The OTHER - A RHP Placebo
The root of Christianity is Faith and Altruism. It can also be said to be fear and self-hatred. That was the beginning of my own turning to it. The very things I am supposed to turn to Christ to be delivered from – guilt, sin, and ego – amount to self-hatred contrived thru erroneous interpretation. One of the greatest nights of my life was also one of the worst, and the most frightening. This paradox was created by an acceptance of the tenets of Judeo – Christianity, an acceptance that preceded a far more important exploration of my Self that was to come later.
The constant exhortations to “die to yourself” and to attribute everything good to God are welcomed with enthusiasm by Christians because they are taught to despise the Self that they are. I do not despise myself; on the contrary, I love myself, and left the Church accordingly.
Those who love and embrace the Self have no need to become a relentless conduit for something “else”. God, so to speak, is within me, and is me. My Self must be explored and brought into further Being, not eradicated in favor of a foreign, one-size-fits-all cookie cutter shape of selflessness, denial, and sacrifice.
Christianity is like a placebo that activates an individual’s power to alter and heal their self, but only within a specific parameter of the great Mystery. It is not the “substance” but the belief in it that works. Belief is the power, thus Faith is the essence of Christian magic. But here is the important point: most people do not believe in themselves. They are taught to feel this way, for “pride is the greatest sin”. Huston Smith wrote in relation to Christianity that “we do not like ourselves very much…if there is to be liberation, it will have to come from without, or better, from above: a higher power”. Accordingly, most people must be tricked into their own potential. It must be an OTHER who heals and delivers them, an OTHER who is believed in by significant others – family, friends, and society. Here is the essence of the Right Hand Path, which is based upon a general distrust and dislike of the Self that is either genetically inclined, and / or taught and reinforced by a religio-moralistic culture.
Rules and morals were invented that no one can live up to, and should not necessarily even want to be lived “up” to, for downward is their actual direction for many. These rules and morals exacerbate guilt, fear, and self-hatred. People will do anything to escape guilt, fear, and self-hatred, even as they lead themselves into such states – an activity that is itself symptomatic of an unconscious desire for punishment. Because of guilt and self-hatred, people do not see themselves as worthy and capable of forgiving and loving themselves. Only an OTHER can do that, not just a mere mortal, but “God”. For the sake of God they can learn to love themselves and others. By this psychological device Christianity has triumphed. By forsaking oneself and embracing a divine OTHER that loves and forgives, one unconsciously learns to forgive one’s self. It is You that forgives yourself by way of a hidden, masked part of your psyche that is personified and externalized into something separate and exalted. If a “sinner” realized it is he himself who forgives and heals himself thru an image of the redeemer, the effect of liberation may be destroyed, especially if it comes too early in his conscious development. The OTHER must not be seen to be his own invention, for he is not worthy to create his own salvation, and the invented is, according to his upbringing – untrue. Only tradition – what millions of others say and do – is true. This is why the Jesus franchise is so powerful. From its inception the emotionally loaded concept of a redeemer has been attached to the mythical figure of Jesus. Hearing other people proclaim this specific personage to be the “The Redeemer” appeals to the herd instinct, which drives people to want to be on the same page as everyone else. One does not redeem oneself by one’s own invented OTHER; one accepts the OTHER that their parents, family, and friends preach about. This mass acceptance makes it “true”. The herd instinct, by definition, wants to believe in a truth that is applicable for all. That it appears to be objective is more important than whether it is or not.
Christianity triumphs thru its appeal to a herd mentality that associates the OTHER / Redeemer archetype – a power that is within each of us - with one sole mythic figure – Jesus. In this way it attempts to monopolize and market our own psychic powers for renewal and healing into a product external to ourselves that we must buy and bow to.
That one is raised to believe that the redeemer archetype is Jesus and only Jesus gives this mythical figure his particular power, a power that is our own psychic heritage repackaged and sold back to us in an alien form. If I were raised to associate the redeemer – who is necessary only in relation to the guilt produced by the theory of sin – with a martyr named Bagio Velli, it would work just the same, provided my significant others believed in him, too. To believe that an OTHER redeems me requires a belief in the OTHER that others are talking about. To put it another way – it requires my belief in others to know the truth, and to BE the truth AS the truth.
Concerning the concept of a messiah, it could only come from the psychology of a messianic, i.e. “chosen” people. The exceptionalism that the tribe perceives in itself as a whole is projected onto, and concentrated within, a mythologized individual, who henceforth singularly represents it in his personal being. He is now a spokesman for a group mentality, and his authority and exceptionalism rests entirely on the sense of exceptionalism of the collective that thrusts him up. Messianism is thus a collective phenomenon. There must be a chosen many for there to be a chosen one.
A follower of the LHP, working for his own personal divinity, does not view his exceptionalism as a valuation that must be accepted and bowed to by others, and shuns such a mentality as delusional and contradictory to his world-view and spiritual quest. Only when this sense of exceptionalism is based on a collective does it find itself arrowed into a being who must now be an exception for all others. Messianism is inseparable from RHP herd psychology, and is a most dangerous viral manifestation of it.
