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I have been on a path of conscious 'spiritual awakening' for just over four years now, and while in many ways it has been a journey of learning new information, I have come to understand that it has been more a process of unlearning - of shredding the mind's many layers of 'knowing'. What remains at the core? Experiential truth. But that is something I will discuss a bit later on…
We are currently living in times of great uncertainty. The world is constantly changing at a rapid pace, and now more than ever humans are looking for answers - answers to their problems, to their true identity, to the real meaning of their existence and of life itself. For generations, religion has served as a key foundation in many people's daily lives - deemed as an authority of the highest order, and one that can essentially dictate to us what are considered to be the most 'Divine truths'.
There is, however, a phenomenal danger in empowering such a hierarchical structure of authority - the most critical one being the giving away of one's emotional, sovereign free will. For thousands of years, a large percentage of humanity have, to one degree or another, (unconsciously) surrendered their personal free will to religious and spiritual authorities in exchange for attaining what they believe to be promises of salvation or spiritual enlightenment. More importantly though, there has been an immense fear that humans have held concerning the idea of choosing not to accept and follow a religious or spiritual belief system of some sort - the fear of persecution and abandonment.
This fear I am talking about here is a deeply rooted emotional belief in the human being… As a society, we have believed for such a long period of time that we are separate from Love and from each other, and this has created a tremendously powerful sense of vulnerability within the unconscious human mind, and an animalistic, survival-based desire to 'belong' by any means necessary - even if that entails buying into and believing in ideas that one may have absolutely no ability to relate to, in comparison with their own personal, experience-based truths... It is, initially at least, a rather daunting place to be in one's mind - the place of not knowing, or 'the void' as I like to call it. However, it is one that ultimately we each must courageously face at some point in our evolutionary journey as human beings.
Having spent countless hours reading, researching and learning new information in the spiritual field over the past few years, I have only recently come to realise that the New Age movement is, at its core, simply just another religious structure of belief systems. In saying this however, I am not implying that there is no truth to any of the material which is available out there, nor am I saying that it has been of no service to anyone on their path. Rather, what I am pointing to, is the fact that its foundations are based on abstract concepts of the mind - and typically from someone else's mind, rather than one's own… As much as that part of me which feels powerless and vulnerable sometimes would love to emotionally hang on to the never-ending promises of an 'event' that will magically change everything for the better in our society overnight, or 'Divine intervention from our space brothers and sisters', I know deep down that these hopes stem from a place of victim consciousness, and from a conditioned belief that we all need to be 'saved' by some higher, benevolent force outside of ourselves. This is also another example of the surrendering of one's power and responsibility to an external authority, and this ultimately only serves to weaken us both individually and collectively. My heart, meanwhile, has been quietly whispering and inviting me to "come back home". Perhaps you have been hearing a similar call from your own recently? If so, I strongly encourage you to listen to it...
In my eyes, the New Age movement is just another religion, because its foundation is rooted on a set of spiritually-based belief systems - benevolent ETs, angels, Ascended Masters, The Illuminati, etc… Again, I am NOT saying here that none of the information out there on such subjects is true, but I am saying that a lot of it is stuff I simply cannot relate to on an experiential level. What I'm talking about here is a brutally honest self-inquiry into what one truly knows. I for one, have absolutely no knowledge on a personal, experiential level of these subjects - other than what I have read and watched videos about online in my journeys 'down the rabbit hole'. In reality, however, this is not a great deal more effective in acquiring 'true knowledge' than by watching a documentary on television. Therefore, the question that my heart begs is "How do I know what I am reading about and what I am watching is really true or even exists?"… Well, I don't know. That's the honest truth, for my own experience in this life so far at least - I don't know!
To clarify - the only things I truly know are the personal experiences I have had in this life so far, and even those I question in terms of some of the mentally conditioned meanings I have given to them. This is why I feel that the heart is the golden key to uncovering one's true, inner knowing and wisdom - because it doesn't decipher reality and experience in a way of quantifying and comparing everything, like the mind does. Instead, it is always open and available to new perspectives... The truth is, it is as daunting to let go of what you think you know as it is liberating, and yet the mind will do everything it can to hold on to its illusory sense of control and 'knowing'. But it is a choice that everyone has to make - to continue following the patterns of the mind, or to authentically lead (to be led by the heart).
Comments
Not so black and white!!!
Dear Will,
Thank you for your thoughts as always. There is a lot in this essay that I agree wit and don't agree with or with qualification. Allow me without meaning to be condascending but magnify your time on the path by several times over and you get my years on the 'path' not that quantity always means quality!!! but it does give one more experience to ponder and harvest as it were. Oh New Age is just another religion, oh we are giving our power away folliowing teachers and gurus, oh we are just waiting for the Event, end of the world, god and or gods to save us etc. etc. Is a child giving its power away listening and imbibing his teacher at school? Or better example is a musician giving his power away sitting at the feet and learning from a master musician? Is religion always 'bad' are there not many good things nuggets of wisdom however hidden and distorted in religious traditions? and many good people and noble struggling forefathers and mothers? Is it not entirely understandable in a crazy and often insanely evil and fathomlessly painful world (for most people most of the time, for all of us some of the time) that we cry out and pray to God whatever we conceive It Him Her to be, or from space ships and star families who may be our long lost ancestors for salvation deliverance from intolerable pain and exploitation by evil powers and our own accumulated incontestable delusions and sins just as a child will cry for its parents in teh night to keep him from the monsters in the dark real or imagined. Just because your paranoid don;t mean nobody's out to get you!!! This world is a projection fo our fear and primal separation from the Divine but its also a trap into whcih we have fallen and or been pushed by satanic archonic reptilian whatevers and their human agents willing or half willing or just plain ignorant and possessed. We are in a terrible terrible on the line situation here no wonder we look to the skies no wonder entities cry out to God no wonder my friend and high time they came they are coming I can feel it!! Finally even if we don't 'know' something conventionally we can often intuit and feel beyond what lower mind knows and that is True Religion blessed are those who believe even if they have not seen. I suggest you STUDY religion the true heart of it my friend. new Age is another moderbn version of ancient ideas of course how else can it be since our minds are patterned archetypally we just have to sort the wheat from the chaff and use what we can to mine the gold from the lead,
Love,
Happy studying,
Al
I actually didn't write this
I actually didn't write this one, and I don't agree with every single point, but I have noticed more than a few people trying to create new religions based upon the New Age movement.
You mention "Is a child giving its power away listening and imbibing his teacher at school?" and yes, most of the time that's exactly what's happening. Very few teachers actually teach a child how to learn, how to be creative and independent. In my experience, it's almost always the case that teachers teach a child to be dependent upon some "authority" figure to tell them what to do and how to think.