Access To Power: Bridging Science, Spirituality, and Religion
In this essay, I’m not interested in arguing facts or persuading you of anything. I’m interested in offering you a place to stand.
What’s possible is to stand on a bridge — a bridge connecting science with spirituality and religion. From that position, we can look out and see what we discover.
But first, we need a compass. A compass orients us. And instead of north and south, I want our compass to read “Fact” and “Access.”
Facts are simply what’s so. They include everything and everyone.
In addition to facts, there is your relationship to facts.
Your relationship with what’s so is your relationship with everything (the world, life, reality). We know from our experience that our relationship to things, people, and even ourselves shifts overtime. We can have a more powerful (positive, efficacious, good feeling) relationship with what’s so or a less powerful relationship. With a more powerful relationship we are better at achieving our dreams, dealing with challenges, being a leader, cultivating peace, loving our friends and family, and supporting our communities.
When it comes to our experience (quality) of life, our relationship to reality is just as important, if not more important, than reality itself. Our relationship with what’s so carries just as much weight as what is actually so.
And over time, we’ve found things that help us develop — are an access to — a powerful, healthy, and positive relationship with reality.
Access is anything that shifts us into a more powerful relationship with reality. You can think of access like a door or pathway to a new way of seeing (relating to) the world.
Access involves removing emotional blocks, limiting beliefs, repressed pain, unresolved trauma, negative thought patterns, self-loathing, guilt, shame, resentment, etc. It is access to power, joy, connection, and compassion. It is both healing and growth.
For example, when we listen to an inspiring story, how we see the world naturally shifts. It shifts towards a more powerful relationship. The same thing happens with art or music that touches us deeply. And the same thing can happen in church, a yoga class, a weekend retreat, or a personal growth and development program.
A great philosophy provides us with a framework for a powerful relationship with reality. A great psychologist will support us in developing a powerful relationship with reality. A great spiritual or religious teacher will do the same thing.
All of the things that I have mentioned — stories, art, music, and philosophy — plus many more things can be a powerful access.
So that’s the compass that will help orient us. But what does this have to do with science, spirituality, and religion?
Because science deals in facts.
Spirituality and religion deal in access.
OK we’re here now. We’re at the intersection of science, spirituality, and religion. Let’s look around and see what we find.
You might have heard a bearded yogi tell you “We are all one.” Sure, he may be referring to fact — the connection between all things or how everything sprang from the Big Bang. But where is the power in that? Facts don’t have any inherent meaning or power. Power is found in the access it can provide. By inquiring into “We are all one” you may find access to a more powerful relationship with reality. More specifically, an expanded relationship with other beings — more compassion, more love, less resentment, and less anger.
I watched a TED talk recently called “Consciousness — The Final Frontier” by Dada Gunamuktananda. It has over 3.5 million views. After 15 minutes of talking about Cosmic Consciousness, gurus, and meditation, he says this:
“And the more we expand our sense of reality — our sense of being — the more connected we feel towards all beings. The happier we are. The less fearful, the less lonely… The inner quest facilitates the embracing of all within ourselves. All people, animals, and plants.”
He’s talking about what his ideas can be an access to! If you had been listening to his talk as “Is this fact or not?” You may have discredited him and his ideas (and that may be appropriate). But if you’re relating to it as “He’s talking about what is an access for him,” then you can listen from “Is this also an access for me?”
You don’t need New Age spirituality, gurus, or meditation to have access to the kind of relationship to life that Dada is talking about, but those things can be an access.
If you’ve had trouble understanding Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, or any other spiritual teachers, just look at what they’re providing an access to. The same goes for astrology, psychics, tarot cards, reiki, crystal healing, and other spiritual disciplines.
It’s also why at times spiritual teachers and disciplines can seem “anti-intellectual.” Remember that they are dealing in the world of access (relationship to facts), not the world of intellect (identifying and organizing facts).
That’s a word on spirituality. Let’s look at religion.
Religion tends to be even further from the facts, but that doesn’t change the access it can provide.
If a woman loses her husband to cancer, she may go to a priest for counsel and support in dealing with her immense grief and pain. The priest may say something like “He is in a better place now,” or “God has a plan for us all,” or “God works in mysterious ways.” Are these facts? No, of course not. But the woman likely leaves the meeting with the priest feeling noticeably better. Why? Because what the priest said provided an access for her to deal with her suffering and to restore her to a more powerful relationship to life.
If someone is talking about faith or something “beyond this life/reality”, you can be sure they’re talking about what is an access for them — and not what the facts are.
In Western culture, you might hear philosophers make a similar point when they talk about religion dealing in symbols rather than facts. What are symbols good for? Access.
And while we’re talking about religion, it’s worth noting that:
A shift in one’s relationship with reality can be so impactful and so life-altering that when you encounter a really powerful access, you usually can’t get away from it. You don’t want to. This explains the cult-like followings that develop around certain religions and spiritual teachers. People can get stuck with a certain access.
All of this is to say that it’s possible to integrate science, spirituality, and religion. Scientists don’t need to throw out or ignore spirituality and religion. And spiritual and religious people can perfectly integrate with science if they want to.
But for you what is available is seeing the power in all of them. They can all provide something to you and to others. That doesn’t mean you have to pursue them. But one thing you can do is listen for whatever may be a potentially powerful access for you. And for people you don’t agree with — whether they are scientists, religious leaders, or spiritual teachers — I hope this gave you a perspective to listen to them with understanding and compassion.
When you bridge science with spirituality and religion, you’re really creating a bridge between yourself and others.
And from that position, you may truly feel like “We are all one.”
