Scientific Materialism Is Murdering Us
“Scientific materialism is a strange philosophy for everyone to be attached to . . . Why should it be the preferred philosophy?
Of all the philosophies, it’s the one that allows the least hope relative to any matter whatsoever!”
– Adi Da
Materialism, or more accurately scientific materialism is a deadly poison disguised as a philosophy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m against science, it’s just that I’m against the smug certainty that all that exists is matter, and the thudding, unconscious, drumbeat of despair that comes with that mentality.
Scientific materialism, taken to its logical conclusion, ends in nihilism. Where nothing matters, life is random and pointless, you have no soul, no life after death and no loving creator.
Millions of our young men are living in this reality. In depression and in a desperate struggle for meaning. I lived through that reality as a young man and it wasn’t pretty, it was downright devastating. It’s especially difficult when you also aren’t succeeding on a worldly level. When you don’t have the health, wealth, relationships and lifestyle that you want and you believe human life has no meaning.
It seems every week we witness another angry young man shooting up a school or running over a group of people in his car, in a desperate act of revenge against a world he believes has wronged him. The media then writes these acts of aggression of as “senseless” and looks to point the blame at parents, counselors and guns.
The truth is, these tragic acts are the result of men living without positive relationships and positive thinking. And even more than that, these are men who are living without a worldly mission and a sense of spiritual purpose. The end result is tragedy for both the young man and his victims.
The reality is, millions of our young men are living without a purpose, and are unconscious slaves to the scientific materialism they’ve been taught in school. Or more accurately, the godless, supposedly objective philosophy they’ve been indoctrinated into for 40 hours a week over the course of 20 years.
That’s not to say that the science, reason and logic you learn in school isn’t useful, it is. And that’s not to say that our school system and culture is responsible is to blame for the actions of those young men because every man is responsible for his own actions…
But it is to say that you’ve been indoctrinated into a philosophy since kindergarten where and the message that’s been shoved down your throat is that matter is all that exists. And that philosophy, when taken to its logical conclusion, ends in nihilism.
Where we’re nothing more than evolved apes, living on an orb spinning through an unfriendly universe, with no purpose and no afterlife. And this philosophy is smugly taught as an objective truth.
Sure, western governments and academics give lip service to freedom of religion. But the implied message we get through school and culture is that religious people are stupid and delusional. Instead we’re encouraged to channel our natural spiritual instincts towards materialism in the form of mother earth and social justice.
And that so-called objective materialism is taught as the only reality. When in fact it’s just one of thousands of reality tunnels. It’s just the one you happened to be born into at this time in western civilization. And yet the most dogmatic materialists, the ones that claim to stand for reason, logic and skepticism, are convinced their philosophy is the one true faith. And they’re as dogmatic and aggressive about it as the religious fundamentalists they hate.
The consequences of living with this philosophy has been devastating for our society.
The conscious, sensitive, curious, intelligent men take it the worst, because they pursue the philosophy to its logical conclusion – nihilism. And they end up they turning to Reddit, or 4chan memes or drugs or alcohol or twitter activism in a desperate attempt to numb the pain or find some type of purpose.
For the unconscious materialist, who lives an unexamined life, materialism means living for Facebook timelines, instagram likes, sex, wine and watching reality TV while working a mediocre marketing job. Their purpose on the planet is not a concern. They’re reality is as small as their social circle and smartphone.
It’s no wonder, that despite all our progress in technology, and all our prosperity, depression is higher than it’s ever been. People have never been less mentally healthy. We live in a world where 1 in 6 Americans are on psychiatric meds.
But you don’t need stats to see it. All you have to do is get on the early morning subway in any major metropolitan city in the west and look into the eyes of all the people on their way to work. You’d be lucky to see one happy face on that train car full of people living unfulfilled, isolated, atomized lives.
You Can Be Both Spiritual And Logical
If you’re atheist or agnostic, I get it, I’ve been there…
And I don’t want to preach about spirituality, because I’m far from a saint. I just want to open the door, just a little bit…
Because spirituality is in your best interests and you can explore it with logic while still maintaining a healthy respect for science.
Because science and the philosophy of soul crushing scientific materialism are two completely different things:
Science Vs. Scientific Materialism
Science is an incredible discipline that has given us incredible technology and has advanced our quality of life tremendously.
Scientific or dialectical materialism is the official philosophy of Marx, Engels, Stalin and the Communist party – the party responsible for 100+ million deaths in the 20th century.
