Does anyone feel closer to a higher power due to their loneliness?

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mattsmom

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Just curious - I will be 43 on Sunday, and really have never felt like I fit in entirely anywhere.  However, my relationship with God is top-notch (in the spiritual, not religious sense).  I think of God constantly, in a free-form, esoteric way.
 
No not at all the more I experience of the uncaring nature of life the more certain I am of the non existent of a God in the biblical sense but I do believe that there are benign forces in the world that lay no claim to either heaven or hell.


No not at all the more I experience of life the greater my disbelief in any form of biblical God. I do think there are benign forces in the world that lay no claim to heaven or hell and seek no faith bound recognition.


Bugger my tablet needs boosting so often it's really adept at repeditive posts : )
 
That's sort of my feeling on the matter as well. My loneliness and relative social isolation (mostly due to anxiety and fear) has all the more isolated me from any feelings of God or any other higher power.
 
Thanks for the input.  It's good to hear from people who are agnostic or atheist.  I certainly don't judge your beliefs, I had a former best friend who was agnostic.

I believe we're hard wired somewhat whether to believe or not.  I can't help but....but then again I've been molded by life differently.

I have read that those who have reason to believe in a higher power tend to be less lonely.  

Certainly though I think one has to be 'molded by life' to such a degree that s/he has faith to do so.  If you don't have faith you can't just start believing.  You need to be sparked by life experience first, almost always.
 
In relation to my lonliness, my spiritual walk has been up and down. There were many times that I cried out to God in my lonliness. Did it help? Shrugs. Some. What I wanted most of all was just to be held and that has never happened. I've made it through 44 years. I expect I'll keep on going and won't quit, but there have been times that I seriously wanted to.

I was raised in a Christian home and I have had experiences in my life that have clearly shown me that God is real and an active part of my life (although most of the time I do not see His influences.)

Currently, I am not very close to God, but I attribute that to the fact I am not walking in His path.
 
Yes. I used to be atheist and then agnostic, but now I am a firm believer in god. But because of my severe depression and emotional instability, sometimes I forget about it.
 
Yes, spending much time alone has brought me closer to certain things and spirituality is one of them.
 
Quite the opposite, really. As I get older, I have become even less certain of a supreme deity/higher power. I guess the only reason I haven't embraced atheism is an interest in the idea of an afterlife. I'd like to think there's a better place than this one.
 
I don't think so. When I was a teenager I looked into a variety of religions, but none of them quite fit. Either because of the people who I didn't quite trust and who didn't quite accept me, or the ideology that I felt I would have to comprimise what I deeply felt was true for.

Loneliness has forced me to think much more about myself and my relationship to the world, though. I wish I could find a higher reason for it, but I don't feel there is one.
 
reynard_muldrake said:
Quite the opposite, really. As I get older, I have become even less certain of a supreme deity/higher power. I guess the only reason I haven't embraced atheism is an interest in the idea of an afterlife. I'd like to think there's a better place than this one.

I relate much to this.
Besides which, if I were to find out there was a God after this, he wouldn't be around all that long, because I'd kick his ass. I can't reconcile the idea of God with the concept of non-interference, particularly if it involves children. If we hold the Bible to be factual, he also did not have a problem intervening on a daily basis 2000 or more years ago, so to let the horrors this world has wrought continue unimpede is more than I could ever tolerate. If there is a biblical God, he's clearly evil.
 
Not a higher power, but I feel closer to nature and animals.

I've always have said dogs are better than people, and I have always had a way of working with them. Even though I am not a cat person, I have always been good at taming wild cats. I am just in tune with them.

Since I have learned the biology of plants and how they work, I also pay more attention to them too. I can see a problem with a plant before it escalates and can fix it. People exhaust me, so I tend to ignore them but pay more attention to the small details of plants and animals.
 
I think life is to random, and there is too much honeysuckle going on for there to be a "higher power" in charge of it all, if there is though, me and him are going to have words one day :|
 
Ive had a lot of periods of isolation, time with my thoughts, and certain moments of realization that have led me towards more hindu/ buddhist ways of seeing the world. Those two really make the most sense to me when it comes to trying to figure out what exactly this is we're dealing with here. =p
 
kamya said:
Ive had a lot of periods of isolation, time with my thoughts, and certain moments of realization that have led me towards more hindu/ buddhist ways of seeing the world. Those two really make the most sense to me when it comes to trying to figure out what exactly this is we're dealing with here. =p

I admire that perception. I'm actually jealous of it.
I see nothing. Meaningless continuation of biological functions who's sole purpose is consequential to life.
Kind of hard to get up in the morning with that lol....any advice?
 
