Many years ago, I was in the situation, that I was obliged to attend a Tai Chi lesson, and the circumstances were such, that I had to keep a straight face and control myself from laughing out loud.
The instructor, or guru, stood in front of the group and made weird movements with his hands and arms, and we had to imitate him. This by itself was just boring. But with every of those movements, we were supposed to imagine something. I have forgotten, what it was, but it was just absurd. The whole thing was ludicrous, but it was also creepy to see, with how much earnest the others participated.
I can hold my hands in some way in front of my belly, and I can imagine something. But both have nothing to do with each other. It made no sense. Reality is much better than imagination. It is much more joy to go on a hike, where is it beautiful.
I had forgotten about that woo-woo session, until I watched this show of Penn & Teller:
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=L4PVVNK3.
They show a woman presenting Tai Chi, and it brought my memories back. She and her disciple were just as hilarious as what I had experienced. Had I not known, that this is Tai Chi, I would have thought that someone had filmed two patients in a mental institute.
It seems that once in a while the line between spirituality and mental illness gets blurred.
In some dating-sites, people indicate to be 'spiritual but not religious'. I just read the definition of spirituality in Wikipedia. It sounds as absurd as religion, it seems to me to be a different label for the same wacko irrationality as religion, I cannot see the difference.
It is important to know oneself and to be aware of one's own values, it is important to use a lot of introspection and then logically analyze it. But this is based upon psychology and it needs no spirit, but brains and rationality.
All those weird claims of feeling connected with the cosmos and whatever else those spirituals report to experience, is beyond me. I cannot even imagine, what that would feel like. I feel what happens in my brain like joy or sadness, I feel bodily sensations like hunger or thirst, I feel sensation from the surroundings like the warm sun on my skin or a cool breeze on a hot day.
But how would I feel the cosmos? What strange feelings do those Tai Chi people have, when they make odd movements with their hands?
Those same spiritual wackos attempt to stop thinking, and they call this meditation. I prefer to enjoy thinking. Thinking is fun, thinking makes me feel good. Why on earth would people want to stop thinking?
So any man, who identifies with being spiritual, who wants to stop thinking in favor of any woo-woo and new-age wacko thing, no matter how he calls it, is not compatible with me. I am looking for someone, who is skeptical, logical and rational, and who enjoys thinking, someone who finds religion as ludicrous and hilarious as meditation and Tai Chi or any other spiritual exercises.
