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Beyond Religion: Discovering Authentic Spirituality

Beyond Religion: Discovering Authentic Spirituality

Last updated on: June 9, 2025 at 4:42 pm by Benjamin Raven Pressley

Beyond Religion: Discovering Authentic Spirituality 2025-06-09T16:42:03-04:00 Benjamin Raven Pressley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What is true spirituality anyway? Is it being religious and committed to a certain religion? Is it being a space cadet? Is it anything goes as long as it sounds deep and esoteric?

Author on beach

We all have contemplated the meaning of true spirituality. Original Photo of and by Benjamin Raven Pressley

True spirituality has nothing to do with religion or any particular set of beliefs. It is an all-encompassing view of life and not denying that things are more connected than most want to accept. True spirituality carries over into every aspect of your life.

This is a subject I write about quite often and have even written a couple of books on. I say it is neither of these things. True spirituality has nothing to do with religion or any particular set of beliefs. It is an all-encompassing view of life and not denying that things are more connected than most want to accept. True spirituality carries over into every aspect of your life. It’s not something you have to stir up, pay up or wind up. It becomes as real as the air you breathe, invisible in many ways but so real and vital to you as an individual. True spirituality is something that comes alongside everything you do, every thought you think, and everything you see. It becomes a filter through which you view all things on a level that just makes sense. Does that mean you can make up anything you want and call it spiritual? Of course not, but that is exactly what most people have done. I have never heard so many made-up concoctions of BS in my life as there are today.

Snake oil salesman

There are plenty of snake oil salesmen out there even when it comes to spirituality. Original photo of and by Benjamin Raven Pressley

I know a person who seemed to be a completely normal guy anyone would want to be around who went to a New Age gathering and came back swearing he was a reincarnated Druid priest. He immediately became obnoxious and ‘holier-than-thou’ from that moment on. I cannot help but be amazed and find it so laughable and obvious that everyone who traces their ‘past lives’ were always a queen or someone rich and important, never a thief or drunk or some slob. Just because something sounds all quasi-spiritual and appeals to your ego does not mean it is truth.
It seems to me that humanity in general today doesn’t want to acknowledge there is a God/Creator. There are hundreds of New Age belief systems that reinforce the thought that we are our own God and at best, we are connected to some impersonal force in the universe. Much of the confusion and acceptance of the world we live in today stems from the general acceptance that there is no god which indirectly stems from the human desire to be their own gods. Successful thriving civilizations acknowledged a higher power. When that higher power becomes a human then we have dictatorships and religious rulers. When that higher power is acknowledged to be something superior to humans and outside of the flesh and blood realm then one has a sense of all things having their place in the universe including humans. When humans make their particular religion, their particular civilization, their particular race or gender, even their particular planet the center of the universe and of the supreme importance then it justifies all the atrocities they do to create and reinforce this illusion at the expense of those who don’t buy into and submit to their illusion. This has happened from the Dark Ages Roman Catholic church to Hitler to Islam today. These examples are the best examples on a grand scale but this ill-bent illusion continues in many lesser forms today also.
The longer I live as a rational being and observer of life it becomes irrefutably clear to me that there is a design in place for all living things and if there is a design there is a designer. (Read my blog on The Case for Intelligent Design) We are not just products of a ‘Big Bang’ or some primordial soup. Harmony and balance are no more than living within that design. No one would argue that a gas combustion engine runs on gas and that is how it was designed. Defy its design and put water in the gas tank and it will break down and will not run. Treat it as designed by keeping it well lubricated and using the right fuel and it will run well for its life expectancy. Yet we as humans constantly defy our design or even deny we are designed and as a result treat our body, soul, spirit, and other living things as we desire and the results are what we have today; a disjointed, self-serving society with no respect or regard for what is left of this creation or respect for future generations and the planet they will inherit.

“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with him. He walks everywhere incognito and the incognito is not always easy to penetrate. The real labor is to remember to attend in fact to come awake…Still more, to remain awake.”

C.S. Lewis

True spirituality must start with acknowledging there is a God and we are not it.

We are created beings. Our Creator is spirit. He is in everything he created. He is not male, female, plant, animal, or mineral. He is ALL these things and more but unlimited by any of these definitions. He cannot be confined or defined. He just IS. The best definition of the Creator is the one he gave of himself when he was asked by a man named Moses as he came face to face with the Creator as he manifested himself in a bush on fire that did not burn. When asked who he was he said “I am that I am”. He did not arrogantly speak and say “I am what I am” No, he said, “I am THAT I am”. There is a difference. If he said “I am what I am” it would merely have placed him as something among many other things but by saying “I am THAT I am” it was a statement of completeness, all-encompassing, everything.
Humans were created from the very clay and essence of this planet. When the Creator breathed his breath into them, they became a living soul. This creation we call human became a fleshly body that was infused with the Creator’s very own life. His breath that he ‘spoke’ with, that he formed words with, and created all things with, that he spoke worlds into being with was placed within us human beings. Life-giving to us and life-creating ability given to us in the breath we breathed and the words we would speak. Not creating in the same sense of the Creator but the charge of whatever we would speak or choose would be life to all creation or death. He became one with our spirit and rather than make us automatons gave us permission to choose. How could such life-giving, life-empowering reality that had the ability to glance into the infinite and the finite simultaneously choose anything but the harmony they were created for? And yet that is exactly what happened. Human beings choose to do things their own way. Rather than walk in harmony with the one who created them and gave them life, the ‘created’ elevate themselves in their own mind as equal or superior to the ‘creator’. Jesus didn’t come to start another religion he came to connect us back to a relationship with our Creator.

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“True Spirituality. Just saying it brings to mind a myriad of responses and reactions, some very emotionally charged and most polar opposites of each other. It is said if you want to start an argument then mention religion or politics. I have to agree. However, I propose to you that true spirituality has nothing to do with religion. I think a big part of the problem is the messed up definition most of us have of what it means. True spirituality has nothing to do with religion or any particular set of beliefs. It is an all-encompassing view of life and not denying that things are more connected than most want to accept. True spirituality carries over into every aspect of your life. It’s not something you have to stir up, pay up or wind up. It becomes as real as the air you breathe, invisible in many ways but so real and vital to you as an individual. True spirituality is something that comes alongside everything you do, every thought you think and everything you see. It becomes a filter through which you view all things on a level that just makes sense.”

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About Benjamin Raven Pressley

Benjamin Raven Pressley is an author, teacher and spiritual guide. He is of Cherokee heritage. He has been a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles since 1975. His independent studies include the Holy Bible as well as other holy books of other religions. He is ordained by the Universal Life Church. He is a self-taught naturalist and his love and respect for nature is evident in many of the things he writes. He has authored several books on spirituality as well as a fantasy series and books on survival skills. He does not consider himself to be a religious person but believes true spirituality is an all-encompassing view of life and invites open discussion on matters of spirituality. You can read more about the author here.

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