By Ben

I was a police officer for 10 years. How my spirituality freed my mind, and subsequently freed me from the police service, I’d like to share with you now. Maybe you are in the police, or another job, and feel a spiritual pull or awakening? This blog will hopefully help you understand what you’re feeling and explain some of the questions you have…
This phase of my awakening was a big personal change not just an occupational one. They called it ‘The Job’, something you do because you love it, because you want to protect the innocent and catch burglars. It is true that it’s not just a job, it’s a lifestyle and it does effect all aspects of your life. Including of course your spirituality. It feels like a previous life now that I was part of the social construct we all know as the police service. If I had to sum it up, it was a time of lessons, hard lessons. It lead me to where I am now and I am right where I need to be. As are we all.

Can spirituality and the police co-exist?
The two often don’t go together in my experience, I don’t think they can every fully be combined. It’s hard to see how being so ingrained in a broken social construct such as the police service allows for your spirituality. By it’s very nature a spiritual journey means questioning everything, and that’s not really allowed in the police service. Questioning your very time in this life seems a far stretch for you when you’re not allowed to question the latest capitalist policy handed down to you from ‘above’. The police service is a disciplined and rank structured organisation in which, when orders are given, you follow, that’s it. Questioning the orders that are given doesn’t bring you any praise within the police service. It turns you in someone who doesn’t ‘chip in’ or who isn’t ‘a team player’.
You begin to realise that this life is temporary, that we are all one and that love is everything we need. Those realisations make it hard to cope with the directions of your line manager who needs your paperwork completed asap.
Be Free
It has been a few years since I left (2016). The higher ranking officers at the time were from a bygone era. Limited was there insight in to how the brains of new millennial recruits work. Importantly, that they wouldn’t respond well to the ‘I say, you do’ approach. I would like to mention at this point that this isn’t a police bashing article and I do believe they do good. I believe good people are apart of its makeup, but this is about spirituality and the police. However, I see there is a conflict. Your mind should run free, be free to consider the infiniteness of your existence. Spending 50+ hours a week under governmental control won’t help you develop that.
“You can fail at what you don’t want, so you may as well a chance on doing what you love” – Jim Carrey
Everything is as it should be…
It isn’t a coincidence for me that as soon as I questioned the control the police as an organisation had over me (over my behaviour, my mental reach outside of what they told me, even the way I spoke) I began I see the world differently. I started to develop the view I now have. They say you can tell if someone is a police officer by the way they talk an I think that’s right. It happened to me many times, and now I see that was a sign of truly how I had been changed by the regime. Similarly I found myself well and truly a part of the system.
Spiritually speaking there are no systems of control. When I really see what is available to me through my minds eye, when I meditate, the possibilities are endless. I have had some groundbreaking experiences with my eyes closed in a quiet room just letting my mind wander. The thought of this freedom whilst under the control of an organisation like the police service is an impossible one for me. Hence the creation of Realiser really.

Are we really free from our systems on control?
Beyond Spirituality and the Police
I signed up to the police service at 24, so not a kid, but immature in life still. I can now tell you ‘the job’ teaches you about life, death, struggle, pain, addiction, good and evil, all that stuff. Some of the things I have seen I will carry with me forever and I keep hold of even the worst memories to learn from.
I did the job of police officer for 10 years. I think this gives me enough of an insight to at least give my opinion on the conflict. Conflicts between that which is everything, and that which tells you it knows. The police service is very much like religion in that regard. It says it enforces the rules that govern the people, but in reality there are no states of being governed, only freedoms.
I consider myself to be a spiritual person but not a religious one, I don’t want to be boxed as a Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Jew. We are all one and they are those titles can just boundaries that divide us. You are all loved.
“If you want to know yourself, know that there is no self.”

In Summary
These days I see life as something to be used for contemplation, meditation, doing good, not harming others. I want to see beyond what the tabloids plough me with, exploration of the mind. The police service however is controlled by whichever party is ‘in power’ at the time and these ‘powers’ have agendas. They use the police to enforce upon these upon the population. Whilst under the control and influence of these political parties you are bound by their agendas and you are not truly free to express yourself, or see past their propaganda. You are controlled, but blind to see it by your desire to help others.
There is a place for the police service in our modern day societal structure, but if those that serve are really to be free the politics of modern day system would be open to the implementation of spiritual principles that benefit everyone. After all, love conquers all boundaries and peace is what we all seek. Without agenda or ties to political parties can we only be free. What do you think about spirituality and the police?
“You are not the boxes they put you in, you are love”
Realiser
Realiser was born from a dream to be in a realised state, a state of awaken. To be able to see the most obvious things having missed them for so many years. Subsequently I wanted to create something to serve as an example of how it could be. If only we might spend the time loving that we spend hating. Above all spending the time to be kind to others for no reason. You get the idea. I will travel around doing what I can and would love for you to join me. Follow my path here…