THE
CRISIS OF MEANING IN OUR LIVES
SEPTEMBER
2002 Revised 2014
I
wish to share my perspective on what is currently happening in
our lives and why we need a new perspective?
The search for meaning is evident in so many aspects of our lives.
What is my life all about? What does my job mean? This company
I have founded or work for? This relationship that I am in? Why
am I studying for this degree and what does it mean to me? What
does it mean that I am going to die some day? Why commit myself
to one thing or another, to one person or another - or to anything?
Two
of the top ten causes of death in the Western World are either
suicide, alcoholism or drugs are frequently related to this kind
of crisis of meaning.
These fundamental questions have always existed for humanity and
each generation and each culture have had to provide tentative
answers. However in the past 50 years of our recent fragmentated
thinking their world was simpler in its structure and was able
to provide more concrete answers.
Since
ancient times the perennial questions - who am I, where did I
come from, where am I going, what am I doing here on earth, and
how can I live the most constructive and creative life along with
why is there a universe and what is its purpose have been put
forward? Now these questions still apply more so than at any other
time in mans history. Where is life where does it come from, what
is its destiny and how can I achieve a more conscious and fulfilling
life - can, in my view only be satisfactorily answered from the
standpoint of accessing our active and creative intuition.
People
in earlier societies did not have to ask such detailed questions.
Their lives were culturally embedded in a set framework. They
had living traditions, living gods, living communities, functioning
moral codes, problems that had clear boundaries and fixed goals.
But in modern times we have lost, what some philosophers call,
the 'take-for-grantedness' of life. We are left with a confused
sense of personal and professional meaning or spiritual problems,
with the need to cultivate a kind of deeper personal awareness
or connection with true self sobthat can deal with issues.
In
the West, when did it all change? During the period of the so-called
age of enlightenment where science competed with and in many peoples
eyes overcame religion. At this time traditional culture and all
the meanings and values were adjusted according to scientific
rational thinking. When the now famous physicist, Sir Isaac Newton
and his colleagues gave rise to their theories about the construction
of the world such a viewpoint of the world led to the development
of technology which prepared for the Industrial Revolution but,
at the same time to a deeper erosion of religious beliefs and
personal philosophical outlook.
This new technology provided many blessings but also moved people
from the land into big cities, disrupted communities and families,
displaced traditions and crafts, and made reliance on habit and
repetition virtually impossible. The accompanying attitudes which
resulted from such a revolution has uprooted the human soul.
Newton's
new physics taught that the physical world is governed by ironclad
laws: the three laws of motion and the law of gravitation. Everything
in the physical world is predictable and thereby ultimately controllable.
B will always follow A in the same circumstances. Although most
people don't know of Newton's ideas or of Sigmund Freud's id and
superego this has led to the idea that we are passive victims
of forces larger than ourselves, that we are helpless to change
our own lives, never mind the world.
So what does this mean to us now in 2014?
For many people they are feeling overwhelmed by the confusing
fragmentation of the world, and being unable to make sense of
it or do anything about it, with the result that they have lapsed
into apathy and depression. Newtonian reality has reinforced the
sense of isolation and helplessness. The world is now divided
into subject and object; the subject is 'in here' you, the world
'out there' them. The average modern person experiences himself
or herself as just in the world - not of the world and sadly unable
to do anything about their personal circumstances of what is happening
in the world around them.
But times are changing. They have been for the past twenty or
thirty years but now, with the crisis of meaning many people report
a quickening of the pace and secretly feel within themselves that
they need help to make core changes to the way life is currently
being lived.
It is a difficult and challenging time for most particularly because
the consumer led society is difficult to resist. We have become
addicted to our luxuries, our toys our expectations even though
we realize that they are not fulfilling the most important gap
in our lives - a true sense of power through understanding and
finding not only meaning but a way of truly expressing who we
are in our lives.
This has happened not only for individuals but society at large.
For example Leonardo Da Vinci as with other great thinkers provided
a 'pole vault' in his ideas when he created the helicopter over
three hundred years ago but the society at the time, limited by
their views of what was and what not possible in their view of
the world prevented a helicopter becoming a reality until people
three hundred years later had mentally shifted to allow this to
become their reality. Are many of us not guilty of the
same self-limiting beliefs distorting and restricting our world
and how we live life now and in the future?
At
no other time have we had our minds so expanded but the key liberating
influences around us - television shows us apparent undreamed
of realities which means we can start to think that this can be
our reality - the internet does the same and now in 2014 even
social media. However, we have all these images whereas Italian
renaissance society was rigid and controlled by the church at
every level. The core question then is how do we reconcile this
blessing and a curse of new expanded awareness into a way which
we can relate to in our everyday lives where we find an inner
place of being which reconciles the two.
One
idea is that we have to be positively discriminating. To take
in aspects of the images and then relate them to our personal
meaning and expression in our lives. A married man with wife children
and mortgage is happy in his reality but if an international executive
believes that his reality is at fault when he experiences such
images he is not in contact with the whole of his inner reality
and expression. He can be happy in his unique expression of life
just as the married man is of his.
For an increasing number of people the next question is 'Where
do we go for such development and what are we looking for?'
Over the last decade more and more people have watched documentaries,
purchased and read books or listened to self-development recordings.
Some have attended courses, spoken with friends and exchanged
ideas through the internet.
Their insight or awareness develops but the reality of their everyday
lives appear relatively unchanged. They have an inner vision which
is at odds or in conflict with their life.
The
consequence of such conflict is stress. Felt physically, emotionally
and mentally. Learning to relax is not the complete answer - symptoms
are symptoms and must be viewed and dealt with accordingly.
At
a time of stress many people turn for guidance to a variety of
sources. Professional counselling and therapy - astrology and
other means of objective guidance. Divination dates back thousands
of years and has always been hugely popular in all societies even
if for many it went against established religious practice and
teachings. Looking out there to the world for guidance always
includes, at some stage, looking within to create unique meaning
to the insights gained.
Now
science has taken up the challenge which was issued at the turn
of the century by the spiritualist movement and metaphysicians
to meaningfully explore, document and understand this core aspect
of humaneness by using their modern tools of investigation. Brain
science, quantum physics, alternative medical practitioners have
in the last twenty years investigated and scientifically explored
the real impact that the mind has in relation to the body. But
that is only half the story for within each of us lies another
world beyond the body - our inner dreams, discoveries and along
with such dreams all the abilities required to express them fully
in our lives.
I
came from the world of science but because of my upbringing and
early experiences always thought of the world in a different way
from purely scientific beliefs. In my personal life and career
I have always blended the two with truly remarkable results. Through
my work I realised that I wished to enable as many people as possible
to make the self same connections in their lives.
However, nearly forty years ago when I began my professional career
the shift in public awareness of this need and awareness the practical
ways of such a need being fulfilled had not occurred. Now it has
and as a result I have spent the past twenty five years lecturing
to literally thousands of people around the globe. Lecture tours
are labour intensive - great fun - but this past year I responded
to the request by many of these people who attended such workshops
to write about the concepts I talked and show as many people as
possible them how to integrate in their lives.
They also insisted that as many people as possible should be able
to benefit from my work. A new website came into being, I began
to refine a model which could be written down and easily understood
without me present to explain all of the connection. More of The
Power of Caring was born. NOTE: Fast forward twelve years since
this article was written and I return to my core passion. Working
with people for personal transformation.
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