Joe emails: "I had a fascinating experience on my way back from Vegas the other day. Sitting next to me was a moderately attractive very immaculately dressed young woman reading a book called “The Holy Science”, which is a nineteenth century Hindu attempt at reconciling yoga and the new testament. Turns out that she’s in the “adult entertainment” industry, named Sophia Shanti, if I got it right. I went back to my book but was curious about the spiritual life of porn stars. One would think that generally they’d have to be pretty dead inside, no? Or is there something about this kind of new agey stuff and sexuality? I was surprised about her line of work as she looked very clean and put together on the plane, I would have taken her for a business secretary or paralegal."
As Dennis Prager says, people who want to be spiritual but not religious typically want the benefits of practicing an organized religion without paying the costs. Anyone can feel spiritual. I can imagine that murdering people could feel very spiritual. Going to yoga makes me feel spiritual. It’s easy to imagine you are getting a spiritual high. It’s easy to imagine that one is living a spiritual life. There’s no behavioral code for the "spiritual." They just do what they like.
In my understanding, "spirituality" refers to the part of life that can not be reduced to chemistry. It is the realm that is beyond the physical. As such, it is hard to put your hands on it. In fact, it is impossible to put your hands on it.
Because it is amorphous, spirituality is open to anyone, even sex workers.
Jack emails: "Neurologically, there is evidence that lesions in the amygdala lead to a syndrome of hypersexuality combined with a bizarre religiosity, so perhaps its all chemical in the end."
