Mentalism, Spiritualism and Religion

I have been on a spiritual path for a few years now and have experimented with mental manifestations, traditional faith and what I would call my own spiritual path that takes elements from both. Combining these different philosophies is what perhaps many have to face, so I hope my note can be of help and interest to others.

I was born and raised a Christian, but I "lost faith" sometime as a teenager. My spiritual interest became rekindled when I came across the writings of Krishnamurti, the Course in Miracles, the Geeta, the Tao and many other mystics from India. So I would define myself as spiritual, but not religious. Meanwhile, I have 'swallowed' many books on the law of attraction, and had to smile a little when my brother called me a mentalist the other day. So with a foot or a toe in all three of the spiritual spectres, let me give you my take on it.


If you follow a religious faith, you walk in mighty company. If you have your focus on the final stage of liberation and you walk with a laser like focus along a path that other giants have marked for you, you will likely come very far. Unfortunately you cannot really be a scientist and you have to accept the written and spoken word like a gospel. Another downfall is that you can develop a massive super ego if you have any vasanas (desires) that you still need to work off. My favorite example in this direction is sex. Many if not most spiritual aspirants have a lot of energy to work off and they just go crazy with the command you are not your body. But as many of us know, this conflict doesn't have to be there, tantra sex allows you to experiment with the divine sexual energy and channel your desires in a higher spiritual dimension. I give here the example of sex, but many other conflicts come to  mind.

On the other side of the spectrum is the secret and so many other authors that have discovered over the last century that we can pretty much manifest anything we want mentally. You literally reach Eric Fromm's assertion that if you really take the philosophical evolution of the bible literally, the limit has to be that "You Shall be as Gods". The secret eats from the Tree of Knowledge a second time, the manifestor creates the universe at his will. There is only one problem with this approach, how do you know which of your desires are the ego driven ones and which ones express your divine mission statement? Unless this spiritual question gets resolved any manifestor has sooner or later run into a brick wall.

The spiritual path traveler can be a scientist and can experiment with anything and everything as long as he is honest with himself and mindful enough to understand when he is taking a step backwards. Life, the Tao, is your teacher and hopefully you don't have to deal with any super-egos and you are mindful enough to realize when you are on an ego trip. We are all in the same boat no matter what our specific starting point is. My favorite example is Rhonda Byrne. When I first read her 'The Secret' book I didn't care much for it as I considered it way too materialistic. But then when her 'The Power' came out, it became pretty clear that she is on the same spiritual path as the many of us are. Happy traveling and enjoy dabbling in all metaphysical areas of your liking.

Futility

When we really ask what drives us we have to conclude that with every right-minded passion there is a dark one attached to it. In the olden days we dealt with them by declaring them sinful. We built up the psychological punishment mechanism that gave us some protection to do the right thing. But boy, when we crossed over to the dark side, we did punish ourselves. After all, we humans are powerful, whatever we believe in, we manifest into our lives. Then came Freud's insight about the superego along. I think this concept is still relevant for us spiritual path travelers today. By speculating what our True Self is all about, we create a superego in us. Actually, the superego is the modern day sin concept. If you know what your higher authority in you wants and you nevertheless give in to your temptation, you generate psychological conflict in you.

The other option you have is understanding where exactly your behaviour will lead you. I have often told the fairy tale of the fisher and his wife which is a classic story of the ego-driven desire. A fisher finds a golden fish who offers 3 boons, and his wife uses them to first get a bigger house, a palace, then a kingdom, and lastly, the fourth wish, to become God. While the first three wishes are granted, she ends up in her old fisher hut when the fourth wish is uttered. Futility! When we follow our dark passions we know where we will end up. We can see it in people who have been down this road, and we can feel it in ourselves. Yes, it is hard to stop the car and turn it around, and yes, there still will be conflict, but it is our choice, we do not need to appeal to any higher source in us and accumulate psychological baggage in the process. We reposition and channel our frustration into a more productive area. After discovering that your road leads to nowhere, no temptation can get you anymore.

Synchronicity or Superego?

He was an aspiring spiritual path traveler and constantly received messages from the universe. Life gave little nudges to him along his journey which made it fun and gave him the feeling of being connected. But then one day as he programmed his subconscious mind in order to manifest a salary raise, he suddenly got a toothache. It was then when he remembered the words of the Lord, "Thou shall not use My Name in vain".

When you observe this story, you probably conclude with me that the superego of our spiritual path traveler acted up. The toothache was generated by his notion of God and his fears. But then, for those of you who have observed the fascinating synchronicity of life like me, how do we know which signs are self-inflicted by our fears? But then, does it really matter? Fact of the matter is that our spiritual traveler likes to be connected to a higher FORCE and by running after money he loses that connection. Fact of the matter is, his toothache is both, superego and the lack of connectedness. 

A spiritual path is an ongoing choice, who are you really inside? The world is just a mirror of who you think you are. Keep polishing this mirror until you see your beautiful SELF.