How is The Imaginal Realm Different from Human Imagination?

Someone recently asked me why I use the term 'Imaginal Realm,' and wondered if it was the same as 'imagination.
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First off, the Imaginal Realm, like the Chinese Tao, cannot be named or defined.

We may examine the Imaginal Realm in the way a physicist studies an atom. Some activities and very limited results of the atoms existence can be observed, but never is the dynamic atom seen. If that is true of the miniscule atom, how much more of the vast Imaginal Realm which originated the atom? Perhaps these are more closely related than we realize as William Blake said, “To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower/Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour.” (Auguries of Innocence)

I use that term 'Imaginal Realm' to distinguish it from 'human imagination', or the 'imaginary' work of people. 'Imaginary' refers to what we make up with the human will, like making up a story, creating a television commercial or constructing ideas for projects, etc. The Imaginal Realm is beyond and before human imagination, or imaginary human musings. The two areas clearly intersect because all human 'imaginings' are ultimately connected to the Imaginal Realm.

The Imaginal Realm is the arena of dreams. It is the Psychic-Sea in which we swim. It is the Realm of Psyche or Soul. It most often takes us into the depths, into the deep, into the abyss, into the labyrinth, into the matrix, into the womb of darkness, into the caverns of Hades. It is the realm of myth and fantasy - but again, these are not humanly constructed fantasies; rather they are unexpected and alien ideas, daydreams, thoughts and emotions.

The Imaginal Realm transmits those intrusive and often annoying feelings of awe or dread that seem to arrive from nowhere, those waves of overwhelming love or murderous resentment, and those flashes of clarity or confusion that seem to drop in 'out of the blue'.

The Imaginal Realm removes our limiting blinders and shows us, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly, the evolving Numinous Realm, the sacred spheres, the worlds of the Gods. Sadly, most modern humans try to assign the responsibility of all such experiences to the human mind and 'free will'. That is a huge mistake, and an impossible burden for us to bear. All ancient cultures realized that the Gods were the authors of such 'revelations'.

The Imaginal Realm conjures up the invisible playmates of some children, and sends us sudden insights into deep problems. It manifests itself as puzzling nightmares or shocking erotic interludes that interrupt our dreams. These perplexing images require us to move beyond a current ego-self, beyond the literal 'manifest content' of the dream, as Freud would say, to the 'latent content' wrapped in the dream's symbols. In other words, the Imaginal Realm loves to give us riddles and cryptic psycho-spiritual codes to crack. Humans love codes and riddles! That is why we are always finding religious, political and relational conspiracies everywhere!

The Imaginal Realm reminds us of our inevitable appointment with death, takes things apart we thought were solid and introduces transformational periods of depression, addiction, grief, insanity or other 'neuroses'. These useful psychological terms can also be misleading when we assume there is something 'wrong' with us and the cosmos. These necessary, normal and purposeful chaotic pathologies and painful symptoms, like the knotted root-ball of a potential plant, spread their tentacles into the deep rich loam of the Unconscious and prepare us to blossom.

The Imaginal Realm rearranges our understanding of 'love' and calls us beyond our ego and self will. It always surprises, troubles and nudges us beyond our current world securities and beliefs in what is taken for granted. It is the inner undiscovered jungle, and the Guide into that jungle of the unexplored unconscious, often showing up like Gandalf the Wizard from the Hobbit, prodding us on an adventure and into experiences which we could never have imagined would have entered our lives.

Rod Serling called the Imaginal Realm the Twilight Zone, "We are traveling through another dimension. A dimension not of sight and sound, but of 'mind'. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition; it lies between the pit of man's fears and summit of his knowledge."

The Imaginal Realm is like a stack of 10 trillion kazillion Lego pieces which can be constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed into an infinite number of images - both physical and psychical. It is simultaneously chaos and creation. The Hindu Sankhya philosophy calls this ‘prakriti,’ the eternal substance from which all physical and mental forms arise.

The Imaginal Realm is a crystal ball containing visions which may calm us or scare us. It was accessed by Shamans, Greek Oracles, Hebrew Prophets and Christian Apostles (cf. Apostle Paul, Colossians 1:15ff.). It is described in the Bhagavad Gita, chapter eleven.

The Imaginal Realm captures what we see when we shut our eyes and visualize, or listen to what is beyond the audible senses, and beyond our own intentional thought. Some today call it channeling, others call it being filled with the Holy Spirit or speaking in tongues. It is what Jesus referred to when he talked about 'the Kingdom of Heaven'. It is the Hindu Ganesh, a boy with an elephant's head. It is Alice Through the Looking Glass, Neo Anderson escaping the Matrix, Dorothy entering OZ through a tornado and all fantastic journeys into fantastic lands. It is the Realm of the Living Archetypes, which we call 'gods' and 'goddesses'.

