Spiritual awakening often clashes with expectations rooted in ancient, poetic texts written by people in a world unlike ours. Ancient societies faced intense physical suffering—famine, disease, or war—yet lacked modern stressors like information overload or societal fragmentation. These texts, while profound, may not fully mirror today’s awakening experiences.
Awakening involves moving from a biased, filtered worldview to objective observation of reality, scrutinizing personal narratives with less emotional attachment. This shift is uncomfortable, as our brains resist cognitive dissonance—the tension of holding conflicting beliefs. Evolutionarily, frequent perspective changes in a stable world hindered progress, making cognitive shifts costly. Ancient examples illustrate this: early Christians faced dissonance when embracing a new faith against Roman polytheism, risking persecution. Similarly, Buddha’s followers grappled with abandoning caste-based identities for enlightenment, challenging social norms.
In modern times, cognitive dissonance is rampant. People cling to political ideologies despite contradictory evidence, as seen in polarized debates over climate change or vaccine efficacy. Social media amplifies this, presenting curated realities that clash with lived experiences, yet users resist revising beliefs due to identity attachment. Today’s manipulative narratives—advertising, propaganda, or echo chambers—demand a radical reevaluation of assumptions, perhaps unprecedented in history. Awakening requires confronting these, embracing discomfort to achieve clarity
