Due to the internet and the speed of communication we are experiencing today, the average person is exposed to information regarding scientific breakthroughs, discoveries in our natural world, and innovations in myriad technologies at an unprecedented pace. Sounds wonderful, right? Not necessarily. Our brains, our nervous systems, our thought processes have evolved over millennia experiencing, for the most part, a much slower pace of new information. For all of our recorded history, until the past century, give or take a few years, there might well be months, years or decades between the news of one major advancement in our knowledge affecting an important area of our lives and the next. Today, depending upon the websites one visits, new bits of potentially life changing information can be coming us much faster than a human mind can begin to take it in, much less assimilate the meaning of it all. It can be traumatic, and for many it is.
How do we cope with this reality? For some the way is to ignore it. No doubt all of us have to pick and choose what we take in, or not. Yet all of us are faced with a world in which, like it or not, changes are happening which will affect our lives. Somewhere there are people paying attention to and working with all the information which we may choose to overlook. Not because we’re incapable people, it’s because a person can only handle so much. Where does that leave us? It means, ideally, we have to be able to trust that those advancing one potentially life changing area of our culture, our world, are going to be doing so in good faith with the rest of us. Ideally those controlling all the various areas of development and change are working to be of service to human kind, not to exploit us.
But that is not always the case, in fact it, too often exploiting us seems to exactly be the goal. All this at a time when corruption, lies, and exploitation of “the masses” is also happening at an unprecedented rate. Part of what this reality reveals is that we have allowed morals and ethics, empathy, and love to fall to the wayside too often. Exploiting others has become a culturally acceptable business model. In terms of technology, commerce, ethics, and human wellbeing, it is something of a “perfect storm”.
Can we face and find solutions for this current, unhealthy reality which will not only allow us to survive it, but to nurture our humanity and our communities in the process?
Some of the “fixes” being promoted at this time are as problematic, and as subject to exploitation, as the problems they are claiming to be remedies for. One of the “fixes” we see some working at is censorship. Often those engaging in it say their goal is to prevent “misinformation”. The fact is censorship all too easily just leads to one group or another having the exclusive ability to ensure that only the “information”, truth or lies, that furthers their agenda is allowed in the media .
Coming to the truth of a controversial matter can be compared to grinding grain into flour. It requires at least two opposing perspectives presenting point and counterpoint until what emerges is a hardy, vital perspective that has stood up to intense scrutiny. Without that, what one tends to have is a single “story” which is not the complete story. So many of the issues which breed controversial “conspiracy theories” are issues around which honest and open public debate, public scrutiny, has not been allowed to take place. Such situations always involve the application of censorship by some people with particular some interests that are working to control the public perception of the issue. Censorship is all too easily not a solution, just another problem.
Another proposed “fix” that is getting more attention is the idea of neural implants. This is what I would call the “Frankenstein solution”. It goes something like this: meld a computer chip into a human brain and the person will have instant access to all the information on the internet. Where to start on everything that can go wrong with this? To begin with, as noted above, our minds, our nervous systems, have not evolved to work in such a manner. You know those scenes in the movie “The Matrix” where Neo sits in the chair, a cable is plugged into his brain/nervous system, and he all but instantaneously is the happy recipient of encyclopedic knowledge of something or the other? Maybe martial arts, maybe how to fly a helicopter.
What would happen in real life is that the subject (more the victim), if they lived, would be catatonic, zombified. Someone would have to feed them and bathe them for decades, if not the rest of their “life”.
To use another move metaphor, it would be something like the scene in the Indiana Jones movie “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in which the Russian psychic wants the aliens to psychically give “it all” to her. All the knowledge that they possess. When the aliens comply with her wishes, after being momentarily in awe of what she is receiving, she quickly is traumatized and ultimately goes up in flames. The flames part is good theatrics, I doubt but I really don’t know, if that would happen or not. Keep in mind that there is energy involved.
What is notable about both of these “solutions” regarding the increasing exposure to information which we face in the world is that both of them tend to disregard the physiological/psychological/spiritual human reality which they propose to address. Neither of them takes into consideration the individual human reality nor the collective human reality; which is the context for every individual human reality.
We humans aren’t designed to be high speed data processors which then assimilate the data into our biological functioning. I want to make clear that phrase is not intended to minimize or denigrate what we are. We are miraculous beings with miraculous capabilities. Capabilities which precious few, if any, national cultures, religions, or, need I mention corporations, take fully into consideration. Before we start trying to augment or “fix” what we are, perhaps we should first be putting more time and effort into finding out what that really is?
Possibly the main reason we don’t know more about what we are, is that somewhere in the past few decades, or centuries, human cultures have become largely fixated on the physical, corporeal, aspects of our lives. We have reaped some significant rewards due to that focus. I venture every person on Earth benefits from it in some way. However, we have paid a dear price in the process. The price of simultaneously largely ignoring the innate spiritual/energy aspect of our lives.
At some point in the past two millennia human civilization has reached a critical point in development where the levels of complexity in many different disciplines require developed societies to recognize the need for specializations. People began creating different professional/vocational specialties and those working within these specialties began being seen as the ones who could “take care of it”, whatever “it” is. That trend included the need for specialists in technology, medicine, education and many other areas. In Western civilization, the established religions of the day were all too happy to don that cloak relative to our “immortal soul”. With identifiable variations to differentiate their “brand”, the primarily Catholic and Protestant religious sects began worldwide, intensive recruitment into their respective congregations.
