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in_sherman
Stranger
Registered: 03/19/07
Posts: 224
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Stages of Spiritual Growth
#7444837 - 09/23/07 05:17 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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This is kind of a long article, but it was interesting, so I figured I'd share it. Here. The thing that impacted me the most was how these stages have mirrored my life thus far. Enjoy.
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MushroomTrip
Dr. Teasy Thighs



Registered: 12/02/05
Posts: 14,794
Loc: red panda village
Last seen: 2 years, 10 months
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Re: Stages of Spiritual Growth [Re: in_sherman]
#7444899 - 09/23/07 05:29 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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The best scale for measuring spirituality. Evah
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   All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs
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stellar renegade
explorer ofmetaphysicaldepths



Registered: 09/19/07
Posts: 201
Loc: carrollton, tx
Last seen: 13 years, 10 months
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Re: Stages of Spiritual Growth [Re: MushroomTrip]
#7444933 - 09/23/07 05:36 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Silly MT. It even says, "It also helps illuminate why there can be no single 'spiritual formula' that we can apply to every individual."
I trust if it's anything like James Fowler's ideas then it has nothing to do with comparing people to each other.
Quote:
Just as there are discernible stages in human physical and psychological growth, so there are stages in human spiritual development. The most widely read scholar of the subject today is James Fowler of Emory University, the writer of Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning.
What's funny is that I share his name (well, James is my middle name) and we have such similar interests in the relationship between spirituality/psychology, and I understood everything he was trying to say as I had passed through most of those stages at the time that I read about them.
-------------------- "I threw a small stone down at the reflection of my image in the water, and it altogether disappeared. I burst as it shattered through me, like a bullet through a bottle... and I'm expected to believe that any of this is real!" -mewithoutYou
 "To believe in the wide-awake real, through all the stupefying, enervating, distorting dream: to will to wake, when the very being seems athirst for godless repose: these are the broken steps up to the high fields where repose is but a form of strength, strength but a form of joy, joy but a form of love." -George MacDonald
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Viveka
refutation bias


Registered: 10/21/02
Posts: 4,061
Last seen: 7 years, 3 months
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Re: Stages of Spiritual Growth [Re: MushroomTrip]
#7444936 - 09/23/07 05:38 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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On that scale I am a 7.
OK, six and a half.
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MushroomTrip
Dr. Teasy Thighs



Registered: 12/02/05
Posts: 14,794
Loc: red panda village
Last seen: 2 years, 10 months
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Don't take everything so serious  Besides, what's spirituality without joking?
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   All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs
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stellar renegade
explorer ofmetaphysicaldepths



Registered: 09/19/07
Posts: 201
Loc: carrollton, tx
Last seen: 13 years, 10 months
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Re: Stages of Spiritual Growth [Re: MushroomTrip]
#7445043 - 09/23/07 06:07 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Ok, I'm fine with joking, I was just making sure I guess. I hear the comment that people are being forced into boxes by religious descriptions so much that it drives me nuts. If you don't want to be forced into boxes, people, then don't let them do that to you. Just fighting basic paranoia, I'm sure you understand. 
Anyway, back to the topic at hand: it's very interesting to me how pretty much anyone who I've heard of who has set out to delineate the passages of spiritual progress have said the same basic thing.
Usually it's along the lines of: 1) awe of outward signs, objects 2) adopting some kind of view of good vs. bad, or personal effort 3) growth in the community 4) growth individually 5) the inner darkness and despair of the human psyche, 6) resolution and a simple life of contentment and pure character.
Not all of them include every stage, but they all have the general gist down. People such as St. John of the Cross, Madame Guyon, Oswald Chambers and even Carl Jung have emphasized this transition from archetype to duality to darkness to resolution.
Intriguing stuff to be sure, especially when you experience it for yourself.
-------------------- "I threw a small stone down at the reflection of my image in the water, and it altogether disappeared. I burst as it shattered through me, like a bullet through a bottle... and I'm expected to believe that any of this is real!" -mewithoutYou
 "To believe in the wide-awake real, through all the stupefying, enervating, distorting dream: to will to wake, when the very being seems athirst for godless repose: these are the broken steps up to the high fields where repose is but a form of strength, strength but a form of joy, joy but a form of love." -George MacDonald
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