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This article was written by Dominique Johnson, a sophomore at DePaul and active member of DePaul Interfaith on campus.

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Personally, there are times when I question this whole business of life, and merely what I am doing most of the time is struggling to free myself from the social conditionings imposed by human society. When I say, “I have no race, nation, ect,” I am approaching the question Who Am I? through the use of philosophy, science & religion. I am also looking at facts—What are the facts? In nature, there are no words. Words are constructed concepts humans use to attach to things in the world to communicate with other human-beings. When we speak, sound waves travel through the air; to each other, these sound waves vibrate certain membranes & fluids in the ears, which then are interpreted.

All words I‘m using to communicate to you in this blog are understandable and seem understandable inside the head of the body, but what if I spoke in German or in the language of a wolf or some animal I could imitate, you would not understand unless you‘ve been conditioned in that language. There is not contained a single tag or strip in the entire human-beings composition that reads, I’m American, I’m Japanese, I’m Black, I’m White, ect…thought has invented these things. Thought has invented this entire human society, and we try to solve human problems through thought without an understanding of what is thought? Thought is not bad, obviously, we need to communicate. The planets & stars sing & communicate with each other throughout the heavens, so it’ll be with us. The plants or animals communicate with each other, so it’ll be with us—”As above, so below” says a Hermetic axiom.

Understanding these things puts us in a better position to tackle the roots of most societal problems. When I directly saw my own conditioning of religion, race, nationalism, patriotism, fear, sorrow, ect, I was (1) horrified of the condition of man (2) “I” am not my body, it is flesh, a vehicle (3) “my” sorrows, “my” pains are not exclusively mines, but everywhere throughout the world, humans are experiencing the same things (4) I felt utterly connected to the World (5) whenever I connected “my” suffering to the World, selfishness faded, I was able to progress, and I was able to be happy and help others be.

Most of the division and strife in human society is produced through the ignorance of our conditionings and it perpetuates till this day. Seeing these conditionings run free amongst me is also painful, for the world if seen without these screens, will radically transform the human-being.