Perhaps most importantly, we must remember that this Realm existed long before the human being, long before the human brain evolved. The Imaginal Realm is NOT synonymous with our neural biology any more than a television image is the result of the televisions internal technology. Both the television and the human brain receive their 'images' from a realm that is beyond the container holding the technology, beyond brains and microchips. To identify human bio-chemical cognition (the brain) with the Imaginal Realm may be the biggest and most deadly mistake in modern psychology, and the cause of our modern pharmaceutical culture.

Industry and technology are modern manifestations of the Imaginal Realm, but not to be confused with it, or seen as substitutes for humanness. The Greek God Hephaestus was the God of technos, constructing and inventing from the world of stuff, but he was homely and limped when he walked. Perhaps the Greeks recognized that technology, as wondrous as it is, contains a kind of ugliness and impairment of humanity. We see increasing numbers of people welded to their iPhone, iPod, television, computer or other techno-gadgetry. This is the shadow side of technology. There is a kind of ugliness and impairment of relational and communal intimacy. The wondrous product of the Imaginal Realm has replaced the Imagination, replaced revelation and creativity. We ought to stop using the ‘hardwired’ metaphor for the human brain. The Imaginal Realm reminds us that we are 'soft-wired,’ pliable – not machines. We need some Totos today who can do to us what the little dog did to the Wizard of OZ trapped behind his inhumane 'computer' screen. Toto drew back the curtain and revealed the human as primarily a receiver of personal contact, not a transmitter of second hand images.

The Imaginal Realm will never be defined, located or controlled. It is the sea of infinite potential and usually beyond human manipulation. I say 'usually' because at some minor level we are allowed to use our thoughts and intentions to create reality. But we do NOT create all reality. Man is NOT the measure of all perceptions, as Protagoras said. The Imaginal Realm created us as an author writes a poem, and It still continues to make us into unique poems. This realm screws with our perceptions in the most annoying ways.

Let me repeat: Most importantly, humans and specifically the human brain with which we are so enamored these days, receives the Imaginal Realm. The brain does not originate it. When this solar system runs down, shrivels into a smoldering ember and eventually fades into a cold, dead intergalactic debris field - after all sentient life has been consumed - the Imaginal Realm will continue to unfold new imaginings, new fantasies and infinite realities beyond our humanly 'imagined' ponderings.

The Imaginal Realm does NOT depend upon us, but we on It. That is why the ancients spent so much time addressing issues of destiny, fate and necessity. That is why even moderns, as they become older (ancient), begin to look in the rearview mirror of time and see forces beyond human will.

I have a series of comments and quotes regarding the Imaginal Realm on my blog site:
http://michaelbogar.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-is-soul-making_14.html

List of Bible Losers

1. Noah was a drunk.
2. Abraham was “too old.”
3. Isaac was a daydreamer.
4. Jacob was a liar.
5. Leah hated her prettier sister.
6. Joseph was abused.
7. Moses had a stuttering problem and tried to commit suicide.
8. Gideon tested God over and over.
9. Samson was a womanizer.
10. Rahab was a prostitute.
11. Jeremiah didn’t want to be a prophet.
12. David had an affair, was a murderer and was bi-polar.
13. Elijah was suicidal.

14. Isaiah was an exhibitionist.

15. Jonah ran from God.
16. James and John asked God to kill the Samaritans.
17. Job went bankrupt and fought with God.
18. Peter denied Christ three times and hated Gentiles.
19. The Disciples fell asleep while praying.
20. Martha was a codependent worry-wart.
21. The Samaritan woman had been married four times.
22. Matthew was an extortionist.
23. Paul was a religious hypocrite and a murderer.
24. And finally!
25. Lazarus was dead!

Churches as Gymnasiums, Not Hospitals

THE THREE PARTS OF HUMANS

Every religion recognizes humans as being curiously constructed of various ingredients not quite stirred together and cooked yet. These include the physical body which I see as a kind of playing field where the game of making a Human takes place. The human spirit is the rational part, or mind that strives for unity, wholeness, health and continual joy. Finally, soul is the illogical, insane, fragmented, dark part of us that leads us into thoughts of fear, anxiety and pathology.

SPIRITUAL GYMNASIUMS OVER HOSPITALS

Spirit is compelled to light, joy, peace, compassion and dreams of world peace. Soul is compelled to darkness, turmoil, terror and nightmares. Spirit pulls us straight into the heavens, soul plunges us into the meandering dark depths. We all know both realms of experience. But modern psychology minimizes the necessary work of soul by telling us that we are disordered as bi-polar, manic-depressive, schizophrenic, having multiple personalities and a host of other disparaging terms that often cause more harm than help. We don't need so much to 'cure' these dualities as see their psychic function in making us into Humans. We need to shift our primary focus away from curing unnecessary conflicts, to caring for necessary spiritual isometrics that make us into Humans. Our spiritual churches and psychiatric centers need to resemble gymnasiums rather than hospitals where we treat sick people. Clearly there is room for both metaphors, for sometimes we break spiritual bones and need cures, but the emphasis ought to be on training rather than illness.

