A Flaw of the American Transcendental Belief System and Where I Am Now

It’s interesting. I’ve studied the Transcendental Movement back in high school and college. Never have I looked deep enough to find the inherent flaws in the system. It was a subject that was always glossed over by my teachers. I’m sure anyone that is reading this with extensive education in the subject will already know where I’m headed. If this describes you, please be gentle. I understand I am only scratching the surface. I only post this as a milestone to where I am at in my journey.

The most glaring flaw I can find in Transcendentalism is the belief that a person should be self guided by their own “light,” or intuition. The problem with this will come from traumatic experiences, negatively impactful environments, mental illness, etc. To put it plainly, a person may feel their intuition is guiding them to hurt another human being due to circumstances beyond their control. If they are following transcendental beliefs, they will think they are in the right for following what their inner voice tells them to do. This will come at a cost of possibly one individual, or even an entire community.

It seems unlikely that a person in this situation would ever grow or change their beliefs. If they followed their intuition and held the belief that they were inherently good, their actions against another human would be justified in their mind. As a consequence, I do not feel these idealistic beliefs are a suitable teaching for the mass population.

So once again, I find myself questioning my direction, floating along. I love the idea of transcendental meditation. I used to lean heavily into a Wiccan belief system because it was the closest teachings I found to parallel how I felt in nature. However, Transcendentalism is now much closer to my heart. I had a difficult time buying into the magic of Wicca.

Maybe I alter Transcendentalism to better fit modern society and what I believe is a healthier mindset for myself? If I alter the system to follow what I feel is a better direction, am I not just falling into the flaw I have already pointed out? Why do I feel like I need a system to follow in the first place?

I need to think more on this. It’s all a mess in my mind.