The Almighty Syndrome: The Art of Accepting What We Don’t Know

Have you ever wondered why problems in your life feel impossible to solve? Are you caught in deadlocked conflicts at work, in your relationship, or with your children? Do you feel that parts of your life are standing still? Do you find it uncomfortable when others criticize you and your opinions? Then there is a gold mine lying right at your feet.

How many times in my life have I insisted that I was right, only to realize afterward that I didn’t have a clue? More times than I can count. It has cost me a great deal of energy, frustration, and conflict, and I have missed many golden opportunities because of it.

If I were to pick out the one thing that has cost me the most in my life, it would be that for far too many years I suffered from what I call the Almighty Syndrome. I find the same pattern, to a greater or lesser degree, in almost everyone I meet, including my own clients and students.

In the first part of this article, I use several examples to show how the syndrome harms you, often in far-reaching ways. In the last part, you will learn how to expose it and get rid of it. On the primordial shamanic path, this is one of the 9 Pillars of the Path of the Heart: becoming a master of healing your own Almighty Syndrome. Without it, it is hard to see reality as it is, rather than as we believe it to be.

The Almighty Syndrome

My definition: the Almighty Syndrome is believing that only your own opinions are the truth, and that those who disagree are wrong, without knowing what the truth really is. In other words, we humans often conclude that something is a fact without having the slightest idea what reality is actually like.

The consequences are serious. Once we have decided that “this is how it is,” and the decision has little to do with reality, it becomes the foundation for all our other thoughts and decisions on the same subject. If the starting point is wrong, everything built on it will be wrong too. This can have far-reaching effects on every area of life.

My definition: the Almighty Syndrome is believing that only your own opinions are the truth, and that those who disagree are wrong, without knowing what the truth really is.

Pål-Esben Wanvig

I myself was one of those who had little faith in alternative medicine. As a civil engineer, I believed that only objective studies and “serious” research with double-blind trials counted. Anything alternative was not to be taken seriously. I had to go through a severe trauma, nearly losing my life in my burnout in 2003, before I was willing to question my own Almighty Syndrome when it came to alternative medicine.

When no doctor could help me get well, desperation led me into alternative medicine. There I found the keys both to my health and to a happy and meaningful life.

Two sides of the Almighty Syndrome

The Almighty Syndrome has two sides. The first mainly hurts us: our conclusions turn out wrong, and our future decisions are made on a faulty or incomplete basis.

We often encounter the other side in public debates: “I am right, and you are wrong.” “My opinions are absolute, and all other opinions are of little interest.” “I am almighty, and what others say is nonsense.”

Examples include claims that shamanism, acupuncture, and homeopathy exist only to trick people out of their money, that healers are a danger to people, or that there is no evidence that any of it works.

The Almighty Syndrome in everyday life

We encounter our own and other people’s Almighty Syndrome in every part of life. The more the syndrome controls us, the more limited our choices and opportunities become.

As a rule, this happens below the radar of our conscious mind. These are unconscious, automatic actions driven by imprints in the subconscious, what I call automatic negative behavior, ANB.

When clients come to me with a chronic illness (I only help them in consultation with the doctor or psychologist treating them), my main task is to help them create the best possible starting point for getting well. A sick body needs every resource it can get to heal itself.

The first three tasks I start with are drinking enough water (at least 35 ml per kilogram of body weight per day), improving sleep quality (at least eight hours of good sleep per night), and changing the diet. Among other things, the last of these includes a four-week trial period completely free of gluten, cow’s milk, and sweets, to see how the body reacts when gluten and cow’s milk come back after the trial.

Massive resistance

In 8 out of 10 cases, I meet massive resistance to these suggestions, which have given good results both to me and to many of my clients. Many people don’t believe that an innerspring mattress can do harm, that we need eight hours of sleep, that a dehydrated body cannot get well, or that gluten can be a problem if, for example, you struggle with irritable bowel syndrome.

Here the Almighty Syndrome shows itself when people block all change because they have decided that this is nonsense or unnecessary. Surely the medicine the doctor prescribes to dampen the symptoms has to be enough. As a result, they are not even willing to try something new.

