#unity consciousness

Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking over how New Age practices have actual therapeutic value that ultimately contribute to more prosocial behavior and greater social cohesion. I figured I’d do a post on this, both to shed light on why New Age spirituality has such a powerful draw on people, and to highlight certain practices that could perhaps be adapted into a framework without the conspiratorial mythology and dangerous pseudoscience.

Full disclosure, I will be approaching this topic from the perspective of an atheistic-leaning agnostic who approaches magic and religion from a psychological and sociological point of view. I’m not here to try and convince you that gods and spirits absolutely don’t exist, but if you do believe they exist, you may find this challenging to your worldview.

So to begin, everyone’s psyches are essentially made up of different, yet interconnected parts. (I would recommend looking at this infographic for deeper, albeit somewhat simplified explanation. Note that post will be mainly be speaking of singlets.)

Let’s take a hypothetical person named Roxie. There’s a part of Roxie that wants to clean the house. There’s another part of Roxie that wants to play a video game. There’s part of Roxie that wants to destroy her enemies. There’s part of Roxie that wants everyone to be friends and live in harmony. There’s a part of Roxie that wants to surrender herself to a strong, powerful figure, and another part of her that wants to remain independent.

Our psyches are all made of different parts like this (though perhaps not all of the exact same parts), and our parts have their uses at different times and places. But it’s possible for some of us to become over-reliant on certain parts and use them in inappropriate times and places. For example, tradwives are taught to always use the part of themselves that wants to surrender to someone strong (usually referred to as their “feminine” or the “divine feminine”), which gets them stuck with extremely misogynist men.

Another example, which is more pertinent to the topic of this post, are people who become over-reliant on the part of themselves that wants to destroy their enemies. This makes them prone to paranoid thinking, essentially seeing enemies and threats everywhere. This in turn prompts them to behave in all kinds of ways that are detrimental to a healthy social life, and detrimental to a healthy society in general. This is basically the state that the kind of people who go around writing wildly hostile replies to absolutely milquetoast takes are in.

However, New Age’s practices and beliefs encourage people to get in touch with their prosocial parts and silence their hostile parts. For example, they are taught how to connect to spirit guides and various higher beings who have loving intentions and want the best for humanity. They are taught to practice discernment by asking themselves how information makes them feel – if it makes you feel afraid or discouraged, ignore it. If it makes you feel uplifted and encouraged, listen.

Now of course this is a terrible method for evaluating whether information is factual or not, which many people in this movement end up trying to do. “Aliens are going to arrive tomorrow and get rid of the world’s tyrants” might make me feel good, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. But it’s a very good method for connecting with and strengthening the parts of yourself with prosocial desires while training your mind to give less priority to your hostile parts and allowing them to weaken and fade.

Even the concept of starseeds is fundamentally a prosocial tool. Each starseed type represents a certain kind of positive role a person can play in society. When a person reads about starseed types and feels resonance with one or more of them, this is essentially a response from the parts of their brains that find these roles appealing. Starseed mythology validates their associated impulses by telling people that this the very thing they’re on Earth to do.

Past life regression hypnosis can also serve the same purpose, with those who undergo it often seeing themselves filling specific roles. When people undergo hypnosis and sees themselves as a priest or priestess, these are arguably images formed from the parts of themselves that want to fill the role of a teacher or guide. In this way, people become aware of the roles they want to fulfill, which empowers them to start doing something they actually enjoy.

Of course there there are flaws. The specific roles that New Agers learn about are not always as useful as they might seem – in fact, they’re sometimes dangerous. Many of the “cosmic truths” an aspiring teacher will go on to spread are just far right conspiracy theories. New Age’s mythology about reptilian aliens is a hodgepodge of antisemitic canards including but not limited to blood libel, economic manipulation, and media manipulation. Their mythology about aliens is largely based on pseudohistory created by white people who could not accept that people of color were capable of building architecture considered impressive by European standards. It all comes from what the New Agers would term a fear-based consciousness.

Meanwhile, the aspiring healer will likely learn alternative healing techniques that are not as useful as they might seem. Fortunately, most alternative healing practices favored by New Agers are fairly harmless in and of themselves (one cannot overdose and poison oneself with reiki, for example). But when coupled with a belief that these treatments should be used in place of conventional medicine (which is often driven by anti-pharma conspiracy theories), or when the practitioner charges so much money that people are compelled to choose between evidence-based medicine and alternative medicine and choose the latter, things can become deadly. Scientific studies have never found evidence to suggest that any alternative medical approach is more effective than current evidence-based treatments, even if people do anecdotally report feeling better or report the occasional miracle.

