LOSING MY RELIGION: The 5 Stages of Grief

IMAGE: A wet Salt Flat in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia.

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The Kubler-Ross model for dealing with the death of a God:

1) DENIAL (Theism): You begin questioning and rejecting what you were raised to believe but you take it as a sign that you are doing something wrong and should seek out Spiritual Experience and guidance to help you find centre again and deepen your faith.

2) ANGER (Transtheism): The above did not work. You only have more questions now than ever and are trying to reconcile and cherry pick your way out of the stuff you couldn’t see before when you were in it nose-mouth high. You have come to the little fence, sit Grasshopper, sit. At this point you opt for a Transtheistic approach to the problem; try to blend old you with new you e.g. Pan- or Panentheism, Buddha, Lao Tzu, mindful meditation, yoga, obliteration of the Ego and desire, Kabbalah, smoking peyote with a Shaman etc.

3) BARGAINING (Agnosticism): Uh oh, the more (re)search you do the more grip you lose on the pretty and poetic answers. So, you bargain for: “equally valid, non-overlapping magisterium” and Agnosticism. As opposed to admitting one works and it’s results can be replicated vs. the other one doesn’t and it’s unfalsifiable. Like, alchemy and chemistry, astrology and astronomy, etc. You’re on the big fence.

The incredulity of St. Thomas and MUSIC VIDEO: “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M.

4) DEPRESSION (Atheistic-Agnosticism): More (re)search and you’re getting further and further away from your initial goal. You’re turning. You’re tipping on the fence. You still want to show respect and take all information into the deepest consideration from all sides.

5) ACCEPTANCE (Post-Theism): You’ve done it. You’ve stopped worrying about ‘what if’ and seized The Power of Now, the here and now. You mourn the loss of the grand scheme and concepts like Good/Evil, Love/Hate, Beauty/Truth, in their Platonic forms. But that’s okay. You can put them in lower case now. They still exist. They just exist here, with you, and the people you know and love. Reality isn’t totally unsatisfying, terrifying, and boring, it’s this:

IMAGE: Ice Caves in Juneau, Alaska USA
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IMAGE: Who needs fairy tales? You are literally made of stardust.