Several of my friends and acquaintances have died of cancer. None of them were interested in hearing about my experiences, even though they knew I had found the key to my own serious health problems through integrative medicine. It is sad that the Almighty Syndrome, taken to its extreme, can lead to a premature death.

That makes it all the more important to uncover your own Almighty Syndrome. The recipe comes at the end of the article.

Relationships and the Almighty Syndrome

The divorce rate in Norway is around 50 percent, and relationship experts such as the American psychologist Ty Tashiro estimate that 70–80 percent of couples live in unhappy relationships. Yet very few of the people I meet question their own knowledge of how to cultivate a happy and loving relationship.

Many people think they know enough about this, which is typical of the Almighty Syndrome. I myself was hopeless when it came to relationships. Until I met my first teacher in 2004, my relationships with women ran in three-year cycles. The first year was happy, the second neutral, like being roommates, and the third was suffering and frustration. The problem was that I didn’t even have an inkling that I needed training in how to cultivate a happy relationship. I learned the art, and it is the most important foundation of the life I live today.

One day when we stopped by our local organic grocery store, the cashier asked whether we had just fallen in love. She was almost shocked when we told her we had been together for more than ten years. “But you look so in love,” she said. This is an art anyone can learn, so they don’t have to become part of the statistics. There is plenty of literature and many skilled teachers in this field, and Maria and I have shared our experiences in the article series “The Art of Creating a Happy Relationship.”

My hope is that this will one day become a subject in grade school, since this knowledge affects our entire adult lives.

Parenting and the Almighty Syndrome

Many parents seem to consider themselves experts in raising children as soon as they have them. Here the Almighty Syndrome sounds like this: “Only I, as the mother or father, know what my child needs, and I don’t need books, help, training, or knowledge about good parenting.”

Most of my students and clients carry negative traces of an inadequate and, in several cases, destructive upbringing in which their parents “did their best.” Often that meant copying the upbringing they themselves had received.

An acquaintance of mine had talked her doctor into prescribing Ritalin for her hyperactive child. She became aggressive toward me when I told her that several of my clients with hyperactive children (ADHD) had solved the problem with a combination of an extensive change of diet and exercises the child could use to find balance in stressful situations.

“Do you know how my child will react when I stop giving them candy and cola?” she asked. In my view, it is worth trying for four weeks to see whether the child responds positively to the change. It has to be better than drugging the child with Ritalin, I replied. Since then, she has avoided me like the plague. The child is still on Ritalin, cola, and gummy candy.

Here are a few more areas of everyday life where it is wise to watch out for the Almighty Syndrome in yourself:

• money, finances, and investing
• career and work
• conventional Western medicine
• alternative medicine
• nutrition
• spirituality
• psychology
• religion and faith
• personality development

The nutrition expert

No matter how long you work consciously with this syndrome, you will still fall into the trap yourself now and then. That is true for me too, and my own Almighty Syndrome kept me from getting well for a long time. I have worked professionally with nutrition and healthy food since 1997, and I thought it was something I knew a lot about. Since 2004, I have lived a “super healthy” life, including a nutritionally complete organic diet.

Even with such a diet, it was very hard for me to lose weight, and I often struggled with bloating and stomach cramps. At times I had brain fog and found it hard to concentrate. The energy I had had a few years before the burnout never fully came back. I had made great progress after the collapse in 2003, but I never found the key to full health.

Then, within a few weeks, I understood how little I knew about what a healthy diet really is. What happened in less than 90 days still gives me chills. With a diet plan tailored to me after a comprehensive analysis here in Germany, I got outstanding results in just two months: all my blood values were normal (my triglycerides, for example, went down from 413 mg/dl to 131 mg/dl), and I had lost 15 kilograms by eating 500 grams of food at each of my three meals, without exercising. On top of that came a whole range of other health benefits that changed my life.

What is certain is that what I know about nutrition today is only a foretaste of what I will know in ten years.

Pål-Esben Wanvig

From 1997 to 2013, I believed I had very good knowledge of nutrition, since I worked with it professionally. But working professionally with something doesn’t mean you are right, even in your own field. The Almighty Syndrome cost me several years of pain, frustration, and poor health. The aha moment about what an optimal diet really is, and that there is no single nutrition plan that suits everyone, since it has to be tailored to each person’s metabolic state, inspired me to look for other areas of my life where the syndrome was still lurking in the closet.

