The level of myth and folklore in popular culture determines the health of a society. Common sense spiritual discernment is a tool we cultivate. It helps us determine fact from fiction in the cultural narrative. This skill set requires balancing logic and spirituality. You can do it!
Our worldview contains the rules that determine how we value perception. If your worldview is tainted with harmful bias and prejudice, it will alter your values and thinking. Logic and rational thinking help you identify these unhealthy thought scripts so you can remove them. Our intuition and instincts can also alert us to misleading tactics and help keep us from being taken advantage of.
Balancing Logic and Spirituality
Logic and spirituality are not opposites. Logical and rational thinking is the use of common sense and evidence to analyze things and derive conclusions. Spirituality is the study of the spirit or soul. The spirit, in modern terms, refers to the observer of our experience. It is the awareness behind our consciousness.
The study of logic improves the accuracy of our investigation of spirituality. (1) It helps us discern between facts and fiction. Spirituality has nothing to do with myth and folklore. Myths are metaphors and analogies that are used to explain concepts. Folklore is superstition, which is often based on myths.
The key is learning the practical steps for spiritual discernment, which is the combination of logic and intuition. It’s easy to do. Spend equal time cultivating critical thinking skills along with intuition, instinct, and self-awareness.
Balancing logic and spirituality is about creating harmony between mind and spirit. We use logic to filter out inaccurate and biased information. Then, we tap into our intuition and gut instincts to confirm our thinking. Breaking free from religious rules gives us a pathway beyond religion. It is the path that leads to growth and enlightenment — these are the goals of spirituality.
Myth and Folklore in Popular Culture
A myth is a fictionalized story that illustrates a principle using compelling imagery. It is a metaphor explaining an idea, concept, or position. Folklore refers to stories or traditions that are widely known. Myths and folklore can become powerful forces in a culture, even if they are untrue or harmful.
The difference between a cult and religion is popularity. A typical cult has less than 100 followers. Once you gain more than 100 followers, you start to become more socially acceptable. At the point you reach at least 1000 followers, then you can call yourself a religion.
It’s quite simple, really. The greater the amount of myths and folklore in a culture, the more power they have. The more power myths and folklore have, the less healthy the culture. This is because folklore and myths metastasize like cancer in what we call religion. Religion is a system based on myths and superstitions designed to create cash flow and control.
The Problem Treating Myths Like Facts
The problem arises when you mistake myth and folklore for facts. The family of Western religions is based on this error. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are what you get when you rebrand religions based on the misinterpretation of myth. You see, these religions are just copies of the dying-god cults.
These cults are from ancient mystery religions found in Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and Persia. They contained many contradictory elements along with the evolution of superstitions and myths. When the Roman army conquered these regions, they rebranded these religions. They didn’t disband them because they were effective cash-flow machines.
Judaism was the earliest Western religion to emerge. It collected many of the texts from Babylon for its holy books, the Torah and Tanakh. However, it is a cult based on ethnic lines rather than belief alone. Christianity created its own version of holy texts but focused on the dying-god cults like Mithra and Dionysus. Islam, like Christianity, started with the texts collected by Judaism. It followed suit with Judaism in creating a cult based on Arabic ethnic lines.
You can see the effects of myth and folklore in popular culture when you look at societies controlled by religion. The most oppressive and violent cultures are Theocracies. These are governments that use religion as the basis. They don’t want you to seek a pathway beyond religion. In fact, many have harsh penalties for those who don’t adhere to their religious dogma.
This list includes Vatican City, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, and Afghanistan. Middle Eastern countries dominated by Islam openly discriminate against women. They create a culture of fear against any non-believer. Yes, the Vatican is included because it has sponsored holy wars like the Crusades of the Middle Ages and subsequent witch hunts.
Common Sense Spiritual Discernment
We are spiritual beings, so if you want to get technical, every decision we make has spiritual implications. Even common decisions, like which apple to pick out at the store, have both intended and unintended consequences. Finding a pathway beyond religion opens your life to a whole new level of possibilities. When you are free to think, you’ll understand just how limiting religion really is.
One of the problems we have in society is being bombarded with propaganda that is trying to influence our decision-making. You pick an apple because you recognize the brand from an advertisement that claims it is the best. But is it really better than others, or is this just a ploy to get you to buy their brand? Advertising affects the decisions we make about philosophical, religious, or political messages.
Groupthink Manipulation Tactics and Propaganda
Many messages that are tainted with bias and prejudice are designed to elicit an emotional response. Strong emotional responses can sway your decision-making. Creating an emotional connection to the message is a key factor in groupthink manipulation tactics. These tactics are effective in keeping us from breaking free from religious rules.
Groupthink manipulation methods are age-old tools of mind control. They include propaganda, which are misleading and biased messages. It also employs groupthink tactics, which use peer pressure and reputation to promote behaviors.
Groupthink manipulation tools also provide a link to self-hypnosis tactics. You will follow the crowd and get caught up in the emotion even if it violates your moral compass. All of these tools are used in groups where emotion is the underlying tool. The most powerful emotions for promoting violence are fear and anger. It is why rallies and gatherings with high emotional intensity often end in violence.
