The Stages Of Spiritual Growth

[DanielK]

After seeing alot of Christian vs. Atheist threads around here I'd figured it would be best to post an article that I came across that could shed some light on the whole issue.

http://www.factnet.org/Stages_Of_Spiritual_Growth.html

Additional: Although this is my first post, I've been lurking on this forum for quite some time (since the ZP "orange box" review)so bare with me.

~Daniel

 

[Susano]

I agree with this
Edit: as some other people in the topic have said, there arn't 4 definitive steps to spirituality/enlightenment/whatever you want to call it and there DEFINITLY isn't a set path that people have to follow to get to spiritual enlightenment. In my view everybody has their own path and they all end up in the same place.

 

[Lord George]

Its an interesting read so far I must admit, but I don't think you can classify spiritual growth into four clean cut stages, as I wonder where cult leaders who believe themselves a living god fit in. but I shall continue reading these ideas.

 

[DanielK]

Its an interesting read so far I must admit, but I don't think you can classify spiritual growth into four clean cut stages, as I wonder where cult leaders who believe themselves a living god fit in. but I shall continue reading these ideas.

True, these stages would be considered generalizations. Cult leaders who purposely manipulate and deceive their followers would be Stage 1 types pretending to be in either Stage 2 or 4 if I remember correctly. But those who actually believe they're living gods could be 'across the board' for all I know. It's difficult to say for sure. I wonder where I'd fit in?

 

[reaper_2k9]

I don't think it is something that can be easily categorized and explained, I think for some people to get in touch with their spirituality it takes something like a life changing event. Or for some people who feel lost or alone in the world they tune into it for a sense of comfort.

There are so many different beliefs out there I don't think you can just split it up like that because there are far more reasons why people become spiritual.

 

[Captain Blackout]

Daniel,

I'm Captain Gilligan Blackout, the Mad Pirate Philosopher. I'm a self-educated metaphysician, although I do have an extensive background in college level philosophy. On my good days I'm a Taoist Christian although my take on Christianity would be foreign to most. On my bad days I'm a misanthropic atheist.

I haven't read the article yet except to look at the stage summaries. I find it an interesting concept and look foward to reading it in it's entirety, possibly even expanding upon it.

I also would like to extend an offer. I've had a lot of excellent teachers and mentors over the years. I'm currently in a bit of a rut for various reasons and have decided to take on a student. What that actually entails is _very_ open ended but maybe we could collaborate for a bit here and learn from each other.

In any case I will read the article (when I'm not quite so wigged on Percocet,) and post some thoughts.

 

[pigmonkey]

Daniel,

I'm Captain Gilligan Blackout, the Mad Pirate Philosopher. I'm a self-educated metaphysician, although I do have an extensive background in college level philosophy. On my good days I'm a Taoist Christian although my take on Christianity would be foreign to most. On my bad days I'm a misanthropic atheist.

I haven't read the article yet except to look at the stage summaries. I find an interesting concept and look foward to reading it in it's entirety, possibly even expanding upon it.

I also would like to extend an offer. I've had a lot of excellent teachers and mentors over the years. I'm currently in a bit of a rut for various reasons and have decided to take on a student. What that actually entails is _very_ open ended but maybe we could collaborate for a bit here and learn from each other.

In any case I will read the article (when I'm not quite so wigged on Percocet,) and post some thoughts.

does anyone else picture this guy haveing a gotee, eating nacho's and wearing a battlestar galactica T-shirt?

 

[The Man Who Is Thursday]

It's an interesting read (although I admit I only skimmed it). I'm not really sure where I'd fit into it, though. I'm a Christian and I seemed to think Stage III actually fit best. Go figure.

This reminds me a bit of Kierkegaard's Stages of Life. Not that I know a lot about them, it's mostly the name that rings a bell. Heh.

 

[linchowlewy]

I don't think it is something that can be easily categorized and explained, I think for some people to get in touch with their spirituality it takes something like a life changing event. Or for some people who feel lost or alone in the world they tune into it for a sense of comfort.

There are so many different beliefs out there I don't think you can just split it up like that because there are far more reasons why people become spiritual.

my friend became spiritual on the shitter. now he loves god more than anything else and wants to rid the world of aethiests

 

[SimuLord]

Funny how this article applies every bit as well to non-Christian as to Christian religion. I look back at my own spiritual development thus:

1) As a teenager, and I look back on this and laugh, I was like some kind of cross between David Koresh and L. Ron Hubbard. I wanted my own cult, reality (or sanity) be damned. I blame the drugs.

2) Of course, being a teenager there's never a shortage of naive idiots willing to follow a drug-addled cult leader. The cult mythos morphed into some kind of more violent take on traditional Amerind paganism, with a belief in hell right out of Dante's playbook and a view of virtue right out of an extremist Muslim terrorist's view of a harem of virgins (with it came a virgin fetishism I never quite shook, to the point where I ultimately married a girl for whom I was her only partner. Thankfully that turned out OK!)