In my experience, the LHP begins with not only with an intellectual Recognition that the OTHER is indeed myself, but a Carnal - Intellectual – Emotional embrace of this Recognition, and an all-encompassing desire to explore my Self and develop my Truth.
Humanity is divided between those who fear and shun the truth of the Self, and those who Accept, Embrace, and Pursue its development.
The constant exhortations to “die to yourself” and to attribute everything good to God are welcomed with enthusiasm by Christians because they are taught to despise the Self that they are. I do not despise myself; on the contrary, I love myself, and left the Church accordingly.
Those who love and embrace the Self have no need to become a relentless conduit for something “else”. God, so to speak, is within me, and is me. My Self must be explored and brought into further Being, not eradicated in favor of a foreign, one-size-fits-all cookie cutter shape of selflessness, denial, and sacrifice.
Christianity is like a placebo that activates an individual’s power to alter and heal their self, but only within a specific parameter of the great Mystery. It is not the “substance” but the belief in it that works. Belief is the power, thus Faith is the essence of Christian magic. But here is the important point: most people do not believe in themselves. They are taught to feel this way, for “pride is the greatest sin”. Huston Smith wrote in relation to Christianity that “we do not like ourselves very much…if there is to be liberation, it will have to come from without, or better, from above: a higher power”. Accordingly, most people must be tricked into their own potential. It must be an OTHER who heals and delivers them, an OTHER who is believed in by significant others – family, friends, and society. Here is the essence of the Right Hand Path, which is based upon a general distrust and dislike of the Self that is either genetically inclined, and / or taught and reinforced by a religio-moralistic culture.
Rules and morals were invented that no one can live up to, and should not necessarily even want to be lived “up” to, for downward is their actual direction for many. These rules and morals exacerbate guilt, fear, and self-hatred. People will do anything to escape guilt, fear, and self-hatred, even as they lead themselves into such states – an activity that is itself symptomatic of an unconscious desire for punishment. Because of guilt and self-hatred, people do not see themselves as worthy and capable of forgiving and loving themselves. Only an OTHER can do that, not just a mere mortal, but “God”. For the sake of God they can learn to love themselves and others. By this psychological device Christianity has triumphed. By forsaking oneself and embracing a divine OTHER that loves and forgives, one unconsciously learns to forgive one’s self. It is You that forgives yourself by way of a hidden, masked part of your psyche that is personified and externalized into something separate and exalted. If a “sinner” realized it is he himself who forgives and heals himself thru an image of the redeemer, the effect of liberation may be destroyed, especially if it comes too early in his conscious development. The OTHER must not be seen to be his own invention, for he is not worthy to create his own salvation, and the invented is, according to his upbringing – untrue. Only tradition – what millions of others say and do – is true. This is why the Jesus franchise is so powerful. From its inception the emotionally loaded concept of a redeemer has been attached to the mythical figure of Jesus. Hearing other people proclaim this specific personage to be the “The Redeemer” appeals to the herd instinct, which drives people to want to be on the same page as everyone else. One does not redeem oneself by one’s own invented OTHER; one accepts the OTHER that their parents, family, and friends preach about. This mass acceptance makes it “true”. The herd instinct, by definition, wants to believe in a truth that is applicable for all. That it appears to be objective is more important than whether it is or not.
Christianity triumphs thru its appeal to a herd mentality that associates the OTHER / Redeemer archetype – a power that is within each of us - with one sole mythic figure – Jesus. In this way it attempts to monopolize and market our own psychic powers for renewal and healing into a product external to ourselves that we must buy and bow to.
That one is raised to believe that the redeemer archetype is Jesus and only Jesus gives this mythical figure his particular power, a power that is our own psychic heritage repackaged and sold back to us in an alien form. If I were raised to associate the redeemer – who is necessary only in relation to the guilt produced by the theory of sin – with a martyr named Bagio Velli, it would work just the same, provided my significant others believed in him, too. To believe that an OTHER redeems me requires a belief in the OTHER that others are talking about. To put it another way – it requires my belief in others to know the truth, and to BE the truth AS the truth.
Concerning the concept of a messiah, it could only come from the psychology of a messianic, i.e. “chosen” people. The exceptionalism that the tribe perceives in itself as a whole is projected onto, and concentrated within, a mythologized individual, who henceforth singularly represents it in his personal being. He is now a spokesman for a group mentality, and his authority and exceptionalism rests entirely on the sense of exceptionalism of the collective that thrusts him up. Messianism is thus a collective phenomenon. There must be a chosen many for there to be a chosen one.
A follower of the LHP, working for his own personal divinity, does not view his exceptionalism as a valuation that must be accepted and bowed to by others, and shuns such a mentality as delusional and contradictory to his world-view and spiritual quest. Only when this sense of exceptionalism is based on a collective does it find itself arrowed into a being who must now be an exception for all others. Messianism is inseparable from RHP herd psychology, and is a most dangerous viral manifestation of it.
In my experience, the LHP begins with not only with an intellectual Recognition that the OTHER is indeed myself, but a Carnal - Intellectual – Emotional embrace of this Recognition, and an all-encompassing desire to explore my Self and develop my Truth.
Humanity is divided between those who fear and shun the truth of the Self, and those who Accept, Embrace, and Pursue its development.
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