“So, this is hell. I’d never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the ‘burning marl.’ Old wives’ tales! There’s no need for red-hot pokers. HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE!”
This extract comes at the end of the play “No Exit” (Huis Clos, in French), which John Paul Sartre wrote in 1943. No Exit depicts the dilemma of three high maintenance people who are imprisoned with one another. They eventually come to the conclusion that they’re in Hell and their punishment is being trapped with one another for eternity.
If Sartre’s character is right, then the rest of us are already in hell. But that raises the perennial question: can other people, particularly those who are high maintenance, really make us suffer? I’m not convinced that there’s a place called Hell. But after more than forty years studying interactions on the subtle planes of consciousness, energy and etheric matter, I’m convinced that there are people who can cause an otherwise normal person acute and/or chronic pain and suffering.
How Frustrating are High Maintenance People?
High maintenance people can make other people suffer because they’ve lost contact with them Selves (the Self), and they’ve chosen to identify with the ‘I,’ which is constantly changing. The Self is real because it doesn’t evolve through time-space, and it exists from everlasting to everlasting. The ‘I’ is a construct composed of distorted fields of consciousness, energy and etheric matter.
In contrast to a person who identifies with the Self and knows what is real, a high maintenance person lives in a fantasy world, which prevents them from recognizing what is real and what is not.
In this addition of ‘Inner Awareness Newsletter,’ I would like to focus on high maintenance people because direct and prolonged contact with them can be a challenge; one that the average person won’t overcome without suffering psychic wounds that can last for decades.
Traits of High Maintenance People
The term high maintenance describes a person who is parasitic, inflexible, judgmental, narcissistic, controlling, insecure, dependent, withholding and who feels entitled. Most people can roll with the punches; high maintenance people can’t. That makes them aggressive, erratic and irrational – and when they don’t get what they want, they can retaliate violently.
Parasitic
A high maintenance person is parasitic and exhausting to be with because they’ve learned to suck life-affirming consciousness, energy and etheric matter from other people. They slurp all this vitality up for several reasons. Having blocked chakras and kandas on the level of soul is one; having blocked dantians and energy gates on the level of spirit is another. Blockages on these two levels can restricts a person’s access to life-affirming consciousness, energy and etheric matter. These life-affirming fields must be accessed from within. Unfortunately, a high maintenance person is trapped in their attachments and must find external sources to meet their needs – even if it’s detrimental to other people.
According to ancient yogic texts, chakras are vortexes that transmit and transmute life-affirming consciousness and energy throughout the subtle field on the level of soul. Although it’s generally accepted that there are seven chakras, my research indicates that there are additional chakras in body space (the actual number is thirteen) as well as above and below it.
Kandas are distribution hubs that connect the chakras to resource fields, large cavities that store life-affirming consciousness and energy. Traditional sources suggest that there are three kandas. However, my research indicates that there are eleven. Each one distributes prana to a set number of chakras within body space as well as above and below it.
Dantians are cavities on the level of spirit that store chi and jing. The traditional Taoist view holds that there are three dantians, however, my research indicates that there are seven. The additional four dantians distribute chi and jing to the energy gates located above the head and in in the lower extremities on the level of spirit.
Energy gates are vortexes on the level of spirit that transmit and transmute life-affirming consciousness and energy. Taoist adepts declare that there are fourteen energy gates that distribute chi and jing throughout the subtle field on the level of spirit. However, my research indicates that there’s an additional energy gate directly above the head.
Inflexible
A high maintenance person is inflexible because their subtle field has been disrupted by an inordinate amount of karmic baggage, self-limiting projections and intrusions of non-physical beings. These self-limiting fields and entities limit an inflexible person’s ability to stay centered within their subtle field. The inability to stay centered on the subtle levels makes it impossible for a high maintenance person to express themselves freely or establish a strong authentic identity. Then there are the attachments a high maintenance person has created by projecting distorted fields of consciousness, energy and etheric matter at other people. What goes around comes around, which means that it’s only a matter of time until projections, the build-up of karmic baggage and the interference of non-physical beings prevent a high maintenance person from enjoying the flow of life-affirming consciousness, energy and etheric matter through their subtle field. The ability to enjoy these three fields is essential for another reason. They enable a human being to participate in all life’s essential activities and to have a direct experience of their internal and external environment.
Judgmental
A high maintenance person is judgmental because they’ve become attached to self-limiting patterns that are supported by distorted fields of consciousness, energy and etheric matter. Attachments to these self-limiting patterns and the distorted fields that support them can prevent a high maintenance person from turning their mental attention inward. That in turn can prevent them from recognizing that they’re motivated by attachments, blind spots and ancestorial poisons in their subtle field. To find solace, they project their defects onto other people and then judge them for being stupid, inferior, greedy, dangerous, etc.
