Humanist spirituality in turbulent times

By Jeremy Rodell

In this article, Jeremy considers how humanists might respond to the emotional challenges of living in a turbulent and uncertain world. While acknowledging the absence of traditional religious comforts, he explores the role of what might be called a naturalistic ‘spirituality’ in sustaining wellbeing. Drawing on thinkers such as the Dalai Lama, Sam Harris and André Comte-Sponville, he reflects on both the inner life of compassion and connection, and the possibility of transformative experiences that can shift our state of consciousness in a good direction.

Jeremy is Co-Chair of South West London Humanists, a school speaker, and a volunteer Dialogue Officer for Humanists UK. He is a former trustee of Humanists UK.

If there’s one thing on which all humanists would probably agree, it’s that human suffering is bad and human well-being is good – though our pursuit of well-being must be constrained by the needs of other sentient creatures and the health of the planet. The basis for ethics is to minimise one and maximise the other, both for ourselves and for others.

We may know intellectually that, on average, life now is more peaceful, comfortable, and longer lasting than in the past. But what matters to our own individual well-being is our present and how we see the future. Even if many of us are not directly under bombs and missiles, we have unprecedented knowledge of what’s happening in the world, and in our society. And much of it is awful. We feel it’s important to know what’s going on, but this knowledge causes us fear and anxiety, and diminishes our well-being. This isn't just an issue for humanists of course. But, as non-religious people, we don't have recourse to the comforts of a loving deity and familiar rituals in the present, or the promise of a better afterlife in the future. We know that this is it.

A baby in the bathwater

So where can we find emotional solace and resilience? There are the things everyone knows about and which we so often fail to apply, such as getting more exercise, or reducing our time on social media and talking to chatbots (both designed to secure our time and attention in order to make money for US billionaires who most of us dislike). Then there’s spending more time in nature; spending more time with people who are important to us; being kind to others, preferably in ways where we feel a real emotional connection. These last three point to what is called in schools ‘Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) development’. Spiritual – the ‘S word’. Cue humanists heading for the hills. But wait. We don't like the religious or supernatural connotations. But there’s a baby in that bathwater. Here’s the Dalai Lama:

‘I believe there is an important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality. Religion I take to be concerned with faith in the claims to salvation of one faith tradition or another, an aspect of which is acceptance of some form of metaphysical or supernatural reality, including perhaps an idea of heaven or nirvana. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, rituals, prayer and so on. Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit – such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony – which bring happiness to both self and others... This is why I sometimes say that religion is something we can perhaps do without. What we cannot do without are these basic spiritual qualities.’

Even if the ‘S word’ feels uncomfortable, it’s hard to argue with his point. The things he refers to are essential features of our humanity. And he’s not alone in reaching for that word in the absence of a good alternative. Alice Roberts, Vice President of Humanists UK, posted on social media a few years ago: ‘I consider myself a spiritual person. But it’s a natural sort of spirituality, not the sort that’s tied up with supernatural beliefs’.

Two broad categories

There are two broad categories here. Firstly, there’s ‘Inner Spirituality’, relating to our profound inner life and relationships with others. That’s what the Dalai Lama is talking about. A religious person may interpret his use of the term ‘the human spirit’ to refer to their immoral soul. But a humanist can recognise it simply as the subjective conscious experience of being human, which fills our waking hours, and provides the memories which give such a strong sense of continuity to our lives. There’s a lot of wisdom available on how to cultivate well-being in this sense, both for ourselves and for others. Sometimes it’s as simple as giving someone a hug. Sam Harris, one of the New Atheists who were so prominent 20 years ago, wrote a book called Waking Up: Searching for Spirituality Without Religion (2015) which was based on his learning from Buddhist meditation. Many people find meditation a useful practice, though it’s not easy. Humanist pastoral support work in hospitals and prisons is all about meeting the ‘spiritual needs’ of their clients in this sense – and perhaps at the same time meeting some of their own. It’s all about listening and human connection. We can all do that.

