Is It Spirituality or Mentality?

by Chris Tann 3 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Chris Tann

  There are many religious people who say they pray for Holy Spirit and feel better. Some who are over stressed will say they keep praying for a calm disposition until the stress and anxiety disappears,claiming it is God's spirit. Others will ask Jesus into their hearts and feel an overwhelming sensation of peace and clarity. Are these really experiences of individuals being blessed by God,having their prayers answered? Or could it be something else.

  The study of neuroplasticity has proven that our brains can be wired or rewired to feel great happiness or joy. To be estatic and hopeful all by just constantly programing your brain with positive upbuilding thoughts. In his book ,What To Say When You Talk To Yourself(I highly recomend reading) ,Shad Helmstetter has found in his research that the sub-conscious mind is like a computer. Whatever we tell it; or program, it will download it,store it and look for similar references in the memory. The crazy part is ,that what you tell it may not even be true, however if the thought is registered convincingly, and repeatedly, it will believe it and then start to act upon it. Example: "Iam really fun at parties because Iam funny and perceptive"; according to neuroplasticity, if this is said often enough,and in detail, your brain will start to believe it and start acting the program out ( the same is true with negative programs).

  The point is,therefore, could this explain the emotions, feelings, courage, calm and heightened sensations we get when we pray? The mind is very powerful,and it can decieve us. How can a Godly person really know if they are receiving God's spirit or the effects of neuroplasticity?

  However, maybe that is what God's Spirit really is; a certain positive mental disposition. After all the word for spirit in the Bible does mean breath. This implies an invisible force( one's mental disposition) that moves something ( moving us to act a certain way). In any case; if you want to achieve your dreams or just be happy, please check this book out and make an effort to apply it. I did,and I can honestly say... it works.
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  Island Man

  Yes it is mentality. Religious people just like to use the word spirituality to put an ethereal, divine spin on it.
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  Ocean1111

  Even in materiality there is obviously a "spiritual" threshold so there must be a balance. Meaning "energy" locked in material structures, like an atom, and down into the sub-atomic, is very hard to determine the "materiality" of. The atom itself is a bit of a high speed high energy "illusion", as is materiality really a spiritual based illusion. Humans have barely scratched the surface as to where the "material" and "spiritual" really over lap, and due to the energetic basis of all "materiality" it is greatly accessible to "spiritual" energy alteration.

  Now if we construct the atomic pieces into a human brain, we start to understand the geomteric complexities humans are far from understanding and which require a complete understanding of to even start to get into the "spiritual" worlds. Man cannot even clearly define "material" not to mention the sub-components of the "material world" below the atom in "scale", so what really is then "spiritual"? There has to be spiritual components that make up materiality, because eventually even the material is just packets of various energies, and what can give an energy it "energy"?

  If energy cannot be created or destroyed, then what is the big bang? a massive creation of energy? And so man lives in an enigmatic paradox of conundrums in the quest for "knowledge" beyond human, beyond universal, imo, and must settle on error as truth, until the truth can be proven to be error, over and over again as long as man has been compiling "knowledge".

  To avoid going nuts, many just settle into the most comfortable error they can find, and at some point they stop "looking into it", and just live out their tenure as doctors of the popular error of their time, and all must become philosophers to defend the error they have chosen, until the new paradigm sweeps them from office, in time, as it always has done before them. What is interesting is how long that newer paradigm takes to get a foot hold, some errors persist for quite some time and many are half true extending their stay.

  I think at times people look for an either or answer, but in reality there is often an inter-relationship at work, a synergy of combined forces.
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  Chris Tann

  Soooo, are you saying spirit or spirituality may be the invisible energy in matter?