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by Kingsley L. Dennis
is to promote the ascent
of the
human being.'
August 29, 1906
November 15, 2025
Without the experience of this separation and individuation there could be no comprehension of what it means to be a "drop in the ocean".
The path of individuation existed as a means to grasp the sense-experience of a personal, individualized identity.
Once a state of peak individuation has been reached then the return journey can begin, as all experience and memory can be brought back with the individualized soul.
Yet the danger here - the trap - is that a state of deep material embodiment also brings with it a state of conscious forgetfulness. And while in this state of forgetfulness, the individual personality can be taken, or steered, into the extremity of this pathway; that is, into the further reaches of materialism.
And this eventually can become its own evolutionary trajectory.
Trapped in the material, temporal realm, with a false notion of the enduring or eternal realm, a "transhuman" form of evolution then manifests as a logical or rational "progressive" future. Yet this shows a loss of perspective or connection to our enduring self, for the truth is that our souls are immortal.
Our human forgetfulness is a temporal state.
The transhumanist notion of immortality is temporal forgetfulness that we are already immortal beings. In this condition, what can be regarded as "evil" is the notion of separation, whether it is a separation from self, from others, from our culture, or, most significantly, from our essential Source or vital spirit.
An essential aspect of evil thus involves
separation at one or various levels. And that is why the primaeval
features, aspects, and manifestations of those forces we deem "evil"
are those of fragmentation, division, and exclusion.
And to be involved, or initiated, into the forces of evil means that the human being has allowed this separation to enter their inner core, and this inner separation then feeds into them a different energy.
On one level, many people in the world today feel an innate separation within their core being; hence, the extreme degrees of alienation, abuse, violence, loneliness, and addiction.
Before humanity can cross the threshold it first needs to experience the "inner spirit", so there is a connection with the Absolute and the human being is not adrift.
As such, evil forces can also act as a trigger that produces a movement or inclination towards spirit within the individual. It is only a simplistic, materialistic interpretation that manifests through violent or criminal actions that we deem as evil.
Rudolf Steiner made this clear when he stated in 1918:
The seed of the spirit within the human being must be allowed to germinate.
And forces of friction are often required to fulfill this function.
They only become categorized as good and evil when personified through human forms and behavior.
And these forms are often hijacked by groups and entities that wish to exploit and utilize them for achieving specific goals and objectives that are usually for the attainment of power and control.
On this note, the path of Manichaeism recognized that there was a need for the gradual redemption of evil, or negating forces, through the working of the impulses and influences of the good, and this process was not so much an external struggle as a path of inner development.
The central concept here was the ability to distinguish between these forces.
In other words,
Without this discernment, a different germination may take place within the human being, a germination of the sickness of separation from spirit:
The path to understand evil, therefore, is principally a path of self-knowledge, and on this path we need to think beyond the limitations of static dualistic thinking, in other words,
The phenomenon of negating forces is more complex, layered, and multifaceted.
And thus, real issues and
problems of the world can only be properly understood if accompanied
by the understanding that the physical world is underpinned by a
metaphysical one and that physical forces are often acting from
causes that are unperceived by our regular senses.
Human beings are unique in this respect, in that we can exercise an inner strength of will to make conscious choices towards our freedom from constraining forces. We can choose to develop or not. It can perhaps be said that the significance of this planet within the cosmos also lies at our feet.
And as long as we, as human beings, are prepared to invest in our developmental capacity then we retain our usefulness for the planet; and the planet, as one of many within a grander system, also develops an increasing usefulness.
The question remains then:
Or this question could be rephrased to ask:
This is the continual decision that lies open to humanity: the freedom to choose its future, and whether this future will be one of harmonious and positive development or not.
Without freedom there can be no real
love - freedom and love form an integrity in that they belong
together. Love as a force of purification can only come into being
through freedom. In this regard, the phenomenon of evil is a part of
existence and human evolution.
What we categorize or term as "evil" cannot be viewed as something "outside" or beyond existence for this is not possible. In fact, it may manifest in accordance with each particular stage of evolvement and human development.
As a species, we are in need of expanding our perceptual capacities so that we are better able to comprehend how such "unknown phenomena" participate in the human journey - and this includes the phenomenon of evil, negating, or entropic forces.