And it’s a philosophy built on faulty science. The belief that all reality is material is an outdated mode of thinking embedded in Newtonian physics. While Newtonian physics is a great way to understand the world on a basic level, the latest science has moved well beyond Newton’s conclusions.
The scientific materialism, reason and logic you learnt in school is a product of enlightenment era thinkers, Newtonian science and the Prussian school system of the 1800s. Some of it useful, but the philosophy as a whole is archaic.
Here is what you’re taught, either directly in science class, or indirectly through the culture at large:
1. Everything is essentially mechanical.
2. All matter is unconscious.
3. Nature is purposeless, and evolution has no goal or direction.
4. Minds are inside heads and are nothing but the activities of brains.
5. Memories are stored as material traces in brains and are wiped out at death.
None of these claims are actually scientific, at least not according to the latest research.
Chris Draper explains that physicists now believe that:
“…quantum mechanics is mind-dependent; meaning, the behavior of particles is determined by the act of observation. Therefore, the mind cannot be reduced to matter, because quantum mechanics presupposes the existence of minds.
Take another dogma: The belief that everything is mechanical. Again, the problem with this claim is it is based upon an outdated description of the universe purported by Newtonian mechanics.
The twenty-first century revealed that 74 percent of the mass of the universe is attributed to a mysterious repulsive force known as dark energy.
The remaining 22 percent is attributed to an unaccounted force known as dark matter. Visible matter as described by Newtonian physics, such as stars, planets and galaxies, makes up a mere 4 percent of the universe’s mass.
The belief that the constants of physics don’t vary has been called into question, too. Cutting edge theories in physics, such as string theory, suggest that our universe is just one among many in a so-called megaverse.
Rather than existing uniformly throughout the megaverse, the laws of physics vary from one region to the next.”
Recent science itself no longer supports the scientific materialism we’re taught in school, and the culture that’s grown up around it. Modern science, especially quantum mechanics tends towards model agnosticism. They’ve thrown in the towel on an objective reality.
Scientists can only offer their best models as theories, theories like string theory, metaverse theory and simulation theory. The best and brightest scientific minds have left objective materialism behind and admitted they don’t know how it all works.
Scientific materialism is outdated, making us unhappy and the best and brightest minds of modern science can’t speak with certainty on the big questions.
Science Can’t Our Explain Why We Exist
Science has given us incredible technology like the automobile and the smartphone, but do you know what’s even more incredible? The fact that you exist!
The fact that you incarnated into a body to taste, smell, touch, feel, think and move about an infinitely expanding universe with billions of other lifeforms is absolutely astounding.
Science can approximate the age of our universe, but science can’t tell us what came before matter, energy, space and time.
Science can’t tell us what created and sustains matter, energy, space and time.
Science can’t tell us why we incarnated into these bodies and what are purpose is while we’re here.
And science can’t tell us what happens after we die.
Science does not have answers to what created the world, what sustains it and why we and all the billions of life forms are here.
Terence Mckenna says:
“Modern science is based on the principle: ‘Give us one free miracle, and we’ll explain the rest.’ The one free miracle is the appearance of all the mass and energy in the universe and all the laws that govern it in a single instant from nothing.”
And he’s right.
Science does not solve why we’re here, what our purpose on this planet is, and what happens after we die.
Logic can’t explain why we exist in an infinitely expanding universe, because there is nothing logical about existence! There is nothing logical about the spontaneous creation of matter, energy, time and space!
What created matter, energy, space and time?
Why do we exist as a species?
What are we evolving towards?
A peer-reviewed study in the latest scientific journal will never have those answers because science is based on measurement, and you can’t measure whats beyond measurement – what’s beyond time, space, energy and matter! And yet it is from this great beyond, that our very universe exists. It couldn’t be any other way.
Some people, including myself, call this great formless beyond the Holy Spirit. And it’s this Holy Spirit that created the universe.
You can use the scientific model of the big bang and trace our universe back billions of years…
But you ultimately get to a point where matter was spontaneously created by what’s beyond matter. There is no way around this fact. And therefore that “non-matter”, or Spirit has to be the very essence of matter and what sustains matter to this day. Because matter is created out of the Spirit and it cannot be separate from that Spirit.
Although the Holy Spirit is the creator of all matter, and exists within matter, its pure essence will never be found in matter. You’ll never find the Holy Spirit under a microscope, no matter how small a particle you examine, because if you could, it wouldn’t be The Spirit and would be subject to matter, energy, space and time.
