Is it okay/safe to challenge our long-held spiritual beliefs?

In these turbulent times, many of us are drawn to our spirituality as a means for making sense of the chaos, searching for peace and comfort, and finding our purpose. After all, there’s a reason that spirituality and the desire for religions have grow and flourished and survived for millennia, and it’s not because we are indoctrinated (though there could be elements of that) – it’s because there is truth there, if we can find it and are truly prepared to discern its meaning for our lives. But there can also be frustration if our spirituality is not meeting our emotional and spiritual needs. Often we don’t know why, and just as often we may be hesitant to ask too many questions out of fear, guilt, or shame. In such circumstances, should we repress our unrest or dissatisfaction? Or should we seek to parse out the truth from the untruth so that we can explore why we are not satisfied spiritually, and perhaps change that?

In order to undertake any spiritual journey (i.e., a journey designed to increase your spiritual understanding/facilitate your spiritual growth), or even to contemplate one, you must begin with asking questions. There is no other way. Not to ask questions is to stay where you are.

Except, many people are hesitant to begin such a journey, because they are afraid it may challenge or destroy long-held beliefs, or even that the questioning of those beliefs may be wrong. This post evaluates the merit of those concerns from a spiritual, a scientific, and a logical perspective, which I believe is a healthy analysis to use in the discernment process. Once you are armed with this analysis, what you feel ready or called to do with it regarding your own spiritual journey will be up to you!

To ease us into this discussion, there are some very basic, (hopefully) non-threatening questions that you can ask yourself, starting with: What are some basic but important spiritual truths that I need to consider in order to move forward and begin my journey?

First, before we go on, this discussion is predicated on the belief that there is a God (or “higher” power/Expanded Consciousness/Source/Creator), a higher/expanded benevolent intelligence that underlies the systems and intricacies of the universe, in all its iterations and at every level. This is supported by science. If you do not believe this, that’s completely okay, but you may not be ready (or willing) to open your mind to the following discussion. However, I would suggest reading books on the subject (there are many) that talk about the existence of a higher intelligence from a quantum physics, scientific perspective before you shut the door on the possibility altogether. You might learn something you didn’t expect. At the very least, you can speak from a more educated perspective when the conversation comes up!

And now, back to the first question:

What is spiritual truth?

For purposes of this discussion, let’s assume that there are certain fundamental, objective truths with respect to the purpose of spirituality and the breadth, nature, and power of God/Creator/Source, and that these truths must objectively exist, even if we may currently disagree on what those are, and even if they are not fully knowable nor confirmable by us. Because we cannot fully know nor confirm what are the objective fundamental truths, what is set forth below are assumed fundamental truths for purposes of this discussion.

Unfortunately, there are often “barriers to entry” when considering embarking on a spiritual journey, or personal blocks that may be standing in our way.

There are a few principal reasons that we may be feeling hesitant to start this journey:

1. Because we fear that it will threaten our long-held beliefs and compromise our belief in a higher power in such a way that it harms us;

2. Because we have been taught it is wrong to question our long-held beliefs, and therefore thinking about questioning them triggers guilt or shame; and/or

3. Because we have received harmful religious spiritual instruction in the past and are resistant to the concept of God/Creator/Source and spirituality in general.

The focus of this discussion is on the first two barriers above. It will likely not adequately address the questions/concerns for those of you that have been harmed by religious or spiritual instruction to the point that you have trauma-based resistance to spirituality (and much love to you). That warrants its own separate analysis and discussion.

I think we can all agree that if you have fear, guilt, or shame around searching for truth or questioning your beliefs, your spiritual journey will be greatly encumbered (not impossible, just made much more difficult). And I want you to feel the freedom and confidence to move forward! So this post is focused on understanding the place of fear, guilt, or shame in our spirituality and our understanding of God/Creator/Source, and whether and how fear, guilt, or shame should impact our inherent need and right to search for greater spiritual understanding/growth.

Once you have a clearer understanding, then you can make your own decision – Will you respect your long-held beliefs to the point of not questioning them despite your spiritual dissatisfaction? Or will you question them anyway and perhaps find enlightenment and peace you didn’t expect?

And if your fears and doubts are screaming at you already, be brave for the moment! Nothing in this post is designed to hurt you, and you can still pump the breaks at the end if you decide moving forward just isn’t for you.

Fundamental Gatekeeping Questions for the Spiritual Journey

To begin to sort out our analysis, it is helpful to break it down and think about some of the initial spiritual journey gatekeeping questions both from a spiritual and from a scientific perspective, and then apply logic (comprising our three-pronged discernment approach). Why is that helpful? Because such a process can help us to apply both intuitive spiritual concepts and logical reasoning (duality) and thereby not only help us discern the right path forward, but perhaps also to feel confident in that decision.

Here are three foundational questions to facilitate the application of our three-pronged discernment approach:

1. What is the nature of spirituality at its core, irrespective of (differing) religious doctrine? And can we boil it down to some fundamental truths that we can accept as an underlying assumption?

2. What is the nature of God/Creator/Source? Are there fundamental truths that we can observe? And are there fundamental truths about what he/she/it is not?

3. How do those conceptual fundamental truths align or not align with fear, guilt, and shame, spiritually, scientifically, and logically?

Question 1: What is the nature of spirituality at its core, irrespective of religious doctrine? And can we boil it down to some fundamental truths that we can accept and hence move forward as an underlying assumption?

From a spiritual perspective, if we search our hearts and also consider the most fundamental teachings of the world’s greatest spiritual leaders, most of us that currently believe in a higher power would acknowledge that unconditional love and peace are the (or are at least amongst the) highest spiritual aspirations in terms of what we each can hope to expect or attain in this life or the next.

• This may seem intuitive, but we can also validate this assumption by confirming that the spiritual aspirations identified above align to the most common identifying characteristics of your belief system’s ultimate spiritual reward (e.g., heaven, paradise, nirvana, freedom from karma, etc.).

• We also know from our experience as emotional beings that fear, guilt, and shame pull us away from those aspirational ideals. In other words, when we experience fear, guilt, or shame, it makes it harder to experience unconditional love and peace.

From a scientific perspective, we can further evaluate the elements of spirituality as we’ve defined them above. Scientists have observed that disparate energetic particles are connected across great distances in ways we cannot see nor fully comprehend, as part of the quantum field, and that such particles are influenced by each other, dependent on vibrational resonance and other factors. Since we are energetic beings (a scientific given), these energetic connections must also impact and be indicative of important aspects of spirituality.

Summary Observations: These concepts are pretty straight-forward and, so far, not threatening! Yet, based on those limited concepts, we can deduce certain Fundamental Truths (at least for purposes of this discussion – feel free to challenge them when we are done here, and certainly let me know if you have additional or differing insights!), as follows:

• Purist-form spirituality involves the pursuit of high spiritual aspirations including unconditional love and peace.

• We are energetic beings, and energy is connected in ways we don’t fully understand.

With me so far? Good!! Now onto Question 2.

Question 2: What is the nature of God/Creator/Source?

Are there fundamental truths about what is that we can observe? And are there fundamental truths about what he/she/it is not?

From a spiritual perspective, if God/Creator/Source is the creator and administrator of a reward that encompasses our highest spiritual aspirations like unconditional love and peace, then it intuitively follows that God/Creator/Source must reflect and embody unconditional love and peace (among other high aspirational qualities).

This brings up an interesting point to ponder (and this is a tough one because it can cause some cognitive dissonance). Because of the unconditional aspect of the presumed highest spiritual ideals, an entity that embodies such qualities would preclude characteristics that diametrically opposed those qualities. Let’s take unconditional love as an example. In order to embody unconditional love, there can be no conditions – that means no judgment or punishment. Inherently, conditionality and unconditionality are mutually exclusive.

