We have all recognized that we live in an age when information is power. The more we know about our history, our lives and our resources, the more fully human we can be. The more we are in contact with the divine and spiritual truths of the world's great religions the more spiritually empowered we can become.

It is said that half the people in the world have too much information and the other half have too little. Much of the information is misleading and even harmful. It sets out to convince people that they are not spiritual beings. It teaches cynicism and apathy, conflict and contention. It is often, at best, hollow and fruitless.

Technology itself may paradoxically seem to offer us a new version of human destiny that is at odds with time-honored faiths, and many lose their cultural or ancestral knowledge and heritage in the struggle to compete with mass media information sources and dizzying social change. And so, there is a sense everywhere that we are leaving ourselves and our children behind.

Enlisting the help of artists and performers to achieve these aims is not a diversion, but an essential component of any program for spiritual education. Artists are communicators, and the people want and need information. What is crucial is knowing what information is needed and how it is best to be presented.

The old, vertical style of education, which accumulates knowledge without reflecting upon it doesn’t offer any possibility of change or personal transformation. It does not arise from the heart. Authoritarian and patronizing approaches are, in fact, obstacles to the process of building free spirits, which are necessary for personal empowerment and social change. Popular theater, or “education theater,” supports a new ethic of education, which aims to make of each individual a protagonist in his or her own spiritual education, cultural and social development. It is popular because its content is different. The expression it offers aims to communicate human and spiritual values, and because it arises from the grassroots heart of the community, it is patently “folk art.” People recognize immediately that they, in fact, already own this knowledge. Art brings it out from its hiding place, deep in their own hearts and validates it as beautiful and worthy.

Information on the Baha'i Faith

Baha'i World News Service

“It is through such presentations that we can arouse the interest of the greatest number of people in the spirit of the Cause. The day will come when the Cause will spread like wildfire when its spirit and teachings will be presented on the stage or in art and literature as a whole. Art can better awaken such noble sentiments than cold rationalizing, especially among the mass of the people.” “ We have to wait only a few years to see how the spirit breathed by Bahá'u'lláh will find expression in the work of the artists. What you and some other Bahá'ís are attempting are only faint rays that precede the effulgent light of a glorious morn.” Shoghi Effendi, 10 October 1932, "Baha'i News", 73 (May 1933) p. 7