September | 2024 | Matters Blog

Everyday life can be intoxicating. Events carry us along as though we were riding a giant merry go round in an exhilarating Fun Fair. We spin and spin in the whirlpool of coloured lights and sound. We catch glimpses of people riding other horses and try to connect with a wave and a scream. And occasionally, we catch sight of a loved one stood watching on the side.

Perhaps fish have a similar experience in the wonderful underwater world of spectacular coral reefs. But if you were able to ask them about water, they would deny all knowledge of it.

The human Fairground shares this same irony. The people of earth, mostly deny there is anything other than matter and the pleasures that, if we are lucky, it facilitates. Surely there can be nothing better than an ice cream and holding hands with a loved one.

Yet we know as we age, that life is not like a fairground at all. We can have upsetting experiences from which we have no defence. We can fall and perhaps never get up. Just as the fish are subject to water temperature, tidal surges, currents and long periods of calm; so humans are at the mercy of unseen forces.

The point is a simple one. That there are many levels of experience. The simplest and the most common is to believe that human life is one of sensual pleasure. Some religious people reverse this and live a life of abstinence, without realising that they must be as attached to going without pleasure as others are to pleasure.

Today both scientists, philosophers, intuitive s, artists and mystics explore the idea that in parallel with ‘normal life’ is ‘spirit’ or ‘energy’. Einstein expressed this in his formula E = mC2 in other words, matter can be exchanged for energy and visa versa. It’s not really anything new. Indigenous people around the world and the ancient civilisations have and continue to connect with worlds of ‘spirit’.

To realise this is equivalent to the fabled fish becoming aware of water.

Spiritually aware humans travel two paths. In the material world they have to learn to achieve some kind of tranquility, which is hard. In the spiritual world their aim is the same and lessons from the former can be applied to the latter. This is described in the Hermetic Law of Correspondence; ‘As above so below, as below so above.’

This knowledge is not new but perhaps is in sharper focus now than any other time in recent human history, at least in the last thousand years. The rather hollow platitudes of most religions and their exponents are giving way to ideas of ‘spirituality’ and ‘energy’. There is silent revolution taking place. Forces unknown are lifting humanity from it’s experiential squalor through such means as naturally occurring energy in the earth and the heavens.

In this ‘spiritual realm’ are what we might term ‘thoughts, messages, knowing, feelings’ and all the untouchable, invisible intelligences that suffice our daily inner experience.

In the science fiction film The Matrix, there is a character called ‘Smith’. He identifies as an algorithm or programme that can replicate itself in any other programme in the Matrix; depicted as a world of illusion as already lives in computers. This programme is immensely powerful and frightened only of the love and truth contained in the hero character, Neo.

We should ask ourselves how real our lives are and ponder on that which we find. In the modern world we sometimes feel mesmerised by the power play of politics and the cultural, religious and social conditioning that we accept as is ‘normal’. It’s what we learnt in our first seven years of life.

Yet there are very destructive spiritual forces that operate against our best interests and try to take over our ‘normal’ world in the same manner that Smith acts like a malignant programme in a computer. This is revealed today as the organisations made up of the powerful and wealthy elite, whose conscious or unconscious function is to spread chaos and division in the populations of the world.

An example would be the political movement known as ‘Black Lives Matter’. Whilst most reasonable people support any and all communities and social groups subject to unfair and degrading treatment by others, we have to ask who created BLM, and who is funding it? Why were those who self identify by the colour black selected to become an activist organisation and not, for instance Hispanics, Asians, Indigenous Peoples and any other of the racial or social group who are wrongly discriminated against. Surely, common sense says that all lives matter, equally?

Any thought engineering whirlpool becomes meaningless the more it is given rational consideration. ‘We all matter and we all support each other’ would be a sentiment closer to the ideal of universal mutual love that most rational people support.

Beyond the ‘moral high ground’ that is so readily occupied by the ‘politically correct’, we might observe a more sinister motive; to separate ethnic groups so that they fight each other. Hatred and destruction triumphs in the guise of goodness.

Such ‘Smith’ programmes are increasingly prevalent today. The most obvious is the war in the middle east at the moment. Culturally and spiritually, those fighting each other have more in common than they have differences. The ongoing dispute of today must have been clear to the British when they ‘gave’ Palestine to the Jews and Zionists in 1948. The Palestinians did nothing to deserve to be ejected from their homes and land. At the time the gesture was doubtless made on a wave of sympathy for the Holocaust survivors but over decades has revealed itself to be a recipe for disaster. Again, we observe a malignant programme which was readily absorbed like a black suited, self reproducing ‘Smith’.

This process is not just visible in world politics and human discourse. There are many ‘natural’ disturbances and weights seeking to counterbalance and overturn human society. Examples would be astronomical, astrological and environmental changes that are producing enormous stress within human societies; particularly to those without the power to protect themselves from harm.

I believe that these malignant ‘thought forms’ or ‘evil spirits’ can be overcome by the spiritually aware and empowered. Beyond any identification with a particular religion or political persuasion, the power of love in the spiritual dimension is very capable of overcoming hatred.

Like the human body, spirit has and is an immune system. Whilst disease (or unease) may attack repeatedly from many directions, a spiritual person enveloped by love is indomitable. Not only that but as love is universal, it too can replicate and stretch out to every cell in the Universe and protect whatever disturbs celestial harmony. Right now it has an Herculean task, and incumbent upon every human being is to pay attention and respond.