If you firmly believe in a God that judges and punishes, there are three alternatives here:

• God embodies unconditional love, but some of his lower vibrational subordinates carry out the judging and punishment on his behalf;

• God does in fact judge and punish, which means that his/her/its nature can at the most be conditional love, which causes a disconnect with our belief about the nature of our ultimate reward. If there is a disconnect there, this could be a big roadblock for you. But don’t let it be! At least right now. Instead, be gentle with yourself and identify your follow-up questions and table them for the moment; or

• Your beliefs are incorrect, and God does not in fact judge and punish (this can also cause you some cognitive dissonance with your long-held beliefs – for now, just capture your concerns/questions and table them).

Additionally, from a spiritual perspective, if God/Creator/Source represents and embodies the highest, ultimate reward (heaven, paradise, nirvana, etc.), then he/she/it must also be the ultimate being in the universe (most monotheistic religions believe that God/Creator/Source is omnipotent, or possessing infinite/unlimited power).

If you look at this question from a scientific, quantum physics perspective, we cannot currently conceptualize and scientifically measure the breadth, nature, and power of a pervasive intelligence. However, many quantum physicists believe that scientific experimentation demonstrates evidence of intelligent, interconnected organization and adaptive processes that exists expansively outside and in between that which we can actually see and perceive and that functions in astounding and infinite ways much of which are beyond our current understanding. This is congruent with the existence of one underlying intelligent ‘Source’ across dimensions with corresponding expansive (i.e., unlimited/infinite) power.

There is also objective scientific evidence that love, peace, gratitude, compassion, and similar positive emotions have higher vibrational frequencies than fear, guilt, and shame, and that higher vibrations have significantly more influence/larger impact (i.e., power) in the quantum field. Furthermore, it is widely scientifically observed that vibrations attract and “resonate with” and also “are reinforced by” like vibrations, and that therefore the opposite is also true – vibrations are not attracted to nor do they resonate with dissimilar vibrational frequencies.

Summary Observations: These concepts are a bit tougher to navigate. Not only are they a little more complex, but they may have stirred up some resistance in you based on your long-held beliefs. But again, be gentle with yourself and temporarily suspend your resistance, at least until you finish reading this analysis. So based on these concepts I’ve just introduced under Question 2, we can deduce certain additional Fundamental Truths (at least for purposes of this discussion – again, feel free to challenge them when we are done here, and certainly let me know if you have additional or differing insights!), as follows:

• If our understanding of the spiritual reward is accurate, and if it aligns with the highest spiritual aspiration, then God/Creator/Source must embody those same ultimate spiritual aspirational qualities and would have corresponding ultimate power.

• Unconditional love and peace exist at the highest vibrational frequencies and therefore have significantly higher vibrational frequencies than fear, guilt, and shame and attract like vibrational frequencies (and in fact are made more powerful by resonant vibrational frequencies).

Now for the really good stuff!

Question 3: How do those conceptual fundamental truths align or not align with fear, guilt, and shame?

To find out, let’s now combine these fundamental truths identified above, and apply some logical extrapolation:

• Logical extrapolation #1: If God/Creator/Source embodies the very essence of unconditional love and peace (which exist at the highest vibrational frequencies), then scientifically he/she/it must therefore be the highest vibrational entity and likewise would only attract, resonate with, and be increased by similarly high vibrations.

• Logical extrapolation #2: If God/Creator/Source has unlimited power then, by definition, it cannot tolerate any limiting influence on its power, including lower vibrational frequencies. In other words, what is unlimited cannot be limited.

• Logical extrapolation #3: If God/Creator/Source is the highest vibration and will not/cannot tolerate limiting frequencies, then vibrationally there can be no fear, guilt, nor shame that exists within him/her/it. So, therefore, it follows that fear, shame, and guilt cannot be of or from God.

Read that again:

Fear, shame, and guilt cannot be of or from God.