What is certain is that what I know about nutrition today is only a foretaste of what I will know in ten years. After all, one of the arts that keeps us out of the foggy realm of the Almighty Syndrome is to keep questioning whether what you think you know is really fact, while being willing to change and develop your views and opinions.

Academic titles

The more academic titles a person has, the worse the Almighty Syndrome often gets. I am a civil engineer myself, with a master’s degree in computer science and telematics from NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and I have a good deal of experience with academics. My experience is that those with the most education and the most titles struggle the most, because they often believe that high competence in a narrow field means high competence in other areas of life as well. That is rarely true. It is worst of all among medical professionals such as doctors and psychologists.

During medical school, the arrogant belief that they alone are right is drilled into them. An acquaintance of mine who was suffering from a severe burnout wanted to do something on their own alongside the help from the doctor, and so went to an alternative therapist for help. After a few good sessions with the therapist, my acquaintance told the doctor about it, and the reaction was shocking.

The doctor literally exploded with rage and accused her patient of being dishonest and of having misled her. She was so furious that the patient had sought alternative help as a supplement to the treatment that she threatened, among other things, to cause problems with NAV, the Norwegian welfare agency. My acquaintance went into a state of shock and a deep depression over the following weeks, which of course made the burnout worse.

The doctor’s arrogance, a clinical case of the Almighty Syndrome in which she judged the patient on the basis of something she didn’t have the faintest idea about, is unfortunately the rule and not the exception. Had this been my client, it would not have happened, because I teach my clients to find a suitable doctor using a dedicated interview technique before they start treatment. The good thing in Norway is that we are free to choose our own doctor. So why leave it to chance when you choose a doctor or psychologist?

In the articles “Modern Western Medicine or Holistic Medicine? Part 1: Learn How to Make a Conscious Health Choice”¹ and “Modern Western Medicine or Holistic Medicine? Part 2: How to Find the Right Practitioner”², you will find the recipe I have my clients use to find the right doctor or psychologist.

It takes a systematic strategy. In the doctors’ defense, it must also be said that much of what is offered in alternative medicine delivers questionable results compared with what is promised.

A shaman in the hospital

Can a shaman work with doctors? Of course. I work with several doctors here in Germany who have impressive titles. Collaboration only arises where there is mutual respect and a clearly defined understanding of what each of us can and cannot do.

Some time ago, I was admitted for a few days to a hospital a little under an hour from where I live. I was treated by the department’s chief physician, a leading expert in internal medicine. Before I let a doctor treat me, I always have an initial conversation to find out whether that person is right for me, as long as I am not acutely ill.

The first test is the doctor’s reaction when I answer “shaman” to the question of what I do for a living. The reaction ranges from arrogance to interest.

The chief physician was of the latter kind and replied:

“Even homeopathy goes far beyond what I believe can help sick people. At the same time, I am aware that there is a great deal out there that I know nothing about, and that I don’t have time to look into either, since my narrow specialties within medicine demand all my time and attention. What I believed were medical facts and the best treatment methods 20 years ago are often wrong and outdated today. I understand that what I do today is the best I can do based on my current understanding, knowledge, and experience, but I also know that much of it will be outdated or wrong in 20 years. Whether you are a doctor, a psychologist, or a shaman, the one who heals is always right.”

Now that is self-awareness. Dealing with people like that is enriching, and it often leads to exciting discussions and new insights.

How to uncover your own Almighty Syndrome

The most important art in uncovering the Almighty Syndrome is to question our own opinions, all the time. Our opinions are formed by the knowledge and experience we have right now, mixed with the influence of our family, our social circle, individual people, and society.

The fact that many people believe something, or that it is written in many books and professional journals, does not mean that this is how things really are. A glaring example:

The cholesterol lie

One of the big lies most people believe is that you need cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins) to prevent cardiovascular disease. Several cardiologists, among them the American heart specialist Stephen Sinatra, claim that statins have little or no preventive effect and that, at worst, they are harmful. The theory that high cholesterol from dietary fat causes cardiovascular disease comes from the well-known Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948 in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts.

