Intro to My Second Book...

Here is part of the Introduction to my second book, Thumotherapy: Spiritual Healing Beyond Religion and New Ageism: 

We are ripe for a historic change regarding spiritual healing. The purpose of this book is to promote that change. But the change I propose in this book might not be what you think or want.

This book is for the few who are ready to go first in creating the much needed change regarding spiritual healing. It is not for those who are at home in and benefit from the status quo of mass confusion about spiritual healing, the status quo in which we have no general consensus on what spiritual healing is and relegate it to the private, personal domains of religion, metaphysics, existential psychology, psychism, and New Ageism. 

In the current reality we have created, we have no general consensus on what spirit is much less spiritual healing. “Spiritual healing” can refer to any number of very different things. In my first book, Revisiting Spirit: A Brief Introduction to Thumotics, I wrote-

"Spiritual healing" is part of our vocabulary, but we have no general consensus on what the words mean. For some spiritual healing is healing of a person's inner self or soul. It might involve the healing of one's past life, becoming enlightened, having one's soul saved from damnation, finding one's purpose, escaping the cycle of reincarnation, or ascension to a higher vibration or level of consciousness.

For some spiritual healing is healing by non-medical, religious, metaphysical or psychic means. The means of spiritual healing might be prayer, meditation, receiving healing energy, a shamanic journey, guided imagery, past life regression, connecting with one's Higher Self, crystals, or gaining insight through a form of divination. 

For others spiritual healing is healing from a supernatural or divine being such as a god, goddess, the Buddha, Jesus, a bodhisattva, angel, saint, or ascended master. 

For still others spiritual healing is something else.

I do not believe we should suppress or do away with our current reality and those at home in it. I believe we should create a new alternative that expands and thereby moves beyond the current reality. I believe in a creating a reality that is better by being more life-affirming. I believe in a reality in which more of us are spiritually healthy and well. I am devoted to doing what I can with others to help create that reality.

In our current reality “spiritual healing” means anything an individual wants it to mean. So do “spiritual health and wellness” and “spiritual disease.” Rarely do those who use the words define them.  As a result we cannot be sure what they mean. Neither can we develop shared scientific study or publicly recognized professional practices related to spiritual health and wellness, spiritual disease, and spiritual healing. Besides, much of what is currently called spiritual healing, requires dependence on and blind faith in and the spiritual healer rather than exercising one’s own freedom and ability to heal. 

Imagine what our current reality would be if we had no general consensus on the meaning of “physical health and wellness”, “physical disease” and “physical healing“; “mental health and wellness”, “mental illness”, “psychiatry” and “psychotherapy”; and “social health and wellness”, “social disease”, and “social healing.” What a chaotic mess that would be.

Fortunately, we have created general consensuses on the meanings of physical, mental, and social health,  wellness, disease, and healing. I believe in creating a general consensus on the meanings of spiritual health and wellness, spiritual disease, spiritual healing, and spiritual therapy.

Spiritual Healing, Part One

Defining Spirit

As I mentioned in my previous post, for the next few months, I’ll be writing about spiritual healing. However, it’s very likely that what I write about spiritual healing is not what comes to your mind with the words “spiritual healing.” So that you can better understand what I write I’ll define my terms as I go. Let’s begin with “spirit.”

I do not use the word spirit to refer to anything metaphysical, religious, or psychological. I base my description of spirit on the Homeric word thumos and define it as “that which makes alive.” It is the difference between being alive or not. It is principle of life in all living things. Spirit is the same in all living things, not different in or unique in us humans.

Spirit, Mind, Soul

Spirit is not to be conflated or confused with soul or mind. Soul and mind are associated with having an ego, personality, and mentality. Ancient Greeks believed the human psyche (soul, mind) survived death and went to Hades, the underworld realm of the dead. Whether or not all living things have a soul or mind is beyond the scope of this blog. What is important here is the distinction between spirit and mind or soul. 

Spirit is more primitive than soul and mind. It is simply that which makes alive, the difference between being alive or dead. For example, if an oak tree is alive rather than dead, it has spirit. Whether or not is has a soul or mind is a different matter. The same is true for all living things visible to us, from the very simple to the most complex. If there are goddesses and gods and other beings invisible to us, spirit is what makes them alive too.

Spirit: Quasi-physical, Natural

Spirit is quasi-physical, neither metaphysical nor psychological. It is associated with the wind, our breath, lungs, and heart.

We humans can feel it in the center of our chest, between our nipples, and behind our breast bone. Sometimes we feel it expand upward into our throat and downward into our solar plexus,  genitals, and rectum. Sometimes our spirit is low and we feel tired or weak. At other times our spirit is high and we feel energized and strong.

We can sense it in others. Some have sweet spirits; some have mean spirits. Some we recognize as having great spirits: Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, Catherine the Great. When some enter a room we feel their spirit fill the room. We even recognize that some children have their parent’s spirit: “She has her dad’s spirit.” “He has his mom’s spirit.”

That which makes us alive, spirit, is in and of this world rather than other-worldly. It is natural, not supernatural.