The Loaded Option

The Old Testament’s Genesis account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is not a literal account of the creation of man and the onset of sin. It is a parabolic teaching. Why is this differentiation important? Because based on the dogmatic notion that it is to be taken literally, this entire age of human endeavor has been subjected to the guilt and condemnation of Adam’s choices. And to think that this subjugation has not been significant is simply naive. It has been a very big deal and poignantly it never needed to happen, had we understood that this story is meant to teach us, rather than subjugate us.

How then does viewing this story as a parable help us and what are some of the lessons that it is trying to teach us?

What most people do not understand is that human beings have been living in a dream world for most of this age. We have been largely controlled by emotions that overpower us and reactionary impulses that entangle us in circumstances we cannot then easily extricate ourselves from. Another word for this controlling dynamic is superstition. And where does superstition come from? It comes from ignorance and fear. Therefore, to accept this story as literally true is, in fact, an approach that is steeped in ignorance and fear. While to receive it as a parabolic teaching breaks the power of that superstitious mindset and sets us free to explore many new vistas of knowledge and inward liberation.

Turning then to the teaching inherent in this parable, we find a foundational richness that can actually shine a light on the entirety of the human predicament throughout this age. But there is one problem: the problem of correct interpretation. And in order to interpret any parable correctly we must have a foundational key. So, what is this key? It is the truth that human beings were created with a special endowment—the endowment of spiritual consciousness—and that this endowment of consciousness is evolutionary in nature. This is the key that unlocks all biblical-spiritual mysteries and enables us to learn what Jesus called the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.

Using this key then, the first question we might attempt to answer is: Why did Adam suddenly find himself alone in the pristine environs of the Garden of Eden at a time that Bible scholars date to be approximately six thousand years ago?

Adam was a human being. He was part of the biological species called Homo sapiens. Scientists have deduced that our species has been around for hundreds of thousands of years—far more than the six-thousand-year framework of the Genesis story. This is a conclusive irrefutable scientific finding. So, right away we know that we are in parable territory. Another scientific fact is that the earth itself has also been around for a very long time. This does not mean that there could not have been an original creative act that brought all things into existence. It only means that that creative act did not take place six thousand years ago; it took place much, much longer ago. Moreover, the earth itself has been much like it is now for a very long time, meaning that a garden such as the Garden of Eden could not have comprised the totality of the earth at the time of the biblical narrative. Rather it had to have been a special and unique earthly locale, much the same way that we consider some of the beautiful garden spots to be special and unique today. In other words, not all the earth is like the Garden of Eden was. On the contrary, other kinds of terrain comprise the vast majority of the earth’s dry-land surface—mountains, deserts, barren plains, dense forests, etc. The Garden of Eden was just one of many dry-land environs, and in relation to the rest of the land mass it was very small. In today’s world it would probably be an elite tourist destination, hidden away like a freak of nature in some remote valley.

So, this man Adam—a man who was in many ways typical of our species back then—woke up one day to find that he was alone in this beautiful garden. Where had he come from? The Bible does not tell us, but logically we can assume that it was one of the earthly locales that supported a population of Homo sapiens—one that was, in all likelihood, nothing like the Garden of Eden. Moreover, the same method of logical assumption can be applied for learning other details about his former life—details such as his social tendencies, how he provided for himself, etc. All that the Bible concerns itself with is the fact that Adam was now in Eden, that he was alone, that he was constrained to stay there, and that once he got used to it, he realized that he had no desire to go anywhere else.

The Bible also does not answer the question of how Adam came to Eden. But there are a couple of answers we can rule out, based on the biblical account. First, it is highly unlikely that it was an accident. In other words, Adam did not haphazardly stumble upon the Garden of Eden. As the parable tells us, the garden was a very private place, with one gate and strong angelic guards. It was a place where no one could stumble in, and once inside, no one could leave unless given the divine command to do so. It is also highly unlikely that Adam was searching for the garden or fantasizing about its existence. Desires or yearnings of that nature would have been far more sophisticated and indulgent than our species possessed at that time—a time when man’s knowledge was mostly limited to the daily pragmatic survival struggle before him. That leaves only one possibility: Adam was brought to the garden by a greater, more omniscient power than himself. And that implies that there was a specific reason or purpose for this—a reason that can only be unlocked by turning our key of consciousness evolution.

