Why I Am Skeptical of Religious and Secular Institutions
The transformation of a Life Lens over 60 years
Bill is an author, public intellectual and founder of many groups over his 80 year lifetime. He and I hold divergent views of topics concerning religion, consciousness and the “human condition” as it manifests within the spheres of culture and public governance.
The following essay was written in response to recent questions that arose from within an email discussion group that Bill started about 10 years ago. My thoughts build upon past discussions. I hope you find it interesting.
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Bill,
A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is the most significant book that influenced my views regarding the illusionary aspect of reality and my experience with it. In the mid 1990s, ACIM began to transform my “Life Lens” towards viewing and understanding life through the lessons acquired from my successive and unique human experiences. Everyone’s Life Lens is continually shaped and reshaped within the mind of each of us as we accumulate new “Artifacts of Consciousness”. In past writings, I have abbreviated this concept to “ArtiCons” so as to distinguish them from mere ‘memories’. It’s through these ArtiCons, the “psychic cells” that make up the totality of each person’s Life Lens, that we filter and inform how we should engage with one other. ArtiCons also create and animate all of the illusions of a “reality” that we all share. This description is a very abbreviated explanation of this topic which I plan to elaborate upon in future essays.
Eckankar (https://www.eckankar.org/) was another source of learning for me during the 1990s. As an enthusiastic and active member, I read several Eck books, attended regular Sunday meetings, acquired an understanding of Eck ideas concerning “levels” of consciousness, and enjoyed many discussions with members of the Eckankar community. This participation exposed me to many interesting ideas about the human experience of those levels.
The Egg, a short film (on YouTube) that I recently shared to our group, is a quaint portrayal of the enduring nature of Universal Consciousness, a unique concept of “The Creator”, and the roles each of “us” play within it.
My Life Lens as evolved at different stages of my life as it does for every being of Consciousness.
In childhood, my metaphysical ideas were shaped profoundly as the eldest son (of 4) who was raised by parents that devout Roman Catholics. Even at a very young age, I never felt comfortable with the Church or its teachers. By age 13, I was already questioning why I should attend church and Catholic schools. Three years attending a Jesuit private boys school was more than enough for me by age 16.
My early adulthood was when I unleashed myself from that early Catholic indoctrination. I realized that the Bible was just one of many sources of “moral” guidance in life and not necessarily the best one for everyone.
In my 40s, I faced many personal crises. Each one pushed me further along a road of self-discovery. That road eventually led me to my current beliefs which I hold today as deeply as anyone who relies on religious Faith and holy books (such as the Bible) for their moral guidance.
One memorable event occurred in1970. As an 18-year-old traveller who spent nine months exploring Europe, I spent 3 days with Father Lavin, a monk who invited me at the request of my mother to be his guest at a Trappist monastery in Coalville, England. We walked the beautiful monastery grounds for an hour each day discussing Faith. Father Lavin explained that Faith is a choice which must be made by “free Will” in order to “know God”. I found it strange that a God who is alleged to Love his creations unconstitutionally, would place this condition on my relationship with Him. When I left Coalville, I knew finally and with certainty that religion would not fulfill my quest to answer questions of an existential nature.
Another memorable period was during the 1994 to 1996 years. After reading A Course In Miracles, practicing it’s 365 daily meditations, and leading an ACIM study group, I knew that I had found my “path”. It was the first time in my life that I could satisfactorily answer the “existential” questions that Father Lavin could not.
Now, at age 70, I feel fortunate to have discovered that path. Sometimes I reflect upon it as compared to the choice my mother had to make in order to marry my dad. A convert to Catholicism, mom became an ardent Catholic and Bible student. She worked as a Catholic teacher and rose to the level of Vice-Principal of a Catholic private girls school which was run by nuns. Mom’s Faith was a big part of her personal identity and source of fulfillment in life.
I greatly respected mom for her deep Faith. We had open and interesting conversations about our different paths before her death in 2013. I recall a moment with her a few days before death at the palliative care hospital. In anguish, mom expressed her profound disappointment that God was not present in her final days to comfort her. After 60 years of prayer and loyalty, mom appeared to have doubts about her Faith and I felt a deep sadness for her.
The pandemic has introduced a whole new dimension my understanding of Faith. It has raised additional questions.
For example, I have recently considered the similarities between religious Faith and the Mass Formation (“psychosis”, “hypnosis”) secular “faith” that has been described to great popular acclaim by Dr. Mattias Desmet of Ghent University in Belgium. He explains why millions of people have placed their faith in state authorities to save them from SARS Cov-2 and his explanation certainly rings true to me.
Here are a few of my observations concerning religious and speculate institutions of faith. The pandemic policies became a kind of “scripture” which was alleged to be informed from ‘on high’ by “the Science”. Dr. Fauci was cast in the role as the “Father” with all-knowing and all-loving qualities and in whom everyone was expected to place his or her faith. Vast congregations of “the faithful” were drawn into and secured within “the flock” with promises of safety and “life ever after” in return for obedience. The only conditions for “being saved” were to remain faithful, encourage others to do likewise, and to follow all orders without question as set out by the public “high priests” and their obedient clergy.
People fear death. The pandemic strategy to flood the masses with persistent messages of fear has succeeded to create this new secular ‘religion’.
Fear, with promises of safety and redemption, are the ‘tried and true” strategic elements of all of the most successful world religions.Thousands of religions has appeared over the history of mankind. The Covid ‘religion’ is just the latest and likely the most successful to emerge in centuries.