And the more conscious awareness expands, the more it is cognizant of the myriad forces operating in existence that were previously unknown and/or invisible to us.
It is the path of balance to attempt to transform forces rather than seek to struggle or push back against them, as this just furthers division and separation and not integration.
What is necessary are the capacities of transformation, not the power to destroy:
Many philosophers have theorized that evil equates to entanglement in matter.
While there is some truth to this perspective, it is only a part of the picture, which overall is more nuanced. For others, the concept of evil represents a limit or threshold to a capacity of perception.
We tend to view the fundamentals of negating forces through their manifestations in the physical world yet are unable to perceive the underlying causes or primary impulses.
To approach
these counterforces, we need to go beyond theory and the arena of
our physical senses. By being conscious of the vital forces, we are
more able to recognize those aspects, elements, or entities that are
in opposition to these vital, energetic forces.
Yet this necessity for inner development and evolution has been increasingly pushed onto the external world to the detriment of the inner life.
The outer, material world accelerates through stages of development (what we often call "progress"), yet the world of spirit is neglected to the point of its near vanishment.
Rudolf Steiner refers to this when he said:
In other words,
Certain attributes manifested incorrectly, or out of place and time, can bring about negating consequences.
And yet there is no "without" - all attributes, essences, and features exist within the realm of our known existence:
Therefore, worldly philosophers who ignore the
metaphysical realm are unable to fathom the depths of meaning
inherent within the phenomenon of evil.
The psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist has said that,
Humanity stands poised on this threshold where intellect and a machinic form of thinking can take us in one direction, whereas
imagination, intuition, and a spirit-consciousness can take us in
another.
On the contrary, it seeks to overtake the will of the human being and to replace this with a framework of automation, certainty, and soul-passivity.
There are forces on the Earth, manifesting through what I call the "machinic impulse", that aim to hinder and prevent metaphysical truths and wisdom from entering into the human domain, and they divert these into materialism.
A machinic form of technology (for not all technology is necessarily "machinic") coupled with a cognitive programming of materialism leads to a culture of not-being.
One strategy for this deadening is from subliminal and subconscious programming through the media and entertainment culture exerting influence beyond people's conscious awareness.
Through the dogma of scientific materialism people have been taught that their thoughts and opinions are their own. That is, thoughts are produced from the act of conscious thinking which is a direct by-product of the neuronal processes of the brain.
People are now so materially minded that they believe that "thoughts" spring from their own minds almost as if they were to believe that breathing brings forth oxygen within them rather than being received.
What many people are still not aware of is that thoughts can be implanted or directed into the mind of an individual.
Also, thoughts and ideas can be picked up from the consciousness field that exists beyond the confines of the physical brain. A person's brain acts as an antenna that decodes information from the collective consciousness field.
Furthermore, ideas and opinions can be implanted into an individual through subconscious processes or signals that have been deliberately planted in external forms of information and entertainment.
Much of what has been seen as evil is based on falsehood.
Those forces and impulses opposed to human evolution often attempt to curtail humanity's future by trying to force premature development upon a humanity not yet mature enough to deal with it - such as is the case today with advancing technology and the creation of AI.
This aims to block or sabotage the balanced and correct path of human evolution and misdirect it into an alternative direction that ultimately leads not to improvement but implosion or stagnation.
One example of this will be,
Hence, we shall be unprepared and immature...
And this will divert or short-change people
from having to gain new faculties of communication, or psychic
capacities, through a path of organic inner development.
At the same time,
The nihilism and "not-being" that is heavily promoted through tech-materialism is pulling the human vessel further into the heavy calcification of machinic forces.
Oppositional forces create the potentials for making choices as well as offering false opportunities to step back from the path of development.
Notes
November 22, 2025
Under the brown fog of a winter
dawn.' "The Waste Land"
This notion of oppositional struggle to create a third force of resolution is known as a dialectic.
That is,
The concept of the dialectic struggle was developed by the German philosopher Georg Hegel who wrote that the mind or spirit manifested itself in a set of contradictions and oppositions that were ultimately integrated and united in synthesis.
For Hegel, the synthesis (the absolute), must always pass through a stage of opposition in its journey to completion and truth. On a material level, Hegel viewed this dialectic relationship as the process by which human history unfolds.
