| Regressive
vs. Progressive Spirituality:
A Conversation Between Student and Teacher by Karen Engelsen Ron Moor is a respected healer and leader within the local New Age community. In 2001, I signed up for his Foundations classes -- a yearlong, experiential process in which we examined our own connections to the eight stages of spiritual development. Since that time, I've had a lot of conversations with Ron about aspects of the New Age, where it fits in the arc of human development and what lies beyond it. This conversation started when I asked Ron what the term "New Age" conjured up for him. Ron leaned back in his chair and chuckled, one of those deep laughs that seem to echo out of a subterranean cavern somewhere. "Overall," he replied, "the New Age movement is a positive one, in that it looks beyond what had been and opens people to their spiritual quests. The more universal aspects of the movement -- that we can each have a direct connection with the Higher Power, that we open to perceive the Unity, as well as the diversity around us, and that we can act consciously for the well-being of all sentient beings, including the planet itself -- those are very important teachings. In fact, I take the idea of acting for the well-being of the planet so seriously that every person finishing my program must take the [Native American] Dog Soldier's vow before they can graduate. The vow is to "live our lives to ensure the well being of our children's children unto to the seventh generation. "So I'm encouraged that there is such a movement, and I consider myself part of it, yet I kind of wince when I hear the term "New Age." In a regressive way, that also includes a clinging to, and dependency on channeling, crystals, spirit guides, people who claim to be connected to the highest teachers, or 95 percent accurate in their prophetic utterings." I thought about that for a moment. Something does seem off kilter with New Age communities clustering around one ego acting as "the Star," or people unable to make decisions without consulting a Tarot reader. I noted: "That sounds like giving away one's personal power -- you've gotta keep getting bigger and better crystals when you believe the power is in the crystal, and not in your own spiritual stance." Ron nodded. "It's not that these things are bad in and of themselves. It's just that there can be a dependency that keeps us from growing further. That can be very regressive. There's also a tendency to hear [in New Age circles], "Look at me! Look at what I can do!" This rang a bell. I'd just read an article in the magazine What Is Enlightenment about New Age forms of spiritual narcissism. "Ken Wilber really skewers that kind of spirituality," I said. "He calls it 'Boomeritis' -- a kind of takeover of spirituality for the 'sake of narcissistic gratification.' " "It's another way of getting outer attention to fill in an inner deficit, rather than being an inner process of growth," Ron replied. A picture was beginning to emerge, and it wasn't pretty. I pursed my lips, thinking. "We're hinting here that the New Age 'Emperor has no clothes ....' " "Yes, we are!" he said. "For instance, it's an honorable teaching to avoid making judgments when that means to be careful about projecting our 'stuff' onto others, to check if we're projecting onto others. But to me, the New Age idea that we can't judge anyone or anything is an attempt to deny responsibility. We have to temper our sensitivities with a willingness to assume responsibility for our own actions and those of the larger culture. Refusing to make judgments can abrogate our responsibility to take action in the world." "I think I smell some narcissism in that, too," I said. "One of the hallmarks of narcissism is an intense need to shift blame for one's problems onto someone else -- because the ego is too fragile to bear the weight of accepting responsibility. We can't make judgments, because that would hurt our self-esteem. And what happens when it's our spirituality that's the expression of this?!" "This attitude is very regressive," Ron said. "Too often I hear, 'This is what my guides want me to do,' and then if that makes a mess, then, 'That's too bad. I was told to do it.' Refusing to take responsibility for our actions is a way of escaping consequences for those actions. We can be responsible -- and still be conscious and joyful." "Then it's the willingness to take responsibility for one's actions that is the mark of a mature spirituality?" I asked. "I think so! That, and the willingness to feel some of the world's pain, as well as the joy," Ron said. "Yes, we can be overwhelmed by the world's pain, and must be able to use our discernment..." "Like the Huichol marak'ame [medicine people] say, 'There can be no light without the shade.' " Ron nodded in agreement. "For the most part, the New Age has refused to accept the dark, and wants only to embrace the light. Until we do, the New Age will remain superficial and marginal." The dust and confusion of several years of painful questing in New Age circles began to lift. "There is a way to discern between regressive and progressive spirituality," he said. "Basically, if you look at the cycle of an individual's growth in consciousness, we all start out at the bottom of the cycle in an unconscious unity with our mothers. As we separate our consciousness, and learn that our mothers are not us, we set out on the path to individuation. As adolescents, we go on the Hero's Quest for individuation...and our culture's form of it -- the isolated and separate consciousness -- is about as far along that path as it is possible to go. "The next step in the cycle is the Inward Arc, the return of consciousness to Unity. First, we have to learn to stop identifying with ego, then we start valuing community, then through spiritual development, we finally regain reunion with the All That Is. Then when we come back full circle, we reconnect with Unity, but from a higher level of consciousness that includes identity and awareness of self. "The fun part is that until one is willing to let go of ego, the longing for Unity will take one backwards toward a regressive union with 'Mother,' rather than forward toward unity-in-consciousness." Ron seemed intrigued by the idea, and encouraged me to continue. "It's not always easy to see the difference," I muttered ruefully. I'd partaken of my share of retrogressive, irrational spirituality...stripping buck-naked and howling at the moon was about all that had come of it. "The same action taken from a regressive stance can look like the same action from a spiritually progressive stance -- but inside, be totally different. For instance, 'healing' seems to be a core expression of the 'New Age.' On the surface, healing is a selfless, spiritually mature act...." Ron caught my drift. "It can be," he said, then paused for a moment, rolling the thoughts through his mind like I might roll a strand of beads through my fingers. When he spoke, his words carried the gravity of conviction. "At it's best, healing work is not about doing this technique or that technique. It's about leaving the space for openness. In the process of learning healing work, I ask my students to