ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the spiritual problem of modern man. The 'modern' man has at all times been so, for every step towards fuller consciousness removes him further from his original, purely animal participation mystique with the herd, from submersion in a common unconsciousness. An honest admission of modernity means voluntarily declaring one bankrupt, taking the vows of poverty and chastity in a new sense, and what is still more painful renouncing the halo of sanctity which history bestows. Many people call themselves modern especially the pseudo-moderns. Think of nearly two thousand years of Christian Idealism followed, not by the return of the Messiah and the heavenly millennium, but by the World War among Christian nations with its barbed wire and poison gas. The most impressive movement numerically is undoubtedly Theosophy, together with its continental sister, Anthroposophy; these are pure Gnosticism in Hindu dress. Compared with them the interest in scientific psychology is negligible.
