Spirituality Of The Body

Living in the modern Western world is a strange experience for many. The more we study what is good for us as human beings, the more we realize that our society was built on ill intentions. Many denominations of modern Chrisitianity especially have taught us to fear the body, to hate the body, that the body is sin, which actually dims our spirits and souls. This way of thinking intentionally ignores how the body is a healing modality. Dance and movement are ways the body expresses and generates joy within the spirit, for example. Herbs like rosemary and lavender are often ingested by the body to heal brain fog or anxiety. Modern science, metaphysics, quantum physics, and psychology are only now catching up to the knowledge and wisdom that was vastly known in the ancient world; that the healing of what we call the “mind” must be done through the body.  

Although the holy trinity in Christianity is commonly thought to be Mind, Body, and Spirit, or Son, Father, and Holy Ghost, the original scripture was written as Soul, Body, and Spirit. It was often said that “we are a Spirit, we have a Soul, and we live in a Body.” This phrase is still prevalent in some Christian circles, but in the modern mainstream, we more often hear Mind, Body, and Spirit, especially among self improvement influencers. Although some might say this rephrasing was just an honest mistake, or due to a lack of research, I believe this shift from Soul, Body, and Spirit to Mind, Body, and Spirit is reflective of a larger societal issue in the modern day; the intellectualization of the human experience. In other words, the suppression of Soul, Body, Spirit, and other senses in favor of the Mind. I believe this shift was intentional. The best way to control a population is through their beliefs, and if the population believes the Mind is more powerful and more important than the Soul, Spirit, or Body, then the population will listen to the lies of the Mind instead of listening to the truths of the Soul, Spirit, and Body. To put it simply, the Mind is very capable of lying. The Soul is not. The Soul, Body, and Spirit will always be honest about their experiences. However, if the Mind is convinced the Body or Soul is evil or unwanted, the Mind will suppress them. This suppression can be a good thing to an extent when it comes to keeping a social order, but if that social order is intent on wiping out individual’s emotions and experiences and individual truths, this type of thinking creates a population that lies to themselves; convincing themselves that “everything is fine” when it actually isn’t. To truly control a population, you must make the population lie to themselves about their own experiences and their own wants and needs and desires. To make a population lie to themselves, you must control the lies they keep in their Minds.

When we prioritize the Mind, but ignore the Soul, Spirit, and Body, we set the grounds for psychosis and mental illness. Ignoring the realities, needs, and experiences of the Soul, Spirit, and Body is to ignore honest reality in favor of the lies of the Mind. In other words, when we ignore our own experiences, or ignore the experiences of others, we ignore reality. We ignore something that actually happened. Or something that is currently happening. If we ignore reality for too long, it creates a state of psychosis, or detachment from reality. In the case of ignoring one’s own emotions and ignoring one’s own reality especially, this detaching from one’s emotions and detaching from one’s bodily experiences makes it impossible for one to take ownership over one’s life. If one is not able to feel their own emotions or feel their own body, they have lost their power over themselves in the physical realm. This is commonly seen in mental illnesses like Depersonalization Disorder, Dissassociaton, PTSD, and nervous system disorders. The body keeps the score of every experience you have ever had. (Look into Epigenetics or check out the book The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk if you are interested in this topic.) Therefore, it stands to reason that the cure is positive new experiences, not necessarily positive new thoughts. While new thoughts can be helpful, they do not change the reality of one’s situation if they are in a truly negative place physically or emotionally. It is the actions and experiences, not the thoughts, that truly build one’s Soul and cure ailments.(Harry Potter fans might remember when Dumbledore said “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”)  This is where spiritual practice can be helpful. Even those who don’t consider themselves to be spiritual feel the need to dance, sing, paint, garden, workout, walk, create, take deep breaths, or celebrate milestones with loved ones. These actions are all celebrations of life and are all considered spiritual celebrations as they keep one in good spirits. All of these actions connect the Soul, Body, Spirit, especially when they are done out of joy and love for the act itself. 