…is ‘paved with good intentions..,’

Dualistic thinkers (thinking using opposite terms such as black and white) have a problem with the idea of good and evil. Most spend their lives seeking goodness and avoiding evil. It’s a well intended strategy and one promoted extensively by Christians. Jesus the Christ spent forty days and nights resisting temptation by the ‘prince of the world’…the Devil.

The problem is, life is not so simple as good and bad…would that it were! Would that Western thinkers looked over the shoulders of Eastern philosophers who believe that there is no such thing as pure goodness, nor pure evil. (The corollary is that there is no Heaven and no Hell which is also true but perhaps the subject for another essay.)

In the Yin Yang symbol, which is central to Eastern philosophy, good contains a little touch of evil and evil a nudge of good. Sometimes goodness may just be a thin shell containing a large quantity of evil and visa versa. An example might be the Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in the second World War. The world would be a better place if that technology had never existed. What you see, is not always what you get.

The past can provide valuable lessons but here I shall use some examples of ‘dualistic thought’ from current Western political debate; there is a tempting assortment to choose from!

The first woe is, ‘Generalisation’. Politicians are by definition, strategists; taking a broad view and delegating attention to detail to minions. They are therefore prone to declare noble ‘aims’ to please voters, such as to ‘reduce inflation, help the vulnerable, create jobs, improve public services’ etc. etc.

What is not presented for examination is how this aim is going to be achieved.

As an example of using the wrong ‘means’, the previous government in the United Kingdom made an election commitment to ‘stop the boats’. This referred to undocumented migrants crossing the English Channel in dangerously unsuitable boats. This aim was presented as ‘good’ because there had been boats sinking and people tragically drowning. The government’s intention was ‘good’; to save life. If the means to stop the boats was challenged, the questioner was accused of wanting people to drown; they were supporting evil over good. The argument was totally dualistic and as a result over simplistic.

Pretending to be a benign policy without hiding the real reason

The absurdity is that any problem solving plan can be justified as ‘moral’ and ‘benign’ whether it was likely to work or not. It just needs a ‘good’ intention or aim and expects never to be challenged on any other grounds.

The detailed plan to ‘stop the boats’ intended to send failed UK asylum seekers to Rwanda. The plan included breaking international law and expense that did not match the benefit. Worse still it was based on an untested assumption that those willing to risk death by drowning would be put off by a comfortable flight across Africa to free food, health care and accommodation in sunny Rwanda. Asylum seekers from Rwanda would probably not be so pleased as it’s not a safe country by most definitions (but that was a level of complexity too deep to examine). The final cost of this plan was the same as putting up each asylum seeker in the Ritz Hotel in London; an option the Ritz would probably have declined.

My point is that however absurd the detailed plan, the government would repeat it’s justification by asking, ‘do you want people to continue to drown in the English Channel?’ as if that were the only option to achieve their well intentioned aim. Of course it was not the only option but presented as such. In the end the plan was abandoned and hundred of millions of pounds metaphorically thrown into the English Channel at a time when the lack of money in the countrie’s coffers was also a problem.

The new Labour government are now desperately trying to balance the books by not giving pensioners an allowance to heat their homes over the coming winter which they agree is regrettable and may cause death ( i.e. an evil ) but is justified by a need to balance the country’s books (i.e. a goodness )

When politicians are not generalising they present details to prove or disprove a generalisation. A prime example appeared in the news this week during the televised debate between candidates for the forthcoming presidential elections in the U.S. of A.

In this debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Trump purported that migrants were eating the pets of American citizens in Springfield, Ohio. The response of Harris was the only rational one, which was to giggle. Apparently, this story was currently feeding the confirmation bias of social media zealots, which included a person who considers himself fit to rule the world. Fact checkers and local officials confirmed that the story was not true. But this does not stop those repeating it, who wish it was true.

The problem for those caught up in such an argument is that there may have been just one instance of starving migrants cooking up a street animals on a cold and windy night to feed their children. In the world of political debate not using numbers or arguing over whether numbers are true or not, allows generalisations to pass critical examination because even if there is only one instance, the general statement becomes true, even if totally misleading. It’s a gift to politicians.

At the beginning of this essay I referred to eastern philosophy as tending to take a holistic view of events, rather than focus on a particular set of facts. In Surah Al-Khaf in the Holy Quran, Moses meets a figure not named but described as a righteous servant of God possessing great wisdom. Moses watches him damage a humble fisherman’s boat and protests despite being sworn not to question any thing he witnesses. In time, an army passes in need of such boats and ignores the damaged one. The fisherman is able to repair the damage and keeps his boat and his livelihood. There follows other stories where actions are ‘evil’ at first sight, but as circumstances develope, are shown to have been benign.

In conclusion, our world at the present time is full of major choices about which we hear politicians of all persuasions expounding strong views. As humble citizens we have little say in these matters and have to trust those promoting ‘good’ and denouncing the ‘bad’.

Decisions are for reasons suggested above, and in my view, never such a clear cut choice. We assume we make choices based on hard facts, reasonableness and clear routes to known consequences. I contest this assumption and suggest we take a more pragmatic view, summed up in the simple word ‘maybe’.

Matters Blog

Original thoughts on a variety of subjects that matter to me

Month: September 2024

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