The Garden of Eden was a special unique earthly environment. No man had ever set foot there before. But something had happened to Adam that had rendered him different than and set apart from the other members of the Homo sapiens tribe. This difference was neither physically nor emotionally apparent. Others in the community did not see it in him, and probably Adam himself did not see it. Adam had experienced an awakening or quickening in his endowment of spiritual consciousness. But this was a curious matter because all Homo sapiens had the same endowment of consciousness within them. Why had Adam experienced such an awakening, while the others had not? There is only one possible answer to this question: this special spiritual endowment, being governed by created universal law, was evolutionary in nature. And for some reason Adam was the first man to evolve to the point of awakening.

What happened next is that Adam was mysteriously transported to Eden. Why? Because now that he was alive to this spiritual quality of his own nature, the bleak, survival-oriented environment where the rest of the human tribe dwelt no longer suited him. And because his awakening into consciousness was without guile and perfectly pure the Garden of Eden became an environmental manifestation or reflection of his awakened consciousness. In this sense, it was as if Adam’s consciousness created the garden.

This matter of his environment being responsive to the awakening of his endowment of consciousness is not as far-fetched as it may sound. For as it turns out, not only is the consciousness of man capable of such creative powers, but this same dynamic has been at work in human civilization ever since. The environmental outworking may be different, but the law of consciousness’ creative power, once it was established, has never changed.

And it is not only the environment that responds to consciousness; it is the quality of human life itself. For example, Adam’s experience in the garden was not limited to environmental interaction. It also included interactions with other human beings (after Eve came on the scene), animals, and even God the Creator. And it does not take a stretch of the imagination to deduce that Adam’s life and lifestyle were also transformed by the evolution of consciousness. In his old life there were relations with others, but these were void of color and depth. Animals were not there to be interacted with; they were there to be hunted and killed. And interacting with God the Creator not only never happened; the very idea of such a thing was inconceivable.

Therefore, it did not take long for Adam to realize that not only was the environment of the garden an improvement over his former life; so were his circumstances and lifestyle. Gone was his daily survival struggle. Gone were extremes of climate and discomfort of body. In the garden all his needs were perfectly well met without striving or struggle, and the climate was so perfect for bodily comfort that he never even thought about it. Also gone was the lackluster quality of interpersonal relations with other human beings. Once Eve came on the scene, Adam not only felt connected in a new way; he experienced the power of love for the first time. But perhaps most amazing of all these lifestyle changes was the introduction of God awareness and interaction. In the garden Adam not only encountered God for the first time; he became effortlessly joined in a kind of perfect communion or fellowship that was more satisfying than anything else he had yet to experience.

All of this was the outgrowth of the awakening of his endowment of spiritual consciousness, though it is likely that he did not know the actual mechanics of how consciousness works and how it impacts human life. All he knew was that his new life in the garden was simultaneously unrecognizable and more benign than anything he could have ever conceived of. It is also likely that he could not conceive of that new life abruptly ending. But end it did.

Adam’s awakening to his endowment of consciousness was not destined to be the sum total of his consciousness experience. It was not the end or fulfillment; it was only the beginning. What soon became clear was that this endowment of consciousness was not only creative and powerful; it was also evolutionary—that is to say that it was a predictable processional function governed by law. This meant that Adam’s experience with consciousness had only begun. And because his endowment of consciousness was creative and powerful, the changes that would be introduced throughout the duration of its evolutionary unfoldment would turn out to be monumental. Awakening to consciousness had brought unrecognizable changes to his environment and experience, but soon enough it would happen that the pure innocent outworking of that awakened state would give way to a well-defined, highly complex evolutionary state. This is not to say that Adam would not have some say about how quickly he passed along this evolutionary corridor. In actuality, he had the ability to choose and control the timing in this matter—not the quality of that experience, but the timing. That is why in the parable God warns Adam about the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In essence, God was telling Adam that the moment he ate the apple his evolutionary impulses would take over and catapult him into a much more difficult and complex reality. Whereas if he wanted to stay in and savor his pure uncomplicated awakened state, all he had to do was to avoid that one tree. So, the garden parable has nothing to do with sin, moral judgment, and condemnation. Rather it is simply a story about how our human endowment of consciousness, once it has been activated, works and affects our lives—knowledge that God was fully cognizant of (having created us) but that Adam was totally in the dark about. Therefore, God’s warning to Adam about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was basically His way of imparting to Adam a degree of knowledge concerning his new predicament, especially the aspect of Adam’s ability to control the timing of his endowment’s evolutionary thrust. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the temptation to relinquish that control and succumb helplessly to evolution’s impetus through willful ignorance. In essence, it is the temptation to gamble with our own created nature for the sake of having new and exciting experiences. And clearly, Adam did not understand the degree to which he was playing with fire.

