Print-friendly version

Jump to the following topics:  

1. What is judgmentalness? 
2. The positive and negative aspects of judgmentalness.  
3. Techniques for dealing with judgmentalness.  

What is judgmentalness?

1. Judgmentalness is a conclusion that something does not exhibit characteristics which we believe that it should exhibit. We are comparing the thing to an ideal, and to our personal values.

2. This conclusion is not merely a mental conclusion; it also contains other factors:

• Emotions (and other energy tones): anger, resentment, shaming, etc.

• A desire that the person be punished.
3. It is an attitude toward an archetypal behavior, not a person. The person is merely enacting that archetypal behavior.  

The positive and negative aspects of judgmentalness.  

1. The positive aspects of judgmentalness.

• Judgmentalness is our attempt to discern what is beneficial to us. For example, we might discern that a criminal is a danger to the society in which we live. (Judgmentalness can also be a positive evaluation; for example, we might judge a person's behavior to be beneficial.) However, judgmentalness goes beyond the mere discernment.

• Judgmentalness is our attempt to affirm our values and our standards of morality. For example, when we judge a person's behavior to be "wrong," we are asserting that a different behavior would be "right." However, judgmentalness goes beyond the mere "values clarification."

• Positive judgmentalness is our attempt to affirm a person. For example, we are judging people when we applaud a performer, or when we congratulate someone, or when we say, "I approve." In those acts, we are implying that those people comply with our values, and that they have earned our respect.

• Judgmentalness is our attempt to assert that people are responsible for their actions.
2. The negative aspects of judgmentalness.

• It distracts our attention from the reality of the situation. Instead of perceiving things as they are, we are dwelling on our ideas of how the situation "should" be.

• It distracts our attention from the reality of ourselves. In order to judge other people, we must repress our awareness that we have performed similar acts. When we judge, we are always hypocrites.

• It distracts our attention from the current moment. The unresolved energy of our judgmental thoughts, images, energy tones, and actions draw our attention to them such that we are not attending to the present situation.

• We are limiting our range of expression. When we implant hateful (i.e., judgmental) thoughts, images, energy tones, and habits in the field of an archetype, our main intent is not to affect the person; instead, our main intent is to make that archetypal situation so unpleasant for us that we will not want to enter it. We are pre-emptively punishing ourselves because our self-righteous self-image would be damaged if we engaged that archetypal situation (i.e., if we performed a similar act). However, life will require us to enter that archetypal situation at some future time, regardless of the self-inflicted pain. Indeed, we must enter that archetypal situation for various reasons:
  • We need to discharge the energy of the judgmental thoughts, images, energy tones, and habits which we have implanted into that archetypal field. That charge is the very force which creates the archetypal situation in our life. The "punishment" for judgmentalness is that we have to do whatever we judged someone else for doing. For example, if we judge someone for being dishonest, we will soon find ourselves doing something dishonest. Indeed, we become that which we hate.
  • We need to understand that that archetype is an aspect of life (i.e., spirit). Our judgmentalness is proof that we do not yet have that understanding. Only by entering that archetypal situation, and experiencing the life which is there, can we learn about that archetype as a part of life. For example, we might have damned the Aggressor archetype. Then, when life rightly requires us to be an aggressor (perhaps in defense of our family or country), we need to enact our Aggressor archetype, but our ability to employ it is crippled by the damning elements which linger in that field. We face the following possibilities:
    • We do not act. We are unwilling to enact the archetype because associate it with damnable qualities (and thus we fail to obey intuition's guidance). To block the impulse from intuition, we generate additional judgmental elements (i.e., thoughts, images, energies, actions, etc.) which will cause even more of an energy-blockage in this field, thus rendering us less-able to respond appropriately to intuition when we confront this archetype again.
    • We act. However, our actions are inaccurate and ineffective because we are distracted by our need to simultaneously discharge the field's lingering energies which we implanted during our period of judgmentalness. Also, we are divided by guilt (regardless of whether we act or we merely notice our intuitive impulse to act) because we are violating the judgmental values which are registered in that field.

• Judgmentalness does not feel good emotionally. Although we might enjoy the emotional excitement, and the adrenaline, and other aspects of the experiences, we generally prefer to be in a state of happiness and love. Judgmentalness changes "pain" into "suffering"; "pain" is merely an experience of discomfort, but "suffering" is the additional emotional distress which we experience when we decide that "this pain should not be occurring."

• Judgmentalness can lead to complacency. When we judge someone else to be "wrong," we might feel so comfortable in our own "rightness" (by comparison) that we do not feel motivated to grow.

• Judgmentalness is not a proper role for any human being. According to many religions, judgment and "damning" are acts which are rightly performed only by a god. When humans judge, we are being pretentious and self-righteous.

Techniques for dealing with judgmentalness.  

1. Archetypal field-work.

• Self-talk. For example: "I accept whatever I perceive." "People are doing the best they can do in every moment." "I forgive myself and other people."

• Directed imagination. We can visualize ourselves observing a person who is committing an act which we dislike, but we do not respond with judgmentalness.

• Energy toning. We generate the energy tones of calm, peacefulness, etc.

• The "as if" principle. We act as if we are non-judgmental.
2. Intuition. Intuition can tell us how to respond to situations in which we would tend to be judgmental; our response includes particular thoughts, images, energy tones, and actions.

3. We differentiate between judgmentalness and similar states. We can still like or dislike. We can still discern. We can still reject something as "not right for me," or "not appropriate for me."

4. We can practice "acceptance." We accept the reality of the world as it is. (Of course, we can still like or dislike particular things in the world, and we can still work to change the things which we dislike.) And we accept ourselves when we realize that we are being judgmental.

5. We avoid perfectionism. Judgmentalness is based on our assessment that a person or situation is not perfect.

6. We avoid projection. When we are judgmental, we are usually projecting our own faults.

7. We can do shadow-work. As we examine our shadow, we realize that we have the potential to do the act for which we are judging another person.

8. We explore humility. In any situation, we allow ourselves to respond with thoughts, images, energy tones, and actions -- but we realize that our response is merely a personal reaction; we do not have a godly viewpoint or authority by which we could truly determine the goodness of a person's behavior (even our own behavior).

9. We can explore forgiveness. In judgmentalness, there is a lack of forgiveness.

10. We question our use of "judgmental words." Depending upon the context, those words might include "should," "ought," "must," "damn," "if only," "I wish," "I disapprove," etc. And we observe the occasions when we are exhibiting the various types of judgmentalness: complaining, criticizing, gossiping, cursing, etc.

11. We accept responsibility for the judgmentalness. Regardless of whatever we are judging, we are responsible for our reaction of thoughts, images, energy tones, and actions. The judged thing is not forcing us to respond in any particular manner.