There are some existential questions, such as the origin of the universe, that of life, that of consciousness and whether there is life after death, which concern a large number of people and for which we still do not have a proven and validated answer. empirically. The need to eliminate this concern and the suspicion it provokes drives these people to search for answers, whether through science or spiritualist metaphysics. Why do human beings need to find answers? How can psychology and spirituality help us?
In this Psychology-Online article we will talk about the relationship between psychology and spirituality, their differences and similarities. We will also explain the benefits of spiritual intelligence and how to work it.
Science and spirituality
The scientistic stance It relies on scientific knowledge and theories and chance as an explanation of these issues. For his followers, the properties of matter and the laws of nature are sufficient to explain the mechanics of the cosmos (although there are obvious facts that these cannot explain). On the other hand, the metaphysical tradition is expressed through the spirituality, understood as the set of beliefs and practices based on the absolute conviction that there is a non-material dimension of life, helping the person to find answers to what cannot be explained through science and reason. It involves the knowledge and acceptance of one’s immaterial essence.
Relationship between psychology and spirituality
Spirituality is often linked to disciplines such as religion, philosophy or neurology (neurologist V. Ramachandran has shown that mentally healthy people have increased activity in the temporal lobe when exposed to spiritual words or topics) and is currently also object of attention of psychology, more directly in transpersonal and humanistic psychology (among whose references are A. Maslow, G. Allport and C. Rogers) that include spirituality as part of an integrated and multidimensional conception of the human being (as a bio-psycho-socio-spiritual reality).
Within the field of psychology, psychologists Koenig, McCullough and Larson point out spirituality as the personal search to understand the answers to the ultimate questions about life, its meaning and the relationship with the sacred or the transcendent, which may or may not lead to the development of religious rituals and the formation of a community.
The relationship between psychology and spirituality is justified by the fact that the experience of existential questions occurs through mental phenomena such as meditation, states of consciousness, introspection, mystical experiences, self-transcendence, self-realization, etc., which are the subject of study of psychology. However, the essence of this relationship rests on two basic questions:
- Why do human beings need to have answers to existential questions to configure their spirituality?
- What can psychology contribute to a person’s spirituality?
Why do human beings need answers?
The human being has a tendency to live in a balanced, calm and placid state of mind that allows him to live in harmony with himself and his environment, but in many people this state is altered by the restlessness caused by not having a satisfactory answer for they. This concern of psychological origin arises from two demands of human nature that have to do with survival and its relationship with the external environment:
The need for meaning
The need for things to have a meaning, a meaning (including one’s own life), which drives one to discover and give an explanation to everything what surrounds him (why, how and why things happen), and to do so he needs to acquire more and more knowledge.
Regarding this need, it is worth highlighting that human beings have by nature curiosity and a desire for knowledge (it is related to the principle of sufficient reason described by philosophy, which maintains that everything that exists has a reason that explains its existence and drives man. to wonder about the reasons that support what surrounds him), and in this desire to know he uses his mental faculties to achieve it (intelligence, memory, creativity, intuition, etc.). In this aspect, Martin Seligman considers wisdom and love of knowledge (curiosity and interest in the world, interest in learning, critical thinking and open-mindedness) as one of the virtues required to achieve well-being.
To obtain an explanation and a meaning to the world where we live, we resort mainly to the mental program that governs the cause-effect relationship, which is based on the premise that all observed phenomena have a cause (a reason for existing), and to know this cause information is needed. If we had all the necessary information about these questions, perhaps we could find a valid answer to them through reasoning, observation and experimentation. But the problem is that We currently lack complete and accurate informationand this lack prevents us from knowing the absolute truth about them and drives us to create numerous theories and hypotheses to supplement it.
