The Unnecessary Divide Between Science and Spirituality

There’s been an ever-widening divide between two forces in our country and on our planet, and that is the big bold line between science and spirituality, facts and faith, logic and hope, heads and hearts. For innumerable reasons, some understandable, some completely irrational, we’ve gathered our collective egos and decided there needs to be war between the two instead of a respectful collaboration, perhaps even a friendship full of intelligent debate, where we throw all the unanswered questions into the pot and then work together to ask new questions. Due to human’s knowledge of their impending and inevitable death, often we’re lead into two corners to placate that frightening feeling surrounding the unknown. We seek solace under the exquisitely crafted religious structures to pray, sing and connect with a group of like-minded believers. Or, we throw on lab-coats and delve into the black hole that is scientific research, barely coming up for air, or god forbid food, sex, laughter, pleasure, just emerging for a brief interlude to explain why previous researchers were wrong and why we think we’re right today. Both science and scripture tries to explain the unexplainable, seeks eternal life and aims to quell the anxiety over our seemingly inescapable mortality. Both are right. Both are wrong.

The space between the thinkers and the feelers has been filled with awkwardness, disrespect, and silence. Of course this isn’t the case with every single country, organization or person, but similar to the vast aisle separating democrats and republicans these days, there are more rooms filled with contention and hate, deaf ears and big mouths, than there used to be. There’s independent, atheist yogis like me in the middle, not knowing where to go, not wanting to offend the lefties who seek immediate progress and growth or the righties who seem hell-bent on resisting change. No coincidence here that science and spirit tends to align both left and right along the political spectrum, accordingly, thus creating a canyon, deep and wide, making it even more difficult to bridge and find away across. I feel strongly we could all be less rigid, less feverishly attached to our opinions and more open to a common understanding. This isn’t hippy dippy bullshit I’m spouting. World Peace! The concept of peace as it is understood within yoga and within most spiritual practices, is finding that very special essence within you and living, breathing, expressing and interacting from that space, the place of connectivity with all beings, the bridge from unknown to known, a real down n dirty lotus under the mud groundedness combined with an infinite potential for evolution, an enthusiastic curiosity about the expansive possibilities that not only we as individual human beings possess, but the mystifying unfamiliar presence lurking above the crown of our heads, beyond what meets the eye, beyond what the brain can grasp.

Last night I watched a fascinating documentary about DMT N,N-dimethyltryptamine, a natural occurring substance located in the pineal gland of human brains and active in many sentient beings, including plants and animals all across Earth. DMT has been labeled the spirit molecule, embraced by the brilliant minds aligned with both science and spirit, DMT is a biological locus to consciousness elevation, a molecule when activated, takes us out of our bodies and into the unknown, the infinite, above and beyond what our normal consciousness absorbs and into a heightened realm so potent, so indescribably interwoven and connected with all things, with all that ever was, is and will be, and then gently brings you back down to your body after only 15 minutes, leaving you spellbound and ecstatic. The book and film showcase how DMT, when activated and risen, either through the safe administration of psychedelic drugs (like Dr. Strassman executed in his careful research study) OR experiences felt by delving deeper in the spirit (chanting, praying, meditating) provides this hypnotic experience and leaves its beings changed forever. I’ve never taken DMT, or other psychedelics, but I have many memories and on-going experiences through Yoga and meditation that put me in that place, some with a higher frequency than others. And when I’ve spoken to friends and family about their experiences, either with natural substances or through spiritual ceremony, of course we all experience it uniquely, but the truth we all reach is the same. Oneness.

Let me digress for a moment and talk about drugs. Another divisive topic in our country. We are seemingly determined to remain uptight. If we let go and let live, we’d be so much happier. Anyway, with the loss of Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and copious more we’ve never known through the unhealthy use of man-made drugs, the rich debate stirs on. I am and always will be on the side of natural substances, meaning plants and other elements found on our planet and through very few processes we end up ingesting them. Yes I’m speaking of marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms specifically, and now DMT too. Do I believe you need these substances to achieve this level of connection, truth and bliss? No, of course not, nor do I subscribe to psychedelics as I mentioned above. But make no mistake, I am not against them in the least and know these experiences are very powerful and unique. Why there is a stigma behind these substances and why there is a very obvious divide between drinkers and pill-poppers, and smokers and hallucinators is beyond me. During my college education, I delved deep into the studies of physiology, neurology and biology, during which I took what may be my favorite class of all time and the one whose information has stuck, permanently to my brain and bones, and that class was Psycho-Biological Aspects of Drug Use. A mouth and mind full. What I came away with was the knowledge that alcohol and government constructed medication works against our bodies, seemingly curing some symptoms or issues while creating disease elsewhere. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, alcohol is poison. It is slowly killing you, destroying your filter systems, brain, heart and tissue.

