Why are metaphysically curious people so rare?

[Grant6]

I know intellectually that of course, every one is different, and has different values. But most average people are not interested in metaphysical/spiritual topics at all; in fact, many actively avoid metaphysical topics. But why isn't it more common? Sometimes I notice myself judging others who clearly don't care about this stuff, who aren't interested in growth at all, and just live very sedentary lives, only caring about basic human survival things (e.g., having a job, getting married, being successful, etc). Like we're existing!!! Why doesn't that blow people's minds?! When you really think about it, just being itself is so magical. But many don't care to understand more about this and just take the magic of existence for granted. Now of course, pursuing real spirituality can be dangerous as Leo talked about in his Dangers of Spirituality video. I mean this path can destabilize your mind, and depending how far you take it, lead to your own death. The death of your ego. So I get that's a big reason why, but it still annoys me that more people aren't more open-minded to this kind of thing, all the stuff Leo talks about. And then it actually annoys me that I am annoyed by that. So why is it that metaphysically curious people are so few and far between? 

[caspex]

People are too distracted, and too occupied to wonder metaphysically. You need to be at a certain level of maturity to even start wondering, but that won't even occur until you are unoccupied enough. Then there's additional effort to keep the wondering going. Without some sort of ulterior egoic motive, without a community, and without Guru's feeding us insights, many of us wouldn't even be here. It's not that most are dumb and that there are some rare curious individuals, most of the time one of the 'dumb' people were just at the right place at the right time, luck, or fate? If you make the case that some start out spiritually gifted, it could be anything from reincarnation to genes. If you believe it's genes then there is really nothing to attribute to the individual, it's just a privilege. If you believe in souls and reincarnation then it's not that these souls are rare and exceptional, they were dumb too, they just reincarnated enough times to learn their lessons and come further along the path.

This paradigm of 'rare individuals' can be harmful in that one can start calling others dumb, blaming them. When really it's not anyone's fault. Either it's that some are lucky, or that they are just further along the path, or maybe some other paradigm. In any case, there is no reason to judge, because there never is. There must be empathy, for those who weren't lucky, or aren't far enough in their path, specially from someone who wonders about these things. And the empathy shouldn't be from a place of higher judgement but a place of recognition of the sameness that is each one of us.

Maybe you are attached to spirituality and metaphysical curiosity, hence why you want to see it in others.

 

[The Lucid Dreamer]

37 minutes ago, Grant6 said:

I mean this path can destabilize your mind, and depending how far you take it, lead to your own death. The death of your ego.

It looks like you already know the answer to your question.  Deep down, people know that inquiring too much into the nature of being would lead to their demise.  Deep down they know that reality is completely groundless, and so they do everything they can to distract themselves from this fact.

 I’ve actually heard people say that they do not like being alone with nothing to stimulate them because they will start thinking too much about the meaning of life and they start to get depressed.  People crave meaning, and so they just DO things and create goals for themselves to work towards to fabricate this feeling of “meaning”. Have you noticed this? 

 It’s just their karma that they need to burn through, and it just is the way it is.  Unfortunately for people like us, it makes for a pretty lonely existence. But hey, we are alone no matter what, right? ;P

[The Lucid Dreamer]

But the issue is even more complex than that.  It involves so many factors, and a HUGE one is that humans are just such social creatures, and they see that everyone one else around them just takes reality for granted and aren’t fascinated by anything and aren’t asking any deep questions, and so even if they do have some deep existential curiosity, it will be quickly stamped out by their peers when they say “Who cares? Why would you even ask such meaningless questions? None of that is practical. Just do your school work and get a degree so you can get a good job, get a mate and start a family like everyone else.”  

People want to fit in, and as humans we have a deep need for community, and this need can supersede someones existential curiosity if the people around them kick it out if them at an early enough age.  

[Realms of Wonder]

I have often wondered the same. 

 

To me, the fact so few people go down this path means we need more Leaders, Visionaries, and Creatives, to expose the path, and give people the courage to walk it. In a way they can receive, be it through music, video, art, business, politics, science, and so on.

 

For example, as a kid, I was extremely curious about the nature of reality, even having multiple spontaneous mystical experiences. But I also grew up in a Christian environment, which condemned those experiences, so I closed off to that aspect of reality.

 

It wasn't until I was 19--- when my brother introduced me to LSD, and Leo-- that I was able to see the path presented. I can easily imagine a different scenario, where I never did LSD, and never was introduced to Self-actualization, I would be barely scraping by, depressed, lost, dogmatic and ideological (even more than I am now ,) unproductive and overweight.

 

its a complicated topic, but a fascinating one.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Realms of Wonder

[Gili Trawangan]

God's will. That's the most truthful answer, if we accept the question as it was posed.

However, if we want to concede the existence of separate selves, then we can begin to speculate. I think one of the reasons is that the materialist paradigm is so entrenched that people don't think it possible to find out anything substantial about these matters.

"It's impossible to know", "How does any of that help me with my life?" would probably be some of the objections. And these are fair objections, on the face of it. Considering what we are taught about the world, it doesn't seem like a proper use of our time.

Anyway, that's just speculation. The answer is God's will.

[puporing]

Fear of being alone/ostracized, survival needs, and lack of curiosity drive people to be mostly conformists instead of being on the path of questioning. School systems brainwash people to not question "too much", and parents/family systems do this as well. No exposure to the material in the first place.

So collectively it's like crabs in a bucket, you can't go/venture out very far without being pressured to come back down. Those who are on the quest either have some ally or have to maintain a veneer of fitting in just to survive. It's just hard to do and most people don't find it compelling when they can just chase after something more immediately gratifying. The other thing is survival needs not being met. I think people are more open to it when their situation is more 'stable'.

