Today, the Pew Research Center says that half of Americans say they’re both religious and spiritual, 27% are spiritual but not religious, 6% are religious but not spiritual, and 18% are neither spiritual nor religious (spiritual being defined as believing in the transcendent or sacred, while religious being part of a particular religious community with a specific belief system).
People are finding spirituality in nature, in 12-step programs, at Burning Man, with a shaman in Peru, and in all kinds of disparate places. This kind of unchurched spirituality has Colonial American roots when just one in five belonged to a church and the new settlers subscribed to an eclectic set of beliefs influenced by numerology, astrology, magic, and even witchcraft. Today, 63% of Americans believe in karma, 50% believe that the spirits of the dead can interact with the living, 42% believe that spiritual energy can be rooted in physical objects, 34% believe in astrology and reincarnation, and 33% believe in yoga as a spiritual practice. So, it’s no longer about the pews and pastors and more about the pupu platter!
How do you define spirituality and has it changed as you’ve gotten older?
-Chip