Ending My Religion

In “Ending My Religion,” D. Patrick Miller essentially says that Helen Schucman, the author of A Course in Miracles, is “nuts,” but then goes on to expound the virtues of the Course. In my opinion, Schucman displays the classic symptoms of a borderline personality who sees the world around her as a projection of her own impulses and feelings.

Her “spirituality” is a classic defense mechanism for the borderline personality: “splitting” the emotional self into two halves — in her case, fear versus love — and seeing one half as all good and the other as all bad. Though for someone with borderline disorder this can alleviate pain in the short run, it is not at all a healthy psychological — or spiritual — outlook. Spirituality should be about healing, not pathology.

D. Patrick Miller states that “the most common and serious flaw of contemporary New Age thinking is the belief that human experience is somehow meant to be a brightly lit carnival of optimum health, perfect love, universal peace, and material wealth.” There’s a grain of truth to this, but it’s not a very generous statement.

Oftentimes it is life’s seemingly minor, everyday discomforts that force us to go beyond ourselves: when we have to dig deep into the penny jar to buy groceries; when we’ve blown up at our kids one too many times; when we’ve pined for that dream house or that perfect mate for too long. That’s when we start asking the questions: Why can’t everyone be rich and healthy and peaceful and satisfied? What is going on in our world and ourselves that prevents this?

These apparently vacuous impetuses are often doorways into a world of deeper meaning. To dismiss the reason a person starts — and perhaps stays — on his or her path is to pull the rug out from under someone who may need it the most.

D. Patrick Miller’s “Ending My Religion” [April 2002] is a refreshing reminder that spirituality is a funny and conflicted part of everyday life. His foray into A Course in Miracles reminded me of my fascination with yoga, then later with guided meditation, and finally Quakerism. Each of these paths is essentially a way of aspiring to the good life, health, balance, deep wisdom, humility. (By that definition, I guess Weight Watchers must be a path, too.)

Miller was right on target about people who are on paths taking themselves too seriously. These days I tend to gravitate to the “doing business” part of Quakerism, which involves being open to “the leadings of the spirit.” That is a subjective experience that is best shared in a sense of tolerance and humor, with a respect for the equality of all persons.