Do you agree that you must fail deeply on some level or experience or some deep loss or pain to be?

Question

drawn to a spiritual dimension?

Answer 1

For some that theory may apply.

While others are more capable of handling a lot of stress and able to deal with it without all the soul searching.

Answer 2

No, just crap your diaper like everybody else. Everyone naturally experiences the same initial failures, but not all people are misinformed in abuse. That is a spirituality of the peculiar kind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erick_Erickson


'Erikson's psychosocial crisis stages

(syntonic v dystonic)
- Freudian psycho- sexual stages + Life stage / issues / relationships ~ Basic virtue > Maladaptation / malignancy (potential negative outcomes)

1. *Trust v Mistrust - Oral + Infant / mother / feeding and being comforted, teething, sleeping ~ Hope and Drive > Sensory Distortion / Withdrawal

2. *Autonomy v Shame & Doubt - Anal + Toddler / parents / bodily functions, toilet training, muscular control, walking ~ Willpower and Self-Control > Impulsivity / Compulsion

3. *Initiative v Guilt - Phallic + Preschool / family / exploration and discovery, adventure and play ~ Purpose and Direction > Ruthlessness / Inhibition

4. *Competency v Inferiority - Latency + Schoolchild / school, teachers, friends, neighborhood / achievement and accomplishment ~ Competence and Method > Narrow Virtuosity / Inertia

5. *Identity v Role Confusion - Puberty and Genitality + Adolescent / peers, groups, influences / resolving identity and direction, becoming a grown-up ~ Fidelity and Devotion > Fanaticism / Repudiation

6. *Intimacy v Isolation - (Genitality) + Young adult / lovers, friends, work connections / intimate relationships, work and social life ~ Love and Affiliation > Promiscuity / Exclusivity

7. *Generativity v Stagnation + Mid-adult / children, community / 'giving back', helping, contributing ~ Care and Production > Overextension / Rejectivity

8. *Integrity v Despair + Late adult / society, the world, life / meaning and purpose, life achievements ~ Wisdom and Renunciation > Presumption / Disdain Late adulthood is dominated by the multiplicity of social change which inevitably takes place during this stage of life. The loss of a marital partner, developments of unfamiliar single hood, ever changing relationships, dependent living situations and limited activities have a huge impact on the physical and psychological well being of an individual in the late adulthood stage. The degree to which an individual successfully navigated through his or her prior seven stages of life determines how the final stage is piloted. '

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erick_Erickson#Scientific_Support_of_Erikson.27s_Theories

Answer 3

Hi Rena, my thoughts:

In my personal journey of many years, counseling people through theirs, life gives us a varied smorgasbord of highs and lows. I have great empathy for those whose pain I have personally experienced and certainly can relate more readily by giving advice, step by step what path to take. Spiritually, being refined from ore to gold is a process we all must take. No one on earth goes unscathed, we all experience heartache, tragedy on some level. We have all lost loved ones, feel the pain, lost a job, lost in a relationship . . . .the list is endless, yet it makes us more aware of those around us to either help, or ignore and become bitter. Each of us takes from our experiences and what we do with it is up to us. I have grown from tragedy, some cannot. It is simply a choice. I am still being refined. When complete, I will no longer be.

Answer 4

Morally speaking, no. Socrates realized his own wisdom not by failing. He admits of his ignorance and his desire to learn. That made Socrates wise. He need not fail deeply. But some others had to make a big mistake before they became.

Spiritually, some people failed deeply before realizing their need for a Savior. Some people didn't because they already realized the need earlier.

Answer 5

I do not believe that to be true, I have been dealt with a lot of Pain in my Life, that has made me be a stronger Person, and I have always been a Person who can take a lot. But I have always been able to recognize that somethings happen for a reason and we must deal with it the best we can. I also have believed that God is with us where ever we are and if we are dealt some suffering he is with us and will never leave us alone.

Answer 6

I think there are different orders, dimensions and degrees of spiritual experience or the way we experience spirituality. At the same time, there are different degrees and orders of pain.

The question you seem to be asking is a threshold question. Because spirituality is really in everything, but by degree.

In my experience loss, failure, injury brings you to a threshold, a categorical shift in perspective that shatters complacency and profoundly deepens one's experience of spirituality. But failure, catastrophic pain or injury can also make you bitter, hard, defeated, cynical.

So the question you have asked is tricky, important and possibly not a 'one thing only' reply.