That is, history (social evolution) progresses as
a struggle between two opposing forces towards a developmental state
of resolution.
These struggles, says Hegel, can be found in most social domains such as history, philosophy, art, nature, and even consciousness. Hegel's thinking was highly influenced by the lesser-known writings of German Christian mystic Jacob Böhme.
Böhme's inner visions led him to create a cosmology where it was necessary for humanity to return to God-Source (what he termed the Urgrund meaning literally the "original ground" or primary principle).
These states of conflict would be a necessary stage in the further completion of the evolution of the universe.
Humanity's free will in this separation,
conflict, and resolution was the most important gift that God-Source
could give to us. In other words, it would be our own responsibility
- and a privileged responsibility at that - to work towards our
reconciliation through struggle and the opposing forces of
resistance.
Gurdjieff referred to this as the "Law of Three".
In this context, we can see how a coming together of contradictory impulses - such as mind and spirit or "good and evil" - could lead towards a resolution that would not only be an integration of these contradictory forces but also a resolution/synthesis greater than the sum of its parts.
Using Gurdjieff's terminology,
Similarly, in the worldly sphere, the dialectical
oppositions are utilized as false oppositions to create a situation
of controlled chaos that is managed and overseen by an existing
"unifying centre."
While this seems to the uneducated observer to be a contestation of opposing forces, it is actually a false dialectic being controlled from a third force acting as a unified centre.
Within the larger picture, this "third force" is a hidden hand behind the contesting forces upon the material plane. However, a genuine third force resolution can emerge from within a mingling of opposing forces, just as two metals coming together can form an alloy.
Such an approach was described in the Manichean teachings. The teaching of the prophet Mani - known as Manichaeism - proposes the two principles of light and dark as essential dualisms.
According to Mani's teachings, these two dualistic principles work through three epochs.
These are:
A distinctive feature of Manichaeism's dualism is in its dynamic aspect - the mingling.
These two principles do not remain static or at rest (this static state is only during the first epoch of non-interference); they develop in ever-stronger interaction with one another.
This intermingling is what results in matter, which incorporates both aspects of the light and dark. Mani describes this as the darkness devouring the light beings in a kind of metabolic process whereby one substance takes and integrates the other into itself.
In this understanding, these dual principles are equal in their status yet opposed to each other in their nature.
This means that they occupy equal rank within the participation of the creation process, and matter reality (materiality) is a fusion of the two. Without their participation, interaction, and interplay, no creation is possible.
The collaboration of light and dark is what constitutes creation and one aspect does not exist without the other. What this ultimately leads to is the message that both light and darkness are necessary for the creative process.
This material world is not the realm of dark forces alone, as certain Gnostic teachings posit, but is formed when light beings/energies become mingled with the darkness. Material existence is an interplay, or collaboration, between the forces/energies of light and darkness, albeit in accordance with their separate natures.
And this interaction, which can also be seen as
conflict at times, is necessary for the continued evolution within
matter-reality. From the Manichaeism perspective, the light and the darkness are both aspects of creative energies in their own right. And thus, when we engage with the exterior physical world, we are being met with contrasts and polarities.
It is these contrasts that create the tangible frictions in life which enable events to unfold and develop.
As it is said:
If all existence was to be purely "good" then there would be little stimuli to develop or to give opportunities and/or situations where developmental choices would have to be made or rejected.
That is, there would be no free will as there would be no concept of choice, freedom, or development, etc. Contrasts, dualisms, and polarities - within the realm of matter-reality - provide the stimuli and frictions necessary for change and momentum.
Otherwise, a state of placidity, docility, and/or stagnation would arise.
We experience these contrasts through being
intermingled together to form the "cauldron of heat" - a combination
of light and dark ("good and evil") energies - that form a dynamic
of opposition for potential transformation or entrapment. The
dynamic is established for evolution or devolution based on the
choices made from a place of human free will.
When the interaction of opposing forces is stabilized, it can be said that the dualism is momentarily neutralized so that a state of balance is formed where light and dark are in equilibrium.
This state is only maintained for a period until the next imbalance emerges that plunges matter-reality into a new excited state of dynamic interaction and the whole cycle repeats itself until a new order of equilibrium and balance is restored.
