In the existential malaise of post-psychedelic enlightenment integration, I have found myself repeatedly faced with a philosophical problem. (which I outlined in my previous post: My name is James and I’m Too smart for my own God).
The problem is founded on these points, which I have extrapolated from direct experience and externally validated through study into mysticism, religion, psychology, and philosophy:
There is only one thing that exists — the divine creative principle, God — and everything that appears to be different things is really just God manifesting under an illusory construct of separation created by itself to experience itself. Wherein I am the essence and totality of the God as well as a small section of its creation. There is no such thing as special, there is only one thing and it is plain old God. And, all belief systems are fundamentally false as they are human constructs built on the misunderstanding of themselves as not God. Yet, the experience of relationship to God requires faith in some light or another.
Essentially, here is my philosophical problem.
If:
- I am God and Not God because God is the only Being that exists, yet within it is the illusion of individuality and relativity
- There is no thing in particular that is special because it’s all ordinary, every day God
- The human ego needs the perception of separateness to cultivate relationship
- Cultivating relationship to God requires faith
- All belief systems used to cultivate that faith are human constructs and made up, even the ones I create for myself
Then:
How am I to cultivate faith if I know that I, or someone else, have made it all up? How am I to cultivate a relative experience of relating to God if I know that I am God, not relative to it, and whatever psychological means I create to trick myself into seeing otherwise is false? Where do I place my faith?
In contemplating this question, I feel like I have found a way to navigate this.
God as the Divine Creative Principle created an entire reality system that allowed itself to evolve to a point wherein God became a self-aware creature that was unknowingly immersed within itself, having forgotten itself as God. In doing so, God created the opportunity to rediscover the divine creative principle, itself, within a highly complex relativistic experience. This means that I as God, and you as God, discovering itself as God, are enabled to participle in being the divine creative principle manifest within itself, and thus begin creating new realities at an even higher level of complexity.
We, I, You, God, as the divine creative principle are able to create vast systems of thought and interactions within each other and play it out on the shared stage of reality as the human experience. At this point in self-awareness, there is no more need for faith in a belief system to connect with a relative God, that concept can be released. But what do we then place out faith in? What can we replace belief systems with in order to maintain the faith needed to experience relationship to God? I feel it can be replaced with faith in God, as a larger system of reality that continues to create the opportunity for faith in oneself as the divine creative principle consciously creating human experience.
Essentially, if the ego needs faith to feel God, then instead of building illusory constructs like religion or new age spirituality, it can have faith in the ongoing opportunity to be itself, with awareness of itself and everything/one else as God. Which may offer the very same benefits as faith in a belief system without the close-mindedness of the psychological imperative of protecting that belief system from collapse.
We are able to cultivate faith in God by cultivating faith in the opportunity to be ourselves, wherein our entire lives become the stage for using that opportunity. Then, we can all be ourselves as our individual selves, and as God while maintaining an experiential relationship to God.
From here, we can stop building constructs to help us believe in God, and start building lives that allow us to believe in ourselves, as God, with faith in the constant persistence of a perceivable reality.
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2 Comments
Thanks man I’ve been wanting a way to believe in God for some time in a way that did not make me feel like I was supporting “religion”. I’ve always felt that personal spirituality was very real and powerful yet hindered by the illusory constructs as you put it. For to long have I viewed the subject as a means to control masses with fear and obedience. Thinking of it as You, I, Him, Her as all being God has to be the easiest way for us all to realize our humanitarian bond to each other. I may have worded that poorly for the lack of linguistics I hold, however I truly enjoyed the reed and the thought progression you’ve set me on.
Man this resonates with me.
“[The ego] can have faith in the ongoing opportunity to be itself, with awareness of itself and everything/one else as God.”
I thought I lost Faith when I stopped believing strictly what my family taught me, but more and more I’m coming to realize I just have faith in being. And it may not give me the sense of protection that believing in a patron god-image gives, yet I believe that I chose this trip, and I have faith I will continue to choose to be, even after this body crumbles.
Peace.