A few weeks ago, I heard a church sermon referring to the idea of being spiritual but not religious (or SBNR). In this particular sermon, the text cited was Hebrews 10 - which in my NIV Study Bible has the heading of "persevering in the faith" [link in Bible Gateway]. The idea the minister advanced was that the independent path is an easier road to travel. It is easier to 'not follow the faith' but instead travel one's own road.
Another article I read recently stated that people who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious had statistically more instances of mental illness such as anxiety, depression, etc. [ref to CNN articcle]. It stated that, while there was no cause/effect relationship established, there did seem to be a correlation. So, is this the sign of 'the easier road' - higher anxiety? depression? etc... To me, it sounds like this is the more difficult path.
In recent months, I have done a lot of hypnotherapy work with clients who have been on very powerful (and difficult) spiritual roads of seeking, questioning and discovery. Many have described themselves as formerly members of various mainstream church denominations. Yet, for one reason or another, they have left. And while diverse, most of those reasons for departure have boiled down to one - for them, the mainstream didn't work.
The road each has traveled instead has often been a difficult one. While many and varied, it is often a road with fewer answers. For most, it has not offered the comfort of easy interpretation. On it, there has often been less comfort, less companionship, less of the ready-made fellowship that comes with membership in an established church. There has been less ability to apply scripture and/or readily-stated belief to the problems of life. And thus, for many, there are only questions - unanswered questions along with the challenges of daily life.
In many cases, the challenges confronting people have been significant. Many of their difficulties come from events early in life - often abuse, trauma or some health event that later resulted in the problems that eventually brought them to the healer's doorway. And in so many of these cases, the traditional church could not provide answers. The questions they asked could not be answered within the walls of their parish. For many, they have not rejected the church, the church has rejected them. And as a result, they have had to look elsewhere.
For those who believe in the possibility of reincarnation, multiple lifetimes, and/or karmic influences in the present life, I often see the path lead in this direction. Yet the traditional church often denies this possibility. Thus, it closes the door on one of the more powerful avenues of healing and understanding and isolates these parishioners from a rich source of answers. Yet if one is open to the possibility, the history of (non-traditional) Christianity is very compatible with this rich set of paths.
While I have maintained my allegiance to the church, I have found myself disagreeing with many of the details of the orthodoxy involved. I have found many elements of eastern beliefs attractive, and their relationship to Christianity (both traditional and otherwise) fascinating. Thus, in many ways, I, too, am one of those SBNR types that the sermon referred to. I have explored beyond the traditional teachings of the church, studying eastern teachings, non-canonical scripture, etc. And for me, the result has been that my allegiance to the Christian faith has been strengthened, rather than reduced. Yet each of us has to follow their own path and many find their paths to God traveling very different ways. And for many of those, the path can be difficult.
No, the "SBNR" path is not the easy path. It is the path of the searcher, the seeker, the one who tries to find their own spiritual place in the universe along one of an infinity of possible roads. The 'SBNR' path is often a lonely one. Yet I have found that it can once again lead you home. And, in the words of T.S.Eliot, you can "know the place for the very first time."
Monday, January 14, 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
Markers along the way - to something...
Draft of my article 'The CE4 Corner' for January/February, 2013
It's now a couple of weeks since the "end of the world" has come and gone. Now life can go on. Yet before we do, perhaps a moment of reflection is in order. What actually happened on 12/21/12? Did anything occur or was it just another day? What do milestones such as 'magic' dates or coincidences mean?
Many close encounter experiencers and other clients with whom I have done metaphysical hypnosis have described changes to occur on or about this time period. And indeed, we are undergoing rapid change in our world. The exact date, the moment of synchronicity, any particular marker of prophecy - each is important and yet is there anything 'magical' about that particular date and time? For many, 12/21/12 was a good excuse for a party. For others it was a spiritual and contemplative moment - a moment where the numbers align. Perhaps they carry a message for us all, or perhaps they are simply interesting lineups on the calendar.
Unfortunately, for some, there is a darker side to all of this. In the few weeks just before 12/21, I received several calls from people - genuine expressions of fear that their world was about to end. In several parts of the world, there were genuine waves of superstitious panic, feelings that the end of the Mayan calendar would bring very real disaster. Fortunately, nothing happened. As most of the spiritual seers predicted, no physical events occurred. Yet they brought our attention to the most important point of them all - that we are in the midst of change, and we have the power/responsibility to choose the road we are going to travel.
