You will end up in spiritual darkness if you don’t know the difference between false illumination and true light.
False Light Definition
Several things use the term false illumination or light. For instance, law, physics, and engineering all use it. We want to know about the deceptive light in spirituality. It is a misleading portrayal of the information.
If something is false, it is deceptive, incorrect, or counterfeit. The arena of spirituality gives many opportunities for this to occur. Most of the time, this falsification is intentional.
One way to tell if someone is trying to deceive you is by denying facts. Beware the false light of denial. Denial of facts leads to mistaking the metaphors of mythology for actual events. This misuse is unproductive and installs negative thinking and values.
What is False Light in Spirituality?
The arena of spirituality is ripe for those who sell appealing ideas, ideologies, and other gadgets. This deception starts with misusing our desire to explore our inner world—every modern advancement results from our innate desire to explore things. We want to explore unknown things. This desire prompts us on our spiritual quest.
False illumination is often a reflection of deception. An inaccurate portrayal of information leads to spiritual darkness, the path that leads nowhere. It’s a dead-end, but people don’t recognize it. People can follow a trail for months, even years, and not realize they are deceiving themselves that they will ever reach the promised destination.
Unfortunately, this misuse gives spirituality a terrible reputation. Most people associate spirituality with religious mythology, and rightly so. Religious superstition permeates our culture but has nothing to do with spirituality. They use the cloak of religion to keep us from finding our answers.
A false or deceptive portrayal of information leads to spiritual darkness, the path that leads nowhere. It’s a dead-end, but people don’t recognize it. People can follow a trail for months, even years, and not realize they are deceiving themselves that they will ever reach the promised destination.
If something is false, it is deceptive, incorrect, or counterfeit. In spirituality, there is an excellent opportunity for people to misuse, misrepresent, and misinterpret. It culminates as deception.
Who Are The Best Liers?
The best liars are those who believe their lies are true. So, a common tactic is getting people to spread these falsehoods. The more people who buy into the lie, the more easily it is to sell the lie to the next person, and this is how a cult becomes a bona fide religion. There is no difference between a cut and a religion except for the size of its membership.
It is a teaching or a teacher without substance. It is a counterfeit for an authentic spiritual quest that leaves you empty and needing more. A fake teacher makes promises but cannot deliver. They often have hidden agendas. Sometimes they want to drain your finances and make you a lifelong paying customer. Other times, they misuse your trust to take advantage and abuse you or both.
You’d think abusive tactics like this would be easy to spot, but they become invisible when they become a part of the accepted culture. As these beliefs become a part of the culture, they become invisible, and that’s when these tactics are the most dangerous.
Counterfeit teaching can never quench our natural desire to explore our awareness and seek answers to the unknown. A counterfeit distracts with contradictory messages that hide real intent to keep you a paying customer. They are very profitable. Look at the Catholic Church. They have their own city-state, The Vatican, built by the contributions of many people.
Beware the False Light of Western Religion
What is false light in spirituality? Could this false illumination come from Western organized religion? Yes. There is no doubt. False spiritual light comes from Western religion. Not all faiths project false luminescence, just those who divert us from our inner quest. You can spot religions that sell counterfeits because they use a classic bait-and-switch tactic. They use promises to bait us and substitute something else because they do not have the tools for spiritual exploration.
“Homo religiosus invents religious symbols, which he venerates and worships to save him from facing the finality of his death and dissolution. He devises paradise fictions to provide succor and support… In acts of supreme self-deception, at various times and in various places, he has been willing to profess belief in the most incredible myths because of what they have promised him.” — Paul Kurtz
Instead, they offer Afterlife promises in an attempt to divert us from our fear of death. Some religions also make promises of prosperity. But when you don’t get rich. They tell you that you haven’t given them enough. These are part of their brainwashing techniques (1) known as self-hypnosis and group hypnosis or groupthink manipulation tactics. They use these to shape your values and behaviors.
