Spirituality: Have you ever figured out an answer to your spiritual question by yourself before you run into a spiritual book that answers it? If you have, why does this happen?

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All the time. In fact, my ability to do this is why I eventually stopped reading most spiritual literature.

So let me explain how this is done. When trance is induced, a space is crafted in which one can experience answers to questions. Trance is where the outside world is quieted and the inner monologue is stopped. The resulting experience is thus unconnected from temporal concerns.

The mind conjures up experience from the deepest recesses of being. With enough experience, one can start to direct it towards desired outcomes. Questions kick off an exploration into a world defined by them. It’s just imagination, the same kind you used to have fun as a kid, done in an adult context with adult questions.

Do this over and over and over again and you become what some ancient peoples called a shaman, one with a foot in both worlds. The world you experience when you close your eyes, or just have a free moment to think, offers a way to discover insight into anything that crosses your mind.

After enough of this, you can pick up a spiritual book and realize that the person who wrote it is using the exact same way to obtain insight that you used. What you read triggers your own explorations and you can put your own spin on them.

The big traditions, like Christianity and Buddhism, were built with the concentrated efforts of an entire community of people over thousands of years. Their efforts should be respected and valued even if you don’t agree. When I pick up the Bible, the exploration it kicks off is ten times as intense and interesting as any guru.