And most importantly, if what the spiritual authorities say is true, you have the potential to directly experience this Holy Spirit in this lifetime. Because this Spirit is a part of you and is what created you, sustains you and gives you the consciousness to interact with the world.
The goal of all spiritual traditions is to merge your river with God’s ocean and return home to the Holy Spirit, beyond the reach of the inevitable death and decay of the vehicle that you chose to play the game of life with.
I think it’s only logical to examine the idea that you’re a spirit and have only temporarily incarnated in this body. And that you can have direct experience of that Holy Spirit in this life time. Even if you have to take baby steps and start slowly, I truly believe you won’t be disappointed.
Only The Spiritual Authorities Speak With Certainty On The Nature Of Our Experience
Scientific materialism is outdated. The best and brightest minds admit that they can no longer speak with certainty on the nature our existence – the best they can offer is theories.
It’s only the spiritual masters who can speak about our true nature with certainty because they speak from direct experience.
You don’t have to believe what they say but I think we can agree that they speak with certainty, and that if science admittedly doesn’t have the answers to the big questions, looking to spiritual authorities who speak with certainty might be worth you’re time.
It’s true that there are plenty of spiritual frauds and plenty of people who exploit spirituality for power and profit. But it’s my belief that there are a select group of spiritual masters who achieved the ultimate goal – spiritual enlightenment. And that their wisdom is worth looking into.
I’m not asking you to believe on blind faith, or because I said so, I’m just suggesting that you investigate their teaching for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
Being Spiritual Does Not Have To Mean Being Religious
If you’re still hesitant, I get it, especially if dogmatic, fundamentalist religion was slammed down your throat as a child. But remember, religion is not the Spirit, religions are just one of many maps to the territory of the Spirit, which is your ever present, true nature.
Unfortunately a lot of religious teaching is the misinterpretation by men of what the enlightened beings through history we’re trying to communicate with us. Often times religion is sold through guilt and shame for power and profit.
At first glance it’s easy to write-off religion as mass delusion, but that’s the easy way out. Because religions rarely have the best emissaries, in fact the most dogmatic, aggressive messengers are usually the last people who should be speaking for that religion.
But when you go to the heart of the religion and read the actual words written by the master, it becomes difficult to deny the wisdom in those words. The religious traditions and rules of men aren’t important, it’s the direct message from the being that beat the final boss in the game of life that’s important.
The Case For Spirituality
In fact, it’s hard to think of something more important then the investigation of why we’re put on this planet, Especially if there is even the smallest possibility that the death of this body is not the end of our existence. And that what we do while we’re alive has a spiritual purpose.
The idea that we might live on after the death of this body can sound hard to believe at first but consider the insanity of the fact that you already incarnated into one body already!
Is it really such a stretch to imagine that you won’t reincarnate into another vehicle in this universe or maybe even into the higher, more peaceful realm of the spirit?
I don’t think it is. To me that doesn’t seem illogical at all. And when you look at every major and minor tradition, with all the saints, sages and enlightened beings, they all say that what we do while we’re here has a spiritual purpose and that affects where we go next.
If that’s not enough of a case for spiritual investigation listen to what Tesla, perhaps one of the most brilliant scientific minds in our history has to say on the universe:
“TESLA: Everything is light. In one of its ray is the fate of nations, each nation has its own ray in the great source of light which we see as the sun. And remember: no one, who had existed, is dead. They transformed into the light, and so still exist. The secret lies in the fact that the light particles restore their original state.
JOURNALIST: This is the resurrection!
TESLA: I prefer to call it: return to the previous energy. Christ and some others knew the secret…”
Even Einstein believed in more than just soul crushing materialism. It’s true he didn’t believe in a personal God, but he believed in an impersonal creator of our universe.
He told David Ben-Gurion that “There must be something behind the energy.” And he told Max Born that he didn’t think religious belief was a sign of stupidity, or unbelief a sign of intelligence.
Einstein did not believe in a personal God who answers prayers and interferes in the universe, but he did believe in an intelligent Spirit which created the universe and the laws that govern it.
Here are just a few of the things Einstein said in regards to the Holy Spirit:
“Behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force is my religion. To that extent, I am in point of fact, religious.”
“Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe – a spirit vastly superior to that of man.”
“This firm belief in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God.”
