Conscience: The Transformative Effect of Working with Inner Conflict (an interview with Clelia Lewis)

The happiness of others fulfills the deepest need of the heart. Conscience develops with remorse, which is different than guilt. It involves the capacity to feel multiple contradictory things, conflicting parts of ourselves, at the same time. The “real war” is with sleep and unconsciousness and is about becoming a participant in life with one’s whole heart and self. Music makes a communication that can bypass the mind. (Two Attila the Hunza songs are played during the interview.) There is “no magic pill” in spiritual work. Buffers are physical, emotional or mental tendencies that lessen or negate the impact of feeling one’s true nature. To do deep spiritual work we need to love ourselves. Conscience is more than following moral prescriptions. A deeper sense of conscience comes from the recognition that we’re not living the full potential of this life. Clelia is author of Stainless Heart: The Wisdom of Remorse and a freelance editor specializing in works of spiritual teachings, memoir, and self-development. She has been a longtime student of Lee Lozowick and a singer and performer in the band Attila the Hunza.