Furthermore, believing that the images they see under hypnosis are genuine memories of real past lives reinforces belief in conspiracy theories and pseudohistory. They also create a false sense of expertise and entitlement, such as a white person who believes they had a past life as a Native American ritual specialist believing they have authority to speak on matters of Native spirituality and history, and believing they have the right to conduct closed practices.

Yet all of these problems come from the belief system the practices are used in, not from the practices themselves. Outside of the belief system, the practices are a simple yet effective way to identify positive social roles we are likely to find satisfying. Without the conspiratorial, pseudohistorical, and pseudoscientific framework, one can identify more useful ways to fulfill these roles and seek out appropriate education.

I believe New Agers are onto something when they say that we have forgotten who we truly are. But I don’t think it has anything to do with some sort of transcendent divine nature or past lives. I think that through trauma and upbringing in societies that encourage fear and selfishness, we have been raised to forget that we are born to love, cherish, and help each other. I think we’ve also been raised to forget that we don’t need anyone’s permission to follow our hearts.

I think they’re even almost onto something when they say that our governments and economies are ruled by something that feeds on blood and fear. But that something isn’t extradimensional space lizards. It is the systems of government and economics themselves – they was created through fear and bloodshed, and they requires fear and bloodshed to continue existing. But there are no secret places where dark rituals are performed or where bodily fluids are extracted for consumption; only boardrooms where executives discuss moving production factories someplace with fewer safety regulations and politicians discuss manufacturing consent so that the populace will support the invasion of whichever country they wish to extract resources from this time. It is not reptilians that possess these people, but a fear-based belief that their safety and the safety of all they care about relies on these systems.

Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds.

In her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass, Native American botanist and storyteller Robin Wall Kimmerer shares the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) "Thanksgiving Address." This prayer of thanksgiving is also known as "The Words That Come Before All Else." It is a community prayer of gratitude for the living Earth and her gifts, recited during ceremonies and gatherings. This prayer reminds us that our original purpose and agreement is to honor and respect the reciprocal cycle of give and take, for Mother Earth provides everything we need to live and flourish. We are meant to appreciate and respect all of life, for everything is interconnected, interdependent, and mutually supportive in the web of life. Because it helps the participants appreciate their interdependence with, and feel connected to, the web of life, the Haudenosaunee, out of their loving generosity, have given it to all of the people of the world to use.

Faithkeeper Oren Lyons, of the Onondaga Nation, one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, said about the ritual, "It's supposed to be shared, otherwise how can it work? We've been waiting for five hundred years for people to listen. If they'd understood the Thanksgiving then, we wouldn't be in this mess."

So when you read it with others, feel the gratitude in your heart for all of the world around us that gives us so much and allows us to live.

The Words That Come Before All Else

Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us, we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living beings. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give our greetings and our thanks to each other as People.

Everyone: Now our minds are one.

We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of Time. To our Mother, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect.

Everyone: Now our minds are one.

We give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst, providing us with strength, and nurturing life for all beings. Water is life. We know its power in many forms -- waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans, snow and ice. We are grateful that the waters are still here and meeting their responsibility to bring life to all of Creation. With one mind, we send our greetings and our thanks to the spirit of Water.

Everyone: Now our minds are one.

We turn our minds to all of the Fish life in the water. They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water. We are grateful that they continue to do their duties, and that we can still find pure water. So we send to the Fish our greetings and our thanks.

Everyone: Now our minds are one.

Now we turn toward the vast fields of Plants. As far as the eye can see, the Plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms. With our minds gathered together, we give our thanks and look forward to seeing Plant life continue for many generations to come.

Everyone: Now our minds are one.

When we look about us, we see that the berries are still here, providing us with delicious foods. The leader of the berries is the strawberry, the first to ripen in the spring. Can we agree that we are grateful that the berries are with us in the world and send our thanksgiving, love, and respect to the berries?

Everyone: Now our minds are one.

With one mind, we turn to honor and thank all the Food Plants we harvest from the garden who feed us with such abundance. Since the beginning of time, the grains, vegetables, beans and fruit have helped the people survive. Many other living beings draw strength from them as well. We gather together in our minds all the Plant Foods and send them our greetings and our thanks.

Everyone: Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to all the Medicine Plants of the world. From the beginning they were instructed to take away sickness. They are always waiting and ready to heal us. We are happy that there are still among us those special few who remember how to use these plants for healing. With one mind we send thanksgiving, love, and respect to the Medicines, and to the keepers of the Medicines.

Everyone: Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds together to send our greetings and our thanks to all the Animal life in the world, who walk about with us. They have many things to teach us as people. We are grateful that they continue to share their lives with us and pray that it will always be so. Let us put our minds together as one and send our thanks to the Animals.

So, if anyone says something triggering; pause, bless them for being a portal, come back to your throne & be unbothered ☁️

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