Even celebrations like those of the Super Bowl promote violent outbreaks. Avoiding environments where these groupthink tactics are used is important. Remember, these tools were invented with the specific purpose of controlling behavior. So, religious and political events that are designed to evoke emotions should be avoided.
Learning to discern messages with this intent will help you avoid being influenced. To spot these kinds of messages requires common sense spiritual discernment. You must be present and aware of the context and situation surrounding the message.
Myth as a Cultural Reflection of its Health
The health of a culture is reflected in the way it treats those with the lowest social standing. An unhealthy culture creates myths and superstitions to target those marginalized. The LGBTQ communities are examples of groups systematically targeted and oppressed.
What myths does your culture promote about people experiencing homelessness? What kinds of jokes are promoted about those who have non-traditional lifestyles? What superstitions does your culture create around those who do not follow traditional role models? What kinds of behaviors do these myths promote? Do they not all promote fear and anger ending in violence?
When myth and folklore in popular culture promote harmful behaviors, they cause culture fracture. When a culture fractures, it results in increased tension and conflict. The use of common sense spiritual discernment helps people see these effects. When a reasonable person sees that the effects of the values harm others, they will change their beliefs.
Breaking Free from Religious Rules
Breaking free of religion means leaving behind the constraints of antiquated religious beliefs. The problem here is religious believers don’t see their religion as a harmful cancer to society. They blame the violence and discrimination on the extremists.
There must be something wrong with the system if those who follow the tenets of the religion the most closely are those most likely to act violently. If breaking free from religious rules is considered a crime punishable by death, the religion is flawed and dangerous.
The stories of Buddha, Mohamed, and Jesus are myths that became religions. If you read their stories, you will see a common thread. They condemn organized religion. Many influential teachers tell us to forge our path, not to follow popular teachers or organized religions.
The Historical Perspective of a Pathway Beyond Religion
Jesus of the modern Bible was a Jewish scholar. However, Jesus was not a Christian. Although a scholar of Judaism, his spiritual awakening happened in the wilderness alone. The wilderness is where Jesus found enlightenment. He admonished all those who followed organized religion to leave it behind. Many scholars don’t recognize Buddhism as a religion. It encourages people to avoid self-indulgence and denial.
Buddha’s most essential teachings are The Four Noble Truths. The First is acknowledging that suffering is non-discriminatory. The second truth is about how attachments cause suffering. The third truth is that our suffering will end, and the fourth is the path of truth will take us to the end of suffering. We need to find it. However, the way to do this is not abundantly clear. These truths provide hope that suffering is an element of life, but it is temporary.
“The wisdom we find in the stories of the great avatars and sages can help us if we understand the legends of God as metaphors and analogies. Many ancient stories contain wisdom pointing us to the transcendent. Apollo, Jesus, Mohammad, Mithra, and Zeus mirror the same Hero’s Journey in different ways.” — Guru Tua
It makes you wonder. Do Christians and Muslims believe God gave them their holy texts by divine inspiration? Similarly, those who follow Mormonism believe an angel gave Joseph Smith the Book of Mormon. Crazy stuff.
All holy texts are self-validating. If a leader of a religion says God inspired their texts, then their believers must accept it. Since religious leaders speak for God, you cannot question this assertion. They explain away the errors and inconsistencies in their texts as our inability to understand the divine.
The need to believe overshadows the lack of proof. The metaphor of God becomes a mask. This mask blinds people to the facts behind the myths.
Forging a Pathway Beyond Religion
Tradition isn’t without purpose. The function of myth is to show how to go beyond religion. When we see myth as a cultural reflection, we have to choice to believe it or not. The imagery of the stories in most religions is an excellent mnemonic memory device. These stories are memorable because of their unique themes and characters. It helps us remember key points and lessons within the legend.
Myths are used to preserve and communicate lessons. They can help us discover our spiritual truth. Myths can also influence the direction of the cultural narrative. Religion promotes myth and superstition to law. Many people disagree and think we should base society’s rules on facts and science.
All you need to create a pathway beyond religion are tools to explore consciousness. None of these use the belief in myth or superstition. Anyone can use them. You simply follow a process. You can learn most of them from reading an article. No need to join a religion.
— Critical Thinking Skills
— Tools to Enhance Self-Awareness
— Meditation Techniques
— Natural Healing Methods
The Hero’s Journey
Many popular spiritual stories have the same elements with different names. However, it’s the same pattern. It is this pattern Joseph Campbell calls the Hero’s Journey. (2) It’s our innate desire to explore the unknown. We have researched and conquered most of the planet. Many cultures also turned this need to explore inward.
It’s a typical pattern for stories that resonate with us spiritually. It is the call to forge a pathway beyond religion. You find this formula at the heart of the Bible or in movies like Star Wars. Creating a path of your design is the only way to spiritual freedom.
In Conclusion
The use of common sense spiritual discernment of myth and folklore in popular culture is imperative. Both logical and intuitive skills are needed to recognize harmful bias and prejudice in the cultural narrative.
There is nothing wrong with myths and folklore. They tell us how ancient cultures used metaphors to explain reality. The problem arises when we mistake myths for facts. The purpose of myth is to illustrate a principle using a story and imagery. We can use these stories as roadmaps to create our path.
References
(1) The Spirituality of Logic-Based Therapy. MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute).
(2) Joseph Campbell & Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces.