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www.Superfunctionalism.com
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INTRODUCTION
As your emotional center, your spirit shapes your thought process as well as your impact on those around
you. Your spirit also serves as the indicator of the vibrancy and impact of your life. While spiritual health is
vital to success and happiness, your spirit, conversely, cannot be developed to 100 percent of its potential
unless your mind and body are also healthy and in balance with each other. Just as a chain is as only as
strong as its weakest link, no part of your self will be able to reach its full potential without the full
development of your other parts.
Improvement in your spirit will equate to improvement in your health, your attitude, your interactions with
others, and even increase your overall happiness and satisfaction on a daily basis. The techniques for
improving the spirit fall into two categories: tactics for an immediate attitude adjustment and strategies for
long-term transformation of your outlook on the world.
What we are not referring to:
Unless you have spent considerable time and energy studying spirituality, religion, and philosophy, it is
likely that you have a mass-media interpretation of the meaning of the word “spirit,” which will not be
sufficient for understanding the content of this webpage. That is, you either think spirits are “ghosts,” or you
think that it is part of something “religious.” Of course, even if you have studied spirituality extensively, then
you know that there are no two people who define it in exactly the same way. For these reasons,
Superfunctionalism defines spirituality in its own right, and does not speak to the other existing definitions of
the word Spirit.
Superfunctionalism’s definition of spirit:
The spirit, for purposes of understanding Superfunctionalism, is the misunderstood portion of the human
condition: the part of mankind that makes us feel alive, the source of our creativity, the center of our
emotions, and the indicator of our well-being and balance. It is the “flux capacitor” for our “life force”, and
what separates man from machines, which arguably can be said to have “minds” of sorts, and “bodies” of
sorts, but no independent will power, nor an urge to create, nor moral judgment capabilities (at least, for
now). [link to robots taking over science article: harper’s or even time or the NY city museum]
Your spirit is the part of your self that feels emotions, seeks fulfillment, and makes life worth living. When
you feel the sun on your skin, there are many feelings going on at once. Your nerves feel the change in
temperature; your mind registers the knowledge and other associated memories you have connected to the
sun, and your spirit feels satisfaction, freedom, peace, and happiness.
Your spirit is an indicator of your balance of mind and body, and an unhealthy person will suffer spiritually.
The Scientific vs. Religious Take on the Spirit
Recently, neurologists have adopted the view that there is no actual “spirit”, or “soul”, in the sense of a
separate presence that inhabits and drives the body and mind like a car and survives after we die. Rather,
they have concluded that everything, from emotions, to personality, to spirituality, and every sense of self-
awareness and identity, is housed in the brain. The spirit, or what we thought was the spirit, the conclude,
is actually less than the brain, is a by-product of the brain’s functioning. They explain the complex feelings
of emotion and wonder and awe simply as additional products and evidence of the magnificence and
mystery of the human brain.
Religions and spiritualists, however, historically have believed that there is an eternal soul, or that at least,
there is a certain external driving factor that causes our awareness and uses the brain as a tool, with a
separate and greater existence than being a by-product of the brain’s processes, as believed by the
neurologists. In the Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield describes a spiritual energy force similar to that
ever-popular ‘Force’ of Star Wars fame.
The dichotomy between the neurological view and the spiritual/religious view is perhaps a mystery beyond
our capacity to solve at present. Clearly, one explanation for the difference in opinion is the relative
occupations of the advocates: neurologists promote the all-importance of the brain while religious
professionals promote the all-importance of the soul. Psychologists promote nurture over nature.
Pharmacists want you to take drugs. Every profession, it seems, logically, promotes the beliefs that will
tend to foster the continued existence of the profession. That’s capitalism.
A Pragmatic Approach
As Superfunctionalists, it doesn’t matter which side you choose, which opinion you hold, or whether you are
waiting for more information with which to form an opinion. The reason is that regardless of the “why”, the
techniques for spiritual transcendence, personal satisfaction, and emotional balance work nonetheless.
In analogy, it doesn’t matter if you believe that there is a tiny band inside of your stereo, or you believe that
spare electrons excite magnets connected to paper cones to create invisible waves which impact a
membrane inside a hole your head, whose movement is interpreted by your brain. If you push the “on”
button, you’ll hear something.
Religion is not necessary in our discussion of the function of the spirit, because whether religious or not,
the spirit behaves the same way. For some people, religion is necessary for their spirituality, for others it is
not. For either one, there is room for whatever beliefs you hold within a Superfunctional lifestyle. One truth
about spirituality that Superfunctionalism does advocate is that close-mindedness and dogmatic religious
aggression toward other human beings only leads to hatred and resent, which harm not only the target, but
also the initiator.
To keep a healthy spirit is to foster a feeling of transcendental happiness, whether through creativity,
wonder, meditation, prayer, adventure, or fun. To keep a healthy spirit is to love and get the most out of
the very idea and fact that you are alive.
THE FUNCTION OF THE SPIRIT
The function of the spirit is to regulate your mind and body’s interaction with the world. While your spirit
serves as your wellspring for emotions, creativity, and compassion, your spirit also acts as an indicator of
your performance, of the success of your chosen attitudes and opinions, and the level of balance you’ve
been able to achieve internally. You will know that your spirit is suffering because of depression, withdrawal
from social interaction, sullenness, worthlessness, listlessness, loss of feelings of purpose, or complete
breakdown of the psyche.
YOUR SPIRIT’S IMPACT ON YOUR AND YOUR LIFE
When the spirit is healthy and vibrant, you will naturally exhibit leadership, charisma, positivity, happiness,
publicity, networking, transcendence, and peace. That is, you will be happy, positive, satisfied, and in love
with life no matter what the current situation may look like in its worst light, without any extra effort!
Transcendence will allow you to become the person who just naturally sees the silver lining without even
looking for it. Because all human beings have a human spirit as one third of their composition, people
around you will respond in kind. Things will go easier for you. You will gain new friends with ease. People
will grant your wishes with less hassle, and you will gain support of people you don’t even know, because
you will be an inspiration to them.
