We hear a whole lot of people using the phrase "more spiritual than religious" currently, causing us to ponder what they really mean when they label themselves this way. It has been our experience that there really is a soul deepening distinction between spiritual and religious -- an impact we have termed spiritual emergence versus religious emergency.
Spiritual emergence is a gradual unfoldment of spiritual expression that causes a minimal 'disturbance' in our everyday functioning because we have been somewhat prepared for it, given our disposition for the mystical. Having said that, you will discover individuals who experience what we call religious emergencies, which could cause significant disruptions in their daily life, since these folks are usually unprepared for mystical experiences since they consider themselves to be more religious than spiritual.
Emergent spiritual experiences like visions, deeply felt meditations, out-of-body experiences, apparitions and precognitive dreams are usually exhilarating and life-changing and may be very transformative -- for anyone who have moved to an area of being more spiritual than religious. These same experiences, conversely, could also be deeply unsettling for folks who fall within the category of being more religious than spiritual.
Folks who are more spiritual than religious appear to have less difficulty with these kinds of transcendental experiences. Why? Spiritually-inclined people are usually more open to mystical experiences. They feel more linked to the transcendentalness of life. They have a spiritual purpose (Full Content), not religious, mindset! Their openness to the non-material and ethereal dimensions of reality make them the perfect recipients of these life-affirming experiences.
A part of the challenge highly religious people face in transformative experiences is staying grounded once they experience these 'higher octaves' of reality. These 'altered states of being' are typically foreign, as well as taboo, with regards to handling their ingrained religiosity.
Due to their denominational inhibitions, mainstream religious people usually be quite reluctant to integrate highly spiritual experiences into their religious practices. They may even feel they can be bedeviled by these experiences.
Great spiritual teachers and mystics alike assure us that these transcendent experiences are natural and healthy. They see these experiences as proof of our evolving spirituality and enlightenment. They encourage us to willingly allow highly spiritual/mystical experiences to touch our lives and to use the memories of those experiences -- and as a consequence the transformative value of those experiences -- to flow into our everyday lives.
Living our lives based upon embedded religious theology causes it to be tough to allow spiritual and metaphysical teachings into our world view. What usually happens is the cognitive dissonance a result of the new mind-stretching 'experiential information' causes people to tighten their dogmatic reins so that any progress -- and openness -- to potentially transformative truths is shut down completely.
Actually, that is the troublesome dynamic we see occurring in spiritual communities/New Thought churches/liberal churches today. If the leadership in those communities is stuck in embedded religious theology, it can make it extremely hard for the membership that considers themselves to be more spiritual than religious to get a spiritual, not religious, message. It also makes it really hard for the minister and music director to see eye-to-eye in the event the music director is hesitant to -- or outright refuses to -- change the song lyrics to complement the minister's spiritually-oriented message. It is an old story -- you know, the one about pouring new wine into old wineskins!
On the contrary, in the event the leadership is actually more spiritual than religious in a church setting (holding services in a church building characterized by stained glass windows and pews), the members who consider themselves to be more religious than spiritual demand a message and music that will be more dogmatically religious than universally open and spiritual. The two factions behave like oil and water. As well as the ministers who serve those divided communities operate between a rock and also a hard place because making both factions happy is impossible!
If you have ever been involved in, or are presently involved in, a spiritual/religious community comprised of a culture of religious-oriented and spiritually-oriented folks in the same sanctuary at the same time, you know it's really a recipe for conflict and division. Congregations often blame their difficulties on going from a family size to a pastoral size to a program size, etc. While there's some truth to that perspective, the vast majority of the difficulty lies in the philosophical and religious differences between the spiritual and religious cultures who are at odds.
Spiritual emergence is a gradual unfoldment of spiritual expression that causes a minimal 'disturbance' in our everyday functioning because we have been somewhat prepared for it, given our disposition for the mystical. Having said that, you will discover individuals who experience what we call religious emergencies, which could cause significant disruptions in their daily life, since these folks are usually unprepared for mystical experiences since they consider themselves to be more religious than spiritual.
Emergent spiritual experiences like visions, deeply felt meditations, out-of-body experiences, apparitions and precognitive dreams are usually exhilarating and life-changing and may be very transformative -- for anyone who have moved to an area of being more spiritual than religious. These same experiences, conversely, could also be deeply unsettling for folks who fall within the category of being more religious than spiritual.
Folks who are more spiritual than religious appear to have less difficulty with these kinds of transcendental experiences. Why? Spiritually-inclined people are usually more open to mystical experiences. They feel more linked to the transcendentalness of life. They have a spiritual purpose (Full Content), not religious, mindset! Their openness to the non-material and ethereal dimensions of reality make them the perfect recipients of these life-affirming experiences.
A part of the challenge highly religious people face in transformative experiences is staying grounded once they experience these 'higher octaves' of reality. These 'altered states of being' are typically foreign, as well as taboo, with regards to handling their ingrained religiosity.
Due to their denominational inhibitions, mainstream religious people usually be quite reluctant to integrate highly spiritual experiences into their religious practices. They may even feel they can be bedeviled by these experiences.
Great spiritual teachers and mystics alike assure us that these transcendent experiences are natural and healthy. They see these experiences as proof of our evolving spirituality and enlightenment. They encourage us to willingly allow highly spiritual/mystical experiences to touch our lives and to use the memories of those experiences -- and as a consequence the transformative value of those experiences -- to flow into our everyday lives.
Living our lives based upon embedded religious theology causes it to be tough to allow spiritual and metaphysical teachings into our world view. What usually happens is the cognitive dissonance a result of the new mind-stretching 'experiential information' causes people to tighten their dogmatic reins so that any progress -- and openness -- to potentially transformative truths is shut down completely.
Actually, that is the troublesome dynamic we see occurring in spiritual communities/New Thought churches/liberal churches today. If the leadership in those communities is stuck in embedded religious theology, it can make it extremely hard for the membership that considers themselves to be more spiritual than religious to get a spiritual, not religious, message. It also makes it really hard for the minister and music director to see eye-to-eye in the event the music director is hesitant to -- or outright refuses to -- change the song lyrics to complement the minister's spiritually-oriented message. It is an old story -- you know, the one about pouring new wine into old wineskins!
On the contrary, in the event the leadership is actually more spiritual than religious in a church setting (holding services in a church building characterized by stained glass windows and pews), the members who consider themselves to be more religious than spiritual demand a message and music that will be more dogmatically religious than universally open and spiritual. The two factions behave like oil and water. As well as the ministers who serve those divided communities operate between a rock and also a hard place because making both factions happy is impossible!
If you have ever been involved in, or are presently involved in, a spiritual/religious community comprised of a culture of religious-oriented and spiritually-oriented folks in the same sanctuary at the same time, you know it's really a recipe for conflict and division. Congregations often blame their difficulties on going from a family size to a pastoral size to a program size, etc. While there's some truth to that perspective, the vast majority of the difficulty lies in the philosophical and religious differences between the spiritual and religious cultures who are at odds.