THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF “CONVERSION” in the world of religion and spirituality. One takes place at the superficial level of the emotions and subconscious and is more religious in nature, bringing about some changes in outward behaviour and attitude. We see this in churches and temples the world over. The other kind of “conversion” takes place at the profoundest level possible in the human psyche and is totally transformative on the deepest psychospiritual levels, revolutionising the mind and life entirely and taking one down roads never dreamed of before. The first type of conversion is a cheap imitation and counterfeit of the second. Although there are superficial similarities, religion and spirituality are as different as chalk and cheese. Religion is about the accrual of intellectual theological knowledge at the expense of the power of spirit. Spirituality is about the eschewal of mere intellectual knowledge leading to a flow in the power of spirit (which then actually increases the intellect). Religion is the dead husk of the fruit of mystery which one might find on the ground and usurp as one’s own like a collector and which is so revered by the mass of people, as if it was of supreme significance. Spirituality is the lively kernel and heart of that husk which, when eaten, is utterly transformative and life-changing beyond recognition.

Religious adherence in the West is often determined by middle-class prudery and niceties (what I call “Churchianity” or “Christianism”). Believe it or not, some of my poems have been virulently condemned by what I call “Christianistas” because of some word of which they disapprove. This has been going on for years. On one occasion many years ago, a huge rumpus developed amongst church people on my mailing list because I used the word “bullshit” in an investigative article in which I was showing how so many church people are more concerned about the use of the word “bullshit” than they are about the bullshit itself. It was an article exposing the invasion of Iraq by the USA and how it was justified on the basis of there being weapons of mass destruction there, which was bullshit. Instead of being outraged by the bullshit reasons given for the invasion, they were horrified that I should have called it bullshit! 😃 That’s the kind of hypocritical prudery with which one is confronted amongst religious people. When I said that “bullshit” was a word that Christ could get behind because he was surrounded by it on all sides continuously coming from the religious people of his time, that was a cue for explosive accusations of blasphemy! 🤯 There is no place in most of today’s churches for those who do not want to have their lives and ideas dictated by middle-class prudery and conformity or fundamentalistic narrowmindedness.

Mixed in with the gratuitous prudery of religious people is the teaching that one should always support the government, whatever it does (unless it specifically makes laws against Christianity). The vast majority of Christians in the USA supported the invasion of Iraq in April 2003, even though it was based on lies. They are taught that because one of the writers in the Bible advised the Roman Christians to “submit to the authorities”, it must therefore be applicable to all Christians of all time to go along submissively with everything the government says and does. More bullshit. There were a number of violent revolutionary groups at the time when the Christ appeared. Many expected him to head up such a group and overthrow the Romans by force (Judas Iscariot was an example of those who were expecting a political Messiah, which was why he betrayed Christ after he realised his expectations would not be met). Thus, it was important to keep sight of the fact that the Light of Christ did not offer political salvation but promised spiritual liberation from the powers of darkness, death and lawlessness. Advising followers of the Christ to submit to the authorities simply meant “do not pick fights with the government by pointless civil disobedience, being rude and disrespectful, or refusing to obey the benign laws of the land”. It did not mean agreeing with everything the government said or did and it certainly did not mean vocally supporting barbaric governmental actions. Many followers of Christ refused governmental edicts to worship idols and they died for it. They did not submit to the authorities. One of the greatest of the early so-called “church fathers”, Origen Adamantius of Alexandria (whose writings I love), who was born just 150 years after the death of Christ, was actually a conscientious objector refusing to fight in the army (as did many other disciples of Christ in those days). He would not blindly submit to the authorities. He was eventually arrested for his beliefs by the Emperor Decian (who wanted all disciples of Christ to recognise the emperor as divine) and was subjected to two years of torture on the rack to make him submit to the government and renounce his faith. He refused. He was eventually released after a change of emperor but died soon afterwards from his government-inflicted injuries.

A true disciple and follower of Christ, although generally obeying the laws of the land which keep order in society, will not glorify the government of that land or unquestioningly support its activities. I will gladly submit to a street search by a cop. They are just doing their job keeping an orderly society and I would have nothing to hide. I appreciate order. I don’t need to make a song and dance about “my rights” (especially as I am more concerned about my duties 😉). A minute or two of minor inconvenience doesn’t bother me. But there are several aspects of governmental legislation to which I would not submit. I will not fight in their proxy money wars. I will not submit to silly political correctness and phoney “hatecrimes” (which are simply ways of suppressing Truth and gagging harmless opinions). I will not obey any human law which goes against natural law, the law of God or spiritual freedom. Neither will I bow and scrape before some monarch, president or prime minister, for I have yet to come across one that I would even regard as sane, nevermind being a role model! I will always show respect where it is due, but I will never engage in toadying obedience for its own sake. Those who allegedly rule are servants too. They are servants of the people and also God’s servants; though the vast majority imagine they rule in their own right and have only achieved rank because they have money and exercise ruthlessness (the majority being at least sociopaths, if not psychopaths).

