What The F*** is Spirituality and Do I have to be religious?

"Spirituality, doesn’t that mean ghosts and shit?"

From what I’ve found through my own personal, Spiritual Journey is; Spirituality means a variety of things. But what it means to you personally, is most important.

So, let's start with the obvious.

As we know and, can obviously see, the word Spirituality contains the word “Spirit”.

'Spirit' we'd expect to hear;

1. When someone mentions the mysterious balls of energy showing up on photograph

2. When something is found wondering the halls of a a haunted hotel's

3. When discussing the “Other Realms” or After life

4. And definitely on the ghost hunting TV shows aired in the late hours during desperate reality TV.

I reckon these conations are why people think of Spirituality as being solely focused on connecting with Spirits, mainly the dead kind.

This is False.

Connecting with the dead kind of Spirits (also known as Clairvoyance) is only one part of Spirituality.

With Clairvoyance for example, it's not everyone pulling out their closest Ouija board and covering their mirrors for a great seance every weekend. It's something which people use for a variety of different reasons, personal to them.

Within Spirituality, it's usually with the aim of getting guidance, clarification or to find answers from something more powerful than themselves. Something more powerful yet, still share's elements of themselves (i.e Spirit).

Clairvoyance also has ties to Witchcraft, but I am unsure of its reasons or aims for use within Witchcraft.

Not all who practise Spirituality practise every single piece of the Spirituality puzzle. Take me for example, I don't practise Clairvoyance but I am still Spiritual.

So, What is Spirituality?

Spirituality by definition, is the focus on or discovery of the connection with something much greater than oneself.

To some people, that may be a connection with Spirits within the after life. Or to others, it may be a connection through religion such as, a connection with God.

Both are Spiritual people.

You can be both religious and Spiritual at the same time, however in my opinion, true Spirituality forms the basis of all religions. Hence, why religious people are Spiritual.

Also, it's my belief that Religion does not use Spirituality with the best intentions. Find out more on my post here.

Overall, Spirituality is a very broad concept with many area's of discussion and practise. For example, Clairvoyance, Astral Projection, Light Worker, StarSeeds, Tarot, Dream Work etc and they are not mutually exclusive. People can practise as many or a little as they want, on their journey to Enlightenment.

So, What is Spirit?

Spirit is Energy that can be found within both; you, me, the alive, the decreased, people and animals.

However, when the deceased’s life ends their Spirit, consciousness or “energy”, leaves their body to perhaps;

• reincarnate

• pass on to the Spirit or higher realms

• or roam the human realm until they have completed their tasks and can move on

Yet, their physical body will always be here in one form or another.

A universal belief in Spirituality is that everything has a Spirit.

Why? Because everything has energy from the matter it is made and, who knows where that energy came from previously?

Nobody really knows where every single atom in a chair for example, stemmed from originally.

Probably a tree but, how did that tree grow? From the ground, where it absorbed nutrients and energy from the Earth. The Earth, which is constantly moving for example, from people's shoes to being absorbed in the rain or eaten by animals and pooped out elsewhere. Spreading potentially, across the globe.

When you accept everything has Energy and Spirit, then remember back to the definition of Spirituality "a connection with something much greater than oneself"...

You realise that Spiritually is actually the desire to “connect with everything” and achieve the ultimate “Universal Oneness” and even, understand the concept of how “eternal being” works.

Spirituality is a way to tune into the vibration that runs through everything within our universe and seek to understand the universe and exsistence through Spiritual Awareness.

"Why should I believe everything has Spirit?" you may ask.

Well, Spirit never dies.

Depending on your upbringing, we’ve familiarised and perhaps even comforted ourselves with the idea of Death been the ultimate end to both life and our consciousness. God forbid we have to continue another second in this awful game of life!

Although, sorry to tell you. This is false as Energy cannot die. So true Death, as we know it, doesn't exist. Proven by a quote you've probably heard from Einstein, “Nothing can be created, nor destroyed, only transformed”. Point and Case.

Basically, whatever is, will always be in one form or another.

Perhaps it's the thought of being stuck with life as we know it, that's far more terrifying to accept than death and dying itself? So instead, we comfort ourselves with Death bringing the end to all of the suffering we know.

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. But it definitely doesn't bring an end to energy.

We (our atom's, our energy, our consciousness) still exist and always will after Death has occurred.

I am not agreeing nor disagreeing with the ideas of reincarnation, the after life or heaven/hell.

Perhaps "God" is actually your Higher Self and the idea of going to heaven is actually about you meeting your "Higher Self" or the "Elite" version of You.

Rather than, the idea of meeting someone else so-called God, ultimate creator and holy one.

Nevertheless, it depends I guess, on what/who you believe God to be.

For me, "God" is The Universe as a whole. We are the Universe looking back at itself or as Alan Watts said "We are the Universe experiencing itself".

We create the world around us, whilst also being part of the world around us. Not God. All power lies within ourselves. We are the Universe and the Universe is us. We create the idea of heaven and hell if that's what we believe. But as I mentioned earlier, this is where I believe religion has used this ability against us to keep us in fear and from discovering the truth.

Now,

Do I currently believe in ghosts as in, apparitions with memories of a life time? Hmmmm.

Do I have my mental door to "Mediumship" and contacting the afterlife open? Absolutely not.

Am I ready for it to be open? Absolutely not.

Does that make me a bad person? Absolutely not.

Am I Still Spiritual? Absolutely yes.

If you open that door (to clairvoyance) or have that ability, then you are more likely to have those type of interactions with the Spirit realm. My door is firmly closed. And why you may ask? Fear probably, too many horror films. However, there are a variety of other doors and experiences to open to broaden your Spiritual Experience.

Spirituality is no stronger tied to Meditation as it is Clairvoyance. They are just pieces of a large puzzle.

As I mentioned at the start of the article, you don't have to practise every element of Spirituality to be Spiritual. Only the areas which help and guide you on your Spiritual Journey through life and help you reach the ultimate Enlightenment. There are no real rules regarding Spirituality, so I believe that you can just take what you want and leave what you don’t.

And it's for this reason, I don’t really consider Spirituality to be a religion. I know religions in this century are slowly becoming more flexible with their belief systems, although as I mentioned before, I believe true Spirituality is the basis of all religions anyway. Spirituality doesn't seek to control.

There are no holy books with Spirituality, there are just books to improve your knowledge, understanding and to encourage you to open your mind.

A general rule of thumb is; to aim to increase your vibration and understanding through spreading love and positivity throughout the world.

Forcing something never works, we know that. Forcing yourself to believe everything you read around Spirituality just because you feel you should won't get you any further ahead with your Spiritual Journey. Reflection and understanding is key in making progress.

Take elements you are drawn to and explore them. The same with any areas of religion that may cross over such as; Wicca and Buddhism.

If you still don't feel comfortable with an idea then leave it, maybe it’s not the right time for you to receive that theory or message yet and that’s perfectly ok.

Everyone learns at different rates and the same goes for Spiritual Journey's and Enlightenment.

Somethings will sound totally bizarre at first, especially if they challenge your current belief system.

But, all you have to do is be kind and understanding and respect people's views even if they don't sit comfortably with you, and that's all anyone can ask of you.

"Intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function" - F.Scott Fitzgerald.

I hope this gives you a little bit of a basic introduction to my view of Spirituality and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post. Play with the ideas mentioned above, and until next time,

Peace and love xx