The new worldview shows one is very closely connected with one’s personal world. And this means we are the captains of our fate. We can bring about the most marvellous things if we really work together. Human cooperation is what brought us to rule the planet. Now we discover we are doing a really bad job of that. We might even crash the system we depend upon to exist. And most of us agree something should be done, but how?
When we all understand the nature of the personal world, we are very much more inclined to live a life of enlightened self-interest. And when we understand the drastic implication in regard to the next life, we urgently wish to do so if we can. The result is the transformation of human nature, evolution beyond pure egoism. The reward is out of this world.
Transformation
In primitive cultures, cooperation and mutual support are naturally required for success in the close-knit group. This gives rise to the cohesion that is essential for survival. Then, as large, diverse, social structures developed in the world of civilisation and science, religion took up the imperative of maintaining guidelines of human action. Love thy neighbour as thyself, enlightened self-interest, doing well by doing good. But this was never entirely successful and religion is now in decline. The moral guidelines have been largely abandoned, even by many who identify as religious. The new worldview restores this essential imperative.
Our modern civilisation has drifted a long way from the ideals of enlightened self-interest. Ecological breakdown is just one of a number of potential man -made Amageddons. Collectively, the human culture is exhibiting the hallmark symptom of severe clinical depression – contemplating suicide.
In the absence of religious principles there is little incentive to live in any way but self indulgent. He who dies with the most toys wins. But the new worldview shows us this is a terrible mistake. This is endlessly overdrawing on the karma account. Every action that disadvantages another person is a wound in the personal psyche, the mind that defines the future probabilities.
In this case, the only sane and sensible approach to life is taking the other people in the world into account, at least in principle. If one accepts the implications of the new worldview, we all would like to be good. Naturally, giving up as little as possible! In the light of the new worldview we can do so with complete conviction.
Spiritual Tradition
The great spiritual traditions going back thousands of years were right in so many ways. Prayer works because it is affirmation, and this promotes confirmation bias in the personal world. And visualisation makes it all the more effective. Karma operates because the conscious subject and their world are not separate entities. And this means that the unconscious expectations generated by actions and intentions operate in the same way as deliberate visualisations. The further major concept of the fundamental spiritual principles is also demonstrated by the new physics. Not only are we effectively immortal, but we are headed for a heaven or a hell, and all of our own making. So in all these ways the great traditions were on the right track. But none of it is to do with the judgement of an almighty deity. This is simply how the universe operates.
The great myths are grounded in intuitions that have a true basis in reality. The experiencing consciousness a property of the universe as a whole, as stated by Chalmers. This is described in Consciousness. The consciousness is spirit, the vital, universal, animating principle. And this leads to the immortality of the mind as a natural conclusion. So when the body dies, the being ‘in here’, the mind, the ‘soul, passes on. And you awaken in the next life.
It means we are headed for a heaven or a hell, and all of our own making. So in all these ways the great traditions were on the right track. But none of it is to do with the judgement of an almighty deity. This is simply how the universe operates. Which version of the next life one comes to is defined by the karma generated in this one.
The soul, karma, immortality and the power of intent are all real operational principles. As held in the Pagan religions, we are triune, body, soul and spirit. Religions added a God to be worshipped and feared, but the great sages of antiquity simply acknowledged a single principle of cosmic law, what we now call natural science. As described here, the central spiritual principles are fully explained by the new physics taken at face value.
When we understand the very personal nature of the world, so many things finally make sense. There is no God in the objective reality sense. Of course. Only that which has been observed is determinate, and everything else is to some degree indeterminate. By definition, dogma is not determined by any observations. Ironically therefore, the claim that a dogma is definitely true is by definition false.
The New Age
With this in place nothing is impossible. All kinds of new opportunities become real, possibilities currently unimaginable. This is the ideal society of order and inner peace endlessly imagined, a fabulous, mythical, supposedly lost age. But the culture of enlightened self-interest is a perfectly feasible future. It is a natural consequence of understanding who we really are and how reality actually works. This is the new culture, the human world of empowered individuals.
The spiritual path means taking full responsibility for one’s world. Just as with the transition from youth to adult, which opens many possibilities, this transition gives rise to extraordinary freedoms. We know who we truly are. And we know karma is a real phenomenon. And we stop getting in the way of ourselves. And we steer our worlds gently as best we may. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Life is everlasting, and that changes the meaning of this spell on Earth. This is spiritual kindergarten. Much to learn, and much about which to be joyful. This is the spiritual transformation. The cultural transformation is the effect.
The next main section is Scientific Revolution.