As mentioned already, Dr. Fauci promises ‘eternal safety’ infused by “the Science” (aka “the Word” in biblical parlance). Who in the state of abject fear would reject an offer like that? It’s impossible ignore the similarities between the prescribed pandemic public health practices and the “ceremonial” behaviours observed in religious liturgies to instil obedience in the flock. These similarities leave little doubt that the Covid leaders have understood the value of these practices, especially among religious people who are already conditioned to adopt and practice behaviours and routines prescribed by “authorities” (religious or secular).
Masking, social distancing, hand sanitizing, shaming/ostracizing of the non-compliant - these are all behaviours and routines that build and reinforce compliance to prescribed orthodoxy just as liturgical practices do in religious communities. They are very powerful methods of population control - strategies that have been commanded by elites for the masses over past millennia.
Why has such division occurred so readily in our willingness to comply, or not, with the pandemic ‘liturgy’?
Every person has a different Life Lens and acts accordingly. I, for example, rarely accept information at face value unless I truly trust the source. I seek facts that will support or discredit suppositions and unsubstantiated claims made by others. I am especially skeptical of strangers who, I suspect, may have a hidden agenda motivated by objectives that don’t align with mine.
I prefer actual Science (not the politicized propaganda version called “the Science”) performed by actual scientists (not unqualified journalists and politicians) to validate claims. Other people are less analytical and may be more persuaded by feelings than facts. Some seek “tribal” acceptance more than the confidence that comes from a deep understanding and knowledge of a topic. We’re all different.
People like me are not ready-followers of popular narratives, the opinions of established “thought leaders” or popular members of the “in crowd”. Instead, the political “divide and conquer” playbook of the ruling elites suggest it best to treat independent thinkers like me as contemporary “heretics”, “lepers” and “disease-ridden heathen”. Accordingly, outliers like me must be demonized and ostracized from the “the faithful” lest we infect them with doubts. God forbid that the masses begin to think critical thinking or undertake serious investigation into the “liturgy”.
I recently considered buying a T-shirt from the Ontario Libertarian Party which reads “I am the fringe”. It would remind people that “the fringe” has the term Trudeau used to disparage the Truckers and their millions of supporters. Justin’s high and mighty perch in Parliament began to appear it was balanced over quicksand and more shaky than before the protest.
It’s no surprise that he “struck a deal with the devil’ soon after those 3 weeks of infamy and criticism by the global press and leaders of other nations. He and Jagmeet Singh has now placed a secure lock on their doors to power. Now, not even the globally popular Truckers For Freedom campaign can knock him off his perch.
The unholy Pact between Canada’s two most Socialist leaders and their parties now ensures that a sufficiently large caucus of loyal Parliamentary “apostles” will dutifully pass budget-busting legislation. There seems little hope, short of an “act of God”, that anything can stop them from carrying out a major expansion in the size, scope of authority and costs of the federal government. They also appear poised to fulfil the goal of the new religion - to implement a form of Digital Communism that has been steadily promoted by the many rich, powerful and political elite members of the World Economic Forum governed by its Chairman, Dr. Klaus Schwab.
I hope that every Canadian knows that both Justin and Jagmeet are WEF Members and that our Federal Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is a members of its executive Board of Trustees. Would the average Canadian voter consider it to be a conflict of interest that these three belong to the most powerful and influential globalist organization in the world while holding high office in the Government of Canada?
Trudeau is definitely spoiling for a serious fight and I hope millions of Canadians give it to him until he is soundly and permanently removed from any form of public office.
When it became evident to ‘Saviour Trudeau’ that the Truckers For Freedom Convoy was not just a “fringe” movement, he acted in a manner reminiscent of past religious/secular dictators. Recall that King Henry VIII of England declared “war” against everyone who opposed him and heads subsequently rolled …. literally! Justin, in his most revealing moment to date as a would-be dictator, brazenly announced plans to annihilate his peaceful “enemies” using Canada’s latest version of the War Measures Act.
Not to be outdone by his dad, Son Justin upstaged his Father, Pierre Trudeau who used that original Act in the 1970s to suppress a legitimate public threat in Quebec. “Like Father, like Son” and “The apple never falls far from the tree” were likely in his mind when Justin publicly shouted out his war cry to the alarm of every peace-loving Canadian. I doubt that they will soon forget it - the actions of a trigger-happy man compelled by ego.
I could go on with these comparisons, but I am sure you “catch my drift”.
Reflection: Why have I escaped capture by the Covid religion?
The brainwashing from Mass Formation pandemic policy has had no success on me, yet it has been very effective on the majority of others. Why?
My Life Lens offers the most likely explanations.
Maybe it’s because I escaped the Mass Formation of organized religion early in my life and spent over 40 years “in the desert” far removed from its influence on my thinking and life choices.
Maybe it’s because my 36 year career as a professional IT recruiter demanded that I seek and critically evaluate information in order to make sound job candidate recommendations to my corporate customers. During every candidate interview, I was expected to delve well beyond the superficial veneer of each candidate which is easily contrived for a resume and expressed in a “professional” presentation.
Maybe it’s because I built a successful professional and family life supported by an entrepreneurial form of employment which required of me very little conformity to the “cultural” dictates of corporate or government institutions. Today, large organizations define, promote and demand loyalty/conformity to their own forms of orthodoxy which can have a profound influence on the Life Lens of each employee.
This essay began with reflections on the evolution of my own Life Lens. Will is also inspire reflections on your own? I hope so.