There is no difference between the universe and everything in it with god. That god is not separate, not beyond time, not beyond space, not personally conscious entity in exception of one known composite or aspect of it and that is us (humanity) which is conscious.
In short, everything else is god whether living or non-living, conscious or not conscious, or the universe itself as a whole is God. That there is no distinction.”
Those quotes could have been taken from the mouth of Ramana Maharshi or any other nondualist saints. Einstein might not have believed in a personal God, but he certainly believed in the Holy Spirit, immanent in everything – the creator and sustainer of this universe.
If you’ve read this far, I think we can agree that science doesn’t answer the big questions. And there are authorities who speak with certainty on spirituality. And you have the choice to examine the teachings of those authorities.
Choosing To Examine Your True Nature Is A Choice Worth Making
You have the choice to leave the big questions unexamined, but I believe that in doing so, you’re making a major mistake. Especially when we live in a time where we have instant access to the entire human history of spiritual wisdom from masters like Buddha, Christ, Ramana Maharshi, Anandamayi Ma and many others.
And I promise you this, when you listen to the direct words they speak, stripped of the dogma and distortions from their supposed messengers, you can’t help but hear wisdom in those words.
And more importantly, you can use those words to aim for a direct experience of that Holy Spirit while you’re in this life cycle. The Spirit that exists outside the bounds of time and space. The Spirit that can’t die because it was never born. The Spirit that incarnated us into these bodies. The Spirit that created and sustains the entire universe.
It only takes one glimpse of the ultimate reality, through direct experience, to make you a believer. Unfortunately I’ve only had a handful of transcendental experiences in my life, but those experiences we’re enough to convince me that there the Holy Spirit is a reality.
And each with each day that passes I get little glimpses into that reality. I can see that this body is just the vehicle. But what I really am is what the thoughts, feelings and sensations come to. The sight, smells, tastes, noises come to me as the Spirit, through the vehicle of the body.
It might take a leap of faith at first to be able to see it, but it’s not a big leap. Especially when you start to study the right spiritual material. Because you begin to see the truth of those words reflected in your actual experience.
Things like
- The presence of God
- Having a spiritual purpose
- Being rewarded for being kind and good
- Feeling love
- Existing beyond the bounds of name and form
These are all things I’ve experienced and all things that I believe you can experience as well.
Personal Development Vs. Spirituality
If you’re with me this far, and you’re a long time reader of my content you might be confused. Because the bulk of the content I’ve released since 2012 is about personal development…
Content like making more money, getting women, having better sex and getting in better shape – all things that feed the “ego” and nurture the body. And if you know me on a personal level, you’ll know I’m far from being a saint. My “ego” is as big as it’s ever been and yet here I am extolling the values of spirituality.
To the intelligent reader it would seem that spirituality and personal development are in direct opposition to each other, and in many cases they are.
But here’s the reality, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and becoming an enlightened being doesn’t happen overnight. The true lions of mankind are 1 in a billion.
Pursuing enlightenment or Christ consciousness or sat-chit-ananda or whatever you want to call the ultimate reality is a noble mission. In my opinion, beating the final boss in the game of life and experiencing complete liberation and bliss is the best thing you can do for yourself…
But that’s not going to happen overnight, I’ve been on the spiritual path for the last 20 years and may very well be on the path for the next 50 years or even 50 life cycles.
If you choose to pursue the spiritual path, prepare for a long walk to the finish line. And in that time rent is still going to be due. Poverty is still going to be painful. Being sick is still going to hurt. And working a mediocre office job is still going to suck.
I’ll leave it to the false prophets to pretend they’re above the demands of the body and the ego while they collect checks for their teachings, live comfortable lives of material abundance and sell austerity to the gullible masses.
If you want to move to a monastery and devote your entire waking life to pursuing the ultimate reality, you have my respect, and I tip my hat to you. Because I know I don’t have the discipline to do that, at least not yet. And I know I still have many attachments to this world and this body.
Walking The Middle Path Between Self Improvement And Spirituality
Because I don’t have the discipline to walk the purely spiritual path, and because I’m still attached to the comforts of this world, I choose to walk the middle path. On the middle path I can pursue both personal development and spiritual development, and that’s the path I’m offering to you.
Personal development is an excellent medicine for the pains of life. When you pursue personal development you’re able to minimize the amount of suffering and maximize the amount of happiness in your life.
