SPIRITUALITY

WITHOUT

GOD

by

Louise Samways

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 1

 SPIRITUALITY WITHOUT GOD

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

TIMELINE

PERSPECTIVES

Cosmology: Where did we come from? Why are we here?

People of the Dreaming

People of Science and Religion

The Creation of the Cosmos

The Creation of Man

The Creative Force of Memes

Personal: Memories and Mysteries

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 2

INTRODUCTION

I am often asked to speak to all kinds of community groups. After one lecture, a lively
discussion developed about spirituality and religion.
Many of the people in this group of terminally ill men and women, and their families,
said that they felt hurt and angry that their spiritual needs were not being considered because
they were not religious. When asked about my own religious beliefs I explained that I had no
religion. My own spirituality was expressed without God.
Since then I have been actively sought out by families in crisis whose differing religious
and cultural beliefs within the family are creating terrible conflict. The open conflict is often
triggered by the “hatching, matching and dispatching” events in family life when people need
support from each other most. Because I have no religion they see me as an “independent”
mediator and therefore often acceptable to everyone in the family.
Even so, I feel anybody consulting me, seeking advice, or reading my books and articles
is entitled to be able to put anything I say in the context of my particular perspective. While
Psychologists are trained to be as professionally objective as possible, it is foolish to delude
ourselves into believing that our own backgrounds and beliefs have no effect on how we
practice. This is one reason why I have written “ Spirituality without God”. The other reason
is that many of my non religious patients requested it.
Most people “inherit” religion from their family’s cultural and religious tradition.
However in my family there is no religious tradition. My cultural heritage can be best
described as “Australian Mongrel”. Although not “pure bred”, we do have the toughness and
resilience of hybrid vigour from an interesting blend of various migrant and Indigenous
ancestors who have lived deeply spiritual, joyful lives full of purpose and meaning. Their
spiritual understanding demanded a strongly ethical lifestyle, but without God.
Those branches on the family tree that did encounter religion, decided it was just too
conditional and divisive to meet their spiritual needs. The men found the hierarchy of power
and demands for “obedience” intolerable. The women found the patriarchal nature of religion
abusive and undermining their dignity and equality with men. As my feisty little maternal
grandmother expressed it: “Religions were created by men. They are run by men for
men…….. Besides they try and take all the fun out of life……especially sex.”

This article will probably be of most interest to those people who are looking for a
spiritual frame-work in their lives, but who, for whatever reason do not believe, or may be
disillusioned with a belief in God.
Take from these words as much, or as little, as you find helpful.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 3

PREFACE

It is impossible to explore spirituality without considering probably the most spiritually

aware and certainly the most ancient cultures on earth, those of the Australian Aborigines.
Unfortunately English and other modern languages are poorly equipped to describe their
unique spiritual beliefs.
Our vocabulary and sentence structure regards matter, mind, energy and spirit as separate
entities. Everything is classified. Aboriginal languages do not make such distinctions. Their
languages and their way of thinking describes place and function, meaning and purpose,
because they understand that everything is connected.
It is therefore crucial that the stories of the Aborigines are kept alive in their own
languages so that the integrity of their beliefs are retained. Aborigines themselves have to be
the first to tell us their stories and explain their spirituality in English.
My description of Aboriginal cosmology relies heavily on what has already been written
in English with the approval of Aboriginal people (particularly Robert Lawler’s book “Voices
of the First Day”) and my own personal experiences with Aboriginal Elders.
In researching current theories of cosmology I realised there is considerable
disagreement on many issues. Where there are conflicting theories I have deferred to and
quoted the theory which is most consistent with Indigenous beliefs. The extraordinary
continuity of Aboriginal beliefs and the success of their many cultures over tens of thousands
of years gives us a valuable point of reference for understanding our beginnings, our
spirituality and our purpose in life. Particularly when you realise the startling similarities
between the perspectives of the People of The Dreaming and the discoveries of modern
science.
Like my books, what you read here has emerged from listening to the needs of my
patients and the people attending my lectures and workshops in the community. Particularly
people who are wary of religion but who feel a strong need to pursue a spiritual life.
Many people with so much materially, feel life lacks meaning and purpose. So many feel
at a loss when trying to impart meaning and values to their children growing up immersed in
a culture that “ knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”. So many people feel
helpless and frustrated when they read the daily newspaper or tune into TV current affairs.
And so many have lives totally at odds with their needs as human beings; causing illness,
anguish, conflict, frustration and feelings of loneliness and alienation from others and even
from life itself.
I am often asked how I can feel optimistic and contented with life, especially when I deal
with so much unhappiness and tragedy in my work and have no religion. Although many
people find comfort and meaning with religious beliefs, there is an increasing number of
people who find religion provides no answers and gives no meaning.
However spirituality does not need religious belief. You don’t need religion to have
meaning and purpose in your life. You don’t need religion to feel life’s spiritual dimension.
Regardless of how you choose to interpret spirituality, a spiritual life gives you the
contentment and freedom that comes with humility, the feeling of belonging that comes from
accepting responsibility and knowing right from wrong, and the energy to wake each day and
embrace life with a great big hug!

