Like anything which is locked away from the light of reason and is ignored, the power of that 'shadow' will grow unchecked. The more powerful it becomes the more we fear it and the harder we work to keep it hidden and that means, it's power will be expressed unconsciously and often destructively. And this is what we can see developing from the materialist mindset which has taken over the world for the past three hundred years and which forms the foundation of most of scientific thought.
While both Newton and Descartes approached life from a spiritual perspective because they were men of their time, it is their work which underpins the Newtonian/Descartesian rational/materialist mindset which has been established as the basis for what we call modern science. Or rather, it is the interpretation of aspects of their work which has been selected by science for its paradigm. Both Newton and Descartes were astrologers, but that little piece of information is too horrifying for scientism to accept and so it is dismissed and ignored. Never let the facts get in the way of a good 'story.'
Science in essence has been slowly 'losing its mind' ever since it was established within this paradigm of empirical rationalism. I have no doubt that it was necessary and no-one can deny the benefits that this approach has brought but now the materialist mindset, sourced in science, has taken over the world and the way we think in destructive ways. In other words, it has gone too far and the 'shadow' has grown great, angry, undisciplined and dangerous.
Materialism has become something of a religion with its own high priests like the American philosopher and cognitive scientist, Daniel Dennet and the British ethologist and evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, to name just two of the more notable crusaders.
The language that they use to spread their dogma that this is a purely material world and we are no more than chemical robots, stepping mindlessly through time, resonates with that to which the most impassioned religious fundamentalists resort to justify their cause and to bring the deluded and erring strays into the fold. They are in essence, the two sides of the one coin and they exist because of each other.
Just as followers of fundamental religions dismiss other philsophies or beliefs, so too do the followers of scientism. In these worlds it is either/or and never 'and.' Dictates are made on the basis of black and white and there is no place for grey! You are right or you are wrong. In short, they are right and if you don't believe as they believe then you are wrong and to be condemned.
The tragedy for the world at this point in time is that this fanatical mindset has, to a large degree, conquered and corrupted science. When you bring the 'gifts' of modern science to birth in a system which is without ethics or morals, which of course it must be if human beings are no more than programmed, robotic beings, without free will, any sort of conscience, then you create monsters.
I have no intention of listing the 'monsters' which science has created because they are all too easy to find. The most obvious involve military technology, where valuable money, time and effort goes into finding ways to more effectively kill people regardless of the damage done to nature or the environment.
Or the unethical use of IVF where you see a young, single, unemployed woman have six children through the process and then have eight more as octuplets; or see babies created with five 'parents', one for the womb, one for the egg, one for the sperm and two (or sometimes one) for raising, often both of the same sex. In such situations the needs of the child or any moral (and I don't mean religious) or ethical considerations are ignored - it happens because science says it can happen and all that matters is proving how clever science is, regardless of how dysfunctional or damaging it may be for the resulting child.
And then you have the unethical application of the materialist scientific mindset to agriculture - producing sterile seeds for instance so farmers, no matter how poor they may be, have no choice but to find money to buy seed every year, or demanding that land have no fallow time and producing chemicals to ensure growth or tinkering with genetic modifications which force plants to grow when and how they were never intended.
It is probably medicine, sourced so deeply in science, which has been most affected by the materialist mindset where healing becomes a mechanical, marketing exercise and it is profit not patient which matters. The worst excesses of medicine could not happen within a mindset which recognised and respected the spiritual nature of this world.
At this time in history doctors have become secretaries ordering tests and pharmacists dispensing drugs, often under pressure from Big Pharma - they have lost the art of diagnosis. And, with the view that human beings are no more than a collection of chemicals in a bag - to paraphrase one materialist - their ability to heal has become increasingly limited. Which no doubt accounts for the increasing numbers of people who are turning to traditional medicine, or alternative healing methodologies which do treat the whole person and which do recognise that we are far more than a material organism; that we do have free will and that it is mind which influences matter and no healing methodology which does not take this into account can be truly effective.
There is demonstrable evidence of the Mind-Body connection and the power of Mind ... Mind, not Brain ... to influence body and a healing process, but in the main science rejects this reality. The materialist mindset can only be maintained if such things are denied and if consciousness and mind and free will do not exist. However, as always, there are some who are prepared to push the boundaries of belief and the study of the neuro-plasticity of the brain is making it harder to deny the obvious.
And yes, one of the reasons why this area of medical science has advanced is because of the developments in brain imaging technology. Science is not all bad, in fact much good has come out of it, but my point is that it is not as good as it should or could be and is far more dangerous and destructive than it needs to be.
And the belief, for it is only a belief, which materialism posits, that there is no such thing as free will is a position somewhat at odds with how our society works. If there is no such thing as free will and if we are no more than robots responding to programming then how can anyone ever be held accountable for their actions? How can anyone be charged, convicted or punished for a crime? How can anyone be rehabilitated? What is the point of social workers, of Alcoholics Anonymous, of aid for Africa or of self-help groups if we are incapable of making reasoned, conscious decisions and instigating change?
