Where is the proof that we have spirits? and lets suppose we did have a spirit, then why is it unconsciousness can be induced by head/brain trauma, if our conciousness is part of the "spiritual world" then why is there evidence showing, our conciousness is linked to our physical body, i.e. the brain and is part of chemical reactions and electrical impulses?
When I connect certain dots, I find the proof and purpose of spirituality to be clearer. True it's my own pet theory, but I cannot deny how much this pet theory rings true. I present to you, the dots I connect.
(The punchline is that spirituality is the right side of the brain)
It's common knowledge that our right brain is artistic and our left brain is analytic. Right brain is parallel processing while our left brain is serial processing.
Jill Taylor, a neuroscientist had a hemorrhage in her left brain and she describes the experience. The left side correlates to the individuation, singularity, and identity while the right brain correlates to togetherness, openness and connection. She was able to describe what is was like without the left chunk of her brain. The description sounds very close to a spiritual transcendance and religious catharsis.
Sir Ken Robinson makes a good point. He noted that every major public school system essentially strip mines the brain for a specific commodity and that the model student are people who live in their minds and off to one side. I wager that this is the left side of the brain. The analytical, the planning, 'intelligence' are all valuable in the workforce. He mentions that whenever there is a school budget problem, the arts (right brain) are cut and the reading, writing, arithmetic (3 R's) are pushed to the top (left brain)
Jose Abreu believes that there are 2 paths to spirituality, music and religion. He also says that in modern day, there is a spirituality crisis. In light of this, it's curious to wonder if the left vs right brain is the reason behind the battle between science and religion.
As for music, Oliver Sacks in his book,
Musicophilia and Nova special
Musical Minds, tells us that with otherwise debilitating mental trauma and illnesses, music has been shown to have an extraordinary ability to bring order in the mind, in the midst of chaos. Essentially healing. He also explains that music is mentally demanding and requires the mind to be fully engaged, both left and right sides. He also states that music is at the heart of every civilization.
Beth Abraham hospital in Bronx, NY promotes music therapy.
Moby is there too.
Besides religion and music, there are other paths to spirituality. The most popular forms, such as meditation, nature walking, yoga, ocean and the beach, plain staring into a fire, etc all seem to turn off the left side of the brain and emphasize the right side of the brain. This self-awareness, nirvana or oneness with the universe is very similar to what Jill Taylor has described and wished for everyone, as she has fondly dubbed it, "La-la land".
Ray Kurzweil and his book,
The Singularity is Near, talks about spindle cells. These cells are what gives humans (and some primates) the ability to make predictions. Humans have the most of these cells (80,000), however what's more interesting is that our right half has about 45,000 and our left half as 35,000. Doesn't this mean that our right brain has the advantage over our left brain?
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book
Flow, he described the optimal experience phenomena of when people are "in the zone". One of the similar characterists between various activities that occur when someone is in flow is the timelessness, or time warp. When people are in flow, playing music, working, tasting, having sex etc, all report that time would be faster or slower or even be halted. It's only after the activity that they realize what they've done and start to reflect on it. This to me sounds like the right brain is highly active and involved.
The majority of the world doesn't have computers and for that matter, plain old telephone service. But it seemed to me that people without a telephone in their house are happier than the ones with a telephone. It seems odd to me, but I had lived with a host family while I was in Australia. The beauty of these people absolutely floored me. Extremely kind, their children were happy. The husband was of British descent and the wife of aboriginal descent. No telephone and if they needed to, they would use the public phone down the block. If they had an emergency or anything like that, they'd ask the neighbor for help. This is extremely bizarre when compared to my New York upbringing, where supposedly everything was better than the rest of the world. They weren't well versed in sciences as I was, however they were happy.
It's only recently have I understood, at least for myself, what spirituality really is. And that spirituality is the right side of the brain, the part that most have forgotten that we had, from what I can tell.
For completeness, this is what I see:
the 4 areas of our lives that we must try to keep in balance are our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical.
Mental = Left side of brain
Spiritual = Right side of brain
Emotional = VTA/midbrain (core emotions like love/hate/flight or fight)
Physical = Spinal cord
I'll admit that the pieces don't fit quite right, but it's not completely wrong.
Have a look, maybe you'll agree.