Copyright 2001, Colin C. Tipping

We Want the Emotional Experience
As human beings, we are blessed with the capability
to feel our emotions. In fact, some say the 
only 
reason
we have chosen this human experience arises from the
fact that this is the only planet carrying the vibration of
emotional energy, and we have come here precisely to
experience it. Consequently, when we do not allow our-
selves to experience the full range of emotions and sup-
press them instead, our souls create situations in which
we literally are forced to feel them. (Haven’t you no-
ticed that people often are given opportunities to feel
intense emotions just after having prayed for spiritual
growth?)
This means that the whole point of creating an upset
may simply lie in our soul’s desire to provide an oppor-
tunity for us to feel a suppressed emotion. That being
the case, simply allowing ourselves to have the feeling
might allow the energy to move through us and the so-
called problem to disappear immediately.
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However, not all situations are dissolved that easily.
When we try coping with a deep-seated issue and a
remembrance of what seems an unforgivable transgres-
sion, such as sexual abuse, rape, or physical abuse, it
takes more than just experiencing our emotions to get
to the point where we feel unconditional love for that
person. Feeling the emotion fully is just the first step in
faking it until we make it and definitely cannot be by-
passed.
I am not saying that the emotional work will not benefit
from insight gained through a shift in perception that
might have occurred before the emotions were felt and
expressed. It certainly will. However, the converse does
not hold true; the perceptual shift required for Radical
Forgiveness will not happen if the underlying repressed
feelings are not released first.
Invariably, when we feel the desire to forgive someone
or something, we have at some time felt anger toward
them or it. Anger actually exists as a secondary emo-
tion. Beneath anger lies a primary emotional pain, such
as hurt pride, shame, frustration, sadness, terror, or fear.
Anger represents 
energy in motion
emanating from the
suppression of that pain. Not allowing one’s anger to
flow can be likened to trying to cap a volcano. One
day it will blow!
Stages one and two in the Radical Forgiveness pro-
cess ask us to get in touch with not only the anger but
the underlying emotion as well. This means feeling it
— not talking about it, analyzing it, or labeling it, but
experiencing it!
Love Your Anger
All too often when people talk about 
letting go
of anger
or 
releasing
anger, they really mean trying to get rid of
it. They judge it as wrong and undesirable — even fright-
ening. They do not want to feel it, so they just talk about
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it and try to process it intellectually, but that does not
work. Trying to process emotion through talking about
it is just another way to resist feeling it. That’s why most
talk therapies don’t work.