The rise of the “spiritual-but-not-religious” movement in recent years has revealed some significant shifts in Western society:
- More and more people are becoming disenchanted with organized religion (though the reasons are often shaky or based on misinformation).
- More and more people are searching for truth and meaning in their life.
- More and more people are turning to alternative forms of spiritual/metaphysical guidance: the law of attraction, the idea that “energy” (though not quite the scientific kind) drives our behaviors, that crystals have healing powers, and the growing idea that everyone can have their own truth.
- More and more fundamentalist religious people are fiercely defending and proselytizing their beliefs, as a strong reaction against spiritual-but-not-religious movements and non-believers.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam usually get the most attention. Non-believers are continually confounded, and for good reason, about why the adherents of these religions – all of which ultimately believe in “God” – are constantly at war with each other.
Meanwhile, people who are not into organized religion, yet still have an intrinsic need to believe in something supernatural, or some form of spiritual meaning, are often lifelong seekers who want to feel connected to something greater than themselves. On one hand, that can teach humility and the understanding that we are all a microcosm of time and existence, and why we must make the most of our spiritual potential while we still can.
On the other hand, the term “spirituality” has morphed into a widely ambiguous term in Western culture. Does it mean an actual supernatural being? Does it mean the Universe is somehow in control? Does it mean believing in chakras or healing crystals? Does it mean believing in astrology? Does it mean our fundamental relationship with nature? Or is it simply about mindfulness?
Or is that all spiritual seekers, religious or otherwise, are flat out delusional? In 2006, Richard Dawkins, a well-known evolutionary biologist and strident atheist, sent an earthquake-like ripple effect throughout the modern world by bluntly addressing that very subject, calling it “The God Delusion”. The late Christopher Hitchens, a long-term journalist with Vanity Fair and no-holds barred debater, penned his own attack on religion in “God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything”. Sam Harris, a now well-known neuroscientist and intellectual, explained his call to move away from religion in his 2004 book, “The End of Faith”.
Many other books by now prominent atheists have been published as well, though the three mentioned above are attributed to the rise of “new atheism” throughout the past 20 years. Namely, it has been a heavily driven, tour de force of atheists speaking out — though not always accurately — against religion.
Yet it is deeply embedded in our psyche to learn our purpose in life. We yearn to find truth. Most people with developed cognitive function about their own mortality. Why are we here in this world? Who or what created us? Why does it matter to have morals? Why is human companionship so important to us? Is this all just one fantastically exhilarating, yet catastrophic dream? Are we a bunch of wired, interconnected brains floating around in a vat, monitored by extra-terrestrials? Do we really need a higher power to guide us through life? What will we be like if there is in fact an afterlife? Will I still be my same age? Will I be able to change my appearance to whatever I want? Will I have emotions? Will I just be a ghostly glob of molecular energy? Will I no longer be composed of atoms?
Those questions are not meant to put you into a perpetual state of analysis-paralysis. Rather, they all aggregate up to a word that sounds pretentiously lofty and academic, yet is actually something familiar to all of us. That word is **consciousness**
Consciousness is awareness. It’s being well aware of your thoughts; it’s your perception about yourself and the world around you; it connects you to your feelings; it drives your need for a meaning that transcends just being a living, breathing organism that eats, sleeps, and reproduces; it helps you hold on to your experiences and make as much a sense about them as you possibly can.
We are still learning about consciousness. To this day, nobody has yet been able to explain how *exactly* our brains produce consciousness. We just know that consciousness is a function of brain activity. Beyond that, it is still a mystery. Some may even refer this as the “soul”. Or whatever it may be in the natural sense, it has certainly been a core reason why we as humans have evolved from various stages of primate to the most advanced species on the planet..
Humans, throughout the ages, have created and shared stories and scriptural works to explain our existence, our role in this world, our connection to the supernatural. Carl Jung, a well-known psychologist in the 20th century, and still an influential figure in social science, wrote extensively about myths and their role in discovering human potential, overcoming adversity, and how to find out own individual meaning.
Jung, as well as Joseph Campbell, a professor of comparative literature and religion, and Mircea Eliade, a historian of religion and philosophy, collectively broke down – in extraordinary detail — our stages of life; not only into birth, adulthood, and death, but also as our relationship to the “heroes” in mythological stories. The heroes of these stories all have common characteristics and themes. The basic structures of a “hero myth” is this:
- The hero is born under unusual circumstances and destined for something great and transformational for the entire world.
- The hero discovers his/her purpose, often by being christened by another hero who has already completed his journey (think Obi Wan Kenobi passing the power of the Force to Luke Skywalker) or by mystically / supernaturally receiving a message about an important quest to complete.
- The hero often has to prove his/her worth to participate in the quest.
- The hero undergoes some form of passion: fights a tyrannical being (Perseus vs. Medusa; Osiris vs Set), or is killed on Earth and must undergo a transformation in an underworld or other temporary state of being before returning to Earth.
- The hero overcomes the passion and helps restore order in the natural world.
If we carefully study these stories – without letting any personal biases or contradictory beliefs cloud our understanding – we can learn a whole lot about how to navigate our existence and find our special purpose in life. Joseph Campbell referred to it as “following your bliss”.
Or however you want to call it, the key message is that we must do the best we can to connect with our consciousness. We all seek some kind of *center* in our life. Mircea Eliade referred to is as the “sacred”. Christians call it salvation through Christ. Indigenous cultures look to nature and the “spirits” embodied within it. The *center* is what keeps you anchored and on a path to understanding meaning in your life.
Sadly, that spiritual/metaphysical center is often corrupted. Just about every tradition, belief system, etc. has fundamentalists / purists. And that’s not just limited to Western traditions. The problem is in every corner of the world: We all corrupt our consciousness by needing to be *right*. When, instead, we should move away from a hard-lined literal understanding of beliefs. We should focus on the context.
And that deeper truth rests in our consciousness. Should we choose to embrace it.