Spirituality is a journey. Kind of like a holiday to a place you’ve never visited before, but without the luggage surcharges or the blackflies. While you have some idea of what to expect, you’re largely in the dark about the adventures that lie in wait, and it’s your anticipation of them that propels you ever forward in your expedition. But the concept works just as well in the reverse. A trip to some exciting...
It is, depending on your point of view, solid science or utter bunk. Either way, it can’t hurt. It is prayer and, says a just-published study, more of us are giving it a whirl in pursuit of relief from what ails us than ever before. University of Massachusetts researchers, whose results are published this month in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, have found that more people are praying for their...
There’s something magical about the arrival of summer, and it’s more than just the opportunity it affords to wear less clothing and play hooky on a stretch of sand. The summer solstice, poised to arrive in our hemisphere on June 21 at 1:17 pm EDT, has long been wrapped up in a kind of mystical aura. Though actually a mere instant in time—the precise moment when the earth’s axial tilt is most inclined toward the...
A scientist approaches God and says, “Listen, we’ve decided we no longer need you. Nowadays, we can clone people, transplant hearts and do all kinds of things that were once considered miraculous.” God hears the guy out before replying. “All right,” he says. “To see whether or not you still need me, why don’t we have a man-making contest?” “I’m in,” says the scientist. “Now, we’re going to do this just...
Regret is such an unpleasant emotion. It nibbles at the edges of choice, eroding certainty and filling the mind with uncomfortable contemplations. In full force, it suffocates the spirit, insisting upon a recognition of past decisions whose subsequent second-guessing can leave a soul reeling with remorse. Best to avoid the stuff altogether. A recent study out of the States—Regrets of the Typical American: Findings...