Paris (FR), Le Trabendo

The 9/11 crisis has increased spiritual awareness in the USA. Your thoughts on spirituality?

Answered by Edgar Froese

I am doubtful as to whether 9/11 has really increased spiritual awareness in the world. It seems more accurate to say that it has given mankind’s greatest fears a concrete image. An increase in spiritual awareness would bring people to begin questioning the meaning of certain life-defining issues and ideas – for example, whether the values which define the Western world are really in alignment with the true purpose of mankind. Above all, the terrible events of 9/11 have, in my opinion, triggered fear and the hysterical cry for revenge. It is perfectly understandable that people will react in such a fashion, but in order to change structures of coexistence among humans one will have to employ measures different from the simple “eye for an eye” approach that man has been reverting to since the Stone Age. In that sense, the consciousness of mankind has not even reached puberty at this point in time – we still behave like children fighting in the sandbox.