Can angels despair? Why it matters to you

Why you should never allow yourselves to be overcome by abuse in your personal or political life...

The word angelic has two very different meanings. Watered down as most spiritual concepts have become, it commonly means or brings to mind “beautiful, innocent, kind” and “anything related or resembling an angel.”

But if we go back in time to the Psalms,¹ we find that angels are “mighty ones who do His word” or to the New Testament, where they are “superior in strength and power” compared to evil humans or false teachers.²

When the word angelic is used here, the closest meaning is a combination. Angelic will mean a gift or blessing that enables us to be beautiful, innocent, and kind while finding our “strength and power” to overcome those who mistreat us in our personal lives or who oppose humanity and are trying to crush all of us.

I don’t usually mix metaphor, mythology, religion, and reason into one package, but this column, after decades of percolating, came to me in a startling fashion. My wife Ginger and I were sitting with a dear friend, a truly lovely human being, to console her about another loss in her family. Rather than thinking about herself, she wanted to help the others, who in turn took advantage of her generosity and were wearing her out.

This led to my thinking about another dear friend, also a woman whom I have known for many years and whose family had abused her in ways both unimaginable and unthinkable in ordinary society, and yet she still wants to help others. But too often, her family and other people trap her into doing things for them, almost always at her expense.

Like many other potentially angelic people, these friends of ours are close to being angelic in their profound kindness, but they have not found that original meaning of having the strength and power to stand up to those who are ill-intended to them and to humanity.

Our closest family, our friends, clients, and colleagues all have a deep awareness of the suffering of others, which often becomes too much of a burden seemingly to bear. I particularly want to address those of you who, like them, are alert to the needs of people and who feel the suffering of others, and especially those who have not yet felt your God-given power to resist those who burden you in your life and while helping to liberate those angelical beings around who need mutual encouragement and love.

What Are Your Blessings?

Both the blessings and opportunities that face you, especially at this time of increasing personal, economic, and political stress, may seem like curses rather than gifts from God. Your awareness may make you feel like a misfit or a failure in your inability to be as good or effective as you would like to be.

We are never likely to believe we are blessed by having our painful awareness of human suffering and our frustration over how to respond to it. Instead of seeing how we can shine, we feel lackluster or bleak. But when we finally understand that our awareness of suffering and our wish to help others are fundamental to being angelic, we can begin our escape from the spiritual darkness into the light.

If you grasp how your awareness and your desire to help is an angelic quality, then you can further understand why angelics like you should never allow yourselves to be overcome by abuse in your personal or political life. You will know you are a treasure, even if somewhat tarnished and in need of polish. You can begin seeing yourself and your essential worth, and begin to let it shine from you.

It was never God’s purpose to make you miserable when He blessed you with awareness of suffering and a profound desire to better yourself and to help others. You have been given these gifts in order to find others who share your awareness, then to do your share of bringing reason and love into this world.

If you are reading this, you are almost surely endowed with special qualities beyond your current imagination. This remains true regardless of how badly you feel about yourself today and no matter how regularly you feel crushed, whether by your family, other people, or the world around you. Yes, if you care enough to read these words, it’s a near certainty, even if you are too shy to admit it, that you are seeking how to better yourself and to support other people with truth and love. You are just a few steps away from feeling gratitude for being alive at a time when you are so needed to help those around you live by reason and love.

Qualities about You and Your Angelic Gifts

Here are questions that you may find illuminating and fascinating. Especially when you were a child, but still lingering somewhat in adulthood, were at least a few of these thoughts and feelings familiar as your own?

• You often felt different from your family or friends.

  • You sometimes felt you must have come from another planet.

  • Maybe you were told you were too sensitive or cared too much.

  • The world felt crazy or even bad, but you didn’t dare say it.

  • You wish you could make everything better for everybody.

  • You really want to be a good person, but you felt very alone in the effort.

  • You really sought to know the truth about life, but you felt alone in that, too.

  • You really believed in love, but it seemed too hard and dangerous to pursue.

  • There was a very heavy, inexplicable burden on your shoulders.

  • Your insights into life sometimes seemed so clear, but then you would lose them.

  • You are mystified how so many people go through life so oblivious about human suffering and oppression.

  • People sometimes thought you were too “far out” or even weird at the very moment that you felt in touch with what’s real.

  • You sensed that at your best; you were rational and loving but struggled to maintain it.

