Regardless of one’s beliefs about the existence of transcendent realms, human beings need something akin to spirituality to counteract ego dominance. Religious systems encourage humility in order to bring practitioners out of self, and into appreciation of a larger reality. People argue about ‘God’, and obsess about whether we live in a purely material world versus one with mystical foundations. But debates about the nature of the cosmos, while fascinating and important, could be sidestepped if there were an easy way to escape the ego’s tyranny.

Recently, I read the textbook Animal Behavior, by John Alcock, which looks at the subject from an evolutionary perspective. It rounded out ideas that first came my way through Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Despite the rudimentary abilities of certain apes, only humans employ verbal, rational, and linear thought. Predictive skills and long-range strategizing appear to have evolved only recently. Other animals have minds of some sort, but they must work differently from ours. Anyone with a dog knows it has desires and abilities to communicate them. A dog is good at getting humans to provide what it wants. But one of the wonderful things about canine pets is their lack of guile. They don’t plan, manipulate, deceive, or ‘think’ long-term. Those are uniquely human qualities. Although animals have very complicated, and even flexible, behaviors, they do not have complex thinking. Such cognition is a new development on earth.

ACT starts with the premise that we suffer from overactivity in the ‘newer’ parts of the brain, which generate complex and abstract thinking. Adept at describing, comparing, predicting, and judging, the human thought apparatus has proven its strengths in developing technology. From stone tools to agriculture to industrialization to the internet, our cognition has created the sophisticated and tangled culture we see today. For all our mastery of nature, however, we have lost control of our selves. Unless we deliberately nurture other mental abilities, we remain locked in rational thought. Even when we face no immediate dilemma, we fail to revert to the wise and ancient modes that served our animal ancestors for eons. We persist in judging and predicting even when there is little need. Many of us get trapped in obsessions, overwhelmed by anxiety, or crushed by regret. When these conditions become chronic, we start diagnosing mental illness. Although it sometimes destroys us, we cannot easily turn off what ACT calls the ‘thought machine’.

When a person quiets the ceaseless patter of thought, and experiences a bit of silent presence, peace arises. As older and wiser parts of the mind come to the fore, problems begin to seem less complicated and less pressing. With practice, one can combine mindfulness with acceptance, and begin to align with the mind’s nonrational forces. During the past year, ACT methods helped me make progress in those directions. But by itself this failed to displace my ego from its throne; although life became a bit easier, my judgments remained rapid and harsh. At best I enjoyed a few seconds of serenity, before the machine of criticism stormed back into control. For some people, exercises in meditation, tolerance, and value-seeking will suffice to attain lasting peace of mind. But for me, with a long habit of pessimism and negativity, something more was required.

Enter spirituality. Whereas Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) teaches how to think less negatively, and ACT persuades the judging mind to relax its grip, religion works by appealing to deeper regions of the brain. By helping us feel the presence of forces larger than humanity, they give the older parts of the mind enough strength to reassert their rightful place in the human psyche. In the west, this has been accomplished by appeal to a unified God. In the east, there has been more emphasis on awakening the heart to the vast scale and depth of creation. Recently, I was granted a spiritual awakening that arose from a more Eastern than Western way of seeing things. Regardless of its philosophical heritage, the stirring of my deeper spirit has forced my ego to share the stage. Although the cloud of depression remains, it no longer colors my entire worldview. I can feel the low moods percolating, and yet remain open to the beauty of life. The improvement results from a newfound ability to see my ego’s judging stance from a broader perspective. I understand there are other ways of understanding the world, and that I can live without weighing and evaluating everything. An atmosphere of equality has replaced the scales of judgment.

Whatever works. Some will rationally understand the value of escaping the ego’s web, and with that knowledge, break free. Others require an omnipotent deity to shake them loose. Still others will find release by meditating on the subterannean connections between the mind and the cosmos. Using the term loosely, all represent forms of spirituality, in that they release the human spirit from the prison of the human mind.

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    Last reviewed: 4 Feb 2010