Part 1. All about MANKIND: Where we’re at! We struggle in our personal lives. We can suffer so much, yet we're spurred on by some ‘illusion of hope’. Sometimes we’re encouraged by the material progress we make.
Morally, we still vent our rage at some perceived social injustice. Then we pretend this manufactured outrage is righteous. It’s all part of ‘our collective illusion!’ As a Mankind, we are still deluded!
So little has really improved in our spiritual outlook & our true moral behavior.
Our Ego-based minds & thought patterns remain primitive.
They are still so violent, so conditioned and so restrictive. Despite our scientific & technological advances, collectively we are still morally & spiritually bereft.
The religious dogma we have been subjected to has mainly exacerbated our intolerance of difference & diversity.
Our social structures & political organizations have learnt to successfully utilize our inherently fear-based survival instincts for societal control. They help persuade & direct the masses.
The global mainstream media is the prime mechanism by which we are subtly influenced & led. We then mirror this bias through our own social media communities.
The Silicon Valley social media corporations in turn monitor our preferences & behavior. They adjust the algorithms of the search engines we use. They subtly sway or censor us in the name of some self-righteous cause.
We have become convinced that it’s all ‘done in our own best interest’.
We convince ourselves that it’s necessary for our convenience, our safety and perhaps even our survival. So, we reluctantly acquiesce.
Very few have the insight, courage & fortitude to oppose what is mediocre, biased or just plainly wrong.
Today, mainstream media is the manipulators tool of choice. It promotes an agenda! It uses selective ‘expert opinions’, celebrity endorsement & sensationalism to promote its plan. There is an intrinsic censorship of non-core opinions & values.
The new social agenda is proactively managed. Journalism is now done with an activist’s zeal.
Through the media, we are subject daily to an avalanche of trauma & crisis of every kind. Much of this is ‘manufactured’ or ‘spun’ to produce more drama & interest. Media outlets compete for our attention & our emotion.
We have become emotionally drained & mildly traumatized by all the manufactured drama.
This lessens the connection to our true sovereign self. As a result, we become more vulnerable to manipulative influences which offer a solution. Through our educational conditioning, we accept solutions offered by apparent experts & establishment figures. We are thus much more easily persuaded!
We become mesmerized by all the chaos & conflict and hence more easily led.
These subconscious images of virtual trauma stay in our mind. They act as ‘bright red warning lights’ and command our attention. They repeatedly flash across our mind. This effect becomes hypnotic! We can enter a mild trance and become susceptible to hypnotic suggestion!
We have become trapped in a low-grade hypnotic trance: an illusion!
All this excitement is a temporary distraction from our dissatisfaction in life. It also produces ‘a temporary high’. This has become a new ‘opioid for the masses.’ However, this addictive habit finally dulls our senses and hooks us in. We then search for even more of the same.
As a result, we have a diminished autonomy & sovereignty. We are more easily controlled & led. In exchange we get low grade fleeting pleasures & brief addictive highs.
All this distracts us from our true purpose: our search for lasting inner peace, contentment & fulfillment.
What’s the consequence? We feel unhappy; our discontent & frustration grows. We can become anxious, agitated & even aggressive. We can lash out! Sometimes, despair or hopelessness sets in. We continue to suffer and are unfulfilled!
We can turn our frustration inward: to deep within our body.
This internalization can lead to functional disorders & sub-clinical disease. Depression, anxiety states & behavioral disorders also result. Many are secretly glad their lives will finally end. Yet we fear the process of dying and the further suffering that might bring.
Some dream of going ‘to heaven’ or perhaps having a more fortunate rebirth next time round. They justify their earthly suffering this way. They relate their life purpose to this possibility.
Why is it that we merely live in hope of some new after-life, either in heaven or some more fortunate reincarnation?
Why don’t we spend more time on acquiring a better mental, emotional & spiritual state?
Even if we believe that only this one life exists, why wouldn’t we try to improve its quality? Why not dedicate more time & effort to our mental, emotional & spiritual wellbeing: To become what we dream of being! To find inner peace & joy?
The answer usually is that we have partially tried this or are still trying but have found it just too difficult.
We don’t know how to change ourselves and it just seems too hard!
We have become skeptical and even cynical about the possibility of changing ourselves. Surely, if it were possible, our society would have done it by now?
Yet this argument & thinking is obviously flawed. Many societal advances previously thought impossible have then occurred. Examples include the elimination of slavery and various class or caste systems. Discrimination based on gender, race, religion, sexuality, etc. is also gradually being reversed. But it seems we need an even bigger change.
A major reduction of human suffering requires a paradigm shift in our thinking.
Such paradigm shifts frequently occur in ‘the world’ of scientific discovery. Examples include revealing the ‘Atomic Structure’ of matter and more recently ‘Quantum Physics’.
Initially, it can be hard to get our mind around the new concepts. For example, that ‘matter’ is mostly empty space. Or that subatomic particles act in most bizarre ways. But eventually we do adjust & then benefit from utilizing this higher knowledge.
However, societal progress seems very skewed towards paradigm shifts in science & technology.
We seem well overdue for a paradigm shift in spiritual development!
Maybe the cutting-edge of science right will break through into the realm of Spirituality. At the new forefront, Science & Spirituality will probably merge into one! Such a monumental shift is now imminent!
Our new understanding of matter & quantum theory may herald this new spiritual revolution. This paradigm shift will probably involve better understanding the ‘empty space’ between subatomic particles. We will discuss this in the next sections of this article.
Such scientific discovery will hopefully confer more respectability to research in a new field: Spiritual Science.
Spirituality & Science will likely convergence towards one common Truth!
That direction is where we’re now heading!
The discussion of this continues in the Part 2 of this blog post. Its titled ‘All about TRUTH: Nothing but the truth?’