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Please note that the text below was written by the feeling-being ‘Peter’ while ‘he’ lived in a pragmatic
(methodological), still-in-control/same-way-of-being Virtual Freedom before becoming actually free. |
Animism / Environmentalism
Animism: The
attribution of a living soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena. Oxford Dictionary
Environmentalism:1
A person who holds or advocates the view that environment, esp. as opp. to heredity, has a dominant influence on the development of an
individual or society. 2 A person who is concerned about or seeks to protect the environment, esp. from pollution. Oxford Dictionary
Peter: The last thirty years, in particular, have seen
countless attempts to re-interpret, re-invent and re-vitalize the ancient traditional superstitions and beliefs in Gods, Spirits and
Life-after-death in a ‘fresh and unique’ way. These attempts have included the modern interpretation of the celestial spirits as
aliens involved in great cosmic visions; the revision of earthly spirits, animism and spiritualism as the belief in Mother Earth, Gaia or the
fervent religion of environmentalism; the resurgence of Divination; the popular practice of meditation as a ‘turning away’ from the world
and going ‘in’, to name a few.
Environmentalism, like all religions, can be seen superficially by
the gullible believers as ‘doing good’, but when one digs deeper than the seemingly noble ideals we see fervent belief and when it becomes
dogma, policy and practice, it causes untold human suffering, hardship, illness and hunger for hundreds of millions of humans.
Environmentalists care more for the spirits of animals and plants and Mother Earth than they do for the welfare of their fellow human beings.
So entrenched is the religion of Environmentalism that it is now taught to children in schools to an extent that few other religions have
managed, and as such, its ubiquitous and debilitating effects are both widespread and deep-set. It could well be seen as the Next Age religion
to emerge, now that Western influence is beginning to investigate, water-down or reject the more fundamental Eastern religious beliefs.
For an actualist, any spiritual belief, no matter how it is
disguised or formulated, must be investigated and seen for what it is – metaphysical belief and not empirical fact.
Richard: I have been on this planet
long enough to have been around when the environmental movement started to gain increasing popularity ... which movement eventually went on to
become, arguably, the dominant western philosophy of the late twentieth century.
An aspect of the environmental movement was an environmental
idealism that equated ‘going back to nature’ with salubrious and irreprehensible living and which, at least in part if not in the main,
took its inspiration from various indigenous peoples’ lifestyle practices, religio/spiritual beliefs, and tribal philosophy ... indeed I was
an active participant myself for a number of years, in my mid-twenties/early thirties, when I established what is called ‘an alternative
lifestyle’ for myself and my then family on a fertile property in a rural area to the south of this country.
Thus I recognise such idealism when I see it in action.
These days of course I am no longer a latter-day luddite and – although my former
colleagues may think that Richard has sold his soul to their devil – I am finally able to appreciate all the advances which rational and
sensible thought has brought about in the last few hundred years.
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