Looking for God in All the Wrong Places

It can be easy to look for God in the wrong places. I have in mind the search for God in short term, intense spiritual experiences that seem to bring incredible insights when they are happening, but lose all meaning when they are over. There is nothing wrong with being carried away by music, nature, physical intimacy or any one of hundreds of pleasurable experiences (assuming the source of the experience is legal). The problem is thinking these experiences alone can bring meaning to our lives.

Twenty-five years ago, Dr. Herbert Benson wrote a book called The Relaxation Response, which described the body’s responses to a state of deep relaxation and meditation. The mind remains alert but heart and breathing rates go down, blood pressure falls, and there can be a general reduction in anxiety. Benson argued that this is the state achieved by Hindus, Buddhists and other adherents of religious traditions which emphasize meditation.

There is nothing particularly “religious” about this state of relaxation, although it can inspire reflection about one’s life, including one’s religious beliefs. Benson suggested this state could be achieved in ways that have no religious component, for example, by finding a quiet place, relaxing and reciting a sound, such as “ommmm,” that reduces distracting thoughts. The state may be similar to what is achieved in religious services, through quiet reflection, through chanting, or listening to repetitious, simple musical sounds, such as gongs, or “New Age” music that is invariably in the background at spas.

The point is not to demean these efforts to achieve a relaxed state of meditation. They can be very beneficial, if only to achieve a temporary sense of physical relaxation and mental reinvigoration. They can even be inspiring and give one a sense of direction in life, if they reinforce a framework for living that already exists. If one is comfortable and at peace with one’s spiritual life based on long-term consideration and reflection, short-term intense spiritual experiences help one to focus on these spiritual underpinnings and feel them at a deeper level.

Most of us feel a swelling of pride and patriotism when we hear the Star Spangled Banner because we believe in the basic principles on which our country was founded, even if we disagree with particular policies. In the same way, if we have found principles for living that help us rise above the day to day challenges and disappointments, we can experience them and celebrate them at a more intense level through meditation and short-term, intense spiritual experiences.

But if those principles are not there, if there is no framework for living that brings meaning to our lives, short-term feelings of spirituality disappear as surely as the fragrance of flowers disappears when we leave the garden. In that case, finding a framework for living should be the first step. Fifteen minutes of being carried away by New Age music will not get us there.