Category: 1-This & that

Almost podium place for Paltrow

Almost podium place for Paltrow

“We are delighted to share with you Watkins' 2024 list of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People – spiritual teachers, activists, authors and thinkers that change the world.”

Watkin's annual Top 100 list. A trifle, of course. At the same time as it gives a nice overview of the new spiritual landscape. The names that end up at the top are usually pretty much the same and not that surprising. The Pope, Oprah... But the actress Gwyneth Paltrow in fifth place? One becomes curious as to what she was up to after her film career. The world is so big, so big.

Watkins' Spiritual 100 List for 2024
Conspirituality (again)

Conspirituality (again)

Just stood and fried pancakes. Thought of the mix of esoteric holistic spirituality, and conspiracy theories. What is now called "conspirituality" in research. How is it that? That the two ways of looking at the world seem to marry so well?

Conspiracy theories in general are not that exciting. Resentful, marginalized and fearful people in the mid-west, etc, grasping for a simple answer in all uncertainty & disappointment. It is more interesting to try to understand how educated, conscious, idealistic individuals, such as those who like Western esotericism, with their "on the way to the light-and we are in the lead" philosophy, can start such a thing? What's in the works?

So, as I stood there staring into the frying pan & turning my plates, I came up with one thing and another! Suggestions, partial explanations... Not all of them are correct, but one or a few, possibly in combination... Fill in the ones you want...

  • That both things, esotericism and conspiracyism, use the same brain center? As if trained up, became extra active, "over-movable", via the spiritual studies? So that it is only too easy to think outside the box
  • That you have a spiritual world view that is so bright, and personal ideals that are set so high, that the urge to see sinister conspiracies & dark pacts "out there" becomes... Yes, what do you call that? Projected? That the outside world becomes a projection surface for a darkness that is actually one's own, but which one does not want to be aware of
  • That the world has become too crass, material, atheistic, "demystified"? An attraction, a craving for conspiracies, becomes an attempt to remedy, via the imagination, a kind of mental and cultural deficiency

Then there are, of course, conspiracies that are real too. High-level unholy alliances, cartel formations, etc…

Psychospiritual honey trap?

Psychospiritual honey trap?

This post relates to a previous entry, which was, among other things, about a protracted copyright dispute in the circle around the Danish mystic Martinus Thomsen (1895-1981).

Actually, I don't care that much about the fuss over literature. It's sad. But let the dead bury their dead, as he said, the Nazarene. However, the discussion that followed my post helped me get to grips with what is and has been my fundamental problem with all of this.

“Everyone does not understand the Master, they cannot appreciate, they do not need him. This is because they are not mature enough. They have not been through as much suffering as we/me. People are at different stages in their humane, intellectual development. Some are before, some are after. It is as it is. Everything is very good.”

You hear that from time to time. (Guess that in the argument about literature, you can hear it from both sides?) But there is something clever about it. Alluring, but devious. Like a psycho-spiritual "honey trap".

("Honey trap" is a term from the spy world. Someone is seduced by an attractive man/woman and can be picked on secret information and/or put themselves in a blackmail situation. That is, something attracts, tastes sweet, but it fetches a high price.)

But, again, I therefore do not take a position on whether such things as spiritual development exist (as in my made-up quote above). One would perhaps want to dismiss the whole thing because it sounds so elitist, old-fashioned or even colonial? But I actually don't. Satisfying myself with psychology. It comes closest.

Are we equipped to handle and face life with this thinking - regardless of whether it is true or not - or will it do something to one, dull, simplify, betray one's mind? (But the downsides I'm trying to describe don't apply to everyone. Some seem to be able to parry it. Is probably not a matter of will, whether you can handle it or not. It is something else that then acts as an "antidote".)

But one might think it is a strange circumstance that so many other movements arose and individuals came forward who formulated their philosophies in a similar way to Martinus Thomsen, then a hundred years ago?

Then in some camps there were also darker, more active dreams, as in the extension of this "some are ahead, some are behind"... Shouldn't one actively try to get rid of those who slow down, who only cause trouble, etc. Philosopher Jules Evans wrote about the dark history of esoteric neo-spirituality in a long, readable text A couple of years ago.


Farewell to the esoteric

Farewell to the esoteric

The title was a bit dramatic. And by the way, I've been resigning gradually over several decades. Up to twenty-five I was inside the world of thought, but after that I have distanced myself more and more. Ten years when I was less and in opposition. When it was time for master thesis on my education and I couldn't come up with anything better, so I chose to write about "new spirituality" of the kind represented by the likes of Rudolf Steiner, Madame Blavatsky, etc. For me, this work also became a kind of reconciliation work.

