Bowser
Inventing a new spiritual group, no matter how silly, is often easy.
We first construct tales of a thousand-year-old, elevated soul, such as one named Bowser. The leader and head prophet, said to be in touch with the indwelling presence of Bowser, poses as a transcended one. They are the one who is supposed to lead us in deep communion. To hit it big time, the mission will need more than just a few followers. In order to clean up, members must recruit other people, and enroll them in Bowser seminars. With the right techniques, hundreds of people will be enrolled in the pricey seminar. Dedicated to a deeper understanding of Bowser, the number of seminars goes on and on.
As is often the case, such legends direct legions of the faithful into:
- The alternative medicine circus
- Belief in spiritual visitation, from an incarnation, extraterrestrial, guru, psychic, or entity.
- The holy war against evil.
Likewise, the hard line champion of the Divine Health Tabernacle implores us to surrender to our supernatural longing for the nonexistent.
If a mark cannot bear reality, or is not happy with their life, they tend to put their trust in divine parasites, ceremonial hobgoblins, or the devotees of Bowser.
Bowser teachings call for absolute faith without question. And the prophetic strikeouts and problematic words are rationalized. As a trusting mark, we tell our family and friends of our experience. Passed around, the story of Bowser gains power. From there, human nature continues, and adorns the whole encounter. Fully aware of this human quirk for exaggeration, more hype is created for the mission.
We can easily make it big in the world of prophets, inventive writers or gurus. In addition to creating new religious convictions, the abuser of human idiosyncrasy needs only a little charm when spinning spectral atmospheres.
When we are unable to trust our minds, we seek help from divine authority, with no way to know their real aims. But to allow our minds to be shaped by that authority, just because they say so, is to lower our intellect to the rank of a squirrel.
Sound judgment and rational thinking are the controllers of our fate, not the so-called wisdom of an authority, a guru, a seminar leader, or mystical group:
Such philosophical cancer causes us to allow control by:
- Time-tested (or even newly devised) fairy tales
- "Evils that must be stamped out" through force of mysticism, politics, or the media
More and more of us set our sights on such comforting myths. As a result, we surrender to our deeply held, childish ideas. Mesmerized by the supernal, our defiance of clear facts can be clever, and reality is damned.
