It’s 1000 BCE and the tribe living across the mountains is considering its future. It was a simple village that lived in harmony with the seasons and each other. Everyone in the village took responsibility for themselves but was also generous in their support of others. They knew that life had meaning when it was lived in connection to the ‘all.’ An onlooker would have called this balance between the practical and energetic elements a ‘religious way of life.’
But change was afoot…
The executive team over in hut number one felt the responsibility for the survival of the tribe and were wanting to earn some extra cash to support the tribe. They already had corn, fabrics and sheep that they sold to other tribes, but this was dependent on the weather and seasons. They had no control over the seasons, so they looked for something with a more consistent stream of income.
As they looked around, they noticed that some of the tribe were a superstitious bunch, feeling at the mercy of the weather and given to pleading to the gods for their good fortune.
The new product was clear – if they could SELL safety they would be on to a winner, if they could sell external salvation, they would have struck gold.
They dispatched an ox to hut number six, asking the marketing team to find out how to sell salvation in a new form of religion. The team thought it strange to try to replace something that worked, but nonetheless set to crafting a plan…
Stage One – Fear and doubt
The team came up with ways to show the tribe that they didn’t know as much about life as they thought. They played up the fragility of life and the tribe’s lack of security, both now, in the future and of course in the ‘afterlife.’
The focus group testing showed that instilling fear was actually easy because people were innately sensitive, so a big enough outer threat to their security could destabilise people. Add to that the threat of eternal damnation of their Soul in the afterlife and they had people eating out of their hands.
Stage Two – Redirect Responsibility
Everyone knew that whilst working together delivered important dividends, each individual was ultimately responsible for their own lives. Generations had shown them that there is a cause and effect relationship with life. This meant salvation would be trickier to sell if the ultimate responsibility was within.
You can’t sell something someone already owns.
They then got a consultant from hut seven to help them workshop the problem and found their answer – what they needed were experts. If they created experts, their message would be beyond critique. The experts, of course, needed to be skilled at making others feel like they did not know enough.
Interestingly enough, the concept of ‘priesthood’ tested well. Many people were surprisingly keen to hand over the responsibility for their spiritual wellbeing to the direction of others.
Stage Three – Exclusivity and Belonging
Of course being a tribe, they knew that sticking together was important so they needed to look at how to get people to join this new group.
The subtle approach would be to invent or appropriate holidays and rituals that already existed and assign them importance in this new ‘religion.’ The less subtle but very effective way was to shun, shame and even torture anyone that didn’t want to join.
They knew that someone scared for their own survival would be easily ‘converted’ at the threat of being rejected. Some would just need more convincing than others.
Stage Four – Distribution Channels
This was trickier, as the product would only have a limited financial benefit in this tribe, so they needed to spread the ‘message’ to other tribes. The answer was to develop an emissary programme, where missionaries would be given power to convert, cajole and if need be torture others into ‘believing.’
Proud of their plan, the marketing team despatched the ox back to hut number one and awaited the response.
The executive team looked at the proposal carefully and though they were uncomfortable with the suggestions of force and even torture, they knew they had to pursue it for the benefit of the whole.
Little did they know that the tribe over the mountain had been hatching much the same plan.
For the next few centuries both tribes battled in often bloodied wars to prove whose religion was best at offering salvation.
Some in the tribes preached tolerance, encouraging co-existence of both religions; some got turned off religion altogether. Some felt there had to be more; they felt there was a connection to something within that was more innate and required less external control.
This group was rediscovering the original expression of religion, one which was based on a simple way of living that fostered an inner connection. They worked hard to explore the possibility that the religion that had been sold was very different to what they could feel religion truly was.
Of course this approach of feeling what true religion was, was an inherent threat to the existing powers. Many of this ‘new,’ but in reality, ‘old’ group suffered at the hands of both dominant religions. However they persisted, and whilst their numbers fluctuated, it was the years of bloodshed, abuse, cruelty and killing carried out in the name of ‘salvation’ that led others to ask the same questions and then also explore if there was a simpler ‘way.’
However, there would be no missionaries, and no conversion programs, it could only be a choice. All they needed to do was live The Way they had rediscovered and allow time for others to also remember that being religious was not the problem.
The problem was HOW people had been taught to be religious in life.
By Joel Levin
Further Reading:
Life is religion. What does that mean?
Religion & Religious Re-Defined
Religion is a living connection
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Once we align to the Truth of who we Truly are, which is within, our Inner-heart, Essence/Soul it takes us on a true journey that sets us on a foundation of Truth that’s full of evolution.
‘Many people were surprisingly keen to hand over the responsibility for their spiritual wellbeing to the direction of others.’ The big question is … why? Why are we so keen to hand over responsibility to others?
….. to not be responsible?
‘The problem was HOW people had been taught to be religious in life’. Wow, how many of us are willing to open to the truth of how much in the life we are living is ‘false’, is an illusion created to keep us from what is true and already known within. Very exposing – Thanks Joel, this sounds too familiar.
It’s interesting, if we were to be honest, the level of truth we do actually know. Even if we are born into an organised religion there are so many aspects of them that are unsettling to the body and how we feel that if we were asked the right kinds of questions, questions that demanded an honest response from the body and not the head, we could nominate very quickly what we know about them that isn’t right or true.
You can feel the plot to usurp the power of the masses quite clearly here, and that there can be no religion when it’s based on security. There is no need for security when one is connected to God, nor rules, beliefs or ideals, there is simply love and the joy and stillness of the soul.
Thank you for bringing into a small frame the vastness of the kind of corruption and manipulation that has been happening throughout history under the banner of ‘religion’, and doing it is such a fun and easily accessible way. There is a lot here to ponder on, as to what we have accepted and at times actively promoted over lifetimes and, as always what we have a choice to now drop.
So far away from the true harmony .. sounds familiar.
If we think we can buy salvation the question is what are we selling out to in this process.
We can only be manipulated if we allow it. We are very intelligent and capable of discerning situations, so when somebody lies and we believe, then there is something inside of us that wanted to believe. Something that was invested in for the lie to be true, and if that’s the case then we cannot blame another for lying, but only take responsibility for believing.
I think I was in the hut number one yesterday – I clocked a ‘problem’ and instead of giving enough airtime to feeling what I was feeling, I sought a solution. And what I can feel now is how insidious the evil is. We could be all earnest in our intention but anything that shortchanges our feelings in any way interferes with us being open to receive what is actually being offered. It’s hard to explain but there’s something in that movement that feels contra to our nature of responsiveness. It may appear ‘good’ even at times but takes us further away from our true truth.
My goodness Fumiyo, how many of us seek solutions over feeling a situation spherically and allowing awareness and understanding to drop in! We really are manipulated energetically far, far more than we realise yet our propensity to allow it exposes an arrogance in ignorance that we simply love to indulge in as a way to negate the responsibility we have to live and be all of who we naturally are.
I love your honesty here Fumiyo. How often do we seek solutions rather than the true truth?
We can be so easily led from what we know to be true by fear and retribution, it is insidious. Once we let go of our innate knowing, we are in the hands of the dictators and those that seek to control the masses.
I love this blog, it is so simple when broken down like this, and yet not something we really consider
Marketing is in everything and religion is no exception. I loved the humility of this blog but to be honest, this is the reality of religion. True religion will not impose and the few who feel and are connected to this are often judged and made to feel the odd ones.
’HOW people had been taught to be religious in life’ is a very good question and worth for everyone to ponder on.
This piece of writing is ingenius. A fun and playful overview of the absurdity of how we have used reinterpretation of religion to deny our natural and innate expression of the exact qualities which religious institutions then step forward and promise to help us with.
We all know it, those who speak the loudest are not necessarily the ones who know the most.
I’ve sat in Church, and listened to the message from the pulpit and been fascinated/horrified to hear a sales pitch weaved into the weekly sermon. Your blog Joel does a great job of on the one hand exploring the ridiculous state of organised religion and equally our relationship to it. Of course, we could choose differently!
It is true, religion does not have to have conflict and can be part of our natural expression once again.
Whenever I come back to read this blog I feel so silly and somewhat ashamed that I have fallen for the manipulation because when it is spelt out as you have done here, it seems so obviously a manipulation.
Safety sells ! That´s for sure. We all have bought into it in one way or another as we do not just like to survive but sustain what we have gained – mainly identify or identification, i.e. a certain version of individuality. This comes in numerous guises but in essence is always the same, we are attached to the individual taste it gives us and that is precious to us.
The religious way I know to be true was not the version I was taught or shown as I grew up and even today. But then so much of this world is not confirming of the truth we know from within. It’s no surprise that our world is out of sync, doesn’t make sense or is completely upside down if we are living multiple lies.
For a long time religion has been bastardised, it is crazy how something so simple, divine and true has been corrupted and lost i’st way. As Joel so beautifully presented, religion is not the problem, so it is up to us to reclaim the true meaning of religion and live this as very ‘normal’.
Feeling responsible for others and needing control in life are two big killers to a truly and harmoniously religious life.
A deeply profound truth, being religious is not the problem, it’s how we’ve been taught to be religious that is. Yes, for sure, and to come back within and connect to ourselves is the path of true religion.
In surrendering to being who we naturally and innately are, true religion is naturally lived. No set of rules or doctrines are needed as the intelligence of our Soul is what guides us to be at one with the divine order of the universe and God.
We only ever need a reminder to reconnect to that most innate internal guide if we have veered away from living and expressing our true essence. How can there be any prescribed rules, dogma and claims from institutions that they are the go-between when we are talking about a relationship with our own Soul.
For hundreds of years it has been obvious that the mainstream religions are not bringing us closer as a humanity, in fact they are dividing us more and more.
I love the humour in this blog because it allows us to be able to laugh at exactly what we have bought into.
The problem with religion started when it ceased to mean what it truly means and to represent what it truly represents to become a product aimed at controlling others.
And to come back to that absolute and very personal relationship can be so so simple.
The true evil is always in the reinterpretation of religion and never in true religion itself.
Yes precisely, as in living impulsed by our Soul, only true religion is lived, in which there is no space for evil to exist.