Are you already beginning to question what you’ve been brought up to believe? You may even be thinking, what will my Jewish, Catholic, [insert other descriptor] mother say, because fear, guilt and shame are cornerstones to her entire belief system and parenting philosophy! I say that with humor, but also with underlying honesty. Because that ingrained belief system is exactly what we are challenging before we even really begin. And if you are beginning to question, that’s okay! No need to fear! The truth is, religion becomes muddied when the agendas of man interfere with spiritual truth.

Let’s revisit and reaffirm our basic premise before we continue our discussion:

As demonstrated above, God/Creator/Source must be spiritually aligned with our ultimate spiritual reward, which is characterized by the highest vibrational aspirational ideals (i.e., the combination of unconditional love and peace). Thus, the goal of spirituality and religions fundamentally must be aimed at the attainment of the highest of these aspirations, meaning unconditional love and peace. This is regardless of whether you currently believe that such attainment is only possible through devoted worship, through faith alone, through birthright or bloodline, through baptism, through observing rituals, through works, through clearing karmic debts, etc.. It also doesn’t matter whether you believe the attainment of the reward is only available in heaven (or if you don’t believe in heaven or an afterlife at all), or if you believe that you can reach this highest state of nirvana or enlightenment through living many lifetimes on Earth, etc. The how, when, and where doesn’t matter for the moment. Only the what – that is, fundamentally, what is the ultimate goal/reward.

And now for the next big logical leap. Are you ready? Here we go:

If the goal of spirituality and religions fundamentally is [or should be] aimed at the attainment of the highest of these aspirations which is aligned with the greatest reward, meaning unconditional love and peace, then it must also follow that what is true with respect to spirituality and the related workings of God/Creator/Source must be those ideals and beliefs that lead us toward unconditional love and peace, and away from anything that would diminish unconditional love and peace, including fear, guilt, and shame.

Think on that for just a moment before you read on, and then stay with me as I add one more concept into the mix:

If our human experience is finite but our spirit is eternal (and even if you don’t believe it is eternal in terms of an afterlife, perhaps you will at least acknowledge that the spirit represents the energy that can never be destroyed, even after the body turns to dust, then it must follow that you are actually a spirit that exists in this time and place in the third dimension to live a human experience on the physical plane. In other words, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are Spiritual Beings having a physical, human experience. This concept is reiterated across many spiritual books, as well as in religious texts (though you may not have read them that way in the past).

But sit with that for a moment and see how it feels inside:

• Does it feel good and right in your mind and inside your emotional experience to it, and does it also resonate in the part of your body that recognizes truth (for me that is a peaceful feeling or fluttering in my heart space)?

• Or does it feel wrong (beyond interpretation/filtering by your ego) in your mind and inside your emotional experience to it, and does the wrongness resonate in the part of your body that recognizes lies (for me that is a sick feeling in my gut)?

Because you are at the beginning of your journey and your ego is still dominant and likely defensive, challenge whether your feelings above are accurate, particularly if it feels wrong. If it feels wrong, consider whether there are limiting beliefs held by your ego which are causing you to misinterpret it. Challenge whether your reaction to the concept that we are spirit having a human experience is actually resistance attributable to a limiting belief that is not true, or whether it objectively is not true. We should always do this as part of the discernment process, which only works successfully when we can rise above our ego through our connection to Spirit and Divine truth.

If after meditation and discernment it truly doesn’t feel true to you, I respectfully submit that you do in fact have limiting beliefs around this because, in this case, I firmly believe this to be a fundamental objective truth:

We are energetic spiritual entities having a human experience.

If you don’t recognize that you have limiting beliefs, it may be because you are not yet ready to. You are the only person that can know whether you are ready yet or not to face that belief and what it signifies for you and what you need to release in order to learn from it and move forward. There is no shame in not yet being ready, so don’t manifest shame. Remember -- shame cannot come from God! Though in the interest of getting through the end of this worthy analysis, I still encourage you to table your dissonance for the moment and keep reading.