The Necessity of Judgment and Confusion for Soul-making

The following excerpt from the gifted teacher and author, Byron Katie, was sent to me by a friend in light of my sons death last July. My response follows, which essentially agrees, yet with a strong warning that the human experiences of judgment and confusion are perfectly normal and necessary in a soul-making universe. The deep serenity of the mystic doesn't enter the psyche through osmosis, but via inconvenient archetypal experiences native to the en-Humanment process. As G.K. Chesterton wrote, "An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." - On Running After Ones Hat, 1908

Reality is always kind

from Byron Katie

"If my daughter (or brother in my case) dies, I realize that there is no self to be affected. It's not about me. This is about her life, my child's life, and mind --the unceasing bodiless mind that is finally awake to itself, the mind that never existed as a her, and the her that can never die. In this, we are never separated. And that's just a beginning: it gets even kinder. I get to see what my child's children grow in to because she was not there to teach them differently. Whenever I lose something, I've been spared. Every loss has to be a gain, unless the loss is being judged by a confused mind. I come to see what fills that space in my kindness in my world cannot decrease, because something else enters the space that I held her in. Just when you think that life can't get any better, it has to. That's the law."

My 'concern' with this excerpt is with the possible assumption that 'judgment' and 'confusion' are unnecessary experiences, and to be gotten rid of. Just because something is undesirable doesn't mean it is unnecessary. I realize that Katie doesn't say that, but so many current teachers of consciousness who are compassionately seeking to end suffering imply that there is no cosmic necessity in the suffering created by a judgmental and confused mind/brain. I see the Universe as a wondrous place for the eternal archetype of 'Confusion'. The mind/brain are made to judge and be confused.

Isometrics is the increase in strength as a result of the necessary and normal fusion (con-fusion) of joint and muscle with objects of resistance. Without gravity and solid matter, we would be limp noodles. Babies come from the womb kicking against uterine walls, swinging their arms, inhaling and expelling oxygen for the first time, grabbing fingers, fighting gravity, pushing against the floor and screaming against the resistance of a very 'oppressive' (to press against) world. Without these resistances, they would never develop. The body would grow flabby and atrophy without continued resistance against immovable or reluctantly movable objects.

SPIRITUAL ISOMETRICS

I call soul-making Spiritual Isometrics. The soul is like the human body. It must encounter resistance in order to increase strength. The proclivity toward mental and emotional conflict is built into the mind/brain. Mind and brain function like joints and muscles to expand through resistance. We know this to be true of neurons, that they increase and multiply through the con-fusion of cross word puzzles, college exams or figuring out ways to prove we are right to our partners. All great inventions and adventures are the result of meeting resistance and expanding beyond the obstacle.

Resistance and confusion are native to Reality. At the cosmic level, the Big Bang is an act of creative resistance. The recent Membrane Theory which attempts to explain the Big Bang says, “Spontaneous creation of matter seems to be possible, because the resistance of the existing matter inside the membrane is producing a great amount of energy.” One physicist oversimplified it by saying, “The universe appears to be made up of quantum membranes, like vast cells, and when two or more collide, they con-fuse and there is the birth of a universe.” Mothers and fathers call this conception.

So from the structure of the cosmos, to the energy of the atom, through every phase of evolution, to muscle development, through grappling with Jason's death, to pounding my fingers against this plastic alphabet on the computer key pad - Reality always expands by meeting immovable or reluctantly movable forces.

So called ‘negative emotions’ exist for that purpose, namely, expansion of soul. Fear, grief, confusion, anxiety, panic, depression and so forth are forms of normal, necessary and creative thoughts and emotions that expand and empower soul to grow bigger than it was yesterday. These amazing affections are as much a part of a loving Reality as joy, peace, clarity and ecstasy. That’s why the Hindu mythology, and all mythologies, depict a Mother Goddess (Kali) as simultaneously the giver of new babies and the decapitating demon. The Celtic equivalent is Morrigan. That is why Nature slaughters her population every Fall, and regenerates them each Spring.

Katie says, "Every loss has to be a gain, unless the loss is being judged by a confused mind. I come to see what fills that space in my kindness in my world cannot decrease, because something else enters the space that I held her in. Just when you think that life can't get any better, it has to. That's the law."

I would change three words in her statement, "Every loss has to be a gain, because the loss is being judged by a confused mind. I come to see what fills that space in my kindness in my world must decrease, because something else enters the space that I held her in. Just when you think that life can't get any bigger, it has to. That's the law."

Confused judgment is the means to or cause of the new gain, not an obstacle. The confused judgment is the building material of the gain just as the weight in the gym is the cause of the muscle increase. The obstacle is the cause of the expansion.

