Snap out of It: How to Get Saved from Spiritual Insanity

By Barry Bragg

In the short but powerful book Snap Out of It, author Barry Bragg invites you to discover that a questioning mind, an independent spirit, and a sense of humor are the holy trinity of spiritual sanity.

An honest examination of religion takes us to a place of humility, not rigid dogma or superiority. We discover, at long last, that the Universe does not behave in a way that makes us comfortable, and, in fact, is bursting with unpredictability and diversity. Doubt is essential, for illusion and self-deception are the hallmarks of the human mind. With wishful thinking on one end, and paranoid delusion on the other, the ability to see through these products of human imagination takes us to safety and sanity. This book gives you the information and inspiration to resist the pressure to conform to "shoulds," either from religion or society. Refuse to pretend you "know" when you don't know. Stand tall and celebrate the gifts of your innate reason, intuition and individuality. If you walk a spiritual path, make sure it comes from the light of your own being, a spontaneous, personal, free-flowing, natural spirituality.

Traditional religion tells us the word of God is true. However, if you begin with the idea that whatever is true is the word of God, and make that search for yourself, you're on the journey to inner freedom.

May this book be a source of light and liberation, and, yes, laughter. Reclaim your spiritual sanity and integrity, and know that the true will set you free.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 16, 2005
• ISBN: 9780595792924

Barry Bragg

Barry Bragg is a humorous speaker, cartoonist, personal life coach and writer. Contact him at www.barrybragg.com.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

1

Chapter One:

2

Chapter Two:

3

Chapter Three:

For Kim Carrell. Thanks for being my sounding board.

Let men then learn the revelation of all nature and all thought to his heart; this, namely; that the Highest dwells with him; the sources of nature are in his own mind.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Introduction

This book is for anyone wanting to find a spiritual path centered around the guidance of their own soul, anyone who suspects they have lost touch with their own truest values. If you are like most of us, you were brought up in the church, and have been taught to look outside yourself for answers. You have been taught that you are sinful and «depraved,» and your inner direction cannot be trusted. I was brought up in the liberal United Methodist Church, and was taught to have faith, but to question. But later in life, I drifted into charismatic fundamentalism, and took on many of the morbid attitudes I speak against today. Back then my answers were in the Bible and no one could question them. Oddly, in reading a book by Walter Martin called Kingdom of the Cults, I found other attitudes toward the Bible and spiritual questions. I assure you that was not the author’s intention! I began to question the very rigid ideology that Martin was declaring as the truth.

Over many years, I began to study the ideas of Charles and Myrtle Fill-more, the founders of Unity. I read the books of Ernest Holmes including his master work, Science of Mind. Bishop John Spong opened my eyes to the nature of the Bible and Christian thought in his many superb books, my favorite being Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism. Later I found esoteric teachers such as Deepak Chopra who pointed the way to a spirituality unique to every person, a path that could not be found in a group, a holy book or an infallible teacher. This was what I now call ‘natural spirituality,’ for it comes from within us, and cannot be dictated from any outside authority.

I honor anyone who is trying to walk a spiritual path, whether I agree with it or not. My attitude toward conservative Christianity is sort of like someone who has quit smoking talking about cigarettes. I know the harm that certain beliefs can have, both personally and globally. How many of us hear the voice inside saying I would speak to those gay people next door, but the Bible tells me…, or My marriage is a sham but my church says that I need to stay in it and… Are we hearing a loving wisdom and quenching it because we defer to an external source that we have been told is inspired and cannot be questioned? I want to speak to those people who are beginning to doubt the outside sources of truth, who want to believe in their own wisdom and inner truth again. You had that innocent, natural knowing as a child. But society, parents and often the church taught you they knew what was best.

Jesus came to the religious people of his day and said, You have heard it said that…but I say to you. Then he presented a new vision of the world to them. He contradicted what had been assumed to be unchangeable, divine truth. I am going to do the same thing in this little book. This is not meant to be an in-depth examination of the life of Jesus, or the history of the Bible. There are lengthy books on all these things if you wish to go further. This book began three times as long as it now is. But I wanted to write a book that people would actually read. Whether I have the authority to write a book such as this is up to you. I don’t think a doctorate in divinity gives me any more right to say these things. It seems to me that so-called noted authorities are often as confused, and contradictory, as the rest of us.

