Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

Then she said something very profound. She said:
“I really understand the dynamic of running from
that feeling of neediness, and interpreting it as a
neediness for God, because God is a feeling, an idea
we create in ourselves as something huge that can
protect us from any danger, like in the 23rd psalm:
‘Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of
Death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy
rod and Thy staff they comfort me.’
This God story is our feeling, interpreting a
presence I feel within me as ‘Him’ who protects me.
This God feeling and story is my creation, therefore
totally under my control. I wear this story as a
protection from feeling the vulnerability of merely
loving and depending on another human. I need an
omnipotent lover and protector.
Needing a real human person is not a situation I
can control. That person may go away. That person
may die. That person may be driven away purely by
my neediness of him, and I cannot risk that. It is
easier and safer to imagine an all-powerful God who I
need, to protect myself, and who, being under my
control, cannot leave me.”
I told her this neediness scenario is something she
really needs to feel completely and let the full panoply