1."My pa’s cottage was low and little"... or from substratum to height of spirit

"My pa’s cottage was low and little, we didn’t need any stairs" – this folk song is well-known and very personal for many of us. We humans and our destinies are of so various kinds. Some of us were born into good circumstances and their whole life is in accordance with it: more or less dancing in rose gardens when the others come from very bottom.

In these severe realities of life, some individual’s life from birth to death is continuous fight at the extreme limits of mental strenght. So many neighbour’s mental endurance has broken in these ordeals - as a result there has been problems with mental health, alcoholism, crimes, suicides etc.

I was born in 1944 when my family was evacuated because of the World War II, and I lived my childhood in post-wars destroyed and poor Lapland. My childhood home was a little black cottage built from old sauna. So my starting-point didn’t give me particularly great outlook.

Since I was little my life was interminable drudgery from the early morning to late in the evening in manifold works, in the middle of lack and poor.

At the summer 1956 I was 11 years old and first times helping my father at forest work. At 7 a.m. we left and walked circa four kilometres to work place. All the day we worked and at 6 p.m. we went home. I remember how I had many times to spread my legs to keep my balance. So exhausted was I. The following summer, 1957, workdays didn’t restrict only to forest work. In the evening, after coming home from forest work and having a meal, I had to leave yet to field works or go to dig ditches almost to midnight. This was too heavy for a child of 12 and left me permanent traces.

That was the summer holidays. In winter time we attended the primary school. This were very futile, too, because there weren’t any possibilities to continue study after primary school. Also teachers’ attitudes to boy from poor home were very negative. I never was good in anything although I tried to do my best.

I was always kept in detention after school for less reasons. Even so that I did not know the cause. Final outcome from this schooling were that in the times of school termination I was a man without ego having great inferiority complex.

In my primary school time I searched consolation for my soul and trend for my life by reading the Bible and I had longing for faith things. Furthermore, interest in these things was increased because there was a religious schoolgirl in the neighbour village, about which old peoples used the respectful name: "The little angel". I had a strong longing to be the same kind little angel. Indeed, already when I was ten

I tried to catch communication with the God. I repented of my sins in all my loneliness and I felt so good. But there were not any religious youngs in my home village; and church-goers and sectarians only blamed and despised me and my longing for God. So there was not a change for better future in Christian faith. And so many gloomy clouds covered my life and all seemed so hopeless.

A special feature in my childhood and youth years was that when I was 12 years old I made a decision of total abstinence. So, because I didn’t drink alcohol with boys of my age, I was driven away of gang and I remained quite alone. There weren’t many alternatives in a little outlying village.

2. New hope from the yoga.

In August 1962 I was 17 years old and it was my third summer in forest marking work, and I worked in Metsähallitus. Our work place was near lake Keinojärvi, on the boundary of Pelkosenniemi and Sodankylä. We stayed at a forest cabin on the shore of the lake. In the evenings we listened the radio, and an evening there was a programme about yoga.

I remember how I was lying that hour on my bed and paying all my attention to this yoga programme, and many times I became awared of something new.

That yoga-programme taught me that only hope of better future is my own spiritual growth so that I can overcome all the challenges that life will give me. I have to become so powerful that I’m not anymore exposed to negative attitude by my environment as I had been as a boy from the little black cottage all my childhood and youth.

So came autumn. After summer’s work in forests and as a hunter supervisor I was out of work, again. So I went into bookshop in Sodankylä, bought a textbook of the yoga, and left for an expedition in the mental ego and into immeasurable extents of the mental world. The next year, in November 1963, I expanded my examinations to the area of the hypnosis. I can say that these two matters changed my life completely. Now my life had clear aims, toward which I can walk.  One of my objects was that I become a performing hypnotist.

After that all the 1960’s was continuous research work for me. All my spare time I examined literature about the subject. In summary evenings I went fishing on river and in autumn I made long hunting journeys with my dog. I spent nights in cabins or on log fire with spruce twigs as a bed. These lonely fishing trips and long hunting journeys gave me good frameworks for profound meditation and embracing the knowledge I had read in books. So things I had studied came a part of my personality and changed into acting strength in me – belief moving the mounts – and impossible things began become possible.

One of my aims got fulfilment in 28^th September 1968 when I had a hypnosis performance in a house of farmer society in my home village. It was an one hour’s hypnosis programme – a specimen of skilled work in hypnosis knowledge – and my audience was very surprised. I had a purpose to begin a career as a performing hypnotist all over the country. However, I married our village’s teacher and my hypnosis examination went out of my mind for that time.

Ten years later I was blessed into evangelist office and so my God-nostalgia got fulfilment in vocation work. Afterwards I have continued my examination and been engrossed in human being’s spirit ego and to mapping his spirit world. I also have investigated interrelation of the faith and the hypnosis and the Aretalogia-concept. In totality, as far as I am concerned there has come true the idea of Indian philosophers of mental growth - man’s mental ego is like a lotus flower whose roots are in the bottom mud but which grows up to surface and bursts into beautiful flower.