The need for security
The need to feel safe in your world, which implies gaining control of yourself and the external environment with which you relate. The human being needs to be related to the environment in which he lives, but he has realized that he does not have control of himself or his environment. He cannot avoid illness or aging, he cannot avoid suffering negative emotions and suffering in the face of unpleasant events, nor can he avoid the physical phenomena that cause catastrophes. This situation shows his weakness and helplessness and the inability to direct his destiny, generating fear and concern and the need to have “something” in which to seek support and security. On the other hand, he is amazed at the perfect organization of the universe, which works with its own laws, and at the wonderful complexity of life, which leads him to think that there must be a superior and omnipotent “something” (an organizing and controller: a God, the cosmos, nature, a cosmic energy, a supernatural force, etc.).
The relationship between psychology and God
In the field of psychology this situation has a great similarity with the attachment figure. The psychologist John Bowlby points out that childhood attachment is part of an archaic inheritance whose function is the survival of the species, it has its evolutionary origin in the need for protection against predators or loneliness and therefore prompts them to seek physical protection, demanding that the caregiver ward off dangers to their integrity. Bowlby defines attachment as “a way of conceptualizing the propensity of human beings to form strong emotional bonds with others and of extending the various ways of expressing emotions of anguish, depression, anger when they are abandoned or experience separation or loss.” Here you will find more information about the .
The need that many people have to turn to an entity or figure that provides security, encouragement and confidence in dangerous or threatening situations (and also to offer thanks if things go well as a gesture of gratitude) may be a reflection of this figure of attachment that survives into adulthood, since it is then when, in addition to physical danger, experiences appear that are also experienced as a danger or threat (illnesses, separations, layoffs, etc. that generate fear, grief, anger, anguish, loneliness , hopelessness), and a support to face them It is turning to a higher being who is sensitive and receptive to your emotions and offers comfort to your distress (for example, the figure of a paternalistic God), especially when the person suffering lives in solitude and has no one to talk to. and share their desolation.
It is thus observed that the child’s attachment figure gradually transforms into a more psychological and spiritual dimension. This situation was already noticed in his day by , who described the human being as: “small and defenseless, even as an adult, powerless against the forces of nature and death, and who remembers the times when his father told him protected and provided everything; then and through a “regression”, he imagines that an all-powerful being exists and takes refuge in the illusion of a god full of goodness, going from regression to the “sublimation” of the parental figures.
Benefits of spirituality and psychology
What can psychology contribute to a person’s spirituality?
Answers
It has been demonstrated that science, philosophy or religion do not offer clear and indisputable answers to existential questions that are valid for all humanity. This has the consequence that many people do not find consistent references in them to which they can draw and therefore find themselves immersed in restlessness and unease. For these people, psychology can be a reference to cling to to find the answers they need to these questions and create a spirituality that helps them achieve well-being.
Welfare
Psychologists C. Peterson and M. Seligman consider spirituality as one of the human virtues that lead to the well-being of the person, it is a tool that provides the necessary strength to face the negative events that life presents, and they define it as the ability of having coherent beliefs in relation to the highest purpose, the meaning of the universe and the place we occupy in it, and refers to beliefs that are based on the conviction that there is a transcendental dimension of life.
Sense of life
There is no doubt that psychology cannot answer the origin of the universe, of life, or whether there is life after death, but it can help answer other related questions that are also part of the spiritual dimension of the person ( For example: Who am I, where do I come from and where am I going?) and are closely linked to the . Furthermore, they occur in all people at some point in their lives, so it can be said that they are part of the essence of the human being. This is what he points out: “The spiritual dimension is constitutive of man and goes beyond the psychophysical. The lack of this, even if it is not channeled religiously, is a symptom of meaninglessness.”
Belief analysis
An appreciation to keep in mind is that restlessness and fear are born from ignorance and this is combated with the discovery of the truth. But the total and absolute truth about existential questions cannot be achieved with current knowledge and the most we can aspire to is to obtain partial truths that are coherent and in harmony with each other and that, as a whole, constitute a quasi-truth. Psychology can help put together the set of partial truths that a person needs to feel safe and confident (a truth…