BUT I SAY TO YOU:

You have heard that God is a separate being, who judges the world, answers some prayers but not others, is absolutely perfect and demands perfection from humanity. I say to you, that God is an incomprehensibly vast energy and intelligence that expresses in and through us as our love and creativity. Its life is not static or frozen, but evolving as we evolve. Creation is open-ended, ongoing and not predetermined.

You have heard that Jesus was God in the flesh, perfect, the one and only Son of God, who died on the cross in a predetermined event to save the souls of those who believe in him. I say to you, that Jesus was an imperfect human being, a product of his time, who did demonstrate exemplary levels of love, a desire for justice and powers of healing. He also was mistaken that he was the Messiah of the Jews and that he would usher in the reordering of the world, what he called the kingdom of God. He was divine in the same sense that you are.

You have been told that there is absolute good and evil, and evil must be resisted and destroyed. I say to you, that while we do live in a world of polarities or opposites, at a cosmic level, the world is good. What we experience as pain, suffering, confusion and disorder all serve a higher good. All things are an expression of God and contain the essential nature of God. We live in a world that we, on the soul level, chose to live in. We are learning how to create in ways that please us. What we call evil are the results we do not like. We are learning to create in ways that do not involve suffering for ourselves or anyone else. But there is no absolute evil as taught by the church.

You have been told that you, as a sinful person, separated from God, need to bridge that gap by getting saved, accepting Jesus, reading the Bible, attending church and keeping company with other Christians. In other words, your desires, thoughts and impulses are not to be trusted. And if you are saved, and you have loving, constructive and enlightened thoughts or knowing, it is not you, but a separate being called the Holy Spirit, or Christ living in you, that is responsible.

I say to you, that your life is soul-driven. Your soul is your individual portion of God. It is much bigger than you. The you that you know is the part of you focused in this physical world. But your whole self is greater than your familiar one. That greater part of you communicates with you through intuition, impulses to take positive, constructive action, and in dreams. Our deepest desires are clues as to what we, on the soul-level, need to be doing.

We have the power to speed up or slow down the flow of good into our lives. How we use our energy, thoughts, beliefs and behavior is how we allow the energy moving through us to become reality, or get stopped up. Our task is to tune in to our inner self, our beyond-conscious self. We can sense its direction, learn to trust it and find our best actions moment-to-moment.

Other people can pull us away from our soul’s voice, but in love, we must honor our true self. Our inner voice in our highest and truest guidance as how we best can contribute to our own development and the greater good. We must trust this even though we do not see the entire picture.

You have been told that the world is made up of separate people and things. God is up there, the devil is over there, you are here, other people are there, etc. I say to you, that everything is connected. If you think of coincidences that have happened to you, you will begin to see this reality. Everything is connected at the top. Your soul is in communication with all other souls. You are constantly getting information from your inner self about what is going on, what to do, what to avoid, etc. On the spiritual level, all things are known. All things have a meaning, a purpose and a reason. This being true, there are no victims or accidents. People often are angry at God for the bad things that happen to good people. But if all is connected in the spiritual realm, and all is good, then that anger is misplaced. All souls choose to participate in what happens. As we trust our soul’s voice, we also trust that we live in a universe that is good, purposeful and where no one is forever lost.

You have been told that forgiveness comes after changed behavior. People are bad, do things out of a depraved nature, and need the grace of God, undeserved mercy, to be forgiven. I say to you, that all humanity is good, and all actions are an expression of love. These expressions of love can be very distorted and misdirected. But if you look at every action, even those we consider horrible, there is a positive intent behind it. People want to feel strong, in control, to be noticed, to be first, to be secure, etc. They do all kinds of things to obtain these results, and hurt others in the process. Hurting or killing others is wrong. So even if a good soul has chosen to express himself in this way, our job is still to stand up for kindness and compassion, in insisting that he behave according to the higher standard. If someone, on the soul-level, has chosen to