by Paul Cudenec (who reads the article here)

We all know how faiths and ideologies can be corrupted and deliberately turned into a negation of what they were meant to represent.

But, it strikes me, the opposite can also happen.

In this instance, the change would not be brought about by external hostile action against the belief system in question, but by a positive interior force arising from the collective mind of those involved with it.

This is a thoroughly unfashionable thing to say, but I believe that we are born with innate values – this is how we can feel what is right or wrong, true or false, beautiful or ugly.

Our modern “civilization” teaches us to ignore this precious voice within, whose very existence it denies.

Instead, we are told to obey “the law”, believe “the news”, trust “the science”,

Reducing us to this condition is the equivalent of blindfolding us or plugging up our ears – it prevents us from accessing senses which we were born to use.

It turns us into remote-controlled robots, unable and afraid to follow our own inner moral and spiritual compass.

We are cut off from our belonging to the universal organism of which we are part.

We no longer respond to the messages that are meant to guide our individual behaviour in the interests of a harmonious Whole, in the interests of goodness, truth and beauty.

When we repress these messages, and the reassuring deep knowledge of withness that they bring with them, we feel insecure, alienated and unhappy – our lives become empty and meaningless.

This can actually be a positive thing, like the physical sensation of pain which alerts us to an injury or illness.

It creates a pressure, provokes a reaction, which can then break the blockage of repression and allow guidance-from-beyond to surge forth again in our hearts.

On an individual basis, this would manifest itself as somebody deciding to turn over a new leaf, to bravely speak out for what they believe is right or to embark on a spiritual path.

On a collective basis, this renewal of connection would see authentic shared values bursting through the barriers of imposed ways of thinking and acting.

A fresh tendency suddenly emerges in a political movement that has long served the demands of toxic authority – and because its beliefs intuitively feel true and powerful to human beings with the same inner values, it grows exponentially and quickly takes on a free life of its own.

An organised religion, which has been manipulated to keep its followers submissive and afraid, suddenly and unexpectedly throws up a preacher or prophet who manages to bring together all that is authentic and good from the shell of this stale faith and ignite a revival that corresponds to people’s real spiritual needs and desires.

A new musical or cultural trend encouraged and promoted by manipulative tyrants to incite generational divides and disrupt communal coherence ends up unleashing a surge of creative and righteous rebellion against those same tyrants, of such force that their desperate attempts to bottle it up or kill it off have no chance of success.

Life reasserts itself from within and, at the same time, from beyond. Divine nature breaks through all the artifice and control.

Cracks appear in the walls of cruel deceit and the warm light of truth melts the ice-cold mental chains that have prevented us from truly living for far too long now.