Do I drink? Socially, yes. Do I get drunk anymore? No. Do I take Advil, antibiotics or other pain meds? Not if I can help it. All of these are depressants and suppressants, with physiological and psychological evidence to show as you take them, your body needs more and more to experience the same result. Alcohol disrupts your sleep, dehydrates you, depresses you mentally and physically, and for some reason I still cannot fathom, it’s our drug of choice. That, caffeine, sugar, fat, and can’t ever forget, MONEY. Somehow many Americans are uncomfortable with the cliché image of hippies high off their asses on shrooms or acid. Understandably, those people can act like utter buffoons and make their fellow man a tad uncomfortable, but for the most part they’re just happy and swaying with the breeze. But watching people fight outside a bar, puke on the street, or cast webs of verbal violence toward others because of their alcohol induced stupor has become not only forgivable, but acceptable. Who stands to profit off either? There’s the answer right there. European settlers came to this country, watched Native Americans worship the animal they were grateful to catch, sheltered under their hide from the rain, using bones as tools and then ceremonially smoking peyote to come together in a celebration of life and gratitude. Who are you to judge that? We are a society that says, you had a bad day, go have a drink. It’s the same damn thing, except these natural substances give you something to take with you besides stinky, painful diarrhea, splitting headaches and multiple apologies. You experience truths, connection, sensation of love and hope, and you don’t forget it. There’s a reason they call marijuana a peace pipe and why most people you know who smoke are fairly happy and laid back. There are exceptions to every rule. There should be a strong application of moderation and balance to everything that gives us sensation and pleasure. Retail therapy, emotional eating, drinking, smoking, and sex are just a few examples of widely abused activities that are healthy when utilized as treats, a ceremony, a method of connection and release, and not as a means of escaping your normal, sober consciousness. Easier said than done, but well within our potential.

I prefer preventive medicine, proven homeopathic remedies that work with our bodies instead of against them, and I prefer to empower myself with knowledge so I can make informed decisions on how to better take care of myself each day. Nutrition, yoga, simple contentment and gratitude, laughter, sex, water and Love. And the recreational puff, puff pass. Judge all you want. Your definition of contentment and personal health will differ, but our focus should be in being healthy and happy everyday, on our own accord, and treating our bodies in a way that we can prevent disease, obesity, heart attacks and cancer, depression and anxiety, work with them when it comes up and not just live unconsciously every single day until inevitably our stressful lives, alcohol and pill use, and chicken mcnugget habit leads to even more disease and the need to pop even more pills. I do not judge your choice, truly. I’ve known family and friends who’ve suffered tremendous illnesses and injuries and in serious need of medical intervention, which improved and many times saved their lives, but instead of fostering a deeper, larger gap between yet another two groups, western and eastern medicine, my desire is to merge the two, work together, just as with science and spirit, both have something valuable to offer. A staggering amount of research has been uncovered and released into the public about medical marijuana (One from a spiritual scientist, One from a book researched and expressed the outcomes of balanced application and use). There’s a good start. Laugh, think freely, eat and love.

I sincerely believe the many controversial issues I’ve brought up here all lead back to the same distance and irreverence, the debate of science and spirituality. The development of the human ego has led to the belief that in order for me to be right, for me to win, to be on top, you must be wrong, a loser at the bottom. Fuck that bullshit. Sometimes a painful reality can only be crossed with fervent truth. And so it requires a staunch “Fuck that”. As I get older and I learn more, I realize how much more I’ve yet to discover and absorb. I know there is far more that I do not know and will never know and this truth does not scare me, does not send me into a church or a bottle of whiskey, it makes me look up into the wondrous sky, engage in thoughtful debates with intelligent minds of differing opinions, it inspires me to get lost staring at a majestic tree, or delving into a nonfiction book or mind-bending piece of art, discovering more about myself and others through yoga, and being open to how much there is to grasp about this planet alone, the life that inhabits earth and finding how much more we are alike than different. We are run by fear, whenever we judge or write off, we reveal more about ourselves and our ignorance. When we are open and humble, we reveal our potential and our essence, Love.

The reason we have so many religions on Earth is because human beings have creative ways of expressing universal truths. Some are based in nothing, are pure fabrications of man and they point to dangerous and unhealthy truths aimed to control, limit and stifle the expansion of knowledge and consciousness. A collective ego leads to more strict applications of what were initially peaceful practices, open and kind. But knowing so many fantastic people of varying faiths and backgrounds, I can accept and attest to the essence and goodness of most, and I think the majority of reasonable people follow these paths to enlightenment and understanding because of a resounding fascination with the unknown. They feel the same pulse and vibrancy I do, a connective thread between us all, the knowledge that each human being is unique and special but none more than the other, and however different our personal expression is, we are conscious souls seeking love and understanding, comprehending space, time, a supremely intelligent and elevated consciousness, that when unattached to materials, to forms, when detached from the fear of death, we can relate and experience, radiate and project out, making our existence and our ticking mortality clock more acceptable; and when exploring both spiritual and scientific research and knowledge, we arm ourselves with the inner and outer reality of immortality, of eternity.

