Breaking Free from Confining Paradigms
January 11, 2019
By Steve Beckow
Let’s change the pace a bit. This article was shoved aside in the discussion of Michael’s comments.
If we were to look, I think we’d find that our prevailing viewpoint is the following.
We operate on survival instincts associated with feeling alone in a world where everyone has to compete for scarce resources.
We might have to scratch below the surface to see it.
Yes, we team up – for the sake of survival. Then we gather retainers and maraud our neighbors. Then we form armies and nations maul nations. And underneath it all is the assumption that life has to be a struggle for existence, in which only the fittest survive.
Now hold that thought. That point of view is called by historians social Darwinism.
Now add to that a second point of view we have: That only what we can see, touch, hear, and feel is real. This is called empirical materialism.
In academia back in my student days, if one contested these two points of view, one encountered resistance – one might be denied acceptance in a program or promotion in a teaching position; one might be ridiculed behind the curtain; one might be recommended only for positions no one else wanted, etc.
I was required to accept competition as the natural order and war as largely a necessity in the defense of freedom when neither were true. I was asked to live in a world where subjects like the soul, the Light, and the Mother had no relevance and commanded no respect.
Cognitive dissonance built up to a breaking point – after which I lost interest in academia and could no longer hide it or fake it. Either I studied enlightenment or I’d leave the program – either way, I’d study enlightenment. (1)
What precipitated that decision was a vision I had on Feb. 13, 1987. I couldn’t shoehorn it into the prevailing paradigms – I’ve never been able to. (2) It was a vision of the entire journey of an individual soul from God to God. Not anything we could touch, see, or hear.
Finally, I got it. It was during a phone call with my thesis adviser. I saw that I was not born to be an academic and would never fit into that world. I was born to roam more freely. And roam freely I have.
In the only way I know. In writing.
Footnotes
(1) The result was the database called From Darkness Unto Lightfound here: http://goldengaiadb.com/index.php?title=From_Darkness_to_Light
And the book, The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment, found here: http://gaog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Purpose-of-Life-is-Enlightenment.pdf. These two would in fact have been the basis for my doctoral dissertation.
(2) On that experience, see “The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment – Ch. 13 – Epilogue,” at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2011/08/13/the-purpose-of-life-is-enlightenment-ch-13-epilogue/
Source: Golden Age of Gaia
January 11, 2019
By Steve Beckow
Let’s change the pace a bit. This article was shoved aside in the discussion of Michael’s comments.
If we were to look, I think we’d find that our prevailing viewpoint is the following.
We operate on survival instincts associated with feeling alone in a world where everyone has to compete for scarce resources.
We might have to scratch below the surface to see it.
Yes, we team up – for the sake of survival. Then we gather retainers and maraud our neighbors. Then we form armies and nations maul nations. And underneath it all is the assumption that life has to be a struggle for existence, in which only the fittest survive.
Now hold that thought. That point of view is called by historians social Darwinism.
Now add to that a second point of view we have: That only what we can see, touch, hear, and feel is real. This is called empirical materialism.
In academia back in my student days, if one contested these two points of view, one encountered resistance – one might be denied acceptance in a program or promotion in a teaching position; one might be ridiculed behind the curtain; one might be recommended only for positions no one else wanted, etc.
I was required to accept competition as the natural order and war as largely a necessity in the defense of freedom when neither were true. I was asked to live in a world where subjects like the soul, the Light, and the Mother had no relevance and commanded no respect.
Cognitive dissonance built up to a breaking point – after which I lost interest in academia and could no longer hide it or fake it. Either I studied enlightenment or I’d leave the program – either way, I’d study enlightenment. (1)
What precipitated that decision was a vision I had on Feb. 13, 1987. I couldn’t shoehorn it into the prevailing paradigms – I’ve never been able to. (2) It was a vision of the entire journey of an individual soul from God to God. Not anything we could touch, see, or hear.
Finally, I got it. It was during a phone call with my thesis adviser. I saw that I was not born to be an academic and would never fit into that world. I was born to roam more freely. And roam freely I have.
In the only way I know. In writing.
Footnotes
(1) The result was the database called From Darkness Unto Lightfound here: http://goldengaiadb.com/index.php?title=From_Darkness_to_Light
And the book, The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment, found here: http://gaog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Purpose-of-Life-is-Enlightenment.pdf. These two would in fact have been the basis for my doctoral dissertation.
(2) On that experience, see “The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment – Ch. 13 – Epilogue,” at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2011/08/13/the-purpose-of-life-is-enlightenment-ch-13-epilogue/
Source: Golden Age of Gaia
Breaking Free from Confining Paradigms | Steve Beckow
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