AI impression of André Comte-Sponville's experience

The other type of ‘spirituality’ (it’s hard to lose the quote marks) is ‘Experiential’, a wide spectrum of subjective experiences featuring a sense of transcendence or connectedness with something larger. The archetypal examples of experiential spirituality are what are often called peak experiences.

Here’s André Comte-Sponville, former Professor of Philosophy at the Sorbonne, from his Book of Atheist Spirituality (2009):

‘The first time it happened I was in the forest in the north of France. I must have been twenty five or twenty six… That particular evening, some friends and I had gone for a walk in the forest we liked so much.... Gradually our laughter faded, and the conversation died down … And then, all of a sudden…What? Nothing: everything! No words, no meanings, no questions, only – a surprise. Only – this. A seemingly infinite happiness. A seemingly eternal sense of peace. Above me, the starry sky was immense, luminous and unfathomable, and within me there was nothing but the sky, of which I was a part, and the silence, and the light, like a warm hum, and a sense of joy with neither subject nor object…Yes, in the darkness of that night, I contained only the dazzling presence of the All…. ’This is what Spinoza meant by eternity’, I said to myself – and naturally, that put an end to it.’ 

Sam Harris describes something very similar, and equally powerful, that he had as a young man on a tourist trip. ‘If I were a Christian, I would undoubtedly have interpreted this experience in Christian terms. I might have believed I had glimpsed the oneness of God, or been touched by the Holy Spirit.’ It’s not surprising that such intense experiences become religious experiences when a religious person has them. They seem to have some common characteristics: firstly, they are non-intellectual, usually unexpected, and short-lived. The core of the experience is a sense of transcendence or connectedness, which may be with other people, wider humanity, the rest of the universe, or simply ‘something greater’, coupled with a diminishment of the ego. They are also individual – as far as we know, the others in André Comte-Sponville’s party just carried on as normal, and more common when we are young. Finally, they are powerful, positive and memorable, and are accompanied by feelings of elation, joy, and compassion towards the world.

It’s not clear what combination of external and/or internal stimuli trigger them – presumably that varies in every case. Under carefully managed conditions, they can be induced by hallucinogenic drugs, such as psilocybin. They are essentially about a different state of human consciousness. The psychologist Abraham Maslow, best known for his hierarchy of needs, studied these peak experiences extensively. His work confirmed that they are quite common across the population. But they are rare for an individual, especially as we get older. According to Maslow, with age they give way to a ‘gentler, more sustained state of serenity’ he called plateau-experience, which be believed was more amenable to cultivation.

Shifting our state of consciousness

One way to alleviate our anxieties is to seek out experiences which may not be as powerful as spontaneous peak experiences but can still shift our state of consciousness in the same direction. All they need is a little time, and sometimes a bit of mental discipline. Music, of whatever sort you find uplifting, is the obvious example. And we are privileged to live at a time when every sort is available on tap. But you need to switch off your intellect to allow the magic to happen. It’s no good wondering whether the recording was before the original bass player left, or whether Beethoven was sticking to the rules of sonata form. Like meditation, if you drift into thinking about something else, gently re-focus, and let it take you.

Some buildings, religious buildings in particular, are often designed to invoke a ‘spiritual’ experience. You don’t have to believe the religion to be affected by the architecture and the space. But that won’t happen if you’re glued to a guidebook. Just look, and allow yourself to be quiet with it.

Nature, in particular, has the scale and capacity to invoke a sense of well-being, transcendence and connection, whether it’s a wonderful view, a majestic forest, the sound of a river, or the immensity of the night sky on a clear night – something so many of us town-dwellers rarely see.

This is not to deny our responsibility to try to make the world a better place for everyone, especially when core values we have taken for granted are threatened. Yet it’s hard to do that if we’re consumed by anxieties, especially about things over which we have no control. But we can step back and diminish their power over our well-being. And maybe we can help others do the same.

How about phoning a friend?

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Can humanists ever be comfortable with the term “spirituality”? The founding editor of Humanistically Speaking, David Brittain, interviewed Jeremy Rodell on 13 April 2022.