Religion has been sold as a commodity for a long time now yet religion is not something to be bought and sold as it is simply us in relationship to life, each other, ourselves and God.
Such an accurate deconstruction of how we have twisted life Joel, away from the simplicity of living our light. Stepping away from the science of the universe can only result in separation and great harm.
And it is useful to remember that it was us who also created the institutions that endorse and ingrain such a twisted relationship with life. It is time to stop giving our power away and settling for a fraction of the glorious expression of our true essence.
We have a source, we have a moment of wonder, then we have a moment of fear about not being able to maintain that wonder, keep it, control it, so we change that wonder to something we can control through inciting a fear that we will lose it. Mmmm poor logic but a pattern that we seem to repeat over and over again.
Religion has this divine aura; the perfect hideout for the countless abuse carried over our fellow humans.
We clearly fear being on our own both physically and emotionally so much more than we are willing to admit. There are some teenagers who push harder than others and are often called trouble makers, but I am starting to see just how smart those who question ‘norms’ are, not to be obstreperous, but to question till it becomes something they feel at ease with.
And this ladies and gentlemen, is how it was done.
True religion has no coercion, no violence, no separation, it has choice to connect to the divine within us and reflect that lovinging-ness and living-ness out to others, so that they have the freedom to choose that way of livingness or not.
The ‘energetic marketing crew’ has done a great job of selling that there is a problem with being religious. Most people cringe at the word and rightly so through their experiences with religion. This makes it even more important for those who live religion through their practical connection with their soul, to show that living a religious life is nothing like what we have been sold.
Through learning and researching about the past, I get the sense that absolutely, human beings have always known that there is a multi-dimentionality to life. And much of what has been left behind often shows the ways that this deep knowing has been taken advantage of, at times manipulated and often bastardised. But nothing strays us from the truth that there is a greater sphere we all live within.
Yes, there is a deep knowing that we live within a greater sphere and it is what causes the unease we so often feel. It is so wrong to make people feel they don’t have a choice and they are not free to choose. Coercion and bullying just tells me there is a need to justify your religion rather than respecting the free will of all.
When we attempt to control, to instill fear, we create chaos and we destroy the harmony that is natural to us. It’s about what we allow, and whether we are willing to be responsible, for if there is any inkling of wanting to hand that over to others we will be fooled … it’s for each of us to see that.
The blog in a light hearted way absolutely exposes the evil of manipulation and how that can occur when we hand over responsibility.
Amazing expose, ‘selling safety’ over our personal responsibility we wait for someone else with ‘more’ authority to ensure it happens. This is the way of organised religion, it is disempowering in it foundation.
I am amazed when I read the way you have expressed about the false religion with its separation, disempowerment, fear and then offers of salvation, how I could have bought into its lies. I now know true religion lives within everyone of us and it is this connection to our divine essence that offers this to us.
I am with you – how could we have bought into the lies! But we did, and sadly they read us well because fear sells, fear of not belonging, fear of getting it wrong, fear for our safety, fear for acceptance, the list goes on and so does the manipulation.
“The problem was HOW people had been taught to be religious in life.” Exactly, mostly we are bullied into a religion before we have a chance to feel out the truth for ourselves. Maybe what you suggest Joel is a detour away from all the religious wars still raging.
Historically power and religion have gone hand in hand and there has always been a constant striving for overall power, however when we truly feel God in our heart, we understand that it comes from within, and we can adjust our lives to live with that connection that gives us a wealth of wisdom and love.
When an honest appraisal is applied it is clear what we have fallen for and the true impact of it.
A snapshot on how religion has changed over time. We often don’t think that it has or we assume that its always been as it is. Having said that we all know that religion is something that we hold very dear and deep within, no matter what our beliefs or our analytical mind says.
No wonder such sacred word has been destroyed over the ages.
“The executive team over in hut number one felt the responsibility for the survival of the tribe and were wanting to earn some extra cash to support the tribe”. There are two fatal errors of human behaviour in this sentence. Feeling responsible for others is a sure path to taking on too much or behaving with do-gooding or righteousness. The other is making choices based on security, in this case financial. You cannot be connected to your soul when you are fearful for your own or your tribes security.
A perfect scenario for how the word ‘religion’ has been misappropriated to firstly instil doubtt and fear and then sell something that is already innate and always will be.
Like ‘Chinese whispers’ over many thousands of years.
As humans most of us buy into the fact that we need more, bigger and better things and it is not surprising when we are taken away from the fact that we already have everything and we are everything. When we are taken away we need all the stuff and complications to distract us from what we actually miss and that is ourselves.
Yes, I would say the ache we feel about what we miss has us constantly trying to fill the void, avoid the tension and distract… a lot of activity to avoid the stillness or being complete in ourselves.
I would agree Kevin, most of us buy into the fact that we need more, bigger and better things… is this because we haven’t connected to our gargantuan essence, the part of us that is universal and we are trying to backfill, in a false way, what we inherently are by getting bigger, better things outside of us?
This feels very confirming – we have and are still making many detours, but we are to come back to what is innate to us. Our future has already been lived. We are only re-turning.
How interesting is creation: creating problems to then create solutions to.
So basically here we have the history of religion in it’s man made interpretation. A religion that is there to serve the tiny humans and their created needs. Needs that have only come into existence because we left the true religion that we hold within: our direct and very personal connection to God.
Joel I love how you write parabels with so many levels of understanding to them. Security is something many of us have fallen for and want at all costs – if we can get to a comfortable place in life then we will be ok is something I used to think. But then when we get there its not it, the tension abounds and we start to see the game we have been playing has not really gotten us anywhere. Only the love we know within will bring true contentment to the body.
When religion makes it about salvation it only means we lost the plot because what it is trying to save us from is fake; it is man-made.
No true religion can ‘rescue’ anybody. We can only ‘rescue’ ourselves through religion. But to do so, we have to understand where are we trapped and that can only be assessed through understanding the world of energy.
And there is the key – understanding that we are energetic beings and that this is not a far fetched concept but fact. I only have to look at the stars in the sky, the cells of the body and nature to know this to be a truth.
Religion cannot be something that is for sale, just like our breath cannot be for sale.
For in selling ourselves out we are effectively selling our soul
Supply & demand is an interesting concept – the demand we create is entirely determined by the way we are living – this can be either abusive or supportive for the body.
This is one of the best writings on religion that I have ever read. It tells the truth.
Whenever we step away from living in connection to our Soul, away from Brotherhood, we step away from living true religion. For a religious life is simply living in honor of the oneness that we are from, and in harmony with all and the cycles that we are a part of, as best we can. This is in fact our natural way of being, one that is always ready to be embodied and lived.
It is clear to see just how modern day religion is a marketing product, compared to the simplicity of life long ago that lived in and with respect of natural cycles and rhythms, both within man and in nature.
And may I add Susan, Miss-cellaneous, miss-adventures into many areas so they could miss-appppropriate (or is that miss-a-pope-riate) funds!
From a simple life to a more and more complex life. An apt description of the complications we create and then live by.
When religion gets complicated and a way of dominating others, it is clear that it has lost its true meaning, as religion has nothing to do with any external force that suppresses others to ‘represent’ any official truth. This is not religion at all, this is just imposition. Why should something that is inherent in every one of us be dictated?
Wow Joel you have done it again…. You have simply broken down how such a corrupt system has been not only accepted as society’s highest truth and of impeachable morality but has been a system that we have let override our vey own innate truth…..
This is a great example of how aspects of life that are pure and true can be taken up and turned into something that is a long way from their original essence. We always have a responsibility to discern the truth of what we engage with.
When we lose trust in what we can feel, we are then open to letting in fear and self doubt and so much more eg. comparison, judgment and complication and then how easy it is to be manipulated. We may deviate from the truth but in fact we know it inside out for that is our inherent way of being.
Truth cannot ever be sold, only lived. It is the essence of who we are.
Beautifully simple Liane, and yet very powerful.
‘Many people were surprisingly keen to hand over the responsibility for their spiritual wellbeing to the direction of others.’ – Yes, and all this ‘in the name of God’… when truth is that the Kingdom of God already resides within each and every one of us.
Religion has become part of ideals and beliefs, and the more we buy into that the easier it is to instil fear into those believers, when true religion is a way of living, that is not upheld by ideals and beliefs, but a true knowing from within.
Marketing can be done in a way that unites people through the endorsement of offering services and products which truly support or it can endorse services and products to meet what we desire in complete avoidance of stepping into more love and acceptance of ourselves and others.
A great understanding of how religion has got to be the way it is in dividing up the world and separating us all and a very interesting aspect of life to look at and at the division of truth and the oneness of us all.
‘The new product was clear – if they could SELL safety they would be on to a winner, if they could sell external salvation, they would have struck gold.’
I read this and I can feel I’ve still got the brochures on safety, definitely; external salvation is probably somewhere in the pile too. Great to feel how both I let in through letting go of my connection with God and the wisdom this connection brings. The wisdom to know if the rain doesn’t come for the crops why that is and address my part in this – not carry on being disconnected and trying to solve the issue without addressing the root cause.
TREMENDOUS! A lot of people failed at what you accomplished, simply because they were busy finding problems while you were busy finding solutions. Well done. I took a lesson. Thanks!
I agree. I find Joel to be a master of words/truth
We willingly give away our power by not listening to our own true way, resonating from within and then we have someone else to blame.
A playful fable exposing a sinister plot.
Beautifully picked up on and playfully highlighting the many discrepencies in the foundations of institutionalised religions.
A great and apt story on the reinvention of religion. We life in the arrogance that we have to invent and reinvent things all the while all that what we need and are is already there.
Yes, it’s all about thinking we are getting better. The quest for advancement ignores we are already it but don’t want to live or admit this. We play a game of overcoming obstacles that we put there in the first place, and then want to take credit and recognition for being the one able to move them out of the way.
Yes, this describes exactly how we go about life, instead of doing what needs to be done without a big fuss and creating issues where there actually are none.
Yes indeed, how many times have mankind reinvented the wheel…? We keep looking for distractions to not have to see that we are already everything.
“how many times have mankind reinvented the wheel…?” And we obviously know as how else would we have a saying like this.
