Dr. Alexander and I grew up at roughly the same time. He was born in late 1953, and I was born in mid-1958. So we've been exposed to a lot of the same influences over the years. We both grew up in that short breath of time between the end of one era (the world that died with WWII) and the start of a new era (the world that began with widespread computers networks).Yet, for all the similarities between Dr. Alexander and myself in those early years -- the books, the films, the TV shows, and the unforgettable music -- there were many differences. Each of us belonged to a particular time and place and culture, and each of us still carries the lessons of time and place and culture within us. Those lessons shaped us. To this day, the experiences of our youth affect how we claim -- and proclaim -- our spiritual life today.
How does culture shape our spiritual journey? Is there such a thing
as a universal culture of Oneness that transcends all earthly
differences? Do all people who connect deeply with God inevitably end up in the same place? Do we become carbon copies of each other and God?
Last time, I talked about some of the problems posed by Gnosticism. I know I've complained about Gnosticism before (sorry about that), but I keep coming back to it because it's had such a powerful influence on our spiritual lives -- not just now, but in centuries long past. I keep thinking . . . why? Why do Gnostic ideas keep rearing their dopey heads? And why do people keep listening to them?
I've boiled it down to one painful answer. I think Gnosticism becomes very attractive to people who've noticed they can no longer breathe.
I mean this in a spiritual and emotional sense rather than a physical sense.
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| In Johnson's Canyon, Alberta, you'd think the steep rock walls towering on both sides of the river would make you feel claustrophobic, but instead there's a sense that you've stepped into a unique pocket of beauty where God is telling a story that's different from the narratives of the surrounding mountain terrain. I think part of what makes Johnson's Canyon so popular and so appealing is its ability to surprise us. Our souls long to be delighted and surprised by unexpected turnings on the path of life. Unfortunately for us in today's society, the brain's System 2 circuits despise unexpected . . . well . . . unexpected anything. System 2's need to maintain intense perfectionistic control over all aspects of life is one of the hallmarks of status addiction in the brain. |
Breath, as a metaphor for life in all its complexity, has been linked by innumerable authors to the elusive concept of "spirit." The Book of Genesis is crystal clear on the connection. (Ruah in Hebrew means divine wind, natural spirit of man, and breath.) But you don't have to believe in the Bible to feel the link between breath and freedom of life, freedom of spirit. When you live in a culture that gives you the freedom to be yourself, you feel alive and free and full of purpose. When you live in a culture that forbids you to be yourself, you feel suffocated and frustrated and low in spirit.
It's bad enough living in a culture that forbids you to be yourself. When you live in a culture governed by status addiction, it's even worse. You feel choked to death by all the rules and expectations and lies. You feel trapped, unable to feel your core self drawing the breath of life and love and spirit. You long to escape just so you can remember what it feels like to be at peace in your own skin.
Gnosticism appears to offer you that escape. Gnosticism starts by affirming your impression that you feel miserable as hell (which you do). Then it says you have a small spark of God inside you that's desperate to return to its Source (which sounds kind of right because you can feel your inner longing to breathe). Then it tells you there's a "good" place (somewhere off in Creation where Source exists) and an "evil" place (which may look a lot like your local neighbourhood gang headquarters). Last, it promises that if you possess the secret knowledge given by the prophesied saviour figure, you can escape all the evil and return to the good place, where everybody blends together in a blissful state of "oneness."
You know what's missing from this pretty little Gnostic picture? Self honesty.
Gnosticism is designed to shift your focus and attention away from the bad decisions you and your neighbours are making right here and right now. Gnosticism gives you a way to make excuses for the humongous problems created by status addiction.
Once you fully accept the harm created in our society by status addiction, there's no need whatsoever to claim that God scattered small bits of evil throughout the universe. It's status addiction that crushes the heart out of people and takes away their chance to breathe. It's status addiction writ large across communities in the form of "noble cultural traditions" that ruins lives.
As it happens, I didn't grow up in a culture steeped in status addiction. Sure, there were currents of status anxiety here and there, and some of them were pretty ugly. But by and large, the Canada I grew up in was relatively egalitarian compared to most other nations at the time. I'm not saying Canada was problem-free. I'm saying I learned at a fairly early age how to breathe.
And I didn't need Gnosticism to do it.
What I've learned on the Spiral Path is that when you strip away the claustrophobic demands and expectations of status addiction, you get an incredible sense of expansion in your life. You get this feeling of being able to breathe from deep inside your gut. Suddenly you can enjoy the best things in your culture -- the books, the films, the TV shows, the music -- without being afraid for your soul's salvation. You gradually learn how to sort out what your soul likes and what your soul doesn't like. You stick with what you like, and you respect your neighbour's right to like something else. We don't all have to be the same.
Did you see this week's story about Sister Cristina Scuccia, Italy's "Singing Nun," who won Italy's version of The Voice by really rockin' it from her heart and soul?
There's a person who knows how to breathe.
For Further Reflection:
You know that feeling of constantly needing to check your smartphone and desperately hoping for likes on your most recent post? That compulsion about spending time on your social media pages, a compulsion that won't go away no matter how much you tell yourself to ignore it? That rationalization telling you it's okay to text while you're driving and ignore your children while you're checking for likes one last time?
That's status addiction.
Bearing in mind how many people have this feeling every day, would it be fair to say that countless millions of people have a problem with addiction and don't even realize it?
Yes, it would be a fair and honest thing to say.
The problem with any kind of addiction, whether it's status addiction or an addiction to sex or substances, is the way it messes with our brain networks and prevents us from being our best selves. This isn't news, of course, to anyone who's discovered the power of denial and deceit to disguise addiction. Denial and deceit give our brains the momentum needed to suppress the soul's morality of boundaries and choose the brain's morality of Oneness instead. It's the morality of Oneness, with its focus on blurred boundaries, communalism, and rights without responsibilities, that allows us to rationalize the crimes we commit during the throes of our cravings.
It may not seem reasonable to you that God allows your biological brain to wander off on technological tangents and succumb to the evils of denial and deceit, but this is the only way God can offer you the chance to experience redemption without in any way harming your eternal soul.
Jesus was among a rare group of religious thinkers for whom the path of redemption was the only way to reestablish a relationship with God. In practical terms, the path of redemption means being honest enough to see the perils of a morality of Oneness and being courageous enough to set aside Oneness for a morality of boundaries. This is what he wrote in the Letter of James (parts of which I'm certain were written by Jesus himself in his own highly literate hand):
"But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves [at the face of their birth] and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act -- they will be blessed in their doing" (James 1: 22-25).On your own spiritual journey, you need to be able to look in the mirror and recognize yourself. You need to be able to remember who you are at all times so you're not vulnerable to the lies that other people are trying to tell you.
The freedom to be yourself and to breathe in the wonder of your own uniqueness as a child of God will help you find the daily blessings you so long for in your life.
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