The antirrhetic method requires that we first observe our thoughts precisely, that we note whether they make us sick or healthy, whether they lift us up or drag us down, whether they correspond to the Spirit of God. Evagrius describes the process of testing thoughts with the image of the gatekeeper: “Be a gatekeeper of your heart and let no thought in without questioning it. Examine every single thought one by one and ask it: ‘Are you one of ours or one of our enemies?’ And if he belongs to the house, he will fill you with peace. But if he belongs to the enemy, he will confuse you with anger or excite ‘you with desire. Such are the thoughts of the demons.” Here Evagrius is interpreting Jesus’ parable of the doorkeeper (Mark 13:34-35). We should closely watch whatever thoughts are seeking entrance into our house. We should bar the door to the thoughts of the demons, which make us sick, which prevent us from living and close us off from God. We should lock them out with a verse of Scripture. And when we come upon these negative thoughts in our house, we should drive them out again with the help of a biblical text.
Even this method requires thorough self-exploration in advance, but its reaction to the thoughts is different. Here we don’t engage in any dialogue with them. We don’t ask what they wish to say to us, what power they contain; instead we oppose them with something. This method is always the right one when we sense that the thoughts are useless, that they aren’t leading us on the path to life but only want to stop us from getting there. Above all this is an appropriate path to take when the thoughts keep recurring, when they have turned into a sort of script for life, as described by transactional analysis. This psychological school believes that many people are just living out their script in life. One young woman learned from therapy that her life script was, “All men are murderers.” Obviously there is no way to live well with this sort of script. Another typical script says, “I am a failure, a loser, things always go wrong with me; I’ll never blossom.”
One can’t just go on analyzing such lines. Examining these thoughts can explain where they came from, for example, that we got such messages from our parents. But knowing how they came about doesn’t dissolve the thoughts. Here it helps to join Evagrius in a search through Scripture for lines that disarm and dispel such negative life scripts.
C. J. Jung believes that we have two poles in us: fear and trust, aggression and love, weakness and power. But we often get fixated on one pole, for example, on fear. In that case fear continually expresses itself in thoughts such as, “I can’t do it. I’m afraid. What do others think about me? I’m making a fool of myself.”
I can interrogate this fear, and ask what it wants to tell me. But I can also direct a verse at it from Psalm 118: “With the Lord on my side I do not fear. What can man do to me?” (v. 6). This won’t simply drive away the fear. But it can get me into contact with the trust that is likewise hidden within me: I don’t simply have fear within me, but trust as well. Thus the biblical text gets me in touch with what is already in me. And in this way the trust that is in me can become conscious and grow. This in turn will relativize my fear. Thus the antirrhetic method brings me into equilibrium. It fights back against negative thoughts and stops them from solidifying and controlling me.
Another method of dealing with my thoughts is to discuss them with someone else. Today the waiting rooms of psychologists are packed, because we don’t dare to speak openly about ourselves in front of our friends. Above all we avoid discussing our negative feelings, our passions, our weaknesses, and our guilt. As a result many people remain alone with their thoughts; they repress them. But then the thoughts begin to boil up, until sooner or later the lid blows off. Talking about thoughts, the monks tell us, takes away the dangerous and destructive element in them. One monk says: “If you are hard pressed by impure thoughts, don’t hide them; reveal them at once to your spiritual father, and destroy them. For insofar as one conceals his thoughts, they increase and grow stronger. Just like a snake that escapes from its hiding place and slithers away, the thought disappears the moment it is exposed. And as a worm eats away wood, evil thoughts destroy the heart. Those who reveal their thoughts are healed immediately; but those who hide them become sick from pride.” The evil thought is compared to a worm that gnaws at the heart. If we lure the worm out in conversation, the wood will stay healthy, and the heart can breathe again.
~Anselm Gruen, Heaven Begins Within You: Wisdom from the Desert Fathers