We knew that life had meaning when it was lived in connection to the all, we doubted and thought we lost it, and then were sold a lie to be given a false version back? How ludicrous does that sound but it is horrendous how true it is.
Marketing is designed around meeting a market or consumer demand… It’s great to unpick the falsity in what’s been sold over the years around religion to honesty ask ourselves – why did we buy into it or even call for it in the first place?
And to think we have actually allowed that to be called Religion…
I know, how far from grace we have fallen….
‘The experts, of course, needed to be skilled at making others feel like they did not know enough.’ – Haha, hit the nail on the head Joel – and these skills, married with our own skills to make ourselves feel we are not enough, we were all an easy match.
Beware the so called ‘expert’ in any arena of life and learn to feel truth from the body.
This is happening in present every day life and not just in organized religions. Any person who condemns the livingness and clairsentience of oneself and others is doing the same. And yet if we know there is a way within us that works, we can see things as they are and continue living who we are.
I find it fascinating to tell people I’m religious and see the look on their face when I tell them I don’t follow any organised religion. It is so unheard of yet the most rewarding way of living.
And just like ice cream, it was marketed in many different flavours, all with aspects of the truth that were tantalising, but not whole and therefore easier to swallow alongside that which we know not to be true.
“You can’t sell something someone already owns.” to me this says everything, it confirms what i know in truth and exposes the level of manipulation we have to got to in order to get someone to buy into a version of truth that is not truth as the real truth is already with each person.
You have exposed how strange and unatural the organized religions feel when we return to our innate knowing which is true religion. What we know as the different religions existing seems to be nothing else than groups with individual interests and who are identified with certain concsiousnesses, having different images of God but lack of connection to truth and love.
The bastardisation of religion… stunning Joel!
‘instilling fear was actually easy because people were innately sensitive, so a big enough outer threat to their security could destabilise people. Add to that the threat of eternal damnation of their Soul in the afterlife and they had people eating out of their hands.’ Beautifully dissected Joel, mainstream religion is fear based on all accounts.
The question is why would you have to market something we already have. How can something that is absolute be made new and improved? It is that free will thing again, isn’t it!
Indeed Steve. If we are marketing religion, our own innateness that is already and always there, what and whom is benefiting from this and why?
“why would you have to market something we already have”, this is a great question to ask, but then many things we do do not make sense and yet we do them because, as you say, we can.
Its quite incredible how something outside of ourselves, can take us so much further away – not only from ourselves but our fellow brothers as well. Finding that… ‘…instilling fear was actually easy because people were innately sensitive, so a big enough outer threat to their security could destabilise people.” And yet, if we remain connected within, to that innate knowing within, none of the outer has any influence or impact on us… we can read if something is true or not – we know through our bodies, not through any words or actions offered by another.
It is through the bastardization of the word religion that many are simply put-off for the falsity and cruelty that man-made institutions have caused in the world always looking outside the self for something grander, but we can always find that which is truth within ourselves if we so choose and it is only then that we understand religion starts from within and is always in connection with the all.
We are lost as soon as we “think” we can bring a fix to alleviate any problem as our body feels more than we are currently aware of. So how we are using our body and mind together makes life simpler as our body is a receiver of energy. Could it be possible when we are aware of how energy works in our body we would all say that that would be the religion for me?? Energy first has always been the tenants of The Way of The Livingness!
Oh my how far we have strayed from the only true path. We are the great deceivers and the great deceived.
There is no doubt in my heart that The Way of The Livingness is Religion, the way it is meant to be!.
It feels very important that, from whichever angle we take it, a different perspective is gathered for how religion has come to be the way it is.
Such an amazing parable Joel, if we didn’t give our power away in the first instance we would never have fallen for the lies and fear of organised religion.
A beautiful confirmation that we teach by reflection and lived example, not by preaching. And it is definitely my experience that when I have learnt or realised something if I start zealously espousing about it, it tends to overwhelm or put people off.
Yes Matilda, simply live it and it can felt.
What a great sharing with the truth of all that has gone on in history shown so playfully, a joy to read and see the simplicity of it all when really all was known in truth and always has been with the magical religious way of life and living for us all.
Still we are living amongst the dark aftermath of man’s reinterpretation of religion and yet the spark within is forever there to be activated, expressed and moved, the simple in-spiration of true salvation.
It’s a great way to get anyone to question what they know by giving them something that throws them into fear and doubt. It’s a manipulative way of getting people to buy into whatever is being sold.
As soon as fear and doubt come in, we need something on the outside to save us, It is the slippery slope downhill to disconnection I have followed very well, but I now know there is a far greater way to be.
Gill ditto for some reason that always seems to paralyse me, like I loose all the knowing the trust inside and I look for the answer. Thats how I used to live so I would have been a buyer of the marketed religion in the past until the truth was so self evident I went to find something else that was marketed to solve my problems, like computer, food or drink.
The marketing campaign for religion has been well overshadowed by the marketing campaign against religion, the latter being very effective at turning people away from organised religion, as indeed it should. Organised religion has given religion a very bad name, and in contrast what the Way of the Livingness offers is that organised religion was never religion in the first place, and that true religion is a reconnection within each of us that guides our own way of living.
With all these marketing tools I can see how I was sold religion and how I bought them all even when I protested that what I’d been sold was fake – I still didn’t live what I could have connected to. Why? because it suited me, I got kick backs for buying what I already owned. Asking another to save me, waiting for the world to give me my dues meant I didn’t have to be responsible. I could go off on lambasting religion and God for the state of the world, use that as reason enough for the state of my life, and continue resenting how I had to sort it all out myself because I knew what was true.
Yes, I did know a little truth but so caught up in me versus the world, I didnt feel the support of God all around me. Putting down my fight and surrendering to this awareness means me letting go of what I had used as a means of being useful, of having purpose of fighting for truth. But I did so without love and this can be seen in my body, in my making life a struggle and separating myself from people and from the true religion I can have with God. Life can be a flow when I let go of needing to be identified through fighting adversity (!). Developing a loving relationship with myself and appreciating my qualities and the support we have access to 24/7 is life changing, not to mention being a true reflection.
The first step back is to recognise that we have actually stepped away and take responsibility for that. That can often be extremely uncomfortable and painful as we get to feel our irresponsibility, but it’s so worth it!
This scam of getting between a Son of God and the relationship with the Divinity that can be found within and calling this blocking a ‘religion’ established in the name of God, yet warring with all the other middle men that also staked their claim on this very lucrative piece of pie, is expose in this little parable for the absolute grab for power it is.
Brilliant Joel – how we have been duped and also how we have allowed ourselves to hand over self- responsibility and succumb to worldly falsities.
I love the way this blog points out how ridiculous, deliberate and conniving organised religion is.
It is easy to see how this set up is totally designed to corrupt community for the most invested each community invested in this scheme the less consideration they had for other communities around them. This is a significant point to observe within ourselves – How much do we block out or not see when we are in the desperation or want for something for ourselves.
What a great understanding of the marketing of religion Joel presented in a way that you do so beautifully with the truth and wisdom shared for us all. The Way of The Livingness is simply a religious way of life in connection with the all and there waiting for us as it is what we all know from the oneness we are.
It is so easy to get caught in worry and feel we have to take measures to secure our future, when we disconnect from the all-encompassing knowing of the soul.
A sound description of the words ‘religious’… “They knew that life had meaning when it was lived in connection to the ‘all.’ An onlooker would have called this balance between the practical and energetic elements a ‘religious way of life.’
I love exploring definitions of words and knowing I am getting close to the truth when I have a whole body response and ‘aha’ moment.
I do love how you make the madness so clear and obvious, showing how we willingly do not want to see!
Great insight here Joel. There is something to be acknowledge here as to how empowering it is to take the time to dissect corruption we feel in this way.
It’s interesting how susceptible we are when offered the opportunity of being irresponsible, especially when we are fed lies and accept these lies as a truth.
Don’t we love experts, experts inform us and keep us up to date, they take care of the complicated things that are beyond our scope, they make us safe and assured that we are in good hands, and that difficult decisions have a process for being dealt with, they understand things that are beyond our reasoning. Or do they? Aren’t we all in need of less experts and more reliance on our own expertise, our knowing of how to live, how would the world change if we didn’t sell out and give it all up for the experts and the evidence based decision making, the power plays and the corrupt processes. We have what we need and if we live in true community we are abundantly intelligent, sharing our expertise and committing to care and compassion in our lifestyles, not being led by something that doesn’t work for everyone.
For a large part of my working life I’ve collaborated with marketing teams. I’ve come to see that almost everything we do is a pitch – a moment where we are trying to sell something to others to convince them that it’s true. Sadly it’s even like this with us and our relationships too, we so desperately want to be liked or to get the job. But what The Way of The Livingness offers to us is there’s actually no need to be this way, it’s possible to just be us – real genuine, uncensored, raw and vulnerable. This is all we need to do. This turns the other sales pitches of what we think Religion is on their head and show the truth – it’s just us returning to our natural state. Thank you Joel for this powerful allegory that cuts through all the self-promotional guff.
“The executive team over in hut number one felt the responsibility for the survival of the tribe and were wanting to earn some extra cash to support the tribe.” This is a great example where feeling responsible for others or a certain cause can lead to some very dodgy behaviour. It implies a high moral ground of those who feel responsible. There is also a sense of inequality in the way that they view other people, as it says, ‘we know better’. I suspect many dictatorships have actually started from this point. For instance there would have been a hut number one that cooked up the cleansing of the German people in WW2, all for the betterment of the country and to improve their struggling economy.
Very true, Fiona. As soon as we take a moral high ground over others, separation kicks in and who knows what can happen from there.
Many have become lost in the ‘lie’ but the truth that every single person holds in their body, the true wisdom means that the lie will always feel like a lie – the way to return home is within just waiting for the green light to lead the way once again.
Joel, this is a brilliant expose of how we allowed ourselves to be orchestrated manipulated from a place of insecurity, because we have externalised life and end up at the mercy of outside forces. If we were true to our nature, that religion is within us, it is our true nature – then we would not be where we are today and definitely religion could not be marketed.