  • You’ve always hoped and tried to believe in a loving God, but…

In my experience as a friend, therapist, and person, I believe that there are many people who, during their lives, have often experienced these thoughts and feelings. For much of my life, I could have checked most of those items. I think my wife Ginger would have checked them, too. Many of the people closest to us have felt that way some of the time, and many still do. They keep it inside themselves and only “confess” under special circumstances. And as hard as they tried to be good, it often felt impossible, dangerous, embarrassing, and even stupid to keep trying.   

But most of you have never imagined, to this very day, that your suffering and frustration might be an angelic quality — something good and wonderful about you that is associated with angels and God.

So, are you a failure, a kind of fallen angel?

Absolutely not. You are an angelic in training.

Please listen… If you struggle with the negative feelings and thoughts I am describing and they are getting worse as the world grows more troubled and dangerous, there is nothing that is failed or fallen about you.

Instead, you may be in God’s training program for the angelic — for those he has blessed with an awareness of suffering and the desire to do something about it, not only for yourself but also for everyone you touch.

Are We Blessed to Be Angelics in Training

If you find this interesting and not ridiculous, then maybe you are blessed to be in training to make use of your angelic gifts and opportunities. Let yourself feel touched in some way by God and to cherish and love the life  you have been given. Be grateful for the goodness in yourself and so many others, and if it fits into God’s plans for you, you can choose to join the fight for human freedom.

Let yourself shine by reaching out, not to be sacrificed by those who will use and abuse you, but to those who will welcome you and share inspiring purposes with you.

Am I blessed in the same way that you are? Yes, I, too, am a work in progress, just as you are. This column is part of my work and progress. I had been working on it for many years before I realized it or sat down to write it in the last few days.

Being together for forty years has helped my wife Ginger and me feel the presence and guidance of God in our lives. At the same time, we have found that all the people we feel closest to share the qualities I have been describing: an awareness of their own suffering and the suffering of others and a strong, if frustrated, desire to do more to improve ourselves and the lives of others. As mentioned earlier, this includes family members and friends, our several assistants, our closest colleagues in the freedom movement, and also many of the heroic people we most admire in history and in our time who strive to live by reason and love.

Many of these angelics in training draw upon Judeo-Christian traditions and beliefs that help them to overcome their barriers to continued growth. There are many of us, but we have to reach a certain level of awareness to recognize each other, and to take encouragement and hope from knowing there are so many of us. Above all things, I hope my words can further inspire your hopes to achieve the rational and loving life you desire.

Advantages of Seeing the Unique and Good in Yourself and Others

Whether my thoughts are fantasy or inspired, I know the following with certainty:

First, if you believe there is something of an angel, some gift from God, within you and many others, you will more quickly recognize those with the opposite — those with evil intentions toward you. You will become more able to avoid and distance yourself from people who will inevitably harm you.

Second, if you believe there is something of an angel within you and others — and that your kindness and suffering must grow into strength — you will become increasingly more able to bring out the best in yourself and in others, even in these dangerous and challenging times.

The Quakers speak of “an inner light” and “that of God,” which can be found in all humans. With this knowledge that we carry something of God within us, we must be treasures in ourselves. We can and must begin protecting ourselves in our personal lives, and then we can begin caring even more for one another in our personal lives, and then we can choose to take on the world on a larger scale but with the same reason and love, bolstered by faith in a loving God.

Ginger and I feel surrounded by good people who are trying to be better despite what keeps coming at us in today’s world. With all our hearts, we thank so many of you for being engaged with us in our collaborative efforts to stand up for reason, love, and liberty in a world that is deeply in trouble and needs rescuing. It is the opportunity of a lifetime to be on Earth in the midst of this great battle between good and evil in which we share our mutual efforts to make a difference in the outcome.

Primary Author: Peter R. Breggin, MD

This column builds on his earlier one, As the world tilts toward disaster…staying sane against all odds. 

End Notes

¹ Psalm 103:20. Also see Psalm 103:1-12 for David’s prayer to a loving God.

² 2 Peter 2:11. Translations vary, but this is their essence.

Also available—Dr. Peter Breggin’s most relevant books:

Heart of Being Helpful: Empathy and the Creation of a Healing Presence

Guilt, Shame and Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming Negative Emotions

Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families

Find us at X— formerly known as Twitter: @GingerBreggin @AmericanMD 

Find us at our website: www.Breggin.com

Find us at www.AmericaOutLoud.news

Find us on Substack at: Breggin Alerts! Exposing Global Predators