I see the mind/brain as being wonderfully constructed to include the capacity and necessity of confused judgment - and thereby create the space and the material for the myriad gains that will come with each experience of judgment and confusion. Just as the foot is constructed to press against the pavement in order to generate movement, or the finger to pinch and squeeze a piece of food in order to hold and eat it, so my mind must grasp or press against each loss 'in order' to create the container for, and to acquire the gain. The foot and finger are 'confused' or fused together with oppositional gravity and material resistance in order to increase strength to take the walk or get the food. My mind must encounter resistance and ‘suffer’ internal and external oppositions to create my unique soul. It is what mind/brain is made to do, and is purposeful.

I once spoke to a group of New Age devotees about the necessity of judgments to make soul. One participant spoke up, obviously upset, and said that he was sick of all these theories, debates and arguments about spirituality. He proceeded to go on and on about the serenity and joy he had attained by giving up judgments. After he finished, I hesitated, but couldn't resist, and said, "It sounds like you have some very strong judgments about people with judgments." Truth is sometimes inconvenient. You see, we cannot live without judgments any more than a baby can live without trying to walk. To be human is to judge. It is our nature, and it is purposeful. One could liken our propensity to develop judgments which we will later try to release, to a child who labors ceaselessly to develop muscles in order to grow up and invent machines to minimize the exertion of muscles! We develop judgments in order to release judgments, and thereby grow a soul. Soul is made in the process. Growing egoic opinions, beliefs, prejudices and judgments and then learning to surrender these opinions and judgments is a means to an end. And that end is not even serenity, but soul-making. Serenity is a wonderful by product.

We encounter these mental ‘con -fusings’ all day long with thousands of subjects and objects. The mind/brain are in a chronic state of judgment and con-fusings, chronically thinking, “I like this or I don’t like this.” We don’t consciously do this, it just happens, like a baby exerting his muscles. Mind/brain automatically con-fuse (combine) with life events, just as the lungs automatically fuse with oxygen, by nhaling and exhaling without conscious thought. Attraction and repulsion are the two autonomic states of mind/brain for making unique souls. Our automatic innate judgments and con-fusings must be seen as normal and necessary. Then we can learn ways to care for and work with them as allies rather than enemies.

That is where I find Katie’s method helpful in not getting stuck in a single, myopic state of ideological confusion. Her four questions can help me shift one kind of fusion to another – I can refuse them, re-fuse them, in-fuse them, sometimes de-fuse them, ex-fuse, inter-fuse them, etc. The mind must fuse with something - it simply must and always will unless your brain is organically diseased, you get a lobotomy or enter into an altered state through medical or meditational escapisms. The Psyche is always judging, always creating more anxiety and confusion to stretch our souls. Most judgments and con-fusions are subtle, some are catastrophic. It is as instinctual to judge and fuse with people, situations and ideas as it is for the baby seeking to fuse with a nipple or squeeze a finger. These fusions jump start the expansion process. And this universe is rife with the objects and subjects of the necessary judgments and fusions for soul-making.

I do find Katie’s language to be quite beautifully instructive when she says, “I come to see…” The ‘coming’ process is just as normal and necessary as the ‘seeing’ goal. She nearly went insane and ended up in a halfway house before 'coming to.' Sometimes we minimize the ‘coming’ process that entails going through all of the painful thoughts and emotions of judgment, worry, fear and grief. There is never human mystical integration without emotional and mental disintegrations (plural). I know of no mystic who has not fallen completely apart before they surrendered. Science knows of no galaxy, solar system or planet that did not develop from a flaming debris field. Mythologies from Jesus' resurrection, Osiris's reassemblage, the rise of the Phoenix from the ashes and Humpty Dumpty's crash are all archetypal indicators of Psyche's nature as a 'coming'...and then a 'coming to' and finally the 'seeing.' And 'coming to' implies a 'going out' or crash and disintegration. The goal requires the process.

“I come to see…” teaches me that the serene mystic mind is ontologically no more necessary or important than the confused judging mind, anymore than the fully blossomed rose is greater than the little rotting seed in the dark soil from which it sprang. Souls, like flowers, are made progressively and processively. Just as the seed must die, crack up and con-fuse with the muddy loam in the murky pond in order to bud (Buddha) into the flowering Lotus, so the human soul must fuse with many experiences of death, darkness, disagreement and a thousand ego related conflicts to reach full enHumanment. ‘Coming to,’ is a necessary process for ‘coming to see’.

Wholeness is not attained when one 'sees'. Wholeness includes the dirty, con-fusing process of coming to as well as the result of seeing. The tacit or explicit assumption that Wholeness includes only the awakened mind is a mistake made in many New Age circles. This wrong assumption is to the peril of all humans who think there is something amiss until they finally un-fuse with their problems and 'see' the Light. The flower is Whole as the seed pod stuck in the black pond sediment, through the cracking open and extension of roots downward, to the full bloom under the sun and all the way to wilted heap.