And the sad thing is that this is still reality today, people are still fighting over religious ideals and believes even though we all in the end are wanting the same love and harmony.
We need to look at the reasons why we want to walk away from connection to ourselves and the responsibility that brings, as with all things organised religion cannot supply something that is not on demand.
“They knew that life had meaning when it was lived in connection to the ‘all.’ When life is lived from responsibility to the all then all of our movements mirror a quality that reflects service and when others see this way of moving, the inspiration reflects to others a way of living that they to can move and express with. I have noted this at work with my staff and how we move towards one true purpose and in a way that feels supportive of all, then the natural qualities and skills of everyone is used for one amazing outcome and all are there equally. So very cool thank you Joel.
Great marketing point Joel. Why take responsibility for ourself when you can hand all responsibility over to a priest who will decide what is right and what is wrong or better still to a pope who has claimed himself to be infallible so he is always right? This way we can comfortably get rid of the pesky TRUTH altogether.
Beautifully and simply exposed, how we have twisted away from the truth of religion until today it would be unrecognisable to those who first connected to God and lived the simple truth of that connection – and yet it has never been lost because truth religion is everyone’s innate right
How did church (organised religion get so rich, properties, gold, land etc…this cleared explains what has been going on? To seek the answers from others through donations or force is not the answer to finding out more about ourselves, or finding that place in heaven, a lived way, is the way to live with heaven. Ownership and the picture of giving something to someone through false knowledge can be seen clearly in the development of organised religion.
Very powerful blog Joel! You are highlighting what mostly everybody innate know. That religion was not the problem at all but “The problem was HOW people had been taught to be religious in life”. It is time to ponder deeply on this fact.
Another amazing parable Joel. My favourite part today was to use insecurity to destabilise the harmony and connection people naturally feel. If you fear for your security, then you will look outside for someone to save you. Bingo! You have a false religion and dependent followers.
Absolutely no problem with being Religious as it comes from the Truth that we can all Live together equally!
This quirky parable really says it all about the evil of organised religion. They don’t call organised religions organised for nothing. They are very organised . . . like organised crime.
In terms of marketing religion – anything that can or needs to be ‘sold’ to us can only be a lie by virtue of the fact that we have all the entire wisdom of the Universe within us, embedded in every particle. Thus, all is known to those who realign themselves with all that is true. The real question is why have we put in a demand to be supplied with such a vast and utterly deceiving array of un-truths?
There is a resistance to surrender that means we are at the mercy of whatever can offer us protection from that which we fear most…vulnerability
Great parable Joel, one that illustrates how we did ‘choose’ to give our power away. That didn’t just happen over night. As you describe is was a calculated, measured and planned way in which we made choices to step away from who we truly are.
As long as there is the demand for the product, the supply will always be there.
The demand for security is still being fed by the ‘product’ of separation from the consciousness that is not love and responsible for supplying this division in the first place.
‘The experts, of course, needed to be skilled at making others feel like they did not know enough.’ This is the trick to give our own power away and rely on what experts has to say, why should we be responsible for ourselves and what we know when there are experts for every area in our life we can follow, quote and admire.
We give our responsibility over to the so called experts rather then surrender and connect to the universal wisdom that is available to all.
“instilling fear was actually easy because people were innately sensitive”, how divisive to twist sensitivity in order to instill fear rather than embracing and fostering sensitivity as part of connection and strength.
Interesting to ponder on – the link between being sensitive and being able to install fear. I know this well but for me it’s when I allow myself to be sensitive to a certain level and stop when I get a little unnerved by sensing something beyond my 5 senses. What then I know I could do is not to run away like a frightened rabbit but go deeper and feel everything. Because at that depth what I connect to is the we are held in God’s love no matter what ugliness is on the surface.
Fear is one of the church’s most potent weapons. Thus, the invention of Hell.
Fear and surprise, suprise and fear are their chief weapons.
You can feel a Joel Levin blog within the first few words….you are bridge builder,,,taking us all back to our truth.
I love the way you describe: “no missionaries, no conversion programs’. In fact when it is about remembering something that is innate within us, all that is required is for a true living reflection and honouring that others will remember and start living the way of their heart once more, in their own time.
‘instilling fear was actually easy because people were innately sensitive, so a big enough outer threat to their security could destabilise people.’ …. this manipulation of our sensitivity is particularly insidious as it’s the reaction to our fear that prompts us to surround ourselves with a suit of armour for protection. Thus, making it harder for us to be open to the absolute magic and divinity that surrounds us in life, and to share the enormity and exquisiteness of who we truly are.
We invest in the greatest desire, to live without responsibility, however it may look.. all to our own peril and that of others.
It’s funny to consider just how much marketing plays a role in all our lives, from the oldest times to the latest iphone no matter where we turn we are being persuaded. What I love about the way Universal Medicine presents is just that it presents the truth for us to feel and then its our choice to take the inspiration and change our lives or not. Yet its the one organisation worldwide that actually has the true gold we are all looking for.
The profit makers and the power seekers use religion as a political tool, and fear and survival are big components of this. Once we seek either profit or power, we have created a them and us situation instead of us being all one working together. Separation becomes a force and is extremely abusive, but oneness is power of the Divine working within us communally, and is Love.
There is a deeply ingrained perception in the human consciousness that life happens to us not from us.
There are many things in the world that capitalise on the trend for people to not want to take responsibility for their own lives and how they play out and religion in its current widely promoted form is one of these.
“… They knew that life had meaning when it was lived in connection to the ‘all.’ An onlooker would have called this balance between the practical and energetic elements a ‘religious way of life.’…” This is a palpable and tangible example of describing what religion means and looks like in the everyday… no special clothing needs to be worn, no special ritual with incense and chanting to be heard… just a simple way of living with awareness, with respect and decency with the All.
There is no control in true religious life, nothing but true liberating inspiration that develops true potential equally so.
I wanted nothing to do with religion as I had grown up with it, the word I thought of was repression, blood died and hypocrisy…but it is in the way it is taught, true responsibility, love and equality in a lived way can be felt, this is how it can be taught, through the reflection of a lived way, how can this be anything but harmonious and inspirational?
Marketing should be about bringing that which is truly needed by people to them by raising their awareness. We can do this in how we move every day.
This is a superb example of how, when we stop trusting in the love of God, we look to the material world to in order to salvage some security. When we truly appreciate the science of reflection and symbolism that this world presents to us, we will see that the weather and the way the planet behaves is a direct reflection of how we are choosing to live.
Joel, I love the steps you are exploring how doubt and fear were introduced in society and us.
It offers a perspective of how we create emotions and dependencies which are in truth not of our nature. Now to bring this understanding into life and to return to trust and openness.
“They knew that life had meaning when it was lived in connection to the ‘all.’” – this sentence says it all really. When I wake up in the morning and I have lost my purpose, it feels like there is no meaning to life and I set about seeking a meaning and trying to bring back my beacon. But any search from the outside leaves only disappointment. And until such time that I stop and just connect deeply within myself, only then do I connect with the ‘all’ and find my purpose again, and life blossoms in meaning and blossoms in the love and connection that I have and hold with everyone. This is not to say that life becomes all rosy and lovey dovey, but no matter what happens around me, I understand there is a reason for it happening and a reason for me being here and in this learning I am offered more and more opportunities to connect and feel more of the ‘all’.
Just the most perfect words to read this morning as I finished a work contract a few days ago and have no further work in the pipeline, as yet. Second morning home and I had started to feel a little rudderless so reading your wise words has offered me an anchor to hold me steady and a ‘beacon’ to shine its light on my way. But I can see so clearly that it’s not about a job, or lack of one, it’s all about the depth of my connection to me. I can feel now that there is a purpose for this time without employment and that I will take the time to absolutely appreciate.
Joel I love your humour and way of writing – Religion has been marketed over the years…sold as a commodity and told it is needed in a particular way. And yet, we all have it within us, no matter where we go and who we are…and it is not something we need to seek from the outside, ever…for the outside religion is only the false one that distracts us away from the True One.
‘…instilling fear was actually easy because people were innately sensitive…’ There is something very perceptive and important in this observation. It’s true, we are innately sensitive, and I know for myself how I have struggled with that sensitivity in a world I have experienced as brutal. So yes, I was fearful of all I could feel (and in some respects still am), so it makes sense to me as to how this fearfulness can arise. It seems then the task for us as innately sensitive beings is to come to terms with all we feel, acknowledging the world for what it is but not necessarily tipping over into distress and fearfulness about it.
I agree Victoria that we are very sensitive beings and as such can easily be disturbed or hurt and then we start seeking security in its many forms to try to avoid being hurt again or out of fear of being hurt. And we have developed many systems in our world to provide this security.
‘The executive team over in hut number one felt the responsibility for the survival of the tribe and were wanting to earn some extra cash to support the tribe.’
Interesting how the unravelling started (in this case) with a misplaced sense of responsibility. True religion would offer that we are all responsible for ourselves, and each other equally and it is never incumbent upon one group to be responsible for everyone. Act with responsibility, yes, but never to ‘save’ another.
Marketing continues to play on peoples fears and doubts – in every industry and profession worldwide. But if we know who we truly are, if we are connected to our innate essence, then we can energetically read everything, feel the intention and know it for what it is.
‘You can’t sell something someone already owns’, this is so true as it is that we cannot take something away that someone already knows.
“The problem was HOW people had been taught to be religious in life.” And the bastardisation of the word religion was the beginning…
Well said Paula – change the meaning of the word and then its easy to lead people astray.
‘They knew that someone scared for their own survival would be easily ‘converted’ at the threat of being rejected. Some would just need more convincing than others.’ … oh my, how many times have we done or said things in our lives to ‘fit in’, from the absolute fear of being rejected. Yet, in order to go against what we know to be true, we have to first reject our sweet, gorgeous self and all that we know to be true.
Exclusivity is a trap of life that hampers us everywhere we turn. Families can be exclusive, race is exclusive, religion is exclusive, football is exclusive, even lovers are exclusive. Exclusive means excluding all others. Not how I want to live.
