Can I Get This Validated, Please?

Why would anyone push a second thumb tack into their forehead?

Apparently, some of us will. In fact, many people are willing to be guinea pigs and blind-faith adherents to any New Age philosophy, religion or popular social construct that comes knocking on their door.

You may be surprised to learn this, but we do NOT live in a Christian country. The founders of The United States of America did not set out to recreate what they left behind in England. The word “God” does not appear (even once) in the Constitution of the United States. However, religionists have waged war on the separation of church and state for quite a long time now. Unfortunately, religion seems to be needed by a great many people who confuse spirituality with pomp and circumstance.

Does this mean I am against religion? Why yes, yes it does. I think that religion is the single worst human preoccupation ever conceived and practiced. But religion is not the only concept I wish to discuss within this article. I intend to question our need for outside validation and social consensus.

New Age practices. Are they a religion? Well, not in the usual sense but there are many similarities. It is difficult to find major differences between religious and New Age practices. Each has defined rituals, customs and artifacts to display…and each has group dynamics at work, conversion tactics of some type and a “soul nurturing” component (among other qualities and activities). Still, the new ageists aren’t my only concern either

People need to be accepted by other people, or so it would seem. They like to be linked to others with similarities and supported by groups with large numbers of members. To that end they will join social organizations, affiliate with fraternal, maternal, ethnic and age-related organizations and otherwise attach themselves to anything that comes along to provide an outside source of validation.

Is this wrong?

Is there any danger to this need for group identification? Where are all the strong-minded free-thinking individuals? Why do we need to be one of many? How does being one of many validate the mystical mindset that permeates religion and fuzzy New Age practices?

Let me say this: It is not my intention to suggest that spirituality isn’t a worthy human pursuit. In the same manner, I do not intend to state that all New Age practice is simple “fluff.” In my opinion, there is a time for banding together for support and nurturance. My beef is with any concept or practice that limits the freedoms of others, degrades the individual by promoting magical thinking, or even worse yet, causes direct harm through destructive influence.

I have found religion and New Age practice to be the worst offenders. There is no limit to the harm religion is willing to dish out. It is easy to look back in history for glaring examples of religions greatest (worst) hits:

a) The Inquisition
b) The burning of the Salem witches
c) Innumerable WARS between entire nations
d) The creation of cultural gulfs that pronounce diversity as being negative
e) The subjugation of the human spirit by religious leaders who are artificially endowed with special powers or knowledge and even actual connections to “God.”

Perhaps less intense is the New Age contribution to the problem. Yet, significant harm can be done by anything or anyone that promotes outward validation and steers the individual away from personal responsibility and autonomy. I find little difference between religion and New Age practice when it comes to suggesting that the individual is not complete in of itself and requires help to reach heaven, Nirvana, or some form of nebulous “enlightenment.”

Personally, I have a big problem with any individual who claims to have any spiritual power or advantage over others. I believe that if one person can accomplish something then another person can also accomplish the exact same feat.

I believe that if Buddha became enlightened, then another human can also become enlightened. If Jesus walked on water then so can we. And, if the art of sharing energy, feeling emotions or sensing things not obvious to the five senses can be experienced by a “special” human being then it can be realized by ANY human being.

I don’t think you will find many religious leaders or “masters” of New Age practices too willing to agree with this idea. If they did, they would lose their elite status and ability to control others (think “power”). They would also lose their income.

But back to those thumb tacks. It seems to me that it would cause significant pain to push one into your forehead, never mind the psychological objection of physically pushing a foreign object into your skull. But people do it over and over again!

People practice religion or follow their guru into the most horrendous situations. If the pope tells someone it’s actually “OK” to kill another person, they will do it. I’m not making this up. If your New Age guru tells you that the reason you have the problems that you have is directly related to something in a “past life,” well, you’re sort of stuck. Until time travel itself becomes possible, you aren’t going back in time to correct or change those things so soon.

So people take whatever punishments they are given and accept that it is deserved and appropriate. Penance, anyone? Or perhaps some past-life regression therapy (at $50.00 per hour) will actually allow you to change the past and “fix” your current problems!

Again, let me say that those activities that truly and honestly empower individuals, allow for growth and expand our awareness and potential are definitively worthwhile activities. Spiritual pursuits of any type can offer such rewards. I believe there are valid reasons to occasionally band together but doing so within a spirit of acceptance for differences and basic equality best suits our higher collective good. Exclusivity can breed manipulation and promote exploitation of those who aren’t “at the top.”

A strong minded, free-thinking individual who chooses their path and their affiliations is a force with which to be reckoned. How about joining THAT group?!

 

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