I’ve been reading up on this lately and it’s very fascinating. It can get very complex at times as it delves into metaphysics as well. What are your thoughts on it?
The belief that all things have a a soul or "spiritual essence" and are in a sense alive?
Personal beliefs aside, I think it's interesting because it raises questions as to what it means to be alive in the first place.
Ive done this at times with pain. In an abstract way. Too much empathy is what I learned. As a little girl i would worry I was hurting food that I eat. I would look at things and people and worry about ’their’ feelings. I didn’t know there was a word for that.
@carrieanne yes this is the word for it. It’s kind of like when you’re walking and you maybe see an ant on the ground or even a flower and you just avoid stepping on it
@Ripley54566 yes it’s very interesting indeed!
It looks like it explores the idea that the conscious energy in ourselves is the same as the conscious energy in this place. But this is the first I've heard of it.
Mystical thinking can be a personal salve, but it is a poison to the group.
@CharlesInWI
So you're down on Sufism, Kabbalah, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Gnosticism, and Shamanic Traditions?
@PeopleLikeUs Yeah, mystical/magical/theological thinking can be something useful to an individual, as a coping mechanism, or even as a thought exercise to view the world through a different perception or conceptual construct.
Sort of like, if you want to make Spiderman a personal hero and model some of your behavior on that character's actions in the story, that can be of benefit, especially in development.
But if you truly think that Spiderman is a an actual thing, existing in the world independently, and you want to force others to also believe in Spiderman and follow his "teachings" or "example", that is not good for anyone.
That would be, you know, delusional.
@CharlesInWI So you equate God with Spiderman?
Why would a group believing in something mean they were "forced" into doing it?
@PeopleLikeUs
At this point, I am going to politely disengage from an in depth discussion of religion/mysticism on the Cuddle Comfort forums...
I'll take the bait... ⚠️
And he didn't say those who beleive were forced. But there are "holy" wars still going on today because one group thinks "our god(s) is/are the best god(s) and we'll blast you to hell for believing/ thinking/ practicing otherwise". Idk - kinda sounds like a 'force' to me.
Then again, perhaps I'm just delusional...
Thread reviewed, and leaving in tact. However, consider this the first & only warning. Any further comments regarding religion will be purged from here on, and continued attempts will result in this thread being locked.
@CharlesInWI So what you have explained appears to be more in line with what mysticism actually is, experiential. It sounds to me like animism is naturalism plus mysticism.
When I clicked on this thread I thought I’d be reading about anime.
@carrieanne same, I had no idea there was a term for this. When I was a little girl I was super sensitive to all these emotions around me, from not just people but trees, birds, the leaves, the wind, the grass, ocean. Like they would talk but in a different language altogether, not one you could hear, just feel and translate into words. It was interesting because I’d listen to the trees and the ocean, the leaves - to try to hear what they were saying. What I found is they hold a resounding wisdom, a kind of peaceful noble existence but not devoid of what we go through in terms of emotions like anger, feeling pretty lol, content, sadness - just like the way pets experience emotion and have their own way of expressing it. It’s almost exactly like that.
I like to say in lieu of pets growing up, I had a pet tree.
@PrettyLuv that’s a very nice contribution to this thread! It’s funny after I saw Lord of the rings trilogy I always felt like trees had some sort of energy to them. I can’t really describe it, but I always felt like they were living beings. And then I started feeling that way about all things in nature.
Yeah exactly @lonelytauros And they do listen:
Animism includes rocks, rivers, and other natural phenomena. It's one of the oldest known belief systems. I wonder if today that would include dark matter?
@lonelytauros I have been a animist for about 12 years now I think. So I believe in it.
@Bear thank you for sharing!
As far as we know, what we call physical matter is all composed of combinations of the same fundamental particles. These particles also behave like energy and waves and have probabilistic characteristics when viewed from a quantum mechanical standpoint. A Nobel prize was recently awarded for research that shows that that universe is not locally real (meaning it does not have fixed properties, but changes with observation).
So, it is not out of the realm of possibility that all matter is living and connected, with flexibility in the definition of these terms being required.
Certainly I think we could say that we’re all connected by gravity, for example.
That which remains unknown to us is, I believe, vast.
I'm inclined to believe that there is something soul like in everything yet I do not dwell on it. I personally had a near death experience last about four and a half minutes. It is too much to share here. Why I mention it is after my experience, I lean towards reincarnation. So, if you're an ant being stepped on, a plant being harvested for food or a soldier dying in combat, it brings to mind that the souls are being recycled. I'm not a physics scientist but I believe in the basic tenant that matter and energy are never destroyed but change form. What is a soul but spiritual energy. Meanwhile be as kind as you safely can be and cuddle your hearts out.
I was raised on Animism, with some intersecting Buddhist values as a kid. It was brought up fluidly in conversations, like food for thought, informing us on deeply held cultural values. We weren’t told it was the only truth to believe in nor was there an expectation to remember. I’ll take this approach over extreme practices any day. Though with that amount of lenience, I’ve been struggling to recollect the knowledge. Documented info on the internet has been Westernized and retranslated several times down to palatability, like many other non-mainstream religions— though I don’t think there’s any harm with Animism. The message at core is simple and encourages compassion, I’d just like to preserve some nuance.
I need to specify I’m only familiar with Asian Animism, considering it’s more common in Western African countries… and we know geographically widespread religions encompass more belief variation.
I'm open minded enough to realize there is far too much about our existences that can't be explained in 100 percent accurate terms so I'm open to different opinions and theories .
I've followed it for a very long time. Actually was following for years and didn't know there was a name for it until a few years ago. It just makes sense for me.
Shintoism in Japan offers a great representation of animism.
After completely leaving orthodox religions, I kind of stumbled upon something sort of like this.. If everything is made up of the same stuff, wouldn't it be like different sized and shaped icicles in a stream? The pieces all look and move different, but when it's all melted down, it's ALL made of the same stuff: water. <<This idea keeps me sane
Sorry if I haven’t responded to everyone’s comments, but I just want to say everyone’s contributions have been greatly appreciated
Makes me think of this, from Babylon 5.