The Anger Syndrome

Of all the negative behavioural traits of the human condition, anger is the most volatile and destructive. At every level, anger looks to externalise in the world as a reaction to events and circumstances which reflect the original trauma at birth. People usually feel better after an angry exchange. But it’s not long before the pressure builds up again and the cycle is repeated with another wave of emotional frustration projected into the world and released as a missile of accusation, often towards those they profess to love. In extremes, anger rapidly escalates into domestic abuse in the personal life; and collectively when stirred by the emotional ambience of the masses, the inevitable result is violence and civil unrest.

Whenever anger arises it’s the same in every body and varies only in intensity. Anger is a psychic force pathologically attached to the sensual experience only self-conscious human beings can provide. No provision is made in nature for anger, which is why no other animal apart from the human species gets angry or emotional. Some animals can indeed be savage and ferocious but only as an expression of their instinctual nature to survive and procreate. After a violent altercation they quickly reconnect with their wellbeing and rest easy in the pure experience of life. If any animal could reflect on the past as we do and continually dwell on the cause of the pain, they too would become vulnerable to the emotional possession of anger.

To be free of anger involves confronting the most base and primal energy within the human psyche. This simmers just below the surface awareness and only needs the slightest provocation to enter existence through the brain. The difficulty in mastering the force of anger is the speed in which it’s there – before you know it, the familiar feelings tighten as emotional knots of tension and the person is a slave again until the energy has had its feed. The attention has to be swifter than the anger to prevent it from entering the brain. By continually practising being conscious in the body when the emotions are quiescent, it’s possible to develop the spiritual discernment to contain any negative energy. Then, although the emotional residue of any heated exchange can linger as a background vibration, the anger is eventually neutralised.

However, as challenging as it may be to rise above anger, particularly when emotionally provoked, there’s never any justification to be angry. The overriding feeling in people attached to anger is to blame someone else for their seething discontent. This is often reinforced by sympathy from others still attached to their own anger issues. For many people, anger is an emotion which occupies a special place of affection akin to an old friend who’s always around in times of need. Perhaps it’s the stylised image portrayed in movies of the angry young man rebelling against society, making it ‘cool’ for successive generations to emulate. Mood is the passive state of anger. When left to ferment as any unresolved conflict, it engulfs the mind and emanates a dark and sinister presence; this brooding aspect of the personality becomes the focal point of many people’s identity. Mood is not dissimilar to mist that lingers over moorland, limiting visibility and making it dangerous to get around. The difference is that when an individual is moody, a black noxious cloud pollutes the psyche and makes it difficult to be in the company of such a person.

Love is the cure for every negative condition on earth. But a cursory look at the awful mess the human race has made of the planet shows that human love is not up to the job. Pure love can indeed transform the life for good, but only when someone is willing to be responsible for anger or any other emotional aberration within their own subconscious. The biggest step that can be taken is to surrender the right to be angry. This doesn’t mean to avoid an appropriate course of action, such as severing ties to a relationship if necessary. The thing is to let go of anger as any negative feeling associated with a person or event. Anger can only arise when there’s a demand on life for something that is either impossible to bring about in the present or that the person refuses to surrender as an emotional attachment from the past.

Extract from e-book: ‘Humanity: A Spiritual Perspective of the Times’