On the other hand, when your spirit is unhealthy, you may become obese, mentally volatile, irresponsible,
distracted, lazy, or a host of other concerns. You will become stuck in a rut, or for one reason or another,
become dissatisfied with life. Because negativity is an infectious virus, people will shun you for spiritual
decrepitness. They will have impatience toward you, avoid you, dislike you, and reject your desires.
People will trust you less because they will doubt your motives.
THE BENEFITS GAINED FROM SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
Spiritual development, when properly and sufficiently pursued, will lead to transcendent spirituality. It is
possible to reach a state of transcendent spirituality. Transcendent spirituality is evidenced by compassion,
optimism, and love for all, regardless of external circumstances. Be sure to contrast transcendence with
detachment and apathy. Transcendence is not characterized by “aloofness or empty-headedness,” as the
Dalai Lama points out, but rather by liberation from the part of you that reacts to external circumstances,
and a development of the part of you which is eternally happy.
Some people define this capacity as “maturity.” There indeed a lot of similarities between maturity and
transcendence. Maturity involves the calm acceptance of unpleasant events or negativity from others.
Maturity includes being able to bounce back after a disappointment, or to be good to another person,
despite their bitterness or vindictiveness toward you. However, maturity is only one affect of achieving
transcendent spirituality, which is encompasses more than just mere maturity. Where transcendent
spirituality goes above and beyond maturity is that with Transcendent spirituality, you are also seeking to
move toward perfect happiness.
Transcendent spirituality allows for the application of Stephen Covey’s first habit, Proactiveness, from his
book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Proactiveness is defined as acting on your own
initiative, rather than in response to external circumstances. Transcendence is the ultimate spiritual state in
which, happy and content with everything, you act only in wise judgement in order to bring about your
deliberate intentions. In this state, you only to listen to your inner voice, your unique internal vision, the
architect of your future. External factors no longer can distract you from that voice or cause greed,
violence, anger, or impatience. Through transcending (rising above) our environment, we can be free to
follow our moral compass, which is naturally inclined to be positive, compassionate, intelligent, and
creative.
Externally, the affects of a healthy spirit will manifest through motivation, inspiration, creativity, ingenuity,
interconectedness, and all of the positive character traits you will need to carry out your life’s mission.
When you achieve spiritual transcendence, you have permission to do whatever you really want,
because no one or thing can discourage you but yourself.
TECHNIQUES FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
Techniques for achieving a spiritual state of transcendence and Superfunctionality include meditation,
affirmation, and mental re-wiring. Finding spiritual enlightenment consists of two types of techniques: tactics
for an immediate attitude adjustment, and strategies for long-term transformation of your outlook on the
world.
The spiritual techniques which you can use at any time to put yourself in a better mood, or to make an
emotional adjustment or see things from a better perspective are the techniques for attitude adjustment.
The spiritual techniques designed to boost your “happiness set point” permanently, to change your
reactions to situations rather than to deal with adverse reactions after they’ve happened, and to cause an
everyday, unconscious adaptation from a dissatisfied grouch to a vibrant being are the techniques for long-
term transformation. Both types of techniques are necessary to practice on a daily basis if you are to
achieve true transcendence.
Below, this page will address many techniques for spiritual development and balance, as well as index many
popular sources for further study. Do not feel boxed in by traditional attitudes about spirituality.
In the above chapter, Mind, meditation was discussed as a way to visualize success and to create and
strengthen neurological connections in your brain
Here, meditation will serve as a way to unlock your transcendent spirituality. This exercise is best included
as an initial visualization prior to going into any other part of your visualization, such as the part where you
perform a recital, or swing a bat. The goal of this visualization is to grow the part of your spirit which is
transcendent, and to discard the part which is mired and bogged down by discouragement and material.
What to do:
Creativity develops a person’s spirit because it is a reaffirmation of your own existence; of your own effect
on the world around you, and a vindication of your life, your mind, your heart, your very hands with which
you can shape or build. Art, music, engineering, repair, writing, or any other form of expression, creation,
or invention is the most significant activity you can do
To resist creation, or to resist expression, will severely damage your spirit, because a stifled existence is
not meant for the spirit. Stifling your spirit will make you depressed, because it is through your spirit that
you even appreciate your existence, or feel reaffirmed in the value of your own life. Without that value, life
is worthless, and pale.
Even if you don’t want to pursue a career in art music, photography, engineering, or anything else creative,
it is best to stil find a creative outlet through which to change the world and express your Self. That is,to
express the unique individual existence and point of view that no one else ever before you or after you
could mimic, imitate, or even begin to imagine. Only you see the world as you see it, and it is direly
important to your spirit and to your overall success and well-being as a person to make sure that you know
that you exist, and that others know that you exist. The way you and others will know that you exist is that
you create a change in the world that only you can create, which you can only create now. The change
can be big or small. It can be a journal which no one will ever see until you are dead, or it can be a work of
art which is displayed and appreciated far and wide as having unique vision and redeeming social value. It
doesn’t matter; either way, your spirit is being validated and reaffirmed, which increases its health.
Without validation and reaffirmation through external cues caused by you through creativity, your spirit will
become frustrated and restless, like an ignored child. In fact, it is because its spirit is fraustrated that a
child feels such a need for attention. The attention of others proves to us that we exist and are important.
When a child has something to say, it Wants someone else to hear – and badly – because in the reception
of another, does the voice find comfort in the impact of its existence. Human kind must connect with each
other, because otherwise we’d be alone in the universe. Even a person on his or her own gains
satisfaction and peace from knowing that he exists, through the creation of art for himself.
The human spirit is naturally creative, naturally expressive, and naturally individual and unique in its
perspective, as well as in its expression. When a person lives a life full of experience, but doesn’t
communicate that experience, they are unable to work through it in their own mind. They fail to discover
the meaning of their own perspective on planet earth. This is a lack of communication.
