Religion Is Evil
ll religion is evil, because it makes its followers sectarian and intolerant. There is no essential difference between mainline religions and extremist cults and sects. Wars often have a religious basis, including the terrible events of 9/11/2001, which included the destruction of the World Trade Towers and part of the Pentagon. Some would say we should not blame Islam for the action of extremists. However, an extreme form of Islam is still Islam, and one of the accepted ways of being religious in Islam is through the Jihad. Indeed, the initial spread of Islam throughout most of its present territory was by Jihad. Islam is no worse than the other religions. In the first crusade, all inhabitants of Jerusalem were beheaded in the name of Jesus Christ. In the New World, Conquistadors were free to massacre or enslave all who would not be converted to Christianity. India has seen bloody riots and assasinations by Sikhs and Hindus.
n the West, we have learned not to give secular power to religions. That is why the principle of separation of Church and State is fundamental to democracy. What this principle really means is that no religion is ever to be given control over the government and the secular power of governments. Even now, Billy Graham would burn witches and heretics if we allowed him to do so. Every religion and cult teaches its followers that only they are the "chosen people," the elect, the only ones to experience the "rapture" of immediate entry into Paradise as Holy Martyrs. All others are demonized as "the Great Satan," the anti-christ, the unbelievers. Only the Chosen People know the truth, they believe. This fuels the fanaticism and intolerance of suicide bombers and suicide pilots who hijack modern airliners and crash them into buildings.
eligious beliefs are arbitrary, accepted on faith. The Christian fundamentalists believe that the world is only about 6000 years old and will come to an end at any time now. Christians have been saying that for nearly 2000 years. "This time is different," they always say, "The End Times are here now!" All true believers expect to suddenly vanish, in the "rapture." There is no essential difference between such nonsense and the crazy ideas of the Heaven's Gate cult, which led them all to commit suicide. Moslems believe that Mohammed and his horse leapt upward to heaven from the mount in Jerusalem where the Dome of the Rock has been built. The Dome of the Rock has been the focal point of countless wars because Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all have irrational and untestable beliefs about the same piece of real estate. Hindus justify the Caste system in India because they believe one is born into fortunate or unfortunate circumstances depending upon ones past sins or virtues. Cows are sacred in India because Hindus believe a person may be reborn as a cow, or indeed, a cockroach. There is no evidence for such views from psychical research, although there is evidence for reincarnation. Aztecs sacrified 30,000 captives every 52 years because they believed that time might otherwise come to an end. This is a religious belief, though based on the discovery of a 52 year cycle of astronomical motions. Even now, New Age sects preach the end of time in 2012 based on a Hopi prophecy. It is always a relief to escape such claustophobic insanity to the world of science, which gives us unlimited vistas of space and time. The universe has lasted 15 billion years without any discontinuities in time. Why should there be any in the next 15 billion years?
cience itself is partly to blame for the events of 9/11/2001, for failing to admit psychical research or transpersonal psychology into its folds, and thus rejecting a spiritual dimension to human life. There is nothing about scientific method which says it must be restricted to the visible and tangible. In principle, any reproducible experience can be the basis of a science. In psychical research, there is good evidence for the real and independent existence of the Mind, as well as for the reincarnation of the Mind, yet we know the Mind is not visible or tangible. The Self is not the body. What is visible and tangible is only the body, which "thaws and resolves itself into a dew," as the Bard said. We also know that the search for a divine purpose behind the bloody chaos of events must involve mystical experience, which is reproducible, and the same in every time and place, but is not visible and tangible. The reductionist restriction of science to the visible and tangible leads to a purely secular world, without meaning, divinity, spirituality or life after death. The Islamic Fundamentalists are rejecting that secular world, but then so are people everywhere. The gloomy worldview of the scientists cannot persist indefinitely.
f the discoveries of psychical research become widely known, there will be no need for religion. We know from Professor Ian Stevenson's work that reincarnation is a law of nature. It doesn't matter if you are good or evil, you will reincarnate. It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not, you will reincarnate. So why go to church or temple? Much better to enjoy a tail-gate party before a football game on Sunday mornings, or Saturdays, or Friday after dark, whenever your religion supposes the Sabbath to begin.
eridical details of the so-called Near Death Experience tell us what death will be like. I say "so-called" because in the most interesting cases, people really do die. Their EKG and breath monitor goes flatline, and if there is an EEG attached, it too goes flatline. There is no burst of neuronal activity or release of endorphins as posited by the psi-cop Susan Blackmore. Brain cells shut down after only a few seconds without oxygen and glucose. Death is pronounced, and this is often the first thing a person having an NDE remembers hearing. The death kit is applied, tubes and wires disconnected, the body transferred to a gurney, covered by a sheet and sent to the morgue. This is as dead as you can get. In Dannion Brinckley's case, he had been dead for 45 minutes before he returned to his body and at first he could only blow gently and periodically on the sheet above him, but, fortunately someone saw that and he was rushed back into an ER or an ICU. In the case of a soldier in the Vietnam war, he was dead all day, and only returned to his body when the mortician had made his cut on a large blood vessel in the leg, in preparation for embalming. He still carries the scar.