In the West, the most well known uses of the body in a healthy spiritual manner are yoga, dancing, and singing. Being able to breathe into the body and listen to what it is trying to say. A less commonly known practice that helps one process one’s emotions and thoughts is doing a mindless physical task such as walking, doodling, crafting, and shaking; where you are using your body, but turning your brain off. (Somatic exercises are also incredibly useful for those who need more emotional release.) These types of activities allow your body to process your emotions. In the past, these types of activities were ingrained into the average person’s day. Gardening and growing food, making nets to catch fish, making pottery and clothing, long walks, were just part of daily life. In the modern day, we use our brains far more than our bodies, which doesn’t allow us the opportunity to process our emotions through our bodies. We overthink and this causes the symptoms we see today of burnout and depression. Emotions need to be processed through the body because emotions live in the body, not in the mind. Again, emotions live in the body, not the mind. This is why we cry when we are sad or our muscles physically tense up when we are angry or anxious. In the past, mindless physical tasks were part of daily life which allowed people to naturally process their emotions through their bodies. Taking a long walk was a universal experience and allowed people to process their emotions and clear their thoughts. In the modern day, where everything is automated by machine, we are incapable of processing our emotions because our bodies don’t move enough to even understand what we are feeling. Or if we do move our bodies, we try to control every movement instead of giving our bodies the space to speak to us about our experiences. 

When we study English poetry, such as Edgar Allen Poe or William Blake, or poetry from the United States such as Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath, and Toni Morrison, we can see how the history of the modern Western lifestyle led to depression, psychosis, and mental illness despite the technological advances that were taking place that appeared to make life easier. The view that this is the pinnacle of civilization comes from a very narrow point of view. One that has not been exposed to multiple life experiences. Although we have advanced technologically, we are still emotionally unintelligent as a society. The fact that “emotion” and “body” are still considered almost dirty words only highlights this. Although our culture is changing, the majority still see emotional expression, especially expressions of sadness, anger, and “difficult” emotions, as a burden and something to hide or something to be ashamed of, even if they are done artistically. Ironically, this shame and repression of emotions only makes ones’ emotions more difficult to control, which is why we are seeing an increase in mental illnesses in the United States. An issue that is ignored only gets worse over time, not better. This is why we are also seeing an increase of physical chronic illnesses in the U.S. due to stress. Emotions, including stress, live in the body, not in the mind. 

In the modern day, we have replaced spiritual practice with scientific fact. This should have been a positive development, but because facts have been hidden, altered, and used for political gain the same way spiritual knowledge has been hidden, altered, and used for political gain, we cannot say that all “progress” has been positive. Living in the Western world in the 21st century, we live in a culture that values intelligence and “logic,” but demonizes and weakens the physical body, emotions, and spiritual body. This is intentional. The bare minimum for being a human is acknowledgement of one’s Soul, Body, and Spirit. In other words, acknowledgement of one’s individuality and individual experience. Strength in Soul, Body, and Spirit automatically leads to a healthy Mind, but a healthy Mind, Body, and Spirit does not automatically lead to a healthy Soul. When people say “strong minded” what they really mean is “strong willed” or demonstration of a strong spirit. Having a strong will or strong mind is a side effect of having a strong Spirit and strong Soul. Otherwise known as “being in good spirits.” The Will has nothing to do with intellectual ability or the Mind. The Will is often fueled by emotion, not intellect. In our culture, we romanticize the idea of the “tortured intellectual” or the “tortured talented artist,” as if having great ability and poor mental health is aspirational, but there are plenty of intelligent, talented people who live fulfilling lives and are happy. It is a fault of the tortured intellectual that he makes his intellect a keystone of his personality and ignores his spirit, soul, and body. He chooses to live in the lies of the mind and as a result does not acknowledge the truths and realities of the soul, spirit, or body. By not acknowledging the realities and many different experiences outside of his own mind, he is unbalanced and ungrounded. Being in his mind for too long, he has entered a state of self-induced psychosis. (This phenomenon also occurs in unintelligent people. There are unintelligent people who live too much in their own minds as well.)

There is a misconception in the modern Western world that spiritual practice makes one stupid and that being knowledgeable in the physical sciences is the only marker of true intelligence. This is likely a push back against Christianity and how spirituality has been used as a means of political control. This point of view also seems to be rooted in the Western idea that “true knowledge” lies outside the emotional and spiritual body, or outside the human experience, which ironically makes this point of view emotionally and spiritually unintelligent. This point of view fails to see the wealth of knowledge that exists within the human body and within human experiences. It neglects to acknowledge the spiritual practices that are beneficial to our health and have existed for thousands of years. We are now seeing scientists confirming that prayer, energy work, herbs, and breath work are all beneficial to our health. We are now “discovering” that the moon controls the tides of the waters on earth, including the tides of the water within our bodies. These “scientific discoveries” were common knowledge to our BCE ancestors, who knew how to tap into their bodies and how to interpret the information their bodies tried to tell them; a skill that has been lost in the modern day disconnection from our bodies and our senses. (Not to mention our loss of community. Community conversations are vital to establishing new discoveries and to cross examining one’s observations.) Often, the modern view that spirituality makes one less intelligent comes from seeing those who blindly follow a spiritual doctrine without critical thought and without acknowledging individual bodily experiences. If we study spiritual systems that predate the modern era of monotheism, we come to understand the importance of the Soul, Spirit, and Body in maintaining one’s health. 

