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Inversion. Because our eyes have lenses, we take in reflected light from the external world with image reversals. Unlike the image reversal of a mirror, which is only a right-to-left reversal, the image reversal of a lens is in all directions, right-to-left and upside-down. It is an act of consciousness that makes the corrective inversion that rights the image for us.
In the first Innsbruck Goggle Experiments, the subject wore goggles that brought the image of the external world to his retina upside-down. It was disorienting and difficult for the subject to do anything at first, but after ten days, the correction was made, and he could function almost as he normally did. When the goggles were removed and the retina received the images naturally, there was a period of reorientation, but it was shorter. Experiments with goggles that inverted images right-to-left had similar results. Neuroscientists understand some of this phenomenon in terms of brain function, but they do not understand the correction in consciousness. Phenomena of consciousness are psychological as well as physiological.
Psychology is referred to as a “soft” science compared to the “hard” sciences like physics and chemistry, which are more mensurable and certain. Soft science is messy to the mind of materialistic scientists. Psychology is messy because not all psychologies are healthy. For example, in parapsychology, children capable of telekinesis often have disturbed personalities—it isn’t physical energy, by itself, that produces the phenomena. The psychologies of the disturbed telekinetic children, or those of saints, that produce remarkable phenomena are extreme. The psychologies of ordinary people, like ourselves, are not so extreme, but we have biases nonetheless. Perhaps the subject of the Innsbruck experiments was averse to some of the colors that struck his retinas, whether inverted or not.
Collectively, our biases make the world we create messy. There are moral and ethical components in our psychologies, whether healthy and unhealthy. They are blended with many other psychological elements in us. We sin and err, and so we have problems. Many of our problems are shared, some society-wide. In our egoism, we tend to lie to ourselves and deny our faults until they become invisible biases. Some of our bias problems, and their solutions, involve inversion. What is called “supply side economics” provides a good example.
Supply side economics is a philosophy about how to improve a weak or sluggish economy. It involves boosting the supply side of the supply and demand relationship. This is usually done by reducing taxes on suppliers or outright bailouts for them. The idea is that the suppliers will use the boost to improve and expand production, which will produce jobs and lower prices. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because we are humans which, in our current fallen state, means we are at least a little selfish. Altruism is not part of many business models. What usually happens is that the suppliers, who are usually wealthy, keep part of the money for themselves, and do not reinvest. What follows is a headline of an article from a moderately conservative website which does economic reporting. It was published on the day this essay was being keyed in: “The Fed Just Unleashed A Trillion in New Debt: Companies Took the Money and Spent It on Dividends While Firing Millions.” Bailouts are usually funded out of tax revenue. Those who are not wealthy pay a larger proportion of their income in taxes than the rich do, so those who are not rich, give to the rich. The result is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. If improvements are made by the supply side, say in modernization, efficiency is improved and that eliminates jobs. Then, there is the nagging fact that if production is increased, there may not be a demand for it. Moreover, prices rarely go down except in extreme economic duress.
The health of an economy is measured by production. An economy that increases its gross domestic product (GDP) by some given percentage is considered a strong or healthy economy. The GDP is the monetary value of goods and services in a given amount of time. It is measured in terms of expenditures, production and income. It doesn’t indicate to whom the income goes, which is a different measurement. Thus, it is possible with this measurement to have a healthy economy and increasing poverty. If one considers “monetary value” in the GDP calculation to be in terms of material things, unlimited growth is impossible because there are limited material resources. Wealth is actually the result of the agents of production in an ongoing supply and demand relationship, not in resources alone. One might say resourcefulness, not material resources, produces growth. The suppliers, who are beneficiaries of supply side economics, usually reach their status through resourcefulness. They were inventors, innovators, energetic achievers or, in some other way, resourceful. It is not surprising that they are resourceful in maintaining their status, whether by productive means or not.
Demand drives a healthy economy at least as much as supply, and probably more. A glut of worthless products, or products that nobody wants, diminishes the monetary value of the products. If there is insufficient monetary value in the hands of the demand side to purchase necessities, an economy collapses. Even the most selfish supply-siders, realize that it is better to bend than to break. There is a necessary interdependence between supply and demand in an economy. Knowing this, it is obvious that boosting the supply side of an economy, at the expense of the demand side, cannot maintain a healthy economy or a healthy society.
It is interesting to note, in passing, that the blind bias of those who most enthusiastically support supply side economies are not blind to the fact that it doesn’t work in other areas of society, such as social welfare programs. Many of the programs of “the war on poverty” were obvious failures. It is always easier to see the faults of others than our own.
At this point some might think this essay is devolving into a liberal or leftwing diatribe. It isn’t. This isn’t even an essay on economics or politics. It is an essay about inversion to get at spiritual values such as resourcefulness and self-application, and how those values are more important than material things to healthy spiritual development. Economics and politics only add relevance. We want to see through the biased inversions to the spiritual truths within and behind them.
