Call to spirit

SO

I am trying to figure out how to talk about "spirituality". Mostly when I make a stab at one of these bloggys here I am expressing frustration about the way "spiritual" topics have become an object of derision, scorn, neglect, or outright dismissal. It is not strange - it is a cultural phenomena. Sometimes I blame "science", though I am in fact not an enemy of scientific ideals. In fact, many occult (re: New Age) pursuits have sprung out of a thirst to scientifically test, pursue, explore the unseen world. On the other hand, we have "religion", which has become popularly synonymous with "spirituality", providing reams of (sometimes contradictory) dogma, yet excluding whole chunks and fields of possibilities and curiosities.

So we are basically a culture trapped in our own spiritual ignorance. Let us see the range of topics that could fall under "Spirituality", including but not limited to what we might find filed under "New Age" in the bookstore, to try and understand how inadequate and broad our culture is in seriously addressing invisible (occult) experiences.

Afterlife: ghosts, ancestors
Psychic phenomena: Extrasensory perception
Acknowledgment of Consciousness of objects, plants, animals, place, weather, planets &c
Hypnosis
Divination techniques
Healing techniques (the body energetic)
Prayer and Communion
Meditation and Astral Travel (concentration toward spiritual advancement)
Morality
Personified entirety: God(s), Universe
Historical Pantheons
Aliens
Channeling
Contemplative Astronomy based on observation of heavens
Coincidence
Apocalypse
Christian Charity, Love, and cult societies
(Religious Dogmas and Conspiracy Theory)
Occult Study and Practice
Ritual
Magic Powers and Will Working
Miracles
Dreaming
Drugs: (Intoxication), Revelation
Meaning of Life
Creative endeavors, Imagination
Megalithic mysteries
Darkness to Nothingness (the unnameable)
Conjunctions and agreements among world myths
Angels, Fairies, Allies, Demons, Shadows
Contemplation of Inner Earth
Systems of personality inspection and deconstruction
Self-denial and ego abandonment
the Holy, surrender
Virtue
Visions
Vibrations
Pursuits of individuals like Reich, Jodorowsky, &c
Commentary and some philosophical consideration


Whew! I will try to organize this list a little better as time goes on.

Problem #1: "Belief" This is the first block to surpass when trying to forge a dialogue about spirituality. I speculate that EVERY HUMAN has a positive association or conviction with AT LEAST one item on the above list ... but also a bristling irritation with other items, for a variety of reasons. Religion has imposed this false requirement of belief and Science has made it possible to opt out of belief through the finely honed technique of skepticism. So we are left at a crossroads where we are allowed to dismiss and reject anything that is not convincing enough. But here we lose! The invisible world is not here to convince us - the invisible world is perpetually at our fingertips, available for observation.

I am here to say that it is NOT my belief but my real Feeling and my record of experience that causes me to regard all of these topics with a credulous, curious, and open apprehension. I feel it is possible to be credulous without being gullible. I do not blame the derisive spirit that denounces Spirituality on the basis of observed abuses in the name of spirituality - frauds often operate by claiming spiritual facility or authority. But I do struggle against the cumulative result: a "too cool for school" attitude of nihilistic resignation, and a death-averse culture emphasizing "jobs", structures of entrapment and glowing rectangles.

And I do have a suspicion: that the disconnection between humans and their own spiritual potential is no mistake, but an insidious plot meant to distract a man from her own personal power, ability to self-heal, create, and participate in community, for the purpose of providing a pliable work force for corporate interests. I do believe in an enemy, in the soul-suckers, in a zombie apocalypse that is at close range on a daily basis. I don't want this bastard health care of symptom suppression, I don't want this fear of age, of death, of neighbor, this vast programming of self-doubt and face painting. I cannot name the true face of this vast Soul Suck, but I feel it - so pervasive and so contrary to the experience I am having as a human that I imagine it must be in some way conscious, imposed, not accidental. To attempt to name this "conspiracy" plunges us into the world of doubt, disbelief, argument and derision all over again - it is best to stay out of it, looking under rocks of better promise.

More later.