Scientism
Scientific materialism or Scientism has reduced our worldview to what is observable by the physical senses alone. Therefore we are conditioned to believe in a material and mechanistic universe governed by natural laws in which objects exist in separation from everything else. And a human being has been reduced to a finite physical body which is separate from the universe. This is a one-sided materialistic view which rejects the metaphysical dimension because it cannot be seen or understood by the left brain which has become the dominant perspective in our worldview. The left brain has awareness of what is tangible: objective and physical. The right brain has awareness of what is intangible and metaphysical. The right brain has been repressed and undermined leaving us with an incomplete view of reality.
Science has become the oppressive religion of our time. Anything or anyone that challenges our scientific worldview is heretical. Our right brain is aware of a greater reality in which everything is connected by a Universal Energy Field. Our energy is part of this Universal Energy Field which permeates the universe. However, science has become aware of a universal field in quantum physics. The Quantum Field is a fundamental underlying universal field and quantum entanglement is a property of universal connectedness. And astrophysics has proposed the existence of Dark Matter and Dark Energy which seem to support the existence of another dimension within the physical universe. There is more to existence than meets they eye.
The Evolution of Consciousness
Consciousness is an evolutional process with identifiable stages. The stages or periods I have identified and would like to present are the preself-conscious, self-conscious and transpersonal stages in the evolution of consciousness. In the preself-conscious stage man is collective and lacks self-awareness. His personal agency and choices are limited. Premodern culture is characterized by farming, religion and superstition. People in this pre-scientific age introject the religious ideology of their day which shapes their worldview. Gods are believed to control the fate of man. Gods are worshipped and sacrifices are made so as to appease them and bring good fortune. Natural disasters, plagues, famines and defeats are thought to be the wrath of God for man falling out of favour with God.
In the self-conscious stage humans have a developed rational brain and ego. Modern people are relatively self-determining and have more freedom to make choices that will influence their fate. Modern culture is characterized by literature, science, technology, industrialization, rationality, secularism and materialism. Science has become the religion of our age and defines reality by what is tangible and observable by the ordinary senses. This has produced a one-sided materialistic worldview and has created a spiritual vacuum. Moreover, modern rational people can no longer relate to the old mythic religions and anthropomorphic concepts of God which are no longer compatible with our scientific worldview and our understanding of natural laws. This has given rise to a sense of isolation and meaninglessness in modern people who view themselves as a soulless physical being existing in isolation from a soulless, mechanistic and indifferent universe.
In the transpersonal stage in the evolution of consciousness human beings will become aware of their greater Self. This postmodern age will be characterised by transcendence, unity and the drive for ascension. In this enlightened culture people will attain higher consciousness. The sensory and analytical functions of mind will be balanced by feeling and intuition. And the universe will be viewed as a living process with many dimensions.
Self and Existence
What is the purpose of our life if we believe physical death is the end of our existence? Is life a bitch and then you die? That would mean that life is meaningless. From this belief we are compelled to live a life of hedonism and dread the time when our physical body expires. This is the state of affairs in our culture at present. We are living in an age of hedonism and materialism. I am not averse to pleasurable experiences and material comfort. These are legitimate needs which we all seek to fulfil but we also have spiritual needs. Religion and mother church used to serve our spiritual needs but modern rational people can no longer relate to anthropomorphic concepts of God and miraculous mythologies and have therefore become dissociated from their greater Self. As a result modern people are experiencing loss of soul which can manifest as isolation, anxiety, depression, stress, addictions and obsessive-compulsive disorders. They haven’t literally lost their soul. They are unaware of their essence and only aware of their physical persona.
Life would be futile if all we are is a body and all our efforts in life end in physical death. What would be the point in persisting in a life which is hard and painful when we cannot reap the fruits of our lifelong labour? My experience of life has been harsh but it has been abundantly purposeful and meaningful for I have grown through adversity and used my experiences to develop my character and elevate my soul. I am a soul and I have a body. My transient body will expire at the end of ‘this’ lifetime but my soul is eternal and will continue in the energy plane or spiritual dimension. My brain is a function of consciousness giving me a temporal experience but I am not my brain. I am consciousness. I am awareness and this is a quality of soul or spirit. Life’s a bitch and then you don’t die.
We are a spirit which survives physical death and can be reborn or reincarnated in the material plane. I was shocked when this was revealed to me as it challenged my Western mindset and undermined my whole belief system. I realise the concept of reincarnation may be difficult to conceive but try to keep an open mind. There is so much to existence that we are unaware of. These metaphysical truths can be painful at first as they threaten our introjected and firmly rooted ideas of self and existence but please don’t discount them outright. At least consider them as a possibility.
The Law of Karma
Capitalism and materialism conditions us to believe that success in this life is measured by status, the acquisition of wealth, property and material goods. There is no conception of karma or the goal of developing our personality to achieve self-realization, raise our level of being and ascend into a higher vibrational plane of existence.
