This statistic and those that were recently released in the second phase of the Pew study exploring what Americans believe (which indicated that over 90% of us believe in some “higher power”), prove that we are a nation whose population is spiritually healthier than the doctors of dogma and custodians of culture who regularly speak to this issue.
One person’s “paranormal” is another person’s religion. The first term is the one we use when we choose to be dismissive or pejorative in our description of a supposedly supernatural experience, or one that goes beyond the doctrines of the faith we follow, and the latter is what we call roughly the same experience which has gained acceptance from a critical mass of people, or those who control a particular religious system. And I don’t mean that cynically, really!
I just think that we need to be very cautious in negatively branding some practices and beliefs which many people ridicule e.g. faith healing, séances, exorcisms, etc. while assuming the appropriateness of those which many Americans practice e.g. prayer to a personal God, claiming with certainty to understand God’s will, the activity of angels, etc.
They are not all equal and distinctions can be made. But the ongoing culture war between radical religionists who insist that they always know precisely where to draw the line between what is and is not an acceptable belief, and the fanatical secularists who mock all faith, is not so healthy for any of us. And it seems that most Americans know that. Perhaps that is why we are more faith-filled than the latter group would like, and more inclusive about that which we believe, than is acceptable to the former group.
All religions believe that there is consciousness greater than ours and that it is possible to be in touch with it. So how do we distinguish between the ones of which we approve and those of which we don’t? Is it just a matter of personal taste? I think not. I think it has do to with our role in tapping in to that consciousness and what we expect will happen on those occasions that we succeed in so doing.
If we think that having “the right faith” or performing “the right ritual” will guarantee a specific desired outcome, then we have made ourselves into the God in whom we claim to believe – turning Her/Him into our servant to be manipulated at will. That is no longer faith, but magic, no matter what it’s called, or upon what tradition, including my own, it is based.
If we think that we alone, or the community to which we belong, are uniquely privy to God’s wisdom and will, that it too is problematic. And if our encounters with the supernatural always confirm that which we already believe or lead us to nothing more than the fulfillment of a narrow set of physical expectations, then our beliefs have become shallow.
But, when we assert our belief in the existence of something greater than ourselves and aspire to be in relationship with it, wonderful things can and do happen.
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