Our confusions, judgments, fears and all so called 'negative' emotions are normal and necessary, not to be tolerated and gotten rid of as secondary processes. These innate mental and emotional resistances are allies to soul-making via their nature as painful obstacles. This process of spiritual isometrics grows soul, or some would say 'increases character.' This is what the amazing poet William Blake was conveying in his opus, 'Marriage of Heaven and Hell', summarized by his proverb, "Without Contraries is no progression." The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said it like this, "Strife (confusion) is the Father of all." And the Geek philosopher Homer Simpson who said, "Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals! Except the weasel."

And of course confusions and judgments can also sometimes strain and break us severely. Not all isometric exercise strengthens joints and muscles. Sometimes we break a bone or damage a joint and need healing. Sometimes the mind and heart are broken, suffering compound fractures – what we call 'emotional or mental breakdowns.' I see Katie's process and other mental healing fantasies as VERY VERY beneficial when the mind is being 'over-exercised' or at the breaking point. The Work can move you into and through mental resistance in order to develop soul, unless you use it to escape. Exercises are only as good as their proper execution.

But to imply that judgmental confusion is unnatural, unnecessary, abnormal and needs to be gotten rid of is a very dangerous assertion. It is tantamount to saying that just because physical exercise is difficult and uncomfortable, it must be stopped. Or that algebra causes me to suffer, therefore algebra is bad for me and must be ended. If my musculature did not daily fuse with the many objects of resistance in my path, I would atrophy and die. The mind/brain are not doing something 'wrong', 'alien', 'abnormal' or 'unnecessary' when they judge and get con-fused with life events. The mind/brain are doing what they do, fuse with objects of resistance, judging them in order to grow a soul.

THE CON-FUSION OF CONCEPTION

Another natural example is the necessary collisionS and confusion of a hundred thousand sperm cells into the citadel of the solid and resistant ovum. The microscopic crusaders batter the impenetrable membrane until one finds the open gate and enters. Then the 'fusing together' begins. The sperm cell and egg cell fuse together (con-fuse) and a new life begins. This is a microcosmic metaphor for the making of an individual soul, and the collective Soul of the Universe - collisions, losses, confusions, divisions, multiplications, additions, subtractions and all of these done in the depths of a dark womb. The creative chaos in the womb is the way mind/brain works too.

The night I heard Jason died, I was fused with unimaginable loss. It would have done me no good, and does me no good now, to hear “that there is no self to be affected.” I know there was a self to be affected because it was. That self was, and still is, being dismantled by these affections. There is very likely a stage in the process where the human soul ceases to be so affected in the enHumanment journey, a 'coming to see,' but the necessary experiences of traumatic self ‘affection’ must not be minimized, discounted or avoided. I meet too many people who have a kind of subliminal assumption that ‘someday’, when they are enlightened, suffering will cease. One might as well wait for the trees to stop shedding their leaves or the universe to stop expanding toward extinction. Soul is infinite. To negate or minimize the Gods that we don’t like because they are troubling is what the Greeks called hubris. Humans are in a process of infinite expansion, and humans will never trump the work of the Gods in soul-making. The Gods will return until they are heard and/or honored, and their returns we often call re-sentments. That is why Jung counseled, "Always look for the God in your symptom."

In this life, there will be and equilibrated measure of days of pleasure and days of pain, days of loss and days of gain – and perhaps, as we enter the process fully and encounter our sufferings as normal and necessary, we may achieve some measure of consistent serenity in the midst of the myriad con-fusings on planet earth. M. Scott Peck said, “Life is difficult. But when you see that life is difficult, it becomes less difficult.”

Tolle said it well when he wrote that without the suffering caused by ego we “would not evolve as human beings…Suffering drives you deeper. The paradox is that suffering is caused by identification with form AND (my emphasis) erodes identification with form…eventually suffering destroys the ego – but not until you suffer consciously.” (A New Earth, p.102)

Tolle’s observation should have been developed and turned into a whole chapter to help people see the necessary, purposeful role of ego and its more 'dysfunctional' aspects as crucial and functional experiences for creative soul-making. My suspicion is that Tolle is trying to remain religiously neutral and spiritually detached to reach a larger secular audience. But that is like trying to teach someone to learn the alphabet without telling him that the goal is to read and write. The ego is good. The ego will meet much resistance - the result is soul-making, which cannot be taught without the Gods.

Over the past few months since my sons death I have been fused-together with loss, sadness, fear, remorse, resentments and a thousand other forces of affective or emotional resistance. I have been filled with judgments. I have been falling apart. I have curled up in bed and slept, dreamed, wept, prayed, cursed and experienced affections I didn't know existed. But from a soul-making perspective I could more clearly see my falling apart and confusion as normal and necessary, not mental illnesses or inherited dysfunctions, not some alien intrusion, not due to original sin or the fault of my selfish ego which was trying to ‘edge God out.’ I see the work of Ego now as ‘edging God outward.’ The ego-seed pod must burst asunder, shed its fragile skin, lose its perfect circle, then begin again.

