Misty Hill
MISTY HILL
 

Spirituality

I developed this section awhile ago, but just recently a friend asked me to clarify my spiritual beliefs via email. The following is excerpts from my response.

My perspective on religion can really be defined in my use of the terms. Religion to me has the feel of a more organized population approach and incorporates the larger sects of Christianity, Judaism, Taoism, Muslim, etc.

My use of the term spiritual or spirituality is more of an individual approach to tapping into that which we can not see, hear, touch, taste, or smell...the feeling we get when loved ones pass away and we feel their presence, the feeling we get when we feel we are not alone in a room and yet we see nothing, de ja vu experiences, "psychic" experiences where we feel something is going to happen, dream it first or just think about something such as an old friend and then it happens, i.e. they call you the next day.

Spirituality to me means exploring the unexplained and finding your own personal explanation for what these experiences mean to you as an individual.Your ideas may correspond to many others or overlap, but you never set yourself up for others to dictate what you can and can not experience and what those experiences mean.

My essential problem with religion, in the way that I use the term, is that by allowing others to control your spiritual experiences, you allow for those in power to be extremely exploitive. They can use your
positive belief to unquestioningly start wars, collect money for their own cause, and perform other unspeakable crimes against humanity, thus negating the essence of spirituality.

Not to say that all organized religions or churches are guilty of this, just saying that this is how the system works. If churches ask for your dying loyalty to their cause, and you pledge it, the opportunity for exploitation is there.

Spirituality on the other hand allows you to make your own decisions, your own viewpoint on every issue. Spirituality is your own personal experiences, feelings, and interpretations of events and what they mean to you. Organized religions, therefore, even including covens, Catholics, Buddhists, Baptists, and Quakers, however different, share a "religious" idiom of belief and dedication to those shared beliefs.

In terms of my specific ideas of God or the "almighty" figure, my personal spiritual belief is that she or he or it is so complicated that we may not be able to understand the nature of what we call God.
I think that there is a purpose to our lives, I believe in karma and reincarnation, and I think that spirits and what we call a God exist and help us through our life.

These constructs have helped me define my feelings of spirituality and how I interpret my spiritual experiences. In terms of differences in beliefs among people, I think that the most important thing is that you have an idea of your spirituality that is malleable.

Once you get stuck on one concept or one belief system, you close yourself off to other energies. I think the movie dogma said it best when they said, "You don't have to have faith, just a good idea."


© 2000 - 2004 Misty M. Hill
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