Edited April 6, 2022 by puporing

[Grant6]

@Swarnim Thanks for your answer. I didn't even realize the way I framed this question is already creating a separation between other people, and maybe subtly putting spiritual people on a pedestal over unspiritual people. But like you said there must be empathy. I guess that really is the answer. My takeaway is everyone is on a different place on the path, and instead of judging others who are not where you are, show empathy, and also realize that there are people much farther than you as well. 

[Grant6]

@The Lucid Dreamer  Yes I have noticed that, people don't like to be alone, and rather do things in order to "fabricate a feeling of 'meaning'" like you said. You make a great point there. And I guess even with the spiritual path, there is still meaning making there. Because spirituality is meaningful to us (I'm assuming), but in the Absolute sense, even spirituality itself is something we place meaning on, and is not inherently meaningful. So I suppose I'm doing the same thing. The content is different (what is meaningful), but the structure is the same (meaning making).

Yeah, I guess right now I'm just responding to myself but I'm not conscious of it lol. 

[Grant6]

@Realms of Wonder  Wow yeah that's so true, more leaders and visionaries and creatives are much needed. I'm glad you took that LSD and found Actualized.org!! 

[Grant6]

@Gili Trawangan  God's will. I need to take some more psychedelic trips so I can become directly conscious of this. Yeah, transcending the materialist paradigm is probably a huge factor that plays into it. 

[Grant6]

@puporing Survival needs not being met, I imagine that's one of the biggest factors. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Someone deficient in belongingness and safety is probably not concerned about what consciousness is. And education is a good point too, as it's something a lot of people probably aren't even aware of, and don't have other people asking these questions or taking them seriously, because they are also crabs in the bucket. 

[puporing]

@Grant6 Yeah exactly.. 

I guess a lot of people also end up here because of past trauma or some kind of unbearable pain they had to endure, which opened them up to the possibility of something more to life than what they've experienced. Well.. not to say trauma is necessary but seems like that is well represented in the spiritual communities.

[Breakingthewall]

because people are trapped in form and cannot conceive of formlessness, so even those who are interested in spirituality, which are many, are not able to go beyond separation and the concept

[ZzzleepingBear]

Survival is the first that comes to mind. But a big driving factor I believe, is that potential that dreams of a better future promises. Regardless of wheter those future promises are true or not in the end, they stil can be coupled with potential/promises rooted in pretty much any type of behaviour. The fuel material of the dreamer also depends on how much delusions they have to add to that fire.

The only way to chase your dreams, is by sleepwalking your way through life. Otherwise, you put yourself at risk of waking up. 

 

There was once a very generous pub owner. Who made a public annoncement written on his pub sign outside on the street. "Free beer tomorrow".

And everyone liked that, by reasons of their own.

Humanity in a nutshell.

[Waken]

I used to have such thoughts too. What's important, as far as I'm concerned, is that you're being yourself, following your own excitement/attraction. If that happens to be contemplating life, that's great, if it's helping an elderly person out, that's great, if that at a moment happens to be just relaxing in your room at that moment, that's great. Contemplating life is an intelectual thing, some peoples designs are more alligned with that approach than those of others, another persons nature (such as mine) may be to flow more through life without much thinking and may be more designed as intuitive. One approach isn't more advanced than the other. I would say the question is more about how alligned one is to it's own nature

Edited April 6, 2022 by Waken

[Spence94]

@Grant6 The world we live in and the cultural and societal narratives that we are brainwashed with do not encourage us to be metaphysically curious. We are herd animals, if the pack is chasing money and fame, that's what most are gunna do. 

[gettoefl]

we too selfish, what have we done for the world today to share our bounty both material and metaphysical

we are too rich arrogant spoiled while most are struggling to put bread on the table with no end in sight

or better to realize that everyone is enlightened and i am the only messed up mutha out there

and proceed accordingly

[kray]

16 hours ago, Grant6 said:

I know intellectually that of course, every one is different, and has different values. But most average people are not interested in metaphysical/spiritual topics at all; in fact, many actively avoid metaphysical topics. But why isn't it more common? Sometimes I notice myself judging others who clearly don't care about this stuff, who aren't interested in growth at all, and just live very sedentary lives, only caring about basic human survival things (e.g., having a job, getting married, being successful, etc). Like we're existing!!! Why doesn't that blow people's minds?! When you really think about it, just being itself is so magical. But many don't care to understand more about this and just take the magic of existence for granted. Now of course, pursuing real spirituality can be dangerous as Leo talked about in his Dangers of Spirituality video. I mean this path can destabilize your mind, and depending how far you take it, lead to your own death. The death of your ego. So I get that's a big reason why, but it still annoys me that more people aren't more open-minded to this kind of thing, all the stuff Leo talks about. And then it actually annoys me that I am annoyed by that. So why is it that metaphysically curious people are so few and far between? 

I think people in a way are metaphysically and have been metaphysically curious, but in the watered down ways. Many centuries ago it was religion (of course still persists today), but now we have science. Every couple of centuries, humanity finds new "technologies" to help them understand what is the 'source'. Just so happens that most people today, with the exception of a few ignorant people here and there, accept that the scientific method will get us there. In a way, science has done wonders when compared to religion, but it simply isn't enough to experience and look for the source of creation. Unfortunately, it is limited to the physical dimension, and it takes a little bit of being open to the trans-rational paradigm to go beyond the physical, which most people are not open to as of now. Most people live and think in finite, and being metaphysically curious/spiritual means to look in the infinite. That's why those who are open to this possibility tend to be more curious, and make more steps in their so called "spiritual journey".

[Grant6]

@Waken I'm so glad you mentioned that. That's so true, everyone's nature is different, and the most important thing is discovering what that is and being aligned with that.