Shamanism for the Age of Science: Awakening the Energy Body - Kenneth Smith 2018

Examples of Fundamentalism
Closing in on Fundamentalism

When you talk the lingo of a system, and things start making sense, it can be very seductive. To avoid the pitfalls of fundamentalism, you need to accept the legitimacy of other points of view, especially if they conflict with yours. The universe is a wide-open place. Why confine it to your pet thoughts? If you let go and constantly challenge your assumptions, your thoughts and your world change.

To avoid getting caught in fundamentalism, it is also helpful to closely examine the precepts of any system. A closer look at some of the slogans and tips popular in traditional metaphysical philosophies and New Age movement can be very instructive.

The world is an illusion. Yes, it is an illusion in relation to other points of view. But using the model of cohesion and the assemblage point, we could also say that everything is real. Whenever cohesion formulates and an assemblage point position stabilizes, that makes something “real.” Everything else becomes potential, real in its own domain but not necessarily an illusion. But any assemblage point position, whether for an individual or a group, is also an illusion when you compare it with infinite potential. Still, this thinking stems from an assemblage point position, which makes it real according to the rules that allowed the cohesion reflecting it to form.

There are no mistakes. This perspective definitely opens you up to potential, knowing that there is perfection in each and every event, but take a hard look. You’ve never made a true mistake? This doesn’t mean you can’t learn from your mistakes, and make something good out of them. But learning is limited when you think you never make a mistake as you give up a reference to further your life.

You create your own reality. This is a popular expression. But maybe the impact of this slogan has limits. It is a philosophical assumption based on a Western perspective of having free will; that is, it is an interpretation stemming from examining our actions based on a free-will model. It is not necessarily fact, even though we can see it working in our lives.

A slogan only holds sway if you use it consistently and take it seriously, not just when it’s convenient. If you fully accept that you create your reality, you have to assume responsibility for everything in your life, including your neighbors and how they impact you. This doesn’t mean you are responsible for your neighbors; it means you are responsible for having those neighbors in your life. In this manner, you unveil deeper levels of yourself. By going deeper and deeper, you come to your core; you get to a point where you no longer interpret or define the world, like saying “you create your own reality.”

A counterpoint is that the pressure from cosmic emanations on our energy bodies causes our decisions. A decision occurs by acquiescing to a force that ultimately forms cohesion; maybe this is God’s will, to use theological terminology. But since we’ve learned to develop reason over other modes of perception, we conjure up the perception that somehow we are the ones really making the decisions.

Earth is a school. There’s no doubt that learning takes place in humans. Exactly what is learned may be open to question, but humans learn. In general, what is learned is more and more about the human condition, and not necessarily from a grand viewpoint. Therefore, saying, “Earth is a school” is projection based on the natural tendency to learn. In so doing, we hopefully make our environment a place of learning. But what life is, what it really is, and what it really is for, is a mystery dwelling in the depths of infinity. To view it otherwise locks the door to potential.

It was supposed to happen. Says who?

There’s a reason for everything. Sure, you can find a reason for anything, but that doesn’t mean that there is a reason for it. To have a reason for it, to find meaning, requires relating the experience to a specific logic. If this is done enough it builds a conditional energy field. One such field might lead you to reason that you are adept at mathematics because you have genetic makeup that lends itself to math. Another field might lead you to think you are adept at mathematics because you have good karma from a past life. Genetic expression then follows having good karma. This enhanced accountability is what makes New Age fundamentalism difficult to overcome. Having a wider perspective leads to the belief that you have the inside angle. An aspect of closure, humans attribute meaning and value to their thoughts about the content of the universe. This doesn’t mean the attribution is correct.

We live in a world of duality. Yes, we do. Maybe this is because we have a two-sided horizontal brain: the right and left hemispheres. We project the innate tendencies of our hardwiring onto the external world: the world becomes dualistic because of the way the brain processes information. There is more to perception than it being dualistic, though.

The brain’s structure may also make it clear why Toltecs say there are three energy fields. Remember that in addition to right and left partitioning, there is a three-level, vertical partitioning relating to physical, emotional, and abstract-mental functions. These vertical segments easily correspond to the first, second, and third energy fields. The association between the horizontal and vertical areas of the brain is what produces new models of reality, such as it being multidimensional. We then become more aware of whom we are and project that, rather than gain recognition of the way the universe actually is.

As you develop the stages of awakening a dualistic world of good and evil evolves into interpreting events as positive or negative. Eventually you see that your perception of the world is a state of mind.⁸ The measurement behind this is that the definitions of good and evil result from one’s ontological stage of awareness. The interpretations of good and evil then serve to hold that cohesion in place, self-validating the thinking behind it. This doesn’t preclude the existence of a force that detrimentally influences behavior. As one expands cohesion, awareness of this tension takes on new meaning and offers new ability to handle it.

The Inquisition, genocide, or any of the atrocities in this day and age could be considered evil if the same standards are applied to them as are applied to a serial killer who beheads his or her victims. The person who feels revulsion over the serial killer may calmly accept the killing of thousands of people in a foreign land as legitimate, perhaps an expedient means to an end. The ethical guidelines for interpreting a given circumstance often result from what the group finds acceptable. The dualistic split may reflect a struggle among higher and lower regions of human consciousness, of self versus group, and of group versus group.