Category: religion

Ego Death: The Modern-Day Suicide

Deep down, we all want this to be over. We love happiness, yes, but we run desperately from sadness. When we spend too long in the light, life loses it’s luster. Immersing ourselves in darkness makes us greatful to be in the light again. That’s what keeps us living.

Yet even when we enjoy the light, darkness pulls at us and intrigues us in the deepest possible way. It makes us curious about the unknowable. And each time we turn to it, we hope to get a glimpse of what lurks deep in the murky water: Truth about our purpose and about our existence; truth about what we really are. It’s these dark fantasies that drive people towards death.

Now we live in a world riddled by anxiety and uncertainty. More data is available to us than ever before, and it leads to more confusion because more answers create more questions. With the advent of the World Wide Web, we have access to an unprecedented database of knowledge. It’s too much for any single one of us to process, and this realization is what makes us feel helpless in the modern world. This is why suicide rates are higher than they’ve ever been.

Yet, a milder means of suicide is steadily on the rise as well, a type of suicide that isn’t conventionally considered as such. I’m talking about ego death.

When experienced, ego death obliterates our mental but retains our physical. Our conception of self dissolves and The Walls Come Tumbling Down, as Eyedea would say. Once we regain control and our ego rebuilds itself, we’re no longer who we once we’re. Our understanding of self simultaneously increases and decreases, increasing because we understand ourselves to be more than this personality we contrived, and decreasing because we realize if we are not who we think, then who are we? These questions draw our eyes to the darkness, where we intuitively seek answers to all that which cannot be physically observed. So there it is in a nutshell: we look into death in hopes of finding the answer to life.

Feel sorry for those who seek ego death because their curiosity is simply a consequence of the uncertainty in these modern times, but do not condemn these seekers. In their quest for answers, these people tread the tenuous line between this world and darkness and come back with insights about the unknown. Do not be deceived, however; the darkness is unknowable as long as we are alive. Those who choose to enter darkness receive a mere glimpse. Their curiosity remains unsettled.

In older times, religion helped to negate our curiosity by offering a map of the afterlife to those who needed it. Nowadays, we condemn religion, in the process removing it’s safety blanket from our backs. We are desperately in need of a new map. These seekers of darkness are gradually giving us one, using ego death to come back into the light and tell a story.

Old Film Made Me Realize Just How Much Religion Sucks

Sup Bros

To open this, I wanna say, I’ve got nothing against you faithful Bros. I respect your right to believe in something, I respect you and your opinions. So, since I expect the same from all Bros, if you see anything that offends you in this post, I’m not sorry Bro.

For almost my whole life, I’ve held strongly to basic atheist ideals, but recently a film has shown a deeper truth into just how much organized religion blows. Devoid of all it’s corruption, violence, and blatant mind control-esque tendencies, religion is also a safe haven for libido weakening men. Which come to realize it, may be the result of all these recent sex scandals involving little boys that have catapulted the catholic church into conflict with the law. Either way, sticking to my topic I want to talk about a movie called The Night Of The Hunter and how it further opened my eyes to it.

This movie, when it first released, was a tragic failure, however now it is looked at as a masterpiece. In fact, some film databases place it in their top 5 movies of all time (Cahiers du cinéma has it at #2). If we watch the movie, we see exactly why. It has an interesting plot involving the quest of a corrupt preacher for some $10,000, some interesting characters – both child and adult – who go through complex growth, and displays of gorgeous set design. It also has a great morale to it, which includes the concept of hunter and pray amongst us everyday Bros and the two sides of the faithful Bros: corrupt and morally righteous. It’s highly recommended to all classic loving Bros out there, but be warned, this one is ancient.

Moving on to my realization, the film also showcases some rather cringe-worthy aspects of religion. To tell it quickly, the preacher is on the hunt for money that was stolen by a man he met in prison who is to be hung. This man sleep talks all the details of where he’s from and the preacher tracks down the family, wives the widow, and interrogates the children about said money. There’s a scene in the movie in which the preacher shockingly declines a sexual offer from an obviously horny, sexy woman, giving all us provocative Bros massive blue balls. At any rate, the preacher explains that her body, no matter how tempting, is to be used for mother-bearing purposes and none other. Instead of DM’ing her side, or going bisexual, she decides to do the only logical thing: pray.

“[praying] Help me to be clean, so I can be what Harry wants me to be.”

Need I say more bros. If you watch the movie, even as devote Catholic, Christian, Scientologist, whatever; it’d be hard not to notice the downright preposterous ideals that religion allows and preaches for. I would go on to list these instances in the film, but given that it is Bro-proved, I urge you to see for yourself.

I’ll end with this with a fact.

Up until they realized it could be used for bettering their religious propaganda. The catholic church actually banned all form of play writing and performing. Just imagine, what would’ve happened if some seriously sadistic faithful Bros got their hands on Shakespeare.