.
The scar is not the wound.
The echo is not the voice.
The present is not the source.
It is the consequence.
That doesn't mean denying reality. It means understanding its place.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DABVnKSNz-y/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
(Watch Dr Lee Seng Khoo performing laser for scars and rejuvenation - healing old scars)
There is a beautiful saying:
"If you can allow the old to exist without entertaining it, it will pass, and the new will be born."
Notice it doesn't say fight the old.
Or erase it.
Simply stop feeding it.
Even after successful surgery, healing takes time.
The body changes first.
The scar softens later.
Consciousness works much the same way.
The new is born inwardly before it becomes visible outwardly.
WALK ON
Perhaps he was being invited to trust the unseen.
We make his mistake whenever we let today's circumstances dictate tomorrow's possibilities.
We keep asking yesterday for permission to create the future. And we only change the surface not the deeper psyche.
Maybe that's the illusion.
Maybe awakening is simply refusing to look back.
Some of us walked on and then when things begin to unravel in unfamiliar territory (different movie unfolding) - we immediately revert back to the old simply because that program was stronger & been around longer (it is at least familiar and known to us).
Because the future that we actually wanted has never been hiding behind us. It has always been waiting ahead. Yet we couldn't control our old subconscious impulses and seek excitement- instant dopamine hits & validation out of habituated behaviour while secretly planning our own burn-out, failure and regret subconsciously. Better the Devil you know as they say.....
∎ THE ORPHEUS PAPERS Paper No. 001