The title also does not imply that I have come to a conclusion about the truth content of the esoteric basic ideas, which I am now trying to impress upon others. Reincarnation, karma and the individual's gradual development towards perfection, to sum it up briefly. I still know nothing about this.

I dared to express my feelings on a forum around the Danish mystic Martinus Thomsen (1890-1981) the other day and the conversation that developed from this convinced me even more that - and why - I put the commitment behind me.

But I think I'll start a little earlier! Came into contact with "new spirituality" through a man in the town where I grew up, the yoga and meditation teacher, etc. Sture Emby. Moved to Stockholm in the middle of high school, had various such jobs that one had at that age. Went to all the lectures and courses about Martinus Thomsen that I had time for. Lived in Denmark for six months, attended the so-called "Winter School", at the Martinus Center on Zealand.

Started working at the new spiritual establishment Cafe Pan in Götgatsbacken, Stockholm. Did unarmed service, wrote a book. Continued working at Cafe Pan... Almost every summer I spent 1-2 weeks down at that Martinus Center. In the beginning I participated in study groups and lectures with a good appetite, but gradually it became more and more regular (lovely) holiday stays by the sea.

For the past perhaps twenty years, the Martinus movement has been marked by a bitter conflict over copyright, how the founder's writings should be presented to the outside world.

A more orthodox phalanx who claim that the only right thing is to continue printing the books in facsimile, with any obvious spelling errors and the Danish as it looked before the spelling reform in 1948. A more modern phalanx, who are also those who hold the copyright (Martinus Institute in Copenhagen, with its board which is traditionally called "The Council"), which has been for a gentle update. Those who are familiar with the conflict can fill in what I missed or don't know at all, the rest of you probably don't need to worry about the details. I wouldn't post this post if I didn't perceive the content to be more general.

I reason around a concept that deals with how everything goes in cycles. The seasons are one cycle, the human life course from birth to death, another. But in this author's model of existence, the cycle idea is absolutely central, all-encompassing. So maybe it can then be applied to Martinu's work and the movement that has formed around this for a hundred years, too?

“Council vs… who is it?

Have to say I stopped caring about this conflict because, what is it, how long has it been going on? Fifteen, twenty years? Personally, I think it has less to do with the Council or those who are dissatisfied. I think that Martinu's big project has reached some kind of phase of decay, old age, decay. The last push as well. Sad in a way, but... It's the "circulation principle" as well. I think his ideas will live on and be able to inspire one or another in the future, but then more in a molten form, via secondary literature and free thinkers.

I have the warmest feelings for Martinus as a person, and the history of the cause.”

Based on the response I received, both support and rebuttal, I thought further, and wrote:

"Does not take a position on whether Martinu's world view will have a renaissance and great importance. But in any case, it is ONE cycle that is now coming to an end. You don't even have to think metaphysically to see it that way, I think.

First, there is a founder with talent, enthusiasm, confidence (whether this is justified or not, whether he really has the abilities he claims to have, or not). In a period when such things are also 'in time'. A movement arises around him. What is written and said is in step with the spiritual currents of the period, feels relevant and fresh, can interest relatively many people.

Envy is aroused, to some extent phalanxes arise. Some are provoked by and challenge the founder himself, some are content to position themselves in relation to other interested parties, the 'crowd' who have not really understood him as well as themselves.

Eventually the creator disappears. The field is now open for battle, polarization is growing. The building weathers and collapses. Those around you wonder what the hell is going on with that little inspired circle? As one did not understand what they were really interested in, but they seem to have had something exciting going on for themselves in any case.

Then if someone digs the books out of the rubble in a hundred years and finds something of value there, that remains to be seen. But clearly what has been going on now means that many who could potentially be interested in this Danish mystic's world of thought do not want to approach. It gives a little too much of an impression of old-fashioned religious warfare, something that seems to be on its way out, a phenomenon that has entered its 'autumn'. At least that's what I think,"

I think that Martinu's texts, whether they are in facsimile, in Old Danish or carefully revised, have in some sense become irrelevant. So both sides are wrong. I've been trying to come up with an analogy.