Liberals and the left have their own supply side misconceptions and biases, and they are just as blind to them. Besides throwing money indiscriminately at social problems, their supply-side misconceptions seem to be more often about diminishing the supply side rather than stoking it.
The city in which this writer lives has a long history of being one of the most left-leaning cities in the United States. A few years ago, a Native American tribe wanted to build a full-scale casino on the edge of the city. The hue and cry from the liberals were instantaneous, and “not in my back yard” were the words of the day. They demanded a referendum against the casino, which they won, so now those who have a yen for gambling must drive fifty miles to do so, which increases the likelihood of highway accidents – liquor is cheap at the casinos. Reducing the supply side of gambling doesn’t solve the compulsion to gamble. It tends to drive gambling underground, where there is no regulation or supervision. This writer has witnessed craps games at a park in the heart of the city.
The United States spends $51,000,000,000 annually on the war on drugs. The problems of drug abuse and addiction are as bad as ever. Removing or reducing supply doesn’t reduce demand. The drug problem is solved by helping to build character in people, so they don’t need to escape from themselves into a reality controlled by a drug. With a positive attitude there is no demand for drugs, no matter what the supply. Condemning drug use, as religions tend to do, tends to ostracize users and brings them to feel worse about themselves, leading to more escape. Helping people to experience clear consciousness at their control is a tremendous positive. Experiencing clarity of consciousness and realizing its infinite depth is our aspiration in Christian Mysticism. That is what we need to share, not Rosicrucian doctrine whose truth and beauty come from clear consciousness. As of now, this writer believes we are failing in spreading the gospel of clear consciousness. In the meantime, $51,000,000,000 could train and employ a lot of character-building counselors, which would reduce unemployment in the same stroke.
The attempt to remove or diminish an undesirable supply, in a supply and demand relationship, is actually an attempt to remove or diminish temptation. It doesn’t work. Alcoholics will drink Sterno if liquor is not available. Removing temptation is impossible. To do so would require removing desire, both good and bad. Without desire we would be insipid beings, beings without motivation to do anything. We, as spiritual aspirants, actually want to consciously enter and function in the desire world, where we have a deeper and broader field of service. Do we realize the desire world is rife with intense temptations? The stuff of the desire world is the very stuff of temptation. The trial given to Max Heindel prior to his initiation was a temptation. Our Lord was tempted. The prayer for the desire body in the Lord’s Prayer is, “lead us not into temptation;” it is not, “remove temptation from us.” Again, the answer is to build character, not to diminish life.
Not all supply and demand relationships are biased or perverted. Most are healthy and can be cultivated and developed for the good. Spiritual healing is a good example. Max Heindel tells us three things are necessary for a spiritual healing. One is a source of spiritual healing power. It is available in abundance. We literally live in a sea of divine, spiritual power. We are never at a loss for it. Another necessity is a healing agent who can access this power, focus it, and apply it where it is needed. The final necessity is an obedient patient—one does not apply the precious panacea where it will drain off or dissipate without lasting effect. The spiritual power is, obviously, the supply side. Unlike material resources, the spiritual supply side is unlimited. The healer and, especially, the patient are on the demand side. We are all in this together and we all need to heal and be healed. The difference between the healer and the patient is the degree of conscious volition. The healer is conscious of spiritual power, of what is necessary to use it, and does whatever is necessary to do. It entails sacrifice and discipline – discipline to handle that most subtle and precious substance and, sacrifice, to become compassionate and humble to open to it.
Ignorance is at the base of sin and suffering. We are blind to our own failings until we become painfully aware of them. Thus, through cause and consequence, the patient is brought to awareness and opened to humility in the need for respite. One might even say the patient is self-beaten into obedient receptivity through cause and consequence. To be healed, the patient must have developed at least a modicum of self-consciousness and control, to receive and hold the spiritual influx, to become a new person. There are numerous instances that illustrate this in the healings of Christ in the Gospels. Long-suffering patients were asked to do something trivial like bathing in a river. Patients were also asked to not waste the healing power as in, “go and sin no more.” In healing, the demand is urgent and intense while the supply is unlimited, as well as edifying and without stint.
There is more to the healing supply and demand relationship. The demand is not merely a wanting of something. The healer and the patient, who are together on the demand side, must develop discipline, obedience and, above all, humble openness. Healing is more than removing suffering, it is a positive step forward. Supply-and-demand aren’t a balance in isolation. They are a balance for progress. The balance of supply-and-demand are as necessary to evolutionary progress as physical balance is to propelling a bicycle forward. Health is not an end in itself; it is something found in the striving for something greater. Progress.