The materialist mindset is patently ridiculous. But it has been and remains powerful. At least for the moment. We stand, I believe, at a seminal point in history where not only is it time to change, but we must change and science must change most of all. The centuries where science could claim it had the greatest knowledge, the greatest skills, the greatest capacity to act in the interests of humanity and the world are gone. That day has passed for along with the constructive which has come out of the system of science, we become increasingly aware of the destructive. Any system which is without conscience will increasingly do harm.
This is not to say that scientists as individuals are without conscience, ethics or morals but rather that the system within which they function has increasingly rejected these concepts and given that 'systems drive behaviour,' those scientists would of necessity become less ethical, less moral and less aware of their conscience.
Just like religions the system of science demands allegiance to the beliefs, philosophies, structures and functions of the 'organisation.' Those who seek to challenge the religion of science may not be 'burned on any material stake' but they are certainly 'burned on the metaphorical stake' and are likely to find their career destroyed, employment limited and funding for their research impossible to find. Such a system is not what science should be about, or says it is about. But when you seek to defend a belief structure which, if seriously challenged would mean your system had to be completely re-thought and re-constructed, sanity goes out of the window. All that matters is 'saving the system.'
For the sake of humanity science needs to return to the place where it began - a system sourced in a belief not just of the material, but of the spiritual. It is only in the last century that the materialist mindset has gained a stranglehold. Most of our greatest scientific minds managed to balance both material and spiritual beliefs and some scientists, albeit a minority, still do. But there is a new movement afoot to establish materialism as the religion of the modern age and ages to come. It won't be successful because it is in essence not only nonsensical but impractical, but, until balance is restored, it could be very dangerous.
Materialism is in essence sabotaging the very best that science can do and can be. And it is this planet and everything on it which will pay the price. If we are to have a future then it will be one where science in particular and society in general, has forged a partnership between materialism and spirituality.
What is now needed is the hieros gamos, or sacred marriage, where science, like spirituality, opens itself to all that is and accepts that everything has meaning even if we do not understand what that meaning is. We can look back on the age of materialism and recognise that it enabled us to learn invaluable things about the 'material' aspects of this world but it is not enough to take us any further.
A materialist mindset denies too many things to be ultimately functional. What it doesn't understand it decries, villifies, demonises and rejects. In this world there is no free will, no greater consciousness, no spirituality, no purpose, no meaning, no personal accountability, no hope. There is just a world created through random, meaningless, opportunistic evolution. We are here just because we are here and then we are gone. That's it! No point, no purpose, no meaning to any of it.
Such a world is soul-destroying. And in truth, such a mindset is ridiculous if not insane. The materialists have no proof there is no soul, no spirituality, no intelligent design, no purpose, no meaning, no mind beyond robotic and programmed brain function - but they deny such things all the same.
Materialist science doesn't have a too-hard basket - it has a 'don't understand so don't want to know' basket. Into this great 'black hole' are tossed that for which materialism not only does not have an answer, it cannot have an answer: NDE's (near death experiences which demonstrate that brain is not mind and even with a 'dead' brain there can be consciousness); ESP (extra sensory perception which demonstrates that people can communicate through thought and feeling across oceans and through lead walls); the Mind-Body Connection (which demonstrates the ability of the mind to change brain and body function and to heal through belief); the power of prayer (which demonstrates the material manifestation of prayer in healing; astrology (which demonstrates archetypal forces at work in this world and in our lives), and all of the other life experiences which are generally classified as para-normal. It is a long list and what we need is for science to open its mind and its system to researching all that is, not simply that which fits the current mindset.
There are scientists out there, quietly working away within the expanded mindset of spirituality which embraces everything in this world but which should not be confused with religion. Religion should and sometimes does have a spiritual nature but spirituality does not need a religious nature. The times are changing and the more that we change at the personal level the more we instigate change at the social level.
The world is at a seminal point, participating in a time of transformation which astrology reveals, and change will come no matter how much it may be resisted. But, the difference will be in how long it takes and how much damage can be done beforehand and this is where each and every one of us can make a difference - when we see the world in a new way we support and strengthen those archetypal energies which are at work and which would have us move forward.
That path is taking us to who we always were: spiritual beings having a material experience. We have gathered the 'nuts and bolts' knowledge from materialist science and we now embark upon a renaissance of understanding and learning which will not only change the world, it will change us and how we live our lives.
It is an exciting time and in this year of transformation, 2012, we will lay the foundation for what many religions teach comes after death but which is in fact what we are here to create in this world where the material emanates from the spiritual and the true nature of life on earth is the magical, mystical and sacred marriage of the two.
We inhabit a conscious, active and creative world, not one composed of inert, dead matter. And within that world we are conscious, active and creative beings if we so choose. The world creates us and we create the world. Recognising that fact makes us the co-creators we are meant to be as opposed to someone simply going along for the ride as materialists would have us believe.
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