This week: A Spiritual Experience Edited by: Annette  
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“My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There’s no version of God that can help us if we ever lose that.”
~ Neal Shusterman, Scythe |
A Spiritual Experience
A lot of religions deal with light. From the old, Pagan rituals revolving around the sun cycles to the Apollo riding his chariot across the sky and Ra being the most powerful of all gods to Jesus being "the light" - it's everywhere.
Even in fiction light is often contrasted with darkness to explain the in-world religion. How many have ever considered to use sound for it?
There is at least one: Neal Shusterman.
In the "Scythe" universe, Tonalists are a cult that worships a giant tuning fork. Similar to crosses on churches, their assembly spaces have a large tuning fork standing in the foyer, complete with a mallet placed right next to it so that it can be rung by anyone. There are Tonalists who have similar functions as priests who oversee one of the gathering spaces, but there are also groups of pilgrims searching for the sacred fork. They travel the entire world for it.
Here is what it feels like to ring the tuning fork:
So she did the only thing she could do. She picked up the mallet and put all of her anger into a single, powerful strike at the tuning fork.
The fork resounded so powerfully, she could feel it in her teeth and bones. It rang not like a bell, which was a hollow sound. This tone was full and dense. It shocked the anger right out of her. Diffused it. It made her muscles loosen, her jaw unclench. It echoed in her brain, her gut, and her spine. The tone rang much longer than such a thing should, then slowly began to fade. She had never experienced anything that was quite so jarring and soothing at the same time."
Excerpt from "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman, paperback edition 2017, page 226.
There is no mention of light at all, but when I read this paragraph the first time, I was right there with the main character, feeling the force of the vibrations shake up my very molecules. Clearly, describing the physical representation of a religious experience can be much more than the common religious lore that demands believers feel their faith just out of sheer willpower.
When adding a religion to your fictional worlds, don't dismiss physics or chemistry to create a unity of like-minded people who follow a certain philosophy or creed and what they go through to experience their faith.
Have you ever written what it feels like in the bones to have a religious experience?
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| | | Carry Me Home (E) Having my childhood stripped away from me, I had no choice but to face life and this world #2280276 by BB  |
| | | I Believe (E) There is a God and afterlife. If you look and listen, you will see. |
| |  | Invalid Item This item number is not valid. #2311592 by Not Available. |
| | | Invalid Item This item number is not valid. #2308102 by Not Available. |
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Replies to my last Spiritual newsletter "Horoscopes and Astrology" that asked: Stars: Are they divine future tellers or are they just night lights?
StephBee  wrote: I think there's something to stars being future tellers. It is amazing just how accurate my zodiac description and my birth chart is.
I believe it is very accurate. Mine is also. But the question remains: are the stars the future tellers? Do we adapt our lives to fit those horoscopes? Are the horoscopes written in such a way that they can be true for most while still feeling relevant to the individual? |
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Spiritual: April 23, 2025 Issue [#13091]
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