by Ernest L. Norman

It has been observed countless numbers of times that it takes all kinds of people to make a world; however, the full implications of this humble bit of philosophy are not fully realized except by those people who are interested in and are performing some humanitarian effort. This is particularly true when such an effort involves personal elements of a psychological nature and in which some such person, who may be attracted by this humanitarian effort, can see or read into it a possible means of escape from one or a host of sins, iniquities, derelictions and aberrations.

In this general escape mechanism, these escapists are attracted en masse to the standard of any such real or phony humanitarian efforts. Unfortunately, almost all efforts so tendered have, to a large degree, been of such phony or invalid characteristics; they have all promised, but failed to deliver. Perhaps the greatest single character in our modern times to capitalize on this human frailty was Phineas T. Barnum and his various fraudulent activities which are historically well-known.

However, other great frauds which have been perpetrated on humanity are not so generally recognized. In fact, the greatest of these has gone for thousands of years unrecognized, except by a very few, for what it really is – a great hoax. This great hoax is religion and in general classifications of all religion, past or present, the present-day Christian orthodoxy – or whatever it is called – is the greatest single representation of this great fraud.

We may attempt to justify or rationalize the existence of these religious systems. We may say that they were necessitated as a general development in the mental and spiritual qualities of mankind throughout the ages. However, this optimistic philosophy is soon dissipated when we strip religion bare of its veil of mysticism and present the bare, ugly machination behind religious systems.

In common, all religions had a similar basic starting point. They were first born in the primitive mind of the jungle savage as he watched bolts of lightning crash from the stormy skies, or that he saw a great volcano spewing forth its lava. These and countless other natural phenomena gave rise in the savage mind to a system of justifications. These unknown mystical potentials were given personal identification and a symbolic pantheology was built around them.

Today, Christianity still clings to these vicious symbologies. It has built around them its own pantheology, adding strength to this viciousness; for under its stifling cloak, reason and self-initiative are snuffed out and every person who so believes in this system is strangled by the cord of salvation, held in the hands of his fancied “savior”. Yes, the common escape mechanism, engendered by fears of want, insecurity, greed and lust, have made helpless slaves of any and all of those who are attracted into the mesmeric mists of these false hinterlands, led there by the bloody cross and equally bloodied robes of those who carry it.

The crucifixion should become a symbol not of salvation but a symbol of personal crucifixion to any persons who follow this pagan symbology. There is only one way to attain this long-dreamed-of salvation; that is, to take the pathway of constructive evolution and to gain the first foothold on this pathway; to take the first step means that every person who so starts must discard his ancient pagan symbologies. In their stead, he must rebuild and reconstruct an entirely new dimension of purpose and attainment; he must begin to attain certain scientific knowledge which makes the function of the Infinite Creative Intelligence possible.

This knowledge cannot be symbolized; neither is it reducible to some mathematical formula. It is more than knowledge. It must actually become the factual working elements and ingredients of each personal life. It mandates personal responsibility for every thought and action as part of the function of this Infinite Creation.

Unfortunately, the present mental horizon of any existing human being cannot encompass such broad extractions. All humans are living under a rote system; each action or reaction is some part of the various reactive and instigating forces which surround this human. Under these conditions he does not and cannot either sustain or originate constructive individual thought and action. Perhaps this statement may be very startling but careful analysis with any or all people yields the same results. They are all following these same reactionary patterns and rare indeed is the person who gives rise to some new and original thought and action which is beyond the dimension of his earth life.

If we look about us in our present times, we may see many new scientific inventions which may seem to be the result of some more highly developed creative effort by those responsible for them. However, here too, analysis will show that these various inventions and developments have also been born as the progeny of some great necessity. Their parents may be great idealisms wedded to earthly fears and frustrations and, from these strange minglings, some creation is born.

So it was with the Wright Brothers and the first aircraft. Yet, Leonardo da Vinci, as well as countless others in bygone ages, longed for and visualized the free soaring flight of birds. This, too, was part of the great escape mechanism.

In general, therefore, all classifications of individual spontaneous reactive efforts of humans can be said to be engendered from some such an escape mechanism. A painter who puts beauty on a canvas is only temporarily escaping the vicissitudes of earth life in some subliminal self-creation and in a semi-cataleptic state, he ascends into the arboreal regions of some fancied realm when, in his transported condition, some of the beauty may leak off into the paint which he daubs upon the canvas. And, as with the artist, so it is with all those who seem to be creative, even including those who may be self-sufficient in their creative efforts.

We cannot deny the existence of great spiritual worlds beyond this third dimension; in fact, any form or substance, even in the existence of man himself, would be but a hollow mockery, a useless and unintelligent freak of happenstance unless there were such great worlds beyond this.

How natural then, for man in his earthly mire, to seek an escape from all the insecurities, sins and iniquities which are inherent to this plane. For, is not man born of this infinite substance? Like all things, large or small, the earth and all its creatures have been created from this sublime spiritual stuff.

Excerpt from Infinite Contact

See Part II here.