Is Everything Spirituality?

I have been struggling with the wide spread use of the word “Spiritual” and "Spirituality" in our society. I may just be a cantankerous (but still handsome) older man. But this bothers me. The use of the word Spirituality  has reached the point where people think having a free sugar cookie in the Unity Phoenix courtyard is a spiritual experience! This makes me wonder how often a so-called spiritual experience is actually a sugar rush!

Unity stresses our responsibility to choose our thoughts. I agree 100% with this, and it is a very therapeutic discipline. But is it really spiritual to use the power of your mind to attract the perfect mate, a new car, or whiter teeth into your mental spider web?  For years I’ve studied mind power, and I’ve experienced some amazing results. I know someone who won the Reader’s Digest Sweepstakes via mind power. But be honest.. Is this co-creation with God, or just OUR willpower in action? I know a person who believes spirituality involves finding the perfect parking space. Is Spirituality the power to be lucky in physical life, such as the ability to drive down Bell (a street that runs from one side of Phoenix until it crashes into Scottsdale, where it is renamed)  and never getting stopped by a red light?

I’ve found Spirituality is now applied to swimming with dolphins, reading about near death experiences, astral travel, ghost hunting, medium ship, sightings of Elvis Presley, UFO's and the channeling of assorted entities (some who even condescendingly have called me their child although they’ve never provided child support payments). Have you noticed that such entities never seem able to speak in normal common sense English,. They commonly need to use a 1000 convoluted words to say something we’d say in 10 words. Some speak through the voice of the channel audibly.  I remember some Arcturian aliens who sounded like Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Some famous channeled entities  are Seth, the great grand daddy of New Age channeling in the early 1970’s who coined the term “You Create Your Own Reality”. His channel was Jane Roberts, who I corresponded with until her death. Unfortunately the poor woman died while Seth seemed totally oblivious to her physical pain and decay. Instead he continued to ramble on about how she would quickly recover,  She died that day.

Jesus  has supposedly channeled The Course in Miracles and numerous other unrelated books that always purport to set the record straight. We must not forget  Ashtar (head of the Space Command) who claims that our Space Brothers will land and give us a cure for acne when we send them enough love. I am reminded of the scene in PETER PAN where the audience is asked to clap if they believe in fairies. Evidently, we just don’t love them enough for them to land. Maybe if they’d put out a shirtless calendar, we might love them some more.

Then in 1977, the homophobic Ramtha, a 30,000 year old war criminal,  appeared to a common housewife (JZ Knight) who started a Ramtha centered cult and became quite rich, building a huge mansion and compound in Yelm, Washington. Unity promoted her movie WHAT THE BLEEP and later DOWN THE RABBIT hole, conceived and its production funded by William Arntz, who co-directed the film along with Betsy Chasse and Mark Vicente. All three were major directors of  Ramtha's School of Enlightenment. Joe Dispenza, a chiropractor, author, and a follower of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment acted as a subtle marketing agent for the films. He (sigh…..) was promoted by Unity in speaking engagements across the country. ;The most outrageous aspect of the films is that Ramtha’s channel, JZ Knight, appeared in the films like a bloated tick in a blonde wig. Her channelings as Ramtha were seamlessly spliced into the movie as if she had the same credibility as all the world class physicists featured in the film. Unfortunately, many of the latter bitterly complained after the movie was released, saying that their comments were taken out of context and distorted to support the movies’ dubious pop metaphysics contentions. Rent the movie today in the Unity Bookstore!

According to Margaret Wertheim, an author on the cultural impacts of physics, history abounds with religious enthusiasts who have read spiritual portent into the arrangement of the planets, the vacuum of space, electromagnetic waves and the big bang. But no scientific discovery has proved so ripe for spiritual projection as the theories of quantum physics, replete with their quixotic qualities of uncertainty, simultaneity and parallelism." Werteim continues that the movie WHAT THE BLEEP  "abandons itself entirely to the ecstasies of quantum mysticism, finding in this  description of nature the key to spiritual transformation.”  As one of the film’s characters gushes early in the proceedings, “The moment we acknowledge the quantum self, we say that somebody has become enlightened." Becoming enlightened never became so easy. Can a spiritual pill be far in the future?