What followed was an abrupt change in his state of consciousness. It was not the awakening of that endowment, for Adam had already experienced that. Rather it was like a sudden switch in the power and orientation of consciousness—like changing the channel on a television set. The television was already on, but the programming on the new channel was totally different—far more intense and complex. It not only presented him with new input and stimuli; it instantaneously overhauled his entire reactionary framework. It transformed his mental workings, commandeered his emotions, and reoriented his outlook. It completely changed the kind of creature he had been, both prior to awakening and following that event, as well as all of his responses and natural reactions. And all this happened in the blink of an eye. That is why taking a bite from a piece of fruit is an apt analogy.

Prior to this development, though Adam was awake to his endowment of consciousness, it could not be said that he had entered a well-defined state of consciousness. He could feel his endowment of consciousness at work, but he was not boxed in by it. Now however, all that changed. Suddenly he was compelled to do the bidding of consciousness—a predetermined bidding that he was unable to control. And if Adam were to have described this experience, he would not have hesitated to speak of its power and wonder. But at the same time something within him made him feel extremely uncomfortable and fearful. Little did he understand that this conflicting take on things was actually an ironclad attribute of his new state of consciousness.

This then is what happened to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They entered a well-defined evolutionary state of consciousness—one that was stronger than themselves and would from that time forward determine the quality of their life experience. In the haze of their overwhelmed state, they completely lost sight of the fact that they could control the timing of this evolutionary act of consciousness and could have conceivably rejected it as a lasting condition. Instead, they were so swept away that they clearly behaved as though this was now their new immutable reality. All of their actions and choices from that time forward not only spoke of the permanence with which they viewed their new situation; they also displayed an outright reordering of their values and priorities. In other words, in this new state of consciousness their dualistic mindset quickly became integrated beyond the point of questioning. Instead of questioning it, they immediately found themselves acting out and making choices based on it. And the same held true for their new sense of separation. Without the slightest hesitation they now treated independent initiative as a top priority.

And so, this age of Adamic consciousness began, and it did so without any awareness of our own ability to control how long we stayed in this state of consciousness. Relinquishing this one aspect of proactive control through ignorance of how consciousness works might then be said to be our downfall. For, as the history of human endeavor during this age so clearly shows, it has been our reluctance to interact with and facilitate our endowment of consciousness’ further evolution that has been the primary source of human suffering. By losing sight of our ability to control the timing of our evolutionary unfoldment, we doomed ourselves to an age-long outworking of fear, ignorance, and superstition.

Why does the parable speak of the fruit of the tree that set all this in motion as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Because the knowledge of good and evil is one of the most prominent qualities of this Adamic state of consciousness, while the choices it constantly brings to our conscious awareness turned out to be choices that carry serious repercussions pertaining to the quality of human life. In other words, it was not merely the knowledge of good and evil that took over our mental functions; it was the compulsive impulse to make decisions based on that knowledge that directly impact the quality of our lives. As it turned out, almost every circumstance demanded a choice of whether to confront it abiding by the power of good or to invoke the power of evil. That is what this knowledge did to us. It not only brought evil into our awareness; it also made evil into a viable, readily accessible lifestyle choice.

But the picture gets even muddier and more complex. For, as it also turns out, the option of choosing evil is very hard for us to resist. Why is this? It has everything to do with the other attributes of Adamic consciousness—attributes that we have already seen are too strong for us not to react to. For example, in our Adamic state our sense of separation causes us to live according to an instinctual orientation of human strength, and when we live by this orientation, we find ourselves completely on our own, with no one and no thing to help us make our way. All we have is our own strength and ingenuity. Meanwhile, every step we take has its good and evil option. If we weren’t so completely on our own, choosing the good option would be a no-brainer. But often times in our Darwinian desperation we wonder if choosing the evil option does not make better sense. Thus, the attributes of our own Adamic state of consciousness render evil nothing short of irresistible. When weighed against the good option of trust and rest, they make the more proactive evil option the loaded one. And that is why throughout this age evil has been so routinely invoked.

Meanwhile, all of our religious and social messaging harps at us to resist evil and choose the good, but we consistently fail to heed their warnings. Why? Because we are constrained by our own state of consciousness. And our self-preservation instinct is ten times stronger than their words of warning. What then can be done for us? We must first understand that it is our Adamic state of consciousness that has backed us into this corner. Then we must approach the matter from the angle of consciousness evolution, empowering ourselves with the knowledge that we ourselves have the final say in how long we stay bound to this state of consciousness—that we are not as helpless as we have been acting and that evolving out of this Adamic state into the state of the Christ is as easy as saying, “It’s time to move on now!”