My understanding of the law of karma is that karma determines our future fate by the sum total of our actions in this life and our previous lives. We receive back all the love or hate we put into the world. This is our personal karma. If we have been kind and compassionate towards others we will increase our positive karma. If we have been mean and selfish we will accumulate negative karma. Love expands consciousness and hate restricts consciousness. The more we love the more we grow and the closer we come to achieving liberation. We are liberated when we transcend the human ego by overcoming our negative karma and become aware of the good in everyone (which was my own experience) and our soul is freed from the cycle of death and rebirth. Moreover, our actions not only affect ourselves, we are each affected by everyone else’s actions. This is collective karma. Everyone on this planet benefits from a single act of love which brings us all closer to liberation. Everything is connected.
But you may ask, what about innocents who experience tragedy? Are they being punished for misdeeds in the past? Personally, I don’t believe that. There is evil, disease and disaster in the world which can strike anyone indiscriminately. However, these misfortunes will balance out over a series of reincarnations in which we are all given opportunities to evolve and grow closer to transcendence. There is certainly a lot of tragedy and suffering in the world but nothing is lost – physical death is not the end – it is only a transition from the physical plane into the spirit world. The soul survives physical death and will be given more opportunities for reincarnation and development.
Karma and character are inextricably linked. For it is our personality that determines how we perceive reality and cope with life’s circumstances. And it is our personality that regulates our behaviour and actions. Therefore, our character has a powerful influence on our fate. In Hinduism one is believed to accumulate sanskaras (in the soul) which are impressions left from previous life experiences which, in conjunction with our brain and present life experiences, influence our perception. This is known as apperception which, in this context, is perception coloured by previous experiences from all of our lives including our present one and the collective evolutional experience of mankind inherited in our brain structure and DNA.
Negative and immature states of mind keep us in Samsara (the lower vibrational material world of illusion, suffering, death and rebirth). These character flaws are known as kleshas in Buddhism, the seven deadly sins in Catholicism, character defects in the twelve steps of AA and thinking errors or cognitive distortions in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy whose symptoms can manifest as anxiety caused by irrational fear, depression, violence, materialism, egoism and obsessive-compulsive behaviours. When we grow in Spirit we outgrow our small-mindedness, overcoming fear and desire, and we see through all of the quick fixes in the world that only lead to more suffering and we discover the joy of being. Our thinking, perception and beliefs cause much of our own suffering although it appears to be everything else. There must come a point where we take responsibility for our happiness, regardless of what has happened to us in the past, and stop blaming. Freedom begins when we lose our victim mentality, but still retain our rights, and concentrate on what needs to be changed in ourselves.
Ascension
Ascension is the process of ascending. To ascend is to break the cycle of death and rebirth in the physical plane and ascend into the light or energy planes. This is also known as moksha. The final liberation of the soul from reincarnation in the world. We are ascending individually and collectively although most people are unaware of this. Evolution and natural selection are one and the same with the ascension process. On the surface it is a harsh and brutal world where each organism fights for survival and strives to pass on its genes by mating and reproducing. Life feeds upon life in a food chain with the apex predator at the top of the food chain being man. From a purely materialist perspective we live in a dog-eat-dog, tragic and meaningless world where any joy or achievement in life is overshadowed by death and discontinuance. The soul and consciousness, however, continues its journey after the physical body expires. And the soul will develop from the experiences and lessons of each incarnation until it has reached maturity and has learned to love unconditionally. It is then freed from reincarnation in the world and has graduated into the energy planes to continue its journey of becoming.
There is an underlying unity and purpose to life which is the ascension process. My understanding of evolution, natural selection and ascension is that each organism has a soul which can evolve and reincarnate. As the soul grows and evolves with each incarnation it raises its level of being and can be reincarnated higher up in the food chain so that a soul that was prey in a previous life is now the predator. Death is sacrifice. An organism is sacrificed to become food for an organism of higher complexity. In return the soul of the sacrificed organism will ascend and will be reincarnated higher up the food chain. Therefore the food chain with increasing complexity of prey and predators is also a succession of ascension. Man has evolved to become the apex predator and is also the gateway to ascension for life on Earth. The goal of evolution on Earth is ascension. When the planet becomes aware of the ascension process and becomes actively engaged in the ascension process then we will become an ascended planet.
We are not alone in our evolution and ascension on Earth. We have been assisted and guided by old souls who have incarnated on Earth to serve humanity. They have ascended from other planets in the cosmos and are paying it forward for the help that was given to them. This is how it works. When we have ascended and no longer need to be reincarnated on Earth we are called to serve on other planets and help others to evolve and ascend. We sacrifice ourselves for others and in return we grow in love and raise our level of being.
John Gallagher © 2022
(first published 2020)
John Gallagher 