Spirituality, Morality, & our Imagination

7-minute read time

Spirituality involves transcending our physical state by connecting with something within, around, and beyond us. Religion is a structured form of spirituality, providing tangible ways—such as rituals, traditions, and scriptures—to experience spirituality. However, over time, religion has often monopolized the concept of spirituality, focusing more on its structured practices rather than its deeper, interconnected nature. Developing spirituality is essential for self-understanding. It helps us explore our morality and how we choose to connect with the world and others. To truly maintain autonomy over our spirituality, imagination is necessary to bridge the gap between spirituality and morality. Without this imaginative engagement, our internal voices can become overshadowed by external influences.

The Misuse of Religion

Various forms of abuse—verbal, physical, sexual, and more—have been linked to religious organizations, leaders, or individuals who harm others and justify their actions by claiming it’s in the name of their religion. While exploring each of these abuses in detail would take considerable time (and I plan to cover them in future posts), for this particular blog, I want to focus on bringing attention to the issue of spiritual manipulation.

The psychological harm caused by spiritual manipulation can manifest in various ways. In my experience over the past seven years participating in interfaith dialogues and interreligious activities, I’ve observed that one of the most significant effects on young adults is a spiritual identity crisis. Questions like “Who am I?”, “What’s my purpose?”, or “Why do I believe what I believe?” are normal during personal development, but when these are combined with internal conflict in one’s inner spiritual dialogue, it adds another layer of complexity to the crisis.

Here is an article by Edwin Bii, where he shares his experience working with a young woman who was enduring spiritual abuse, the lessons he learned, and his insights on how people can break free from it. The key takeaway I want to highlight from the article is this line: “With blind obedience, there is unquestioning compliance without critical thinking or moral consideration.”

Blind obedience is something we’ve all fallen prey to at some point, whether it’s believing gossip, giving in to stereotypes, or simply trusting the notion that those in authority (doctors, lawyers, educators, politicians, etc.) always know best. When we choose not to exercise or strengthen our critical thinking, falling victim to blind obedience becomes easier, as we place the fate of our beliefs in the hands—or rather, minds—of others. With this lack of autonomy over our spiritual beliefs, we may find ourselves in an identity crisis, struggling to make sense of our spirituality—whether it’s as small as “Am I following the right path?” or as big as “Do I believe in God?” 

Developing Our Spirituality & Understanding our Own internal Spiritual voice

Developing our spirituality through the exploration and strengthening of our critical thinking is crucial for deepening our understanding of ourselves. The ways we choose to connect with ourselves, others, and those beyond us help shape our sense of self as well as our morality. For this reason, it’s important to both develop and understand our own spiritual beliefs in order to maintain autonomy over our morality. Bridging this gap is highly important and as Gerard Magill suggests, imagination plays a key role in bridging the gap between spirituality and morality

Imagination, as Magill suggests, is vital in connecting spirituality and morality. It enables us to develop an internal voice rooted in our spiritual and moral beliefs by living a life guided by critical thinking and self-expression. Fostering imagination is crucial to strengthening our spirituality and understanding our morality. This helps in developing our internal voice and maintaining our sense of self in a world filled with external expectations.

Our Use Of Imagination Throughout Life

As children, our imaginations are innocent and free, but as we grow older, we are taught to distinguish between what is real and accepted and what is not. This societal conditioning diminishes our imaginative freedom and limits our critical thinking. Emily Blumberg wrote an article called “The Lost Imagination”, in which she reflects on the transition from childhood imagination to adult pragmatism. Blumberg explains that as children (roughly ages 0-12), the world is filled with limitless possibilities and a vivid imagination, where ordinary objects can become anything. However, as we grow up and move into adolescents (roughly ages 13 -19), societal expectations and self-consciousness often overshadow this creativity. Psychological and social factors, such as peer pressure and the desire to fit in, contribute to the gradual loss of imaginative freedom.

Bridging Our Spirituality And Morality Through The Use Of Imagination

Based on Blumberg’s explanation of how imagination develops, let’s explore how imagination can be used to shape spiritual beliefs through a visual analogy. Since spirituality is intangible, we’ll use paint as a physical representation of it for this analogy.

Let’s begin with childhood, a time when our imagination runs wild, and anything seems possible. At this stage, our spirituality is unconfined, and our sense of morality has yet to take shape. Our spirituality might look something like this.

Colors are scattered everywhere, without a specific style, palette, or system—just like spirituality, it’s abstract. Then, societal conditioning begins to shape it through various people, places, and experiences.

Now, the colors are organized into different tubes and categories, representing our understanding of societal concepts and the various spiritual beliefs we first explored in childhood. These categories are endless but there are three main ones I choose to represent. Religious leaders are grouped in one tube, while our immediate family and friends fill another. The media we consume through social platforms, which follow algorithms that show us content aligned with our preferences and biases, make up a third. At this point, we face a choice: do we fall into blind obedience, or do we engage in critical thinking and continue to develop our imagination? If we choose blind obedience, it might look something like this.

We squeeze the paint directly from the tubes onto our palette, using only the premade colors as the color palette for our morality. However, if we choose to engage our imagination through critical thinking, it might look something like this.

We use the paint from the tubes as the foundation to create our own color palette for morality. By mixing colors and experimenting with different tools, we expand the possibilities of what our once blank canvas can become.

However, the process isn’t linear—sometimes we fall into blind obedience and later rediscover our imagination, and vice versa. We have the ability to shift our spiritual process to one that is authentic to us if we take the time to engage our imagination and strengthen the many skills that come with it. Altogether, the journey from childhood to adulthood, along with our use of imagination, might look something like this.

To Conclude…

This is what it means to bridge the gap between spirituality and morality. The goal is to think critically, challenge imposed limitations, and seek a more authentic, fulfilling life aligned with one’s personal faith or beliefs, rather than the distorted version imposed by those who intentionally or unintentionally manipulate. By expanding your spirituality through imagination, you can begin to strengthen skills such as critical thinking, self-reflection, emotional intelligence, and much more. These skills are pivotal in breaking free from spiritual manipulation, as only by challenging restrictions can one truly live a life of personal spiritual authenticity, strengthen their spirituality, and gain a deeper understanding of how morality shapes their inner voice.

Resources

“The Intersection of Religion and Spirituality: An Empirical Study of Religion and Spirituality”
Author: Journal of Humanistic Psychology
Link: Read Article

“The Lost Imagination”
Author: Emily Blumberg
Link: Read Article

“Spiritual Manipulation: When They Use Religion and Cultural Beliefs to Manipulate You”
Author: Edwin Bii
Link: Read Article

“Connecting Morality and Spirituality”
Author: Gerard Magill
Link: Read Article

“The Social Dilemma”
Director: Jeff Orlowski
Link: Watch on Netflix