Eckhart Tolle spoke with Oprah during her fifth online class about relational responsibility and making a pact to point out each other’s pain-body whenever they see it at work.
Tolle: “You have to point it out in the beginning before it fully takes over because once it fully takes over, the person won’t listen to you anymore. But in the beginning, you could still say, ‘Could that be your pain? – Body?’ Even that is dangerous, but you could try.”
Eckhart said it’s dangerous because pain-bodies generally don’t like to be exposed, identified, and confronted. Because they work cooperatively with an egoic pride within the mind, they deny the very existence they create.
I refer to those pain bodies as demonic spirits, which feed on people’s internal pain and wounds. When our minds are not renewed according to God’s Word, we leave ourselves open to all kinds of bad thoughts to delight in the unresolved issues within us.
Accusation, justification, and self-exaltation are often the tendencies of the egoic mind; all of which alienates others and causes disharmony in their relationships. Once this gate is opened to the demonic, demonic spirits can enter and wreak more havoc on your soul.
By further complicating internal affairs and lying profusely to thwart their true identity, demon spirits solidify their hold on a person’s life.
Oprah herself picked up on the demonic nature of what Eckhart calls the painbody, saying, “You talk about the painbody as if it were some alien force, as if it were a ghost of some kind.” (chapter 5, page 47 of the transcript)
Speaking of getting rid of the pain-body, Tolle said: “You can release it instantly, but although not necessarily all of it instantly, something can be transmuted in the moment.” (p. 48)
On this I fully agree and disagree with Tolle. I agree that a person can be possessed and/or influenced by numerous demon spirits, which could mean that releasing them could take longer and be progressive work. Mary Magdalene, for example, was freed from seven demonic spirits that oppressed her (see Luke 8:2).
As a person renews his mind and stops identifying with the dirty voice of the demonic spirits that torment him, he can free himself from demonic influences and tendencies. In the same way, the Holy Spirit of God can break the chains of the soul and the demonic influences that arrest you within. Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God, after which the mighty Holy Spirit came to live and dwell in his disciples (see Matthew 12:28).
Where I disagree with Eckhart is on what he calls energy “transmutation” or transformation. Certainly, on an emotional level, that energy can be harnessed and transformed for useful purposes. As applied to the pain body and the demonic influences in it, I believe that demonic spirits cannot be transformed by human beings.
Demons will not possess us in such a way that we identify with them and essentially absorb their nature, allowing them to have a body through which to express themselves on earth. That being said, the best we can do is get rid of them and break their hold on us, after which God himself at the end of the age will judge them forever.
Demons are disembodied spirits that were previously angels created by God. Upon rebelling and being judged by God, they were thrown to earth, having a short time before being judged for all eternity.
Therefore, Eckhart is correct in his assessment of the universal pain-body as an expression of the collective individual pain-bodies of all human beings. Ultimately, Satan himself endures the greatest pain of any being on earth, because he (formerly known as Lucifer in heaven) was completely rejected and thrown out of the Presence of God. Demons under and working with Satan seek to thwart God’s divine purpose for humanity and cause us to focus excessively on ourselves instead of our Creator. Herein lies the first and greatest delusion, which disconnects us from the power of the Presence and from our divine identity in God.
Meanwhile, the demons spew out negativity and seek out toxic people to inhabit and further perpetuate their torment and pain.
