One of the most common misconceptions man is faced with, because we have been overwhelmed with church doctrine and such all our lives, is that often times we equate being a religious person with being a spiritual one. What are the differences? In this short essay, I hope to present the basic differences and show that it is false to assume they are one in the same.

RELIGION
First of all, let's take a look at what "religion" is. I heard all my life that being religious meant being pious, "being in the world but, not of the world". What this boils down to is the person who would make himself religious had to look to the book (the Bible),and all its teachings which dictated how one was supposed to live their life. Religion has been designated our new conscience, by that I mean all the creeds and laws have been designed to tell us how to act, how to think and how to interact with those around us. Religion meant going to church. Religion meant not behaving in the normal fashion of society. Religion meant giving up or restraining natural and biological urges and desires. In other words, religion is a control. Religion was a guilt trip waiting to happen. Religion meant fear, fear of our own weaknesses, fear of the motives of those around us (as they were all just trying to bring us down), fear of hell and most of all fear of God. The worst part of all this imposed indoctrination was that it did not come from god, but was the restrictive writings of men. What I mean by that is, church doctrines and creeds are the product of human writings with the express intent to let men have control over their fellow human beings. Thus giving the few the power to control the many. It all started by means of superstition and fear and someone seeing opportunity to take advantage of that fear to control others. People have been doing this throughout the course of human history. We have a recent example of that when we look at the regime of Saddam Hussein. He was a man who ruled 20 million people by fear. The Catholic church has done horrific things in its short history to "force" people to keep "faithful". The hangings the wars are but a few of the intense crimes by man against his fellow man in the name of religion. I am sure that most people are aware that individual denominations in "christianity" war with one another, so, you can tell how much conflict and hatred there would be towards people of any other completely different religion. But, being that this is not a book about that, but simply a comparison, I shall move on.

People have always been designated holy who were thought to be mystic. If a group of people could be convinced someone could control the sun or the moon or the weather or animals or whatever, they were the medicine men, the shaman, the witch doctors, et al. You have simply to follow the progression of man from his simplest understandings of nature and self to realize men in the beginning were ignorant. They knew nothing about the workings of the world or the human body or of nature. It was natural for them to "wonder" about certain things we take for granted today. Fire was a mystery. The passing of the sun and the moon were mysteries. Rain, lightning and thunder were mysteries. The changing of the seasons were mysteries. It was a time of great learning and discovery. It was a learning process that has been going on for millenium and will continue to go on throughout the course of human existence.

So, how did a person get the control or become the one that others thought had special gifts? The answer is a simple one. What is true today has been true throughtout the history of man. I read a book the other day and the writer comes to the conclusion that psychic ability is an evolutionary event. In other words, he thinks we are evolving mentally within our brain capabilities and beginning to develope our psychic gifts. This is ok to think, if that is where you are in your understanding of psychic ability, but, spirit (those from the spirit world) tells us that psychic ability has been with man forever. They also tell us that everyone has psychic ability. It's kind of like music or art ability, some think they have none and some are just better at it than others and some are masters, plus all the areas in between. And rarely do any ever express it in the same way. What I am pointing to here is throughout mans existence, there have been those who have had the "knowing" of psychic knowledge and therefore because of their gifts they have become those advisors of kings and other rulers. Again,these are those who have become the shaman and the witch doctors and such. Spirit has always talked through and too mankind with the express intent on aiding them in their life journeys. Man, being man, then turned these abilities to his advantage and knew his special knowledge gave him power over others who where not so finely tuned in their psychic abilities. With this "knowing" or "seeing" he got fear and respect and CONTROL. To keep the control, he had only to keep the people amazed and fearful. All other seers were then condemned and claimed to be false. It was a "god" who spoke through him, and "false gods" spoke through everyone else. Division was the result. Hatred was a result. Fear was a result. So, in its simplicity, that is where the concept of gods came from. When you look throughout the Old Testament, you see that all peoples had their gods and their superstitions and they were constantly at war with one another and the god with the mightiest armies was always the "true" god. Now remember, all this is the forerunner of modern day religion. Man getting messenges that gave him understanding, making him important and everyone else yielding completely to this god-man. You must understand that I do believe these people received knowledge and teaching and truth from spirit. But, I am also affirming that man being the weak species that he is, turned this knowledge to his own physical advantage. No one would do that today, would they!!!! Spirit spoke to man to help man understand his destiny, and man swapped his destiny for power and control. Leaders wrote laws and imposed punishments to be able to rule those under him. As his tribe grew, so did the problems, and more laws and more punishments had to be made. Not always to the betterment of mankind, but definately for the betterment of those in control. So, according to the rules dictated by man, churches profess heaven and hell. Heaven for those who deny self and are strictly obedient to the will of the churches and hell and eternal damnation for those who try to think for themselves and just live their lives. Therefore, that is the history of religion, that is what religion gives us and that is what religion expects us to believe. Religion wants us pious and holier than thou and separate and fearful and psychotic and guilty. As long as we are like that, we are good little sheep.

Spirit

I think, if you have read 'What is Spiritualism' then this question has been answered. To just sum up the concept of spirit, we can say it is freedom, peace, comfort, understanding and best of all, it is knowledge that we have purpose and hope and a glorious existence waiting for us. Therefore, throw off the shackles of religion, look at yourself and your neighbors with a new eye of love and seek to do service that all of mankind will be able to live in the peace and love of spirit, but, it all begins with us, you and I.