The question was recently posed amongst a group of friends whether our depressions and anxieties are sinister voices that hail from a spiritual realm or are but the echo of our own inner cynic. I rarely feel the need to opine on such things, but it just so happens that I have been pondering the same line of thought over the past few months myself. I don't have the ability or desire to speak definitively, but wouldn't mind joining the conversation. Here's what I've got so far : Not that long ago, I realized something helpful: every thing a particular human enemy was saying aloud to me was exactly what a spiritual force bent on destruction would say if given a human voice. This person was close enough to know what was important to me and where I was most prone, so that is where they aimed their lashing tongue. I came to believe that, because this person was not yielded to kindness, they had offered themselves as an open tap for discouragement. One name used for a spiritua...