None of this has anything to do with meeting your need for an inner quest. Religious stories, doctrines, or beliefs are a poor substitute for an authentic spiritual journey. These are nothing more than distractions. You can spot those who use these ploys because they all use similar sales tactics:
1) Belief in a Supreme Being (God or Gods)
2) Align with what they believe is acceptable behavior and values
3) Accept all associated doctrines like the salvation of the soul, the afterlife rewards and punishments, etc.
Does this sound familiar? Beware the false light of Abrahamic religions (2). These are Semitic origin, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. These paradigms are not new; they are the rebranding of the ancient mystery religions of the Mediterranean region. These systems include Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian mythologies and superstitions. And that’s why these religions are fast-food of spirituality. They need you to believe their superstitions and myths are facts instead of metaphors. If they can do this, they have a paying customer. It’s a classic bait-and-switch tactic; don’t fall for it.
Spiritual Commercialism?
Western Organized Religion created spiritual commercialism. They use smoke and mirrors to sell everything from afterlife promises to supernatural manifestations. They don’t know how to meet our inherent spiritual need to explore our inner nature. Their systems are absent of any processes to develop or explore consciousness. They even admit that their whole system is the product of plagiarism. The false light definition certainly includes those systems which are copies of others.
“The Church has borrowed without hesitation from the common stock of significant actions known to all periods and to all nations. In such matters as these, Christianity claims no monopoly or originality.”” ― The Catholic Encyclopedia and International Work, Vol. 13 (1907) (3)
What is false light in spirituality? False spiritual illumination is commercialized spirituality. Selling promises of an afterlife is an excellent example of false spirituality. It is selling the afterlife as a substitute for fear of death.
“I have not much patience with a certain class of Christians nowadays who will hear anybody preach so long as they can say, ‘He is very clever, a fine preacher, a man of genius, a born orator.’ Is cleverness to make false doctrine palatable? Why, sirs, to me the ability of a man who preaches error is my sorrow rather than my admiration.” — Charles Spurgeon
Unfortunately, our modern cultures model themselves similarly. People seek happiness by purchasing things, but this joy is short-lived. Things quickly lose their value. That’s because things will never adequately substitute our need to explore our consciousness. So, Western religion and commercialism are a part of the same deceptive illumination. If someone asks, what is the false light in spirituality? Now you know what to tell them!
The True Light
Exploring your consciousness is the only sure way to illuminate your inner truths. Many indigenous cultures center their efforts around this inner journey. These early explorers are pioneers of consciousness and awareness. So, not all religions sell counterfeit spirituality. Some Eastern religious traditions are gatekeepers of spiritual technologies for exploring consciousness. We salute those traditions that preserve and keep this knowledge pure.
So, just because someone dresses in religious garb and fine robes doesn’t mean they provide spiritual truth. Their self-deception is complete, and they firmly believe the lies they spread.
“Every one of the world’s great religions utterly trivializes the immensity and beauty of the cosmos. Books like the Bible and the Koran get almost every significant fact about us and our world wrong. Every scientific domain — from cosmology to psychology to economics — has superseded and surpassed the wisdom of Scripture. Everything of value that people get from religion can be had more honestly, without presuming anything on insufficient evidence. The rest is self-deception, set to music,” — Sam Harris
In contrast, for many others, being spiritual means living a life that exhibits man’s higher virtues of the spirit. It’s not what you believe but what you do with your life that counts. It’s not about being part of an exclusive club but promoting equity and equality for everyone.
Here, spirituality relates to processes that expand awareness. Instead, it’s about consciousness and spiritual development, not adherence to dogma. These are spiritual technologies of spiritual exploration.
Spiritual exploration is the use of processes that open the doors of consciousness. We can summarize these tools in four categories:
You don’t need a religion to use these methods; they are available to anyone that can follow a process.
In Conclusion
What is false light in spirituality? It is anything that doesn’t illuminate our path for inner exploration. It is superstition and mythology masquerading as a counterfeit for an authentic journey.
References
(1) Brainwashing Techniques, Wikipedia
(2) Abrahamic Religions, Wikipedia
(3) The Catholic Encyclopedia and International Work, Vol. 13 (1907)
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