We must transcend and evolve through and beyond where we are now. It might sound frightening, but it’s true. We cannot resist, we must submit and surrender, not as dead fish stuck in the flow, but as a simultaneously knowing and unknowing light, one with the order of the universe. This doesn’t fill me with sadness or anxiety. It fuels me, makes me feel empowered. I want to learn. I want to explore. I want to live. I want to breathe with reverence and gratitude, that air is connective, energetic. I want to study and soak in visceral elements, ad then gaze into the boundless starry abyss and imagine how much more there is to discover. The unknown is not haunted or horrendous. It is fascinating, humbling, enigmatic, similar to life on Earth. Let’s acknowledge that the scientist exploring space or molecules, engrossed in his study of the unknown, is just as passionate and eager as our favorite religious leaders and teachers, in a similar path toward connection and truth. There is value in investigating both and infinite possibilities when choosing to respect and affirm the duality of existence, and the exciting areas in between.

Embrace the unknown. There is tremendous beauty and truth in what we cannot see.

Are You a Stage-5 Clinger or a Day Dreamer?

The past is valuable because you learn. The stove is hot. Next time, I will not touch it as I will burn myself, as I just did. See, what a beautiful lesson the past has now taught us, and guess what? I haven’t burnt myself on the stove for a while; so yeah, feeling good. Learning to surrender the emotional scars, learning from your own mistakes while not dwelling in guilt and self-punishment, now that’s another story. All I can say is when we are trapped in the past, we repeat the past, over and over again ad nauseam. It’s not cute. Nor is it helpful or enlightening. It’s repetitive and banal until it becomes predictable and damaging. I look back on the men I used to be drawn to, or the one I let myself fall effortlessly into the void too many times, and I smirk and roll my eyes. What a dumbass. But you see? It’s just that kind of internal rhetoric that does not serve me NOW, the only fucking reality there ever is. At one point, I became fed up with my own patterns and I (with the support and encouragement of my mom and friends of course, an important tool) yanked myself out of it and truly moved on. That was just men. One sliver of what’s turning out to be a delicious savory sweet pie.

Now I struggle with self-doubt, less now that I’ve pursued teaching and writing truthfully with commitment, but I’ve been absorbing courage from some pretty incredible friends and colleagues, who live wildly open, naked, raw, and while I find it important to be that friend for others, who cheers them on, supports their expression and is proud of their ballsiness, I need to turn that good friend in me and direct it inward, because no one will get me to do anything but me, the good me that says I’m worthy just as others are, that just because there are streams of talent and beauty being showcased there is no necessity for comparison. Expression is expression and regardless if I blow people away, the release of letting something out nourishes me beyond what any purchase, drug or fear could placate. The bad me says it’s self-indulgent, attention seeking and nothing life-changing so why bother? Because I wouldn’t let some asshole tell me I’m worthless and shitty so why would I tell that to myself? It’s astonishing how much we can get in our own way, basically because we’re choosing fear over love. Think about the decisions you’ve made, big and small, day-to-day in how you engage with others to getting up on that dance floor or making that big speech, falling in love, reaching out when in need, whatever those triggers are for you. How often have you stopped yourself from speaking, acting, crying, believing, loving? We can change this. Patience, practice and presence.

So I’d say my fears and my sense of time, derived by my complex mind, have allowed me to slowly evolve and learn, but I’ve managed to keep some childhood patterns, the one where I won’t try something unless I know I’ll be good at it (WTF is that?! What arrogant asshole assumes they’ll be good at everything? Clearly everything worth doing is challenging. I’m learning.), meaning I must show potential in this or why am I here? The answer is growth. That’s why I’m here and while I feel it’s helpful and important to follow your strengths so you can give whatever gift is inside outwardly, we mustn’t shy away from attempting things that scare us because of some hypothetical bullshit, scaredy cat attitude, where we project potential scenarios into the future, predicting embarrassment and ridicule, instead of reality where human beings are kind and supportive and appreciate vulnerability and someone’s willingness to fall down and get back up.

