Why it’s ok to believe: Where spirituality and science can meet and shake hands.

It’s not so woowoo any more. Neuroscientists and physicists have been able to quantify the data on various elements of what we may call consciousness. 

How does meditating over flowers make them grow better? 

While there’s data to suggest something, of what - we are still exploring. 

Growing up I was aware of things that I couldn’t explain, see things I couldn’t explain and that scared me so I shut down. 

We fear what we don’t understand.

As we begin to feel comfortable asking creative questions to use the scientific method to explore, it becomes less woowoo.

As adults, what if instead of shutting down, or reacting to fear, we asked open ended questions?

Exploration. 

As I reflect on our past a little bit deeper, some of our ancestors used God to help explain what they couldn’t understand. Fast forward with the ability to measure theories with many more accessible tools from mathematical equations to experiments in a lab, scientists have become the new God. The pendulum has shifted from one extreme to the other. 

Heck, even in our analysis of the universe, if there is something we can’t explain, we say it’s aliens!

• Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist

What the major takeaway here is that everything is a theory and some are more true for a time, until a new theory emerges. What we really need is a balance of creativity AND science, a blending of the logical and the spiritual. 

We need to be OPEN to all possibilities.

In application, I do not trust anything I see or read on social media or even in most news outlets. I trust in peer reviewed journals that have been held to rigorous standards both in performing the original study and in fellow academics checking for researchers' bias. Even so, sometimes researchers choose topics that help their career rather than feel ridiculed by the academic community.

While science is supposed to explore and understand the world, and various phenomena, scientists can become rigid in long held beliefs for fear of being woowoo. 

The second application is about ‘going inward’ through movement, mindfulness, breath-work and meditation to trust the guidance that feels right for me. All too often we seek reassurance or validation from external sources over fear we are making the wrong choice. Of course we are social beings, but you are the creator of your own experience. 

In the real world, these applications can also apply to everyday choices. For example, you listen to a podcast which says that alcohol is poison and a recent study suggests that no amount is safe. What should you do? 

1. Stop drinking immediately.

2. I don’t care!

3. Look into it further.

4. Evaluate alcohol's role in your life. 

5. Other.

All of the above are perfectly fine as it is YOUR choice, no judgement. Life is about choices, not failures, opportunities for growth. Sometimes they are positive and sometimes not, but you still learn something. Please remember that you can’t change or help anybody unless they CHOOSE to. Unsolicited advice is generally not well received! 

Just to give you an example of how I approached the above, along with how I try to approach any information that comes in: 

1. Look at other relevant studies within the last 10 years or speak to your medical team (doctor, naturopath, nurse practitioner). 

2. Do not make a SNAP decision based on FEAR, because nothing in life is without risks. I am taking a risk when I drive my car or eat food! 

3. What is my family history of disease? What are my lifestyle choices: exercise, food, mental health? These are called mediating factors that contribute to overall health and wellness as well as influencing your unique risk factor percentage. 

4. How much do I drink? How does it make me feel? 

5. Make a decision that I am comfortable with that serves my best interest and that of my family. 

Those steps combine logical (scientific) and introspective (spiritual) interrogation that make me feel confident and safe in my CHOICE. 

Without both sides of our brain, the right (creative) and the left (logical) we wouldn’t be in balance. Whenever you are making all of your decisions based on your astrological chart or only healing big trauma with Reiki, pull back a bit and re-balance. Likewise, if you're so fixated on following the rules, and making 10 pros and cons lists to come to a decision, how can you invite more creative thinking into your life?

It’s ok to believe in the woowoo, it’s ok to believe in scientific fact. I love the studies that quantifiably measure the effect of Reiki in alleviating clinical anxiety in patients. I love the studies at IONS that are exploring the interconnected nature of reality with rigorous scientific methods. 

"If you believe that we are connected to something bigger - it’s really not about religion or even spirituality - that doesn’t mean you're stupid or gullible. You can be incredibly smart and clear headed to see that there might be a non-physical world. That is the scientific thing to do, rather than just ignore it altogether."

-Ky Dickens (documentary filmmaker and podcast creator of the Telepathy Tapes inspired by Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell, MD, Neuropsychologist, Psychotherapist). 

On a personal level, woowoo has brought nothing but love, awareness, and connection to my life. Spirituality has made my life infinitely more meaningful, not less so. To mainstream media depicting spirituality from yoga teachers to mediums as idiots, con artists (of course they exist, as they do in every profession) or out of touch with reality, it’s time to reframe woowoo and reduce the stigma of consciousness. It’s only keeping us stuck.

Stay curious my dears,