The Power of the Human Spirit:
Let me put together the pieces so far:
Humans’ capacity for human intellect allows them to imagine a force that could give them anything they want— or at least, everything they need.
Humans’ capacity for human intellect causes them to be aware of their inevitable mortality, and therefore an inescapable threat to their survival.
Therefore, as I explained in the Religion chapter, humans need to believe in a power greater than themselves.
By believing in, and feeling connected to, a power greater than themselves that can affect events in the universe, humans gain the ability to feel at one with the universe. That allows them to feel that events beyond their control happen to them for good reasons, or that they have the power to affect events in the universe, or (for most religions) both.
Humans have the intellectual ability to imagine the satisfaction of their instincts, even if the satisfaction of those instincts is beyond their power.
Humans are all a part of the universe.
Hypothetically, all humans have the ability to consciously affect events in the universe in ways other than through everyday physical interaction with it, by interacting with the IMCG.
Therefore, humans have the ability to imagine affecting the universe in ways that seem impossible to them.
In order to affect the IMCG, humans must connect themselves to the universe most completely.
That connection cannot be made intellectually, because humans’ capacity for human intellect naturally precludes them from believing in that ability.
Therefore, in order to affect the IMCG, humans must unlearn their own natural sense of human identity.
Neurologically, humans who best interact with their idea of a religious deity-figure by performing rituals reduce their natural sense of identity anyway.
Therefore, it must be possible for people to accomplish that same effect of religion on their own and within the context of their own lives if they just knew how.
In order to connect with the universe most completely, humans must first connect with themselves most completely by integrating their intellect and instinct.
By integrating intellect and instinct, humans can eliminate conflict within themselves, and thereby can focus their combined human energy on satisfying their integrated instincts.
By focusing their energy on satisfying their integrated instincts, humans can satisfy their integrated instincts to the highest possible level.
The satisfaction of instincts to the highest possible level is self fulfillment, and yields Greek human happiness.
That satisfaction of instinct through the power of the integrated spirit exceeds the individual expectations of instinct or intellect.
All humans have animal instincts and the capacity for human intellect. Those two things make up all the forces at work within a human brain, because humanity depends on exactly two things—being animals, and being unique from all other animals. I call those collective forces “human spirit”.
The ability to unlearn one’s own humanity and thereby connect oneself to the universe is itself an ability, and to use that ability to its fullest extent yields self fulfillment.
To integrate oneself with the universe, first one must integrate instinct and intellect.
All instincts originated from humanity’s place in the universe prior to the development of intellect.
The use of intellect is itself an instinct.
Therefore, in order for a person to integrate instinct and intellect, the person must become one with the universe. In order to become one with the universe, the person must integrate their instinct and intellect.
Luckily, this is not a paradox of intellectual logic but a convergence of spiritual logic. Doing one doesn’t depend on doing the other first, doing either depends on doing the other simultaneously.
By integrating their own spirit and choosing to be a part of the universe, the person creates their own higher power.
Therefore, the fullest realization of the human spirit must inevitably cause the person to affect the IMCG to the greatest degree possible.
By choosing to be a part of the universe, the individual accomplishes for themselves everything that religion accomplished for them by channeling this connection to the universe through a deity figure. The person learns that anything that happens to them must happen for a good reason even if they aren’t happy with the results, and they learn the best way to affect the IMCG.
For a person to overcome the intellectual obstacles to integrating their sprit and to connecting their spirit to the rest of the universe, spiritual rituals are valuable tools.
On the other hand, that same integration and connection can be accomplished by embracing the full spiritual significance of everyday activities—but that choice to embrace spiritual significance in everyday activity is itself a ritual. The objective of these “non-rituals” is to integrate the spirit and to connect the individual to the universe, and the structured approach to achieving that objective is to be fully spiritually aware of doing the things for their own sake—when you eat, eat.
So now the question becomes: For the spiritually integrated person, where does the self end and the universe begin?
Because every human possesses animal instincts and the capacity for human intellect in different amounts and variations, it stands to reason that some people will have more spirit than other people and that all people will have different spirits. It follows that in affecting the universe through self-fulfillment of the integrated human spirit, each person will be able to affect the universe in different ways. The most important part, however, is that everyone can affect the universe by the self-fulfillment of the human spirit. Self-fulfillment isn’t a quantitative measurement, but a ratio of potential to fulfillment. It doesn’t matter whether you have twenty abilities, ten abilities, five abilities, or only one ability, 100% fulfillment of potential yields 100% of spirit.