Given enough time, judgmental patterns along with an engorged I and ego will create a counterfeit identity for a judgmental person. Once a judgmental person is firmly ensconced in their fictitious identity, they’ll find it difficult to tolerate anyone who is different and who has divergent core values. With the addition of institutional support, they can become aggressive and, in extreme cases, violent.
Narcissistic
Narcissism is more than a distorted form of self-love. It’s a form of self-involvement that compels the narcissistic person to put themselves at the center of all interpersonal interactions. A person will become a narcissist when their ego has usurped the role of their authentic mind or their ‘I’ field has been engorged by fields of distorted consciousness. In either case, the narcissist will put themselves at the center of all interactions with other sentient beings and neglect the Self, which is the foundation of their spirit, soul and physical-material body.
The Self is unborn and unchanging. It is the foundation of a person’s authentic identity and provides them with a constant stream of insights that supports their dharma. In contrast, the ‘I’ is a construct that changes continuously. In a narcissistic person, the ‘I’ has become dominant and has usurped their sixteen functions of mind (which include will, desire, resistance, creativity, etc.) as well as their organs of perception and expression. The strength of the ‘I’ comes from the belief that karmic baggage, self-limiting patterns, blind spots and ancestorial poisons are real.
Controlling
A high maintenance person needs to control their environment and the people they associate with; that’s why associating with them is an exercise in frustration. Their neediness is caused by their dependency on the ‘I’ and their rejection of the Self. By clinging to the ‘I,’ they lose control of themselves and become inflexible.
Some high maintenance people become trapped in chaotic (subtle) fields that can distort their life vibration and destabilize them even further. The need to control oneself or one’s environment is fraught because it prevents a person who is high maintenance from sensing other people or empathizing with them. That in turn makes sharing pleasure, love, intimacy and joy with them virtually impossible.
Insecure
A high maintenance person is insecure because they’re polluted by karmic baggage and non-physical beings, and they’ve become attached to patterns, blind spots and ancestoral poisons that limit their access to the life-affirming energy. On the level of soul, they’ve lost access to the energy of their first and third chakras, which are critical for successful living.
The energy of the first chakra supports a person’s right to exist and to enjoy their physical-material body. The energy of the third chakra supports trust and the sense of belonging. It also provides a person with comfort and security, which are essential elements of all interpersonal relationships.
The lower two dantians of an insecure person are polluted and can’t provide them with enough life-affirming energy. The first dantian is located between the ankles; the second dantian is located between the knees. When they’re functioning healthfully, they radiate energy freely and ground a person’s subtle bodies in personal body space (the space on the subtle dimensions that corresponds to the space occupied by the physical-material body).
A high maintenance person is insecure for another reason. They can’t find a place within their subtle field, to center themselves and rest, that is stable, quiet and sufficiently spacious.
Dependent
Dependent people have a distorted view of love and intimacy. Instead of nourishing their relationships with life-affirming energy, they weaken their relationships by projecting fields of distorted energy at their relationship partners. They project to hold on to people they consider significant or to create relationships that make them feel comfortable, even if their comfort comes at the expense of other people.
Dependency is passive-aggressive game of choice played by a person whose third chakra field has become inordinately polluted. A high maintenance adult with access to all their faculties is no more dependent than a healthy animal. A person who’s chosen dependency as a life strategy is unwilling to accept that they carry unresolved anger and rage in their subtle field.
Withholding
A person who is withholding is unable to express themselves, communicate or share their feelings and emotions freely with other people. This makes sharing pleasure, love, intimacy and joy difficult.
It’s the fear of confronting distorted energy fields and/or the inability to radiate prana freely that sustains the pattern of withholding and prevents a high maintenance person from overcoming it.
A withholding person usually has as a front-back polarity problem. In most cases, this problem is caused by blockages in the conceptual meridian and the feminine poles of the seven traditional chakras. It’s from the feminine poles of the chakras that life-affirming, feminine energy is distributed to the organs and bodies of the subtle field on the level of soul.
Entitled
A high maintenance person feels entitled because they’re attached to self-limiting core values. In contrast to a healthy person who sees themselves as part of a community, the entitled person regards other people as obstacles, inconveniences and competitors. As a result, they see interactions as a zero-sum game in which there are winners and losers.
A person who feels entitled hungers for satisfaction because their lower dantians are polluted and they can’t ground themselves or experience Gaia’s loving embrace.
How Do They Create Hellish Conditions
There are several things that all high maintenance people do, which can interfere with another person’s well-being. They fill the space inside and outside their subtle field with their self-limiting mind stuff. This prevents other people from centering themselves in their personal space, manifesting their authentic identity and enjoying their environment.
High maintenance people project distorted fields of consciousness, energy and etheric material at other people, and they suck energy from them when they feel depleted.
A word of wisdom: it's best to keep a wide birth from high maintenance people and cultivate relationships with friends and family members who have the capacity to share pleasure, love, intimacy and joy.
Herr bleibe bei mir, denn es will Abend werden und der Tag hat sich geneiget.