Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG http://www.esonet.ORG 1

Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG
http://www.esonet.ORG
Prelude to a New Interpretation of Reality - 3
The individualistic approach: When a member of a primitive tribe fills an "office" — for
instance, by participating in a ritual dance, wearing the mask of a vitalistic god, and
feeling pervaded by the god's power — this experience does not permanently change the
consciousness of the person, who afterwards assumes his or her usual life. But the
possibility of wanting to retain the feeling of the experience and to build on it a "special"
status is present in human nature. The person may seek to maintain his or her subjective
identification with the power of the office, and this desire sets him or her apart from all
other members of the tribe. Feelings of separateness and superiority develop, especially if
the performance brought the performer into contact with a new or deeper level of power
which produced unusual or spectacular results. The tribesman then may claim this power
as characteristically and permanently "his own." He, as a "subject," possesses a unique
power. He may claim this possession publicly, and the claim may be accepted by admiring
members of the tribe. He is then "the one" person having such a power. But being still
strongly conditioned by biological drives, he is likely to want to extend the scope of the
power and to pass it to his progeny. Hereditary claim is laid, not only to the power itself,
but to its possession as a social factor.
More generally speaking, the feeling of being a unique individual, set apart from other
persons (who are not so distinguished and do not possess the power) gives rise to the
dualism of subject and object. The person as subject possesses objective, demonstrable
powers; they are "his" and he can use them as he pleases. "This is my pleasure," says the
chieftain, who rules "his" people and land. Soon the minds of philosophers or religious
leaders feel the need to justify such a situation with the image of a personal God who
possesses all imaginable powers and uses them as a "Play" (lila) to create the universe, His
universe. Mind always works two ways: it interprets the results of activity, and these
interpretations facilitate the spread of the activity by giving it the "sanction" of a coherent
rationale. The mind performs this service by analyzing new situations to "discover"
structural or essential factors ("laws"), then by deducing from these factors new ways of
maximizing their power (technology).
The moment a human being performs a new kind of action, feels elated by a new sense
of power, and adds to the feeling of elation the thought, "This is mine, uniquely mine," the
mental image of "I" arises — "I," a subject possessing a power to alter an objective world;
"I," a subject owning objects that can be used, transformed, and destroyed. This
realization is highly intoxicating. It is also the origin of the vast variety of conflicts
inherent in most, if not all, of the systems of social organization human beings have
devised, from the most capricious tyranny to the most benign democracy. It has led to the
glorification of the subjective factor and devaluation of the objective world (nature). This
in turn has inspired many systems of metaphysics and monotheistic religions, particularly
in medieval India and Europe. These systems had to develop because they were needed to
provide a foundation and justification for the slow and inherently stressful individualistic
transition between the biologically dominated vitalistic type of consciousness and activity
and the new (and mostly future) level of evolution which I call the Pleroma state.
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