It follows that because people have many different potentials, a person could fulfill some of those potentials more than others—that self fulfillment can be achieved in individual areas without being achieved in all areas. Therefore, whatever part of their potential and consequent human spirit a person realizes will affect the IMCG and the universe the most. At some other time, if the person realizes more of his potential, he will be able to affect more of the universe. If he realizes more of his potential in other areas, he will be able to affect the universe in different ways.
As you can see, as long as you realize your ability to believe, you can affect the universe to the greatest extent possible, and it doesn’t really matter how you came to that belief. I know that sounds like a formula for religious unification of the world, for everyone to quit bickering over whose god is better than whose, but it’s much more than that.
As you can see, by finding spiritual fulfillment in the everyday things I do, I’ve found all the spiritual fulfillment I could possibly ask for. That is, I have achieved self-fulfillment in my ability to seek self-fulfillment. How much more human spirit can you hope for than that? And I didn’t do it by following any religion, I did it within the context of my own life! So as you can see, you can even find as much spiritual fulfillment on your own in your everyday life as you could by practicing a religion. Granted, religions generally have some good ideas about how to find your spiritual fulfillment, but they don’t have all the good ideas and they don’t have the only good ideas. Some ideas you can find in other religions, some ideas you can only find in certain religions, some ideas you can also find elsewhere, and some ideas you won’t find in any religion.
No matter how you go about it, it’s never going to be easy. But here’s some good news from the cougar hunting for prey: The instinct itself is satisfied when the cougar catches some prey, but the instinct to satisfy the instinct is satisfied when the cougar begins using its abilities to their greatest potential to hunt the prey. In the same way, no matter how you integrate your spirit and connect it to the universe, you achieve that integration and connection by using your abilities to their fullest extent to make that integration/ connection happen. Unfortunately, achieving that objective isn’t as simple as the cougar catching a deer. Because the universe changes continuously and you change continuously, that process of connection can never be completed. However, that process can be completed in the sense that you come to accept that the process is ongoing and can never be completed. I’m straying into the Life’s Journey chapter now to say this, but that pursuit of the objective is the objective.
What do you do if you want to find spiritual fulfillment in everything you do, but you can’t afford to stop doing the things that you do to go look for something that would be more spiritually fulfilling? For instance, what do you do if you want to find spiritual fulfillment in your job, but you’re stuck in a dead-end job that you can’t afford to leave because you have to support a family?
Easy: You find the spiritual fulfillment for the unfulfilling thing you’re doing by placing that thing within the broader scope of your life. You’re still working at that job for a reason, even though you aren’t working at the job for its own sake. The fulfillment you find is in providing for your family. By working at the job, you are using your abilities to their greatest potential to provide for your family, no matter how much you hate your job. If you want a better job, then look for one. If you find a better job, take it. Those are abilities you have also; so use them to their fullest extent.
Until then, when you eat, eat, and when you provide for your family, provide for your family.
In this case, you know intellectually that you need to work at this job, but instinctively you don’t want to. By integrating your spirit by accepting the fact that you are working at this job because you need to, you free yourself from the internal conflict that the two contradictory feelings create. By freeing yourself from that conflict, you simultaneously content yourself with the job until you can find a better solution, and free up energy to devote to searching for a better solution. You find someone to help you within yourself, and that lets you achieve (theoretical) 150% efficiency all by yourself.
There is no science (as usual) to measure the affects that integrating your spirit will have on the IMCG, but religions of all sorts are virtually unanimous in agreeing that doing so will benefit you somehow, and that benefit will manifest itself in the world around you. That is, by integrating your spirit to accept the situation while seeking to improve it, you will help to bring a solution to you. Some way or another, when you start searching for a solution, events start unfolding in the world that ultimately put a solution in your path, and by using your abilities to search for a solution, you find a solution that wasn’t there before you started searching for it. Oftentimes the solution isn’t the one you were looking for, but it is a solution to the problem none the less. This has happened to me too many times to believe that it could all be a coincidence, and as I said, basically every religion in the world agrees with me on that principle— even if none of those religions agree with each other.
In short, according to basically every religion in the world, the integration of instinct and intellect yields spiritual self fulfillment. Spiritual fulfillment affects the IMCG.