Step 5: Throw out Things That Don't Fit

I'm restating step 5 as follows:

We discarded any beliefs and practices that did not fit into our developing new belief system, and worked on correcting any deficiencies resulting from those beliefs and practices.

This is because step 5 is not simply a matter of fixing what you broke because you didn't know any better. You must also fix your beliefs and any practices that stem from those beliefs, so that hopefully you don't break anything else. One of the side effects of materialism is selfishness. A side effect of the dualistic version of materialism is self-righteousness. Short-term thinking, greed, envy, pretty much all of the seven deadly sins are also side effects.

Why are all these things side effects of materialism? Materialism implies separation between people, but belief in a something else bigger than us but not separate from us implies an underlying unity. If your belief implies separation, you'll be more inclined to treat others as objects; hence greed, lust, envy. If your belief is of the dualistic type, the people you treat as objects will include those who don't believe the same things you do; hence religious wars and other forms of self-righteousness.

Let's have some examples. You may decide that popularity isn't as important as you thought it was, and concentrate on having a few close friends instead. You may decide that getting the 4,000 square foot house isn't so important. You may find an appreciation of the simpler things, like watching the sun rise.

Now, let's talk about fixing what's broken. Selfishness, greed, shortsightedness, apathy and the like wreck careers. They wreck marriages. They wreck your life. This is where correcting the deficiencies comes in.

Stay tuned for the next step.

Make Your Own "Jesus Fish" in 3 Easy Steps

For today's scheduled activity you will need a piece of paper, a compass (the geometry kind, not the geography kind) and an eraser.

Step 1: Draw a circle on the paper with the compass. It should take up a quarter of the area of the paper or less. You'll see why in a moment.

Step 2: Place the pivot point of the compass on the circumference of the circle, and draw another circle. This will create two intersecting circles.

Step 3: Erase the outside portions of each circle, but leave a short arc on each side of one end of the intersection.

You have now drawn a vesica piscis, the traditional symbol of Christianity. The fact that it is also the intersection of two circles has symbolic implications which I won't get into right now.

For extra credit, leave a comment with your interpretation of the symbol.

Step 4: Be Willing to See Things Differently

The fourth step is as follows:

We affirmed to God that we were willing to have a different perception of the world around us.

This step is about establishing intention, but primarily about changing your mind. You have to be willing to see things differently. This is actually the hardest part, because you have to give up your beliefs.

You have to be willing to change your mind about the economy. You have to be willing to change your mind about the environment. You have to be willing to change your mind about the jerk who cuts you off on the freeway. You have to be willing to change your mind about yourself.

Book Review: Kabbalah, Magic and the Great Work of Self-Transformation

Once you've decided that strict materialism doesn't work for you, or that dualism doesn't work either, there's an obvious question: what to do about it. As I mentioned in a prior posts, there are two main paths: mysticism and hermeticism. The two paths aren't really that different, they just have different areas of emphasis. The mystic path emphasizes experience of unity; the hermetic path emphasizes using symbolism to work on your subconscious to balance the different parts of your personality. Each path in practice contains the other.

If you are interested in the hermetic path, Kabbalah, Magic and the Great Work of Self-Transformation by Lyam Thomas Christopher is a possible option (but also see this alternative). This book is designed to be used as a self-study course in hermetism, but it can also be used as preparation for joining a mystery school, as it explains the concepts you'll need starting from a basic level.

One of the good things about the book is that the program set forth forces you to take your time and let the concepts and practices of each stage sink in before proceeding to the next. There is also suggested reading given for each stage. By the end of the book (which would take years if you follow the program), you'll be qualified to do independent work and research. Think of it as a self-study bachelor's level course in hermetism.

I'm not following this program myself because my current program (link in the sidebar) has over 15 years of lessons and has the same general principles and goals. But secrecy oaths and the like are a problem for some, and those people should consider this book.

Step 3: Give Your Life to Recovery

The revised step 3 is as follows:

We decided to devote our lives toward personal experience of this something else.

Just to clarify, I don't mean that we need to quit our jobs, sell everything we have, and sit on the top of a mountain somewhere until we get it. I mean something more difficult, but at the same time more rewarding. I mean that the quest has to permeate your life. You have to have it at the back of your mind when you go to work, when you go to church, when you stand in line at the grocery store.

Different philosophers have said that the Something Else is everywhere and in everything. If that's true, there's no hard and fast dividing line between the quest and life in general. You'll study and work on yourself, but you'll also apply what you've learned in daily living (more on that later).

Step 2: Recognize that We're Missing Something

The second step in recovery:

We decided to take seriously the idea that there was something out there besides the physical universe as we knew it.

The first step was admitting that we don't have all the answers. This step is an extension of the first. We're not only admitting that we don't have the answer; we're affirming that the answer is out there somewhere. If you need support for this step, as in you're not sure that there is anything besides the universe as we know it, you need to go back to step 1.

(Sorry for the edits. I seem to have gotten a little ahead of myself.)

Step 1: Admit There's a Problem

In On Second Thought, 12 Steps May Be Too Many, I cut the number of steps down to 7. Today, I want to talk about the first step:

We admitted that our current worldview was incomplete, and therefore not conducive to a happy life.

I changed this because the important thing is that we're missing something. We have made major scientific and technological advances in the last 100 years, and most of us in America have standards of living better than that of the richest people 300 years ago, but we're still not happy. We spend more money on health care that anyone, but we still can't get rid of cancer and heart disease. Even the most famous and successful of us are not immune to depression, drugs and scandals. And let's not even start about the environment.

Given that our results are suboptimal, the problem must be either with our model of the world, our value systems or our behavior. If it's our behavior, that ultimately goes back to the model and our values, because if we are not acting according to our beliefs and values, we're either insane, or our beliefs and values aren't workable in practice.

So that's step 1. Stay tuned.