relinquish ego. Students often say things like, 'It's not ME, it's God doing the healing,' which is just as big a statement of ego as believing in one's 'power' as a healer. What that statement actually says is that 'God has chosen me to heal.' "Neither of those positions describes what is actually happening, which is co-creation," Ron said. " It's not who you are as a healer that causes the healing. It's how you create an opening for the client to do their own healing -- how you create an opening for change. "When I do healing work, there's a resonance of energy, a vibration, that opens pathways to remember what's needed, to see what's needed to see, to release what's needed to release. In that remembering, seeing and releasing, change can happen. Sometimes I feel the client's emotions, sense physical things like resistances. It's energy, and if we sit with that energy, open to it... then it can begin to shift. As it reveals itself -- in the right environment -- it eventually lets go, begins to transform. Not on 'my' schedule, but on the client's schedule. "My first teacher in how to become a whole person was Carl Rogers. He taught me that all any healer can do is to create the space for change to happen, and the client will move on their own toward healing. If you have unconditional positive regard, congruency or authenticity in your being and response toward the client, and you create an environment that is 'right' and acts as a crucible to hold the healing process, then you've created the opening for a client to open to his own wholeness. The healer's job is to create and maintain the regard, authenticity, and environment." "Too often healers get stuck in the 'doing' mode. 'I'm doing the healing.' If, instead, you leave the open space, the client can go as far as they can go. The question a healer must ask him or herself is: 'How can I be a more efficient and effective servant to my clients?'" Well, Ron certainly got me there. This was embarrassing! I was one of those healers stuck in the 'doing' mode! Time for a strategic change of subject. "Some of the best healers are those who've been broken themselves..." "...and also aren't overly identified with their own brokenness," he shot back. I planted my tongue firmly in my cheek, batted my eyelashes and asked Ron, "So what drew you to healing work?" He chuckled at my effrontery, and then as he searched for a response, grew serious. "It came from seeing the pain in the world -- and it hurts me to see people in pain," he said. "I want to help people grow through that pain -- the biggest satisfaction of all stems from changing that." "So what can possibly move us beyond our Boomeritis, and take us to the place where we can genuinely do something about the pain of the world?" I asked. "That's what I attempt to do through the Foundations course: to help more of us to be conscious right down to the core, instinctual levels of consciousness," Ron said. "As we gain this awareness, new ways of perception open and new ways we respond to the world. Then we can make more conscious choices. "Spiritual stage theories show how we can build on this to go to the next level of human development and have a broader, deeper context for what goes on around us. We seek broader and deeper consciousness and context. To do that, each of the course phases -- nature, ritual, myth, symbol, vision, art, history and science -- is grounded in literature that represents the different forms of consciousness. For instance, in Faulkner's Go Down Moses, the character of 10-year-old Ike McCaslin learns through training and mentoring that to truly enter into the "Big Woods" of Nature...." ...now there's a metaphor for my life," I thought, "lost in the Woods..." "...not only does Ike learn that he has to leave his rifle behind, but also his watch and compass -- only then does Nature open to him." "Watch and compass, meaning what?" I asked. "Those are the accoutrements of civilization, of the mental mind." "Then Faulkner's writing to the process we need to undergo in our own re-education?" "Yes. He's one example of an author writing about nature and ritual, which are two of the stages of spiritual development," Ron explained. "As we're exposed to this kind of writing, we learn to remember who we are, while letting go of the false identities offered by our culture. This learning process is a part of the process of gaining self-awareness, opening to and strengthening our own core. Jean Gebser describes this as 'aperspectival' -- another term is transparency. We perceive the underlying factors in what goes on around us and experience our interconnectedness. It's no longer simply an idea." I felt a sweet yearning, low in my heart. Imagine how that would feel, to actually be interconnected, rather than isolated in consciousnesses, always competing for ego-space. "But how do we get there?" I asked. "To see more clearly, we have to reawaken our feeling levels. What we feel, we can see." "Then," I asked, "this is a stage past our culture's 'logical-rational' mode of perception?" "Yes, very much so," said Ron. "Rationality becomes a servant, working as an ally to our feeling nature. And we get there by the process of education, the process of service, which resonates outward to the greater community. The process of making community is a spiritual practice. Creating forms of worship that deepen us, rather than 'maintain the status quo.' Community then becomes a practice that we do. The more of us that practice together, the more traction we have." Maybe the New Age wasn't so bad after all. "Could a loose characterization of the 'New Age' be spiritual questing as an individual, whereas the newer spiritual movement is the joining together of questors into community?" "Yes," he replied. "But so far, with mixed results. We still have to move beyond ego as King. We are not only moving beyond the age of Big Oil, but also moving beyond the age of Big Ego. Church can play a big part in that. The question is, 'How do you make Sunday Services part of a deepening process, rather than a way to prop up the status quo?' Making community is a way to exercise our capacity for deepening. "The next stage of human development is not about 'ascending.' It's about descending -- about the progression into deeper knowing that feels more and more grounded and real. Contrast that with the normal standpoint of our culture. Instead of standing up on a mountaintop and issuing proclamations, our next stage is about standing in the valley and planting trees in the dirt. "It's the Hero's Journey of Return: One returns to serve. One returns to be the quiet resonator, resonating wholeness, consciousness, compassion and beyond." Ron Moor will be starting a new year-long Foundations Series January 2003, as well as hands-on healing classes, and continuing his Ministerial services at Spirit United in Robbinsdale. He can be reached at (763) 504-4959 or at the website www.centerforwholeness.com Karen Engelsen is an artist, writer, editor, writing coach, and lover of wisdom -- Philo-Sophia. She can be reached at (651) 308-0083, or siribear@earthlink.net Copyright (c) 2002 Karen Engelsen |
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