The New Religion of Emotionalism | Redemption vs Salvation
“Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions. ― Elizabeth Gilbert
What is it that drives you? What are you seeking, and hoping to find? Redemption or Salvation?
Welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind podcast and today I would like to talk about “The Cyclic Rise of Emotionalism” and how this relates to Redemption and Salvation.
And without getting too bogged down in the psychology of the mind I will simplify this concept by saying that the spiritual movement attracts two basic types of seekers. Those seeking Redemption or Salvation; and the first type, which is the one I will discuss in this podcast are those seeking redemption.
The redemption seeker is an individual that either wants that personal emotional high that comes from the feeling of being saved, or are seeking an emotional way to erase their fears or even their past, and replace these fears with the good feeling of being personally redeemed. You could even say that what they want is for someone to give them a happy ending without the effort, whether that someone is a charismatic leader or a God.
If we were to analyze this from the evolutionary behaviorist perspective, then you would instead say that what they are subconsciously seeking is to worship the alpha archetype, and that this is an evolutionary tribal response that is triggered by the thrill of the emotional experience, a state where there is no conscious thought or choice, there is only the crowd reacting to emotion.
But whichever angle we come from in our understanding of this emotionalism and those seeking redemption, what we can agree is that for these individuals the emotional experience takes priority over what is rational or right action, and that their approach to truth comes from a subjective perspective.
The problem with this subjective emotional approach is that feelings become the highest priority, and truth becomes a subjective superficial and narcissistic spirituality, a spirituality that elevates emotion over just about every other consideration. A spirituality that is self-centric in its understanding, and although there is no measurable progress, there is the satisfaction of a fresh emotional high that can be created from any form of conflict drama.
Historically at least in the East, Polytheistic religions catered to this emotionalism, while in the west where monotheistic religions dominated, people seeking redemption where either driven to seek Christian groups that offered a direct emotional experience of their God or they formed modern Pagan revivalist societies. And this redemption approach in its most current form is expressed in the positive thinking movements, manifestation movements and the doctrine of divine love, nothing new just a modern twist on Polytheism.
As we move into the 21st century we are again entering into a new emotionalism cycle, and because of cultural and social changes to the structure of society people seeking redemption have also grown more vocal. Individuals that would have in the past been absorbed by charismatic spiritual groups are now filling the ranks of social justice organizations or they are turning to a Goddess-centered sacred feminine worship.
Lol, can you not see the irony of our dualistic nature, and how we switch from a masculine god to a feminine god, and we have practiced this game of musical chairs between the masculine gods and the feminine gods since the beginning of civilization. But sorry I digress.
Since we are currently in the midst of a new emotional cycle, and if we cast our minds back only a little further, the current rise of emotionalism might not seem so surprising after all. Only a hundred years ago, middle-class life in Britain and America was bathed in the gush of romanticism and the suffragette movement was also founded around this time. Reread the poetry of Swinburne or the orations of Daniel Webster, and glance at the paintings of Frederick Leighton. You will be shocked to find the same modern worship of the divine feminine staring back at you.
So when did this emotionalism creep into the philosophical and spiritual mindset of the modern era, was it with the gurus of the 1970s who taught that delving honestly into one’s feelings requires that one should simultaneously shut down the analytical and rational parts of the mind. Or was it with the rise of the second wave of feminism in the 1970s, where the term "feminist spirituality" emerged, or is this simply what I have already alluded to; a cycle that we inevitably transition through every 100 years or so.
And we should remind ourselves that in our most recent past, only a mere 90 years ago we also had the rise of emotionalism, and we saw the rise of Hitler’s National Socialist Party and Communism, which relied heavily on the radicalization of children through emotional manipulation and the formation of the idea that a grassroots community could save society – but instead this created a pack mentality among the young called the Hitler youth movement.
But whatever lights the fuse in this current rise of emotionalism is really per se, and just because the world has gone woke does not mean we should follow like sheep and comply. And to avoid being drawn into the drama of such a downward spiral, we need only stand apart from our own Blue Pill ideals, and if you don’t really think my option counts all that much, then maybe you might consider the words of Thich Nhat Hanh who said it more concisely. “Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path.”
Attachment to your ideals, your social beliefs and social pressures of the tribe, this is attachment, this is the foolishness of Blue Pilled thinking and this is what will drag you down into the gutter of emotionalism, and consume your precious awareness.
And as Oscar Wilde said “I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”
So are you seeking redemption or salvation?
But wait, I know what you’re going to say, redemption or salvation aren’t they used synonymously. But no… they are not really synonyms. The root of the word “salvation” is “save,” and the root of “redemption” is “redeem.” Redeeming yourself is very different from saving yourself. Saving yourself implies protecting yourself from corruption, or deliverance of the soul from sin and its consequences through right action or avoiding corruption of the self and thus the soul. Saving implies rescuing the self through your own efforts. But nothing more.
On the other hand Redemption, or the type of person that has a Salvationists calling, which is a confusing mix up of word meanings, is the kind of person that is seeking redemption through evangelism or the spreading of the message through preaching.
Of course redeeming yourself, is more than just rescuing yourself by saving others. Redemption involves a price. If you redeem something, you are buying it back. If you redeem something, it is yours. But it always comes at a price.
And that price is an external price, something you pay to an external source in return for your salvation, and this is the catch, and why emotionalisms redemption is only temporary. Emotionalism relies on an external stimuli in order to save yourself, you have not built your own internal strengths that could protect you from corruption. In the place of this internal strength you instead relay on an external stimuli to sustain you, to give you courage, and you need a continual emotional input to sustain this courage.
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ― Plato
So that’s my view on the rise of emotionalism, and how humanity is trapped in this cycle of redemption and salvation. And why the current wave of wokeness is only an expression of an old cycle of redemption vs salvation which we seem to cycle through every 100 years or so.
I’ve enjoyed sharing my thoughts and my understanding of why emotionalism is the new normal, and I encourage you to explore and learn about yourself and to continue your journey, and If you have the time when let me know in the comments about your understanding of the spiritual path or how your journey has changed your life, and this is important not only to me but also in helping others in their personal journey.
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Here’s to you and your fulfilment and growth into every tomorrow to come.
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Related posts:
Impeccability of Stalking Awareness | Understanding the Over-Evolved Ego | Where Do Our Thoughts Come From | Zhuangz’s Butterfly Dream is a Red Pill Metaphor | What is Rational Thinking: Rational Side of Awareness | The Truth About Spiritual Enlightenment: Truths, Distortions, Fakes
References
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