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 4

TIME LINE

20 billion years ago our universe was created from the cosmos.
4½ billion years ago the earth was created from the sun.
For 400,000 years mankind has lived on earth.
For at least 120,000 years the oldest continuous culture that has lived and celebrated its
spirituality is the culture of the People of the Dreaming: the Australian Aborigines. For them
spirituality is a personal integral part of being.
For 80,000 years, in other parts of the world man has performed rituals to celebrate his
connection to the cosmos.
For 8,000 years some of these newer cultures have expressed their spirituality by
worshipping gods and idols, some believed in God-Kings.
And for only the past 3,000 years spirituality has been redefined as conditional on
religious belief with institutional hierarchies worshiping a single god. A god that different
cultures soon aligned closely with political power. These single god religions are exclusive:
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each believes theirs is the true god. A God who is separate
to man and who is said to have made the earth for man to use.
The following words are for those who don’t believe in God but who instead wish to
reclaim, experience and express their spirituality in highly personal ways.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 5

 PERSPECTIVES:

People of the Dreaming

"You white fellas might have come from monkeys, but us black
fellas were always black fellas. We were made in the dreaming"
Aboriginal Elder

"We have come directly out of the dreamtime of the Creative

ancestors All other peoples of the world came from us"
Aboriginal Elder

“White fella pastor tell me that if I become a Christian, and give up my

black fella ways, then I go to heaven when I die”. I ask this white fella pastor
“This place heaven, why it so special”? This pastor fella spend a long time telling
me all about heaven.
But then I say to this pastor fella “Why wait ‘til I die? If I stay with black
fella ways I be living in heaven right now”.
Aboriginal Elder

“On the mission on Sundays we go to Church. Long, long way to walk in

hot sun. All them Priests and black fella boys ride in big cart. Them Nuns they
walk behind with all us black fella girls walking and carrying all them little
piccaninies.
In black fella ways all those Priests and big strong boys walk. Old people
and picanninies ride in cart.”
Aboriginal Woman Elder

"Dad was dangerously ill. He was in intensive care in a city

hospital and not expected to survive the night. Mum’s phone message
had finally got through to this remote desert Aboriginal community
where I’d been working for some time.
Somehow the medicine man in the community ‘became aware of
my troubles’ and came to me. They asked if I would like them to try and
help. I sceptically agreed.
They explained that as I was a close relative the healing would
be better sent through me to my father in the hospital
I sat with the medicine men behind me and within a few minutes I
felt an extraordinary heat on my back. When they left the hot feeling
lasted for several hours.
The next day I got another call from Mum. She said Dad was
miraculously better, but he had described having a strange dream
during the night. He dreamt that he was walking through the desert
guided by some old Aboriginal men looking for something.
When I mentioned this to the medicine men they explained they
had taken Dad "to look for the source of his illness and destroy it".

Clinical Nurse Central Australia

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 6

 For Australia’s Indigenous People, in the beginning came the dreamtime. The beginning
of an ongoing process when there was nothing but a huge energy field. Out of the dreamtime
field came the Stars, moons and earth. And from the dreamtime other energy fields emerged:
the dreamtime ancestors like the rainbow serpents that connected the energy fields of earth
with those of all the cosmos.

"Our rainbow serpent is like your invisible low frequency radio

waves at one end and your high frequency gamma and x-rays at the
other. In the middle are the frequencies that let us see things, the colours
of the rainbow".
Aboriginal Teacher’s Assistant

These forces, these monsters of the dreamtime roamed over the earth and burrowed deep
within it. As they roamed they created the landscape of the earth: the mountains, the valleys,
the great plains, the lakes and the seas. At each place they left behind the creative energy, the
dreaming of that place, its potential to create material life.
These monsters of the dreamtime, huge fields of concentrated energy, would pause as
they roamed and draw out from their bodies bundles of energy to act on the creative potential
of that place: to be stabilised as matter by naming or ‘singing’ them into existence: kangaroo,
wallaby, dingo, possum, honey bee, turtle, roots, flowers, trees. Hence the power of a name: a
vibrating pattern of moving air, stabilising energy as matter.

"You must not say someone’s name if they die. If you say his
name it messes up him going back into the spirit world. His spirit gets
confused and hangs around. Doesn’t know whether he’s coming or
going”.
Aboriginal Elder NT

When the world was ready the ancestor dreaming monsters created man. Each tribe was
created from the energy of their particular place: a material expression of the vibrating energy
deposited there by the ancestors during the dreamtime, but still connected to the back ground
energy field of the spiritual world. Therefore Man’s position, where he is born, lives and dies
intimately affects the pattern of energy, the continuing dreamtime process, of that place. How
he chooses to live his life determines the degree of stability and harmony not only where he
lives, but radiates influence throughout the whole energy field of the material and spiritual
world.