So the past is repeated and the future is rehearsed. Boy was I a dreamer as a child. I’m pretty sure I had insomnia. I was fine, healthy, functioned adequately, but I did spend many nights awake just pondering, wondering, dreaming, and while that’s fun and imagination should certainly be fostered, I fell into a pattern (conditioned by my past) to focus my attention and enthusiasm at achievements or events arriving at a later day. So, I predicated my happiness on something happening down the line. I’d make myself sick from excitement or stress (one might call this anxiety) and I look back at periods of my life as if they’re a blur, because I spent so much of that time trapped in my mind, reliving the past, anticipating the future. I’m starting to sound like a broken record to my yoga students because I mention this often, but everything I’ve learned and gathered in my life thus far, has led me to this truth. This may be the only thing I know for sure. Happiness exists, joy animates, enthusiasm projects, and acceptance takes residence in this very moment, this fraction of a second, Now, and nowhere else. It’s not over there, it’s not marked on your calendar, it’s not within another human being or animal, not at your apartment, or your workspace, not when you can practice your hobby, or have that drink or puff. It’s not when you graduate, when you get the promotion or raise, that new car, new bag, new stuff, new look, new friend, new romance, or the next new magical gift that will then turn the light inside you ON. It’s right fucking here, right fucking now. Surrender to that, and your outward expression and experience in this measly little lifetime we’re given will become so vast and spacious, you’ll be overwhelmed. You may enjoy the aforementioned things, derive pleasure, but these are merely bonuses, facets to a rich existence, but not the path to long-term contentment or internal success.

I still find myself questioning decisions I’ve made or will make. I find myself disheartened and perplexed by human beings constantly, those I have to deal with on a consistent basis, and while I have days where I just feel like shit, I feel low, I feel like no one gives a fuck, I’m able to pull myself out of that mind-induced slump quicker, knowing that I give a fuck and there is a short list of quality human beings and a few animals who care too. This world is consuming, moving rapidly but progressing slowly, and it’s imperative that your personal sense of time and your stage in this evolutionary process is completely removed from the world’s time, clock time, psychological time. Use the past as a tool to remind yourself you’ve repeated a pattern, get to know your inner monologue and adjust it to uplift yourself. Use the future as fuel to fire up the present, because the better you are in THIS moment, imagine the result in the next. Use time as a tool, not a crutch. Surrender the unknown, what you cannot control and what you cannot change and bring more vibrancy to learning, using what you do know, regulate what you can from within and let it bleed out.

Surrendering attachment, truly letting go is a gradual, inside out process. Giving up caffeine or cigarettes will only eliminate a fraction of the problem, until our lingering resentment and soured expectations conjure up a new vice to diminish the negative web our minds are spinning. Sure we need to let go of the past, forgive ourselves and others, recognize what’s done is done, the bell can never be un-rung, but the real strength is in surrendering each moment, accepting yourself and your extenuating circumstances AS THEY ARE, not as they could have been or how they should be or how you hope they’ll be, but accepting responsibility to control your reactions, your perceptions and ultimately your attachment to whatever IS. Eckhart Tolle, Joseph Campbell and many brilliant Yogis and philosophers explain and personify this beautifully. It’s beyond even the most beautifully written words. It is a truth you must infuse into your way of living and being. It’s not to be labeled. It’s not a noun, verb or adverb. It just Is. You just Are.

Can you continue to blossom as the external dares you to shrink? Can you give yourself warmth and light from the very essence you are when the thunderous darkness of your ego and it’s stubborn attachment to the unimportant aim to envelop you, leaving you cold and confused, even more steeped in fear, feeling even more alone. You can start very easily by accepting your mind and body as it is right now, there’s nothing you can do in this moment to change it or manipulate it so you somehow perceive it positively. Let go of comparison, of judgment, of expectation and just embrace yourself and the Now. Notice even within a challenging task how surrender feels. The more you fidget, grimace, or clench (physically and mentally), the more difficult and frustrating it will be. What you resist persists. It is difficult because our minds are cunning, clever little bastards and they seek to retell the same boring sob story over and over again. Just begin by bringing awareness to whatever your patterns are, wherever your tendency toward control manifests and through that awareness, a space will open up for wisdom, kindness, acceptance and release. Let go.

You deserve the most vibrant life a human can live. Believe it and Be it. Turn ON the light the only way possible, yourself, without worry for other’s brightness, your genuine example of acceptance and enthusiasm for this moment is bound to rub off positively on someone. And if not, you’ve got You and that’s one hell of an accomplishment. Those of us working to find more presence and light within can serve others by bouncing off ideas, giving support, and when in doubt, thinking and acting out of compassion. I am merely a work in progress, but I’m sincerely jazzed and buzzing from the challenge that is living a remarkable life, aiming to brighten my and someone else’s day and find that more darkness has faded away.

No matter the weather, no matter your upbringing, your socio-economic status, your religious or political affiliations, your sexual preferences, your grade point average, your color, your size, your current job or your dream job, your perceived status or reputation, the details of your past or projections for the future, You can choose to turn on that light, operate from your best essence and surrender to what is, to embrace here and now, proactively choose Love instead of reactively choosing fear. Surrender is under-valued and connotes images of a white flag and of loss. Bullshit. It takes strength to let go. You’re a bright shiny winner.

You ARE Life. Stop wasting your energy and Live.