There have been times the isometrical resistance of Jason's death has debilitated and broken me beyond human comprehension. I have learned to allow people to carry me when I was so broken I could not walk, and the bones are mending to become even stronger. Like Jacob, after wrestling with the Angel of the Lord for his blessing, I will always have a dislocated hip. But the soul blessing is becoming mine as a result of the crippling struggle, not in spite of it. Soul-making gives us wounds and scars. What better way to be reminded that the amazing character we are developing is not auto-generated or self righteous morality? Scarred work is sacred work. The result of these past months has been a gradual increase in heart and mental strength; a greater sense of call, a larger ability to love my other children, my parents, my fellow human beings - and this new love continues to grow. I have never in my life wept so much as I have over Jason’s death, and yet my heart has never been larger. I have never been so fused with loss and darkness, and my heart is now opening to levels of abundance, love and light I could not have imagined.

REALITY IS NOT ALWAYS KIND

Finally, I do not think that reality is always 'kind'. That implies that there is little or no reason or room for 'unkindness' apart from human failures or sins. Experiences of unkindness, like war, are archetypal, and provide us with the opportunity to grow souls of kindness. The experiences of heartless cruelty from mean people provide the resistance a soul must feel in order to individuate, determine values, draw personal boundaries and form deep compassion for wounded human beings. That is why Jesus told us to bless our enemies - they are the force against which our souls push to increase spiritual muscle and stature. Bitter resentments act like beneficial mold on cantalope - destroying the more lethal bacteria of self obsession. The more deep and powerful the resentments, the more we see how self obsessed we really are, and seek ways to escape the pain of self obsession. Grief expands a tiny ego-pod into a greater capacity for joy. Cynicism, criticism, hatred, anger and sarcasm give us the experience of hellish isolation and self absorption, moving us like Scrooge to a misery that presses us down (depression), forcing us to brood over the past, present and future. During the miserable brooding, Psyche, like the Spirit hovering over the Cosmic egg in Genesis 1, may hatch the light of consideration, acceptance and compassion for others.

We live in an odd universe. In the human being, infinity has been mixed with finitude, the two are wonderfully con-fused, and it is through the daily interactive resistance of mind, body and spirit that we conceive and grow invisible souls.

WHY DO SO FEW MEN GO TO CHURCH?

WHY ARE MEN SO UNSPIRITUAL?

Why are there so few men in churches, whether conservative or liberal, Orthodox Christian or Heterodox New Age groups? Some have suggested that men enjoy religion only when they can be in control, have ultimate authority and dominate others, especially women. People point to the marriage laws of Moses, King David's harem, the Apostle Paul's silencing of women in the church and Mohammeds veiling of women. This is the usual argument of those who set out to prove that ‘patriarchal religion' is primarily about gender oppression. Is this true? And if it is true, is it not ironic that female formal religious participation consistently exceeds male involvement? Why do so many women flock to these 'masculine' organizations to be dominated!?

MASCULINE SPIRITUALITY

I don't believe a more thorough examination of the evidence proves that male religious leaders set out to create organizations to dominate women, but rather to rebel against, or to reform what they perceived as intolerable situations for them and their social groups. Male assertiveness is most often used to protect and provide. This is important. That's what males do - they protect those whom they love and who cannot protect themselves, often their women and children. What's more, women and children through the ages have expected men to provide for and protect them. This has nothing to do with the modern notion of equality or oppression, but with biological roles assigned by Nature.

Abraham, Moses, David, Buddha, Jesus, Paul, Mohammed, Martin Luther, Jefferson, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr. Marx, Freud, Darwin, etc. all started as revolutionaries, defending their people from socio-political and/or religious abuses. Men are adventurers by nature, whether in the physical, spiritual or psychological realms. They invent and advent, venturing out to discover something newer and better, or as James T. Kirk said, "To go where no man has gone before." The symbol most often used for the masculine, a circle with an arrow pointing outward and upward, reveals the archetypal masculine psychological trajectory - transcendence. Perhaps that is why television commercials and sitcoms typically portray men as 'out to lunch' and not quite at home. The masculine psyche was not made to be tethered to a desk or church pew. Of course men can learn to 'settle down,' but as Rilke says in a poem about men, they are often in a state of internal agitation.

Eventually, if these reforming and adventuring men were successful, people would organize around their revolutionary vision and the advantages of the new discoveries or reforms. Quite often these men did not desire to be exalted or have a movement named after them. Neither Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Paul nor Luther wanted organizations built up around them. They had what they felt was a just cause and beneficial message for their people in the name of their God or Higher Truth. They were involved in exciting and challenging causes. None of them set out to start an all-boys club so they could be the leader and dominate other people.