A lack of communication will cause a sense of frustration to build up. This frustration will manifest through
mental anguish. Left unsolved, the anguish can begin like a knot tied in your mind, that you can’t begin to
untie, because you don’t know how to articulate the first thing about your experience. Much less to reach
another person and reach that point of spiritual connection, and the bond of mutual understanding that
comes when two people, through expression, and reception, are able to see the same thing at the same
time, from two different corners of the universe. That connection of minds is the payoff that leads to a
catharsis of the human mind and the human spirit. Its what are lives are all about.
The longer you go without reflection, without creativity, and without expression, the more knotted and
permanent the tangle becomes. It is like a feeling that there is something on the tip of your tongue;
something you are trying to say to someone, but no matter how hard you try, or how many different ways
you say it, you can’t seem to find that magical combination that will unlock the other person’s
understanding. That magical combination is the grain of universal truth found by your own soul, through
your own experience, that lets you know that yes, although different and unique, although you see a
different world than they do, that there is some part of you that is the same. There is a commonality of
humanity between you, and somehow, through different childhoods and adulthoods and opinions, and
personalities, that there is some part of you both that feels a mutual understanding when faced with a
certain sensation or a certain experience in life. That understanding vindicates our lives as humans.
Of course, because the spirit is the part of the human being that makes us human beings, it is the social
part. Interaction with others is vitally essential to the healthy functioning of the spirit. Verily, interaction with
all living things is essential for the human spirit to be perfectly healthy. James Redfield addresses this need
in his book, The Celestine Prophecy. In the Celestine Prophecy, a metaphysical ‘energy’ is described as
being ubiquitous among living things, and interchangeable between organisms whether human, plant, or
animal. Essential to enlightenment, of course, is the attainment of a state of being where you become a
vibrant ‘hub’ of energy distribution, generously focusing your own energy and life force, into other living
things, and accepting energy from the living things around you.
This interconnectedness is a state advocated by nearly all spiritualists and religions in one way or another.
The universe is one giant organism, according to many, and there is therefore no reason for hatred,
bigotry, negativity, or other viral spiritual diseases. In fact, he truth about existence is quite the opposite –
those feelings are plagues which destroy us all in multiple different ways. "Thou art that, which asserts that
everything you think you are (Subjective) and everything you think you perceive (Objective) are undivided.
To fully realize this lack of division is to become enlightened." - Tat tvam asi (relaying a Sanskrit doctrine)
Whether you incorporate this belief literally into your philosophy or not, no religion allows jealousy, hate, or
cruelty, etc. To act as if we are all an interconnected organism sharing the same ether of energy, much like
all organisms on Earth share the same air, is to foster an attitude appropriate for spiritual development.
One great technique for fostering this attitude is to approach people with optimism, no matter what. Even if
someone has been an enemy or rival in the past, even someone who has been openly and actively
vindictive toward you, expect goodness from them. There is goodness in us all, and, in fact, goodness is
our nature. Approach people with the compassion of understanding that they have been completely
blinded by external circumstances to the point that they turn on their own best interests and own nature in
order to be negative and hateful. This must be a horrible state to be in, indeed. Be a good human being
by helping to pull them out of that place, by fostering the goodness inside them, and giving them permission
to be positive without being taken advantage of.
The Dalai Lama says: “Whether it is an old friend or a new friend, there’s not much difference anyway
because I always believe we are the same; we are all human beings.”
Rich experience tantalizes another part of your spirit: the experiential side. Just as your mind and body
respond to stimulation, so does your spirit. And the type of stimulation your spirit needs is new, unique,
awe-inspiring, and rich. To expose your spirit to culture, to others’ creativity, to new places, to adventure,
and to a sense of accomplishment, will foster its life through a sense and reaffirmation of life itself, of the
reward of the experience of living.
No man want to feel that he is pointless, or that living itself is pointless. Thus, through stimulation and
through new experience, we assure ourselves that, yes, life is worth living, because of how beautiful the
sensations of the human experience really can be. Each time you have a new experience, like flying for the
first time, and realizing how small people are from 40,000 feet, you gain new perspective. New perspective
satisfies your spirit with the realization that your life is not static that you are alive, that you are sentient,
that you are not a robot or a worthless stone sitting atop a sea cliff, oblivious to the beauty and grandeur
around you.
Your spirit is an indicator of your satisfaction with life; the gauge of the quality and meaning of your life; of
your potential in the world. When your body is fatigued, chemically unbalanced, and/or in a state of
deterioration, your spirit suffers. As a gauge of your confidence in your ability to change the world, your
spirit can have no option than to suffer when it seems hopeless to continue to live, or to continue to be able
to effectively and meaningfully change the world around you. When you have trouble even keeping your
body alive, then you are not in a position to make a meaningful difference in the world. At least, not in any
traditional way.
When you feel healthy, your spirit naturally is vibrant and more alive. It even motivates you to feel even
more alive, and vice versa: when you are dying, it wants less to be alive. Human beings have a way of
emphasizing, multiplying, and subconsciously fostering positivity, or negativity, depending on which they
see. Positivity begets positivity. Negativity begets negativity. Health and vibrancy beget an upbeat,
ambitious and willing attitude. Laziness and obesity beget pessimism and unwillingness.
The Purposeful intervention technique involves using a certain inner discipline to analyze your self and to
train your spirit. Through training, you will to transform your attitude, outlook, and approach to living. The
message is quite simple: “accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.”
1. On a piece of paper, write the following headers for two columns: “Factors that Lead to Happiness,”
and “Factors that Lead to Suffering.” Under the first heading, fill in as many factors as you can think of that
go into feelings of true happiness and satisfaction. Under the second column, fill in as many factors as you
can think of that do the opposite.