Then there are assorted channeled entities such as the arch Angel Michael. I’ve called upon him a few times, so let’s move on! We must not forget Shirley MacClaine’s dead dog who has accompanied her on her many important lives including being the high priestess in Atlantis, Egypt, and Frankenstein’s bride in 19^th century Transylvania. Now Egypt brings up another tangent (is all my writing a massive collection of tangents, like someone collecting different colored rubber bands in a ball?).

Why does Unity connect Egypt with Spirituality? I do understand traditional Christianity promoting little invasions of the fundamentalist infidels into the Middle East to see the Christian oriented tourist traps (e.g., where Jesus was supposedly born, a preserved sheet where Jesus had his first nocturnal emission = wet dream), etc. But why is any Spiritual power glibly given to a totalitarian society built on the total worship of the Pharaoh? The only country in the world that resembles ancient Egypt is North Korea, built totally around the god-like worship of the communist leader. Unity Village, for example, is promoting an expensive trip to Egypt in the spring. Why not Maui? I’d much rather frolic in the warm ocean than tramp around in the dust and sand of Egypt fearing for my life (this may be partly because I already live in America’s version of Egypt = Arizona, land of dust and sand). History is very fascinating, and I love studying ancient cultures. But I do not understand what ancient Egypt has to do with Spirituality. Even if the pyramids were really star gates to other dimensions, is such travel Spirituality? Is the disassembly and reassembly of the body in Star Trek Spiritual?

Now we have a very popular channeled entity known as Abraham-Hicks. Someone please tell me when and why the channeled entity Abraham-Hicks has become attached to the Unity movement, like a barnacle on a boat bottom.  The local Unity bookstore rents Abraham Hicks DVDs and sells their books. The Lending Library has around 75 audio cassette tapes from Abraham-Hicks. What has the gestalt of entities calling itself Abraham got to do with the 100+ year old Unity movement? Did Charles or Myrtle Fillmore channel entities speaking  in riddles? I think not. Yet even UNITY FM has a show on UNITY fundamentals  (called ABSOLUTE LIVING) where one of the hosts quotes Abraham Hicks frequently as if this entity’s words are sacred. . How did this happen?

OK, so now I’ll get off my high rocking horse and stop complaining.

What is Spirituality? Like in grade school when I didn’t know the answer to a teacher’s question, I am now looking down at my desk top as if the secrets of the universe might be deemed by interpreting its scratches.

I am not sure what Spirituality is. But that has never stopped me from offering my opinion. Here goes:

I believe that Spirituality is consciously connecting and identifying with the Presence of God within us.

That’s it.

You can do this by simply sitting still, calming your mind, and patiently abiding in the silence. You can call this meditation or prayer. You can express your gratitude and your needs in your own way. You can release anything and everything that no longer serves you to God, and await in faith for  guidance for the next step for your life. Evaluate what you think is guidance with your logic and intuition. It should feel right.

Forget all the metaphysical theatrics I’ve mentioned above.

GOD IS.

This is the basic truth in the universe. GOD IS WITHIN US AND WE ARE EXPRESSIONS OF GOD. You don’t have to search for Spirituality in Space Commanders or dead warriors. You don’t have to seek enlightenment in Egypt.. Breath deeply now, and wrap God around yourself like an electric blanket on a cold night. The presence of God is here and now. Gratitude, kindness, joy, service, and love are the fruits of that presence, fruits of the Spirit. To me, this is Spirituality.

Of course, God’s next step for me may reveal something different. God has a sense of humor, so tomorrow I may begin channeling the king’s main concubine of Lemuria or Mu (mythical nations that don’t appear in any animated movies like Atlantis). If so, I'll create a cult, build a huge mansion in La Joya (I like the ocean), and will probably become a featured speaker at Unity churches across the country!

Bye!