Forces of Dissension in Consciousness

The world is in great turmoil, and the minds of its people are in a state of utter confusion. We entreat the Almighty that He may graciously illuminate them with the glory of His Justice, and enable them to discover that which will be profitable unto them at all times and under all conditions.

(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh: 97-98)

I discussed the growth to maturity of the moral seeds of destruction planted at the very outset of the materialist era, so, logically, as the Universal House of Justice document, One Common Faith, puts it, the revolt against materialism is “the product of historical forces that steadily gather momentum.” (One Common Faith: 8)  As the forces of disunity gather momentum within society, they become the outer, often violent, markings of a progressive inner collapse of materialism.  In consciousness, these are the phases of breaking free from the illusion of the materialist interpretation of reality.  In the unprecedented change of human consciousness now occurring, these forces represent some of the final negative conclusions of the materialist paradigm: conclusions inherent to an ideology with an “inherently deficient moral code”, a lack of global social vision, and a rebellious, adolescent ambition to replace God and religion with humanity and reason that is rapidly running out of credibility, money, and police power: moral seeds of destruction grown into forces of dissension in consciousness.

One Common Faith names four such forces, each is global, each is both a real threat to the authority of materialism and a real manifestation of a renewed and universal search for meaning and purpose in life.  Together the four forces are an example of one part of the two-fold process that is working “in its own way and with an accelerated momentum, to bring to a climax the forces that are transforming the face of our planet.”

The first is the bankruptcy of the ideology of materialism itself as a program of social and economic development in any of its discredited forms—capitalist, communist, liberal democratic, or as consumer culture.   The loss of the ruling assumptions and principles of any dominant ideology, or “world faith”, sets loose latent forces of dissension and anarchy that it has kept more or less under control.  This is a serious loss for an ideology that had “consolidated itself so completely as to become the dominant world faith insofar as the direction of society was concerned.” 

The result of this is a widespread revival of spiritual search, a seeking for meaning and the experience of transcendence.  This goes on because the human soul REQUIRES inspiration and transcendence.  As the Christian Book of Proverbs says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (The Book of Proverbs 29:18) The House of Justice’s modern day version of that principle is: “The endowments which distinguish the human race from all other forms of life are summed up in what is known as the human spirit; the mind is its essential quality. These endowments have enabled humanity to build civilizations and to prosper materially. But such accomplishments alone have never satisfied the human spirit, whose mysterious nature inclines it towards transcendence, a reaching towards an invisible realm, towards the ultimate reality, that unknowable essence of essences called God.” (The Promise of World Peace: 1)  Without doubt a congeries of movements seeking for something larger than current reality is going on.

But this groping, unguided, promiscuous search has its own perils.  Psychologist, William James, said of this omni-directional spiritual search:  “All that the facts require is that the power should be both other and larger than our conscious selves.  Anything larger will do, if only it be large enough to trust for the next step.  It need not be infinite, it need not be solitary.  It might conceivably even be only a larger and more godlike self, of which the present self would then be but the mutilated expression, and the universe might conceivably be a collection of such selves, of different degrees of inclusiveness, with no absolute unity realized in it at all.” (The Varieties of Religious Experience: Postscript)  Thus there are plenty of chances to be lead astray subjectively, to be overwhelmed by emotion, to mistake a sudden inflation of our own ego for the voice of God, to be allured by the will-o-the-wisp of some transitory inspiration, and to name self-deception of self-interest moral principle.

The second of these historical forces they name global integration, the throwing together of whole populations that heretofore have had little or nothing to do with each other.  This takes place through migrations, through refugees fleeing wars and natural disasters, through international travel, but most importantly, through general access to information via computers, social media and the internet.  It is the accessing and digesting of new information that enables disempowered peoples to call into question the legitimacy of established authority and empowers them to action.  In a world racked by convulsions and battered by contention everywhere, upheaval, especially mental upheaval, “excites a search for meaning.” (One Common Faith: 12)  Again we are in the realm of consciousness changing.

The third force is the failure of religious communities, specifically their leadership, to get beyond entrenched ways of thought and hidebound systems of belief.  This mental lockjaw condemns the intelligence to a level and form of consciousness that no longer provides any social guidance in today’s world, for it cannot adequately interpret today’s emerging reality.  This failure to progress with the times breeds within religion an arrogant, reactionary spirit of intolerance, prejudice and self-preservation, as we have already discussed.  Such believers may be sincere in their belief, but they are sincerely out of touch with emerging reality, and this exacts terrible consequences on the mind and heart.

For many faith communities the challenge of achieving the positive change they long for is that: “Although retaining its central role in consciousness, faith appeared impotent to influence the course of events.” (One Common Faith: 5)  Perhaps the reason for this impotence is that, since materialism was a successful revolt against moribund religion, this means that, except for a few stalwart believers, real faith and moral conviction cannot be found in any of the religions which materialism conquered.  Today, the religions have either bought into, or been overwhelmed by secular notions, which is the last face and form of their own distortion.  The failure of religious communities, specifically their leadership, to get beyond entrenched ways of thought and manufactured systems of belief has made traditional religion unable to embrace consciousness and impel its development.  The world moved on, leaving religion behind.  

The fourth force to reawaken spiritual interest is a fundamental “misconception about both human nature and social evolution.” (One Common Faith: 8)  The document reviews several of these and concludes that: “What all such differing conceptions have in common is the extent to which a phenomenon that is acknowledged to completely transcend human reach has nevertheless gradually been imprisoned within conceptual limits whether organizational, theological, experiential or ritualistic—of human invention.” (One Common Faith: 19)  Human religion, which is not the teachings of God, but the organized social expression and human rational interpretation of the divine teachings, has become one of the pillars of a materialistic interpretation and, consequently, revolt against established religion is also a revolt against materialism.

Now these historical forces while prompting a healthy search for meaning cannot provide it.  What can do it?  One Common Faith says: “…the accelerating breakdown in social order calls out desperately for the religious spirit to be freed from the shackles that have so far prevented it from bringing to bear the healing influence of which it is capable.” (One Common Faith: iii)  That healing, like most healing, is best accomplished not through invasive surgeries and poisonous chemicals, but by properly adding more energy and life to an ailing body.  In this case it is the body of human thought and consciousness, desperately ill from a toxic ingestion of materialism.