By this time however, the leaders of the religious movements knew well that what was going on involved more than the common person’s spiritual health and wellbeing. Religious establishments were accorded a great deal of trust by the people who subscribed to their particular doctrines. That trust often enabled the leaders of the various denominations and even individual churches, to sway people’s opinions on political issues as well. Also people began to trust the churches to employ wise and honest stewardship with the monetary donations given to them. Sometimes the trust (to do the right thing) members of the various congregations bestowed on their religious leaders has been honored, and good things have taken place. Sometimes not so much.
Through the centuries an interesting phenomenon began to emerge in the Western religions until by the mid-twentieth century, it was pervasive throughout the United States and I believe large parts of Europe as well. Getting to know and appreciate the fullness of one’s spiritual existence and all the miraculous aspects which it includes and involves, became greatly simplified down to what I am going to call simply “spiritual hygiene”. I do not know if this happened by design or default, regardless, it fit in quite well with the pervasive, ongoing increase in focus on the material world.
It’s my understanding that in India, the “norm” is that younger men work to provide for their families, and older men have the ability to spend much time, if they desire, upon spiritual studies. The religious traditions which exist in India can get quite in depth regarding the nature of our spiritual reality. I know enough to know that is a true statement. An hour or two a week singing, listening to a sermon or engaging in a group discussion could barely scratch the surface of the knowledge not just Indian, but some other Eastern religions, but Western religious traditions as well have to offer. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that the Western religious traditions involve more than a crucifixion and a resurrection.
I brought up the “norm” which I referenced above in an attempt to illustrate that if one chooses to enter into an in-depth exploration and study of our spiritual reality, it can be disruptive of any efforts to fit into the highly competitive, money oriented, working world which many, if not most, working people in the world fact today. Or vice-versa. So having a national religious model which stays relatively superficial in terms of knowledge of our spiritual reality is harmonious with people spending most of their time and energy pursuing wealth, promotions, and material acquisitions. It provides a pacifying illusion that one is genuinely taking care of their spiritual wellbeing while freeing peoples’ minds and hands to engage in commerce. The problem is, we in the United States have been being taught this “Readers Digest condensed version” of our spiritual reality for so long, too many have lost sight of the fact that there is anything more. And there is a lot more.
One dismaying reality, an obstacle really, which many people in the United States face in both wanting to move deeper into understanding our spiritual reality is that spiritual phenomena are often demonized within the narrow understanding of this reality that many in positions of influence within churches and our culture put forward. Ghosts (unincarnated spirits), telepathy, remote viewing, astral travel, spiritually affecting events in the world, even closely sharing spiritual experiences with someone else, even energy healing, all of these things, these aspects of our natural, innate, beautiful spiritual reality have been demonized at some time or another and I venture are being demonized somewhere as I write this. So, if you’re a person wondering about whether or not to follow an interest further in learning about our spiritual reality, not only can you run into some difficulty in finding sound guidance, you may also experience some people trying to dissuade you from doing so!
There is a phrase used in computer programming: “garbage in, garbage out” (GIGO). I find this phrase can be generalized to some other areas of our lives as well. I think the study of our spiritual reality is one of these areas. If within yourself you are bringing garbage motives to the endeavor, motives like a lust for power, for manipulating or controlling others, for vast wealth, for self-aggrandizement, while you may have some degree of success in your search, you will ultimately be contributing to some undesired results coming your way. If you enter into your search desiring to know more about yourself, your spiritual reality in order to be more whole, more healthy, more centered and grounded in your life, to experience your relationship with the Divine Creative Spirit, God, more fully, then I think you’ll be forever grateful that you chose this path. Not that you may not experience setbacks, missteps, along the way, but if you persevere, stay centered in your motives and sound values, keep studying, you’ll find what you’re looking for and more. Reason, love, honesty, and humility; not a false modesty, but a genuine perspective on who and what you are (which will grow as you move forward in your study) will all serve you well.
In summary, as a culture we have become way too enamored of our ability to understand, manipulate and exploit our material environment. We have become imbalanced in our lives and in relationship with our natural environment. The answer to solving this existential crisis does not lie in more or faster manipulation and/or exploitation of our material world. It lies in slowing down with our material pursuits, realizing that as a culture we know precious little about what we really are, about our innate spiritual heritage. Too frequently we have become strangers to even ourselves. The answer isn’t more religion either. Again, it’s to enter into a serious, benevolently motivated, exploration of our deeply intimate and shared spiritual reality. A reality that we are a part of and that we live within. To find harmony and satisfying wellbeing within our lives, we need to understand our place within this reality. We need to understand the ways of this reality. And as we move forward in our understanding we will find answers and benefits beyond what we expected at the onset. We don’t need neural implants, we just need to access and understand the spiritual heritage which has been freely given us.
In looking for books, sources that can help you learn about our spiritual reality, some religious texts may be useful, or may not. Finding authors that speak to you, that you can relate to and whose writing helps you feel that you know more about our spiritual reality are like finding a vein of gold. Those authors may not be the same for everyone simply due to their writing style, word usage, or some particular “wrinkle” in their style.
Some authors I have benefited from are Baird T. Spaulding, Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Lobsang Rampa, Carlos Castenada, and Dr. Charles Francis Potter. This is not an exhaustive list, but may help you find some places to start!
kendunning.net 