When one finds himself in a sticky situation and needs a way out, human instinct is to take the easy way out, to lie about what happened. The next step is to feel guilt for the lie committed. After that, the guilt will continue to grow stronger, this will continue until the liar has admitted his wrong doing and takes responsibility for his actions, making the first step, of lying, into a pointless detour on the way to solving his problems. Caroline Myss’s theory is that when one lies he will go through much suffering and the only way to rid the body of this pain is to confess the lie.
As a normal person I have told some lies, these lies eating away at myself egging my conscience to confess. In seventh grade I had a meeting with my teacher discussing with my mother my late and missing assignments. One of the assignments I looked at my teacher and told her that I had in fact turned that in on time. I knew to myself that I had turned it in late. My teacher looked at me and she knew that I was lying; it was my word against hers. My mother believed me, I was her daughter and she trusted me to tell her the truth. The uncomfortable awkwardness of the meeting finally ended; my mom and I headed for home.
During the ride home there was only one thing that my guilty conscience would let its self think about, my late assignment. After a few hours of endless torture on myself I had only one cure to stop the aggravating pain, I had to confess. I told my mom that there was a possibility I turned the assignment in late. My mother was furious, not about the late assignment but about the lie that I had told to her. The small and insignificant way that my mom made me feel hurt, however the amount of pain I would have had to endure if I had not told my mom the truth would have continued to be much worse. The aggravation that I gave to myself by making a lie that should never have been said was worse then taking the consequences for the late assignment; nevertheless the guilt that had weighed down upon me would never leave unless I stood up and confessed my wrongdoings.
Reverend Dimmesdale from the Scarlet Letter had committed a sin. Dimmesdale as a reverend of the community and someone others looked up to believed that he himself needed to hide his sin from everyone else. He decided that it would be in his best interest to keep his love affair unknown. As time continued Dimmesdale’s mind thought of little else except for the lie that he was hiding. This lie continued to torment at his soul and play with his mind. He became obsessed with this and started to become ill. His only freedom from this illness and tormenting that the lie was causing him was to admit his deed and clear himself of the sin. After he admits his wrongdoing he dies holding his heart. Now, although dead his soul lays peaceful. He died after confessing his lie but now the weight of guilt has been lifted and he can rest in peace forever.
Even children can be affected by the impact of a hidden lie. When I was about seven years old I was playing with my dad’s extendable pointer. During my play I happened to bend it, making it useless unless one was pointing at a 90 degree angle. I sat it back on his desk and left, not telling a soul that it was me who had ruined his pointer. Later that night at dinner my dad was very upset and brought up the broken pointer. When my dad asked if it was me, I said no, and then I swallowed a big gulp and a lie at the same time; both very hard to swallow. When my dad pointed out the fact that he had to be someone, I created a scapegoat.
Suggesting that it possibly was a guest we had had over earlier. Unfortunately this seemed to bring attention to myself and my paranoid conscience now felt as if the whole table knew. A day or two went by and every time I would walk by the mutilated pointer it seemed to direct its attention at me, and I could not keep my own eyes off of it afraid that this object should reveal its true destroyer. Finally I could not take the never ending pain of guilt in my stomach and I confessed to my dad who the one was the broke his ever so unimportant pointer. I then in turn created a new weight upon myself, the disappointment from my dad.
However the disappointment soon subsided as my dad told me he loved me and then thanked me for telling the truth. I walked away from my father as a feather, my conscience was clean, the guilt no longer weighed so heavily on my shoulders and in my stomach. The only redemption is to admit the wrongdoing that has been committed in order to clear the conscious and continue on with ones life.
How many ways can a person rid themselves of any tormenting lies that hang over them? One; he most confess the lies in order to continue his life. When a lie is kept secret it will thrive on the torment it is causing the one who made the lie. This will continue to thrive until the secret is told. Only when one confesses the lie will he will be able to escape from the guilt.
