The Prisons of Belief

It is an intriguing and persuasive metaphor, the notion that a belief can be imprisoning, and one I’ve often hinted it when discussing “belief systems”, those religious, cultural and political ideologies that millions of us humans are partial to. They provide the categories, definitions, boundaries, rules and regulations that allow young egos to feel safe and calm while leaving small gaps to let off the steam of minor irritations and rebellion. Nation states, both democratic and authoritarian, religions, liberal, evangelical or fundamentalist, economic systems, free market or heavily controlled, educations disciplined or sloppy, societies emphasizing individual values or those of the collective, they all have their playgrounds with varying degrees of enforcement and flexibility. And they all provide training wheels and blinkers to keep their members on what many assume are “tried and true” paths.

But as the gruesome conflicts of history have taught most of us the value of peaceful coexistence as we pursue our individual aspirations, our reaching out to rebel is performed offstage in tune with colleagues and trusted friends. The only cart we’re overturning is our own. And as the golden rule of treating others as we would like to be treated has, in its varied forms, demonstrated its innate wisdom we rarely if ever discard that.

Yet for those of us pursuing the inner journey of spiritual discovery those systems of beliefs act more as annoying restrictions on individual expression and creativity than useful guidelines. As we progress in our chosen paths of development we see all too clearly those norms and guidelines hem us in and hold us back. We eventually learn to become spiritual anarchists. Not political anarchists out to destroy societal structures of justice and elected authority but spiritual mavericks making up our own paths through the thickets of beliefs overgrown with the endless rule makers and guidance counsellors convinced we need their assistance.

Our journeys are often littered with the various belief system cast-offs, that psychic luggage we finally realized was there after years of self-examination, and seeing how easily we could do without it, how much it lightened that load, and furthermore, how lightning that load was part and parcel of becoming a light being, ascending into the light body as some would have it, to leave behind the gravitational pull of the physical plane with its insecure settlers and fly free into the mysteries unfolding on those horizons beyond the sanctified and approved.