spiritual vs. emotional connection

[Matariki]

"Supernatural" implies that there is an otherworldly aspect that is not confined to natural experience. While spirituality is often associated with the supernatural in popular opinion, it can also be experienced through such activity as meditation, deep focus, and mental stimulation. One does not need to connect it to a deity or a soul in order to experience it.

In any given religion, there are certain practices that focus on creating a spiritual mentality. Fasting, meditation/ prayer, and structured lifestyle all serve to create a heightened spiritual experience. The fact that they are associated with religion does not make the experience any less a natural phenomenon.

I agree.

I had a good think over this and I came up with a conclusion that spirituality is the basis of ones identity, or as C.S Lewis put it - " You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body". So to have a spiritual connection is to connect with another form of identity. This can either be supernatural (as in a deity or a spirit) or an in-depth connection (that surpasses the emotional connection) with another individual. I still stand with what I said before in saying that a spiritual connection is stronger than an emotional connection. Usually where there is a spiritual connection there will also be a strong emotional connection, but where there is an emotional connection there may not be a spiritual connection.

• For an example a spiritual connection could range from being a connection with you mother and father, siblings, a close friend, your spouse to a deity.

• An emotional connection could be someone you feel empathy or sympathy towards or someone (or something) you are attracted to etc.

So with this concept, it is understandable how the two may be perceived to be the same thing.
What are your opinions on this idea?

 

[not sure]

I do not believe in the existence of the spirit. Any experience of spirituality is to me just another manifestation of emotion which is a product of the brain's function. Therefore, a spiritual connection is an emotional connection. I will concede that a spiritual connection is a subset of emotional connections that appears to result in a stronger, difficult to explain bond between a person and another. The connection is likely directed in one way but I suppose it is possible for both to feel this connection. I will continue to say spiritual connection in the rest of this post but it is not to mean that I believe in some sort of mystical connection.

I have experienced the spiritual connection and mark it as special because of a very quick, strong bond being formed with little provable data. I attribute this to a reading of non-verbal signals. Interestingly, I've experienced this at least twice on-line and of course in a verbal environment it is much more difficult to explain. However, there is the tendency to read the subtext of a person's communications and there is the manipulation of time on the internet that can communicate ideas like urgency, hesitancy, deliberation and so on. This of course can lead to feelings of trust or distrust depending on how the data is subconsciously interpreted.

What I also find interesting about spiritual connections, is that it is very difficult to have ill feelings towards someone who my spirit takes to even if they have done reprehensible things. I readily forgive them their faults, although I would not be so tolerant of faults in others.

Interestingly, there is also the feeling of being repelled by another's spirit. In my country, we will say "mi spirit no take to him at all." Once again, the person who says this often has a difficulty explaining why they have this distrust but rarely do they change their mind even with contradictory evidence. I think what it comes down to is that sometimes we sense a person as being good or evil. What we sense, we interpret to go beyond their actions and to their motivations and because we naturally seek to protect ourselves we put faith in this difficult to explain emotion.

 

[Matariki]

The human soul (or spirit) in my opinion, is your sense of self, who you are and the basis of your identity. I would go as far as saying that our individual personalities could be perceived as proof.

 

[gloomy-optimist]

Spirit is rather hard to define, isn't it? I mean, soul and spirit sometimes are attributed to an actual physical entity or a thing that is or isn't, but there's no reason to limit it to that.
Personally, I like what Matariki said about the spirit as sense of self -- there's really no way to prove or disprove that it is anything more or anything less.
Which makes trying to figure out spiritual connections a bit more difficult.