Today’s post was inspired by a piece I watched by Sadhguru. If you haven’t followed him on Instagram yet, I highly recommend it (@sadhguru). 

The guru was speaking on the Aghori tribe of people who live in India. These are a group of people who believe they can harness the prana (life force energy) from bodies after a person has died. They seek young bodies in particular, believing they possess the most life-force, and perform a variety of taboo rituals with the carcasses to obtain their power. After acknowledging that this is a practice that has been shunned since its inception, Sadhguru creates an analogy that spiritual practice can be likened to technology. He postulates there are rudimentary or crude technologies that people can utilize, and in opposition, advanced ones. Just as one can build a well using their hands, a shovel, or a laser, one can gather spiritual prowess using a variety of modalities. He suggests that this Aghori means of spiritual seeking is a crude technology, but a technology nonetheless. Crude technologies are those that seek spiritual gain for power, control, and dominance. It can then be extrapolated that advanced technologies are used for peace, harmony, and evolution. 

This concept got me thinking about society and the modern technologies that we use. How is it that the western world has created and distributed the most advanced electronic technologies the world has ever seen, yet their societies reflect rudimentary thinking? The type of thinking that is lacking in empathy, equity, and justice. While their citizens have all of access to all knowledge ever recorded at their fingertips, school children are denied books for education. While folx can buy cars that drive themselves, hundreds of thousands of people die in the streets every year. While people demand freedom on their social media posts, innocent men are locked in cages for life. It will always be the case that when technology, whether spiritual or literal, is used for personal gain or profit it is being used in a crude way. The companies that distribute this tech use barbaric practices such as exploitation of land and indigineous peoples. The technology itself creates a further divide among those that can afford it and stay up to date with the world, and those left behind. As white cis men continue to monopolize technology, the spirit of imperialism continues on its legacy. 

What would happen if we used technology in a spiritually advanced way? Would we see modern technologies being re-purposed for a new way of being (for example: voting made accessible to every citizen via devices)? Would we see a society that values morality, equity, peace, and advancement thereby driving innovation for/by these values? Would we see individuals within society that reflect these constructs at large? I believe the most effective way in which we could decolonize technology, and usher it into a spiritual realm, is to implement people of color into power. Most tech is run on algorithms, and algorithms have human bias due to whoever created it. The change that would occur if BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ folks, and other marginalized peoples were the ones coding our technology would be immense. Folks who have inherent and ancestral spiritual knowledge will always infuse it into any work they do.

In a world that is becoming more and more intertwined with electronic technology, let us not forget the ancient technology we possess; our connection to Spirit. Furthermore, in a world built on technological advancement coupled with societal complacency, we possess this spiritual technology to catch up the latter with the former. To harness our power and use it to create a society that reflects in morality what it produces in technology. 

Caption for photo: An Aghori man uses ash to cover himself and a human skull

Credit: Mediadrumimages / Jan Skwara