The study, which shows only a weak link between cholesterol and heart disease, was published as proof that a high-fat diet causes heart disease. What we don’t hear about is that the study also shows that the more cholesterol and saturated fat the participants ate, the lower their blood cholesterol was.

This led the US health authorities to recommend a diet low in fat and high in carbohydrates, since fat was deemed dangerous, and it opened the door to a new industry of low-fat products. In time, the Norwegian authorities gave the same recommendation, which is why most Norwegians today believe that a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates is harmful, when in reality the opposite is true.

A changed recommendation

We are entirely dependent on enough cholesterol for good health. We need it to make sex and stress hormones, and for the neurotransmitters in the brain to work. When LDL, the “dangerous” cholesterol, falls too low because of statins, it is no wonder that many patients develop memory problems and symptoms resembling early Alzheimer’s, sometimes even total memory loss, according to Stephen Sinatra. There are many books on the subject.

In 2015, the US health authorities changed their dietary advice, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, in a way that many found startling: the old upper limit for dietary cholesterol was removed, and the warning against fat was toned down considerably. I wonder how many years it will take before the Norwegian authorities change their view of what is healthy for Norwegians.

If you take statins, do not stop taking them until you have talked to your doctor. There may be vital reasons why you need them. Learn as much as you can about the subject before you discuss your statin use with your doctor. In all likelihood, you will meet strong resistance.

A good dose of courage

Questioning your own opinions sometimes takes a good dose of courage. The ego hates being wrong, and it loathes most forms of change. My advice is to use your opinions as a temporary tool for a specific purpose. The art is to keep looking for better opinions, so that we get better tools for living a healthier, happier, and more productive life.

Unfortunately, many people identify with their opinions: “If you question, disagree with, or criticize my opinion, you are attacking me as a person.” In other words, we believe that our opinions are the same as ourselves.

An important step in all genuine personality development is learning to separate our opinions (the tools) from who we really are (the person).

The healthier our self-image, the easier it is to accept that our opinions are only tools that can easily be replaced when we gain better knowledge of a subject.

Pål-Esben Wanvig

The opinions I hold about diet today are tools to help me and my clients achieve good health, but the opinions are not me. When someone criticizes my opinions, they are criticizing my tools, not me as a person.

The healthier our self-image, the easier it is to accept that our opinions are only tools that can easily be replaced when we gain better knowledge of a subject.

Public debates

There are many sad examples of how people identify with their opinions, in all kinds of meetings, public debates, and especially political debates.

If you want some good entertainment on the subject of the Almighty Syndrome, watch political debates on TV. The ancient Greeks used debate to improve opinions in open forum: by discussing their opinions together, the participants were meant to leave the discussion with a better opinion, in other words a better and more functional tool.

Of course, that is wishful thinking when you are debating with people who identify with their opinions, experience disagreement as a personal attack, and are willing to defend their opinions by any means available.

The most important means we have for uncovering the Almighty Syndrome is consciousness. Without consciousness, you can neither see, touch, nor do anything about the problem. The vast majority of the decisions we make have their foundation in the subconscious, and many of them are invisible to the conscious part of us, such as automatic negative behavior (ANB).

It may be addictions, fears, beliefs, and dogmas we have been shaped by that make us decide and act in ways that harm us, create problems, or limit us. The more consciousness we manage to bring to every part of life, the more opportunities we have to create the life we want to live. All the major traditions within personal and spiritual development place great emphasis on consciousness, because it is the prerequisite for understanding who we really are.

The prerequisites for developing consciousness are:

1. A willingness to question your own perception of reality, for example your own opinions.
2. Access to new, relevant knowledge, for example through an article like this one, books, courses, education, and guidance.
3. A willingness to replace your existing perception of reality with another, based on new knowledge.
4. A willingness to test whether the new perception of reality produces objectively measurable results in your life.

In the nutrition example, I had to (1) be willing to recognize that my knowledge of optimal nutrition could be wrong, (2) let myself be inspired by new knowledge from the books Grain Brain by David Perlmutter and Wheat Belly by William Davis, (3) accept that the new knowledge was closer to reality and more functional than what I had before, and finally (4) test whether the new consciousness was worth keeping, by putting the knowledge into practice and seeing whether it led to a positive change.