Away from it, if anything, to more of an existentialist view. I need to create meaning for myself, because meaning sure as hell isn't going to be provided for me, not in this society. Too bad I don't have the self-discipline to follow it through.
 
Nicolelt said:
Not a higher power, but I feel closer to nature and animals.

I've always have said dogs are better than people, and I have always had a way of working with them. Even though I am not a cat person, I have always been good at taming wild cats. I am just in tune with them.

Since I have learned the biology of plants and how they work, I also pay more attention to them too. I can see a problem with a plant before it escalates and can fix it. People exhaust me, so I tend to ignore them but pay more attention to the small details of plants and animals.

I can relate in some ways to this. Nature exists outside of humanity, so it will always be there. Maybe it's something we can count on in a way? Probably something more but I can not say.
 
mattsmom said:
Just curious - I will be 43 on Sunday, and really have never felt like I fit in entirely anywhere.  However, my relationship with God is top-notch (in the spiritual, not religious sense).  I think of God constantly, in a free-form, esoteric way.

Have you read the books "conversations with God?" 

And to answer the question, my connection to my spiritual side goes up and down, depending on what's going on in my life.  Lately it's been on the lower side, distractions tend to get in the way but like you, I think about it every day.  

By the way, happy belated birthday.
 
morrowrd said:
mattsmom said:
Just curious - I will be 43 on Sunday, and really have never felt like I fit in entirely anywhere.  However, my relationship with God is top-notch (in the spiritual, not religious sense).  I think of God constantly, in a free-form, esoteric way.

Have you read the books "conversations with God?" 

And to answer the question, my connection to my spiritual side goes up and down, depending on what's going on in my life.  Lately it's been on the lower side, distractions tend to get in the way but like you, I think about it every day.  

By the way, happy belated birthday.

I bought the set of those books a few years ago because they were so highly rated on amazon. I wasn't able to finish the first book. Wasn't my cup of tea at all. :O It just felt so clumsy and thrown together. It felt like something I would be able to throw together if I was given the same premise and forced to write a book.

Maybe I didn't read it right =p Can you share how it helped you or what you were able to get out of it?
 
kamya said:
morrowrd said:
mattsmom said:
Just curious - I will be 43 on Sunday, and really have never felt like I fit in entirely anywhere.  However, my relationship with God is top-notch (in the spiritual, not religious sense).  I think of God constantly, in a free-form, esoteric way.

Have you read the books "conversations with God?" 

And to answer the question, my connection to my spiritual side goes up and down, depending on what's going on in my life.  Lately it's been on the lower side, distractions tend to get in the way but like you, I think about it every day.  

By the way, happy belated birthday.

I bought the set of those books a few years ago because they were so highly rated on amazon. I wasn't able to finish the first book. Wasn't my cup of tea at all. :O It just felt so clumsy and thrown together. It felt like something I would be able to throw together if I was given the same premise and forced to write a book.

Maybe I didn't read it right =p Can you share how it helped you or what you were able to get out of it?
I didn't read all the books either, not even the entire first one.  Years ago, like the 90's my mom introduced me to them, she had the whole series and I flipped through them.  The author wrote about how he was tired of religion complicating spirituality, mainly with ritual and he began a relationship with God by having "conversations" - in other words, speaking and allowing thoughts to come into his mind as an answer.  This was similar to some of the ways I spiritually connect, with my own "higher power/s."  I won't deny, I've been in that world, as a christian growing up in a christian home, I was involved in all of that. My parents started a church, I spent a few years at bible school, in the army I was heavily involved in church and religion.  And as much as I had alot of head knowledge, nothing moved from there to my heart.  I had alot of personal issues, social dysfunction, and personality disorders that made me an outcast.  Praying and crying about it did nothing.  So in the early 90's I began to integrate what I had been learning from teachings from Gerald Gardner, Anton LeVey, Paul Huson, with teachings from childhood, and merismos teachings I went through in the mid-late 80's from Randy Shankle ministries (School of the Prophets, Marshall TX).

Meditation techniques to clear your mind, brought answers much like the conversations with God books. When I began reading them, I saw a parallel and allowed for a brief time in between estrangements with my mom, to talk about spiritual things.  That was 20 years ago...and my spirituality has not really evolved, as much as I would say matured. It's gone down a road where the conversations happen daily.  And without getting too deep, anyone that has a real spirituality - will understand why we keep it to ourselves. Unlike as a christian where we tell "the whole world" - you get all caught up with proselytizing pressure, (like the mormons going door to door) you lose that personal connection to real spiritual power.  

