Many people these days are, I think understandably, not so excited about religion. It’s old. It’s rigid. It’s patriarchal. And not so sexy.
Yet, for at least a couple of millennia, religion seems to have performed several very useful functions in human culture. It served to bind society together and to provide at least some kind of a route towards achieving deeper meaning or transcendence, for those who sought it. Some religions, such as traditional Christianity, had contemplative and ritual aspects. Others, like Islam, provided access to altered states of consciousness.
So, religion might be considered pretty dysfunctional, and riddled with issues. But it’s also served useful purposes.
Nowadays, in the West, religion is all but dead. That which has replaced it might be described as free market, liberal materialism.
But, as this materialism continues to supplant religion, it’s becoming clear that it cannot replace it. Because here in the West we have this “meaning crisis,” to use a popular term.
When I was living full-time in the West, it seemed evident everywhere. The empty faces of people walking the aisles of supermarkets, instinctively seeking something that was not for sale - meaning and connection. The burgeoning mental health crisis - doctor’s waiting rooms full of people with anxiety or depression, desperate to seek some way out.
So, we have got rid of the old. But we are discovering that there is a real gap. And as the extended family system, already heavily eroded by Western culture, falls further and further into disarray, so the great safety-net that it still provides will weaken more and more.
What do we have to replace it? Er, pharmaceutical preparations! I don’t think that’s going to work.
And this Western culture of ours maintains that it still wants to take over the world? For me, it first needs to get functional.
If we don’t want to go back to the past - patriarchal religions and the extended family system - then we need to come up with something new. We need to address the Meaning Crisis.
I don’t think it’s realistic to expect governments to do this. It’s just not their job.
We need a route back towards that which creates meaning and depth in our lives.
If we going to drop the extended family system, then we will need to re-inhabit our bodies. That’s because the feeling of safety that comes from the familial net can be replaced by greater sensation in our own body.
If we’re going to drop religion, then we need something that can both deepen our self-awareness and provide access to transcendental states - both functions that traditional religions have at least partially served.
For my part, I make available to people therapeutic technologies like Bioenergetics and Reichian Breathwork. These work on the deepest layer of our being - often known as the “participatory level” in cognitive science. When we work on this level, we inherently create positive change in the levels that both emanate from and feed back into it - known as the perspectival, procedural and propositional.
If you want to get involved in Bioenergetics or Reichian work, and start to create change in both yourself and your world, then check out my YouTube channel and my online courses and workshops.
If you want to really jump in, then check out my 7-Day In-person Character Structure Training, coming up this Autumn in Italy.