Spirituality, mysticism and me, continuing.

In my last post I said:
The Christian practice of "laying on of hands" is equivalent in some ways to Reiki.

Here is a little more to aid understanding.

I am not an initiate of Reiki, but I understand that it is not a belief system, and it attunes to "Universal energy".
It uses some 20 or so hand positions in order to exchange energy, or can be performed at a distance. With just the simple intent to share healing.

Whereas the Christian healer uses spiritual energy imparted to them by their God. Hence the need to believe. Usually only touching a persons shoulder or head accompanied by a simple prayer. Sometimes with not touching at all and even at distance. Followed, sometimes, by some inspired words they feel that their Lord would have them pass on to the recipient.
In my experience too long a prayer demonstrates a lack of faith. We do not have to explain to God how to heal, He made us and sees all things.
The use of oil for annointing is purely symbolic, the oil is not magic, in bible times it would have been what ever was in the house. Poor people would have had low quality olive oil, whereas the richer would probably have had almond oil available.

Biblical accounts vary, but it is clear to me that the examples given were intended to show a flexibility of application.

Spirituality, mysticism and me, continuing.

Years later and in a diferent type of church, I found that I was gaining little insights into what can only be described as other peoples worlds.

For example I was at church, a meeting of about 200 folk, and I felt prompted that the were certain illnesses amongst the congregation that should be prayed for.
I spoke to the church elders, who then allowed me to name the illnesses out loud in the meeting.

Three illnesses were name, and three people came to me after for prayer, exactly as foretold.
A little while later someone said to me, "that was brave", I considered this but at the time my main concern was whether it was acceptable behaviour in that kind of church.

The Christian practice of "laying on of hands" is equivalent in some ways to Reiki. It often has a bad press, but none the less healing by spiritual means has been around for years.

We are complex creature; Body, Soul and Spirit. To treat one part without treating the others seems to me to be only doing half a job.

Am I depressed because I am ill, or am I ill because I am depressed. Similarly, am I oppressed because I am ill, or am I ill because I am oppressed?

So my world grew, dismissed by some, but such things by their nature go unseen, faith is a tricky thing.

Spirituality, mysticism and me.

People have often asked me, "what do you believe?"
So in an attempt to answer this and put my stake in the ground as it were, here are some thoughts.

Looking back over my life I can remember one evening having a floating feeling, floating up to the ceiling and looking down at my room, I had not been near any hallucinogenic drugs, but I do recall that this was following having "hands laid on me" during a service at our Methodist chapel. The church had very little teaching on such things, so I was left to ponder.

The laying on of hands for a Christian is the way in which a gifted person spiritually imparts to another. More on this later.

At I grew older I began to have the feeling that my life was being guided, rather than myself consciously choosing a path, it became clear that there was a kind of leading.
Being a Christian I chose to prayed, enquiring; "why?" The answer was like a parent to a young child, "because".

Now for the tricky bit, how does one receive an answer to prayer?
We have to make the assumption that if one is praying to a spiritual entity then you believe there will a reply and you are looking for a reply.
I have found that responses come in many forms, here are a few:
An overheard word, not just once and from different sources.
A word or sentence seems to have an unusual promenance on a page.
Or maybe a visual incidence than appears out of context.

These and other co-incidences begin to build a picture or impression as to what the reply might be. Sometime further clarification is needed.

This is where one can start to build up a relationship, in a similar manner to that which one builds with a lover, you pick up on little signs, you seem to develop your own special ways, your own special language, you know your lover deeper and deeper.

More questions than answers.

If we accept that the soul and spirit can be separated then what happens with someone who has withdrawn, for instance with dementia or even ptsd. Communication on any level then becomes a problem.

To help the "patient" what aspects of non-verbal communication are available to us?

Maybe: Body language, Flash cards, Habits, Time and patience.

Is there a case to add "spiritual" communication to the list?
Are the "impressions" gained via non-verbal communications in fact partly spiritual?
Is there the possibility for a man of faith use his god as an intermediary?

Perhaps more important, the patients own relationship with their god this, I feel strongly, should be nurtured. As this will sustain them when all else is gone.

The reading of the patients holy book, words of comfort or what ever is familiar.
Read aloud to the patient.

What should our expectations be?

We should not be trying to prosetylise as that makes assumptions about their desires.

