In 'The Spiritual Awakening Guide', Mary Shutan includes a section on 'Dark Nights' while discussing what she calls the Layer of Societal and Collective Conditioning, one of the layers it behoves one to see into and through on the journey to proper awakening. Its nub is that uncomfortable, maybe even devastating, realisation that society, the collective, is not what you have been told it is, and what you have believed it to be. Things are not as they appear. Not at all. To follow Terence McKenna: society is not your friend. Culture (mainstream) is not your friend. To look in their direction for help, support, understanding - to believe that they exist to benefit all on their way through life -, is a big mistake.
A few quotes from Mary Shutan will serve better than anything I can cobble together to make a few salient points:
'Many of us stay in the societal awakening stage for lengthy periods of time. We become angry and disillusioned, realizing that the government, societal norms and rules, and the whole construct of society is patently false.'
'When we experience a Dark Night ….. the sense of depression and feelings of being in a fog or black hole can be overwhelming …….. everyone but ourselves appears to be asleep ….. There is a conviction that the rest of the world is going to hell and nobody else understands what is going on but us that is pervasive in this stage.'
And so it goes on. Needless to say, this is a stage to work through, to see through, and not get stuck in, difficult though this may seem at the time. It's one part of a bigger process. As a layer of conditioning it is to be seen as such, to be shed like an unwanted skin.
The degree to which one permits oneself to be affected by, identified with, even, this layer of conditioning profoundly influences ones mood, overall feeling, about life. This is what I have discovered in myself, at least. To the extent that I am influenced by those societal and collective notions and sentiments, to that extent I have the tendency towards feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, pessimism. To the extent that I can eschew this way of perceiving the world, and focus instead on individuals and my own individuality, to that extent I feel the magic, wonder, and miraculous quality of the universe I inhabit.
Societal and collective conditioning - disseminated mainly through mainstream media and 'education' - instils a certain outlook on life. The world is an awful place, full of awful things and awful people. I am helpless in the midst of this awfulness, and I should furthermore hand my power over to 'experts' and 'authorities' who will handle the situation for me. This is the prime purpose of this layer of conditioning in the modern world, to help perpetuate a mass of passive, helpless-feeling folk, who are readily manipulated, regulated, and controlled. The task befalling the individual is to see through all this, see it as a construct, and be free, internally at least, of the whole goddamn shithouse.
The individual human being, conversely, is infinitely fascinating. OK, sometimes a bit silly, but frequently friendly and well-wishing. I end with a little story from my wee corner of the woods, which is kind-of relevant. It concerns our local bus.
Once upon a time, the neighbourhood where I live boasted a pretty good local bus service. Moving to the Scottish Highlands from south London, I was particularly impressed by two features: firstly, the bus service ran more-or-less according to the timetable, rather than at random times; and secondly, the children said 'Thank you' to the driver when getting off the bus.
A few years after my move north, things improved further when many of the old buses were replaced by new electric ones. These were quiet, nimble, and clean. Happy days indeed.
One day, however, the electric buses were removed from our route. In their stead came an army of dirty old vehicles, including a number of grimy double-deckers, which looked as if they had been bought at a second-hand auction in Streatham. They lurched clumsily from stop to stop, eminently unsuitable for the windy roads that characterise parts of our locality.
The once-reliable timetable was no more. Buses were frequently late, or failed to turn up at all. The drivers were either dead grumpy, bad-tempered, anxious, or depressed. The peak hour buses, in particular, would regularly not arrive, and office workers, worried about losing their jobs because of repeated lateness, abandoned the service in their tiny Highland droves.
It was then that the bus company announced it would be discontinuing the service. 'Not enough passengers' they said. 'Only 22% take-up of capacity.' Hardly surprising, given the quality of service. Plus all those unnecessary double deckers with understandably empty seats.
There was a local stink, as there invariably is about such matters. The bus company was adamant. At the last minute, though, a smaller, more local, company stepped into the breach. 'We will run it. No subsidies? No problem. We can make it work.'
And making it work they appear to be. To begin with, the disgruntled locals' lack of faith was reflected in nearly empty buses. Slowly, though, they began to cotton on. Neat little vehicles, running punctually - well, most of the time. Maybe most important of all, though, was the drivers. Gone were the misery-guts of the big national company. Now there were drivers who were actually friendly, welcoming you on board with a smile and a cheery 'hello'. Two, in particular, really stood out with their amiable manner. Most miraculously, people waiting at the bus stops now did so with a smile on their faces, too.
A trip into town on the bus had actually become a pleasure, rather than a necessary evil. I suspect that there are folk who go into town just for the hell of it, just to be on the bus. A bit of positivity breeds positivity. That's a sentence straight out of one of those self-help books that I despise, I know. But, in this case at least, it is true. A touch of authentic human spirit works wonders.