This is a great point Heather and yet so much is sold to us via the attraction of exclusivity; it’s considered to be one of the great rewards. And yet if we actually stopped and really pondered the word as you have done here – excluding all others – I feel that many of us who have willingly pursued it would actually think twice about it. Amazing to observe how something so vile as exclusivity can be re-branded as an aspiration.
‘If they created experts, their message would be beyond critique. The experts, of course, needed to be skilled at making others feel like they did not know enough.’ This is so relevant today when we give our power away to all kinds of different professionals and do not consult with the wisdom we hold within. I may not know how or perform surgery or to fix my boiler but I do know whether that form of health care is needed right now or whether the workperson has integrity. I can look at newspaper articles and know whether what’s written has truth to it or an agenda that clouds the issue and is trying to manipulate my thinking.
‘You can’t sell something someone already owns’. We all know inside, in the end, that each of us is responsible for our own life.
It feels very sad that we have chosen to give away something that was very precious inside of us, to be deceived energetically by the attempt to be swayed and persuaded of the very thing that was already there. What a complete and utter waste of time this has been.
Exclusivity and Belonging are things we look for, we want to be special, be individual, but that is so far from who we truly are, all equal sons of God.
What is it about security that makes us override everything we innately feel to be true?
Great question Abby! Is it that I think it’s all about team me and I walk away from God and the never ending love and support that is there all of the time? Where I want life to look my way and don’t surrender and trust the wisdom that is trillions more wise than I could ever imagine, the intelligence of the universe and try and rely on a very limited human intelligence? So is it when I think life is just about me in a body made up of flesh and bone and that is all there is to me and to life?
“You can’t sell something someone already owns.” – this is so well expressed, if we connect to reigion and god within, we wil never need anything outside of us to provide us with that connection and therefor it cannot be exploited. It is only if we divorce connection to god from connection to ourselves that we can then be told we must look outside of us to something or someone else for that connection.
Probably the most divine piece of writing on the blogs I’ve read – Thank you Joel. And what a subject to write about, the most talked about thing, religion. It just proves we are not so intelligent when you follow ‘a plan’ if it is not fully discerned. Your own connection within is already a written plan that is the master plan. The more you know this master plan the more any other way of a plan is presented you are able to discern what and which is The Way in your way.
This blog was so amusing to read, but actually quite sad, because it’s true. It is horrible to make decisions based on fear rather than what we innately know to be true.
How can we market our relationship with God? The most incredible thing on this planet cannot be sold, or distributed to another person, it’s something we must each individually discover and unfold.
The cold hard facts are as you have clearly stated Joel, we have been sold an interpretation of religion based on fear, with the sole purpose to control the masses – not forgetting the accumulation of wealth, which in turn gives them more control and power.
This is a pattern that has been perpetuated repeatedly for thousands of years and that is allowed to keep so many from the truth that they chose to forget. Setting out the mechanics of this process highlights just how much religion has become a product rather than everything it is in truth.
Gosh, the lengths we will go to in order to feel secure, all the while ignoring the fact that we are forever held in the warmth of God’s loving grace.
We have so many ideas and different interpretations on what it is to be religious but fail to see the simplify of God’s vibration which is within and all around us.
As a humanity we seem to feel we have to ‘better’ things… but why change what is already working… especially if it is based on truth and harmoniously works for all equally so.
And in that ‘bettering’ we create so much complication and disharmony – one wonders why we continue on in that vein?!
How we are religious through life is something worth pondering on. I speak to many people in the course of my day, asking about religion amongst other things and a lot of people claim that they do not have a religion, or do not belong to a religion. Some will describe they religion as their family or friends, some talk about their connection to the divine (but this is not common) and then there are people who claim religion as an important part of life. What religion is, what it means has become different to all of us, highlighting that this marketing campaign has been highly successful.
“Some felt there had to be more; they felt a there was connection to something within that was more innate and required less external control” – the majesty of the Soul and its hierarchy pulling us back into true divine order. Resistance is futile, they say.
We all know the truth of who we are, yet, in our reaction to life, we have allowed ourselves to pull away from our foundation of love and re-assign our trust in things outside our selves. A slippery slope ensues on this path, however, nothing can change the truth, it’s for us to choose to re-connect and once again, feel the divinity and magnificence of all that we all are.
‘instilling fear was actually easy because people were innately sensitive, so a big enough outer threat to their security could destabilise people’ …. sadly, this is exactly what is happening more and more in our world today, in politics particularly, where the path to control seems to be to create division, fear, mayhem, denouncing anything that dares criticise your ways. Leaving people floundering in the turmoil, trying to make sense of the chaos, reacting to each other, withdrawing in protection, struggling to see that we have allowed ourselves to be in the mess we are in today. The antidote to fear is trust; it’s for us all to trust in ourselves, to feel the essence of who we truly are, and, therefore, all that we are a part of, equally so.
What a merry go round we have been on as Humanity to then start to notice that it was all quite unnecessary.
There is one important step involved in the descent we accept into a bastardised version of religion and that is the denial of what we know is true. True religion is natural to us, is known at our core and by every cell in the body. To step away requires a denial of the truth we know… without that step, no amount of fear-mongering or manipulation will tempt us away. Responsibility lies with each of us to not take that step, the fact we do or have is reflective of a willingness to do so.
The title has changed – I’m sure it said Marking Religion previously – I thought it rather apt.
Marketing exists because it is founded on people needing something, and on a way to make money. How this plays out is pretty crazy. You only need to look at how women are marketed too – and see how this plays on our self-worth. But where does it stem from? This piece is an amazing insight to the ways in which we have put a scare factor into religion, made it about separation, and are set on selling ‘our religion’ as ‘the only way’
Marketing is only possible because we have disconnected from the truth of who we are, because if we were all still connected then we would have no needs at all because we would all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were everything already.
Quite so HM. Preying on another’s need, ‘weakness’ or fear, is abhorrent.
All that is needed is to live the way we know is true inside and we know from past times in working together and living in harmony with the universe and others will be inspired and question the interpretation of the religion that is common nowadays. No conveying, no preaching, no torture or was needed, but is does need people who are transparent in their way of living and not hold back the love they are.
Such a concise, brilliant expose of religion, true and manufactured. I can certainly recognise myself in many camps and well worth many reads to really see the insidious depths to which I have bought the lies that let the falsehood breed. For example, when do I abandon what I know is true for security in my everyday life?
Yes, many of us have been sold religion and have accepted the irresponsibility of this as it indeed has required very little self responsibility except to pay some money, go to church regularly ,send your kids to their schools etc. We have allowed this type of indoctrination to stifle any truth we have felt within. It feels so simple now to make a choice -a choice that feels true.
As human beings we have disconnected and walked away from the truth and amazing-ness of who we are and instead subscribed to the complications and complexities of the mind. It is only through the connection to our bodies that we once again can return back to glory we know so well is the truth for us all.
Such a clear explanation of how all the complexities and abuses have built up around world religions and helped to promote individualism and separation. But we know we are coming back home; I meet many people out there who are now talking the same language, the language of the heart, realising their responsibility to all come together, in harmony — not just toleration. Established religions are a cycle, they have passed their zenith and soon will fade away.
It is interesting how easily we have been persuaded to think we need something that we previously knew we already had. It is quite bizarre really.
A road map of exactly how to exploit people, sadly this happens more often than not.
Not just religion but many corporations do their marketing through fear and many bosses use the fear element to push people hard because they might fear losing their job. We fear losing our house, our relationship, our car, everything we own, and insurance companies prey on that. Corruption is possible because of fear.
You are so right Carmel. Institutions that are based on the need for security are always on the back foot, trying to protect what it has in defence, contraction and fear. No one feels safe or supported. When we approach business from the perspective of supporting the individual to express all that they are – results and outcomes follow automatically – we simply have to let go and understand this as a science – everything is taken care of in the space that is generated when we open up and trust that as individuals we have it all.
I wrote this last night, its a rap poem that came to me on Religion, I posted in on another blog on this site actually but I really wanted to share it with you Joel, as you share so much with humanity…. plus it is worth writing twice!
Enjoy….
Religion it’s personal, not a commodity to trade on…not a debate or an excuse to fight in the name of
Religion, it’s is a connection, to yourself…. without perfection… a connection to nature and God and his rhythm, these basic principles, free us up from life’s superficial prison.
We are the power, not a book or a priest, no building or cathedral can make an empty man complete.
Nor can an orange robe be worn, with a shaved head and bear feet – to “enlighten” or brighten the dullness you see, in the mirror. No mountain or a diet, Guru or a temple, can settle our thoughts if they’re racy and mental,
the bridge to return, is our breathe being gentle and our movements being absolute…
this is what guides you back to you
and us back to the light that is true,
these movements lead us out of wrong or right,
like a magnet we are drawn to the stars in the night
and in our hearts, we are reminded that we are here to return
with true Religion… we don’t hold back, we let the fire burn,
in our eyes and our hearts, in the way that we move,
without preaching, just livingness, and nothing to prove!
Love it Sarah! It brings everything together and confirms that all we need to do is come home to the tender quality of our breath and movement and everything we need is contained within. Our common day versions of religion are such a far cry from the glory, wisdom and fiery warmth that burns within all of us. Try as we might, we can never extinguish it.
I would like to see the live version of this Rap.
I am in the middle of organising beats and then I am going to post them as a video somewhere…not sure where yet but definitely will perform them at a Unimed event….watch this space.
Love this Sarah.
I love this ‘Sarah rap’ poem Sarah – if not already done so, could you share it with the world as a song you are singing on a video?
I’m on it…coming soon…watch this space
Wow Sarah, I love this, can’t wait to see you rap this live or on video. Bring it on sister!
What an effective business plan, and one that has worked well for thousands of years – but more people are beginning to question, is the constant fear and harm and abuse done in the name of religion a true representation of what religion really stands for? – and it is here that having a reflection of true religion lived is so important.
Joel I love how you represent this as it shows that whilst marketing often manipulates the truth, it’s the people who are demanding what is being presented that ultimately make a marketing campaign a success, in this case a religious one.
Yes, we have far more responsibility than we want to acknowledge because then we would have to do something about it.
It is those subtle ways that work to pull us away from religion – what better way than to create devices and events that are going to appropriate and nudge truth away from truth.
