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It's very simple! A person has faith in God, but he doesn't go to church, he doesn't even observe religious traditions and celebrations. He prays with his own words from his heart, not as they are written in books. And his or her God definitely doesn't look like Jesus Christ or a human being at all.
Well, there went the rest of my morning, because there are few things I like better than pondering interesting questions and talking about myself! Of course, all of this is IMO, IME, and YMMV–I am not making any claims that this path would ever be right for anyone else, and I acknowledge that there are many who find their true spiritual path within an organized religion.
I can certainly understand that my spirituality would seem downright dangerous, as well as arrogant, to some. Luckily, I have no wish to convince anyone that my path is right or true or divinely inspired, or anything.
I have personally connected with a being who embodies unconditional love, and that was a profound experience indeed, and made me see myself and the religion I was brought up with in a very different light, because prior to that, I could not understand the concept of a being who did not want praise or worship, who would not punish me for being born sinful or for my lack of perfect obedience, and who loved me simply because I existed.
As far as whether I am being misled, I have had a lot of training in mediumship and shamanic practice, both of which cover in extensive detail how to recognize low level entities and protect yourself from them. If you put some protection around yourself, learn to spot them, and don’t let them freak you out or draw you in with flattery or promises, they can’t fool you or take advantage of you. (They are actually ridiculously easy to recognize, as even if they start off acting benevolent and all-knowing, they can’t keep that facade up for long, and pretty soon the ominous threats and distressing false predictions start up. Oh, and they hate humor because they don't get it, so making jokes and laughing will out them pretty quickly.)
I feel I can tell when I’m on the right track because in general, things flow smoothly and I feel in sync with myself. And in my experience, yes, the higher realm is indeed uniformly benevolent in nature, although of course that does not mean that loss, illness, and death will not be a part of the journey on this plane.
I do feel that these benevolent entities must in some way reflect my own personal benevolence and good will, or perhaps it is the other way around, because we are all a part of the whole. We are living on a plane that is difficult and we get distracted and we aren’t always our best selves, but there is the spark of the Divine in each of us.
And if the revelations and expressions of love I have received from what I feel are higher powers are not from some “other,” but from my own inner self, that’s pretty cool. I believe we all have the potential to be awesome within ourselves. (Although I do not know how some of the guidance I receive could come 100% from just me, as I sometimes receive information that doesn’t make sense to me until I Google it.)
Being on a my own path brings a lot of challenges, especially in dealing with family and friends who don’t understand why I don’t go to church or celebrate holidays, but I have found it to be deeply rewarding.
Thanks for the thoughtful and thorough reply.
So correct me if I'm wrong, but basically if these interactions feel anchoring / centering / "right" to you, you're not particularly concerned whether it is coming from within your own mind or not, or that it might be misleading?
May I ask what drew you to shamanism as opposed to, IDK, spiritualism or some other system that claims to understand these things? Or even Christian mysticism or the Jewish Kabala, for that matter.
Or maybe it wasn't. Good grief, never waste a chance to take the cheap shot, huh?
In America, it still behooves one to present the idea of "spirituality". Even if one doesn't believe. So the easy way is to claim one believes in something, while not being shown to be an adherent to the common religions.
I always figured it was a way to still say you believe in God/Jesus or whomever.... but get out of going to church.
Pretty much. It's what I said when I was 15 and didn't want to go anymore. You'll also see various other statements like "my cathedral is the great outdoors" to justify going fishing or hunting on Sunday morning. It avoids confrontation.
Pretty much. It's what I said when I was 15 and didn't want to go anymore. You'll also see various other statements like "my cathedral is the great outdoors" to justify going fishing or hunting on Sunday morning.
When church services began to be broadcast on radio, people used to say they attended "Bedside Baptist" on Sunday.
Or maybe it wasn't. Good grief, never waste a chance to take the cheap shot, huh?
In America, it still behooves one to present the idea of "spirituality". Even if one doesn't believe. So the easy way is to claim one believes in something, while not being shown to be an adherent to the common religions.
Hey, you don't waste many chances to toss in digs and snark, so why not. You are certainly not the only one who does, but you've been here a long time, BF. If you morphed into a smily Mr. Rogers type, it would be weird.
Pretty sure that thought process would be the exception rather than the rule. But now I am thinking it might be regional. You live in middle America in something at least closer to the Bible belt. There is no social need for such a pretense in different parts of the US. For one thing, mostly nobody really cares what religion you are, and for another, there are a LOT of people who truly seek spiritual paths outside of the traditional Abrahamic faiths. They aren't pretending. They want a connection.
When I say it about myself, I mean that I believe in a higher power, but I do not ascribe to any one set of beliefs or practices. When I connect with that higher power, I may address Spirit, the Universe, or any one of a number of ascended masters, gods, and/or angels. I connect with these energies on a daily basis, but I don't do pro forma rituals, professions of faith, or religion centered celebrations.
I understand that viewing my practices from the outside, some might say that I'm flakey, that I just mix and match, pick and choose willy-nilly, or whatever, but in actuality, I base my beliefs wholly on personal revelatory experiences, not on what anyone currently in human form tells me to believe. I did not choose the higher powers I connect with, they chose me, and it was a profound experience every time, just not something that could be put in the box of any one religion.
I can relate to your practices and that is one of the major reasons why I do not have any desire to try to convert anyone to anything besides environmentalism and increasing tolerance.
In America, it still behooves one to present the idea of "spirituality". Even if one doesn't believe. So the easy way is to claim one believes in something, while not being shown to be an adherent to the common religions.
This is the way I interpret it too.
Also being spiritual can be believing in one’s own spiritual being and/or some higher powers, but not necessarily believing in a God.
It means they're religious but ashamed of it, due to it's association of the religious right. I hear it al the time.
I certainly experienced my share of embarrassment back in the day but at the time it as more about televangelist scandals and the like. I never considered disassociation from all organized religion over it, but if I hadn't left entirely for other reasons it might have come to that eventually. In fact the enthusiasm of way too many fundagelicals for fascists and conspiracy theorists and corrupt politicians, I'm quite sure would have pushed me over the edge by now.
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