Struggled for a long time to come up with a way to write about and describe what a transformational experience is, how it is valuable and what it has done for me without resorting to terms like "spiritual", "God", or the like. For me, coming from atheist background – in the true definition of the word,being a-theist, that is not holding a belief onto a specific theological dogma, spiritual entity or some ulta-life form like the bearded fairy king on a cloud, I strive to present this information in a manner that would be accepted by empiricists. However, there is no way to apply some sort of measuring instrument to this experience or its contents outside of relying upon anecdotes from those who have been through it. Like an antenna picking up unseen radio waves that existed long before radio was invented, the human mind is able to tune in to the point source of creation, which has been translated throughout history in religious terms, the mind being connected to it in by an endogenous mechanism of neurotransmitters and synapses in the brain. Through the application of various external and internal means, such as meditation or the ingestion of psychoactive plants, we are able to receive and transmit transmissions to it. At the risk of being metaphysical, I suggest that this practice is important and beneficial to the human experience both collectively and individually without defining it empirically.
In my world-view, I understand that there is an eternal point-source of infinite creation outside of time and space of which the human intellect is pale reflection and creation of. This is not a belief derived from other persons, but rather my conviction in its veracity comes from my personal experience and it's outline is defined through a conglomeration of esoteric and theological thought in my mind, if only as a way to better or more clearly perceive it. That said, there is nothing more "sacred" or "holy" about this perception of a divine entity than is any portion of its creation, say the tree I'm looking at right now. Nothing in the church or temple or mosque is more sacred than myself and I am in turn, as are all things, more holy than anything in the church. Any lifestyle that aligns with this experience or actions generated through it or not caused by a mechanism of belief, but rather become merely footsteps on a clearly delineated path of forging with deliberation into the future granted to me through visionary experiences. Love, kindness, compassion and empathy all naturally derive from the source.
I say it is beneficial to the human experience because in mine, I accessed this from a place of severe depression, PTSD and long-term addiction, and afterwards found myself freed from many of the severe ego based emotional attachments to that state of being and found myself afterwards much better prepared to deal with the things within me that led to me being in that place. The experience give me a certain foundation from which I was able to delve into introspection and arrive at a more perfect state of self-awareness.
I often speak of the deficiencies of the current dominant paradigm and mental health and addiction treatment, part of which is 12-step-based therapy, the maintenance of which is to achieve a connection to a "higher power"; in other words the spiritual foundation. Many conscientious freethinkers find objection in this principle due to the fact that all of the egregious disasters that have befallen humanity, oppression of peoples, suppression of ideas and science, brutality, bloody conflicts – all of them other than those created through natural causes – have been generated through conflicts between religious or theological thought and power structures related to it. That is more than understandable, but throwing the baby out with the bathwater so to speak; denying the existence or the importance of a human connection with its source is denying the value of meeting the demands of one of the most intrinsic human values, that of apprehending and comprehending the cosmos and humanities relation to it on unseen or esoteric levels.
So I posit that and experiential connection with the source can be extremely beneficial to those who struggle with hopelessness, or any of the conditions which I found myself in and which it over time freed me from. It should be obvious to anyone reading this on this forum that I do not suggest that merely the experience is a curative, it is merely one of many tools, a key to unlock a door. I would like to know what your positions are on this, how you feel about "spiritual healing", it's validity, your conviction – or not – in it's veracity, and if, like me, you struggle with esotericism and empiricism, how do you align the two?
In my world-view, I understand that there is an eternal point-source of infinite creation outside of time and space of which the human intellect is pale reflection and creation of. This is not a belief derived from other persons, but rather my conviction in its veracity comes from my personal experience and it's outline is defined through a conglomeration of esoteric and theological thought in my mind, if only as a way to better or more clearly perceive it. That said, there is nothing more "sacred" or "holy" about this perception of a divine entity than is any portion of its creation, say the tree I'm looking at right now. Nothing in the church or temple or mosque is more sacred than myself and I am in turn, as are all things, more holy than anything in the church. Any lifestyle that aligns with this experience or actions generated through it or not caused by a mechanism of belief, but rather become merely footsteps on a clearly delineated path of forging with deliberation into the future granted to me through visionary experiences. Love, kindness, compassion and empathy all naturally derive from the source.
I say it is beneficial to the human experience because in mine, I accessed this from a place of severe depression, PTSD and long-term addiction, and afterwards found myself freed from many of the severe ego based emotional attachments to that state of being and found myself afterwards much better prepared to deal with the things within me that led to me being in that place. The experience give me a certain foundation from which I was able to delve into introspection and arrive at a more perfect state of self-awareness.
I often speak of the deficiencies of the current dominant paradigm and mental health and addiction treatment, part of which is 12-step-based therapy, the maintenance of which is to achieve a connection to a "higher power"; in other words the spiritual foundation. Many conscientious freethinkers find objection in this principle due to the fact that all of the egregious disasters that have befallen humanity, oppression of peoples, suppression of ideas and science, brutality, bloody conflicts – all of them other than those created through natural causes – have been generated through conflicts between religious or theological thought and power structures related to it. That is more than understandable, but throwing the baby out with the bathwater so to speak; denying the existence or the importance of a human connection with its source is denying the value of meeting the demands of one of the most intrinsic human values, that of apprehending and comprehending the cosmos and humanities relation to it on unseen or esoteric levels.
So I posit that and experiential connection with the source can be extremely beneficial to those who struggle with hopelessness, or any of the conditions which I found myself in and which it over time freed me from. It should be obvious to anyone reading this on this forum that I do not suggest that merely the experience is a curative, it is merely one of many tools, a key to unlock a door. I would like to know what your positions are on this, how you feel about "spiritual healing", it's validity, your conviction – or not – in it's veracity, and if, like me, you struggle with esotericism and empiricism, how do you align the two?