Finding higher meaning in crisis times
I share the belief that there’s a spiritual crisis at the heart of the climate crisis and related issues. Our lives are under threat, and this calls us to look for some higher meaning and purpose which serves the greater good, and goes beyond personal desires.
A sense of meaning and purpose is one of the most basic human needs for wellbeing and even survival (for example, see Victor Frankl’s story). Belief in material progress, technology, benign government, are looking hollow these days, so what could replace them?
I’m aware that the word spiritual alarms some people, perhaps because they think it means organised religion. For me, the spiritual dimension is what unites all forms of life on Earth with each other, and with non-material dimensions (which could be called angelic, fairy, devic…) within divine unity.
So what is divine unity? You could call it love, prana, life force, yin and yang. You could call it Great Mother, Great Spirit, or Allah, God, Yahweh: but here we meet the distortions that patriarchal religions have imposed on original teachings which were egalitarian. I’m simply suggesting that there’s a spiritual energy in all forms of life which connects us and transcends personal wants.
You may wonder how spiritual beliefs help me. I have a sense of solidarity with all life which motivates me to action: I feel that I’m here to be of service to the highest good, and I pray regularly to know how; I have a sense of connection and support with divine presence; I pray for blessings and relief of suffering around the world.
There’s a view which I share with a lot of my contacts that many people feel a deep spiritual thirst, although most wouldn’t use that language. This may be especially true among young people. The Climate Psychology Alliance helped commission a large international study among 16-25-year-olds which showed that most of them, in a range of cultures across the world, felt despairing about the future, and unheard in their despair.
Spiritual community
The circumstances we all live in are getting rapidly more unstable: they will exceed the capacity of individuals and nuclear households to cope with them. I share the view of Gail Bradbrook, Rob Hopkins, Jem Bendell, and many others, that local communities will be crucial in the future we’re facing.
Local communities will be vital for mutual emotional support, as well as sharing scarce physical resources. And they will be even stronger if they share a sense of spiritual purpose. I believe that this quality already exists in many networks and movements, for example people campaigning and demonstrating for radical responses to climate change, habitat loss, social injustice and lots more.
I’m not advocating for mass adoption of some spiritual creed, but I do believe that if individuals and small groups deepen their spiritual exploration, and can name hopes and goals for the higher good that many can share, this will strengthen our collective capacity to adapt and grow through the crisis of our times.
Rebecca Solnit’s excellent book, A Paradise Built in Hell, shows how people in emergencies like Hurricane Katrina or 9/11 spontaneously act as caring communities, and not as the looting mobs portrayed in disaster movies. One reason I hope that communities can strengthen now, both spiritually and materially, is in preparation for the emergencies which may well lie ahead for all of us (see my UK Risks Review 2030).
One form of spiritual community where you can explore this idea is intentional, place-based communities. To see more about some of these which have inspired me, read my blog, Nourishing body and soul, reinventing spiritual community, via this link.
The Searching Spirit Centre
One purpose of this narrative so far is to give you some context for a new project which I hope to co-create over the next few years.
In essence, our vision is to create a small spiritual community, probably in rural Mid Wales, which welcomes spiritual searchers as working guests for a week to six months. The Searching Spirit Centre would grow much of its own food, and guests would join in the daily rhythms of the place: helping with food growing, cooking, and other tasks.
Within the grounded setting of living and working as a community, the focus of the Centre is spiritual exploration. We’d like to share with guests an experience of the teachings and practices of various faith traditions, including Christian prayer, Buddhist meditation, pagan Nature contact, and Sufi chanting. Spiritual ecology, shared silence and celebrating the Celtic festivals on the land are potential unifying threads. There would also be space for individual contemplation and study.
A third thread is living as a community, including singing together, hanging out together, finding how to deepen connections and grow through any tensions. This thread weaves with the land, as we’ll celebrate the Celtic seasonal festivals.
Next steps
A small group are currently considering pilot events for 2025, exploring locations, and gathering a potential staff team and a wider circle of supporters and advisors. You can see a fuller vision statement here.
If you’d like to explore getting involved, please contact Alan Heeks via this form.