Minimizing suffering and maximizing happiness is my aim in my daily life. It’s also my worldly mission to minimize the suffering of as many men as I can reach through this vehicle: Revolutionary Lifestyle Design. And that’s why I will continue to produce personal development content until the day that I die.
But personal development is not enough. While personal development is an excellent medicine for the suffering in your life, it’s not the cure. The cure is total liberation from attachment to the flesh and living purely in the Holy Spirit.
I pursue that through observing. And that means observing the entirety of your experience, from anger to lust to going out and getting drunk with your boys. You can have human flaws and enjoy worldly things while still pursuing the spiritual path – the key is to try and remember to observe life from the point of view of the Spirit as much as possible.
God And The Holy Spirit
Einstein believed only in God in his impersonal form, as the Holy Spirit. I believe in God both in his personal and impersonal form, both transcendent and immanent. And that it’s my ignorance and mindlessness that keeps me separated from the Holy Spirit and attached to the pleasures and pains of the flesh – this is why I choose to reach out to God on a personal level.
One way to look at God is through the mental map of the Holy Trinity with:
- God As The Son: The Christ In The Flesh Who Gave Us The Word (spiritual wisdom)
- God As The Father: The Living, Personal God We Pray To In The Highest Realm Of Consciousness
- God As The Holy Spirit: God as the nameless, formless Spirit which we and the universe came from and the Spirit we return to at the end of our journey
By Christ, I mean the title of the Anointed One, which is the meaning of the word Christ. The son of man who merged completely with God and The Holy Spirit. With Jesus Christ being the translation of Yeshua Or “Joshua the Anointed One”. But Jesus doesn’t have to be your Guru, I believe in other enlightened beings as well. And I think it’s wise to look to them as models with the idea that the end game of our evolution is to merge with the Holy Spirit.
Understanding Vs. Experience
If you’re with me so far, I know we’ve covered some pretty deep ground, and I appreciate you taking the time to absorb the message, but lets bring things back down to our common, day-to-day reality. You might have received the message so far, but understanding and experience are completely different things.
It’s one thing to understand that God as the Holy Spirit is immanent in all of creation, but it’s another thing entirely to be able to love your neighbor as yourself. Especially when your neighbor threatens your life when he cuts you off to make an illegal U turn in traffic.
I struggle with all the normal human emotions and I try to remember God as much as I can, but I fail much more often than I win. Because outside of the occasional transcendental moment, my day to day experience doesn’t match my understanding of the Spirit on an intellectual level. That’s why I choose to follow the middle path to God.
The Middle Path
The middle path to God is pursuing both personal development and spiritual growth while having both a worldly and a spiritual mission. My worldly mission is RLD and my daily life is structured around maximizing my happiness and minimizing my suffering.
I indulge in food, sex, alcohol and the pleasures of the flesh within my ethical boundaries but I still try to keep my eyes on the ultimate prize. If I’m being honest though, I tend to live a more worldly than spiritual life, at least at my current level of evolution.
I say a prayer every morning to God to show my gratitude, to ask for closer communion, to apologize for my sins and occasionally to ask for worldly things. Throughout the day I focus on my wealth, health, lifestyle and relationships, all the while trying (and usually failing) to stay present and aware that I’m the Spirit. And then at night, I try and schedule at least an hour for spiritual reading.
I’ve found this middle path to be the most effective way to live. You’re free to pursue your path any way you want but in my experience, the middle path is the best bridge to both worlds.
By following the middle path you know longer have to be a slave to soul crushing materialism. But you also get to enjoy your life while pursuing your spiritual mission. In my experience this is a much more consistent approach then trying to negate the flesh entirely only to crash back down to earth when you relapse (which you will).
If I could choose to do one thing for you, it would be to put you on the spiritual path, and the path I recommend is the middle way. I can’t get you to the finish line because I’m not there yet, but I can point you to the lions of mankind who’ve achieved the ultimate victory.
Saints like Christ, Buddha, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi, Anandamayi Ma, Ramakrishna and Rumi. Some followed the path of insight, others the path of love. I try to follow both paths but insight comes easier to me than love.
If you want to follow the path of love, read Jesus, Anandamayi Ma, Ramakrishna and Rumi. If you want to follow the path of insight and understand what you really are, read Buddha, Ramana Maharshi And Nisargadatta Maharaj.
You are that
A good place to start is reading is I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Because you are that.
That which is beyond name, form, time and space.
That which can never be born and therefore can never die.
That which is your true nature.
That Holy Spirit.
