The Shepherd’s Voice When this writer was a boy, he had many dreams. Not the kind one has when sleeping, the kinds a boy has about what he would like to be when he grows up. They were vainglorious, but in a childish way. His father would tell him he had “big nails in his head.” To this day, he does not know exactly what that means, and an internet search doesn’t find a meaning either. One of the things he wanted to be was a magician, a prestidigitator or an illusionist. He didn’t know it then, but what he really wanted to be was a real magician, a thaumaturgist. That realization didn’t come until later in life, when he discovered mysticism. As he progressed in mystical aspiration, there were other realizations on this matter. One was how far he was from anything like thaumaturgy. Another was that he didn’t like illusion. There is allure in illusions, especially about one’s self, but the vanity in illusions is empty. It leaves one hungering for more, until one is soul-starved and spiritually desolate. This is something, to which almost every addict under the illusion of drugs, can attest.

An illusion is a form of a lie, an untruth, something pretending to be something it isn’t. As we progress in truth-seeking, lies, in any form, become increasingly repugnant to us. Discerning truth from untruth, is important to us. Blasphemy is another form of untruth. The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception tells us misuse of our portion of the divine creative force is a sin against the Holy Ghost. St. Matthew’s Gospel finds sin against the Holy Ghost, in expressions at the other end of the spine, also. In Matthew 12:31 Christ says: “Wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.” Refraining from blasphemy against anything sacred, such as truth, is extremely important to us. John 8:32 gives us the positive side of this matter: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

One of the best, literary discussions of truth and freedom and illusion, is in The Grand Inquisitor. The Grand Inquisitor is a story within a story, in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In the story, Jesus comes to pay a visit to the people of Seville, sometime in the fifteenth century, during the raging inquisition. As he walks the streets, he sees people suffering. Being who he is, he starts performing healings and other miracles, including a resurrection. People are proclaiming him as the returned Christ. At the moment he is doing the resurrection, the Cardinal, an old man who is the Grand Inquisitor, happens by. He takes in what is happening. He then points his finger, the auto-da-fe, at Jesus accusing him of heresy. Jesus is then arrested and imprisoned, to be burned at the stake as a heretic of the Church, on the following day. The crowd, which was cheering him moments before, is silent. They are cowed by ecclesiastical authority, lest they be next.

During the night the Inquisitor comes to the cell of Jesus. A long conversation ensues. It is one-sided because Jesus says not a word. The Cardinal tells Jesus that he knows who he is. He goes on to say it has taken fifteen centuries of struggle to vanquish the freedom he gave, but the Church has succeeded. The people laid it humbly as the feet of the Church. He claims the Church did it to give them happiness. He tells Jesus that he should have turned stones to bread for then he would have unending gratitude from the people. They would be happy. “Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man, and a human society, than freedom.” The people have been convinced that they are too “weak, vicious, and rebellious” to be free. The Inquisitor goes on to say, “But only one who can appease their conscience can take over their freedom.” The people will accept lies, false doctrines, or whatever, to have their conscience appeased. “We will allow them to sin, they are weak and helpless, and they will love us because we allow them to sin…we shall tell them that every sin will be expiated…we shall take it upon ourselves…they will adore us as their saviors who have taken on their sins.” It requires will to be free and think for one’s self. It requires courage to face the consequences on one’s sins.

When the Inquisitor had finished, he waited for a long time for a reply. He longed for Jesus to say something, even if it was “bitter and terrible.” The only response from Jesus was to place a kiss on the mouth of the old Cardinal. The old Cardinal opened the door to his cell giving him his liberty, telling him never to return, and it is implied that he would only bring more tribulation to a futile situation. “The Prisoner went away.” As to the old Cardinal: “The kiss glows in his heart, but the old man adheres to his ideas.”

