Ignorance is Not Free

Some have called ignorance bliss. But if you actually look into it, there is an incredible cost and consequence to ignorance; and there is no free ride for anyone.

There is also a huge range of things both physical, emotional, and metaphysical we can be ignorant of, each with their corresponding consequences.


On a Physical Level

On a physical level, living a life of being ignorant of where our food comes from, its nutritional value, what is in vaccines, buying endless goods as if they come out of thin air, of the existence of chemtrails etc., means that not only do we cause suffering to animals, the planet, fellow human beings, and future generations, but we are subjected to poisoning, carcinogens, and chemicals even in our food, water, and air that causes us sickness, suffering, and premature death.

Being ignorant of the hidden networks of shadow governments, of the worldwide banking system and how it works, of the real causes of many wars etc., means that we become its complicit supporters—perpetuating a system that enslaves us through debt where the individual is no longer the citizen of a country but the collateral of banks. People work their whole lives to pay off vast bank mortgages and debts of one kind or another in an endless trap of wealth harvesting for those who pull the strings in the economic system.

As mega corporations churn out a stream of mass produced throw away goods from the precious resources of the earth using what is effectively slave labor in exploited countries, people work for hours and hours a day just to have the passing pleasure of the next toy or gadget that soon breaks and becomes redundant, which they have become utterly convinced they must have, leaving vast piles of toxic rubbish in the wake. This cycle of raping and pillage is causing massive amounts of suffering whether we see it or not, and is feeding into a system of insanity that is destroying our planet.


On an Emotional Level

But ignorance is not just in relation to the things around us, it continues in relation to ourselves too, and it’s our inner life that creates the outer world we live in. On an emotional level, being ignorant of our own inner deficiencies, of our aggression, prejudices, bigotry, lethargy, apathy, arrogance, greed and perversions etc., means that those around us suffer their consequences. Our children, partners, friends, and family, for example, suffer the untoward negative vibrations from our angry thoughts and hurtful words.

These deficiencies are ultimately the root cause of much of the suffering in our lives and the world. Imagine for a moment that we were all magically free of greed—we would instead become a humanity that cares for the welfare of others rather than the next self-indulgent pleasure that comes at the expense of others.

But not only do others suffer the consequences of our selfishness; we too suffer from a lack of inner peace and love. When we are angry, where is inner peace? When we are constantly thinking about ourselves, where is the love? The lack of these higher feelings is one cost, but the path that greed and anger takes us on is yet another. From anger for example, we can lose relationships, our health, our opportunities, and live in a self-imposed inner poverty despite whatever material wealth may surround us (albeit for a passing time). If we are ignorant of them, these negative inner states then determine the course our life takes beyond our knowledge, affecting our decisions, our actions, and thus what we spend our life doing.


On a Spiritual Level

And then there is the ignorance of wider realities beyond our physical senses. For many it seems so inconsequential to laugh it off and say it doesn’t exist, but for the thousands of survivors of near-death experiences (NDEs), realities beyond the material plane are no joke. It’s so easy for people to rubbish religious texts, mystical experiences, and spiritual knowledge, and feel a sense of intellectual superiority since metaphysical things cannot easily be tested or demonstrated through physical means. It takes exploration of non-physical reality via metaphysical means to know about the non-physical, and that has always required an individual discipline of inner practice and exploration.

It’s easy to spend vast amounts of one’s life playing games and watching entertainments, but what a waste to spend so much free time like that whilst giving no time to the exploration and understanding of the process and purpose of life, whether non-physical dimensions of life exist, what we have come here to do, and whether what is written about in sacred texts is real or not. If we take our life as something that exists beyond physical reality and death, then the consequences of ignorance become far greater than we can even imagine.

Being ignorant of something is to be a victim of it; at the end of the day, we are the ones who suffer. Ultimately every effect in our life and the world has its cause, and to be ignorant of the cause is to continuously suffer through what can sometimes be devastating effects without being able to break free of them. One of the things knowledge does is to give the ability to make choices about our destiny based on a wider understanding of reality. So it’s important to be informed about our physical world, about ourselves, and also about non-physical realities to be able to create the potentially wonderful consequences that action based on the knowledge of wider realities brings.

~ Angela Pritchard


Related:
Does Humanity Even Want Freedom?
Confronting the Void We Avoid