Projecting our inner image of God onto the world is something many people do without realising it. What happens is that they read scripture, have mystical experiences of the Divine, listen to what their coreligionists say, and then come up with an image, in their minds, of who God is and what God wants. With that, they set about putting the world to rights, according to their idea of how things should be. They feel certain they know what God wants because it feels right inside of them, so they conclude that it can’t be wrong, no matter what.
A recent Netflix documentary called Apocalypse in the Tropics illustrates this phenomenon. It tells the story of the rise of evangelical Christianity in Brazil and how this wave of religious fervor catapulted Jair Bolsonaro to power as the President of Brazil. The documentary showed footage of evangelical Christians in groups—both in mass outdoor gatherings and in small indoor meetings—praying passionately and having discussions about how to fulfill their shared dream of holding political power in the country. Many participants appeared to be in a near-constant trancelike state, holding their arms up, and begging God to change the country so that it would become what they were sure God wanted it to be.
This phenomenon of projecting one’s image of God onto the world is not an unusual thing. It can happen in cults, in mainstream religion, and in new age movements. It raises the question as to whether it’s possible for anyone to have an accurate image of God. Baha’u’llah answers that by making it clear that no one can connect directly to God. Everyone is shut out, whatever their religion, affiliation, or experience. Instead, a person’s understanding of God is always limited to their own personal ability to conceive of things. It can never break out of those limits and reach God. (Commentary on a Verse of Rumi, para. 17)
Baha’u’llah described those who think they have accurate intuitions of God as having a spiritual disease. Granted, it is natural for people to have mystical experiences of God, but jumping to the conclusion that these are direct experiences of God is misguided and delusional. As Baha’u’llah points out, there is always a big difference between an individual’s personal intuitions of God, and the actual reality of God.
“The people have been stricken with an illness, and curing it is extremely difficult, except for those who have been treated with the greatest antidote. This epidemic consists in people believing that they have attained mystical insight, and then supposing that God is like them. Today, most are afflicted with this disease, and for this reason they are deprived of the Eternal Truth and what is with it. Beseech God to render hearts pure and eyes sharp, so that they might perhaps recognize themselves, and distinguish between themselves and God.” (Tablet of the Son, para. 6)
Therefore, if we want to make the world a better place, what we cannot do is try to change the world in the way we think it should be. We don’t like others doing it to us; and we can’t do it to others, either. It’s controlling and abusive. And it keeps the person who is doing it focused on others while ignoring what they themselves are becoming. In a worst case scenario, the person discovers in horror, after their death, that their behaviour was arrogant and self-righteous and insufferable to others—and not pleasing to God either—while they believed themselves to be God’s gift to humanity.
Projecting our image of God outwards like that is a neat way to feel good about doing good for humanity, while avoiding the psychological and spiritual work that screams for attention within. In the West, we tend to look at service to humanity through the lens of the Protestant Work Ethic. We set goals, make plans, and fill our days with activity. It never occurs to us to stop and look inside and sort out what is going on in there. Too busy for that.
I have spent most of my life getting my priorities around the wrong way. For example, when I served on a local assembly, I suffered from burnout and sacrificed my time with my daughter. I was very stressed, but kept at it because I thought I was doing the right thing. Many years later, I realised that I was playing the role of fixer and helper because I thought that was the way to be accepted by the community. It also thought that was what God wanted. But actually, what I needed to do was look after myself and my daughter and let Baha’u’llah take care of the community. I had bought into the narrative about playing my part in rearranging the world instead of concentrating on me and the person I was becoming.
Consequently, if one is sincere about wanting to set the world to rights, it is necessary to prioritise the inner work before the outer work. A good society is a society made up of good individuals, not one that is the projection of someone with psychological issues. Carl Jung made this point about reason: “Reason can only be applied by reasonable people. Otherwise, it is the right means in the hands of the wrong man and brings about destruction.” I think the same principle applies to religion. Religion can only be applied by spiritually healthy people. Otherwise, it is the right means in the hands of the wrong person and it will not benefit humanity.
Notes
For a related blog post, see “Why you can’t control people into being free.“
The image (above) is a reproduction of the famous “Flammarion engraving,” which first appeared in Camille Flammarion’s 1888 book, L’atmosphère: météorologie populaire (The Atmosphere: Popular Meteorology). The original caption, not included in this specific image, translates to: “A medieval missionary tells that he has found the point where heaven and Earth meet…” (Google)