or most people, death is a surprisingly pleasant experience, so it is something we can look forward to, instead of dreading. About 4 to 5 percent of NDEs (I guess we are stuck with that term) are hellish rather than heavenly, but even the survivors of this experience usually have a renewed zest for life, knowing that they will never fear death again. Contrary to the cult of reduction preached by the psi-cops, death is only the beginning of the next phase of life, one without a body. There are many things we don't know about life and death, but the fact that the mind is independent from the brain, and has its own kinds of perception and control, is one well-established by the best work in psychical research.
eligions may be evil, on balance, but they are not totally evil. Indeed, I and many other non-religious folk envy them their music, their ritual, their cathedrals, and the sense of community found in many congregations. I will go further in praise of Christianity, since that is the religion I know best. One of the reasons it became popular in the first place was that it provided the first orphanages, the first hostels, and the first systematic charity for the blind and disabled, as well as for aged widows who had no family. As late as the middle ages, people still stayed in monasteries when they travelled across country, because monasteries would give them shelter and food, whether they had money or not. Even today, people down on their luck can usually get help from churches.
s it possible to create a non-sectarian spirituality based on new sciences of psychical research and empirical metaphysics which still has the virtues of charity, community, as well as spiritually uplifting music, art and architecture? That is the challenge for those who consider themselves spiritual and metaphysical without being religious. And I think it is possible. The Rainbow Tribe might be an example. This is a non-hierarchical community which meets in a different place every year, always on private property far from towns or cities. This is a community tolerant of entheogens, such as marijuana and "Magic Mushrooms," better known as "shrooms." As I have shown in my Utopia page, the laws against such drugs violate our basic ideals of personal liberty. Entheogens have often been part of spirituality, dating back to the Ice Age cave painters. The Rainbow Community doesn't require everyone to use entheogens. They don't require anyone to do anything, except to be tolerant of others, responsible to the environment, and to look after their own food and shelter.
hile I have never personally been to a Rainbow Tribe meeting, the rumor is that everyone is invited to bring a drum and participate in a medicine wheel ceremony around a campfire. This is apparently rather unstructured, just everyone drumming together all night long. It is known that drumming plays a big role in Shamanism and African Voodoo, since it can induce transcendental states.
andalas and Magick can be useful tools for spirituality and belong to no particular tradition or religion. I use the term "mandala" in the Western, Jungian sense, since mandalas appear in many different spiritual traditions. They are the sand paintings used in sacred rituals by the Navaho. They are the Rose Windows of medieval cathedrals. They are the circle of tipis of the Plains Indians. Renaissance architects built mandala buildings, and so did the Master Masons of the Gothic cathedrals. The term "mandala" comes from Tibetan Buddhism, where they make elaborate mandalas, guided only by the divine inner spirit. That same process is followed in Jungian mandalas, but the results look very different, just as Navaho paintings do not closely resemble Cathedral rose windows, except in being round. Mandalas are a way for each person to create their own sacred art. It is also a way for everyone to participate in the creation of beautiful art, of a new type. Every person has their own style, one which is unstudied and surprising. I recommend that once the mandala has been interpreted, it should be repainted in a larger size by a professional artist, and the original destroyed. The Navahos always destroy their sacred art once the ceremony is finished. Reproductions are never exact reproductions.
By leaving out a few key elements, tabus are not broken.
hat comes as a surprise to many people is that there are musical mandalas, mandala buildings, mandala dances, mandala clothing, and mandala dramas. When Bach sat down and improvised a Toccata, he was creating a musical mandala. Music naturally has a mandala form, where the measures are the squares, and repeated themes are the circles. I hold a few controversial ideas about some of these things. For instance, I believe many traditional folk arts are also mandala arts, including quilting, square dancing, and the Carnival celebrations of Trinidad and Rio de Janeiro (and other places). The Carnival celebrations are examples of mandala drama, and mandala music. Mandala drama is for participation, not watching. And it is not necessary to wear a kind of costume to participate in square dancing. In my small Oklahoma hometown, it was the kids who did square dancing, and we just wore our jeans and denim, just as we would at school. If you haven't tried it, don't knock it. Square dancing is so much more fun than rock and roll dancing. For one thing you get to hold every girl in the place in your arms, as you follow the caller when he says "Swing Your Partner." This is so much more erotic than the exhibitionist, narcissistic dancing of the rock and roll era.
