Recently I was talking with a friend, who has been a practicing psychologist for decades, about some dimensions of her profession. Many psychologists, she said, believe that the only valid or testable psychological phenomenon is one that can be examined analytically. It must have physical evidence for its presence, a physical evidence that can be explored and tested in an empirical way.
However, she added, this does not leave room for explaining an experience that may elude ready physical form, definition, or testability. It omits something that cannot be measured by conventional means or methods. Such an experience may include the spiritual.
Therein lies the problem. Someone who has had a spiritual experience knows that she has had one. But she cannot necessarily explain it in physical terms. It is something that conventional science cannot therefore easily verify nor, and this is critical, readily deny. It exceeds the boundaries of the analytical. And it cannot always be attributed to an errant or unusual psychological twist and turn.
Maybe that's why Jesus remarked many centuries ago that, "Unless one is 'born again' [from above], she cannot see the kingdom of God [in other words, fully experience God]." The spiritual bursts our analytical categories, yes, but to deny its existence is to affirm that we are ultimately nothing more than a collection of molecules and dust. If there is nothing more than this world, then we are nothing more than what the world is, that is, without any reason to be here.
Make room for what you cannot always analytically understand. You never know what you will find.
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