Nov 19 2008
Spiritual and Scientific Indoctrination
Excerpt from The Book of Magic: The Psychology and Psychopathology of Crown Chakra Activation (or, channelling the spirit world).
Spiritual Indoctrination
So far in this chapter I have talked about the importance of a healthy bodily ego and healthy attachment of consciousness to the physical unit. At this point we have seen how childhood abuse and neglect can undermine the bodily ego by undermining self esteem and attachment and that this can lead to connection pathologies. We haven’t talked in any detail about connection pathologies so far, but we will. In the meantime you should be taking an honest assessment of your life path so far to see if there are any experiences that might lead you to suspect ego or attachment difficulties. If so, then caution moving forward is called for. While an unhealthy physical unit may be able to perform without too much difficulty in normal conditions (perhaps with the help of Prozac, lithium, alcohol, heroin, etc.), you need a healthy physical unit in order to support the expansion of consciousness in the body.
Before closing out this chapter on the bodily ego, I want to say a few words about the negative impact of religious and scientific indoctrination on the ego of the physical unit. Like abuse and attachment, this is also an important topic. The fact of the matter is the sorts of things they teach you in religion and science, and the sorts of answers they provide you to the “big questions”[1] can have a negative impact on the ego and self esteem of the physical unit.
How so?
Basically because of the lies that they tell you, either deliberately or as the result of simple ignorance, about who you are, where you came from, where you are going, and what your purpose is on this planet.
And just who are you, where are you from, and where are you going?
By now you should know the truth of these at least at an intellectual, left brain level. As I say in The Book of Light, the truth is that your body is a physical container for your glorious higher consciousness. The truth is, your consciousness participates in the spectacular reality of spirit. The truth is, your higher consciousness is literally the light and power of god and it is far more powerful, intelligent, and aware than what passes for normal on this world.
Of course, this is not what religion and science tell you. Religion and science both tell you things that diminish you. Western religions will tell you that you are a broken soul, or an immature soul, or an unworthy soul, or a dirty soul, unfit for paradise and ejected from the garden because of some absolutely meaningless mistake (i.e. you ate an apple??). And if not the western “you are an idiot reject from the Garden of Eden” story, then you get the eastern “you’re a karmic school child and you need to keep coming back and suffering until you get it right” story. Now obviously, neither of these “you are an idiot” stories really reflects the truth of who you are. In fact, quite the opposite. Both these religious stories diminish you to the point of cosmic insignificance and it’s this diminishment that is, as we will see in a few moments, the problem.
And frankly, I don’t think science is any better. Science, at least the dominant and official versions, dismiss all consideration of consciousness/soul outside of the body altogether. According to science, consciousness emerges as some kind of epiphenomenon of the brain. According to science, consciousness does not exist independently of the body. According to science, you and your body are dust and nothing more. And if that’s not enough, science goes on to tell you that your body is in a process of evolution, and that, as a result, it is far from perfect. Like religious doctrine, science tells you that you are “not quite there yet” and “in process.” There is potential they will tell you. As the body struggles and strives in the Social Darwinian struggle for existence, positive attributes are naturally selected and the human “race”[2] moves towards greater degrees of evolutionary perfection (usually defined as some twisted version of strength).[3] Of course, outside of this evolutionary race for perfection there are the “special ones” in each generation. According to the holy grail of Social Darwinism, the Bell Curve, only about 2% of the population[4] attains the pinnacle of strength, intelligence, and capability in any given generation. The rest of us are condemned either to a life of average strength, intelligence, and capability (the 68% in the middle), or profound dysfunction—take your pick. Either way, when considered against the full truth of your awesome glory and divinity, science’s “story of you” is a profound diminishment.[5]
As noted briefly above, in terms of awakening your physical unit and drawing consciousness into the body, this diminishment is problematic at a couple of levels. At one level, the stories of church and science actually reduce, according to my principle as above in consciousness, so below in matter, the capacity of your physical vehicle to contain consciousness!
“How is that?” you say?
Well, you already know that the physical universe responds to intent, right?
Energy follows intent or, as above in consciousness, so below in matter.
Consciousness is the root of all things.[6]
Right?
And most importantly, this includes your physical unit.
Right?
Your physical body and your brain are part of the physical universe and therefore they respond to your intent just like the rest of the physical universe.
Therefore…
Bottom line…
…if your physical vehicle believes it is broken down, run down, still evolving, or in any way less than it really is, this will lead, in an as above in consciousness so below in matter sort of way, to a literal restriction of the amount of consciousness it can contain. Consider the water glass metaphor here.[7] Your body is like an empty water glass and consciousness is like the water in a big glass jug. When you tell your body stories that diminish it, when you tell it stories that make it less than it really is, this makes the glass smaller. The more some finger-wagging patriarch stands over you (either literally or figuratively) telling you that you are anything less than you really are (i.e. a glorious spark of creator consciousness incarnated in a fantastically capable physical vehicle for the purpose of experiencing pleasure and fun), the smaller your physical unit shrinks. It’s true! If you’re observant, you can see this occur in children. I’ve seen it happen to my own children when I yell at them with anger.[8] They literally shrink in the face of it, and I’m not brainwashing them with stories that diminish them. How much worse would it be if I was?
