The “power” of religion and the whole question of whether there is a source of power outside of human beings, as symbolized by being “high in the sky,” is confused because two different realms are discussed without being distinguished from each other.
One kind is religious experience INSIDE persons. We know that scientifically a human being is a colony of specialized cells cooperating to operate as a systematic unified creature. Information from the outside world comes in through the cells that can perceive light waves, sound waves, temperature change, pressure and so on. The electrochemical codes are passed to “sorting centers” where some are cancelled and others are marked “high priority.” Complex and differing locations in the brain then balance the sense infos against each other according to a set of assumptions, decide whether and what to do, and store much of the info as memory associated with the emotion the senses generated in the whole body at the moment the info came into the body.
There is no other known way to get concepts into a human being: nothing that can “beam” into a head though people will claim it happened. There is no scientific information about anything that can pick up more than these sensory things. (Though we can expand our senses with technology, so we know we are constantly penetrated by forces like x-rays.) But we know a lot about how complex and quick the internal process is in order to support survival, the engine that drives it all, keeping us out of the tiger’s maw. So far.
We are also aware of phenomena like waves, esp. those in the brain, and electrochemical self-correcting loops that maintain coordination and homeostasis. The religious experiences called “the oceanic feeling,” “the mysterium tremendum and fascinans,” and the “sublime” are about the functions of the whole body focused in harmony. It is personal experience, often described as beautiful, sometimes surprising and transforming, occasionally terrifying, and mostly not controllable -- though one can prepare for it or occasionally evoke it through memory or the arts or even drugs.
For the person having the experience, this sort of sensing of the sacred -- something interpenetrating human beings -- can be empowering, leading to renewed efforts, forgiveness, generosity, confidence and so on that make that person stronger. This is often called “spirituality.” As in “inspiring.” The metaphor is breath, the breath of life, the reciprocity of oxygen in our lungs and blood that keeps us alive.
The other impersonal kind of power might be described as “aspiring.” We don’t talk about A-spiring in the way we talk about A-theism. “A-” mean not. NOT a believer in the theos, the big god with all powers, all perception, all control and the Master Plan. Most religious institutions, but esp. the ones based on theism, are a-spiring. Not about the spirit. Human authority over other humans depends upon grouping them, usually hierarchically, but spirituality empowers the individual, sometimes so much that they can defy any crucifixion, inquisition, or justification of governmental institutions by religious institutions who threaten Hell. The government, as we now see in the Middle East and the American South, is always striving to claim the Higher Power in terms of an authorizing and ultimate source of delegation. Traced back far enough, one comes to tribal chieftains in the Middle East, the ancient structure that was free-form, allowing for individuals until the culture turned to crops and domestic herds ten thousand years ago. That’s when the towns, temples and armies formed.
IN-spiring means drawing the spirit (as though it were breath) into the body. A-spiring means ignoring the spirit and trying to climb the hierarchical structures of society. (Much stronger since industrialization.) These structures developed out of the invention of writing and bookkeeping, which led to the disciplines of mathematics and philosophy. They are very powerful BECAUSE of their ordering ability which can support domination and control. They have built civilization: cities, temples, libraries, telescopes, rocket ships and so on. They have made it possible to treat cancer or AIDS and feed the world, but they have not given us the power to want to do it. This kind of power has no compassion -- only politics. It is competitive: “winner take all”, “last man standing is top man”, “number one”. There is no rule about protecting the least and the minority, the vulnerable who are often the growing edge.
The attitude of domination would have brought the human world to a standstill long ago except that it is not sustainable. Due both to internal flaws and external new ideas, the old order is always crashing. The planet itself is the ultimate structure on which we build and it changes constantly: erosion, climate change, earthquake and hurricane, the ocean acidifying, the air currents shifting, even solar storms -- all our infrastructure comes tumbling down. If enough of us as a group survive, than human beings go on -- the flood is countered by the efforts and creativity of Noah.
But individuals, ourselves and those dear to us, remain vulnerable. Some will seek to force the dominators to provide what is needed. Some will accept their lot. Both can be kept whole by their individual spirit, whether they consider it formally religious or not. Awareness of what feels like an empowerment, a harmony with the universe, can be supported by what the Quakers call “Light.”
Whether this is something “real” or not is beside the point. Maybe it’s a breaking through to the human heart of some great symphony of the cosmos or maybe it’s a form of euphoria generated by the body, but the consequences are evident in the actions of those who feel it.
When I started reflecting about “liturgy, ceremonies, worship, mass, Bundle Opening” and so on, I had not made this distinction and would have been discouraged from doing so, if subtly. Formal group activities in the Western world are usually in support of religious institutions which may or may not be separated from the governmental institutions. They are based on writing, which allows them to be accumulated historically in a body of laws and theories called theology. Valuing them was natural enough since I was studying in a denominational seminary. However, I was concurrently studying at a university “divinity” school that accepted a wider spectrum, at least in theory -- though they didn’t like the idea of what they called “phenomenology.” That is, the individual human sensorium as access to the sacred.
What kept coming back even after I left the ministry was the difference between institutional liturgy and individual religious experience. The two things interpenetrate so that sometimes a simple mass or elegant “high” ceremony can be a source of personal inner joy and connection. But religious experience is emergent in the individual human being (prayer, devotion, meditation, ordeal, intense intimacy) and often inchoate if electrifying. It’s a feeling, which means it is “whole body,” not just a brain function like reading. The accumulated interacting organs that are not quite hierarchical and sometimes competitive (when one’s gut diverges from one’s brain) are by religious experience finally harmonized. Even if it’s not in words, which is not likely, it will be kept in memory that depends upon the concepts formed by the sensorium. Not the words learned in a class or from a book. In this context, spirituality is closer to dreams or psychotherapies that emerge from art or movement. Spirit cannot be taught, but it can be found. Spirituality is not controlled by expert gate-keepers, because it is always present and needs only a shift of consciousness.
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