The basic principle of Metapsychiatry is that Life is good and so is each individual living life. Looking at the world we live in, this statement is preposterous. Anyone who watches TV, reads a newspaper, has difficulties in their job, families and finances is often experiencing a life that seems to be the exact opposite of harmony, good, loving and intelligent. On what basis does Metapsychiatry make this outrageous statement? Enlightened teachings, such as Metapsychiatry, point out that the suffering we experience in life is a result, not of a cruel “God,” nor of a random universe, but of the mental climate we live in. For example, when things do not go the way we had wanted or expected, it seems natural to be upset, angry, agitated or sad. Yet, none of these reactions that seem so natural will help heal the suffering or alleviate the problem. In fact, these reactions have a good chance at increasing the suffering in the situation.

Metapsychiatry points out that “life” did not create the idea of how the situation should be nor did “life” set up the expectation of how it should turn out. These ideas and expectations come from cultural and social conditioning. They are part of the “mental climate” of life experiences. We are not to blame for this climate, but we have been influence by it and it is our task to wake up from it. Metapsychiatry and other enlightened teachings, provide methods to wake up from the conditioned mental climate and can provide a context of healing ideas within which to see the essential nature of life – the good of life, that is the essence of what really “is” behind the curtain of all that we have been taught to see.