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We hear a great deal of people using the phrase "more spiritual than religious" currently, causing us to ponder what they really mean once they label themselves this way. It's been our experience that there really is a soul deepening distinction among spiritual and religious -- a difference we have termed spiritual emergence versus religious emergency.<br><br>Spiritual emergence is a gradual unfoldment of spiritual expression that causes a minimal 'disturbance' in our everyday functioning because we are somewhat prepared for it, given our disposition for the mystical. However, you can find individuals that experience what we call religious emergencies, which will cause significant disruptions in their everyday living, since these folks are often unprepared for mystical experiences since they consider themselves to be more religious than spiritual.<br><br>Emergent spiritual experiences like visions, deeply felt meditations, out-of-body experiences, apparitions and precognitive dreams tend to be exhilarating and life-changing and also can be very transformative -- for all those that have moved to an area of being more spiritual than religious. These same experiences, however, could also be deeply unsettling for people who fall within the category of being more religious than spiritual.<br><br>Those who tend to be more spiritual than religious appear to have less difficulty with these types of transcendental experiences. Why? Spiritually-inclined people tend to be more open to mystical experiences. They feel more linked to the transcendentalness of life. They have a spiritual, not religious, mindset! Their openness to the non-material and ethereal dimensions of reality make them the perfect recipients for these life-affirming experiences.<br><br>A part of the challenge highly religious people face in transformative experiences is staying grounded once they experience these 'higher octaves' of reality. These 'altered states of being' are generally foreign, as well as taboo, on the subject of handling their ingrained religiosity.<br><br>As a result of their denominational inhibitions, mainstream religious people often be quite reluctant to integrate highly spiritual experiences into their religious practices. They may even feel they will be bedeviled by these experiences.<br><br>Great spiritual teachers and mystics alike assure us that these transcendent experiences are natural and healthy. They see these experiences as proof of our evolving spirituality and enlightenment. They encourage us to willingly allow highly spiritual/mystical experiences to touch our lives as well as to use the memories of those experiences -- and therefore the transformative value of those experiences -- to flow into our everyday lives.<br><br>Living our lives based on embedded religious theology makes it tough to allow spiritual and metaphysical teachings into our world view. What usually happens will be the cognitive dissonance caused by the new mind-stretching 'experiential information' causes people to tighten their dogmatic reins to ensure that any progress -- and  morality ([http://www.sinchitech.edu.pe/profile/allanstandfield right here on www.sinchitech.edu.pe]) openness -- to potentially transformative truths is shut down completely.<br><br>Actually, that is the troublesome dynamic we see occurring in spiritual communities/New Thought churches/liberal churches today. If the leadership in those communities is stuck in embedded religious theology, it can make it quite challenging for the membership that considers themselves to be more spiritual than religious to get a spiritual, not religious, message. Additionally, it can make it extremely tough for the minister and music director to view eye-to-eye should the music director is hesitant to -- or outright refuses to -- change the song lyrics to complement the minister's spiritually-oriented message. It's an old story -- you know, the one about pouring new wine into old wineskins!<br><br>In contrast, in the event the leadership is actually more spiritual than religious in a church setting (holding services in a church building seen as stained glass windows and pews), the members who consider themselves to be more religious than spiritual demand a message and music which are more dogmatically religious than universally open and spiritual. The 2 factions behave like oil and water. And also the ministers who serve those divided communities operate between a rock and a hard place because making both factions happy is impossible!<br><br>If you've ever been associated with, or are currently involved in, a spiritual/religious community comprised of a culture of religious-oriented and spiritually-oriented folks in the same sanctuary at the exact same time, you know it is a recipe for conflict and division. Congregations usually blame their difficulties on going from a family size to a pastoral size to a program size, etc. While there's some truth to that perspective, the majority of the difficulty lies within the philosophical and religious differences between the spiritual and religious cultures who are at odds.