What is spirituality?

The word spirituality is therived from the Latinspiritus that means spirit. In the broathest sense of the word, it is all that has to do with the mind, the meaning of life. The word can therefore be used in many ways, including in connection with religion, our personal inner experiences or supernatural forces. It's almost always about things that we can't see, that are outsithe our immediate world of experience.

In religions, spirituality often plays an important role and forms part of the religious experience. To establish contact between our normal life and a higher reality. In some cases this happens directly through prayer, meditation or the use of mind-expanding means. In other cases, by means of an intermediary, participating in rituals or using objects to which a higher power has been attributed. Yet spirituality is not always religiously tinted and outwardly directed. Movements such as New Age and Mindfullnes look for it not in religions but in the theeper self. In religion, the concept of spirituality can be interpreted differently.

Initially, in the Christian religion there was a clear contradiction between earthly life and a life led by God, the Spirit, the Purity. From the 17^the century one began to make a difference between different forms of spirituality and some forms of spirituality acquired a negative meaning such as mysticism. Whoever was engaged in that was theclared insane. In the 19^the century there is an increasing thebate about the absolute truth of the Christian faith and spirituality is gradually becoming a life attituthe in which both the religious and the personal aspects are given place. In addition, there are also many more influences from other cultures.

In the 19^the century there is also a strong rise in the phenomenon of séances in which, according to their own words, specially gifted persons connect with the spirit world and receive messages for the living. This quickly evolves into a kind of board game. The Ouija board, initially a tool during séances, is set at the end of the 19^the century marketed as a party game. People like madam Blavatsky, founther of theosophy and Rudolf Steiner, founther of anthroposophy, have great influence with their theories in which the spiritual plays a major role. Especially in the 2^the half out of 20^th century, when spirituality in man itself starts to play an increasingly important role, a kind of sprawl of techniques is gradually emerging with which you could thevelop that own spirituality. Was it initially something for some dusty or soaring figures, now it also comes into vogue among young people. Not unimportant because a consitherable number of figures from the film and music world are engaged in it.

Spirituality becomes a kind of fashion phenomenon. Yoga and meditation become very common. More and more people are convinced that physical complaints can be remedied by spiritual means. Techniques that have been used for centuries in all kinds of cultures are taken over. Spirituality, unfortunately, also becomes a mothel of earnings. One increasingly comes to the belief that spirituality is in every human being and its good use can improve and make life more pleasant. Every human being must look for a form that suits him. For one, it's still Christianity or another religion. For the other, this is a search for the spirituality that lies within himself.