![[tmbchr]™](/journal/popocculture-blog-logo.jpg){kind=logo}
The Essential Human Brand
I’ve been thinking a lot about this basic formula of spiritual experience that I devised a few days ago:
- The observation of limitation
- The intuitive knowledge of potential beyond limitation
- The experience of transcending limitation into potential
I distilled down from what I think is the essence of Gnosticism (although others disagree). And I just spotted an article by Fell where he references this formula, calling it a “universal brand for all mankind”. Maybe that sounds a little grandiose phrased like that, though. If we put it another way, we could say that perhaps this really is the basic human story.
The story begins with an awareness of limitation or unsatisfaction. “This sucks!” you think. Part 1. Something’s not working out right. Maybe nothing’s going your way. You know in your heart though that it shouldn’t be like this. “I could do so much better!” you think. Part 2.
It’s this simple yet archetypal human situation upon which all of marketing and religion rest. What religions and secular marketing equivalents do is give you a path to resolve the conflict between your outer observed circumstances and your inner knowledge of greatness. Whether or not the path works, of course, is a matter of interpretation. Buddhism is one of the most explicit in this regard. The Four Noble Truths tell you that all life is suffering, what the cause of suffering is, and that there’s a potential to escape from it. Then, they offer you the Eightfold Path, which is a course of action designed to enable you to escape suffering. Other spiritual groups offer the promise of power and freedom, and ask merely that you follow their path to receive them. Scientology is a nice example here. Secularly, you have your “get rich quick” programs, along with endless infomercial weight loss programs. If you watch any of these, they operate on a very basic formula, by manipulating your inherent desire for a better situation, and offering you a concrete “call to action” which you can take to enable your transformation.
The most popular paths to Part 3-transcending are generally extremely simple. All you have to do is one simple act, and you’re promised that everything from there will be a cinch: “Order Now!” “Accept Jesus into your heart!” It’s the same basic marketing principle. The trick with most of them though is that once you submit to entering their system, they draw you into a drawn out marketing strategy, which is anything but simple. If you remain confused or unsatisfied once you enter into this system, the problem you’re told is that you’re not doing it right. If you observe that you’re still failing and know you can do better, than you’re pushed merely to try harder and immerse yourself deeper into the system. For some people this may work, but for others, it may not.
There are other Part 3-transcending paths which offer much more explicit instructions on what steps to expect as you move towards full realization of your goal. Scientology is rather ingenius because they use a benchmark system, which allows people to understand and guage their progress and where they are going next. This of course may simply be another technique to make sure people stay mired in their system. But it has roots in the initiation systems of magickal and occult societies the world over. Alchemy in the West is a very typical system in this regard, as it plainly illustrates the various stages one must go through to turn lead into gold (limitations into fulfillment). True to this tradition is also Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth cycle, also known as the Hero’s Journey.
So how do we know which of these paths is worthwhile, and which is just a money-making scam? Well, that seems to be the billion dollar question. And if there was an answer to it, I don’t think we’d have the rich proliferation of spiritual and secular traditions promising us ultimate fulfillment. The lesson to take away from all this to make yourself aware of the conflict within yourself from which this need for fulfillment is arising. If you’re aware of it, you’re less likely to be manipulated by somebody else trying to play upon your need. According to Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), the next step after that might be to articulate as fully as possible what would make you ultimately fulfilled and satisfied. In doing so, you equip yourself with the criteria by which to measure success, and to more effectively analyze potential pathways to that success according to how accurately they match your goal. It’s anything but an exact science though. It’s more like an iterative method, where you’ve got to observe your situation, set a goal, strive to attain it, and then observe your situation again, and reset your goal. Over and over again, as many times as it takes. That right there seems to be the universal human story, the essential brand behind our many varied experiences of life.
- God Brand
- Your Favorite Articles?
- Brand names: global language
- Brand Identity & Religion
- Building my brand
- Prev: The Slave Race
- Next: Form I & Form II
July 31st, 2005 at 5:37 pm
Great observations. Now, I can’t help but wonder about another part of this formula- the difficulty of the path. Evangelical Christianity, for instance, has such great appeal because it’s simple- accept Jesus, be saved. The moral requirements are typically fairly straightforward and concrete, as long as one doesn’t look too deeply (I love to confront Fundies arguing against “situational ethics” with self-defense and just war theory; it also seems to be the only time that they begin to prefer the NRSV over the KJV…) On the other hand, Catholicism and Mainline Protestantism are struggling these days because they don’t offer simple solutions- both are theologically complex and often obscure about what they’re offering.
