In my last post I mentioned how humancentric we have become in our way of viewing the world. In finding pictures for that blog I had a disconcerting reminder of that. So many of the concepts I alluded to simply had no illustration available from the media I use. Of course the programmers are themselves programmed by the edicts of the world in which we currently live.
I typed ‘nature spirits’ and was offered pictures of nature and people dancing among the trees. I typed in ‘Pan’ and saw pictures of people frying food in pans. When I typed ‘fairies’ (knowing I would be in for trouble) it was fairy bread, rock formations and fairy lights. So I tried 'devas' and got a buddha and cars. When I typed in ‘multi-dimensional’ I was shown angular buildings. ‘Spirits’ of course was interpreted as bottles of alcohol and people having a jolly time. 'ET's', 'extraterrestrials' or 'space ships' showed me nothing really relevant either, to my surprise.
But when I typed in 'scientists' I could take my pick from pages and pages of them. They're allowed in our world.
What has happened to our understanding of the subtle realms, even of mythology? Is it narcissism, arrogance or fear, which has us diminishing our accepted reality to a narrow, predictable, material sphere with humans at its centre? We have pressed ‘delete’ and cut and pasted our world into a shrunken version of its multi-dimensional nature.
Throughout history there have been times when people were discouraged by the current power structures from embracing certain aspects of belief or investigation. We have drowned herbalists as witches, burnt dissenters at the stake, killed those who oppose or question our beliefs, lied about the evidence of things that do not suit us to know about and altered holy texts to suit the politics of the day. So what’s new about the current secular time, when all that is not visible, numerical or ‘evidence-based’ does not seem to count?
I think there is actually something different this time. Too many of us know that we are stuck as cogs in a consuming machine, and that there is more to life than that. Too many of us have experienced and investigated the transcendental or spiritual, and find refreshment and truth there. Too many of us have developed the appreciation that the indigenous peoples always had, of our unity with the Earth and each other.
And we are not prepared to live out a thoroughly materialistic life, devoid of deeper meaning. Maybe this is why consciousness is now being studied, online satsangs abound and meditation and yoga are commonplace.
There is madness out there, engendered by the fear born of a belief in separation. But there is also a shift away from it, to something far gentler and more all-inclusive.
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