nother tool which may be used in a completely non-sectarian way is Ceremonial Magick. This is not to be confused with the Wizardry of Harry Potter. Nor is it to be confused with the magic of Disney movies. Ceremonial magick satisfies all the same impulses as prayer, but makes no assumptions about divinity. Sometimes one just wishes to express gratitude. Sometimes one wishes to pray for someone, really praying that they find what they need, which may not be what they are asking for. When in a tight corner, when all else fails, one may wish to pray for oneself. I suppose the basic assumption of Ceremonial Magick is that the language of divinity is Jungian symbolism, not English, or Latin, or Hebrew.
he ability to interpret symbolism is very rare. I have run many circles over the years, and I always have them do mandalas, by bringing out kindergarten art supplies, and giving everyone one simple instruction: "let it create itself." In other words, don't try to think of a design. Just put lines or colors wherever you feel like. Use your eraser. Get up and clear your mind occasionally. Let that quiet inner voice be your guide. But the basic rule is "let it create itself." In almost all cases, people make the most amazing mandalas, filled with high metaphysics or deeply personal revelation. But no one has ever been able to interpret the mandalas but me. Once I suggest an interpretation, they get it, and even expand on it. I developed the skill by many years of struggling to understand the New Tarot. I spent seven years spending all my spare time on that one task. Then I spent more years trying to understand all the parables in The Word of One. And I suppose that is how C.G. Jung and Joseph Campbell developed their amazing ability to interpret symbols. But they don't seem to be able to tell anyone else how to do it. All their advice is negative. "Don't rely on dictionaries of symbols." I agree. Why? Because every symbol is unique and is like a sentence. It is possible to write huge novels without ever using the same sentence twice. I have spent a lifetime studying symbols and I never seen one of them repeated exactly, down to all the details. And the details matter. What I eventually realized is that it is as useless to create a dictionary of symbols as it is useless to create a dictionary of sentences. Actually, it is worse than that, because some common phrases in English or any other language are repeated.
ymbols are made up of symbolic elements, such as color, number, species, composition, gesture, clothing, jewelry, orientation, and probably a few other things. It is these symbolic elements which have universal meaning, and can be combined in any fashion, including ones never seen in nature, to create a symbol. So I have created an alphabet of symbolic elements. Start here. Learn these, and realize they always have the same meaning, in every context. A lot of what I was doing for seven years of study of the New Tarot was figuring out the meaning of symbolic elements. Most of them are repeated many times in the 22 books, and the meaning is the same in every context. By the way, the meaning of these symbolic elements is often surprising, and not ones first association. The crucial thing is that any correct interpretation of a symbolic element must work in every context, in every mandala, in every folk tale, in every tarot reading. And these do.
o learn the alphabet. After that, remember that a mandala or a tarot reading is one consistent message. English words have many quite unrelated meanings. But put them together in a sentence, and the context selects just one interpretation which fits the entire sentence. Mandalas and tarot readings are the same. The correct interpretation comes as a kind of gestalt experience, like suddenly recognizing a familiar face. Relax and let it happen. Sleep on it. Look at in various lighting conditions, at various distances. Look at it upside down or sideways. That especially applies to mandala interpretations. You too can interpret mandalas.
hat about dreams? The trouble with dreams is that they can be so many different things. I have a theory about dreams. I believe brain memory is like dynamic ram memory in computers, which requires an occasional refresh cycle of reading and writing it back, or they forget. I believe the brain is the same way. So, during sleep, especially REM sleep, some structure deep in the brain stem is lighting up all those areas of your brain you haven't used lately. This is just done to keep the memories intact. Meantime, the mind is trying to make sense out of essentially random content. The mind is very good at that. Of course, if your mind is fixated on something, or afraid of something, those are the kind of dramas the mind will create. If you are in therapy, and your therapist expects meaningful dreams, the mind will try to comply. But normally, dreams are "compensatory," as C. G. Jung said. Whatever you have too much of in your waking life will be absent from dreams. Whatever is lacking from your waking life will be present in dreams. People who live the dullest lives have the most exciting dreams. That's my theory.
