Every journey begins with the first step. On my blog writing journey this is my first step. I think I’ll start out in the weeds with the expectation that the view will improve from here.

The irony is that although the spirit is believed by some to be the most enduring and critical aspect of the human being, it is probably one of the least understood and studied components. Most of the religious systems and non religious spiritual doctrines are called “belief systems”. What we practice within those systems is referred to as our “faith”. It is necessary for people following those doctrines to believe and have faith because much of what takes place in the spiritual realm is intangible or without physical substance or properties and cannot be empirically proven. In the current western culture we place value on items that are of a material nature and tend to disregard anything that cannot be poked, prodded, sniffed, seen or magnified. This relegates our understanding of spirit to the world of speculation and conjecture, rather than hard, objective facts. Scientists provide us with an understanding of the absolute truth of the material world while philosophers and priests contemplate and meditate on the vagaries of spirit.

As such, my first series of blogs will be about the process of adopting a belief system, and will include somewhat thrilling content on;

1. What is a belief system and what does it mean to believe?

2. Why do we need or want a belief system and what’s in it for us?

3.How to choose a belief system and what are our options?

4. Why I chose Christianity

5. What are the components of Christianity?

6. How to follow the Christian belief system?

7. How to deal with doubt?

If you have arrived at this point in the blog thinking that this was going to be a totally unbiased, many paths to the top of the mountain, do it yourself instructional on how to achieve nirvana by embracing all the love in the universe… sorry for wasting your time. The spirit realm is not is a world of tangerine trees and marmalade skies, where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies and everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers…(thank you John, Paul, George and Ringo). The spirit world, as I understand it, is home to some very, very good things and some very, very bad things. And this is the number 2 reason you and I should be concerned about gaining a better understanding of the spiritual realm and how to navigate it.

For years I taught self defense. I taught it to civilians, to college students, to law enforcement officers and to military personnel. I didn’t teach the same techniques to all students. But the one thing I did teach to every one of my students was to be aware of your surroundings. It is impossible to avoid an attack, and it is impossible to fend off an attacker, if you are unaware that you are being attacked. This also pertains to our existence in the spiritual world.

In the spiritual realm there are some really sinister predators and most of us are under spiritual attack more frequently and from more directions than we know. Being unaware makes us easy prey. And because of our ignorance of the spiritual landscape in which we are functioning, and the nature of the spiritual attacks, we suffer the consequences of these attacks and don’t even know why we are suffering. We only know that our lives are a shambles, or that we have a deep ache inside, or that our relationships suck. We often look for remedies to our misfortunes within the confines of our physical world when, in reality, the underlying source is rooted in our spiritual life. This is certainly not always the case. We humans have a penchant for goofing things up without help from the spiritual realm. Never the less, if improving our spiritual condition could reduce the drama in our lives by 10% wouldn’t it be worth the effort required to become more spiritually aware?