The being, becoming more and more enmeshed in the compulsive playing of games and their accompanying importances, first becomes surrounded with them (importances) and then, by contagion, believes that he needs them. Thus he is in the frame of mind of needing to be surrounded by importances. As that which is considered important tends to persist and become more solid, we find the being in the state of actually believing that he needs to be surrounded by mass and solidity (It’s the importance he craves, not the mass and solidity.) This soon reaches the point where he feels bad if this mass begins to vanish. Left to himself he solves any scarcity by pulling in around himself more old mental masses. As these old mental masses also contain various unpleasant sensations (pain etc.), he will pull in upon himself these things in order to be surrounded by the accompanying mass. It’s an incredible mechanism and explains so much of life. For example problems and solutions. The being gets to the stage where he literally cannot afford to solve a problem without first ensuring that his solution will create a larger problem for him than the original problem. (He always likes to be on the safe side, and be sure that his ‘importance quotient’ doesn’t diminish.)

His life becomes like one of those old Laurel and Hardy films, where, in endeavoring to solve a simple problem a larger one is created, and in attempting to solve that… etc. The audience used to curl up in laughter at their antics – then promptly go home and do much the same things themselves! I wonder how many wives have regretted asking their husbands to replace a tap washer – as they stood viewing the smoking ruins of the family home?

Early on the being is like a prisoner who has been incarcerated in a cell for all of his life. He has come to believe that he needs the walls of his prison, and if suddenly freed will demand to be locked up once more; failing this he will rush into the nearest room, slam the door after him, and hide. This mechanism is well known by prison authorities who have to deal with long-term prisoners; it is one of the hidden benefits of the parole system.

Right now you are like such a long-term prisoner regarding your own mental mass. You’ve come to believe that you need it, and so will pull in round yourself more mental mass to replace that which the exercises causes to vanish. Thus, we have to repair the importances we vanish with self-generated importances or the being will soon get himself into a frightful mess. He will find himself in possession of highly persistent aches and pains he knows not what of, as well as a host of other unpleasant emotions and sensations. This mechanism, if not understood and allowed for, will sooner or later bring any psycho-therapy to a grinding halt. The researcher was thus led to believe that his therapy was of no use; when, in fact, it was working all too well…

One sure way to louse a being up is to convince him that he cannot create. Once he is convinced of this lie he is, of course, trapped forever – not only in the universe but in the compulsive playing of games. In the final instance, only his creativity will free him. Thus, the ‘entrappers’ of this universe basically sing only one song: ‘Thou cannot create’. They don’t have to sing any others; this one is quite sufficient to do the trick. It’s a mournful dirge and appears under a myriad guises.

Excerpt  from TROM- The resolution of mind