Or, for instance, take a look at “magickal” paths. Wicca is extremely popular because it’s simple and accessible… “do what thou will, and harm none”. The rituals and observances (if one even bothers with those) are simple and non-compulsory. And you get to call yourself a witch- what could be better than that? On the other hand, Crowley’s A.’.A.’. system is the other extreme. Progressing through the degrees, if done properly, is arduous. You have to train your body to the point where you can stay still for an hour with a cup of water filled to the brim balanced on your skull without spilling a drop. You have to design and construct magickal implements. You have to do actual research to design your rituals, eventually culminating in the invocation of the HGA. You have to engage in extensive self-inquiry, learn to completely empty your mind, maintain unbroken concentration, and examine the results of your work. Just earning the first few degrees is an impressive accomplishment. Becoming an adept is work that can take decades. Successfully crossing the abyss? The number of people who have made 8=3, Magister Templi, without going spectacularly insane, can probably be counted on one hand, if that! (I’m not even sure about Crowley himself!)
Both Wiccans and Scientific Illuminists are doing “magick”- but there is a tremendous difference between the two!
People don’t want to have to work. They don’t want to have to struggle. They want someone else to do the job for them; someone else to go to the cross, hang from Yggdrasil, or go earn the doctorate. That’s life.
July 31st, 2005 at 6:04 pm
Yeah, I know exactly what you’re saying. It seems like if you want to make a million dollars, that the best thing to do would be to take a complicated system that requires real dedication and years of tough work, and boil it down into a super-simple formula that can be pitched in a thirty second space, and all it requires is one simple decision for the customer/convert to make.
Is that a bad thing or can it be used in ways which are potentially good?
July 31st, 2005 at 6:32 pm
Well, it can be used in ways that are potentially good… for the person making the sale! I don’t think it’s of that much advantage to the individual who wants to make progress in said area, whether that is attaining enlightenment or making millions of dollars, except perhaps as a way of “writing off” that part of life in order to concentrate on another (for instance, the Evangelical Christian who doesn’t have time to worry about his soul and sucks down a few comforting “formulas” so that he can get on with what really matters to him, whether that’s building his business, raising his family, etc.)
July 31st, 2005 at 7:19 pm
I know I’ve used Evangelicals as a rhetorical punching bag for a long time myself, but is that really the case? Not being one myself, my main exposure to them happens to be through the local Christian television (Cornerstone/CBN) and it seems to me that a great deal of their time and effort is spent trying to get people to accept Jesus into their hearts. Almost so much focus is placed on it, that little else seems to be even talked about. Which is weird, but maybe from the outside, I’m getting a really inaccurate picture of what it’s like. Maybe it does require hard work and devotion… but then, life in general seems to require that. So maybe it’s not about religion so much. What I’ve always wanted to know is: for people who do accept Jesus into their heart, what happens after that? The carrot these preachers seem to hold out is that all your problems disappear or you’re at least able to handle them.
Maybe the thing they’re really selling though is not really a solution at all, but simply a sense of belonging…
Maybe that’s really all most people want: is to know what to call themselves, and to be given the permission of actually using a label and jumping into that social role. Maybe the thing then is just to create a really good story for people to be a part of and to get to act out via ritual - religious or secular.
I’m really curious about this too. I would tend to agree with what you said as my first reaction, but I’ve gotten in the habit of stopping to analyze my first reactions though because maybe there’s something that I’m missing as a result.
July 31st, 2005 at 7:37 pm
wilber said about polytheism, it`s lazymans religion because everything is laid out in front of you. there is no seeking answers and no years of initaition. similar to the proselytising jesus freaks,”just let him into your heart”. easy peasy. and, yes, it`s what people want. people don`t like to have to think. they want to go to sleep. maybe it`s a natural by product of human existance to snooze. maybe insanity is being awake all day.
August 1st, 2005 at 2:08 am
PErsonally, I think that all the paths are fundamentally simple, but it taqkes years or decades of hard work for all of us to realise that.
To put it another way, I think that saying that ‘you need to accept Jesus into your heart” (or achvie oneness, or do what thou wilt, or…. I think they are all pretty much the same) is a true statement, the only problem is that saying it does not help at all, they are too ‘fuzzy’, and contain no explanation as to what they actually involve
August 1st, 2005 at 11:21 am
Well, do you think if they did have an up front explanation that they would be so popular? Seems rather unlikely.
Alistair, I don’t really get why he’d say that polytheism is lazy or that it’s all laid out in front of you. If anything, it seems more complex and confusing than monotheism
August 1st, 2005 at 1:29 pm
i think that what wilber was getting at is if a path is easy then we don`t get involved enough. we don`t do the leg work needed. like taking a blackbelt in karate or learning to play the guitar well enough to play bach or malmsteen. it takes years to develop the fine motors skills to play giutar well and the brain needs to adjust to new ways of thinking.
August 1st, 2005 at 3:03 pm
this is one of those occasions where i really dislike the limits of language. i would never pretend to have insight into what wilber meant by anything he says. polythiesm, to me seems to be a fragmented approach to monotheism. instead of god having different characteristics or emotions, polythiesim brings in rigid elemental gods to represent the different abilities that one god provides. the polythiestic approach could be seen as being more accessable. a plug and play theology as opposed to a dos-based, more codified way of doing things.
just a thought.
August 4th, 2005 at 4:03 am
[…] t is. And does this somehow tie into what I’ve been talking about in relation to the Essential Human Brand? It seems like it must. Great fuel for discussion, […]