The indigenous peoples of each region had no choice but to learn to connect with the land out of survival. Therefore, they had to learn how the Body, Soul, and Spirit were affected by the land. Egyptian symbols, many of which served as inspiration for the foundations of Christianity, often drew connections between the body and the spirit. In the mummification process, the stomach, liver, lungs, and intestines were preserved for the afterlife, while the brain was removed from the body and thrown away. This is not because the Egyptians were stupid or because they didn’t know what the brain’s function was. (There is evidence within their symbols that suggests they knew quite a great deal about the brain, which I will discuss later.)  Rather they regarded the brain as unimportant to who a person truly was. This is because they understood that one’s Being; the experiences and personality that makes us who we are; exists in one’s body. Not in one’s mind. Kundalini Vidya, an Indian spiritual study, also thoroughly acknowledges how emotions and experiences are stored in the human body, down to one’s DNA. (Look into Epigenetics if you are interested in this area of study through a Western scientific lens.) The foods one eats and the sounds one chants and the bodily experiences one has are acknowledged as powerful tools that can hurt or help you. In the Western world, the churches acknowledge this as well, as the chanting of certain sounds out loud in the physical realm is part of the spiritual practice, along with the physical act of crossing one’s forehead and shoulders and washing one’s feet. These are physical practices. Actions. Not just mental practices or thoughts. 

If we look into Egyptian spirituality, we can see how many Egyptian symbols represent the human body. Perhaps the most commonly known Egyptian symbol is the Ankh, a symbol that later inspired the Christian cross. The Ankh is known as the Key Of Life for good reason, as its image mimics what Western scientists call Willis’s Loop, a group of veins and capillaries responsible for circulating oxygen throughout the brain. Located at the back of the human brain, Willis’s Loop / the Ankh is literally responsible for the breath of life in every human being, as it allows us to breathe and think and move. While ancient Egyptians may have not seen the brain as worth preserving in the afterlife, they clearly acknowledged its function in keeping us alive in the physical realm. (Compare images of the Ankh to images of Willis’s Loop if you are interested.) Similarly, Isis’s Knot is a symbol that looks an awful lot like the structure of the human nervous system and the Djed/ Tet/ Jed pillar is often said to be Osiris’s spine. These symbols are often seen together, which makes sense from an anatomy standpoint, as the nervous system is connected to the spine and is responsible for creating and processing our physical reality through movement, our 5 senses, and our general experiences. (Compare the image of Isis’s Knot to the image of the human nervous system if you are interested.) The Wuz Scepter is another example. The scepter is often seen painted on the walls of Egyptian tombs, held by gods as a symbol of power, and with its hooked top and forked bottom, it looks a lot like the Aorta, the human body’s largest artery that is responsible for blood flow and distribution of oxygen. (Compare pictures of the Aorta to pictures of the Wuz Scepter if you are interested.) 

Once again, we see how the body was not only considered sacred, but was also seen as instrumental in creating one’s physical, emotional, and spiritual reality. 

In the modern day, being able to feel one’s true feelings is seen as a privilege because it requires a safe space to move the body mindlessly and a safe space where one can process their emotions and/ or create new positive experiences. However, to those with chronic health conditions or those who have been exposed to prolonged stress, feeling one’s true feelings and listening to one’s body is a necessity. The Mind lying to us about “everything being fine” when it’s actually not is a tool of oppression. It not only makes us sick, it also renders us unable and unwilling to heal, for fear of being perceived as “weak.” Most people in the Western world have had an upbringing that teaches a negative relationship with the body and their emotions and as a result they have a hard time knowing what truly makes them happy and alive. There is a theory that the Holy Grail, once thought to be a cup, is actually the ability to feel and understand and hold your own emotions. This is why the Archangel Gabriel, the messenger, is associated with the Water element (water symbolizes emotion) and associated with the Holy Grail. Our emotions are messengers that tell us how we feel about our experiences. Our emotions are also a key ingredient in manifesting our desires, but more on that later. A lot of people have a hard time discovering what they want from life because they don’t listen to their emotions. If we don’t listen to, and understand, what our emotions are telling us, what our bodies and souls are telling us, we forfeit the ability to understand what we truly want out of life and we forfeit the positive relationship with our bodies and emotions that would allow us to bring this wanted reality into existence.