Love the metaphor Joel, as religion has always been about our divine connection, harmony and never about the illusion of looking for any form of being safe, for everything, when connected to from the inner-most, holds True.
This blog reminded me that religion is innate to each and every one of us. We are all religious whether we admit it or not; a question we could ask ourselves is “Is the religion that I have chosen true?”
Taking any conflict right back to it’s bare roots can help us to understand what is really going on. Deconstructing the facades, complications and dynamics of any long-term wayward situation can be the first step to changing the hold this issue may have on us, or in this case the hold it has on humanity as a whole.
Reading the word marketing in connection with the word religion feels abhorrent to me.
With everything on offer by those who sell the new product of irresponsibility, they can only create or actually trigger a need that is already there, ie. people have not been fully claimed and solid in their inner truth. The poison needs a crack to enter the target otherwise it cannot unfold its activity.
I was listening recently to someone present on how we have allowed ourselves to be lied to. We have given up on personal responsibility and allowed a false religion to dictate to us all what we can and cannot believe in. And up until a few hundred years ago if you didn’t toe the line then you were persecuted and probably killed in a very unpleasant way. This does introduce the energy of fear into the body so that when we reincarnate we carry that energetic imprint in our bodies, therefore, we either do not want to have any truck with any form of religion or we abide by the rules dictated to us by the priests of the day so that we do not get persecuted again. Either way, it keeps us away from who we truly are. I feel this is just one of the many the lies we have all fallen for.
We do innately know the truth about religion, the problem is we have forgotten that what we know as true comes when we are connected to ourselves and too many of us are choosing to live in disconnection.
Yes indeed, Joel. This holds true for all aspects of life… as soon as ‘survival’ comes into the equation, we have already lost our connection to the grandness of what we are held in.
Another doozy from you Joel. It seems anything can be sold with the right sort of marketing, even when it is so obvious the product doesn’t work.
Interesting that religion is seen as that it needs to be taught when it is naturally within us, connecting us to each other, nature and the All, harmoniously.
Amazing Joel. True freedom doesn’t come from controlling our circumstances but rather living in harmony with them.
This blog certainly proves the saying ‘Divide and conquer’, when applied throughout the annals of history, has quite a fallout. Humanity has fallen out with itself and has spent aeons looking for The Way back to rediscovering that our initial and deeply-held essence was there inside us all along. It never went anywhere. Humanity just chose to go off on other jaunts and lost their true connection to themselves and others.
“You can’t sell something someone already owns.” So we have to work very hard to undermine it instead, but when we cease, it naturally bobs back to the surface offering us a steady, consistent inner knowing from which to live life.
True religion is simple and uncomplicated. It is a reflection of the nature and nurturer of everything around us in life. Its that thing between our ears that assumes it can improve and make it better! If, it is not broken leave it alone, but do we heed this warning at our peril?
It is quite scary how easily we can hand over our responsibility to others, the end result of this can be dementia. Many people with this disease need someone to choose their clothes each day, dress them, feed them, make all their decisions etc; they no longer can take responsibility for their life. It is important to look to where these choices can lead before reneging on responsibility.
Great example of supply and demand; we get supplied with what we demand and if we stop demanding it then the supply would dry up.
When fear comes in, we have already left Religion, our connection with ourselves and the all. Everything done after that will not be from truth.
At it again Joel, bringing awareness to our wayward ways and bringing understanding to where and why we walked away from truth and religion. There is so much we have fallen for that does not make sense when we stop and really ask why is that there in our society and how have we allowed it to blossom and affect for so long. Thank you as always.
Brilliant Joel, I love it. You have captured the ridiculousness of the way religion has been peddled to the masses over the centuries and what it is that allows us to fall for such a perversion of a true Way. As you so aptly say, religion is not the problem, but the way we’ve been taught to be religious. The Way of The Livingness restores true religion back, and by virtue of this, exposes the rot, the contradictions and the gross inhumanity in organised religions of today.
Yes, every time man thinks he has a better way of doing things to suit what he thinks is needed for himself and his loved ones he is going into separation, and this is a perversion of the oneness of God’s love.
Very true Janet… the idea that we are to look after ourselves and our ‘own’ is already a separation from the ‘oneness of God’s love’ as you say. Our current ideal of family fosters exactly that, as does religious affiliation. So long as we belong to the right religion we will get looked after, and too bad for everyone else who doesn’t see their way clear to be aligned to the same.
“All they needed to do was live The Way they had rediscovered and allow time for others to also remember that being religious was not the problem” – but The Way back home. A home that was left centuries ago for a reason as your story paints, that was purposely created as time-wasting, pointless and futile.
‘The executive team looked at the proposal carefully and though they were uncomfortable with the suggestions of force and even torture, they knew they had to pursue it for the benefit of the whole.’ – yes, it’s very scary how adept we are at convincing and justifying absolutely anything to ourselves to achieve a certain outcome, even when we know it’s a lie. How can force and torture ever be an acceptable path to benefit the whole.
When we are disconnected from our truth, from our innate essence, then fear and doubt easily play with us.
Humans love complication! Yet the simple way is there all along – actually, there all within.
Advertisers and marketers have long capitalised on two human tendencies: fear, and greed. Mainstream religion has done the same. Remaining free of these pernicious influences is the challenge.
Awesome blog Joel… nailing the history of religion, and the truth of what it is to be religious.
You can see with religion being presented in this way, that everything is religion and we are religious with everything. It could be sport that’s being spoken about or how we are at work. Also that you don’t need to be apart of a ‘religion’ to know that there is more. We do inherently know and are connected to the divine and the great effort in its many forms, that has taken place so that we do not know.
‘The team thought it strange to try to replace something that worked, but nonetheless set to crafting a plan…’ – how often in life have we known that something hasn’t felt ‘right’, yet we over-ride this inner knowing to ‘fit in’ and be accepted as a part of the group.
And as soon as we override what we already know and try to control the outcome, we’re gone. All we need to do is stay consistent and steady and not get in the way of what naturally unfolds… easier said than done sometimes, but a reminder that life can be very simple when we allow it to be.
I just love that there was a focus group in this story.
Ha, ha, me too Sarah!
How crazy when you consider that we try to fix that which is already completely whole. Once reconnected to our naturally religious way there is nothing that can deter us from such beauty and truth that lights the way.
Brilliant Joel, thank you.
Another incredible blog Joel, exposing one of the many illusions we have fell for as a human race, this being one of the greatest. A twisting of the true word that was then not discerned by our own hand, and now we have a world that has misinterpreted one of the most beautiful words on earth-Religion.
Great discernment the way it (people giving their power away and letting go of the truth they know inside) all started: with fear and doubt. Still the case at this date.
After buying into to that the unity is gone and the true connection to God and the universe are a mere memory.
As I have let go of the religion that had been sold to me, I have been rediscovering the original expression of religion, one which is based on a simple way of living that fosters my inner connection, which is where I feel religion truly is.
‘You can’t sell something someone already owns.’ Doubt causes separation.
I love how you share with such clarity, Joel how we have gotten off the beaten track and the direction of travel needed to set us on course again.
Free will and harmony are natural components of the order of the universe when individuality is not present. When we go into individuality everything goes haywire !
Well said, anything and everything goes then. Could it be that one of the biggest causes of anxiety and doubt is walking in individuality? Our body that knows all, is being walked in an energy it is not a part of. That’s got to cause some anxiety.
Absolutely Aimee for every step we take in individuality is devastating for a being that knows that it is in truth universal. By playing small ie. insisting we’re individual, we are creating anxiety because deep down we know we are not bringing all of ourselves to life and are therefore not fully equipped to deal with whatever comes our way.
I love how this story is written Joel, exposing how deeply we are ingrained with the need for apparent safety from external sources in our lives, rather than living the truth from our innermost divine essence.
We have been well and truly nudged off our path and natural way of living of many lifetimes.
“The new product was clear – if they could SELL safety they would be on to a winner, if they could sell external salvation, they would have struck gold”.
A fantastic discsection of the constructs Of organised religion. Thank you Joel.
I feel sadness as I read this story, as it is so sadly true. We so easily lose the simplicity that is our natural way in favour of a more complicated existence fueled by greed and a want for power.
I love how you shed light on the realities of life in such a light and playful way. A delight to read. Thank you Joel.
What an amazing piece of writing- showing fully how it is possible to destroy humanity when separation is involved. And what’s really interesting is that reading this reminded me so much of how the marketing process works. And as someone who works in marketing, it is apparent that we follow a process of finding weakness and building on fear. We sell people things they think they need because we’ve made them think they need it.
When you step back and look at the whole, you can see the stages play out as you have described. Great expose Joel.
The strategy of disempowering people leading them to think they don’t know, is deliberate control of keeping people looking outward and searching, instead of naturally connecting within.
True religion is a very natural process, false region is a man made debacle.
Doubt is energetic rot.
What really stood out to me was how safety and salvation have indeed become commodities, which is ludicrous really because no real harm can ever come to us and we are all already ‘saved’.
“They knew that life had meaning when it was lived in connection to the all”, this is such a great line Joel and explains why life for so many has lost all meaning, it’s because we are living in supposed separation from the All.
And we have all felt that we have lived in “connection to the all” before, it is why we know that how we live now is not a patch on what it would feel like to be more connected to our fellow man.
If we cannot but see our folly so the veils of illusion drop away… then we will be back within reach of truth.
We don’t often think of religion as a marketing exercise, but it is true, we are ‘sold’ a lie with promises of heaven for the chosen ones when in truth Heaven is there for us all.
This is a receipe for disaster, one we all know too well.
When you consider all of this its no wonder that people have ‘turned away’ from what is currently thought to be religion. Almost creating a religion of no religion!
Thank you for a thought provoking blog Joel.
I was visiting a country recently where it was possible to feel just how much the people in that country had handed over the responsibility for their spiritual wellbeing to the direction of others for an easy life.
Various studies show that certain communities termed ‘blue zones’ (e.g. as in these five – cities Okinawa, Japan; Ikaria, Greece; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California) that continue to live in this way of connection, in community of brotherhood with responsibility and purpose (true religion), also have far less illness and disease rates, which are galloping at an alarming rate throughout the world.
