Spirituality has a controversial image, at least in Germany and in the English-speaking world.
The problem here is that there is no structure and no reliable guide that spiritual seekers can use for orientation.
Instead, online searches and spiritual literature reveal a wide variety of authors, individuals, and groups. It is often unclear where these concepts originate or who these people are.
As Lynch (2007) notes in his analysis of new spirituality, the flood of information has led to a confusing landscape in which traditional authority structures have dissolved and self-proclaimed experts often present centuries-old concepts without historical context. This development makes it difficult for seekers to understand where the teachings come from and how authentic the various online authors and spiritual groups actually are.
As a result, many people blend their own concepts and interests. There seems to be no filter or “gatekeeper,” so any concept can become part of collective spirituality. When someone begins to explore the core concept of spirituality, they inevitably encounter teachings that focus on “invisible beings,” “new dimensions,” or “eternal life.”
The point isn't to stubbornly oppose all these ideas.
People with spiritual beliefs describe certain real-life events in their own way. For example, concepts of dimensions describe human consciousness in its infinite depth, often focusing on the subconscious.
And concepts of karma describe phenomena related to genetics and collective origins.Much of what is said about spirituality has a grain of truth to it, but it is often the attempt to explain it that falls short scientifically or is even dangerous -600">will be.
Consciousness researcher Prof. Dr. Thomas Metzinger of the University of Mainz argues that spiritual traditions often provide precise phenomenological descriptions of states of consciousness, but interpret them through metaphysical explanatory models that are not empirically tenable.
This is the point at which people who are, for example, scientifically oriented, can no longer follow and turn away.
Yet spirituality actually offers a good starting point for scientific integration. If we view spirituality as a form of self-exploration that begins with the self and then extends universally, it is not a concept but a method for understanding areas that remain largely inaccessible to humanity.
But to get back to the spiritual “scene”: Here, one often encounters concepts that are primarily adopted by the U.S. government
hover:dark:text-blue-300 hover:text-blue-500 lmt__words_highlight">have been turned into a bogeyman. In the process, concepts associated with extraterrestrials (keywords: Greys, Anunnaki, or Illuminati) are even projected onto them, often suggested subconsciously. --l --r hover:dark:text-blue-300 hover:text-blue-500 lmt__words_highlight">This constitutes a form of unconscious manipulation that readers are often completely unaware of. The German government, too, is all too often portrayed as the enemy here, -2 border-green-100 dark:border-green-500 dark:text-green-300 lmt__write_highlight relative text-green-600">which fuels paranoia. People who were really just looking for inner peace and clarity end up becoming part of a dangerouslight">Ideology - conscious, unconscious, or only "partially" unconscious.
Studies show that the need for cognitive control and the search for spiritual identity often lead to the internalization of “dark elites” or extraterrestrial powers as manipulative bogeymen, which fuels spiritual paranoia (Ward & Voas, 2011). This creeping ideologization leads to “the search for truth turning into a Manichean worldview in which state institutions are perceived as existentially evil” (Asprem & Dyrendal, 2015).
It is then not surprising when governments take action. At the very latest when the pursuit of “unconditional love” is accompanied by the cultivation of an enemy image in governments, government bodies no longer know what they are actually dealing with.
This is not about altering the precious values of the many spiritual teachings. Truth, honesty, and light are things that cannot be compromised. However, it becomes dangerous when people assume that spiritual truth - the true self - is reforming its own politics and calling for a struggle for external freedom. Exploring the dark sides of governments is not part of spiritual self-discovery. For such extreme concepts are dangerous not only because they can cause mental illness, but also because they can turn seekers into political enemies.
Governments, which are supposed to ensure people’s safety, are viewed with suspicion, and people’s trust instead goes to those who pursue their own interests and prey on the vulnerable, manipulating them by exploiting their fears and traumas for spiritual gain.
There is certainly some level-headed literature in the field of spirituality. Yet it is almost impossible to avoid coming across ideas that somehow fuel paranoia and instill fear.
Even seekers who, for example, believe in the existence of angels and want to learn more about them have, at least once, come across concepts that also mention “dark, evil beings.” Now these people have no choice: they must accept everything that masquerades as “spiritual” and figure out for themselves what the truth means. This is a psychological challenge and often leaves seekers with psychoses when their own unconscious problems are misinterpreted. One does not need to imagine an invisible being to interpret other people’s unconscious negative or hostile feelings.
Within spiritual teachings, there are many concepts and ideologies that are far removed from the true goal of self-discovery.
