Focusing on spirituality - Letters to the editor

Humanist, March-April, 2002

I have been wondering for awhile what is usually meant by spirituality? But after reading "Spirituality without Faith" by Thomas W. Clark in the January/ February 2002 Humanist, I know now that it usually involves a belief in humans' dual nature (physical and nonphysical) and also the attempt to reach that side not ruled by physical reality.

Clark presents clearly the characteristics of traditional spirituality and its importance in building communities and bringing comfort to those worrying about existential questions. That's the religious aspect of it, which is, of course, at variance with the humanist stand of naturalism and scientific inquiry, as well as the acceptance of no a priori meaning to life.

According to Clark, some current research seems to indicate that, when undergoing a spiritual experience, parts of our brains are "turned off," so to speak: "Neural networks responsible for our sense of orientation to the world are shut down" while "the sense of deep significance and conviction" (is there such a center in the brain?) "seems to have an (active) neural correlate in the temporal lobe." In other words, "spiritual experience" occurs in a split brain not connected with the environment.

I can't help but wonder why we should, in that case, want to be "spiritual."

Still, in spite of all those descriptions, Clark attempts, after an unexplained and puzzling leap, to define a new kind of spirituality: naturalistic spirituality. Apparently to him spirituality--even when artificially induced through drugs, fasting, chanting, dancing, and the like--is too good to give up even if you don't believe in the existence of a nonphysical world of the spirit. So in order not to miss anything, he outlines a program for turning off our senses of reality to reach a state of altered consciousness.

I ask: why try so hard to end up working with half a brain? Personally, I will remain far from this kind of exercise and not tamper with my fully (I hope) working brain. I need it!

I also wonder why he only briefly mentions the uplifting, aggrandizing feeling one can attain without drugs or fasting or chanting: for example, when contemplating the marvels of nature or scientific discovery, the beauty of great architecture, and so forth? I can't see how being outside of reality could ever fill our hearts and minds in the same way, to the same extent, while at the same time increasing our appreciation of the world and the time we have to share in it.

Jeanne Hsu
Mill Valley, CA

Congratulations on a steadily improving Humanist magazine! You are beginning the new millennium with renewed vigor.

My particular praise is offered for the article "Spirituality without Faith" by Thomas W. Clark. Clark, unlike many humanist thinkers, recognizes the existence of emotional needs possessed by most of our fellow human beings. Many people have a need for feeling at one with the universe. Many people experience wonder at the beauty of the physical world. And many people are capable of being stirred by art and by human tragedy.

In contradiction to those humanist writers who dismiss and try to ignore such feelings, Clark provides a naturalistic and nonsupernatural underpinning for emotional needs that are almost universal. The humanist movement is stronger for such recognition of human feeling.

Marjory H. Odessky
Brooklyn, NY