Your goal will be to influence your reality in order to insure the factors that make you happy and to prevent
the factors that make you unhappy. Be sure to take the right amount of responsibility for your own
emotions. Unless you get angry at the very thought of traffic, even if you are not in it, then perhaps it isn’t
traffic itself that makes you angry – be more specific. Hone in on the exact thought or moment or set of
circumstances and thoughts that make you so angry, and reflect on them. Thin of ways you can plan
ahead of time to prevent them, and then put a reminder in a place you will see it in time to follow through
with your plan. If its traffic, then perhaps a post it note placed on your steering wheel on your way in to
work can remind you on the way home not to become angry, or better yet, said in the positive, DO “enjoy
the ride home.” DO “feel patience.” DO “have compassion for the other drivers on the road.”
2. Think about how good you have it.
You’ve probably heard this before. Whenever you get mad or jealous or feel other negative feelings, think
about the people who have lived through disasters, like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, or the Tsunami in
Thailand. Really reflect on how terrible their lives were. Did you lose your job? Well they lost their job,
home, family, savings, lives. Are you inconvenienced for a day or two because of someone else’s foul up?
Well, those people had NOTHING for months and months on end. They were devastated. Think of people
who lived in Communist Moscow. Unlike many disaster survivors, their lives never bounced back. They
had to wait 3 hours for stale bread every day, and that was the way they lived their whole lives. The
peasants in Africa live in famine and disease in the middle of the desert, and when Charities go to “help”
them, the charities feed each of them a cup of grain a day, and retire to their own mansions on the outside
of town eating feasts of foul and fruit, partying to the sounds of German DJs flown in on private jets.
3. Take out a piece of paper, and fill in the following sentence 10 times:
“I’m glad I’m not a…____________________...because…_________________________.”
4. Contemplate the complete loss of your faculties.
No sight, no hearing, no taste, no feeling, and no smell. Think about what you would have left. After
imagining complete sensory deprivation, think about just how bad your life can get. Slowly, one by one,
bring back in your faculties. For each sense you bring back, contemplate the value of that dimension of
your existence. Think about what a gift it is to merely have the ability to see, hear, smell, taste, or touch.
Re-connect now with whatever person you are angry or frustrated or short tempered with. Have
compassion for their humanity, and for the frailty of us all. Approach them with an expectation of goodness,
and bring out that goodness. Take that moment of negativity to create a moment in which you enhance
your friendship with that person. Garner this sort of appreciation for every moment of your life.
This, the final technique of Superfunctional spirituality is the catch-all. It allows the practitioner to discover
what it is that makes them completely awe-struck, humbled, and out-of-body. Is it skydiving? Surfing?
Completing a masterpiece? Discovering someone else’s genius? Religious Worship? Motorcycle
Maintenance? These are all valid spiritual pursuits to the people who are spiritually moved by them. For
you, it will be whatever gives you that feeling of the grandeur of it all, or the thrill that sends a rush of blood
pumping through your veins. What makes you feel alive?
In Robert Pirig’s best selling philosophy book (that set a Guinness World Record of being rejected by 115
publishers), Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance, he explores the concept of “quality.” Although not
able to be defined in words because it’s very nature precedes lingual construction, the essence of “quality”
is "the pre-intellectual cutting edge of reality." What he describes is that which can be recognized before
one can think about it: in the moment we sense anything during the instantaneous present; with a short
delay we give this impression a static form by describing it as emotion, thing, word etc. (Excerpted from
wikipedia). The best example I’ve found for this concept is in the beauty of music: before a single thought
categorizes it, describes it, or even recognizes it, there it is.
When you are able to let go of yourself and experience the pure joy of existence, that is when
you are transcendent. Follow that.
Reading List:
Illusions: Adventures of the Reluctant Messiah, Richard Bach
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach
Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
The Art of Happiness, His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Harold Cutler, M.D.
Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life, Thich Nhat Hanh
Feeling Good, David D. Burns, M.D.
The Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Perig
As your emotional center, your spirit shapes your thought process as well as your impact on those around
you. Your spirit also serves as the indicator of the vibrancy and impact of your life. While spiritual health is
vital to success and happiness, your spirit, conversely, cannot be developed to 100 percent of its potential
unless your mind and body are also healthy and in balance with each other. Just as a chain is as only as
strong as its weakest link, no part of your self will be able to reach its full potential without the full
development of your other parts.
Improvement in your spirit will equate to improvement in your health, your attitude, your interactions with
others, and even increase your overall happiness and satisfaction on a daily basis. The techniques for
improving the spirit fall into two categories: tactics for an immediate attitude adjustment and strategies for
long-term transformation of your outlook on the world.
- The goals of this chapter are to:
- IDENTIFY & DEFINE THE SPIRIT
- EXPLAIN THE SPIRIT’S FUNCTION
- CLARIFY YOUR OWN SPIRIT’S IMPACT ON YOU & YOUR LIFE
- EXPLAIN THE BENEFITS GAINED FROM DEVELOPMENT
- PROVIDE TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE THE SPIRIT
- - Defeat day-to-day anxiety, insecurity, anger, and discouragement
What we are not referring to:
Unless you have spent considerable time and energy studying spirituality, religion, and philosophy, it is
likely that you have a mass-media interpretation of the meaning of the word “spirit,” which will not be
sufficient for understanding the content of this webpage. That is, you either think spirits are “ghosts,” or you
think that it is part of something “religious.” Of course, even if you have studied spirituality extensively, then
you know that there are no two people who define it in exactly the same way. For these reasons,
Superfunctionalism defines spirituality in its own right, and does not speak to the other existing definitions of
the word Spirit.