I’m very grateful that my childhood home was that little black cottage, grateful for peoples in my home village, who didn’t always appreciate boy from a little black cottage. I’m grateful for my teachers for underestimation, and youngs who discrimined against me. Without these hard and heavy experiences I would have not ever found the spirit depths, which I have found and which have been simply conditional in getting over difficulties, through which my course has passed.

3. Life aims in prevention and solving problems and crises

Our starting-points are manifold as well as our problems. There is pushing and hustling by our environment, bullying in schools and at work places. Some are without work, some live almost outside of society. The scale of decisions is very large, too: mental health work, diversion of religions, Jesus – Satan theories,

On the basis of my experience I can say that, though some little help may be found from these decision alternatives, real and permanent solutions into problems of human being’s inner life are seldom – if ever – found among them.

Going to the way of belief leads often just external religiousness role assumed by religious society. Internal problems are not solved by this way, but they can even become more difficult if you hide all inner problems under a beautiful and religious outer shell. Some day things come out anyway, and you are in same problems that you tried to get rid of.

Neither oriental religions or philosophies aren’t enough to solve problems as far as their managerial method is forbidding life values and fleeing into some nirvana, without any aims and responsibility for anybody or anything: livelihood, family, children etc.

Real and permanent decisions to life problems may be found only by going trough the way of mental emancipation and growth. Reasons for most our problems are either tearing feelings of quilty, traumatic experiences or situations that are too hard for man’s mental endurance. For instance people who feel teased in school- or work places are often so weak persons that they are quick to take offence for a smallest reason. Also when nobody has meant to torment his/her.

Only way to be emancipated from feeling guilty is to be reconciled with him/her whom you have offended against.

In our Finnish Christianity, as the church as well as free religions, spread the fallacy that Jesus has atoned people’s all sins so that he has not himself to bear responsibility and do real repentance.

Truth is however that Jesus has atoned only these sins, which man has done against God. All other wrong things we have done we have also settle ourselves. When needed we have to confess our crime to polis, and even atone them in a prison. After this we are free from guilt, and being able to start the new life as a new human, and to go to way of mental growth, and to meet and win all life’s challenges with help of it.

We meet with hardships and trials all the time in our life but we can overcome them. Presupposition for becoming the winner of hardships is that we do not elude those hard things but go straight towards them and beat them.

If we elude our hardships we are all the time going from defeat to defeat. Instead of that, when we can look face to face our life and future; and when we have clear and far-reaching aims for our lives, then we shall have enough motivation to realize these ambitions. Human being can stand whatever and overcome almost anything when he/she has a sufficient cause to stand and overcome them. The question is just about what like people we want to become. Raise your look into future and see yourself as you wish to be in future, so you will become a human of just that kind.

In November 1963 my aim was to become an appearing hypnotist, and five years later I was performing hypnosis programmes. Likewise in 1960 I wanted become a man of God, and I was blessed in evangelist office 10^th September in 1978.

4. We live in the world of mental images.

It may be said that newborn human being is like a clean picture material, where environmental impulses start to do strokes of the brush since quite first days. Every experience and afterwards our selections and actions, too, leave marks to picture of our personality. Thus little by little we are formed what we are – personalities full of internal harmony or disagreements.

Only few of us happen to think how important part of our personality has been formed by images created by our environment or ourselves, and also the way we are talking.

In Finland, at least in a little villages, people are classified at basis of their social class. This largery prescribes what they will become and what are their possibilities to be victorious in their life.

It’s quite another matter to born into a good and appreciated family than a poor black cottage. And however all time man’s personality is formed only by images. These images, which have been created by our environment or ourself. People’s self-esteem and their ego is formed by their environment’s attitude to them.

Person, born in poor circumstances, often thinks "sorry that I’m existing" and all his life will be servility. It takes such great mental strength that this kind person can win his environment’s negative effects and build a positive personality. And however this is the only way to the better life and to healthy self-esteem. Question is thus all time, and only, of images.

Negatives images of environment hasn’t any effect on individual’s self-esteem if he doesn’t submit to these effects. As far as individual is able to trust himself and to rise emotionally above environment’s negative images and to build a affirmative image of himself, this image makes his personality more positive. This happens despite are we operating on area of the belief, yoga or hypnosis.

There will happen a mental revolution in the images and order of precedence of personality and his environment. That is why we never should think "I am just like this" or say: "I can not to do it". Winners of life say: "I can to do it", "I’ll get better" and: "If I can’t to do something now, I will learn it".

These images educate you a realwinner. This tuition of subconscious mind with positive images is very known in hypnosis and has relieved many alcoholics, smokers and other dependent persons and given them new, good life.

Our possibilities are limited only by our own images. In school and work places bullies torment only them, who are suspectible to be tormented. Giant of spirit is like the full moon. You can slander and defame it. You can shout and curse or even shoot it with your shotgun, but it only smiles. Let us to become giants of spirit like this moon so that the whole world is open for us.