A Christian communicates with the Spirit of his god via prayer and the use of what is called tongues.
That is to say he relaxes his mind and allows his spirit to do the communicating.
This is sometime specific and direct, and sometime it is in part, as though through an opaque window. Hence the use of the word "impression".

So to sit and relax and try to relate and grasp the smallest of glimmer.

The inside and outside of my head.

After my first wife died I thought that being a longstanding Christian, strong in faith, Spirit filled and any other cliché you could think of, well I thought that I would cope with the loss quiet easily.
I was under that impression until one day, whilst shopping in Debenhams, I had a stress, I sat on a step and protested that I did not need the coat that my new lady was trying to buy me.
That and other events caused my new lady to name me her grumpy gnome.

I came to realise that from the inside of my mind I was fine, but from the outside it was another story entirely.
This apparent duplicity can often be mis-understood as just being out of control, dificult and unpredictable.

Having spent time talking to folk who have Psychotic problems, I realise that from the inside of their minds they are reasonable, they are just trying to express the frustrations of their position, but from the outside they are unpredictable and explosive. They are not trying to be difficult, they are trying to be "normal".

To dope such people up with anger management drugs does not solve the inner frustrations, it does in some cases make them worse as they are nolonger able to "vent their anger" and move on. Drugs may correct perceived behavioural issues and in the short term aid concentration and learning, but it is storing up problems for the future.
These turns and twists of the mind need to be handled by the patient with the support of others.

As in my simple circumstances, those around tolerated my behaviour as I readjusted, but for those who are in more serious condition the answer is not that easy.

Mental health problems rarely have quick simple answers, and to rely only on drugs, I believe is very dangerous.

The spiritual side of me, part 1

When my first wife died, I felt that her spirit remained nearby until I had the closure of burying her ashes. I now have my memories.

That got me thinking of things spiritual.
Soul and spirit, the Greeks regarded them as separate, "psuche" for soul and "pneuma" for spirit.
The Christian bible talks of the the soul and spirit being separable like joint and marrow.
I believe we can host many spirits, but only have the one soul.
And the Christian baptism of Holy Spirit and Fire is like sorting out the undesirable bits.

It is all a bit guess work, we may find out the truth one day.

Some Christians use what they call: tongues and interpretation of what the bible calls an enigma, a mystery of our relationship with things spiritual.

But a puzzle it is, and some put a lot of effort into trying to understand, maybe one day all will be revealed.

As for relationships on this earth, some still has difficulty accepting my first wifes death after 10+years and that rubs off on others, comes across as being distant and difficult and getting the hump.

Sometimes such are called psychotic behaviour, but it is just folk wrestling with their inner emotions, emotions that they do not understand, emotions they would love to resolve.
Maybe the spirit trying to resolve its new relationship now something is missing.

Maybe the soul and spirit do understand, I wish they would let us all in on the secret sometimes.

Meanwhile I can only ponder the mysteries, is this a battle between soul and spirit, or within the spiritual realm?

If we accept that soul and spirit can be separated, then we can assume that this separation would lead an out of body experience.
The spirit being the higher levels of "intellect" would lead to an experience away from the confines of poorly functioning bits.

The Christian bible uses the allegory of "joint and marrow", to our modern understanding this would indicate that the spirit is within the soul, but if we consider the knowledge of anatomy available during the first centry we get a different picture.
In the first centry the body was bones and everything else, bone being a support structure and "muelos" being everything else.

This gives us the parallel that the soul is a support structure and the spirit is the life giving entity.

If we accept this analogy, then without spirit then the soul is, well, I don't know, I think I will come back to that.

If we then consider the re-joining, perhaps any errors in the union could be corrected at this point.
This would add credence to the practice of the spiritual healer.

But to have a too narrower definition of such things is dangerous and a gross underestimation of the complexities of the human makeup.

Now moving to communication betwixt earthly life and spiritual entity.

The Christian bible gives examples of such communication, it just warns against witchcraft, some Christians believe that if the spirit of a deceased person instigate communication, rather than communication being saught from us then that is OK. But none the less such paths are viable.
I must admit I have not been directly used in that way.

Looking at the whole Christian bible, there are lots of examples of communications between man and the spirit world, some which G-d approves of and some that come with a warning. And continuing today communication continues.

My own experiences as a Christian are through what we call the prophetic gifts. Explaining the past, helping in the present, and preparing one for the future. Maybe I will include some examples in a later blog.

Enough, I think for the first bit of blog, a little flavour of a side of me.