Superfunctionalism’s definition of spirit:
The spirit, for purposes of understanding Superfunctionalism, is the misunderstood portion of the human
condition: the part of mankind that makes us feel alive, the source of our creativity, the center of our
emotions, and the indicator of our well-being and balance. It is the “flux capacitor” for our “life force”, and
what separates man from machines, which arguably can be said to have “minds” of sorts, and “bodies” of
sorts, but no independent will power, nor an urge to create, nor moral judgment capabilities (at least, for
now). [link to robots taking over science article: harper’s or even time or the NY city museum]
Your spirit is the part of your self that feels emotions, seeks fulfillment, and makes life worth living. When
you feel the sun on your skin, there are many feelings going on at once. Your nerves feel the change in
temperature; your mind registers the knowledge and other associated memories you have connected to the
sun, and your spirit feels satisfaction, freedom, peace, and happiness.
Your spirit is an indicator of your balance of mind and body, and an unhealthy person will suffer spiritually.
- Acceptance,
- compassion,
- love, and
- happiness
- are the characteristics of satisfaction and spiritual transcendence.
The Scientific vs. Religious Take on the Spirit
Recently, neurologists have adopted the view that there is no actual “spirit”, or “soul”, in the sense of a
separate presence that inhabits and drives the body and mind like a car and survives after we die. Rather,
they have concluded that everything, from emotions, to personality, to spirituality, and every sense of self-
awareness and identity, is housed in the brain. The spirit, or what we thought was the spirit, the conclude,
is actually less than the brain, is a by-product of the brain’s functioning. They explain the complex feelings
of emotion and wonder and awe simply as additional products and evidence of the magnificence and
mystery of the human brain.
Religions and spiritualists, however, historically have believed that there is an eternal soul, or that at least,
there is a certain external driving factor that causes our awareness and uses the brain as a tool, with a
separate and greater existence than being a by-product of the brain’s processes, as believed by the
neurologists. In the Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield describes a spiritual energy force similar to that
ever-popular ‘Force’ of Star Wars fame.
The dichotomy between the neurological view and the spiritual/religious view is perhaps a mystery beyond
our capacity to solve at present. Clearly, one explanation for the difference in opinion is the relative
occupations of the advocates: neurologists promote the all-importance of the brain while religious
professionals promote the all-importance of the soul. Psychologists promote nurture over nature.
Pharmacists want you to take drugs. Every profession, it seems, logically, promotes the beliefs that will
tend to foster the continued existence of the profession. That’s capitalism.
A Pragmatic Approach
As Superfunctionalists, it doesn’t matter which side you choose, which opinion you hold, or whether you are
waiting for more information with which to form an opinion. The reason is that regardless of the “why”, the
techniques for spiritual transcendence, personal satisfaction, and emotional balance work nonetheless.
In analogy, it doesn’t matter if you believe that there is a tiny band inside of your stereo, or you believe that
spare electrons excite magnets connected to paper cones to create invisible waves which impact a
membrane inside a hole your head, whose movement is interpreted by your brain. If you push the “on”
button, you’ll hear something.
Religion is not necessary in our discussion of the function of the spirit, because whether religious or not,
the spirit behaves the same way. For some people, religion is necessary for their spirituality, for others it is
not. For either one, there is room for whatever beliefs you hold within a Superfunctional lifestyle. One truth
about spirituality that Superfunctionalism does advocate is that close-mindedness and dogmatic religious
aggression toward other human beings only leads to hatred and resent, which harm not only the target, but
also the initiator.
To keep a healthy spirit is to foster a feeling of transcendental happiness, whether through creativity,
wonder, meditation, prayer, adventure, or fun. To keep a healthy spirit is to love and get the most out of
the very idea and fact that you are alive.
THE FUNCTION OF THE SPIRIT
The function of the spirit is to regulate your mind and body’s interaction with the world. While your spirit
serves as your wellspring for emotions, creativity, and compassion, your spirit also acts as an indicator of
your performance, of the success of your chosen attitudes and opinions, and the level of balance you’ve
been able to achieve internally. You will know that your spirit is suffering because of depression, withdrawal
from social interaction, sullenness, worthlessness, listlessness, loss of feelings of purpose, or complete
breakdown of the psyche.
YOUR SPIRIT’S IMPACT ON YOUR AND YOUR LIFE
When the spirit is healthy and vibrant, you will naturally exhibit leadership, charisma, positivity, happiness,
publicity, networking, transcendence, and peace. That is, you will be happy, positive, satisfied, and in love
with life no matter what the current situation may look like in its worst light, without any extra effort!
Transcendence will allow you to become the person who just naturally sees the silver lining without even
looking for it. Because all human beings have a human spirit as one third of their composition, people
around you will respond in kind. Things will go easier for you. You will gain new friends with ease. People
will grant your wishes with less hassle, and you will gain support of people you don’t even know, because
you will be an inspiration to them.
On the other hand, when your spirit is unhealthy, you may become obese, mentally volatile, irresponsible,
distracted, lazy, or a host of other concerns. You will become stuck in a rut, or for one reason or another,
become dissatisfied with life. Because negativity is an infectious virus, people will shun you for spiritual
decrepitness. They will have impatience toward you, avoid you, dislike you, and reject your desires.
People will trust you less because they will doubt your motives.
THE BENEFITS GAINED FROM SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
Spiritual development, when properly and sufficiently pursued, will lead to transcendent spirituality. It is
possible to reach a state of transcendent spirituality. Transcendent spirituality is evidenced by compassion,
optimism, and love for all, regardless of external circumstances. Be sure to contrast transcendence with
detachment and apathy. Transcendence is not characterized by “aloofness or empty-headedness,” as the
Dalai Lama points out, but rather by liberation from the part of you that reacts to external circumstances,
and a development of the part of you which is eternally happy.
Some people define this capacity as “maturity.” There indeed a lot of similarities between maturity and
transcendence. Maturity involves the calm acceptance of unpleasant events or negativity from others.
Maturity includes being able to bounce back after a disappointment, or to be good to another person,
despite their bitterness or vindictiveness toward you. However, maturity is only one affect of achieving
transcendent spirituality, which is encompasses more than just mere maturity. Where transcendent
spirituality goes above and beyond maturity is that with Transcendent spirituality, you are also seeking to
move toward perfect happiness.
