If someone believes there is no meaning in the universe, can there be meaning in their life? One of my clients is an atheist. Hers is a belief system with similarities and differences to other atheists. She chooses to do the right things in her life just because it feels best for her. I know of two brothers one of whom believed he created his reality. The other brother would punch him and say “how did you create that?”
I am reading a book by an MD who has used hypnosis throughout his many years as a doctor. In it he expressed something I think about all the time and have rarely seen in writing by other hypnotherapists. He has observed that there is a link between depression and meaninglessness of life for some clients.
Here is what he said: “Spirituality is very different from religiosity. One does not need to belong to any organized denomination or sect to wonder about the meaning of one’s own life. It is psychologically depressing to lead a meaningless life, and many of my depressed patients have lost track of the idea that all of our Creator’s children are precious even though none are perfect” Dabney Ewin.
I don’t preach to clients and they are not coming to me to change their religion. I am just very interested in their core beliefs in how their universe functions and their place in it. Where I grew up the prevailing religion was that of a male god, that was demonstrating some pathological psychology. He loved us and created us. We then had one chance at either going to heaven or hell. Having a god who would create a system like this, and then could not forgive us, or give us another chance before casting us into hell, to be tortured for eternity for not being good enough, started to seem crazy once I was old enough to reason such things. A god that would cast us into hell for eternity is one unevolved god. This is a god to be feared. I began to wonder how God could be anything but pure love and that there is a loving meaning underlying the universe no matter what is happening.
If someone grows up in such a culture of retribution fear and unforgiveness, how does this affect their life? How do they treat others? How do they treat themselves?
If one believes that the world is flat and ships fall off somewhere into some unknown abyss, she or he is not likely to take up sailing. If someone knows there is a continuity to the ocean, that they will be able to sail around the world and return, there is a strong tendency to manifest courage and anticipation over fear, to then set out and have new experiences.
There are twenty major religions in the world, each a belief system that programs a holistic movie into the consciousness and unconscious of those brought up in any of those religions. How did we end up being born where we were born? How would we think, feel, and see the world today if we were born somewhere else, and into another religion, philosophy, or no religion at all?
Whatever one believes, it is a good belief, if this belief, makes him or her, a kinder, and more loving human.