We are not living in the fifteenth century; we are in the twenty-first. We are not living in an ecclesiastical society; we are living in a secular society. Nonetheless, the thesis of Ivan Karamazov, who told the story of the Grand Inquisitor, holds true. We seem to love illusion more than truth. In the United States approximately 50 billion dollars per year are spent on cosmetics to give an illusion of beauty. Huge amounts are spent on clothing more fashionable than functional, to the same end. Movie attendees prefer films with special effects—illusions—more than thoughtful story lines or character development. Approximately 220 billion dollars per year are spent on antidepressant medications, to say nothing of tranquilizers and other anti-anxiety drugs—the Inquisitor’s “happiness” in a pill. We seem to prefer enslavement to our habits and desires over spontaneous, living statements of freedom. The list goes on and on.

A materialistic view of the world is widely accepted, but we do not have the monolithic dogma of the Church in Ivan’s story. Instead we have propaganda which is more flexible to attaining the same end. Billions of dollars are spent on advertising in political campaigns to persuade voters to elect candidates. The advertisements are often based more on establishing the desirability of the preferred candidate and fear of the opponent, than on issues and feasible policies. As time goes on, the propaganda is targeted to appeal more precisely to any desired sector of society. Enormous amounts of resources are spent in finding what interests individuals, and how that information can be used to advantage. Every Google search is recorded and the accumulation is studied statistically and psychologically with artificial intelligence— all to control the freedom of the people. There is much more that could be said along these lines, but saying even a little is often saying too much, because readers take it seriously, believe it, and lose heart.

There is danger in writing about these things but the danger is not from an inquisitor. The danger is that these things are factual. Facts are different from truth. Facts are true but they are not the greater Truth. The danger is that some will focus only on the bare facts and not look for the greater Truth. As mystical aspirants, we are interested in the greater Truth that will “make us free.” With mere factuality there is some likelihood that even truth seekers will accept this condition as the true way of things. Some might even want to launch campaigns of counter propaganda. It has happened before that freedom has been attacked in the name of freedom. Knowingly doing such a thing constitutes a greater sin than mere acceptance. Max Heindel tells us the destiny of knowingly transgressing is more severe that merely transgressing. If we do not counter these things, what do we do?

One thing we can do is to see and strengthen the true and the good. In earnestly performing our prayers and other exercises, we become skilled thinkers. Skilled thinkers, when holding the true and the good in mind, become like radio stations transmitting into the psychic environment. Doing this is not aggressive. An Adept does not project thoughts into the aura of another to communicate, as a hypnotist, because doing that is a form of psychological assault. An Adept holds a thought which radiates, and those who can resonate to that pitch, receive it. If this is how we chose to strengthen truth and freedom, what are the things we want to transmit?

One thing we want to do is to hold a positive attitude. For many years this writer kept and shared a one panel cartoon from a newspaper:

Max Heindel was almost unbelievably positive about optimism. He loved Pollyanna, even though worldly-wise cynics sneer at it. Thoroughgoing positivity has effects whether one believes in it or not. One wonders how Max Heindel, with all of his sensitivity to suffering in the world, could sustain such positivity.

One simple answer is that it comes from knowing the greater Truth. One greater truth is found in Christian Mysticism and another set of facts, coetaneous with the darker facts mentioned above. It is the fact that most people do good things willingly. They perform their work as well as they can; they raise their children conscientiously; they help others when they can; and so on. The effect of these small, prosaic deeds for others is to attract soul material into the higher ethers of their soul bodies. Even those who do their duty under the illusion of propaganda, or a threat of some kind, attract soul material, despite the intent of those who would control them. This latter method is not the most efficient kind of soul growth but it is soul growth and its effects are permanent. Moreover, soul growth is a mounting activity—the more one has, the more one wants—which is the symmetrically, reflective positive of the hunger of the addict of illusion, except that it is free. Even those who would not, serve Christ. “If God be for us, who can be against us.” With more soul growth there is more intuition. Intuition speaks for itself. It does not need reinforcement. As people experience truth in intuition, as they hear “the Shepherd’s voice”, no amount of illusion or propaganda can sway them from its Truth.