“Everyone in the village took responsibility for themselves but was also generous in their support of others. They knew that life had meaning when it was lived in connection to the ‘all.’”
Thank God for people like you Joel who can expose the absolute illusion of conventional religion without judgement. The world needs more of this as we need to see what we have been subscribing to.
I love this blog Joel; it is a comedy and a tragedy in one. It explains conventional religion completely. It is easy to see how the world at large fell for it. It is definitely the story of marketing gone very wrong.
A beautiful offering that invites us to consider where we may have bought into the lie, and why…. when we each hold the truth within us.
Amazing how quickly people override their feelings of what is true and accept that the ends justify the means if they are results driven.
“All they needed to do was live The Way they had rediscovered and allow time for others to also remember that being religious was not the problem.
The problem was HOW people had been taught to be religious in life.”
Wonderful Joel. The simplicity and common sense approach you have makes your blogs so readable and easy to understand for everyone. And this question of HOW we have been taught, not just to be religious, but is one that covers so many other facets of life.
Stage 1 Fear and Doubt, I recognise this one, this is what destabilise us the most and sends us into a spin. It is age old and causes us to withdraw if we don’t stand back and observe what is really being offered.
It’s so great to bring ‘sense’ to how religion has come about even though it makes no sense!
This really shows we have to listen to that feeling of being uncomfortable about something and never going with something that does cross with our innate feelings of decency and respect. As the end result is always much worse than we can imagine at the start.
This beautifully highlights the ridiculousness and superficiality of the way religion has been bastardised from its simple origin.
Yes, throughout history there have always been those who have not fallen for the false beliefs and ideals of organised religion, known to us (thanks to Universal Medicine) as the lineage of the Ageless Wisdom.
Without discerning for ourselves what is true we lay ourselves open to be manipulated by others.
All of what you have expressed and more, for what we, with our free will, have tried to improve and make better, of our simple harmony and connection with all.
Thanks Joel. Pretty ridiculous eh! There will come a time I am sure, when humanity will come full circle and realise that what it has been seeking for a very long time, is something that they/we already have and have never lost. But this is the power of belief. When we believe in something, it can blind us to what is actually true.
We all know what it is like to be imposed upon and for many when it is not read we react and then sadly we go in the completely opposite direction which deepens the segregation towards religion and God. We have to get real and face the fact that preaching, trying to convert and going on missions isn’t working… we are still at war in the name of God.
The business-like way you described this Joel made me laugh but then stop for a moment as well. For whilst there are forces at play, on the ‘hard sell’, don’t they all need a customer base ready to play ball? It seems to me these marketing dudes are just responding from the call from the villagers (us all) for a philosophy that gives us an easy way out of our responsibility: the incredible power we each have and beautiful connection to divinity, should we let it be.
This piece illustrates that left to our own devices we innately know and trust in our selves and in God. It takes a concerted effort to dissuade us from this inner knowing using a huge amount of fabricated lies, bullying and torture to do so, all of which still continues today. The truth of who we are though can never be eradicated.
Joel is so on the money here. Fear is a priceless commodity for those wanting to control and make money. Fear drives most of our human responses and causes us to mistrust and stay separate from other people we are perceiving to be different. How different life would look like if we had more trust and surety in our own self and then fear need rule us no more and we need not react or defend and protect but allow for others to be closer to us, and then what might happen from there? A lot of the systems that control us through our choice to separate and be driven by fear would disappear and a more harmonious way would take this place.
Indeed, the real problem is that in general we have given our power away to the external organisations who say they know it all and own the way to salvation and eternal life, while in truth it already lives in all of us equally so.
Another great parable, showing us how easily we can be tricked or can buy into what is not true if we sway from what is.
Knowing we are already everything we need to be and our journey is to return to the essence we were born with, simplifies life, and allows us to be ourselves.
Awesome metaphorical story that is way more fact than fiction, Joel. Yes, we really lost it as soon as we gave up the knowingness that we innately have within us of our natural connection with God and thus with each other. With the advent of selling security in all its varied forms, we let go of trusting that we are held in the grandness of God’s love and there is then no need to be secure from anything or anyone. But going for the security inevitably means you are looking out for yourself and have disconnected from ‘the tribe’ and your responsibility to consider the whole in every decision you make.
‘The executive team over in hut number one felt the responsibility for the survival of the tribe and were wanting to earn some extra cash to support the tribe.’ … enter the initial point of separation – everyone takes responsibility for themselves, yet this team feels they have a greater responsibility for the whole tribe. In this greater responsibility they feel a need to do something, rather than surrendering and being impulsed from within, they look outside themselves and come up with a plan, which they know is exploitation, yet they feel this digression is acceptable for the greater good of the tribe. Something is either true or it is not, there is no in between.
Absolutely brilliant blog, Joel. I deeply appreciate the simple, clear and enlightening way in which you write, allowing the space for enormous topics to be very accessible by and relatable to all.
Agreed. The clarity offered here is superb and makes total sense. Nothing else to add!
Deeply reflective piece that makes me contemplate the many aspects of the religion I grew up in, the intention behind it and the impact that this then had on me and the way I viewed the world.
What a mess we make when we start to change what feels natural, so that we end up taking the lies that are dished out as being our truth. The hype and rah-rah we get into so we can feel a part of the so called truth or group, which maybe religious or not has never felt confirming as there has always been more and more sought because it never can live up-to the hype.
True religion has always been there, it is as you say Joel, now it is up to us all to make the call to return to our divine connection to the Truth, which is unifying equally for everyone and the way True religion shares that we are all equally responsible for our own evolution feels amazing.
Aww JOEL!! Super piece of writing on religion, how it’s got marketed over the centuries…and the realities of how we’ve all fallen for the falsity of what’s been arranged or organised into seeming benefit to us that’s led to our ultimate downfall as a race from the covering and loss of self-connection which brings connection to the all, to then live that all that is true religion.
Very interesting how this starts with considering the future.
Brilliant, you’ve captured exactly what we’ve done as a humanity and how we’ve gone round in circles with it, as you and others here note, once security comes in, there’s an instant narrowing and we’re gone, and of course once we make the whole just about our tribe / group we’ve missed the wider bigger picture of all of us.
Yes, Monica, it is interesting to reflect on how the need for security distorts our discernment of what is true.
So all the destruction, wars, torture, killings abuse comes down to what we want … that we wanted things ‘our way’ and not in line with what is true. We have a lot of healing to do here with regards to this or maybe not so much healing instead just absolute realigning to the truth.
Sure Vicky, besides a realignment to the truth, healing is needed as a lot of hurt has been done in the name of God in the pursuit of making religion a way to control the masses.
Living life from the connection to what we feel within, then surrendering to this wisdom and moving with our bodies not only interconnects us but ultimately brings true purpose and equality to the all. Without that foundation we will continue to drag our feet and feel separated from the bigger picture and the universality we are connected too. A stunning piece thank you Joel.
It seems so silly when its written like this, yet we have created this system and lived it for thousands of years at the cost of millions if not billions of lives. There is a different way and we have a responsibility to make changes, starting with the way we are living.
As a marketing and communication professional, I winced and giggled my way through this (the consultant from hut number 7 was a particularly snort out loud moment!). Someone recently said to me that a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what the time is – but this takes it further and shows that people can take our watch, then proceed to tell us that we don’t really now how to tell the time, make it out to be more difficult than it is, creating new methods to keep track of time, whilst time is still exactly as it is but creating a track to keep us away from the simplicity of time. And how it is really our own responsibility to return to that simplicity and not get babmboozled
Why do we fall for teachings that have anything in them but loving equality for All?
Simply awesome – had me laughing out loud. Makes the ridiculousness of the situation so clear.
When you recognise that everyone already has everything within them to re-connect with if they so choose there is no desire to convert anyone to anything – it just doesn’t make sense to; instead by living the truth that you know from within yourself you offer a reflection for others to be inspired by or not…
This is the perfectly detailed account of how we get coerced to give our power away; but then again, no-one can make us do anything unless we consent, whether that be overtly or covertly.
Once again, a brilliant piece of writing. How ridiculously simple it all is, and how clever we think we are trying to change the natural order of things only to completely destroy and turn upside down the original and simple way of life.
True religion is so simple, confirming, loving and uniting, whereas organised religion is about fear, power over people and separation etc. When we are connected to ourselves, our essence, we recognise what is true and what is not. With our connection we are not so easily tricked or led astray.
Another one of your great blog Joel, thank you for sharing your wisdom, the four stages of false religion are so simply and succinctly expressed and I for one have livd with this false religion which its purpose is to separates its adherents from the only true religion that of our own inner hearts,
Joel the stages you have discussed here are key ingredients in leading humanity away from the very core that holds the answers:
(1) Fear and Doubt
(2) Re-direct responsibility
(3) Exclusivity and belonging
(4) Distribution channels
These are stages that I can feel within myself of having given my power away…After all we are not born with these stages, they are imposed upon us or we embrace them willingly, but at birth none of these apply to any one of us. It is the choices we make in life that determine our final relationship with the world and other people, and hence how much we walk away from the very Truth we all hold at birth.
Great point Henrietta that we are all born with a fresh start (not in fear, doubt or given up-ness).
I can feel how I have gone into giving my power away for a long time and this means I have to work hard to change the patterns I have engrained in how I think and live.
I am understanding my part in how I got to feeling so lost to truth and this has motivated me to take responsibility for myself which I am discovering means I am re-claiming all the truth and love I have previously given up.
Joel, this is brilliant, hilarious and very humbling to realize how we have fooled ourselves over the eons by walking away from what we know to be true.
Brilliant and funny yes, whilst also very confronting as we face, so clearly expressed, our waywardness and madness.
Great history and re-cap of religion Joel.
Brilliant Joel. The moment we make life about security (stage 1) we are gone into the jaws of a beast that will not even let us know we are feeding it. This is where the seed of our separation to all that is true is to be found. Thereafter every step we take is further into the bowels of such a ‘beast’.