Transcendent spirituality allows for the application of Stephen Covey’s first habit, Proactiveness, from his
book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Proactiveness is defined as acting on your own
initiative, rather than in response to external circumstances. Transcendence is the ultimate spiritual state in
which, happy and content with everything, you act only in wise judgement in order to bring about your
deliberate intentions. In this state, you only to listen to your inner voice, your unique internal vision, the
architect of your future. External factors no longer can distract you from that voice or cause greed,
violence, anger, or impatience. Through transcending (rising above) our environment, we can be free to
follow our moral compass, which is naturally inclined to be positive, compassionate, intelligent, and
creative.
Externally, the affects of a healthy spirit will manifest through motivation, inspiration, creativity, ingenuity,
interconectedness, and all of the positive character traits you will need to carry out your life’s mission.
When you achieve spiritual transcendence, you have permission to do whatever you really want,
because no one or thing can discourage you but yourself.
TECHNIQUES FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
Techniques for achieving a spiritual state of transcendence and Superfunctionality include meditation,
affirmation, and mental re-wiring. Finding spiritual enlightenment consists of two types of techniques: tactics
for an immediate attitude adjustment, and strategies for long-term transformation of your outlook on the
world.
The spiritual techniques which you can use at any time to put yourself in a better mood, or to make an
emotional adjustment or see things from a better perspective are the techniques for attitude adjustment.
The spiritual techniques designed to boost your “happiness set point” permanently, to change your
reactions to situations rather than to deal with adverse reactions after they’ve happened, and to cause an
everyday, unconscious adaptation from a dissatisfied grouch to a vibrant being are the techniques for long-
term transformation. Both types of techniques are necessary to practice on a daily basis if you are to
achieve true transcendence.
Below, this page will address many techniques for spiritual development and balance, as well as index many
popular sources for further study. Do not feel boxed in by traditional attitudes about spirituality.
- Meditation
In the above chapter, Mind, meditation was discussed as a way to visualize success and to create and
strengthen neurological connections in your brain
Here, meditation will serve as a way to unlock your transcendent spirituality. This exercise is best included
as an initial visualization prior to going into any other part of your visualization, such as the part where you
perform a recital, or swing a bat. The goal of this visualization is to grow the part of your spirit which is
transcendent, and to discard the part which is mired and bogged down by discouragement and material.
What to do:
- After closing your eyes and taking fifteen deep breaths in which you inhale peaceful and
relaxed “blue,” exhaling stressed, tense "red”, you will be filled with blue. Your body,
comfortable, relaxed and healthy, will be empty but for the peaceful blue space now filling all of
your insides. In the very center of you, there is a small person. The person looks just like you,
but much happier, more confident, more personable, charismatic, and compassionate toward
others, no matter what. This person has a clear vision of their contribution to mankind in mind,
and they act continually and in complete decisiveness to bring about that vision. They are not
bogged down by negativity, by obstacles, or by disappointment, because they are not affected
by these things. In fact, they do not even see these things; it were as if negativity was on
another, imperceptible wave length to which they had no ability to attune. This person sees
only positivity, light, and opportunity. They see the goodness in all people, and when they
interact with others, they seek out their goodness and bring it out. Any negativity others expel
simply does not register.
This person is a part of you that already exists. This part of you can grow based on
thought alone. Visualize yourself fostering this tiny version of you, and making it grow. We will
call this person your transcendent spirit.
Your transcendent spirit, very tiny, at the very center of you, now begins to grow. It
expands in all ways, taking greater and greater volume in the infinite space inside of you. As
this occurs, the empty space, filled with the relaxing blue smoke, begins to be expelled through
your pours. That space is the part of you that reacts to external circumstances, feels negative
emotions, and gets discouraged by people or circumstances.
The part of you that reacts only to positivity, and which knows only your ultimate vision of
your contribution to the world, your transcendent spirit, continues to grow and take up the
extra space inside of you space. Continue to visualize this until your transcendent spirit has
grown so large that it now has filled every nook and cranny inside of you. An exact replica of
you, grow it inside until it fills out your skin.
Once your Transcendent Spirit has filled you, continue with your visualization of your
upcoming performance. Follow the visualization steps from there.
- Creativity
Creativity develops a person’s spirit because it is a reaffirmation of your own existence; of your own effect
on the world around you, and a vindication of your life, your mind, your heart, your very hands with which
you can shape or build. Art, music, engineering, repair, writing, or any other form of expression, creation,
or invention is the most significant activity you can do
To resist creation, or to resist expression, will severely damage your spirit, because a stifled existence is
not meant for the spirit. Stifling your spirit will make you depressed, because it is through your spirit that
you even appreciate your existence, or feel reaffirmed in the value of your own life. Without that value, life
is worthless, and pale.
Even if you don’t want to pursue a career in art music, photography, engineering, or anything else creative,
it is best to stil find a creative outlet through which to change the world and express your Self. That is,to
express the unique individual existence and point of view that no one else ever before you or after you
could mimic, imitate, or even begin to imagine. Only you see the world as you see it, and it is direly
important to your spirit and to your overall success and well-being as a person to make sure that you know
that you exist, and that others know that you exist. The way you and others will know that you exist is that
you create a change in the world that only you can create, which you can only create now. The change
can be big or small. It can be a journal which no one will ever see until you are dead, or it can be a work of
art which is displayed and appreciated far and wide as having unique vision and redeeming social value. It
doesn’t matter; either way, your spirit is being validated and reaffirmed, which increases its health.
Without validation and reaffirmation through external cues caused by you through creativity, your spirit will
become frustrated and restless, like an ignored child. In fact, it is because its spirit is fraustrated that a
child feels such a need for attention. The attention of others proves to us that we exist and are important.