As a scientifically minded person, one is certainly justified in asking whether there is more within one’s own consciousness - or even in the universe - than our current knowledge reveals. Yet the journey through spiritual literature resembles a card game whose outcome is not always clear.
Spirituality is by no means meant to be misrepresented here. Spiritual teachings have a uplifting and positive effect on people’s lives. Many are also blessed by their faith, just as members of religious communities are.
This “resource orientation” enables seekers to integrate transcendent experiences into their daily lives as a source of inner strength and ethical guidance (Utsch, 2005).
It is not necessary to dwell on concepts involving malevolent entities or to engage with concepts that fuel paranoia - unless that is your personal goal. However, if your goal is to glimpse your true self, all you need to do is recognize your own shadow aspects. To do this, there is no need to conjure up invisible, sinister beings that play the devil.
The devil that people are being made to fear here is not a power beyond our control - at least not on an inner psychological level. The devil is a description of the observer, and this definition varies from person to person. The image of the classic devil with animal horns and a red, snarling face is merely a symbol, not a real entity. If the devil were real, he would not conform to our uncreative thoughts and have animal horns and hooves, but rather an appearance that does not correspond to our worldly, evolutionary adaptation.
In analytical psychology, the devil is regarded as an archetypal projection of the individual and collective shadow - that is, repressed psychological aspects that are externalized in anthropomorphic images (Jung, 1951).
The devil exists, no question about it, but not as a supernatural being, but as a human being. If we absolutely must classify him, he would be...
:dark:text-blue-300 hover:text-blue-500 lmt__words_highlight">the devil is human greed. For it is greed alone that has since driven people to go farhover:dark:text-blue-300 hover:text-blue-500 lmt__words_highlight">rhin leads us to commit acts that bring suffering upon us all.
Hate is a reaction to hurt and an evolutionary lesson that you cannot inflict suffering on someone if you are superior to them. Yet hate is not the primary evil in this game; it is the messenger of greed. For it is greed alone that, even in ancient times, drove people to harm one another in order to acquire more resources or because they themselves did not have enough. Even criminal offenses all exhibit a primary tendency toward greed. The dopamine system wants to reach its goal “quickly and ruthlessly.”
In evolutionary psychology, greed is understood as a dysfunctional intensification of the acquisition of resources essential for survival, which is regulated by the mesolimbic dopamine system and, when dysregulated, leads to antisocial behavior and criminality (Buss, 2019). Hatred often functions as a reactive defense mechanism or as a tool for resolving resource conflicts, with “greed” serving as the primary motivational drive to violate social norms for one’s own benefit (Nell, 2006).
We are evolutionarily bound to greed because the “reptilian brain” cannot stop and endlessly craves “more.” So it is not surprising that factory farming is just one of many examples that illustrate our human greed. Although we as a species would certainly be capable of doing without meat, it seems impossible for us. We no longer kill just to survive, but now out of greed. We are literally demonstrating who the devil is. It is we who slaughter millions of animals, have nearly wiped out all species, and find ourselves in a perpetual conflict with one another, under the guise of nations and governments.
Our greed is neither a judgment nor a condemnation of ourselves, but simply our nature. The greatest step forward in our evolution would be if we learned to control our collective greed. Greed lurks in our brains and turns us into puppets of evolution.
From an evolutionary perspective, it is desirable to follow the EU’s political example in order to eliminate the very basis for war. In this way, the European Union demonstrates how security, achieved by renouncing the instinct of greed, provides true stability. Germany could certainly withdraw and have “more.” But it is precisely in this “more” that the world’s dilemma lies.
In evolutionary biology and game theory, the EU is interpreted as a system of reciprocal altruism that replaces the short-term “greed” for individual resources (defection) with long-term stability and collective security (cooperation), thereby increasing the chances of survival for all participants in a globalized world (Axelrod, 1984). While a nation acting alone promises “more” resources in the short term, studies on the evolution of cooperation show that such selfish strategies are unstable in networked systems and lead to destructive conflicts in the long run, which is why supranational institutions are regarded as a necessary evolutionary adaptation for pacifying large groups (Pinker, 2011; Klein, 2010).
If we want to fight the devil of the world, we must not provoke him too much. This does not refer to any government, but to the human brain. If we view the devil as the human brain, we understand that it is greedy.
Here we return to spiritual concepts that attempt to explain events: Thus, the “reptiles” represent the brainstem, which connects us to them evolutionarily and constitutes the greed - and thus the evil - within us.
Spirituality is the attempt to cognitively explain insights not yet scientifically understood through feelings. An attempt that often fails in the face of science.