[Main Blog Post] The Open-Minded Materialist's Gentle Introduction to Spirituality

[jprussell]

I've written my first "full" blog post of the year and posted it to my main blog here. If you have any thoughts or ways I might make it better, kindly let me know by commenting here or dropping me an email!

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[davidtrammel]

Good post Jeff. I read it once this morning over coffee and will definitely read it for more depth tonight. I look forward to more from you. I am restarting my own shamanism blog after a few years of hiatus and trying to put together my thoughts and assumptions as well.

I have a huge scientific background, having studied both physics and anthropology in college. Though I got exposed to the magical side of life a few years earlier and kept my interest in it. I think my acceptance that the World has both a scientific side and a spiritual side is still strong because at the time I was learning both, Quantum Mechanics was the hot topic in physics. When you see some of the things the top people in that field write, you come away with the feeling that what is believed in spirituality and magic isn't anywhere as weird. Now that the theory of "E8" and Quantum gravity is gaining traction in physics it's getting even weirder, lol.

Keep writing. I think that you can come to a worldview that accepts both material science and the spiritual as equally valid and complementary.

[causticus]

Hey Jeff, a lot of thought-provoking points there. As someone who doesn't "need" this guide per-se, I don't really have much to add, though I should say that I agree Stoicism might be a good entry-point for materialists; though with the caveat that a hardcore belief in "progress" will probably be a massive roadblock when it comes to grasping core Stoic teachings, much less putting those teachings to practice. As you also allude to, Westernized Buddhism seems to attract a fair number of them too, but any deeper dive into authentic Buddhism might face the same sort of cognitive dissonance issues for progressives. IIRC, I slowly started shedding my old progressive beliefs about 8 years ago and I believe this has greatly helped me in adopting a more "enchanted" way of looking at the world.

One thing that JMG has mentioned a few times is the likely fact that a lot of human souls in incarnation right now are likely too "immature" for any serious spiritual teachings, due to the "mental sheath" not being very well developed as of yet; so the "job" of a soul like this in their current incarnation might simply be to learn the rudimentary lessons of material life in a human body. Beyond various basic (and probably dogmatic) religion, such a soul will probably not seek out much in the way of spirituality, thus materialism might come as a default worldview. But it seems the target audience for what you wrote might be someone who has developed their mental sheath enough to commit to a specific intellectual position, in this case skeptical materialism. Perhaps they could be seen as a transition point between materialism and a more refined view of reality. Anyway, I think you present here a serious of compelling strategies for how to break the ice, so to speak. I will be very curious to see where and how you further develop these ideas!

[cs2]

A good read! I will keep this article in mind in case any of the materialists in my life ever hint at seeking. I think Stoicism is a great entry point, not just in self-reflection and examining how to live but specifically how to live in an era of decline. Aurelius ruled some 250 years before Rome was sacked. I think of that whenever the decline feels pressing. I remind myself that it might be hundreds of years before things really turn over, and in the meantime I have my life to live. I've also visited one of the military cities where he wrote Meditations which was super cool. Anyway thanks for sharing!

[k_a_nitz]

A great intro!
I was always a bit dubious about Seneca, in that I tend to think twice about following advice on how to live your life from people who committed suicide (even though he was ordered to by the emperor).

re: "The other big flaw in a lot of self-help is that it's mostly about solving problems."
So true. I notice you didn't bring up New Thought as an entry point, though to be honest it has a lot (but not all) in common with most modern self-help. I could never really get into it because it starts with the question of "What do you want?" then gives you the practices to achieve that. But my issue is more that I don't really know what I want, and answering that question as: "What I really want is to know what I really want" has a recursive quality that just does not work for me.
I have also looked at one of the surviving correspondence courses of a hermetic bent, but the first 'lesson' included signing an oath that you would implement to the fullest of your ability everything they taught you. Which, coming from a very Northern view of oaths, struck me as a very dangerous thing to do given that I did not know at that stage what they were going to teach! (Or that could just be my paranoid side ;-)
So at the moment I'm working through a German book by Karl Spiesberger that is focussed on the simple practice of runic yoga. Essentially physical work with relaxation and breathing initially, followed by accompanying visualisations. And supplementing it with reading widely (plus experimenting with divination methods.)

[deketemoisont]

(I might've been your modal target - and in fact have not fully "recovered" - were I not a long-time Archdruid Report reader.)

"Here's my take: look for writers that you find credible about something, and work on holding off judgment on the weirder, woo-woo-ier stuff they talk about."

That's of course how I started reading occultism, but it only really reminds of me of 1 person. Do you know any occultist other than JMG out there that writes extensively and excellently on non-occult subjects that I missed?

If you liked sam[]zdat, you might want to check hotelconcierge.tumblr.com out.