At times of crisis, the natural inclination is to want to be saved and that’s exactly the purpose that we give to the idea of a Messiah. If you remember as far back as the movie Armageddon, the space ship sent to destroy the life-threatening meteor was called ‘Messiah.’ It was all about physical salvation – as it is today with Covid-19. But Messiahs aren’t about physical salvation. They are about metanoia – the new thinking that brings resurrection.

If you are an orthodox Protestant Christian, you are taught that only belief in Jesus Christ will save you. If you are a Catholic you are taught that faith in Jesus and good works will save you but both faiths require you to worship him. Ironically, Jesus never once asked us to worship him. He asked us to do what he did.

So what is the ‘Messiah’ in the Covid-19 crisis?

The vaccine.

I can claim no credit for this (fascinating to me) theory – the revelation came from Kurt Browne, a London-based teacher of Kabbalah, in a Zoom meeting I attended at the weekend. Thank you, Kurt.

I think it’s worth investigating.

The ‘Messiah’ comes along to save us, right? We don’t have to do anything but worship at its feet (and maybe be kind to each other, depending on your doctrine). It will either save us or condemn us according to whether we worship it well enough or are good enough for it.

Which, I believe, is a fundamentally flawed view of Messiahs (and I use the word ‘fundamentally’ deliberately).

Firstly, let me make it clear that I think vaccination is a great idea. Vaccinations have saved the lives of millions. And I also think that there is strong evidence that some people have been harmed by vaccination. The harm rate would appear to be about 1% according to the WHO but I think that’s still a cause for concern. We are currently dealing with a virus with a lower than 4% death rate and few of us think that is something that should be disregarded.

Interesting stuff on vaccinations from the WHO here.

I’m a fan of vaccination despite the fact that one vaccination I received hurt me directly, in giving me the exact illness that it was meant to prevent. And not a mild version of it either.* This is what makes me open to the idea that 1% is actually quite a lot of people. In a world population of seven billion people, that’s seven million potentially adversely affected… Usually this is not through death but by being damaged in some way. So vaccination is not perfect.

There’s also good evidence that while vaccinations are incredibly helpful, so is good sanitation. Evidence here. If you have sanitation, you don’t have to rely on vaccination. Vaccination is entirely necessary for all those trapped in refugee camps whereas it may not be for country-dwellers with clean air, water and good food.

I remember when I worked for the BBC’s 360, Changing the World by Degrees platform — an early pre-curser to Facebook — we featured environmental films by National Geographic including one where women reduced cholera in Bangladesh by more than 50% simply by filtering drinking water through the veils of their saris. Evidence here. 

So, for me, vaccines are a ‘Yes …And…’ as are most of the great paradoxes of life.

But are they Messianic? Or is this a false messiah?

If you look at the news, it is the great hope of humanity. To the anti-vax world, however, the answer would be ‘it’s a false messiah.’ And please, whichever way you believe, understand that this is your belief and that the other has the absolute right to their belief too. The very second you lambast or condemn someone for having the opposite view from you, is the second you sink into tribal, fundamentalist consciousness. It is an act of aggression, even of war.

And tribal, fundamentalist consciousness is exactly what Jesus highlighted as one of humanity’s biggest problems.

The man, Jesus, taught us clearly that loving kindness was far more important than our own beliefs about God or about others. He asked us to follow in his footsteps, loving the outsider, especially the one our religion or training taught us was ‘wrong.’ He even said that the Roman centurion (the hated enemy of his people) had far more faith than anyone of his own race.

The big mistake that many Christians are prone to making is to assume that when Jesus criticised the Pharisees and other Jewish authority was that he didn’t like Jews. I can assure you that what Jesus criticised was the practice of following the letter of the law without the spirit of the law; it had nothing to do with their basic religion. He interpreted the law through love, where others interpreted love through the law. Jesus today, would be speaking out against much of Christianity and many Christians; the people who are supposed to be following his teachings of humility, loving kindness and trust but who palpably are not.

Hopefully you can see what I’m getting at here – that if we regard the vaccine alone as either ‘Messiah’ or ‘false messiah’, we are missing the point — several points in fact, including these…

1. What if Covid-19 is the Messiah for the rest of the creation which is infested by us? What if developing a vaccine that saves us, ensures that we continue polluting the planet? (the use of use of single-use plastics is rising dramatically with all the medical treatment required – and any vaccine will be dispensed from a single-use plastic syringe).
2. What if we took the path of the divine feminine (shockingly lacking in modern interpretations of the three religions of the Book) and worked on preventative medicine rather than the patriarchal habit of inventing things to solve a problem once it has happened?
3. What if we stopped giving our power away right left and centre? (I don’t like that phrase much but it’s exactly what we are doing at the moment). We give our power away when we blindly support a government without discernment AND when we dive into conspiracy theories about being controlled. Either one is making a false messiah and no good ever came of that because a false messiah will always betray you. 

No one can control your soul. Work on your soul and you will never have to worry about another government or conspiracy ever again because you will be radically free. It’s a hard thing to ask, I know, because the soul sees the non-dual (the yes … and rather than the yes … but aspect of life) and we are trained to take sides. The soul is also immortal and not as afraid of death as the ego. The ego dies and that is why it is afraid. Nurture your soul and you know that death is not the end. You may not want it, but you do not fear it.

If you work from the soul, you would never insist that everyone else had a mandatory vaccination to ensure that you and yours were safe. That is like shouting ‘stop being so selfish! I want to be selfish!’

If you do work from the soul and a mandatory vaccination programme is implemented, you’ll deal with the mental and emotional issues it brings to you, have the vaccine and rise above it – and maybe take some homeopathy too – because you will have the humility to allow humanity to be what it is. Sure, you can say you’re not happy with the concept – peaceful protest is important – and you will also continue to teach possible ways of helping others connect with their souls to ensure a better future. (Incidentally, if you’re opposed to homeopathy, it might be useful to realise that it is soul medicine, not bodily medicine and also that your belief is only your opinion).

We are taught in mystical Christianity that God is both transcendent and immanent. The immanent part is within us and therefore, we are wired to become our own Messiah. Yes, of course we will welcome the vaccine when it comes (in the sure and certain knowledge that if Mother Nature is out to teach us a lesson, she will mutate the virus or bring a new one despite it). And we can do our bit now and always to take good care of our planet and ourselves and act with kindness to inspire and help others. The human immune system — and I’m sure, the planet’s too — responds to physical and emotional food and both inspiration and kindness release endorphins which are incredibly good for us.

If you’re interested, the magazine What Doctors Don’t Tell Us has a strategy of vitamins and minerals that support immune systems against viruses such as Covid-19. The link is here.

What to take away from this? 

• To impose your belief on another is a false messiah.

• To despise another for having a different belief when you haven’t walked a mile in their shoes (or, to be frank, even if you have) is a false messiah.

• To rely on a vaccine to save us all and do absolutely nothing to save and strengthen ourselves is a false messiah.

• To believe that only humanity matters and the rest of the planet can go to pot as long as we are okay is a false messiah.

Everything but love is a false messiah.

Be kind.

*In 1988 I had the shingles vaccine even though I had never had chicken pox. I had it because my then fiancé had genital herpes and it was recommended to protect me (the virus is the same). Within two weeks of having the vaccine I had a serious outbreak of shingles and have had more since.