MOST OF US GUYS FIND PASSIVE CHURCH GATHERINGS BORING

I think most men today find church boring, unless there is an adventure or something to challenge them, a risk to take, or a revolution toward a just cause. And if they can't participate in such a revolution directly, they would rather watch one on television in the form of a football game or a war on the history channel.

Our greatest source of societal gender instruction is the local magazine stand which demonstrates the radical differences between the female and male psyches. Women's magazines typically are sold with the faces or bodies of beautiful females in various poses. In other words, they are concerned primarily about fashion and attraction. Male magazines on the other hand, when not showing scantily clad women, almost always show men holding some adventuresome object to symbolize action – a golf club, baseball bat, rifle, tennis racket, briefcase, guitar, etc. If they are not holding some object, then the cover story is almost always about their success in making money or fame, about a mission of some sort. In the advertisements, women are sold cosmetics and clothes; men are sold tools and ways to become successful through a mission.

BOYS GET THEIR FILL OF PASSIVITY IN SCHOOL

It begins in school – with most little boys fidgeting in class. That is why boys are typically 'the problem' students, diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorders far more often than girls. Most of these little boys do not have a deficiency of attention, but a surplus of creative, inventive, adventuresome energy. They are surging with risk-taking and imaginative vigor, and are told to sit still most of the day. The dictionary defines torture as, "to afflict with severe pain of body or mind." Most of us males were tortured in our public educations, and we find a similar experience in most church services.

Few people know that the institution of Kindergarten in America, immediately after the Civil War, coincided with an effort to make bad little boys more like good little girls. You may remember the old gender jingle from the early 1800s:

“What Are Little Boys Made Of?”

What are little boys made of, made of?
What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails, and puppy-dogs’ tails,
That’s what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of, made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice, and everything nice,
That’s what little girls are made of.

A 'snip' was a scrap, a throw-away, a useless and incomplete piece that was left over, or what little boys were made of. In nineteenth century Victorian America, both the medical profession and many religious scholars taught that men were essentially undomesticated beasts, albeit intelligent, but still inherently ill-mannered. The theory of evolution seemed to support this idea. The rationale was that in order to survive in the work world, and to provide for and protect women and children, males had become animalistic. They said that men evolved biologically to work like beasts and die in war. Males were to preserve this 'beast of burden' energy by limiting sexual activity to about once a month, and never through masturbation. The emission of an ounce of semen was equal to 40 ounces of blood, making the male weak and incapable of working to his maximum potential.

The Bible supported this notion with Adam's (man's) lot in life to be that of a sweating, working drone. Women on the other hand, the Victorians said, had evolved to have babies, be sweet, kind and make peaceful domestic nests for the family. It was argued that men evolved logic in order to hunt and protect – women developed words and feelings to nurture and care for their husband and children. The religious consensus among the growing feminist movement was that superior women would usher in the millennium and hasten the return of Christ. Churches, even though 'led' by male ministers, were bastions of largely feminine values, condemning alcohol, prostitution, profanity, boisterous talk and all non-Christian male fraternities like the Masons, etc..

MONSTROUS MALE SNIPS AND THE WOMEN WHO SAVE THEM

Remember all of the old horror stories and movies - Dracula, Frankenstein, King Kong, Werewolf, the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast, etc.? The themes were males as monstrous, grotesque beasts and women as abused victims and loving saviors. Talk about gender stereotyping! That was Victorian.

And that is the society we still have around us to a large extent today. Men are typically vilified as monstrous predators and abusers on Dateline, 20/20, and 48 Hours, while women are the innocent victims. We rarely hear mention of the fact that 90% of the time, it is male law enforcement that are investigating, arresting, incarcerating and guarding these monsters. So Kindergarten and other social programs were initiated to make males more docile and socially domesticated.

FACT: MALES ARE MORE AGGRESSIVE

But as with all stereotypes, there is much truth in the male as the aggressive species. Men in general are not made to sit in a pew and listen to a sermon about relationships - you may as well force a woman to sit and watch a boxing match or football game. Men in general are not constituted to sit on a pad and mediate with Sandalwood incense swirling into their nostrils, or listen to an esoteric lecture on the metaphysics of opening the seven Chakras. You may as well ask a woman to frame a house, mine for coal or land on the beach at Normandy. Of course some men and women defy those stereotypes, but not that often. Men will teach these spiritual disciplines, and often do, but few participate compared to women. It is almost laughable to try and imagine Jesus passively meeting each Sunday in a room with pews for an hour with his male disciples. They gave up their regular jobs and set about preaching, teaching, feeding the poor and healing sick people.

