Why We Shouldn’t Fear the Apocalypse but Embrace It?
Our mainstream culture often represents the apocalypse as a catastrophic end to our world, but this representation appears to be deeply misleading.
Have we inherited a deep, unconscious fear of true knowledge that keeps us collectively in ignorance?
The apocalypse has always been presented to us as a catastrophic event marking the end of the world, that is to say as the worst plague that can threaten humanity.
However, if we look at its origins, the word “apocalypse” has a completely different meaning: it comes from the ancient Greek ἀποκάλυψις, apokálupsis, which means “action of revealing,” itself deriving from apokaluptein, “to discover” or “to unveil.”
An apocalypse is a disclosure or revelation of great knowledge. In religious concepts, an apocalypse reveals what was previously hidden and provides access to “divine secrets” that bring sense and meaning to earthly realities.
Where does this catastrophic vision of the apocalypse come from and how can we explain that the word’s original meaning has been distorted?
Abrahamic Religions, Original Sin and God Punishment:
Abrahamic religions have colonized all continents and continue to play a major role in structuring dominant collective beliefs, both consciously and unconsciously. According to their stories, the suffering of humanity is due to the original sin of Adam and Eve, who were found guilty for eating from the famous forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus transgressing the only prohibition that “The Lord” had given them, which caused them to be expelled from the garden of Eden, and which would explain the supposed anger of God towards humanity.
This story, which is a pillar of the Abrahamic religions and is deeply rooted within the collective unconscious, tells in its essence that the divine knowledge of good and evil is forbidden to humanity. To transgress this rule and accede to it would therefore amount to committing the worst blasphemy: to betray God once again, and to see his wrath fall upon humanity in a destructive, catastrophic and irreversible way.
It is not surprising, when such narratives continue to dominate and shape our cultures, that the idea of accessing spiritual knowledge outside the limits imposed by religions is unconsciously interpreted as a terrible danger for humanity, and that the word Apocalypse has become so profoundly distorted from its true original meaning.
The Apocalypse and the End of the World
Most humans associate the society in which they live with the entire world. When this association is made in an unconscious and collective way, the end of one’s society is logically perceived and feared as the end of the world. When one is unconsciously identified with the patterns imposed by dominating social structures, one can no longer conceive of existence outside of these patterns. Their transformation is felt on a deep level as death.
Our nations, our economy, our cultures are all structured on the basis of old dominant collective beliefs. In this context it is understandable that a revelation of great knowledge, that would come to expose the inconsistencies, limits and irrationalities of these beliefs, would challenge the foundations of society and would therefore be perceived as the end of the world.
This explains why knowledge that challenges existing norms is systematically repressed in our society. Its systems of power are more interested in maintaining the old false certainties by which they are established, than in supporting the disclosure of new knowledge that would challenge them. As a result, emancipating spheres of knowledge (such as self knowledge) remain esoteric and marginalized despite their central importance.
Embracing the Apocalypse: Overcoming the Fear of Knowledge to Free the World from Limiting, Divisive and Unsustainable Beliefs
At a time when the old ways of functioning and reasoning are becoming become more and more obsolete, irrational and unsustainable, it is becoming increasingly important to disclose the great knowledge we need in order to be able to evolve our level of consciousness. To do this, it is essential to overcome our deep ancestral fear of the apocalypse: which is an unconscious fear of the disclosure that will allow us to understand and overcome the great challenges of our times. This fear needs to be released from the collective unconscious.
1 Releasing the Fear of Divine Punishment
It is silly and irrational to believe (consciously or not) that a loving omnipotent God would punish anyone for having the willingness to access knowledge. Such belief implies that God is controlling, authoritarian and subject to short temper and low emotional intelligence. It is far more rational and logical, however, to see that religions that derive their power from submission to their limiting beliefs feel threatened by knowledge that not only challenges them, but also exposes them for what they really are: psychic weapons of domination and mass manipulation using the fear of God’s punishment as a way to subjugate, limit and control the human mind. Inducing the fear of divine knowledge by making it appear as evil is a need for the belief to maintain its grip on society.
2 Releasing the Fear of Suffering
True knowledge is likely to be painful and destabilizing to some degree as it brings to light what has been repressed in the unconscious. But if we continue to repress and deny disturbing truths with ungrounded limiting and divisive beliefs, we will end up putting ourselves in real danger. Operating unconsciously and disconnected from reality is increasingly dangerous in times when exponential technological progress amplifies the consequences of our choices and actions. It is therefore wiser to acknowledge the individual and collective demons (limiting beliefs, fears and wounds) within ourselves, rather than unconsciously leaving them in charge and precipitate a collapse of global civilization.
3 Overcome the Fear of Dissolving the Old Limiting and Divisive Beliefs
It is more than time to disidentify from the stories, cultures and social structures of our ancestors because they are not adapted to the challenges of our time. Questioning our beliefs and narratives and restoring them to their place as tools to structure our society (and not masters to whom we submit) is essential, if we want to unlock within ourselves the creative power needed to change our world. It is high time that we recognize that we are the creators of our stories, our cultures, our society and our reality. If the social tools we have inherited do not serve and enhance us, then we should transform them.
In a context in which technological progress is exponential and considerably increases our destructive power, ignorance presents a great existential threat for humanity which can only be neutralized with knowledge. It is therefore time to overcome our irrational fear of the apocalypse and seek the divine knowledge that will allow us to unlock our creative power and overcome the great challenges of our era: the knowledge of the true self.
A new interpretation of the Apocalypse:
The apocalypse is a disclosure of great knowledge that brings an end to the old limiting beliefs that have dominated, separated and organized human societies until now. It is an evolutionary step for all humanity that will bring light to the nature of the unconscious mechanisms that have torn the human species apart, perpetuating an egoic paradigm of fear, distrust and separation. The apocalypse will bring to light to knowledge needed for the recognition and healing of our unresolved collective wounds, the release of our irrational fears and the dissolution of our limiting beliefs on a planetary scale. It will mark the end of Homo Sapiens — The human who thinks and the beginning of Homo Conscius: the human who knows the Self.
The Apocalypse is the long-awaited great disclosure that will liberate and unite humankind.
