It's not easy being a non materialist....

In my last blog I explained how I came to be presently devoting so much time to mysticism. But it’s not easy being a non-materialist in a materialist world. I’m not derided for my beliefs, just mainly ignored by most people when I’m talking about those beliefs,-  even polite people who like me. (I’m relieved to say I think some people do, i.e. like me, even some close relations.)

I think this is because, to use my brother’s word, most people (in which he includes himself) are just plain baffled. Often the only language available for me to talk about my main interests in life is unintelligible. One of the reasons I am writing this blog is to experiment with mystical language; to find ways of expressing spiritual concepts that most people would understand, and perhaps find useful, without actually degrading those concepts. When teaching I had a lot of practice trying to explain some quite high flown academic and intellectual theories and models in a way that allowed students who were unfamiliar with such concepts to apply them immediately to their everyday work.  I don’t know if I succeeded, but I still seem to have the urge to try, albeit in a different realm of study.

Mystical language is obtuse, apparently, for a reason. Although it takes a lot of work, it is possible for a human to access other worlds with the result that such people acquire ‘unnatural’ powers in the physical world. The use of these could cause havoc (indeed, have caused havoc.) So the teaching was mainly oral down the centuries, and only to people who had proved themselves stable and of good intent. When something was written down, it was put into language which is not easily decipherable.

In addition of course, a lot of what I'm repeating in this blog would be considered heretical by many people, and in past centuries, and still in some countries, there could be dire consequences for the authors if their writings were understood by the community at large.

But I think the main reason the language is obscure is that in modern society we just don’t have much idea of the concepts to which the language refers, or have a rather corrupted and vague view of them. For example, how often do you think of angels (the non-human ones) and in what context? What is your Soul, and how does if differ from the metaphorical way in which we use the word ‘heart’ (e.g. “her heart wasn’t in it any more”)? What is the relationship between your ego/superego, your Higher Self and your Soul, and how do you benefit from knowing? When I assure you that both you and me are ‘God’ do you want to run screaming from the room, or are you reassured? If I mention that your Soul doesn't take much interest in you until you show some interest in it, do you have any idea what I'm talking about?

Modernism, which we tend to date back to the Enlightenment at the end of the 18^th century, is wonderful. Its rationality has freed us from life-draining superstition and all sorts of unfair and unjust practices previously maintained as ‘tradition’. But in throwing out the bath water of superstition and religion, (many religions having drawn far away from the impulses which created them), we threw out the baby of access to our interior selves. The precise meaning of words like ‘heaven’ ‘paradise’  ‘soul’ ‘divine’ ‘prayer’ ’spirit’ are as baffling to most people nowadays as are the words used in quantum mechanics to most non-scientists. I suppose the majority of people think that understanding the concepts involved in either area is irrelevant to their everyday lives. Tomorrow or Thursday I intend to blog about that in more detail. In the meantime, I’d be very interested in others’ views.