ooner or later, the True Believers in reduction who write for the Skeptical Inquirer will be discredited. Sooner or later real scientists must notice that these people are not scientists, are not following scientific method, and are not really skeptics. They are True Believers in the religion of Reduction, and they wish to be its High Priests and Grand Inquisitors. They are following Hume's rule: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs." But Hume's rule would have stopped the nascent sciences in their tracks, if it had been applied in the 17th Century to the early work of the natural scientists, when Galileo and Copernicus were as revolutionary as Raymond Moody and Ian Stevenson today. So this is an impossible demand, one that no paper ever published in Nature could satisfy. What we want for Psychical Research is the same as what we want for any science: objective investigation, veridical details which rule out alternative interpretations, and reproducibility. And we have that in the Classics of Psychical Research, in the works of Stevenson, Moody, Tyrrell, Karagulla, Bender, and their colleagues and followers.
hinese scholars have assumed the lead in psi-research since 1980, particularly in the study of Levitation and Apports. No doubt this means the psi-cops have had a chilling effect on psi research in the West, since people who show psychical abilities here are apt to be treated like con artists or criminals, whereas the Chinese treat their young subjects as the marvelous and wonderful people they are. So the psi-cops have won the first round, just as the Catholic Church won the first round against Galileo. And these psi-cops have the nerve to compare themselves to Galileo! No, they are examples of the multitude that Galileo found ridiculous in his letter to Kepler:
nd likewise, the psi-cops never repeat the studies they debunk. In other words, they too refuse to look through the telescope. Their debunking never handles the details. The veridicality of a case lies entirely in the details. They are arrogant fools, incapable of accepting any new idea, posing as experts. History will forget them, as history has forgotten Galileo's multitude of colleagues at the University of Padua.
ventually, the genuine discoveries of psi researchers will become universally known. At that point, religion becomes superfluous. But does the new science give us a morality? Or genuine immortality? Reincarnation does not imply immortality, especially if my theory of the mind is true. And is there a meaning to life? Divinity?
ounding a science of metaphysics can answer those questions. C.G. Jung and William James are the fathers or grandfathers of this new science, based on the study of mystical experience and symbolic revelations from the deep. One thing we already know from William James pioneer effort The Varieties of Religious Experience is that only mystics have had any direct contact with divinity. Preachers say God said this and God said that, but they don't know. Preachers are not mystics, and mystics are not preachers. Indeed, they typically find it difficult to talk about an experience so intimate and profound. But when they do speak, they speak with a remarkably unified voice, from all cultures, in all periods of time.
mpirical metaphysics is in its infancy. William James and C.G. Jung have shown the way. Both show us reproducibility. For James it was mystical experience, and for Jung it was symbolic revelations in the form of mandalas, dreams, folktales and divination. Everybody who understands the language of symbolism, understands Jung. Everyone who has studied the literature of the mystics, understands James. And these are the twin pillars of empirical metaphysics.
hile empirical metaphysics is brand new, not yet a discipline with a continuity of
investigation and discovery, we already have evidence that every soul is part of a great soul which creates the natural world in some way. It seems that nature is in the soul, the collective contents of consciousness of all sentient beings, rather than vice versa. This is still a highly controversial point. But if true, it implies the absolute immortality of the soul, but not the mind. Furthermore, there is a divine purpose, though not a divine plan, and it is in terms of this purpose that we can understand the classic theological problem of evil.
f course, it is hard to tell how all this will play out. Most New Age types have rejected scientific method along with the dogmatic reductionism that seems to go with it. I consider it my mission to separate the two, to make an Aristotelian distinction between the essence and the accidents of science. Science implies a discipline, which is notably lacking in Transpersonal Psychology, which otherwise might have promise.
suspect empirical metaphysics will be a science like no other, where we are each our own experiment, where there will not be the distinction between professor and subject that we see in all forms of psychology, including para psychology and transpersonal psychology. I reject that. I am not a guinea pig, and I refuse to be the subject of tests. If we are each our own experiment, then the teachers will also be the Seekers, the Doers, the Changers. This will be the Way of the Sun, a new spiritual path, devoted to spiritual evolution.
even paths are known to us, seven ways of making sense of experience, and in pursuing science, I am not rejecting the others. The Way of the Sun, based on Magick, Divination and Meditation is just one path. Science makes 2. Do not forget the Yogis and Buddhists from India. Indeed, I would like to quote a saying of Buddha: "Do not believe anything on the mere authority of teachers or priests. Accept as true and as the guide to your life only that which accords with your own reason and experience, after thorough investigation. Accept only that which contributes to the well-being of yourself and others." - Buddha 6th C. BCE. These practical words of advice apply to all seven paths. We have named 3. The Tao makes 4, Original African Voodoo makes 5, Shamanism of the Medicine Wheel makes 6, and the original Way of the Saints and Sufis makes 7. But you must go back to original sources to rediscover the Way of the Saints and Sufis. Find out what Jesus really said, and what the phrase "kingdom of heaven" would have meant in the Aristotelian worldview of 2000 years ago.
© Dr.H 2001
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