Blurts & Spasms

I think this question has many answer which work in concert to annihilate reliance on the “inward.” These include:

1. It is easier to control people when they are not self-reliant but dependent on external authority and exoteric rituals, and religious institutions often end up being all about hierarchy and control. I’m quite certain this is why early Christian orthodoxy was so eager to purge the gnostic movement, for example, and why mysticism in general is often belittled (or forgotten) by mainstream Abrahamic institutions.

2. After the enlightenment it became increasingly unpopular to give any weight to non-emperical information of any kind - including introspection, intuition, contemplation or spiritual “ahas.” By the time postmodernism came into play, it was unpopular to include “spirit” in discourse at all. All of this has led to a Cartesian reductionism that excises the esoteric heart (and practices) of all religion.

3. Commercialism and commoditization have further eroded self-reliance and inward-looking discernment in service to profit: it is much easier to persuade people to buy things when they believe solutions to all of their needs are external rather than internal. In this way the profit motive has also infected religion as a cultural meme.

My 2 cents.

(From Quora question: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-large-portions-of-Abrahamic-religions-followers-dismiss-the-eastern-inward-technologies-and-embrace-the-western-outward-please-read-below/answer/T-Collins-Logan)