The old large Swedish company Facit was successful with its typewriters and calculators. (Didn't they even fly in the Brazilian national team to kick a ball with Åtvidaberg FK?) I got a picture of how towards the end rival product teams were bickering about whether the typewriters should be green-grey like before, the "original", or spruced up a bit, to attract new , younger buyers.

While the truth was that the world outside Åtvidaberg had turned half a turn and no one wanted a typewriter anymore. At all.

By the way, when I think about it, there are several reasons why I distanced myself from the esoteric world explanation. What I bring up above in the post is not even the most important.

Another side of it all, which I am reminded of in the exchange I refer to, is the view of the esoteric foreground figures. Their perfection. Within the movement around Martinus Thomsen, this has been an existing, although I would hardly call it a living, discussion. "Could Martinus be wrong?"

This is something that rubbed off over the years. But it hasn't been the most decisive either. Or it's kind of baked in, a facet, of what probably had the most importance because I wanted to keep esotericism/new spirituality at arm's length.

But what is the most important reason then? It's a bit tricky to describe. But is the theme of many other posts here on the website. It's about "mental hygiene", for lack of better words.

A basic thought for me today is that the esoteric/neo-spiritual understanding of life can both pressure and attract the individual to function at a lower, "simpler" developmental level than what is actually hers. And that this has nothing to do with whether the fantasy world is true or not. It might sound strange.

If I were to venture to formulate the basic problem/basic challenge, it would be that esoteric neo-spirituality is working with "absolute greatness" (complete love, perfect knowledge, perfect people, total responsibility for one's own destiny via the "law of karma", etc.), as it the human psyche in the vast majority of cases is not equipped to handle. It risks doing something to one, so to speak.

Fifteen years ago I did a dozen interviews with people who embraced the esoteric-neo-spiritual notions of reincarnation, karma and the individual's gradual development towards emotional and cognitive perfection. I then put the answers and statements I received against the human "existential conditions" as these had been formulated by an experienced psychoanalyst, Adrzej Werbart:

Werbart (2000) writes that we humans are "irretrievably doomed to live as separate 'in-dividuals', dependent on each other, divided into two sexes and several generations, vulnerable and mortal...". Elsewhere, the same author writes that we have to "accept the existential conditions of man: our separateness as separate individuals, our division into two sexes and the impossibility of being both, the division into the parent and child generations, our aging and our mortality" (Werbart, 1996 ).

In conclusion: We humans are separate, alone. We are divided into two genders (in which case we cannot be "everything"). Furthermore, we are included and arranged in parent and child generations. We are dependent on others and each other throughout life in various ways. We are all limited in terms of talent, abilities, strength, etc. Subjected to aging, we become weaker and eventually die.

The result? My impression was that the group actually denied all the existential conditions. The esoteric-neo-spiritual worldview seemed to offer reasoning or answers that invalidated them all. However, the interviewees still seemed to be able to be divided into three groups, which I once formulated roughly like this:

  1. Those who are very disoriented (“deny the existential conditions”) even before the encounter with the neo-spirituality and the neo-spirituality allow them to remain in this state.
  2. Those who are normally healthy/normally ill ("wrestling with the existential conditions") and the new spirituality may be tempted to avoid continuing to wrestle.
  3. Those who are psychologically more mature (“have come to terms with the existential conditions”) and can find a healthy balance between theory and practice, between belief and emotional reality.

My conclusions can be read in more detail in the discussion section to the study, whoever wants to.

This may seem academic and distant. Who do I think I really am (who have I been)? Group 2 I would say. Incidentally, the very largest of the groups. That is my assessment. But Group 3 exists (Group 1 included for that matter). These psycho-spiritual unicorns!

Traveling in horrors

Traveling in horrors

Clas Svahn is a strange man in the public eye. He is seen most of the time on morning sofas and heard in podcasts as an expert on all things obscure and mysterious. Chairman (or if it is vice, or former?) of the National Organization UFO-Sweden. At the same time, a heavy, respected reporter at DN for a long time. You have to respect his courage!

Now at work with a new book about the history of flying saucers. On his blog, you can read in more detail what the book will contain

Most things are ready
Psychology and spirituality in Denmark

Psychology and spirituality in Denmark

The Danish equivalent of our Association of Psychologists, Dansk Psykolog Forening, received a subsection for earlier this year psychologists with a spiritual interest:

"The Network for Spiritually Oriented Psychologists is aimed at psychologists who are members of the Danish Psykolog Forening and who at the same time have a spiritual orientation in their work. The network's purpose is to explore the space between the psychology profession and the spiritual, in order to find the professional links that give meaning."

