Spiritually Lost?

Letters from O'Brien #2

Dear Mr Smith,

I trust you are well in the Union of Soviet Socialist States of Australia and have managed to avoid the ministry of health’s secret police. I do worry for you.

On the topic of things dystopian, I wonder if you’ve noticed that in the West we have seen a decrease in unifying religious ideas over the past two centuries? For many this was seen as a sign of progress, as some sort of elevation from superstition and dogma. As I’m sure you are aware, this couldn’t have been further from the truth, as the scientific method was simply elevated into the position of a religion, replete with it’s own priesthood!

Over time, ‘scientific reason’ dwindled (in the public and political sphere at least), as it became increasingly intertwined with its advocates personal beliefs, and as such any criticism - even in the pursuit of further truth - became an attack on the individuals belief system, as we have seen in recent days with high profile ‘health’ officials.

While all of this is important, it is perhaps another topic, but worth mentioning because in the pursuit of rationalism we have abandoned a core part of ourselves, and for the majority this went unnoticed. 

What rationalism, and even ‘religious science’ fails to achieve is the very thing which humanity took for granted; a connection to the indescribable, the transcendent, a grasping of the spiritual higher purpose - a journey which cannot be measured (as we measure mere things). 

SPIRITUAL SOCIETIES

Regardless of the views one may have on the spiritual side of life, there is something rather hard to dispute; and that is the fact that people are often unified around religious or spiritual ideas. Ideas which unify a community with the belief that there is something transcendent or higher than themselves. While this idea can be used for the wrong reasons (political, cults, etc.) the truth is that it still unifies people under a common banner and provides deeply felt meaning. 

So how does this differ from the unification of people under socialism, ultranationalism, or any other socio-political idea? In the case of unification at a surface level, it seems to differs little. In fact it is from these religious ideas that many political and social systems find inspiration for their unifying message. Where the spiritual and religious idea differs is in the ability to present a coherent, deeply fundamental reality, to which political aspirations, and the general administration of society are subservient. Social and political systems can try to do the same thing (the Nazis were particularly interested in integrating an esoteric ‘spiritual’ element into their belief) but it is far harder to lay a foundational perspective on life, reality and meaning out of a political system. 

THE HEROES JOURNEY

Apart from giving community a point of unification and transcendent value, I’ve found the most successful spiritual beliefs include foundational elements that are similar to ‘the heroes journey’. Just as described in Campbells ‘Hero with a Thousand Faces’, many cultures throughout history use stories to describe the ideal man, or the journey one must undertake in this life to achieve some form of enlightenment. Even more intriguing, these stories - regardless of culture or time period - often contain the same overarching themes.

The ‘path to enlightenment’ is rarely described in non-spiritual belief systems. This is problematic for the totalitarian political entity (thankfully). As described in the Bible, the way to enlightenment cannot merely be found in rationalist philosophy, instead it is something deeper that has to be found through an exploration into the unknown. 

There are truths which we cannot simply describe through rationalism. These are things which are perhaps subconsciously manifested in music, art, and myth. Many of the fairytales we read are not merely fantasy for the sake of entertainment, but artistic renditions of cultural truths which persists in one shape or another. 

LOST GENERATION

So what happens when we abandon our cultural connection to the spiritual factors that unify communities? The result, dear Mr Smith, are manifest all around us.

I think one of the most immediately pressing issues is the inability for the youth of our time to organise their lives. Since there is little to no unifying factor across Western society, it is increasingly hard for each person to know the way forward. In times past, people have been guided by the footsteps of their ancestors, and the dark valley that needs to be traversed is still pointed out to them. More simply there were rites of passage, mentors, and acceptable and accepted way of doing things within the community that provided this unifying factor.

I’m afraid that young people today are traversing an abstract world without a foundation that reveals clear paths forward. These individuals wander through the mist without direction, without a map, without a mentor. Yet despite this, much of the youth still feel the call from within them. Something primitive is compelling them forward, yet it is unguided by society and as such can be taken advantage of.

What people (particularly young people) feel is compulsion to start a journey into the unknown and realise the parts of themselves not yet understood - The Hero within. This journey, awaiting each individual, is a realisation of things which, if viewed through the lens of rationalism or logic, are still obscured. Once the lens of materialistic rationalism is removed we may begin to see things more profoundly in places not yet imagined.

As we rewatch animated fairytales, listen to myths of the past, or simply absorb artistic creations, we may begin to see how these things are deeply tied into universal truths. These things go beyond conventional surface level understanding.

For this reason, it is sad (and more importantly dangerous) to see these myths be altered in the name of progress. An example; feminists have claimed that Sleeping Beauty should no longer be told, as it depicts the female character as ‘naive and delicate’. This is - to put it bluntly - laughable for its shallowness - absurd, politically motivated, dismissive of deeply important mythology. If these critics had actually read the story, they would realise that these myths are not about such surface level things as male oppression, female weakness, and whatever other buzzwords are on the sociopolitical calendar, but rather universal observations of truths which are perhaps slightly out of reach for us to explain outside of dream. 

Unfortunately today’s paths to enlightenment is more shrouded, or completely invisible, than it has ever been. With an ever increasing amount of information (or rather ‘noise’) that demands our attention, pulling us this way and that, it can be hard to orient ourselves, let alone establish ourselves and prepare for the journey ahead. In the past, these journeys were often promoted through the culture, and each person was encouraged by friends and family to step out. These days however, we have become ‘enlightened’ but in a rationalist sense (by a whole lot of ‘things’ - disembodied, decontextualised, as you have mentioned Mr Smith in your writings about the left hemisphere). Seemingly we have little or no community to push us forward, and instead, for the compelled, must courageously step out into the hero’s journey without a map, a guide, a precedence. 

Mr Smith, in these uncertain time I believe we must take a step back and look at the world as a whole, and see how each element reacts to the next. We cannot be bound to the current stimuli forced into our faces (especially given the nature of the ‘information’ coming at us from all angles, most of which is political propaganda). The path to enlightenment is still there, but it seems these days it takes a strong and determined character to discover the doorway that leads to the path. Perhaps weeds and vines have obscured this doorway over time, but it is still there, waiting to be opened. The Heroes Journey is calling to us all. 

Mr Smith, I hope you are on your own hero’s journey.

Kind regards,

O’Brien