For me, I have DID and one of my parts would definitely be classed as ‘spiritual’. But, possibly not in the way that a lot of people use the term.
Essentially, she feels an energy from nature and animals. There’s something ‘unseen’ that she feels, flowing through all living things, which energises her in turn.
(Sounds suspiciously like she may be a Jedi…)
What is that? *shrug* Bar two of my other parts (who have complicated relationships with religion because of my trauma history), I actually struggle to muster
any cognitive energy about spirituality at all.
People believe all sorts of weird shit, and get very creative at finding a way to make themselves happy. Seeking something that is fulfilling to you is definitely a worthwhile endeavour, and spirituality is one way of doing that. So is religion more specifically.
There’s a number of different meanings for spirituality. Very roughly, some of the big ones:
- An internal version - where we have an essence, purpose or deeper ‘meaning’ inside ourselves that goes beyond birth-life-death;
- Opposite to the above, that there is something that overarches the entire cosmos, and either is unknowable or, is experienced outside our ordinary senses, and (usually) removes the ‘randomness’ element that people sometimes feel about our existence;
- Spirituality in the religious sense. A divine power, that we know about, and is probably worth organising our existence around in a coordinated way;
- Spirituality as an afterlife or supernatural.
There’s been quite a bit of research on spirituality and its role in mental health, and there’s certainly a lot of schools of thought that spirituality plays a core role in good mental health. So, I
like the idea of spirituality, and while she can be a little…weird… I dig it that one of my parts really defines herself around that (she falls in the second dot point type of spirituality). She does it completely harmlessly, so whatevs!!
I
also dig that neuroscience can probably explain all of those things, in the same way it can narrow done ‘true love’ to particular types of neuro-connections in our brain, and that probably most anyone who insists that they have a direction connection to God likely meets the criteria of certain mental health disorders. It isn’t some kind of weird coincidence that “God spoke to me” forms the core of psychotic experience for such a large portion of people living with schizophrenia.
Is there a bigger purpose? Don’t know, and most days of the week I actually don’t care. I found purpose elsewhere (and yep, finding meaning and purpose was as essential for me as it is for even the most devout) and I’m not going to spend emotional energy on existential dread.
Probably my finding ‘meaning and purpose’ was merely a particularly pattern of synapses all hitting a positive charge at the same time in my brain. It conveniently coincided with a substantial easing of my depression symptoms, and I have a sneaking suspicion that finding meaning and purpose was indicative of the easing of that illness, rather than causative.
Care factor = zero. Does it
matter if science can explain love if love
feels sensational? Go with it anyway!
So, I
do buy the idea that spirituality is important. But I also suspect that we’re simply using a ‘spirituality’ stamp to explain something that is, in its essence, as normal and everyday as 2 magnets magically connecting together when they’re in close proximity. One day we’ll have the explanation and humans will say “I can’t believe they used to think…” about spirituality the same way we currently do about the way we can light a fire with a Zippo. Our brain is an amazing thing.
There's a quote I like "Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there."
I don’t buy this. And this forum is an excellent case study.
There are religious folks here who
genuinely find meaning and purpose from their faith despite having endured profound trauma, just as their are people who can be profoundly depressed, naive and extremely spiritual. There are people on the forum who really only started being able to love themselves once they found their religion, and I try not to be dismissive of that, even though I find religion offensive most days of the week.
It may be ludicrous. It may be used to justify and promote devastating atrocities against our fellow humans. But it
also forms the basis of identity for many people, and the reason to keep living and loving and maintaining functional, cooperative and moral communities for people living with extreme deprivation all over the world.
And in that respect,
underestimating religion, and the religious, is probably naive.
