Photo by Anton Malanin
For centuries, we humans have constantly placed dictates on thought, belief, and even who has the highest authority. From religious doctrines to societal codes, these belief systems have long shaped common morality.
Yet in the last 100 years, there has been a shift. People question things once accepted without hesitation. Their belief in spiritual freedom challenges modern belief by returning to the instincts within emotion. It posits that spiritual independence is not a rejection of faith, but a return to a deeper, more instinctive truth.
In Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature, the premise is that the structure of civilization has pushed us further away from our natural emotional wisdom. Instead of trusting our inner compass, we’ve become obedient to ideas and dependent on systems.
All the while, we are unaware how these very same things are disconnecting us. The disconnections then lead to anxiety and emptiness. And before you know it, you get to the root of modern suffering.
How Civilization Replaces Instinct with Ideology
There are those who will certainly find many of the book’s points provocative. But like it or not, the truth is that human beings weren’t always like this.
At our core, we are tribal, emotional, and communal. Our survival once depended on a shared understanding that didn’t need external rules. Love, empathy, and cooperation weren’t enforced—they were felt.
But as societies grew, rules replaced those feelings. Governments and religions imposed structure. Every era had a share of special interest groups claiming to protect us while, in reality, they were severing us from our internal guidance.
Despite those efforts, though, there were always prophetic voices challenging norms with soul truth.
This is where spiritual freedom challenges modern belief most sharply. It confronts the possibility of whether modern morality and sensibility are truly from within. There are many cases where it is simply inherited from a past system.
It is quite evident that modern humans have long traded emotional resonance for approval. The emotional stunting that many experts are observing is really the result of that trade.
Hence, a form of belief detox has become increasingly necessary. These are the moments to let go of what we were told to think in order to understand what we genuinely feel.
Rediscovering the Wisdom is another invitation to sit with that discomfort. Because if you don’t regularly question whether beliefs serve their spirit, you only reinforce the programming.
Feeling Over Following is How Spiritual Freedom Challenges Modern Belief
It might sound radical, but freedom doesn’t come from choosing between belief systems. It comes from shedding the need for any system at all.
This idea can be deeply unsettling, like something only anarchists would buy. After all, many are raised to believe that structure is safety.
And yet, isn’t there also such a thing as emotional security? How many times has that flown in the face of securing ideology?
It is why there is a need for much spiritual disruption today. It’s not about converting from one religion to another or adopting a new wellness trend. It’s about pausing long enough to notice the ways our inner life has been shaped by outside forces.
Consider just taking five minutes to set aside your duties for the day. Start listening to our emotions.
You notice something changes. You begin to reconnect with yourself and maybe even with a few others who come to mind.
This was not through the mere sharing of opinions, but through shared experience.
It’s in this reconnection that spiritual freedom challenges modern belief again, by revealing how our desire for belonging has been manipulated.
The end goal of humanity was never in isolation or rivalry. That is the goal of the systems that demand emotional suppression. It’s why they thrive when epidemics of loneliness keep getting worse. There is a pressing need to rediscover how to feel safe in love, not fear.
Reclaiming the Right to Feel: When Rules No Longer Work
Photo by Siora Photography
Spiritual freedom challenges modern belief one last time—perhaps the most powerfully—when it gives us permission to walk away from what no longer serves us.
That doesn’t mean life becomes chaotic or lawless. On the contrary, when people are truly in touch with their emotions, they don’t need rules to do what’s right. They act from a place of care, not coercion. Theirs is the freedom from imposed truths.
This rethinking of morality is central to Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature. It’s not about deconstructing ideology for the sake of rebellion. It is about recognizing that much of what we believe has long been severed from our inner voice.
And when there’s a disconnect between belief and emotion, lots of suffering follows. There is only obedience, never fulfillment. There is conformity, but no connection.
It is a world where mental health struggles are on the rise.
Hence, it is hardly surprising that there are quiet revolutions against the systems in all sorts of spaces.
Some may be shouting from a podium or preaching a new gospel. However, there are others who simply ask their listeners to really pay attention to their own hearts. The voices that speak from there are really more honest than anything society could prescribe.
The Way Forward: Toward Conscious Liberation
Remember, this isn’t about going back to living in caves or abandoning all modern advancements.
It has always been something subtler, and arguably more difficult. It is about slowing down and critically analyzing the source of one’s own beliefs.
It is to question whether we are guided by natural, emotional wisdom, or if there is just a system doing all the work. It is about conscious liberation—to become free not by tearing down the world, but by stepping away when the price of obedience has been paid long enough.
Spiritual freedom challenges modern belief by showing us that healing doesn’t begin with changing the world, but by rediscovering the things that a stagnating civilization insists we ignore.
This inner wisdom—once dulled by doctrine—can return, not as knowledge, but as clarity. It is the clarity that allows love, grief, forgiveness, and every other color of the emotional spectrum.
It won’t be easy. But when you consider the alternative of following artificial paths for centuries, the emptiness is no longer worth it. Maybe it’s time to try something different—not a new system, but no system at all. Just emotion. Just honesty. Just being.
Want to discover the other things that the systems of civilization have been trying to bury? Get a copy of Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature on Barnes & Noble, Amazon as well as BookBaby.