Allegory of the Blindfold
Published:
Read the full allegory on The Lightning Path
The Allegory of the Blindfold is the LP’s paradigmatic “fall” myth, narrating the passage from a connected civilization—“a garden paradise, an Eden, a Shambhala”—to the darkened condition of contemporary humanity. The sudden application of blindfolds to an entire culture condenses several interlocking historical processes: the deliberate ideological colonization of planetary spirituality by elite interests, the embedding of fear and violence in child-rearing, and the gradual normalization of disconnection from the Fabric of Consciousness. As generations pass, the Dwellers in Darkness forget both the blindfold and the earlier state of radiance; this amnesia explains why most people experience disconnection not as an injury but as reality itself. The allegory thus provides a mythic explanation for the otherwise puzzling fact that suffering populations often defend the very structures that harm them.
The text also maps the differentiation of religious and secular responses under conditions of disconnection. Some embrace nihilistic existentialism (“there is no explanation”); others, the priests, manufacture justifying narratives of punishment, testing, or cosmic pedagogy; still others, the mystics, experiment with connection practices and supplements and, occasionally, manage to remove the blindfold entirely. Their overwhelming, disorienting glimpses of light mirror empirically documented Connection Experiences and Spiritual Emergencies, and the instinctive re-application of the blindfold illustrates the role of fear, trauma, and inadequate support in truncating these events. Over time, however, a minority stabilizes in the light, returning as authors, artists, and teachers who invite others to “take some deep breaths,” calm down, and risk seeing again. In the Avatar.GLOBAL mythopoetic system, this allegory anchors the entire cosmology: it articulates the ontological claim that connection is our native state, that disconnection is historically produced rather than metaphysically necessary, and that a collective, joyful removal of the blindfold is both possible and urgently required.