New consciousness that is not objectively measurable and verifiable is like spray paint on rust. Then we have merely swapped one unhelpful perception of reality for another. Like when we swap regular cola for diet cola and believe it will improve our health.

Stillness in the mind

Meditation is a great help in creating calm in the mind in a hectic everyday life. It is hard to create consciousness when your thoughts are in chaos, and then there is little chance of uncovering the Almighty Syndrome.

Meditation balances and centers you, and it gives you the basis for seeing your life, your opinions, and your actions with clear eyes. When I have a problem, I first meditate for a few minutes. Then I ask myself whether my knowledge of the subject is inadequate or wrong. I start with a clean slate and look for new, relevant information about what I want to find a solution to.

In the beginning, I didn’t understand why my taekwondo master often had those of us with black belts practice beginner techniques until we got frustrated. After all, we wanted to learn more advanced things. His answer was: how could he teach us advanced things when the foundation was poor?

Some of the world’s greatest geniuses were experts in the art of starting with a clean slate: Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, and Nikola Tesla, to name a few. Edison would hardly have invented the light bulb if he had been stuck in his opinion about what the filament should be like. The same goes for Einstein and the theory of relativity.

Tips for exposing and healing the Almighty Syndrome

• Question whether your opinions are right or wrong, all the time.
• Separate your opinions (tools) from yourself as a person.
• Work continuously on developing your consciousness.
• Be willing to start with a clean slate when you are stuck in an opinion.
• Find a way that works for you to create stillness in the mind.
• Use a teacher, coach, or mentor as a mirror for yourself and your opinions.

A lifelong learning task

Uncovering the different shades of the Almighty Syndrome is a lifelong learning task. The red warning light always flashes when someone I respect and trust says something I don’t like about my opinions.

This is especially true of my teachers, therapists, and mentors, and my dear wife, Maria. In conversations with people who help me, things often come up that I find difficult or uncomfortable, and my first reaction is negative. One option is to say that I don’t agree and ignore what is being said.

The other option is to question myself and my current perception of reality on the subject. Could it be that the therapist, who has 20 years more experience than I do in helping people, is right? I have become an expert in the latter option. It is also an important reason why my life is the way it is today.

My warmest advice is to commit yourself to tracking down the different sides of your own Almighty Syndrome. Perhaps you will sign up for a course in meditation, mindfulness, or shamanism to gain more insight into consciousness. The ultimate path of development is to begin a longer training program with a skilled spiritual teacher you trust. He or she will guide you safely along the path toward more consciousness and self-knowledge. You can read how to find such a teacher in “ABC Guide to Finding Your Spiritual Teacher.”

For me, exposing my own Almighty Syndrome has become a sport. In the beginning it may sting a little, but over time an exciting world of new opportunities opens up for creating the life we want to live.

Good luck with the exciting hunt!

For me, exposing my own Almighty Syndrome has become a sport. In the beginning it may sting a little, but over time an exciting world of new opportunities opens up for creating the life we want to live.

Pål-Esben Wanvig

Do you want to go deeper? On my blog and in the podcast The Journey to Self-Realization, we explore the topics in this text in more depth.

If you want to walk the path yourself, it begins at the Yggdrasil Shamanic School with our free online course on primordial shamanism: Nature’s Path to Freedom and Self-Realization – Shamanism, Rituals, and Rune Magic – Twilight Between Two Worlds. No path could begin more simply. How far it reaches is up to you.

This content does not replace professional medical help from a doctor or other health professional, and it is not intended as medical treatment. If you are ill, always see a doctor first.

Sources

1. “Moderne vestlig medisin eller holistisk medisin? Del 1: lær hvordan du kan ta et bevisst helsevalg” [Modern Western Medicine or Holistic Medicine? Part 1: Learn How to Make a Conscious Health Choice], Medium no. 6-2015. ↩︎
2. “Moderne vestlig medisin eller holistisk medisin? Del 2: slik finner du riktig behandler” [Modern Western Medicine or Holistic Medicine? Part 2: How to Find the Right Practitioner], Medium no. 1-2016. ↩︎