Power is the ability to make changes to a status quo, because you can.  We are Spirit, Soul, and Body, most people are not connected to their spiritual side, only the soulish.... lacking "spirit" so the saying goes.   A bridge between soul and spirit is what merismos is about, (the 80's teachings I was referring too.)  A step in the right direction, if anyone was asking me, would be to learn some meditation techniques, clear the clutter out of your mind, and seek some real wisdom.  Life isn't as complicated as it seems, nothing is as bad as it seems, and one of the primary pieces of valuable information witchcraft provides is in the charge of the goddess.  A long drawn out essay with alot of thees and the's - but the short version of the moral of the story goes.... all the answers your seek, lie within. I worked on myself for 10 years, because I wasn't happy with the man I was in my 20's, ashamed of myself because of all my "problems" - that 10 years of work, one of the things I learned was about power.  Some of that information did not come from books, but "conversations with God" - only a different way.
 
morrowrd said:
kamya said:
morrowrd said:
mattsmom said:
Just curious - I will be 43 on Sunday, and really have never felt like I fit in entirely anywhere.  However, my relationship with God is top-notch (in the spiritual, not religious sense).  I think of God constantly, in a free-form, esoteric way.

Have you read the books "conversations with God?" 

And to answer the question, my connection to my spiritual side goes up and down, depending on what's going on in my life.  Lately it's been on the lower side, distractions tend to get in the way but like you, I think about it every day.  

By the way, happy belated birthday.

I bought the set of those books a few years ago because they were so highly rated on amazon. I wasn't able to finish the first book. Wasn't my cup of tea at all. :O It just felt so clumsy and thrown together. It felt like something I would be able to throw together if I was given the same premise and forced to write a book.

Maybe I didn't read it right =p Can you share how it helped you or what you were able to get out of it?
I didn't read all the books either, not even the entire first one.  Years ago, like the 90's my mom introduced me to them, she had the whole series and I flipped through them.  The author wrote about how he was tired of religion complicating spirituality, mainly with ritual and he began a relationship with God by having "conversations" - in other words, speaking and allowing thoughts to come into his mind as an answer.  This was similar to some of the ways I spiritually connect, with my own "higher power/s."  I won't deny, I've been in that world, as a christian growing up in a christian home, I was involved in all of that. My parents started a church, I spent a few years at bible school, in the army I was heavily involved in church and religion.  And as much as I had alot of head knowledge, nothing moved from there to my heart.  I had alot of personal issues, social dysfunction, and personality disorders that made me an outcast.  Praying and crying about it did nothing.  So in the early 90's I began to integrate what I had been learning from teachings from Gerald Gardner, Anton LeVey, Paul Huson, with teachings from childhood, and merismos teachings I went through in the mid-late 80's from Randy Shankle ministries (School of the Prophets, Marshall TX).

Meditation techniques to clear your mind, brought answers much like the conversations with God books. When I began reading them, I saw a parallel and allowed for a brief time in between estrangements with my mom, to talk about spiritual things.  That was 20 years ago...and my spirituality has not really evolved, as much as I would say matured. It's gone down a road where the conversations happen daily.  And without getting too deep, anyone that has a real spirituality - will understand why we keep it to ourselves. Unlike as a christian where we tell "the whole world" - you get all caught up with proselytizing pressure, (like the mormons going door to door) you lose that personal connection to real spiritual power.  

Power is the ability to make changes to a status quo, because you can.  We are Spirit, Soul, and Body, most people are not connected to their spiritual side, only the soulish.... lacking "spirit" so the saying goes.   A bridge between soul and spirit is what merismos is about, (the 80's teachings I was referring too.)  A step in the right direction, if anyone was asking me, would be to learn some meditation techniques, clear the clutter out of your mind, and seek some real wisdom.  Life isn't as complicated as it seems, nothing is as bad as it seems, and one of the primary pieces of valuable information witchcraft provides is in the charge of the goddess.  A long drawn out essay with alot of thees and the's - but the short version of the moral of the story goes.... all the answers your seek, lie within. I worked on myself for 10 years, because I wasn't happy with the man I was in my 20's, ashamed of myself because of all my "problems" - that 10 years of work, one of the things I learned was about power.  Some of that information did not come from books, but "conversations with God" - only a different way.

Alright that actually makes a lot of sense. I could see it being a way of providing something "more" to people not fully satisfied with traditional christian teachings. It did seem to be like an attempt of bridging the gap between the mainstream christian teachings and some more eastern philosophies. 

If I ever get back into the subject I'll keep Randy Shankle in mind. Thanks for sharing. :)
 

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