Genuinely spiritual people think that the word “bullshit” is a very apt description of most of what goes on in this world. People who have not yet embarked on the spiritual pathway are hyper-prone to deception. In fact, in most cases, their entire lives are founded on it. This is especially the case with those who have only undergone a merely religious “conversion” to some ideas because of an emotional experience. They positively wallow in deception and howl with laughter while ridiculing anyone who points this out to them. They believe what their government tells them (which are mostly lies). They avidly follow the mainstream media morning, noon and night, even though at least 90% of what is served up to them is a sour mix of outright lies, propaganda or disinformation. They continue to believe the falsehoods they were taught in history lessons in school. They even believe the video which runs inside their own heads as they look out of their eyes on this hologram world! 😉

The genuinely spiritual human being knows that a fundamental part of being spiritual is seeing through (and having no part in) deception of any kind — most of all seeing through self-deception. In fact, to be spiritual actually means awakening from deception of every type. One doesn’t just wake up spiritually and then continue to believe in and endorse a dark culture through participating unquestioningly in that culture. That would be impossible as it would be a manifestation of the very cognitive dissonance from which one has escaped by going through the narrow gate and stepping onto the difficult path of spirituality (as Christ put it) — though that pathway is also fabulously rewarding. For cognitive dissonance completely contradicts the increasingly integrated mind of the spiritually-awakened human, whose left hand always knows what the right hand is doing. Similarly, a spiritually-awake person could not spend an entire evening gawping at a television screen, being contaminated by its corrupting programming, or watching most of the movies which come out of Hollywood (which, with some exceptions, serve to programme at a deep level the unawakened mind). Becoming spiritual means waking up from the slumber of illusion — coming out of a state of sleepwalking through the wilderness of this world — not just in cosmic terms but also in an earthly context. For if we cannot penetrate illusion and deception on a simple earthly level (e.g. seeing through the mendacity of politics, the media, the military, intelligence services and corporate evil), how will we ever persevere with insight on the spiritual plane (where there is also much deception and distraction for the unwary soul)? That is a basic logical concept, arguing from the lesser to the greater. Thus, without becoming obsessed with, or morbidly interested in, deception (as, sadly, many do; e.g. obsessing about conspiracies, which are par for the course in this dark world of fakery and lies), the spiritually-advancing person fascinatedly seeks to develop an awareness of how subterfuge works, where it exists and how to discard it from his or her life, inwardly and outwardly.

Waking up spiritually will, at the very least, naturally involve becoming acutely aware of all the deception and skulduggery in the world. It doesn’t matter how “spiritually-correct” one appears to be in one’s virtue-signalling image on social media by posting an infinite array of yoga poses, quoting Rumi or calling oneself a “Reiki-Master” or “shamanic goddess” 🤭. The fact is that one of the greatest signs of a spiritually-awake soul is one who steadfastly refuses to be “taken for a ride” in ANY sense — whether by politicians, mainstream media pundits, doorstep confidence tricksters, phoney gurus, new age shysters or evil spirits claiming to be of the Light (and there are plenty of all of those around these days!). Put simply, a spiritually-awake person will not fall for propaganda of ANY kind. A spiritually-awake person will not hold out false hopes for the world to be “saved” by some politician, party or president pushing an agenda within the same old set-up of greed, consumerism, corruption and hypocrisy. A spiritually-awake person will not settle for perpetuating the myths and lies of the present world-system but will see it as part of the “spirit of Antichrist”. In other words, the spiritually-awake person has what I call a built-in “Bullshitometer” (pronounced like thermometer) within his or her being. It is simply not spiritually savvy to be taken in by bullshit on ANY level, whether spiritual or worldly. In fact, it is downright foolish and irresponsible! Waking up spiritually creates an immunity to deception and provides the antidote to bullshit of every kind.

[Extracted from my eBook, “Narrow Gate ~ Pathway Strait: The Road I have Chosen. A Spiritual Autobiography & Presentation”. ]

© 2018, Alan Morrison / The Diakrisis Project. All Rights Reserved. 
 
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]