The most important feature of our time is the information revolution. The internet gives anyone unlimited access to information at any time. The flood of information that hits our nervous system every day is inestimable, but what do we do with it? The mind cannot cope with processing it, so it is stored in the memory, and unconfirmed information is constantly being lost and deleted. We never have time to check whether the information is correct? That is why many people still take for granted any information that comes to them through written or visual channels. But even those who are among the doubters are subject to mental manipulation of trade participants aimed at recruiting custumers to their products. Consumers who are slowly becoming immune to advertising will be handled with advertising-aimed reporting, which is more dangerous because it provides a scientific and logical argumentation for why we need the product in question.

There is, however, another side to the phenomenon, which is already becoming apparent to the observant. As the amount of information increases, so does the ignorance of the masses. Even the well-informed will be able to grasp less and less of what is going on around them. Today's pupils are no longer taught to acquire knowledge, but to gather information, and the teacher expects from pupils the knowing of information. Moreover, since no one is in a situation to know the correct information with certainty, the teacher expects unconsciously the same answer as he/she has given to the question. In this system, those who can tune in to the teacher and read the answer out of his/her head do well.

This is not a new feature of the education system. It worked in a similar way 40 years ago, but then it was noticed and exploited by the astute, like me only. If I wanted to be successful, but didn't want to waste time learning something, I have worked out some questions and the answers to them. Usually I got the worked out questions. I only experienced the limitations of this method when I was unable to tune in to an antipathetic teacher, but it worked well with sympathetic ones. Today's students, however, will soon have no chance to acquire real knowledge because they confuse information gathering with knowledge.

The difference can be most simply explained as knowledge is the part of information that an individual can consciously use. Let's look at an example. A student is given a description of, e.g. a work process. If he/she learns it and can recall it, he/she has the information. If he/she is able to put the description into practice, he/she has acquired the information and gained experience during the implementation of the work process, e.g. that the information is real, as it has proven to be feasible (e.g. many food recipes are available on the Internet, which is not workable).

Up to this level, we cannot talk about knowledge. Knowledge begins when the student understands what and why he/she is doing something, which steps and why follow each other in a given order. Once one understands, one is able to modify the description, to replace the steps with other steps, i.e. one is able to apply what one have learned in a creative and autonomous way. While technological progress cries out for workers at this level, education is moving further and further away from training young people to do so. Why?

Since the world exists, acquiring of real knowledge is expensive. Real knowledge has always been the property of a privileged few who could afford (they had time and money) to acquire real knowledge. And public education is cheap and must remain cheap to ensure that everyone has access to it. What must therefore be understood by all those who come into contact with education is that if they want to acquire real knowledge, they have to invest money, time, thought, dedication, in short, sacrifice. Why? Because real knowledge is power over oneself, and he/she who has power over himself/herself has power over others. Therefore, the prevailing ruling class has always guarded the path to real knowledge so that only the privileged can get there.

What is true for the acquisition of worldly knowledge is also true for the acquisition of intellectual or spiritual knowledge. Quick courses of this or that kind of spiritual training are only good for gathering information, they only give the impression of knowledge to the participant, who thinks that he/she has now acquired some special (secret) knowledge. In reality, this information is usually available on the internet. It is the abundance of information, the lack of practice in searching for it and the lack of creative application of the information acquired that makes what is taught seem so special to the participants in a given course.

It is pointless and inappropriate to shift the blame and fault others. In this universe, everyone can only fool themselves. Everyone has to decide what they want to do. Are they content with information, which is just a crumb of real knowledge, or do they want to feed on the bread of knowledge? From this moment on, no one can say that they did not know about all this because there was no one to enlighten them. I have said...

If you want real knowledge, seek out UCCM's Spiritual Lifestyle Training, which will set you free from all mental influences, whether secular or religious.

Margaret Rhasoda-Varga
UCCM head-master
(The sky touches the earth, excerpt)