3) I'll take the Richard Dawkins/Penn&Teller/Christopher Hitchens with extra cheese, please. Thankfully Ayn Rand and Nietzsche were terrible reads, otherwise I might've been locked in here.

4) I'll sum it up thus: Be moral, honor the gods, honor the self, and honor the community. I even caught myself praying...and it didn't bother me a bit. As a polytheist, I tend to take the viewpoint that the Romans, Greeks, and Norse were on the right track and I still inherently distrust monotheists, but the spirit and the piety live anew, which has led to a much greater sense of something beyond myself in the universe.

 

[Captain Blackout]

does anyone else picture this guy haveing a gotee, eating nacho's and wearing a battlestar galactica T-shirt?

Actually I got a creepy image of Dr. Strange.

Actually it's full scruff goatee style, nacho's are an occasional delicacy (my wife's nachos are amazing,) and I quit wearing prints years ago. I sure as hell have NEVER worn a battlestar galactica anything. These days its a black vest. I know, serious affectation but it seconds as a wearable wallet. With my head in the clouds a bit too often it helps. Mad pirate philosophy is a concept for well structured syncretism. I know I sound like an egomaniacal freak but I earned the name long before showing up here running a black market through a speakeasy. I've kept using it for two reasons: I just plain like the handle and it keeps me from taking any of my own philosophies too seriously.

I'm also a rather vindictive prick so I have to ask: at what point does someone self named "pigmonkey" and flinging digital poo think he's doing judging me?

I love Dr. Strange though....what's your creepy image look like? (BTW, I've loved all of your posts on the achievement generator. Has the witch filed a restraining order yet or do you just have more scars then any other living person?)

 

[Myselfe]

I personally don't understand spirituality at all.

 

[Captain Blackout]

I personally don't understand spirituality at all.

For many, the most basic understanding of spirituality is this: All people (even all things) have an "underlying" spirit. A simple example might go as follows:

A computer program, like everything else, has a form and a structure. It is a collection of organized electronic impulses within the framework of the hardware. All computer programs are also essentially mathematical recipes, algorithms. Algorithms are abstract things that have no physical form until they are programmed into the machine. The algorithm is the "spirit" of the computer program.

Some algorithms are designed to modify themselves i.e. programs that can "learn" and adapt. Whether the human spirit is a supernatural thing or is nothing more than the algorithms coded in DNA it is clear that we change through our experiences. Dr. Peck's article is his attempt to quantify those changes and to define a process of growth for the human spirit.

 

[SirSisyphus]

I know this isn't a "Christian" topic, but I believe anyone looking into the subject of spirituality to read C.S Lewis' 'Mere Christianity'. It is probably the best non-denominational, overall view of the principles of Christianity without one ounce of preachiness. And the writing is beautiful.

BTW...this is coming from someone who isn't very religious. I mean, I was raised a Catholic and don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent, but I have a bad habit of blaspheming more than a roid raged Satanist.

Regardless, the spiritual journey is different for everyone and I don't think "4-steps" will make anyone more or less spirutual. Just sounds like a quick fix. And the "quick and easy answer" to spirituality leads to some very bad things :cough:Jonestown:cough:

 

[Susano]

4) I'll sum it up thus: Be moral, honor the gods, honor the self, and honor the community. I even caught myself praying...and it didn't bother me a bit. As a polytheist, I tend to take the viewpoint that the Romans, Greeks, and Norse were on the right track and I still inherently distrust monotheists, but the spirit and the piety live anew, which has led to a much greater sense of something beyond myself in the universe.

I always thought myself that most of the ancient religions (egyptian,norse,greek,vedic) were on the right track, but I never much trusted the romans because I view them as the civilization that started the superpower trend that a country must have a big military force to even be considered and also because I view them that they had little originality and stole a lot of ideas and religious beliefs from other cultures.

 

[Alex_P]

http://www.factnet.org/Stages_Of_Spiritual_Growth.html

That article is so very, very New-Age.

It's also very much the kind of thinking that's mocked (and for good reason) by Stuff White People Like: "Look! My beliefs are metacultural! Everybody would think this way if they were as enlightened as I am!"

-- Alex

 

[SirSisyphus]

I always thought myself that most of the ancient religions (egyptian,norse,greek,vedic) were on the right track, but I never much trusted the romans because I view them as the civilization that started the superpower trend that a country must have a big military force to even be considered.

That started waaaaaaaayyyyyyy before the Romans. That was the law of the land for the tiny Greek city states centuries before there was a such thing as a Roman.

But I believe it all started with "whoever had the largest rock got to be leader of the tribe"

 

[shatnershaman]

recognizing the connectedness of all humanity with God

Call me a stage three but isn't this using the assumption that there is a mystic being (even though they later state that there is no miracle man with daddy warbucks in the sky).