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The first and most important antidote is Love. A spiritual Love. This is not the same as romantic love or Eros. It is the love St. Francis prays for when he says, "Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love." This love is unconditional, selfless, humble, and constant. It has also gone out of style. As if battered by the distant drum of the sixties and self-psychology, love now has to start with "I" and end with "me."
If we are to heal and be de-tranced, we will have to know and learn to experience that we are not the center of the universe. Something else is and that IT centers us. We have no center without a relationship with the creator.
The second is Faith. When we can put our faith in something beyond ourselves, there is nothing to fear. When we can trust that a God who literally loves us is running the show, we can relax in the moment. We don't have to buy anything. We don't have to run away anymore. We don't have to puff ourselves up or repeat empty aphorisms to buoy our sagging sense of self.
The third and perhaps most difficult for Americans is a Correctness of Desire. The medicine for unrestrained want, irrepressible fear, and self-loathing is gratitude.