…until such a time as we realise that not only is it dark and smelly in here, but that we were never meant to be here in the first place. Enter true religion and thus all that serves to help us re-connect to the beauty, warmth and light we withdrew away from when we first swallowed that which allowed us to be swallowed.
Beautifully said Liane – true religion from within is all about re-developing our relationship with God and ourselves and hence return to the very part that we walked away from to begin with. A very humbling realization indeed.
I agree Liane, very well said. When we base our life on security, we can get very lost and lonely because it fosters separation, shuts people out and creates barriers. Our current society seems to be security based and geared towards individuality, it is commonly celebrated and aspired to. Joel’s blog exposes what is going on so clearly.
The obvious back to front way life is lived. Such a waste of energy.
I love how you expose it all Joel! Awesome blog!
Religion is natural, it is not a thing you do, it is a lived way inside of you, Religion was never the problem, it was everything that got in the way of true religion that has caused all the hoo-ha and reactions!
A beautiful, simple representation of how we have strayed from a way of living that was natural and innate to one that has been constructed. Religion need not be a struggle or a battle and in years past it was a simple way of life rather than a cause of bloodshed. But as is so clearly said, it is not religion that is the issue but what we have been taught it means.
Organised religion is not called organised for nothing. This was a great way to stand between the people and their connection to Divinity. A great how to dis-empower the masses plan.
This is legendary in my books, an article written so so well with a meaning for us all. Bravo, bravo and I will read this over and over as the message and purpose is clear and the awareness gained is settling and yet breath taking. Where to from here? Well, “All they needed to do was live The Way they had rediscovered and allow time for others to also remember that being religious was not the problem.”
To bring the awareness to ourselves that religion isn’t necessarily something you do but more something we all naturally are. No one owns religion while at the same time we all ‘own’ religion as it’s our personal connection, our relationship with how truly naturally are and the monument to this religious way is within our very being.
A great blog Joel for this is how organised religion became the middle man between the relationship we had with our innerself, our very essence.This is how religion was made a commodity.
Centuries of turmoil and unrest in society have been captured here, so simply. Religion is the most beautiful word, when used in its truth it confirms to us just how Religious we all are.
” The problem was HOW people had been taught to be religious in life.” This is the true of it no one can be taught religion , everyone is religious, its just that they have been taught how not to live religiously.
False religion abounds everywhere. There are churches on hilltops worldwide, millions of people wear crosses around their necks and offer prayers to a God that they imagine somewhere up in the sky. Contrary to this, there are a handful of people who are walking ‘The Way of The Livingness’ a way of being that denotes True religion. There are no special buildings, no set prayers and no head of the organisation but what each and every person carries with them is an internal flame that has been re-ignited by a way of being, a way of being that we have all lived before and one that each and every one of us will eventually return to.
An amazing story exposing the mechanisms that have cemented us in the compromised position we stand in today.
Another beautiful story showing us how easily man can be fooled. Selling fear and doubt and comparison is easily done when we let go of our essence and feel we need something outside us to fill us up.
Reblogged this on vivvybutler and commented:
Another inspiring parable,Joel. I love the true and clear messages you always give.
This really describes the cycle away from something simple and innate, into a religious way that has the correct moniker but it’s activity is anything but Godly. Returning again to what is within, to the inner connection back to soul, to love and stillness, that is the way. And that way does not harm others.
Absolutely brilliant Joel. A real master of text, you have brought to life the reality of where and how we have allowed the true meaning of religion to get so wrongly interpreted by literally following and not leading the way with what we know to be true for ourselves.
And this also shows the evil that comes from abusing the law of supply and demand. It continues to this day, pervasively – to identify a need in society and try to capitalize from this for one’s own self-gain.
What a brilliant parable of the set-up we have now with institutionalised religions on the one hand and the loneliness and longing in mankind on the other – while all along we have known as we always did and always will, that our connection with ourselves, our connection to all that is – to religion in all its truth – can only come from within.
Fantastic Joel! Wittingly exposes the lies of modern religion in the falsity they truly are. No religion has truly delivered any true change when corruption and greed is its founding intent. The only true religion can come from the us, all living together as one.
There are so many gems in this very wonderfully wise blog but this one jumped out in my first – yes there will be more – read. “instilling fear was actually easy because people were innately sensitive.” This simple statement makes so much sense when we look around the world today, and in history, as we can see so clearly that fear has been used time after time to ‘control’ the masses.; for example, ‘if you don’t come join my religion you won’t go to heaven’. Using fear is so effective simply because in our essence we are such delicate and sensitive beings.
Great expose of how we sell out to wanting security and get caught up in making money and the marketing that goes along with that and in so doing have to suppress our own and others innate connection to what is true.
Religion and torture/force are words that should never go hand in hand; if true religion is about having a deep connection to the fact that there is more, then how can it be forced upon someone? Religion turns into Regime when beliefs are imposed on people, with consequences for choosing another path.
Great point made here, we have been taught HOW to be religious in life – when in truth we simply know it if we were to be left alone, unimposed by outside beliefs and ideals, and raised instead knowing we are innately divine.
Thanks, Joel. A wincingly accurate exposé of organised religion.
Reading the part about ‘priesthood’ – that is what people do with religion! It’s like an obvious I never saw pointed out so clearly. We can’t place our religious well-being in the hands of another.
Joel stunning to read and convey in modern times how crazy life is yet what we do everyday, I loved both the reflection for how we are in business and the craziness of what we allowed to take place in forming ‘institutional religions’.
Thank you Joel for another gem of a story to expose the falsehoods in which societies live.
It’s interesting how we so easily give our responsibilities over to others so that we don’t have to deal with that side of life any more. We give our power away to the priests and in doing so disconnect to our own relationship to God. I feel from my own experience that when we disconnect from our innate knowing of God we are lost and are easily preyed upon.
I like that you have related giving our power away to being irresponsible – this gives us no wriggle room to play victim or innocent bystander. Thank you, Mary
What a great expose of how organised religions came to be and the impact they have had on human life and how they exist only because of what humanity continues to place importance on. Much like the mainstream media, we get what we ask for and what we choose to allow to occur.
A clear way of describing our detour, Joel and how we have let ourselves be led astray. The only true thing is come back to what we already know, innately so.
It is easy to see how the masses can be controlled by religion when we are so eager to follow others who appear to have more authority or knowledge than ourselves.
True religion is equality, equal Sons of God, equal souls.
Anyone who feels from their hearts cannot be scammed in the absurdity of learning how to be religious, it just does not make sense. So why would we fall for this, there must be an investment present.
Yes Adele, it does seem absurd to learn religion when we are innately it, by connecting to our heart and living from here, The Way Of The Livingness, we are religion.
The minute we make life about money, or something we want or need from the world things go very pear-shaped and we cut off from the truth of the matter: that life is about learning, about love and about people and never ever about money first and foremost.
Superb Joel, thank you for another fable that succinctly hits the mark. Being religious is most definitely not the problem, it is how and what we are religious about that has created the enormous stresses we experience in life today. When we choose to let go of our inner knowing, connection and divinity, then life does seem a scary place and it is easy to debase our selves with all the external lies you have presented. But when we respond to the calling of something deeper, an Ageless Wisdom within, we return to an inner foundation of trust that never fails us if we pay astute and absolute attention to it.
The Way to true religion is by connection to your inner essence wherein lies the truth.
I so love your parables Joel. Nothing has changed we are still doing the same thing, but we are more deeply entrenched in trying to fix things and find solutions 3000 years later, We are forever seeking ways that complicate our natural and innate way of living.
And the seeking continues to distract us in tantalizing ways with space travel and technology etc. while the wars in the name of religion (or sport) continue.
Another brilliant blog…..how we balance the practical and energetic elements in life says it all, it is our continual learning curve in a world that has sold out to the deliverers of security and salvation and to which we have subscribed.
An ingenious blog Joel. So spot on, and so true. We have sold out to a man made way of being religious when all along we have the simplicity within that know is possible and that we crave.
You describe well the many detours we take in life simply because we can.
This really does prove we are like sheep if we don’t stay connected to our inner self, no wonder men of the clergy call their parishioners their flock.
Were the crusades just sending out the dogs to gather the flock and cull the ones that would not be obedient?
Kev said in one, and brilliantly so. We are not followers, but leaders, each one of us perfectly capable of walking our own walk in the light of the truth and inspiring others.
And sheep that pretend they cannot see or feel what is going on around them… this is one main branch of our insanity and waywardness.
A fable grounded in truth. If only we could wipe the slate clean and allow everyone the opportunity to view and adopt being religious with senses fully open. Of course we all can and will eventually return to our senses. It always has been and always will be a personal choice to be swayed by religious organisations, or to choose to trust in your own inbuilt religious qualities. The latter is certainly the one I would choose, and in this time we live in, I can say I am thankful that I no longer get slaughtered for making that choice.
How insane is it that we feel we are discovering something new rather than remembering something forgotten! Thank you for the step by step approach to see how we have fallen for it for so long.
Indeed Joel, we have allowed lies to come into our lives as from our pursuit to safety and to have control. But when we are honest we have to say that this actually does not work either but instead that it is about our inner connection. And by giving prevalence to that inner connection we will be given everything we have been looking for all of our lives.
Brilliant Joel, I love stories and here you playfully show how conventional religions understood and deliberately created an ideology that manipulated the sensitivities of men and women and in such a way that the majority, like puppets, remain unaware they are being controlled. Some, with sensitivities still intact, cut themselves free and find their own way. True religion empowers us to walk our own walk, and re-connect to own inner divinity, no intermediaries required.
It seems ludicrous, but you can see the clever techniques that have been used to deliberately manipulate people through fear, isolation, separation. Its a crime of such magnitude, it is almost difficult to believe that such a dominant way in the world has been so, for many thousands of years.
Interestingly it is true – we have not been educated by true religion in life, so we have educated ourselves and others will false beliefs, thoughts and ideals simply as we had disconnected from what true religion is – which is a connection to a source of energy that is love, nothing else.
Absolutely brilliant blog Joel, the four stages are the key points I recognise in all organised religion. I feel this is one of the many reasons why so many people I meet are repulsed by organised religion.