On 12/21, during my Friday office hours at Joanie's Metaphysical, in Wyoming, MN, I conducted a mini-meditation workshop, a guided imagery about change and choice. I used my favorite metaphor of traveling down the highway, encountering entrance and exit ramps, forks in the road, etc. The message we all took away from it was that we all have choices to make and each choice leads us to a particular destination. Later on that evening, I attended a another workshop where we conducted a group meditation and put put out the intention for positive change, etc. Then we partied...
In the last few weeks, especially, I've heard a lot of people describe synchronicites - looking at the clock and seeing 11:11, 9:11, or something similar. Or maybe while driving, you might look at the clock and the mile marker and see the same number. You think of someone and they call. You see a license plates on a car that matches the number you are thinking of at the moment - maybe the radio station you are listening to, etc...
The analogy I often use is that of a signpost or a mile marker along the highway. Imagine you are traveling from one city to another - say, you're driving into Saint Paul on the freeway. Somewhere along the road you see a sign that says 'Saint Paul 25 Miles'. Is there anything magical about that little stretch of road? Probably not. The road sign simply means that you have passed a point which we arbitrarily designate as being 25 miles from another point, which we call Saint Paul. It is important in the bigger picture because we now know where we are on the map, and roughly how much time it will take us to reach Saint Paul. The fact that we are passing the sign at a particular rate tells us that a process is going on - we are driving toward our destination. Yet as we pass that sign, nothing overt happens.
Similarly, as the moment of 11:12 GMT on 12/21/12 passed, nothing specific happened. Yet we knew we passed a particular time and that a particular process is in progress. The changes, whatever they are, are in progress. The result will be what it will be - climate change, economics, and if I am correct, a global awakening of consciousness. We have passed a particular point in the process. Yet like passing that signpost, nothing overt happened. It was just a marker along the way - to something...
It's now a couple of weeks since the "end of the world" has come and gone. Now life can go on. Yet before we do, perhaps a moment of reflection is in order. What actually happened on 12/21/12? Did anything occur or was it just another day? What do milestones such as 'magic' dates or coincidences mean?
Many close encounter experiencers and other clients with whom I have done metaphysical hypnosis have described changes to occur on or about this time period. And indeed, we are undergoing rapid change in our world. The exact date, the moment of synchronicity, any particular marker of prophecy - each is important and yet is there anything 'magical' about that particular date and time? For many, 12/21/12 was a good excuse for a party. For others it was a spiritual and contemplative moment - a moment where the numbers align. Perhaps they carry a message for us all, or perhaps they are simply interesting lineups on the calendar.
Unfortunately, for some, there is a darker side to all of this. In the few weeks just before 12/21, I received several calls from people - genuine expressions of fear that their world was about to end. In several parts of the world, there were genuine waves of superstitious panic, feelings that the end of the Mayan calendar would bring very real disaster. Fortunately, nothing happened. As most of the spiritual seers predicted, no physical events occurred. Yet they brought our attention to the most important point of them all - that we are in the midst of change, and we have the power/responsibility to choose the road we are going to travel.
On 12/21, during my Friday office hours at Joanie's Metaphysical, in Wyoming, MN, I conducted a mini-meditation workshop, a guided imagery about change and choice. I used my favorite metaphor of traveling down the highway, encountering entrance and exit ramps, forks in the road, etc. The message we all took away from it was that we all have choices to make and each choice leads us to a particular destination. Later on that evening, I attended a another workshop where we conducted a group meditation and put put out the intention for positive change, etc. Then we partied...
In the last few weeks, especially, I've heard a lot of people describe synchronicites - looking at the clock and seeing 11:11, 9:11, or something similar. Or maybe while driving, you might look at the clock and the mile marker and see the same number. You think of someone and they call. You see a license plates on a car that matches the number you are thinking of at the moment - maybe the radio station you are listening to, etc...
The analogy I often use is that of a signpost or a mile marker along the highway. Imagine you are traveling from one city to another - say, you're driving into Saint Paul on the freeway. Somewhere along the road you see a sign that says 'Saint Paul 25 Miles'. Is there anything magical about that little stretch of road? Probably not. The road sign simply means that you have passed a point which we arbitrarily designate as being 25 miles from another point, which we call Saint Paul. It is important in the bigger picture because we now know where we are on the map, and roughly how much time it will take us to reach Saint Paul. The fact that we are passing the sign at a particular rate tells us that a process is going on - we are driving toward our destination. Yet as we pass that sign, nothing overt happens.
Similarly, as the moment of 11:12 GMT on 12/21/12 passed, nothing specific happened. Yet we knew we passed a particular time and that a particular process is in progress. The changes, whatever they are, are in progress. The result will be what it will be - climate change, economics, and if I am correct, a global awakening of consciousness. We have passed a particular point in the process. Yet like passing that signpost, nothing overt happened. It was just a marker along the way - to something...
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