Supply and demand are also found in the macrocosm. The transcendent spiritual worlds are the supply side and the phenomenal, concrete worlds, and the forms and creatures in them, are the demand side. The forms in the concrete worlds are the creations of the Life of the spiritual worlds. The existence and evolution of the forms depends on the Source of transcendent life. The need of the forms can be seen as a demand on the grace of the Universal Spirit. In this image the heart of the macrocosmic world of thought is the lens of manifestation. There is also an inversion through this lens. The misunderstanding or perversion of this inversion is, potentially, the most deadly of all. The physical world is an inverted, reflective projection of Divine Spirit, the deepest and highest state of spirit in our creative manifestation. Sadly, in our human wave of creation, the inversion has become misunderstood and perverted. In our fall, we have become somewhat spiritually disconnected in our personal consciousness, and we sometimes get things backward. This perverted inversion is called materialism. Materialism is the belief that everything comes out of matter, not spirit. In our spiritual disconnect, we are insecure, as might be expected since spiritual being is the source of the only true security. The combination of insecurity and perverted inversion explains the insatiable hunger, the greed, that is the engine of supply side economics. Materialism can be serious enough for there to be a complete rupture between spirit and matter in us, individually, and collectively—an abortion of the creation. As spiritual aspirants with this knowledge, it is imperative that we do something about it.
Knowledge of this conditions begs the questions, “What is to be done?” and, “How do we do it?” The simple, almost simplistic, answer is that we reach into the spirit within and live it out into the world around us. It is not a mechanical or mental process, it is a living process. Obviously, this is not something that can be thoroughly discussed in a brief essay like this. Only a few leading statements can be made.
One part is purging ourselves of biases and illusions. That is what purity really is. We have placed ourselves in material exile since, what is called, “the fall of humanity.” The exile has been long, many millennia. During that time, we have taken on many of the illusions of materialism. To some extent we are all materialists. We think we know the nature of reality when we do not. We even pride ourselves egoistically in our “knowledge.” If we are fortunate, we are shocked out of our materialistic presumptions. If we are truth seekers, we examine everything we believe. We follow the admonition of St. Paul quoted on the title page of the first edition of the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, “Prove all things.” If we are earnest, honest and persevere, we gradually dispel the cloud of unknowing and begin to see reality more clearly for what it is, glorious. The moments of clarity along the way are more than ample stimulus to persevere.
We also have illusions about the transcendental spiritual worlds. We are sometimes blessed with intuition. Those moments resound with truth, but in our vain ways, we often tend to think we know more than we actually do. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” Much of the difference is due to our human presumption, born of materialism, that blocks higher understanding. It is only when we allow ourselves to be humbled by, and open to, the spirit that we come to light.
The other part is preparing ourselves to receive and unite with the spirit.
In Greek mythology Zeus, the chief of the Olympians, was a bit of a rake, and unfaithful to his wife Hera. At one time he had a beautiful, young human lover. Hera got wind of it, but instead of scolding him, she sought jealous revenge on the girl, while simultaneously giving Zeus his comeuppance. She befriended the lass and instilled doubt in her by saying she could only know Zeus loved her if he showed himself to her as he really was. In their next tryst, after a moment of tender intimacy, Zeus said she could have whatever wished. She said she wanted to see him as he really was instead of the human form he had assumed. He pleaded and pleaded with her to ask for anything else but that, but she persisted and, because he had nodded his head, he had to comply. The brilliance of light was so intense that she was instantly disintegrated, much to his sorrow. It is only a story. In reality, spiritual light is actually healing, but the point of the story is well taken.
We must prepare to receive the spirit. We need to become whole beings capable of receiving and sharing the spirit. Spiritual growth doesn’t just happen to us. It comes about by the lives we live. We must bring our lives to conform to the spirit within and be able to respond to the “Shepherds voice.” There is potential, perverted inversion in this also. Too often we try to have the spirit conform to our personalities rather than working to conform our personalities to the spirit – we get it backwards. The preparation, we know, is done by persisting in “loving, self-forgetting service,” which builds the soul body that is the “golden wedding garment” for the alchemical wedding of body and spirit.The soul body is the spiritualized matter which is our contribution to the inverse supply and demand relationship. In a small but necessary way, we supply soul food for the spirit.
As said earlier, spirit is the ultimate supply side, but is given to us only as much as we are ready, only as much as we have prepared ourselves to receive it. The light of the spirit is, indeed, dazzling. It blinded Saul when he experienced it on the road to Damascus, but it is as subtle as it is powerful. It is so subtle that we are told to be ever watchful for “it cometh as a thief in the night.” It caught Saul by surprise. We can, and sometimes do, miss our spiritual opportunities. We need to be ready. In this, our lives as spiritual aspirants must become lives of perpetual preparedness, lives of perpetual invitation to the spirit. Perhaps Shakespeare’s Hamlet said it best: “The readiness is the all.”
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