On Friday, a book will be published, written by a group of Danish psychologists:

"The book's authors are all practicing psychologists with different theoretical points of view, but one thing they have in common is that they have personal experience with a spiritual approach in their psychotherapeutic work. They all share the experience that spirituality as a dynamic and meaning-bearing force is important for people's deepest existential being and thus also for people's healing and mental health."

Wondering why something like that, both that such a network could be formed within our association, or that Swedish psychologists published a similar book, seems almost unthinkable. There must be something about the people's souls that is different anyway?

https://gad.dk/spiritualitet-og-psykologi

Recycle yourself?

Recycle yourself?

Reincarnation... Twenty, twenty-five percent of people in our more or less secularized, de-Christianized West, are not averse to the fact that we might come back. Says the researchers. So not just become energy, Nirvana, or live on in some kind of diffuse heaven, but actually continue in a new body much like the one you have now.

How is it that? Perhaps a growing individualism has influenced in that direction, made the idea feel reasonable and appealing? That is to be able to continue with one's projects, interests, realizations, possibly after a little "holiday".

Know that CS Lewis, the author and theologian, said that such notions come as if automatically when people have no shepherd, i.e. the church, or a wise, well-educated priest, who keeps order.

Or, it is that reincarnation is simply a fact. The tilted theology of the Church has loosened its grip and what is fundamentally true is allowed to rise out of consciousness as a hunch, a certainty.

But I'm sitting in the subway and wondering if the whole recycling philosophy hasn't done its job? In the past, people threw their rubbish where they stood and walked, in the ditch, out the window, or just in the lake. Miraculously gone. That's not the case in our part of the world anymore. The circular mindset is always present. Everything comes back. We are constantly fed it. Maybe done something with our self-image, our expectations, that too?

New Age in a nutshell

New Age in a nutshell

Concentrate of a dozen interviews I did in 2009-2010 for a thesis in psychology. You can find longer summaries of the interviews here.

The interviewees' path to embracing the view of life they have today looks different. There are those who are raised in Christian, moderate Christian homes as well as in homes where questions of spirituality have never been touched, as well as in homes with an acceptance of alternative views.

Separations from previous partners have in some cases become the starting point for a more intense interest in things like spirituality and personal development. Some can still trace their interest back to childhood and a philosophical teacher or inspiring relative. For some, this interest was awakened during an acute life crisis. A séance and the information that emerged there became for one person the turning point that caused her to abandon a previously skeptical attitude to spirituality.

The spiritual interest is practiced mostly on one's own, with sporadic meetings with like-minded people. A couple of the respondents state belonging to a certain organization. It is possible to cultivate an interest in several different teachings in parallel. In many cases, the interviewee's interest has today been preceded by studies of other teachings. The spiritual view of life is not something that is imposed on others. Being a vegetarian is seen as self-evident, mainly from an animal rights perspective.

Close relationships in this life are often relationships continued from a previous existence. Role reversals are common, such as for example a parent in this life may have been the interviewee's child in a previous incarnation. The interviewee's own children may have been the interviewee's parents or siblings. Becoming a parent is not necessary, although having children and being a parent is described in a positive way. Being free and independent is an ideal. There may be a person with whom the individual is especially connected over many lifetimes, possibly forever, a so-called "twin soul".

Reincarnation and karma are the "key" that can explain the individual's destiny and a prerequisite for development towards perfection. People can be "young" or "old" in a double sense, partly in terms of their chronological age in this life, partly in relation to how far they have advanced in their spiritual development. Life is a school. We ourselves are fully responsible for our destiny. Suffering is inevitable. We ourselves have planned or in any case approved how the current life has turned out. We did this on the threshold of this incarnation and then with an "adult" perspective. Outside of this physical world, everyone is the same age.

God is exalted above all duality. God is neither male nor female, neither evil nor good. This god can be described as both personal and impersonal. The whole world is the body of this deity. God works through the laws of nature. Every human being with his soul forms a part of this deity. God cannot directly influence the fate of the individual, but is more of a kind of administrator of the individual's own karma, both the pleasant and the unpleasant. The theodicy problem is thus solved.

The institutions that have power and interpretive preeminence in the world today, such as the natural sciences and the church, have a limited understanding of the areas in which they are considered experts. The media often run the affairs of power. The public is kept in the dark, for example when it comes to visitors from other planets. Conventional care and psychotherapy can be valuable, but this needs to take in the new spiritual perspectives. The understanding of how problems and symptoms often stem from experiences and traumas in previous incarnations is central. A phobia of water can, for example, be due to the person drowning in a previous life. There are great opportunities to sort out your problems on your own.