When a child has something to say, it Wants someone else to hear – and badly – because in the reception
of another, does the voice find comfort in the impact of its existence. Human kind must connect with each
other, because otherwise we’d be alone in the universe. Even a person on his or her own gains
satisfaction and peace from knowing that he exists, through the creation of art for himself.
The human spirit is naturally creative, naturally expressive, and naturally individual and unique in its
perspective, as well as in its expression. When a person lives a life full of experience, but doesn’t
communicate that experience, they are unable to work through it in their own mind. They fail to discover
the meaning of their own perspective on planet earth. This is a lack of communication.
A lack of communication will cause a sense of frustration to build up. This frustration will manifest through
mental anguish. Left unsolved, the anguish can begin like a knot tied in your mind, that you can’t begin to
untie, because you don’t know how to articulate the first thing about your experience. Much less to reach
another person and reach that point of spiritual connection, and the bond of mutual understanding that
comes when two people, through expression, and reception, are able to see the same thing at the same
time, from two different corners of the universe. That connection of minds is the payoff that leads to a
catharsis of the human mind and the human spirit. Its what are lives are all about.
The longer you go without reflection, without creativity, and without expression, the more knotted and
permanent the tangle becomes. It is like a feeling that there is something on the tip of your tongue;
something you are trying to say to someone, but no matter how hard you try, or how many different ways
you say it, you can’t seem to find that magical combination that will unlock the other person’s
understanding. That magical combination is the grain of universal truth found by your own soul, through
your own experience, that lets you know that yes, although different and unique, although you see a
different world than they do, that there is some part of you that is the same. There is a commonality of
humanity between you, and somehow, through different childhoods and adulthoods and opinions, and
personalities, that there is some part of you both that feels a mutual understanding when faced with a
certain sensation or a certain experience in life. That understanding vindicates our lives as humans.
- Human Interaction
Of course, because the spirit is the part of the human being that makes us human beings, it is the social
part. Interaction with others is vitally essential to the healthy functioning of the spirit. Verily, interaction with
all living things is essential for the human spirit to be perfectly healthy. James Redfield addresses this need
in his book, The Celestine Prophecy. In the Celestine Prophecy, a metaphysical ‘energy’ is described as
being ubiquitous among living things, and interchangeable between organisms whether human, plant, or
animal. Essential to enlightenment, of course, is the attainment of a state of being where you become a
vibrant ‘hub’ of energy distribution, generously focusing your own energy and life force, into other living
things, and accepting energy from the living things around you.
This interconnectedness is a state advocated by nearly all spiritualists and religions in one way or another.
The universe is one giant organism, according to many, and there is therefore no reason for hatred,
bigotry, negativity, or other viral spiritual diseases. In fact, he truth about existence is quite the opposite –
those feelings are plagues which destroy us all in multiple different ways. "Thou art that, which asserts that
everything you think you are (Subjective) and everything you think you perceive (Objective) are undivided.
To fully realize this lack of division is to become enlightened." - Tat tvam asi (relaying a Sanskrit doctrine)
Whether you incorporate this belief literally into your philosophy or not, no religion allows jealousy, hate, or
cruelty, etc. To act as if we are all an interconnected organism sharing the same ether of energy, much like
all organisms on Earth share the same air, is to foster an attitude appropriate for spiritual development.
One great technique for fostering this attitude is to approach people with optimism, no matter what. Even if
someone has been an enemy or rival in the past, even someone who has been openly and actively
vindictive toward you, expect goodness from them. There is goodness in us all, and, in fact, goodness is
our nature. Approach people with the compassion of understanding that they have been completely
blinded by external circumstances to the point that they turn on their own best interests and own nature in
order to be negative and hateful. This must be a horrible state to be in, indeed. Be a good human being
by helping to pull them out of that place, by fostering the goodness inside them, and giving them permission
to be positive without being taken advantage of.
The Dalai Lama says: “Whether it is an old friend or a new friend, there’s not much difference anyway
because I always believe we are the same; we are all human beings.”
- Rich Experience
Rich experience tantalizes another part of your spirit: the experiential side. Just as your mind and body
respond to stimulation, so does your spirit. And the type of stimulation your spirit needs is new, unique,
awe-inspiring, and rich. To expose your spirit to culture, to others’ creativity, to new places, to adventure,
and to a sense of accomplishment, will foster its life through a sense and reaffirmation of life itself, of the
reward of the experience of living.
No man want to feel that he is pointless, or that living itself is pointless. Thus, through stimulation and
through new experience, we assure ourselves that, yes, life is worth living, because of how beautiful the
sensations of the human experience really can be. Each time you have a new experience, like flying for the
first time, and realizing how small people are from 40,000 feet, you gain new perspective. New perspective
satisfies your spirit with the realization that your life is not static that you are alive, that you are sentient,
that you are not a robot or a worthless stone sitting atop a sea cliff, oblivious to the beauty and grandeur
around you.
- Health
Your spirit is an indicator of your satisfaction with life; the gauge of the quality and meaning of your life; of
your potential in the world. When your body is fatigued, chemically unbalanced, and/or in a state of
deterioration, your spirit suffers. As a gauge of your confidence in your ability to change the world, your
spirit can have no option than to suffer when it seems hopeless to continue to live, or to continue to be able
to effectively and meaningfully change the world around you. When you have trouble even keeping your
body alive, then you are not in a position to make a meaningful difference in the world. At least, not in any
traditional way.
When you feel healthy, your spirit naturally is vibrant and more alive. It even motivates you to feel even
more alive, and vice versa: when you are dying, it wants less to be alive. Human beings have a way of
emphasizing, multiplying, and subconsciously fostering positivity, or negativity, depending on which they
see. Positivity begets positivity. Negativity begets negativity. Health and vibrancy beget an upbeat,
ambitious and willing attitude. Laziness and obesity beget pessimism and unwillingness.
- Purposeful intervention
The Purposeful intervention technique involves using a certain inner discipline to analyze your self and to
train your spirit. Through training, you will to transform your attitude, outlook, and approach to living. The
message is quite simple: “accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.”