FEMININE SPIRITUALITY AND MASCULINE SPIRITUALITY ARE DIFFERENT

I think we have too narrowly defined 'spirituality' as a passive set of disciplines and made it pretty much a feminine program by our assumed definition. Masculine spirituality, as seen in men like Moses, Jesus, Buddha and Ghandi, focused on a cause, or on some sort of revolution, often involving conflict, risking one's life, social persecution and even imminent assassination. The passive spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, meditation, education, etc. have always been considered secondary to men, seen as a means to further and achieve the revolutionary cause. Women on the other hand often find these passive spiritual practices as primary and appealing because they are mostly done in groups as an end in themselves, fostering communal feelings, social interaction and personal introspection which makes the women more adept at being in 'relationships.'

Sadly, modern spirituality is most often defined by these secondary passive activities. Most men have little interest in the so called spiritual disciplines unless there is a good reason for them. If a male has a revolutionary cause which requires him to pray, meditate, fast, tithe and listen to a lesson, he will join in enthusiastically. But to do these practices because they are considered 'spiritual' in and of themselves is a waste of time and energy for most men.

That is why radical Islamicists so successfully recruit thousands of young men in the name of Allah and Muslim society. As a result of joining the cause, they will pray, fast, memorize sacred scriptures, and give all of their time, money and even their lives for this higher purpose. You see it in the Christian Promise Keepers - a men's movement drawing thousands of Christian men into football stadiums across America to pray, fast and study - why? Because they are being challenged to a greater mission - to save their families by becoming great husbands and fathers. One of the main reasons the early Christian movement drew so many males into leadership roles was because Rome was persecuting and slaughtering Christians. These men saw a worthy challenge and joined the cause.

There are few great causes in western religion today. Much of modern religion in the West is a spectator affair, and the pulpit is not a very exciting object compared to a football field. Conservative Christians come closest to having a cause, drawing men and women into a Patriotic Christian Nationalism that hates the 'enemies' of their State God, expressing antipathy toward those they perceive as destroying the Sacred State. Most of these conservative guys don't hate the 'enemy' as much as they are attracted to a cause with a mission that is bigger than themselves. They generally could care less about self improvement regimens, prayer techniques, yoga postures or touchy-feely song services. These exercises pale in comparison to social, national or religious improvement.

For most men, 'self-realization' is a small cause compared to adventure, to invention, to social, political or religious reform. Many women can understand this compulsion to selflessness when it comes to having children, a biological urge they call it. There is a similar biological urge in males, though there is little logical in it - to venture forth and make a difference in the world, to champion a cause that burns inside like a hot coal. In Jeff Shaara's historical fiction covering the early years of the American Civil War, Gods and Generals, he paints a scene where the brilliant college professor, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, volunteers to join the Federal Army to fight for the Union. His fellow academics at Bowdoin College, as well as his wife, are shocked and feel he is wasting his life. Shaara writes of Chamberlains feelings after volunteering to join the army and finally arriving home late in the day, "He went outside, to the small front porch, sat in a rickety chair, saw lights now, the day was done. He pushed back carefully, felt the chair twisting, groaning, and he looked up, saw the first stars, looked back on his day...what he had done, and realized now that he actually felt alive, and happy, and it shook him, he had not felt this way in years."

MUST RELIGION GROW A SPINE FOR MEN TO GET INVOLVED?

Controversial evangelical Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle says it like this, "The major blind spot of megachurches is that they tend to be very effeminate with aesthetics, music, and preaching perfectly tailored for moms. Manly men are repelled by this, and many of the men who find it appealing are the types to sing prom songs to Jesus and learn about their feelings while sitting in a sea foam green chair drinking herbal tea—the spiritual equivalent of Richard Simmons. A friend of mine calls them "evangellyfish" with no spiritual vertebrae. Statistically, traditional churches are in steep decline, contemporary churches will dominate in the foreseeable future, and emerging churches are just beginning to sort out what the future holds for them.” In my opinion, Pastor Driscoll is onto something.

Until our religious groups find a cause that is big enough for men to join, we will not see any significant change in male church attendance. Those who do not understand the masculine psyche will find this disturbing and likely continue with the 'men are less spiritual than women' rhetoric. Like it or not, men will continue to experience their spirituality in other ways - finding spiritual truth and meaning in sports, building, inventing, discovering, making money, risking their lives to save women and children (although the media largely focuses exclusively on the small handful of men that take the lives of women and children). (Please see essay, Men Are Not Violent By Nature).

Most importantly, we need a dialogue between men and women - not a recruitment technique where women try to make dunderheaded men 'spiritual' as they define spiritual, or an avoidance technique where men stereotype women as a bunch of emotional nitwits running off to prayer meetings. If God created the male and female psyches, then spirituality is bigger than some little corner we designate as the "spiritual part." If God is 'All', as many moderns affirm, then the All really includes ALL, both masculine and feminine traits.

Please keep in mind that this is a blog, written by a male, about males, taking a stab at answering the enigmatic question of why more men are not going to church.