Karma has been co-opted as a White Man’s Bogeyman, a way for weekend-spiritualist soccer parents to frighten people into adhering to a concept of social acceptance, and using it to justify the world around them.

Bad things happen to good people, just as readily as bad people. I equate it to Friday the 13th. There’s nothing inherently unlucky about the day, but when people are LOOKING for bad luck, they’ll use any excuse and may blow it out of proportion.

Yes, the New Age view is correct that like attracts like – that reality mirrors back to us what we project. We all dream reality into existence, but because we are all essentially One, reality is a collective dream. And thus we personally each share responsibility for ALL the evil that happens in the world. Energetic cause and effect is real, but the effects are shared by all of us, because we are all participating in the dreaming. Yes, by being conscious dreamers we can to a great extent influence the external reality of our life, but we all are connected in our dreaming – so we can easily create bad causes for others to have to deal with (like dreaming an uber-luxurious lifestyle for ourselves that creates poverty and death in other parts of the world). Cause and effect aren’t direct, simple, and isolated to each individual. Frankly, the idea that it is is naive and childish (much like the New Age movement in general).

Similarly, thinking that everything that happens in the world is according to the Divine plan is also naive, because it completely denies the fact that there are two opposing forces (so to speak) at work. Yes there is a Divine plan (the will of the Earth and Creator, that supports the flourishing of all life), but there also exist beings and energies that desire and work toward the opposite – and many humans consciously and unconsciously choose to serve the will of the latter. That is what free will means, that we can always choose to go one way or the other.

The Abrahamic religions understand that evil exists, even within us humans, but somehow don’t put two and two together in realizing that evil in the world isn’t the work of Satan, but humans. Yes, dark entities do hugely impact the world, but only as much as humans enable them to (we are their doorway to agency here, just as we are for angels as well). To be fair, they are constantly trying to manipulate us to create more darkness (in subtle and deceptive ways), but the responsibility for our actions ultimately lies with us, regardless.

People need to watch Star Wars again – there is much truth there!