So let’s say you can acknowledge that the posits above feels true to you (and understanding you likely have not read any of my suggested books on the subject or read other sources at this point), then there is another foundational principle that also becomes evident from this conclusion. And that is this:

If our beliefs about our spirituality or religion, God or salvation, inspire fear, guilt, or shame in us, not only are they not from or of God, but they are also spiritually and scientifically limiting our access to higher vibration and therefore prohibiting us from the attainment of our religious/spiritual purpose.

Since we are souls/spirit living a human experience, this limitation applies to our soul/spirit, outside of space, time, or the physical world. In other words, it doesn’t matter the how, when, or where you are, whether you are living or dead, what you’ve accomplished in your religious journey on Earth or in the afterlife, according to your religious beliefs. It is limiting you in a profound, pervasive way at the Spirit level.

If you dare, consider this nugget:

Living in conditions that block our closeness with God /Creator/Source

and/or our ability to grow closer to God/Creator/Source

is the very definition of hell.

Likewise, if the thought of questioning spirituality causes us to fear that our beliefs may be challenged so much that we stop questioning, we have just identified that we hold an overriding belief that our religious/spiritual beliefs need to be protected and therefore we instinctively fear challenges to those beliefs. This overriding belief is rooted in fear and thus is also limiting our access to higher vibration and therefore prohibiting us from the attainment of our religious/spiritual purpose.

If you haven’t figured it out (and I bet you have!), fear is the clue here (though you can also insert guilt or shame, and the logical progression and conclusion are the same). If you are fearful either because of your beliefs or fearful to question your beliefs, that cannot be from God.

Because spiritually, and from a place of unconditional love, God/Creator/Source wants you to come toward him/her/it, not to move away. And scientifically, high vibration desires and attracts and resonates with high vibration.

Therefore, if you embrace low vibrational expressions of fear, guilt, or shame,

you cannot vibrationally be close to

or move closer to God/Creator/Source. 

There’s a whole lot to unpack about what our religious upbringing has instilled in us in the way of beliefs that inspire fear, guilt, or shame in us. But that is not the focus of this post. Rather, the focus of this post is to empower you to lay aside your fear, guilt, and shame with confidence and peace so that you become free to embark on your personal spiritual journey.

To recap:

We do not have to fear

the questioning of our beliefs

because to fear the questioning,

or the answers we might uncover,

moves us away from God/Creator/Source and

therefore cannot be “right”

according to our spiritual objectives,

nor can it be from or of God/Creator/Source.

But there’s one more important point to be made:

There is also no need to fear what we may learn as we begin this journey. Because if God/Creator/Source exists between and around all of the things we can perceive, and if we have determined, both spiritually and scientifically, that God/Creator/Source has unlimited power, then he/she/it is bigger than all things we can conceive or believe, and thus:

 Nothing we can learn can change nor threaten

the existence nor the nature, breadth, or power of God. 

Therefore, we can rest easy knowing that our questioning, especially when aligned with our spiritual desire to grow closer to God/Creator/Source, will be divinely guided and will allow us to expand and deepen our spirituality in a way that will bring us closer to God, by design.

A divinely inspired spiritual journey will strengthen us,

not diminish us.

If you are beginning to have some eye-opening revelations (like I did when I first began to contemplate and understand these concepts), don’t feel bad that you have not questioned before!

First of all, if you feel bad about fears you’ve had in the past (maybe even up to this very moment), you are manifesting and experiencing guilt/shame. And we’ve already established that does not come from God! Additionally, as the saying goes, when you are ready to learn, the teacher will come. So if you have not felt comfortable questioning your beliefs with an open heart before, you likely were not ready.

But if you can become ready now, you are in for something special! And your teachers, in various forms (i.e., people, writings, situations, intuitive insights or guidance, etc.), will present themselves to you, just when you need them.