Now, a shrinking water glass is only one problem with the ideological diminishment dished out by church and science. At another more profound and (if you ask me) damaging level, diminishment twists the ideas and expectations you have of yourself to the point that you cannot face the truth of who you really are. The bottom line is, diminishment gives you a false sense of identity, a false sense of who you are (i.e. a broken, evolving, reject). This is never a problem while you exist in normal consciousness. However, this false identity that you have absorbed because of your ideological indoctrination is a serious problem when you begin to connect with The Fabric. At the point of reconnection, and especially if you experience a dramatic crown opening, you are going to be confronted with the staggering truth of your own divinity. And while you might not think this is a problem,[9] it certainly can be if you have been raised in a reality that includes your horrible spiritual insignificance. The problem is trauma to your ego, basically. You already know that bringing consciousness into the body heightens your sense of reality. Therefore, if you’ve been indoctrinated into religious or scientific insignificance, this insignificance that has been programmed into your body is what you may confront when contacting The Fabric, and it may not be pleasant. Indeed, if you combine religious or scientific indoctrination with a weak ego or body with minimal attachment, then your confrontation with the truth of your awesome spiritual glory may heighten your sense of insignificance to the point of spiritual trauma. In some cases, you may even find yourself embedded in a kind of spiritual psychosis where you literally abandon your own identity in favor of grandiose and unsubstantiated schizophrenic like identifications with the energies you contact from The Fabric. It sounds a bit obtuse, I know. I’ll explain it in detail when we talk more about negative connection outcomes (i.e. connection pathologies) a bit later in this treatise on crown chakra activation. For now just remember to consciously reject the ideology of diminishment.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of this chapter on the egoic health of the physical unit. As you can see, attaining at least a modicum of mental health is a pre-requisite for healthy connection with The Fabric. Unhealthy physical units, people who have had seriously pathological childhoods, those who have experienced intense indoctrination, and people with weak attachments are advised to exercise caution and perhaps seek spiritually qualified therapeutic assistance. It is probably not necessary to halt your progress altogether, but it is important to recognize that healing the mental components of the physical unit is a necessary step towards full reconnection. Only a healthy physical unit can make a proper connection to the Fabric of Consciousness.
In the next chapter I want to provide some additional considerations that you should be aware of as you continue this preflight self assessment. These considerations, some psychological, some sociological, are as important as the material in this chapter on internal ego functioning of the physical unit so pay close attention. Following the next chapter, we will finally get into some of the ways you can expand your connection to The Fabric.
In closing I would like to reiterate here and now that nothing I have said in this chapter, or will say in the next chapter, should stop your efforts to awaken and empower. All I’m doing is providing you with information and guidance designed to empower you to make progress forward. Take the information and advice under advisement. Move as slowly as you require, take the time you need to process, and you’ll be just fine. No matter how damaged your physical unit might be, it’s never a question of if and always a question of when.
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[1] Big Questions are questions of a high spiritual nature. Big Questions are existential or spiritual questions of existence, purpose and so on. Examples of Big Questions include: Who Am I? Where did I come from? What is the purpose of my existence? What is the nature of God? What is the nature of creation. For more information see http://www.thespiritwiki.com/index.php/Big_Questions
[2] That’s a funny thing to call human life on this planet—a human “race.”
[3] See the Halo/Sharp tarot Strength card. http://tarot.michaelsharp.org/the-major-arcana/strength/
[4] The upper 2% of the bell curve is where the “elites” put themselves.
[5] Of course, I’m exaggerating science a bit. There’s a lot of individual variation in science and there are some very spiritual people hiding behind the closed doors of the academy for fear of being ridiculed and ostracized. But the dominant discourse of science, i.e. science’s answers to the big questions, is materialist and Darwinian and this represents a huge and profound diminishment.
[6] See my Book of Light for an explication.
[7] See http://www.thespiritwiki.com/index.php/Water_Glass_Metaphor
[8] Sadly, I am not a perfect parent. It’s hard to raise children for so many reasons and I get caught in the stress, strain, and isolation of it. We live in a child hostile society. My childhood was less than it might have been. And, my role models never displayed proper parenting or nurturing behaviors. We (my wife and I) struggle against the stressors of daily life in a society that is pathologically oriented. Resisting and uplifting the creation that is our children is a day to day struggle for us.
[9] And with a healthy physical unit, it is not a problem.