Never in the existence of humanity has so much writing been produced and so much communication been generated as now. All of it is meant to transmit information, thoughts and ideas to other human beings. The purposes for doing so can vary considerably though, such as for instructions, record keeping, teaching, creative story telling, entertaining, reporting events, expressing opinions and beliefs, or even expressing the word of God, etc. In all these cases the communicator has to consider his responsibilities, which are different for the different applications. For instance for record keeping it would be accuracy and for reporting events it would be truthfulness. For some of the quoted examples the responsibilities are quite considerable as in the case of teaching or expressing the word of God.
Teaching often involves young receptive minds which are likely to uncritically accept everything which is transmitted. Therefore, are we teaching the truth about reality or opinions about reality, i.e. our perspective? Considering how much most teachings have changed with time, we must assume that much of past and present teachings are based on opinions and beliefs. The question is though: Was or is it ever stated as such? Or in other words do we point out the alternate views too and the need for the student to apply his own mind? Taking it a bit further into the media world, do newspapers and TV stations state their affiliations and political stands of view so that we are protected from drawing the wrong conclusions? Do societies and their governmental organs express balanced views which allow for positive change? It certainly was not the case under fascism and communism. It does not appear to be true for capitalism either considering recent world economic events.
Possibly the greatest responsibility is carried when we consider what we call ‘the Word of God’. Although at the core are spiritual teachings, the messages were invariably received by human minds, understood by human minds, transmitted by human minds, and finally interpreted by human minds. To say it is the true word of God can only be an assumption and not a proven fact. We should rather say: This is our interpretation of what we believe we understood. This is obviously a huge difference because in the first case exclusivity is claimed, dogma is created, and discussion is virtually forbidden; in the second case the message is accepted as very important but subject to scrutiny and discernment and is left as our responsibility to wrestle with and make our own. But let me add her quickly – being aware of my own responsibility now –this is entirely my opinion and belief.
I was prompted to explore this issue because of information I had received when writing my book ’75 Lives of Haran – New Insights into Reincarnation’. I had been made to understand that communication always affects other consciousnesses and is therefore a huge responsibility to consider. One of the great sins is to mislead in particular the ignorant and vulnerable which would involve serious karma. As we all know this is often conducted quite blatantly. Maybe it is time to take our responsibilities more seriously.
Haran
http://haran.magix.net/website