Loss of the spiritual centre leaves many as empty shells.
It used to be that religion and spirituality were synonymous. Somewhere along the way, and I think it had something to do with our human analytic tendency to explain as much of the unknown through science, a belief that there is a rational answer for everything. Religion saw the danger and for some reason, abandoned mysticism for doctrine. Churches told us to believe and not question and to follow the rules of the church. Rhetoric and anger replaced the numinous. Churches exhorted their followers to view all others as the enemy, an enemy that needed conversion. by becoming missionaries and converting others, they would save themselves from hell fires and eternal damnation. And so churches began to empty.
“Today people all over the world are abandoning the religions in disgust and anger. Still, everyone has an instinct for transcendence. People know intuitively that some kind of spiritual life is necessary, and so many are searching on their own or joining new churches and communities. They distinguish sharply between the personal spirituality they have found and the religious institution they have abandoned.” [Moore, The Soul's Religion, p. xv]
Thomas Moore says it right, there is a spiritual centre in each of us that churches no longer connect with for many in our modern world. What is not said is the fact that many people aren’t even aware of their spiritual centre. With spiritual hunger working below the level of consciousness, people find themselves desperately striving to fill in the empty and gnawing feelings with all manner of addictions – food, sex, pills, work, exercise, drugs, fundamentalism, politics, money, or all manner of consumer goods. It shows up in homes where the furniture is replaced long before needed, or in the constant shuffling of the furniture into new locations as if there is a perfect spot which will then magically ease the feeling that something is missing, something is out of place.
I am no different from anyone else. I am one of those that Moore talks about, one who has abandoned my religion. I filled the empty space with family and career to start with, then it was involvement in coaching all manner of sports, studying for another degree, then another degree hoping that somehow community connection and intellectual attainments would fill in the hole. Still sensing loss I poured much of whatever energy was left into photography, writing and exploring an new universe called cyberspace. I was in search of meaning and didn’t really have a clue that meaning was to be found within.