In my case I felt my spiritual life was confused, diffused, ambivalent until I suffered catastrophic injury when I was 17. The injury came in the form of an attack by another teenager. I was in intensive care for 48 hours and remained in the hospital for one month. When I got out I felt intensely alone. My whole previous spiritual perspective was shattered. At that moment I began a journey that has reached many peaks and valleys since. So for me the injury inaugurated or ignited what became a spiritual path. The injury presented an obstacle, aan obstruction to be overcome through complete spiritual transformation.

One culmination point resulted in a signifcant spiritual event that truly suprised me. That was 11 years after this violent and painful incident. The lead-up to this death/rebirth experience involved a quite different order of pain. The pain was letting go previous patterns, previous attachments, previous delusions, and previous beliefs that were no longer relevant to the transformation at hand. The return to one's essence involves a lot of pain, but it is the pain of letting go aspects of yourself that must be gotten rid of just as a seed lets go all sorts of previous forms to become a seed, rich with new information. This is the biblical grain of wheat that must die and fall to the earth if it is to be reborn and bear much fruit.

The process of spiritual transformation and rebirth consist of an admixture of both pain and ecstatic joy. In my experience even revelation - though blissful at the moment - tends to arise from considerable bouts of pain.

By pain I do not mean deliberate self-mutilation or even excessive asceticism. I mean natural pain such as accompanies physical childbirth as an analogy. All true spiritual growth is a birth and a death and a rebirth. This cycle carries within it both pain and ecstatic joy or bliss.

Your question is truly great because we often forget that deeper degrees of spiritual growth can be accompanied by great pain. But that pain converts - at the moment of truth - to ecstatic bliss and love. So it should in the end not be feared. That is what is great about the human spirit. It transforms fear itself into its opposite.

I appreciate your question very much because it made me reflect. And when I reflect on actual experience I realize, that yes, great pain accompanied my spiritual progress. But it was also accompanied by great joy, great bliss and a love that has always suprised me.

Answer 7

Nope, don't agree. My spirtuality came about at a time when I was inexperienced and not in any type of emotional pain. Curiosity got the better of me and I began to read a lot of Christian literature. And then some non-Christian spiritual literature.

So, base on my own experience as a somewhat spirtual person, I'd disagree.

Peace

Answer 8

whilst my emotional soreness have been given too undesirable and that i could not get the help i mandatory, no be counted what steps I took or who I asked for help (ER, family individuals, acquaintances), i ultimately dissociated (all started seeing myself from exterior my physique. I see this as my soul being so tired of the soreness and what i grew to become into going to try this it had to go away. I went approximately my everyday habitual. i ought to nevertheless study communications in first man or woman, yet i grew to become into separated from myself. for the time of that factor I lost reminiscence of what i grew to become into doing. There are factors the place my days are blackness. Then I even have thoughts of tablets in my palms--thoughts of hallucinations, seizures, charcol, etc. severe emotional soreness can't be skipped over. It hangs around. in case you have a pastor, you may communicate along with her or him, yet you may choose a psychiatrist to get with the aid of this. in case you may't have the money for an appointment with a private psychiatrist, bypass to a low income hospital. God placed psychiatrists right here for a reason. you do not ought to go through with this severe soreness if it extremely is relieved. in case you had a broken leg, does not you have a doctor set it and placed it in a forged? does not you're taking the prescribed drugs whilst the soreness grew to become into too lots? Emotional soreness is not any distinctive. Ignoring a deep shrink, hoping it is going to heal will probable bring about an infection and scarcity of the arm if not demise from gangrene. Ignoring emotional soreness, hoping it is going to easily bypass away, will probable bring about worse soreness and demise from a self-inflicted means. do not take opportunities. Get help Bless you and good success.

Answer 9

I can't speak for anyone but myself. I doubt that any particular type of experience is required in order to cultivate spirituality. For me, though, you're right; I was drawn to discover it after the loss of my best friend.

Answer 10

yes
pain is a portion of everyones life
it is the unfortunate reality
i actually had a friend, athiest, who never lost anyone, perfect nuclear family.... and you just look back at them. theyve known no suffering, and you just can tell... their almost ... its hard to explain

but pain, the experience - is deffining almost. what you experience, grows to your knowlege of the interworkings of you "spirit" or "soul"
i actually dont believe in souls, but i believe in god. i know it sounds weird but i believe more in the concious than an actuall soul.. i think ive blacked out too many times er somthing.
but i would say yes. yes for loss and failure.
its sad to see it come and its sad to not have it.