1. On a piece of paper, write the following headers for two columns: “Factors that Lead to Happiness,”
and “Factors that Lead to Suffering.” Under the first heading, fill in as many factors as you can think of that
go into feelings of true happiness and satisfaction. Under the second column, fill in as many factors as you
can think of that do the opposite.
Your goal will be to influence your reality in order to insure the factors that make you happy and to prevent
the factors that make you unhappy. Be sure to take the right amount of responsibility for your own
emotions. Unless you get angry at the very thought of traffic, even if you are not in it, then perhaps it isn’t
traffic itself that makes you angry – be more specific. Hone in on the exact thought or moment or set of
circumstances and thoughts that make you so angry, and reflect on them. Thin of ways you can plan
ahead of time to prevent them, and then put a reminder in a place you will see it in time to follow through
with your plan. If its traffic, then perhaps a post it note placed on your steering wheel on your way in to
work can remind you on the way home not to become angry, or better yet, said in the positive, DO “enjoy
the ride home.” DO “feel patience.” DO “have compassion for the other drivers on the road.”
2. Think about how good you have it.
You’ve probably heard this before. Whenever you get mad or jealous or feel other negative feelings, think
about the people who have lived through disasters, like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, or the Tsunami in
Thailand. Really reflect on how terrible their lives were. Did you lose your job? Well they lost their job,
home, family, savings, lives. Are you inconvenienced for a day or two because of someone else’s foul up?
Well, those people had NOTHING for months and months on end. They were devastated. Think of people
who lived in Communist Moscow. Unlike many disaster survivors, their lives never bounced back. They
had to wait 3 hours for stale bread every day, and that was the way they lived their whole lives. The
peasants in Africa live in famine and disease in the middle of the desert, and when Charities go to “help”
them, the charities feed each of them a cup of grain a day, and retire to their own mansions on the outside
of town eating feasts of foul and fruit, partying to the sounds of German DJs flown in on private jets.
3. Take out a piece of paper, and fill in the following sentence 10 times:
“I’m glad I’m not a…____________________...because…_________________________.”
4. Contemplate the complete loss of your faculties.
No sight, no hearing, no taste, no feeling, and no smell. Think about what you would have left. After
imagining complete sensory deprivation, think about just how bad your life can get. Slowly, one by one,
bring back in your faculties. For each sense you bring back, contemplate the value of that dimension of
your existence. Think about what a gift it is to merely have the ability to see, hear, smell, taste, or touch.
Re-connect now with whatever person you are angry or frustrated or short tempered with. Have
compassion for their humanity, and for the frailty of us all. Approach them with an expectation of goodness,
and bring out that goodness. Take that moment of negativity to create a moment in which you enhance
your friendship with that person. Garner this sort of appreciation for every moment of your life.
- Cultivate and Pursue Transcendental Wonder
This, the final technique of Superfunctional spirituality is the catch-all. It allows the practitioner to discover
what it is that makes them completely awe-struck, humbled, and out-of-body. Is it skydiving? Surfing?
Completing a masterpiece? Discovering someone else’s genius? Religious Worship? Motorcycle
Maintenance? These are all valid spiritual pursuits to the people who are spiritually moved by them. For
you, it will be whatever gives you that feeling of the grandeur of it all, or the thrill that sends a rush of blood
pumping through your veins. What makes you feel alive?
In Robert Pirig’s best selling philosophy book (that set a Guinness World Record of being rejected by 115
publishers), Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance, he explores the concept of “quality.” Although not
able to be defined in words because it’s very nature precedes lingual construction, the essence of “quality”
is "the pre-intellectual cutting edge of reality." What he describes is that which can be recognized before
one can think about it: in the moment we sense anything during the instantaneous present; with a short
delay we give this impression a static form by describing it as emotion, thing, word etc. (Excerpted from
wikipedia). The best example I’ve found for this concept is in the beauty of music: before a single thought
categorizes it, describes it, or even recognizes it, there it is.
When you are able to let go of yourself and experience the pure joy of existence, that is when
you are transcendent. Follow that.
Reading List:
Illusions: Adventures of the Reluctant Messiah, Richard Bach
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach
Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
The Art of Happiness, His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Harold Cutler, M.D.
Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life, Thich Nhat Hanh
Feeling Good, David D. Burns, M.D.
The Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Perig
All Contents of this page and every other page in this domain are Copyright (C) 2007 by Michael Patrick Rooney.
The scope of this webpage is to provide a summary of
Superfunctionalism’s approach to understanding and
conditioning the human spirit. It will help you to discover how to
identify your spirituality, and then to answer the questions that
only you can answer for yourself, such as, “Where does my
creativity lie?” This page is intended to motivate you to initiate a
quest that will increase your satisfaction with life, your vibrancy
and charisma, your enthusiasm for creativity, and leave you with
a personal goal for spiritual transcendence and enlightenment.
This goal will complete the pyramid of self-development as the
third and final factor in the Superfunctional self. This page will
address the holistic benefits of having a healthy vibrant spirit, as
well as list the techniques for achieving that state. Enjoy.
Superfunctionalism’s approach to understanding and
conditioning the human spirit. It will help you to discover how to
identify your spirituality, and then to answer the questions that
only you can answer for yourself, such as, “Where does my
creativity lie?” This page is intended to motivate you to initiate a
quest that will increase your satisfaction with life, your vibrancy
and charisma, your enthusiasm for creativity, and leave you with
a personal goal for spiritual transcendence and enlightenment.
This goal will complete the pyramid of self-development as the
third and final factor in the Superfunctional self. This page will
address the holistic benefits of having a healthy vibrant spirit, as
well as list the techniques for achieving that state. Enjoy.
to go on to the NEXT SECTION, click here.
The Human Spirit
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“Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we see and do. The question is whether
or not we are in touch with it.” Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step
or not we are in touch with it.” Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step