A word of warning though:

You may find that what you learn triggers painful reactions/memories (i.e., activates your pain bodies you hold within) which is a sign that you need to work to resolve and release something. Or this questioning search could trigger some realization that pushes you to change your perspective and possibly requires a change to your behavior. Those triggering events are actually blessings because they highlight for you areas that require healing work, potentially both for you and your relationship with others.

If you choose not to fear these things that come up for you but rather choose to meet them with courage, and to work to resolve and release them, you will find great peace on the other side. And your Spirit will begin to ascend in its spiritual journey, while you are on this earth. Isn’t that a wonderful thought?

One more thing -- you are not on this journey alone…

We are led on this journey by our Divine Team, a collection of our spirit guides, ancestor guides, guardian angels and Ascended Masters (e.g., Jesus, Buddha, Mary, or maybe saints, prophets like Muhammed, other gods or goddesses, etc.) in the spiritual realm that all love us, know the truth, and were designated by God/Creator/Source to help guide us or that we can call upon (like we often do through prayer). These are high vibrational beings who exist in love and therefore do not align with the lower vibrations of fear, guilt, and shame, nor do they align with deception, anger, etc. So you can trust them. And if you can practice cultivating higher vibrational thoughts and emotions and quiet your mind and ego, you can hear them through resonance of Spirit (in the Christian faith, we sometimes refer to this divine resonance as the Holy Spirit). Often it feels like intuition or gut feelings, though you may literally hear their words or see visions of what they want you to know. (More on that at a later time!) Isn’t that so comforting?

Final thoughts:

Consider what good news this is! If fear, guilt, and shame have no place in the true spiritual path, then that means pursuit of spirituality (through religion or otherwise) is important and worthy not because of guilt, responsibility, fear, shame, nor because of (wildly differing) religious doctrine or subjective interpretation or belief, which is frankly incongruent and leads to much dissonance in the hearts of believers. Rather, spiritual growth is objectively important and worthy of pursuit because its ultimate purpose is to lead us back to God/Creator/Source, that is to the ultimate seat of unconditional love and peace accompanied by a transcendental understanding of our divine connectedness (i.e., what one may term fully actualized enlightenment). It is also fully and uncompromisingly inclusive, because unconditional love is, by definition, love without judgment and therefore must be equally applicable and available to all. Fully actualized vibrational ascension/expansion truly is the ultimate reward – all negative vibrational experiences including pain fall away and expansive, connected love and understanding and peace abound. And every divinely guided step in our spiritual journey that moves us in that direction is a blessing.

Not only that, but along our journey as we slowly ascend in our understanding and become more enlightened, the higher our vibration becomes and the more our vibrational frequency positively impacts the world. That is scientific fact.

Also, you may take comfort that the foundation of your religious beliefs very likely includes important spiritual truths, though you may or may not have learned them that way. So you may find that there is no need to abandon your faith, but rather that you can expand it and take it to a new level of understanding. Don’t be afraid to elevate your understanding of your current religion/spiritual framework, as it may deepen your faith and root it better in truth. Yet another blessing of letting go of the fear, guilt, and shame and of asking the hard questions!

So if you are beginning to question your beliefs, rejoice in that! It is a sign you may be ready to move to a higher vibrational/increasingly expanded (in the light) level of spirituality and closer to God. In fact, it may be why you decided to open this post and read it through to the end (as always, your Divine Team is looking out for you and is eager to connect you with your teachers!). Do not fear your questions, but rather ponder them with an open mind and heart and ask your guides for insight through prayerful meditation as part of your discernment process. Do these things, and it is my firm belief that there is great healing and joy and hope in store for you!

So what do you say? Are you ready to let go of your fear and embark on your own spiritual journey?

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Copyright 2022 by Angela Hoke, The Elemental Soul. All rights reserved. This article/post may not be reproduced or distributed, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of the author, and any quotes or concepts referenced or excerpted may not be shared without appropriate attribution to the author.

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