At each cycle of dynamic interaction, contestation, and rebalance, a threshold arises where there is the opportunity for development or decay. It is from a state of expanded perception that this arrangement of duality is perceived and understood as being intrinsic to the whole overarching unity.
From a state of lower conscious awareness, it all appears as continual dualistic polarization. It is the intermingling of light and dark energies that allows for a transfiguration into a new condition or state.
In Manichaeism, there is no "punishment" or
attacking of evil but rather a utilization of its forces for
transformational purposes. And in this way, it is said in
Manichaeism that evil is redeemed because a part of the light enters
into evil so that the evil itself is overcome.
These counterforces are not foreign or external to processes of evolution but rather are required and are integral to the cosmological system.
Steiner also refers to evil as an "ill-timed good":
What this also implies is that if actions, choices, and intentions of "good/light" begin to stagnate or turn away (delay) in its path of evolvement, it can at the wrong moment - the "ill-timing" - turn into darkness.
This may be what the techno-materialist path is creating:
And those power-hungry controlling forces manipulating the geo-political false dialectics have already made their spiritual decision, and it has been an act of will to oppose the natural forces of human evolution.
Their threshold choice shall only take them into a path of eventual stagnation and decay.
They are blocked from receiving the vital energies that operate to provide momentum through dynamic oppositional forces. This is because the path of evil only chooses a state of negation with no evolutionary dynamic.
Such forces and/or agents have literally cut off their source of evolutionary momentum by adopting a state of containment. As I have described throughout this series of essays, this is a path of not-being and nihilism through submission to the will to technology and the techno-materialistic forces.
This is, quite literally,
The Manichaean teaching reveals a process towards the transfiguration of spirit (light) over matter (darkness).
The role of the spirit-endowed human being is thus to transform the darkness through the spiritualization of matter. The inner being of the individual is here guided to overcome (and thus transform) the trappings of materialism and materiality.
The continued advancement into a future of techno-tyranny represents a deepening into materialism and the forces of darkness (negating forces). It appears that the continuing drive into techno-materialism will be led by the false "I" or persona/ego of the human being, thus furthering the split from spirit-consciousness.
This is what the darker forces are aiming for in their radical attempt to not only desensitize and dumb down humanity but also in their intention to strip humans down into a minimal form of existence or a "bare life" (see next essay).
However, in order for developmental potentials within humanity to be activated in full, it is likely that the dark counterforces will first have to push their agenda to the extreme.
On this note, Steiner has said:
The recognition of this situation is what can assist in any future positive transition past what I have termed the "threshold".
That is, in understanding that current worldly
contestations are an opportunity to activate the "right action" from
the inner being of the individual. And this "right action" involves,
from my perspective, choices and decisions made from a place of
human will in regard to freedom, sovereignty, and
spirit-consciousness.
Yet this can also be regarded as a form of "initiation" for the human individual in terms of,
This dialectic of oppositional forces is not solely a theoretical or intellectual concept but comes alive, along with the knowledge of it, through lived experience.
It is out of the lived experience that new opportunities and potentialities emerge. Life is a continual unfolding and developing process. If it becomes static or stagnant then it is in danger of slipping towards a non-evolutionary path where the final state is of dissolution...
It may be accurate to say that our current reality is more deeply in the grip of the darker, negating forces, since the material realm is more open to the manifestations of falsehood, deception, and ignorance.
Because of this, genuine attempts to provide knowledge and "activations" for increased perception are assaulted by the darker forces operative in the world.
And yet, it is these very assaults that provide the opportunity, and impetus, for real developmental work to take place within the human realm.
As one commentator stated:
From this viewpoint, the illusive "third force" enables the transition between systems or, in my terminology, past the threshold.
Yet it cannot come from within the components of
the "passive majority," "active minority" or the "power possessors",
those few in power. Instead, it is a force that acts through those
individuals who are prepared and able to be conduits for the action
of spirit-consciousness in matter-reality.
In every sphere of human life - whether social, cultural, or political - there are forces in operation that represent spheres of activity of greater magnitude than most people are able to realize.
There are "universal forces" that have been in contention (in motion) for a very long time.
That the many are unaware of this only places more emphasis upon the responsibility of the few who are aware...!
This has always been the case and is likely to
remain so for the time ahead.
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