Many people observe other, important religions not discussed here. I have focused on Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam:

(1) because they are the religions with the greatest number of followers in the world (and thus the most relevance to the most readers), and

(2) because those religions are the purest expressions of the stage-specific arc of expanding human consciousness presented here. In my opinion, that purity explains why these religions took such powerful root and gained so many followers in the first place.

That is not to diminish the value of all other religions, however.

By now I hope it is clear that we humans are in a constant swirl of expanding consciousness, with beliefs continually bouncing off each other for the (sometimes challenging) benefit of all. In the bouncing, the self comes to self-awareness, and the soul gets whittled down to become a pure instrument.

Remember too from The Sunflower Story that each new impulse of expanding consciousness pushes off from, and defines itself against, the previous set of notions. (“Well, I know that’s what you think, but I think this…”)

So it is completely natural and actually inevitable that the world religions would also splinter off from each other, and even create many factions within.

How New Religions Are Formed

Most new religions – or offshoots of religions – occur for one of two reasons. Either there is a power struggle for leadership; or someone has an awakening experience and feels called to bring a new, revised message to the world.

Either way, the split happens because of an assertion, or declaration, made by a leader. There is a Stage 3 event in the life of that initiator.

But remember this chart from our discussion on the basic evolutionary system:

The capacity to make a Stage 3 assertion is developed relatively early in the sweep of human evolutionary challenges. You don’t get to Stage 3 immediately (because you have to develop the capacity to stand in the “I Am”), but there’s a lot still to do after you get there. So anyone feeling gutsy enough to assert leadership over an existing religion need only be relatively young in the sweep of human growth (at about the level of that fourth line, the first yellow one).

The capacity to achieve actual spiritual illumination comes later, approximately mid-way through the whole cycle of evolutionary challenges (approximately where the arrow points to “Realization”).

Either way, notice how very much growth there still is to be accomplished! Awakening means only that the individual is now ready for the soul purification phase of human spiritual growth.

In fact, any spiritual message an initiate feels “called” to proclaim to the world is going to be muddy until they do become purified – which is a long way down the growth curve.

This is why spiritual leaders can really run amok. They may have experienced a genuine illumination, all right, but their ability to interpret the implications of that illumination clearly and egolessly is not at all guaranteed, and can be very undeveloped.

(“The most dangerous time is when you think you know what’s supposed to happen.”)

That’s what leads to the Jonestowns, the mental health issues accompanying spiritual awakening, etc.

In other words, anyone can start a religion. Some of those religions take root, some don’t. All religions are valuable in their contribution to the shakeup of ideas.

Only A Purified Master Can Transmit a Pure Message

The major religions that have truly guided global consciousness forward are the ones brought to earth by truly great masters. The spiritual maturity of those masters allowed them to awaken to their divine messages, surely. But more importantly, their maturity meant their souls were sufficiently pure to bring their messages undistorted into the world.

Atheism and Agnosticism

A few words about Atheism and Agnosticism, for a website on evolving spiritual consciousness would not be complete without them. Look for blog posts on these topics, however, for there is much to say. Yes, it’s true that both may result from the kind of “forgetfulness” Muhammed warned about, or from evolution going off track temporarily. But it’s also true that the experience of Atheism and Agnosticism each have a true and perfect place in this multi-staged sweep of evolving consciousness.

Atheism is the belief that God does not exist. Agnosticism is the belief that we as humans simply cannot know the Divine.

Atheism and Agnosticism can both – each in their own way – also be the experience of someone actually very far advanced on the curve of spiritual evolution, specifically someone completing the final phases of purification in Stage 5.

Remember the total emptiness required to complete Stage 5: an emptiness of mind, emotions and will:

Imagine for a moment what that stage would feel like, before the union of Stage 6. That utter neutrality… that utter lack of attachment to anything… If that experience were expressing itself over the course of a single life, is it possible it would feel an awful lot like atheism and/or agnosticism?

Which brings us to the notion of the Level Praying Field.

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