What Is Spirituality?

Spirituality means you are in touch with that invisible dimension, it's faith based.
Yep, you can be in touch with a demonic bend of spirituality.
Read up on spiritual warfare. It's quite interesting.

I believe that spirit is neutral or good. If you truly believe that all things work together for good, then all things must essentially be good, even though they feel bad to us in the smaller context. We assign the term "bad" to things when we don't understand or like them. I believe that things just are what they are.

"Evil" people can be spiritual, but that doesn't mean that their "spirituality" is evil.

Regarding spirituality, I define it simply as being aware of consciousness outside one's own physical presence. Not "aware" as in reading it in a book or being told about it, but sensing it for oneself.

Spirituality is a belief in a higher being without buying into all of the religious teachings which all seem to conflict each other. Spiritual people live a moral ethical life, treat others with respect, but don't necessarily believe everything that is taught in traditional churches.

Love the question! I see it as a belief in and a relationship with aspects of experience that are beyond our humanity. Yes, I believe that spiritulity can be evil in nature but that begs the question what is evil? I think evil is an indifference to others' humanity.

Where did life come from?

It's Philosophy Friday!!! yeaahhhhh. :)

I truly believe that we are surrounded by good and evil spirits. And I believe that you can unknowingly plug into either type. I know people who think they are spiritual and try to plug into this universal spirit - but their lives reflect anger, bitterness, sadness, frustration, etc. I think they've unwittingly allowed evil to invade their life.

I think that if you call out to God and ask that he make himself known to you He will answer you. There was a time in my life that I really felt spent and completely empty. I didn't know how I could continue in this "empty" existence. I had a very successful career, I had all the outside appearances of success (family, house, husband, etc.) but I was deeply troubled becuase there was such a lack of contentment, this feeling that there must be something else. I used substance of all types on the weekends, I had two failed marriages and it seemed that another was looming on the horizon. But since I had a child now it was different. I was raised in a Christian environment but felt it didn't really give me what I needed, I saw it as a list of rules that kept me from doing things that made me happy. Meanwhile I was not happy.

I simply asked God to show me if He was real. I was honest in my skepticism. And He answered me - not in an audible voice in the middle of the night, no visions or apparitions. But things began to line up in such a way that I stepped foot in a church. The music, the message, everything that my child needed, it was all just right. It was truly by divine design that somehow the pastor that day spoke words as if only to me. Somehow the nursery staff that day was perfectly set up to envelop my toddler in security, the music spoke to my deepest hurts. And as time went by and I began to grow - and God's been lining things up ever since - but for a more mature Christian - not the baby I was that day I walked in to church.

That was almost 14 years ago. Now I know that there is an enemy of our soul who wants to allow for complacency and discontent so we become sidelined for the great plans God has for our lives. All the other things that seem to look so enticing bring this deep-down pain, longing for something else - a hole in my being.

Now rather than plugging in once in a while to "my spritiual side" I stay connected to the creator of the universe by reading scripture, meditating on it, praying and praising throughout the day. I know I serve a great God who has awesome plans for my life - I have only to make those choices each day for freedom through Christ rather than bondage to things that are unfulfilling and leave me empty.

God is good.

ooooh, deep thoughts!

Spirituality is the process of pursuing any meaning in your life.

That's the best I can do before my morning coffee.

Belief that there is *something* more in life than what you can see.

Here is my opinion; I believe that the spiritual relm consists of God and his faithful heavily beings and Satan and his fallen angels. So yes I think that many who profess to have a spiritual life may well be dabbling in the evil (white magic, new age, nature worship...) with out realizing it. I don't know that that makes them evil, but it does make them deceived. As to your question, can an evil person be spiritual? Yes, Anton LeVey, Alister Crowley, Charles Manson and his "family" of followers, Hitler....

If you can answer these 3 questions, then I believe you have spirituality:

1: Where did I come from?
2: Why am I here?
3: Where am I going?

Well, in order to be spiritual, you have to believe there is such a thing as a spirit.
The ineffable thing inside you that (you hope, maybe) lives on beyond your body s expiration, a soul, some say life in general, a spirit of nature, god/goddess, holy spirit (holy ghost), animal spirits, plant spirits (knocking on wood is an attempt to invoke the spirit of the wood to prevent something bad from happening), mineral spirits (?, um - no), etc.
Zombies and Frankenstein s monster (and possibly very life like robots) freak us out because they are animated body s that are soul-less.
Ghosts are spirits that are hanging around past quitting time.
Demons/devils could be evil spirits that could posses you (an exorcist is suppose to evict them).
You could probably do a whole semester or two on spirits/spirituality in media and literature, mythology and religion and you'd still have a hard time covering all there is about it.

Sally summed it up very well.

There will always be good and bad. You cannot have good without having bad and vice versa. Yes anyone spiritual or not can be bad, this is something that each individual will have to choose on their own. I don’t think there is a neutral unless it is someone that does both good and bad things.

I don't think anyone is basically evil. I think people as spirits all start off basically good. Sometimes people become evil (Hitler, Sadam Husein etc) but they did not start that way. I think once they are evil, they are not spiritual because that is the opposite of spirituality in my opinion.

I think spirituality is how you embrace yourself as a life force, as an entity not your body or your mind. Why do some people want to paint and others want to dance? Why are some people "born leaders" and other people like to follow? What causes us to have the personalities we have? Why are we here on Earth? Who are we really? What is the meaning of life?

That is spirituality to me. You can embrace it no matter what your religion.

IMO spirituality for me has nothing to do with religion at all but rather the natural way of the world. Personally, I'm spiritual in the sense that I've had premonitions, seen things that I know are not of this plane, and am sensitive to energies that others are not. It is possible that the energies are negative or positive but I truly feel it is one's individual belief system or perception that makes them as such. By that statement I mean that if one is fearful or has misconceptions or trepidation of the unknown that is then what will be presented whereas one who is open to what is and what could be will have a positive experience generally speaking. This is not all inclusive one way or the other because evil and good can persist in spite of one's individual beliefs or skepticism. The two ideas exist purely on their own neither respective to our physical world or man's definitions or perceptions.

Some people are predominately philosophical. Some define themselves as religious. I belief spirituality is that sphere in which both exist harmoniously. It is the inclusion of your cerebral and emotional selves working out the Big Questions.

As to the question of evil: I believe you must be spiritual to be Evil. Otherwise you are just selfish or ignorant. However, to be truly malicious requires an understanding that does not come with a lack of any spirituality. My opinion.

aahhhhh too intense for this early morning, :)), but here goes I will try.

Spirituality, to me , means that inner peace inside you and it has all to do with your faith. What your beliefs are. What makes you who are and what you are. That 'place' you tune into when you need to.

Hope that helps a little. :)

To me, it's simply the recognition that you are a part of something bigger than yourself. It doesn't matter if you call that something Jehovah, Allah, Gaia, the Universe, the Oversoul, Life, or Leslie.

I love Sally's answer.

I've struggled with this my entire life - as I've always felt there was "more" but never could really tie myself to any particular religious belief.

I think she is spot on...thank you for putting it into words

A feeling from within that you are one with the universe. You sense things some good some bad before they happen. You take ideology or parts of different religions and incoporate them into your beliefs. Sometimes you see someone who is unhappy and can emphasize with them and they will speak.
You call friends when they are down and they always tell you that you "know" when to call them like ESP. You use what you need and are not wasteful (food/water/energy). A day out in the sun in an open field is a day of joy to you.

That's how I see it.

Something bigger than you an entity or supreme being a presence.

The other S.

PS Common sense can be included in this.