Peter: Upheld in the Eastern religions as the ultimate state of Godliness
that is possible to be achieved by a human while remaining ‘in the body’. Contrary to popular belief, the Enlightened Ones are not without
a sense of self; they merely shift their identity from ego to soul, from head to heart, from little self to big Self. The Enlightened Ones
become kings of the psychic world, their powers derived from the surrender and unquestioning devotion of their disciples. In actuality,
enlightenment is a massive delusion wherein one is convinced one is God or ‘at one’ with God.
In the West, before the recent fashion for all things spiritual, anyone declaring
themselves to be God would have been locked up or given psychiatric help, but now the Enlightened Ones are held in awe and reverence. With the
possibility of eliminating the total identity, both ego and soul, the venerated state of Enlightenment and the exalted profession of Guru are
now doomed to extinction, and those who have deliberately inflicted this psychic aberration or Altered State of Consciousness on themselves
will be clearly seen as narcissistic megalomaniacs.
Richard: In the West, the nineteenth century was
optimistically called the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ (knowledge enlightenment) until Eastern mystics came onto the world stage at the turn of
the century with ‘Spiritual Enlightenment’ ... busily being hell-bent on returning the burgeoning thoughtful part of humankind to the
darkness of fallacy and fancy. Western civilisation, which has struggled to get out of superstition and medieval ignorance, is in danger of
slipping back into the supernatural as the Eastern mystical thought and belief that is beginning to have its strangle-hold upon otherwise
intelligent people is becoming more widespread.
Prior to the recent influx of Eastern philosophy, if one realised that ‘I am
God’, one would have been institutionalised ... and, to some degree, rightly so. One has stepped out of an illusion, only to wind up living
in a delusion. However, the trouble with people who discard the god of Christianity and/or Judaism and/or Islam is that they do not realise
that by turning to the Eastern spirituality they have effectively jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. Eastern spirituality is religion
... merely in a different form to what people in the West have been raised to believe in. Eastern philosophy sounds so convincing to the jaded
Western mind which is desperately looking for answers that abstract logical speculation and analytic deduction just cannot provide. The
Christian and/or Judaic and/or Islamic conditioning actually sets up the situation for a thinking person to be susceptible to the esoteric
doctrines of the East.
It is sobering to realise that the intelligentsia of the West are eagerly following
the East down the slippery slope of striving to attain to a self-seeking divine immortality ... to the detriment of life on earth. ‘I am
That’, for example, is simply another way of saying ‘I am God’ (aka ‘I am The Truth’). At the end of the line there is always a god
of some description, lurking in disguise, wreaking its havoc with its ‘Teachings’. I have been to India to see for myself the results of
what they claim are tens of thousands of years of devotional spiritual living ... and it is hideous. If it were not for the appalling suffering
engendered it would all be highly amusing ... but it is practically and demonstrably deleterious to both individual and communal well-being.
That is why one only needs to look at where this devotional spiritual living has been practiced for thousands of years to see how badly it has
failed to live up to its implied promise of peace and harmony and prosperity for all. Thus both the spiritual and the secular methods of
producing peace on earth have each failed miserably ... it is high time for a third alternative to hove into view; something new that has never
been lived before in human history.
Why repeat the mistakes of the past when the results of doing so are plain to view in all cultures?
