We will apply this new view of reality to freedom and happiness in the chapters ahead. They stand very high on our list of values that help to give us meaning during the course of our lives. But it seems that we must still learn how to cope with them once they are granted to us. Very few people are aware of what true happiness is: to live! Not to mention freedom—who can really say that they live beyond all the temptations and hazards of life?
Freedom and happiness have much more to do with each other than we might first expect. We get an important clue from the English language: “Unfettered joy” comes to us not by chance. It is an old phrase from a treasure trove cherished from many generations of experience and shows us that happiness comes with being free from desires. Our will for possession and power always takes us in the wrong direction. Money generates more and more greed and never brings peace and happiness.
This is the common thread that runs through every page of my book: I question our concepts of the self, reality, light, freedom and happiness deeply. From all of this, a new self-awareness arises which we may awake to if we truly value ourselves. I won’t give anything away yet. I am going to share it with you. So be prepared to read something very inspiring peppered with food for thought!
I am happy that you have taken notice of my book and that you have permitted me to familiarize you with a very unusual view of life and the cosmos. It is your choice to decide how you will use the words that you will read. I do not intend to bring you around to my line of thinking or to change your views in any way. I want precisely the opposite thing from you: I expect you to question and scrutinize everything that you will be reading in this book. Only in this way will it be possible for a world view to develop among us human beings—a world view that is whole and in unity with everything that we know about life and the cosmos.
Markolf H. Niemz
Life is giving.
Most of our institutions separate us: We have a currency that makes us compete with one another; we have countries that fight one another; even our religions separate us—from others and from God! All of this makes us believe that we could also shut ourselves off from nature. We fool ourselves into thinking that we could exploit her at our convenience. Nature wouldn’t be the same as us anyway. Gradually (and hopefully not too late) we’re learning that we were wrong. Whatever we do to this wonderful planet, we do to ourselves.
What can we do? We must wake up and change our self-awareness. As soon as we discover that we are one humanity that yearns to live in unity with nature, we will become mindful. We will discover life again as a precious gift—a gift from the earth, from nature, to us. We are not here to take, but to give. Life is giving.
Self-Delusion
SELF-DELUSION IS THE PRIMARY CAUSE
OF ALL SOCIAL CONFLICTS.
A few years ago, British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins published a controversial book: The God Delusion. 4 He treats religion as a profound psychiatric disorder that has inflicted many negative effects on modern society. Dawkins not only sees religion to be directly responsible for inciting fear and terror,5 but he also blames religion for the spiritual traumatization of children and youth in families who follow religious beliefs.6 No matter how disputed his points are, it is to Dawkins’ credit that he takes damage to our society seriously and that he looks for solutions.
But Dawkins as well as his critics are overlooking an important point: People, not religions, wage bloody “holy wars” and traumatize other people. Religions are not living beings that could take responsibility for anything. We alone are responsible for all misdeeds in our society. But who are we? Most of us view ourselves as persons—with bodies and minds—separated from others as we struggle through our lives. Today more and more people consider this life to be their one great chance to find and “to realize” themselves. This way of thinking gives rise to many questions: Who or what is the self? Isn’t it just the same thing as me? Could a self—if it were actually real—still realize itself?
The main point of this book comes from my conviction that individuality has developed to such an inflated state that it is the primary cause of all conflicts our society suffers from today. I don’t mean “God delusion” like Dawkins, but self-delusion. People just can’t see things through the hearts and minds of their fellow man, nor does it seem that they have any interest in doing so. In almost every case, they focus on themselves at the expense of others. I separate self-delusion into four types and combinations:
– interhuman self-delusion,
– economic self-delusion,
– political self-delusion,
– religious self-delusion.
Interhuman self-delusion is the cause of all suffering that human beings inflict on each other, and consequently it is the cause of the other three types of self-delusion as well. It has likely been inherited through evolution—from power struggles that we also see in the animal world. But there is one significant difference: Animals fight with each other for food and procreation. Food and procreation are vital for continuation of its own kind. When human beings face each other, there are almost always other predominant and selfserving factors at play: greed and power. Economic selfdelusion comes from greed; political and religious selfdelusion come from greed for power and control. In the pages ahead we will look at all four types of self-delusion, put a finger on the breeding grounds that cause them, and give each of them a specific name.
Interhuman Self-Delusion
It’s easy to see that the role of the self—the ego—continues to expand. In earlier times the tribe or local community was still the center of life, but today, with few exceptions, it revolves around the individual, and this tendency continues to increase. Yet this tendency has its limits. We are bound by a finite space on this planet. We now face a very different world that had ever been before: Virtually in every sphere of our lives we are influenced by the presence of our fellow man. Throughout the day we have to consider views and opinions of people whom we know and whom we don’t know if we want to get along with others. Freedoms that we can give to each other must get smaller and smaller. Whoever thinks that he or she can flourish freely as a member of a society without consideration or deference to its other members, destroys the very same society to which he or she belongs. It starts at the most basic level when two people are not in the position of appreciating each other’s point of view (see figure 3). They only see themselves and not the good things that a society can offer.
Fig. 3: Interhuman self-delusion
Where do we encounter interhuman self-delusion? It can spread wherever relationships among people exist: in a partnership, in the workplace, or in public life. It typically comes with physical or mental intimidation or force—for example, spousal violence or bullying at work. Whoever thinks that he or she is the sovereign judge in any situation, has the tendency to stifle others and consciously or unconsciously may wish to apply force. The fact that television industries broadcast their violent programs during the very best broadcast times is inconceivable to me—whoever is responsible must be suffering strongly from self-delusion. The same is true for the makers of computer games where violence is downplayed and young minds are consumed with the thrill of killing and spreading mayhem for joy. Our doctor from a distant galaxy would think we are mentally ill or deranged: We prefer entertaining ourselves with violence rather than promoting non-violence among all of us.
Where does interhuman self-delusion come from? The answer is overwhelmingly clear: It all starts with egotism. Egotistical behavior is inherent in all of us when we come