Is the recent rise in mass shootings explainable? Whenever there is a global increase in unexplainable violence there will be a response from the psychological community attempting to explain to society ‘at large’ why this is happening. The behaviorists look at the evident behavior of the individual who was seen pulling the trigger. They will also look at that individual's recent past, such as job layoff, family problems and other obvious connections of the shooters environment. Then they will speculate as to what caused the person to act as they did and finally (snap). Unfortunately behaviorism is not an exact science but an agreed-upon best guess as to the reason why and does not admit the unseen life force of creation … evolution or whatever you wish to call it.
Richard Rose often called modern psychiatry a utility. That utility's failure to accurately explain the cause or prevention of the recent widespread violence is worth taking notice of. The extremes are easier to analyze than the non-spectacular middle ground that is always present. The disturbance may be more widespread than is realized and assume other outlets that are not as noticeable but equally destructive. We may find that the offshoots are more hidden and excepted by the majority, war being an example.
So I ask is it possible there are unseen forces at work which manifest themselves in the form of bloodshed and unexplainable behavior? Another thing to observe is the recent surge in the United States of shootings which end with the shooter taking their own life. As of this writing there is a majority of self inflicted suicides effectively ending the situation. To date the shooter has left no written explanation as to why they did what they did. This is the same conduct that has been occurring with the suicide bombers on the other side of the world. The statement is not in writing but is made by the terrorist inflecting random death of a large number of people including the shooter or the bomb carrier so it is left to us to interpret the why and how of the carnage.
As a people we need to have something or someone to blame; however as spiritual seekers we need to accept the possibility that there are unseen forces at work. The ‘as if’ world of ‘this causes that’ is in no position to accurately see the causes of what is actually happening. If we truly are existing in a hierarchy of multidimensional creations which are interwoven and affect each other without one dimension being fully aware of the other, it becomes much like predicting the weather. There are indicators which can and will be noticed which will predict an approaching storm, but there is no accurate tool to predict exactly where and when the next lightning strike will take place. To be more in tune with our essence and sense the approaching storm is enough to 'feel' the change in the weather and avoid situations that we sense are volatile.