21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

interpretations and perspectives. But it is not the intention to use the terms in a religious or a spiritual sense in this work — again, they are just tools for eliciting an understanding. Without a religious connotation, the two terms, spirit and soul, are useful and informative. Our Western culture is greatly lacking in soul, it could be said. There is little respect for the notion of a life that seeks to be at home in the body and perhaps has a purpose distinct from our minds and egos. The notion sounds quite archaic to modern ears and perhaps somewhat self-indulgent. On the other hand, our culture to some extent has an interest in spirituality, as distinct from organised religion. This is somewhat complicated by the way these words have changed their meaning. The spirituality to which some in the West aspire is often better described as soulfulness. Meanwhile, the religion which is rejected is often not religious in the older sense of the word, but just a kind of spirituality which looks to the self and culture more than directly to the divine. (Not that there is anything wrong in this, just that it makes the terms difficult to define.)

Theism and pantheism also express this duality well — the one always aspiring to something which is forever beyond, whilst the other relates only to what is Earth-bound. The middle way, ‘panentheism’, (as conceived by the German philosopher Kraus, amongst others) potentially recognises the aspects of ascendancy and descendancy and balances them both. Again, without necessarily ascribing to a religious perspective, these terms help us to understand this need for balance.

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