Pathological Spirituality

The simplicity of the words “pathological spirituality” lies in breaking them down.

If we behave in an extreme and unacceptable way while exhibiting strongly uncontrollable behavior, then our behavior is pathological. We are behaving in an irrational manner. More to the point, we may be irrational.

Then there is spirituality. Spirituality is a feeling, a sense or belief that something exists that is greater than what we can physically sense. Whatever that may be. Whether or not we can give it a name.

Generation after generation humans have made gods of other humans and things. Ideas and grandiose follies of what we are owed by life become our spirituality. We deny reality because it just isn’t good enough. It doesn’t fit our fantasies.

We think we have to achieve some sort of ecstasy to feel like we’ve reached our spiritual goal. Or even begun it. If there’s no euphoria in our newfound spirituality, no high, what good is it?

None.

That is why wise men are careful about the fad of the moment. A person or group pushing — the key there is “pushing” — something that looks new may, in fact, be pushing something old or deadly. We humans have always had a sweet tooth. The benefits of chemical sugar substitutes were touted when they initially came out. Years ago, the chemicals were hyped as a healthy sugar substitute. A good way to lose weight without, as the ads put it, losing the flavor in drinks and foods.

Who were those guys kidding?

One taste was enough to tell me I’d rather risk the extra pounds. Later we learned about the detriments to our health from the chemicals. We were even told sugar might be better for our health.

It’s the same when someone comes along claiming to be a prophet to a new way of life. That person is going to fix all of our problems. All we have to do is listen to them, follow them, obey their every word.

All we’re told to do is to give up our free will. To become adherents to this not always sensible spirituality. To ignore reality.

Does this sound familiar? How many times have we seen this in history?

Not long ago a friend and I were discussing religious adherence. I openly admitted that I was never the world’s greatest at the pray, pay and obey idea. I’ve never blindly followed whatever was preached. Maybe that works for other people. There has always been just a little too much of a rebellious streak in me to tolerate that nonsense. I am as likely to walk up to a cleric and challenge them on their preaching as to tell them what a great job they’re doing.

If I hear less about the love of God than about what somebody presumes God is ordering us to do, I’m out.

Ditto with business. Incredibly smart women and men have told me they couldn’t understand how I was able to make good decisions when I followed none of the rules of the books. I definitely did not have the book smarts because I refused to study business. I didn’t follow common wisdom.

Politics is no different. If somebody is there to do the job for the people, we can talk. If they’re lining their owns pockets, I have no time for them.

That’s the big three. Religion, politics and money. The three forbidden subjects. The subjects we were taught not to discuss in polite society.

It’s sad how each of these has become a baseball bat to bludgeon our enemies.

Why do we exclude serious, sensible thoughtfulness from our lives?

Exhale.

I had to learn how to breathe out before I could breathe in. I’d lived with rigid ideas of who I was supposed to be. How I was supposed to be. It got me precisely to the point of being miserable about who I was and what my life had become.

Strangely enough, something occurred which you may have heard me previously discuss.

I shut up. I listened. God spoke through ordinary men and women who said it was okay for me to change. To pay attention to my inner God. I wasn’t paying attention to all of the possibilities in life. All of the good things. My rigidity made me responsible for blocking my emotional and spiritual growth.

In order to break away from any mental and spiritual pathology, I had to get out of my head and into my soul. The best way for me to do that was to give to people who couldn’t pay me back.

Who is helped most when we give a helping hand?

Once I heard the message from Big Fella, the rest was easy. All I had to do was give up my fears and anxieties. All I had to do was to be available to others.

Every time I tried to pull back, my friendly angels reinforced what God had said. There was no way forward to a healthy spirituality if I was bound up in knots. Each knot had my name on it. I have to give up myself for a knot to dissolve.

It’s a thought.

In a time where, once again, there is tremendous rigidity, we all have the ability to do something absolutely radical. Something crazy beyond belief.

We could help someone else.