Outdated paradigms must be replaced or rather supplemented with a new, holistic perspective. This new perspective is at the same time a kind of essential knowledge or primal religion that humanity has previously embraced. Deep down, there is only one truth. The new spirituality is, in more or less complete form, a representative of this truth.

The interest in or belief in the correctness of this new spirituality is not a religious belief, but more akin to knowing. Its claims are possible to test in one's own life and get confirmed. There are many alternative paths to knowledge or certainty of this deeper truth. So-called "enlightened" persons are individuals who have a self-perceived certainty of this deeper truth, independent of studies in this life. Such information gives access to detailed knowledge in many areas of life. These individuals are self-proclaimed teachers.

That people are generally unaware of, uninterested in, or even skeptical of these perspectives is natural given their current spiritual level. Both the individual and the world at large develop forward according to a plan. Constant progression is guaranteed. The time perspective for the individual is different. The next life is not far away. Death is seen in a positive light. Experiences and talents in this life are carried over to the next. On a personal level, the goal is to develop spiritually and eventually achieve sympathetic and cognitive sovereignty. The world will become a paradise in the not too distant future. Then national borders have dissolved and all people share the same outlook on life. Then there are no wars and everyone is vegetarian.

What does it mean to be spiritual?

What does it mean to be spiritual?

This is not a political post. Say it at once. But when Göran Greider (Aftonbladet 23 October 2023) writes indignantly about how Hamas and others are seen as "friends of the left" so I directly associate this with what spirituality really is, and if there can't be atheistic spirituality anyway?

This is how my Greiderian thoughts went once...

"What interests me... is the special attitude that is often associated with religion and spirituality. That is, a reverence, wonder, healthy subordination, before existence. Which I imagine can be found within mature new spirituality as well as, for example, Christianity.

However, the thought systems in themselves are no guarantee that this feeling will arise. That the individual's life experience should have this special existential quality. Degree of wonder, reverence for creation, or whatever you want to call it, seems to run along its own axis? At odds with ideology or philosophy.

I would go so far as to say that if you let wonder, a humbling sense of smallness, be what defines 'spirituality', it might as well be in an atheist. The atheist, the Christian, and the holistic 'newage' can be united by something, which in turn separates them from their respective like-minded people who have a simpler view of things. Well, spirituality or religion is not synonymous with wonder.”

A Swedish Roswell

A Swedish Roswell

“Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered if we are alone in the universe? Then UFO Norrköping is an exhibition for you.”

The exhibition "UFO Norrköping" arranged at the Museum of Work until March 2025.

Don't know if there is any chronology in this that would be better than any other? The fact that the exhibition ended now and then is probably due to several things. It has an interesting, multi-layered background. With several connections precisely to this Östergötska locality. To begin with, the Swedish blockbuster has “UFO Sweden” (2022) filmed mostly in Norrköping, by the local film collective Crazy Pictures. The film has been noticed and celebrated in the English-speaking world as well. Here's a clip from Moviezines review:

The film, in turn, was both inspired by and borrowed props, etc., from the greats Archives For The Unexplained (AFU) which is located in that city. (For example, the chairman of the archive participates, as well as the DN journalist, Clas Svahn, in a fairly prominent extra role 🙂 )

The archive which in turn once grew out of the old organization The national organization UFO-Sweden, whose activities – report phone, field investigator, etc. – as far as I understand, are not that far from the action in the film. On their website there is also a long information text about the AFU archive at English and a shorter one on svenska.

By the way, the UFO exhibition is going on in parallel "I Want to Believe" at Malmö City Archives.

And I myself saw the film "UFO Sweden" yesterday. (Can be found in several places, e.g. Netflix and SF Anytime.) Thought it was charming, impressive in its genre. With winks to the old TV series Arkiv X, to the not-so-old series Stranger Things, to the film Interstellar, etc. But sat many times and thought about how an American experiences the environments, Swedish association and authority culture, etc., in the film? So familiar to yourself, but must have felt exotic to many others who have seen and been able to appreciate the film.

PS The title obviously refers to the small town of Roswell in New Mexico, USA. An event there, "The Roswell Incident", 1947, some say ignited the public interest in UFOs and since then the resort has become a kind of place of worship. Mr.