"Men and everything made in the dreaming are like magnets.

They have energy around them that affects everything and is affected by
the energy of everything else".
Aboriginal Elder NT

Iron filings can reveal and enhance the flow of the invisible magnetic field around a
magnet. Similarly red blood cells containing iron flows in the veins of creatures and connects
them to the magnetic fields around them including the energy fields of the earth. The earth
itself is connected by veins of magnetically sensitive crystals and minerals.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 7

 For Indigenous Australians where you are placed in the energy field and how you then
influence that field creates the relationships that give your life meaning.

For Indigenous Australians, maintaining stability, balance and harmony in the

continuous flow of energy from the spiritual field to all matter and from all matter to the
spiritual field is your purpose in life.

The vibrations of the ritual dancing and singing energises the field. The flow of energy is
enhanced when they coat their bodies with iron rich ochre, and use blood, which also
contains iron, to stick bird feathers to their bodies. The feathers further enhance their
awareness of the earth’s energy field. They contain magnetically sensitive proteins which
allow birds to “read” the earth’s magnetic fields so that they can navigate the earth when they
migrate.
Indigenous Australians realise that nothing is separate, everything is continuous because
the field is continuous, just like the energy along the rainbow serpent. Only the form of the
field varies: from field to matter to field, from spirit world to material world and back to spirit
world.
All matter is sensitive to and part of the electromagnetic spiritual field. All plants and
creatures including man can sense this field. Just as birds migrate by reading the magnetic
field of the earth, Aboriginal Elders can follow the subtle magnetic field or song lines of the
earth. Networks of song lines that traced over the Australian continent and at one time,
continuously over the whole of the earth. Each section of the song lines energy is maintained
by the tribal Elders responsible for that place. The sacred sites are the recharging and tuning
sites for re-energising the field through ceremonies that pound the earth in dances or with
special poles that are decorated with bird feathers, blood and ochre. The ochre being pounded
to create highly magnetically sensitive iron chelates.
At other sacred sites rocks are ‘sung’ to make them sing. The vibrating air causing the
large quartz crystals in the rock to vibrate and renew the field around them.
In order to have meaning and purpose, to maintain balance and harmony in the field,
traditional Indigenous people understand that they must keep their awareness balanced
between the creative unconsciousness of the background field and that of the created world of
matter: To do this they must remain empathetic to the spiritual needs of both the field and
themselves. (It is quite magical to watch older Aboriginal children and their parents teaching
little children from the time they can understand language, empathy and respect for
absolutely everything in their world: the creatures, the rivers and water holes, trees and
mountains and for each other).
Man must resonate with the field. This is man’s spirituality: Woman’s role is the creation
of life from the spiritual field. Man’s role is to enter states of awareness, altered states of
consciousness, dreaming states that resonate with the field allowing him and his thoughts to
travel. Each level of initiation is an initiation and education into these states of awareness
with the field, to energise it, tune it, and to guide the spiritual energy of the dead back to the
spiritual realm.
The oneness of all things with the background field means there is no need for
hierarchies. No king, no headman, no ruler. From an early age each Aboriginal person could
survive physically totally independently of each other. His intimate knowledge, empathy with
and connection to the environment allowed him to hunt and gather everything he needed. So
everything and everyone has purpose. Everything and everyone gives meaning to the field.
Even the languages of these sophisticated people express this one-ness. The process of
life and living are described not as separate objects but as place, form and function in the
whole.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 8

 For Aboriginal people the law which guides them is the daily way of life, the rituals and
ceremonies that maintains harmony and balance in the whole of the cosmic spiritual field in
all its forms: Everyone and everything has equal access to, and a right to a joyous spirituality
through their inbuilt sense of the field. Everyone and everything has a spiritual responsibility
to all that the spiritual field encompasses in its creative force and consciousness.
Spirituality is a shared and mutual responsibility to maintain cohesion, harmony and
connectedness of the whole cosmos.
For people and every other living thing, purpose and meaning come from fulfilling one’s
role in the energy cycle of life and death that maintains the field.
The pattern and nature of the field at a particular point in time expresses the ongoing
process of the self creating and self organising spiritual force: the dreaming of the cosmos.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 9

PERSPECTIVES: People of Science and Religion

The Creation of the Cosmos

In the beginning there was nothing. A vast void, dark and silent, a brooding creative
force within a field of infinite and chaotic energy.
As more unstable energy was drawn into this creative force, a critical point was reached
causing a mighty big bang.
In that beginning, separate bundles of vibrating energy were created, swirled by the great
explosive forces that swept them into fierce currents and accelerating whirlpools,
compressing these bundles of vibrating energy with enormous pressure until they were more
stable together than by themselves. Energy became matter.
From that initial chaos a process of creating order from disorder began. A process that
some believe defines the real beginning of Life. Life is therefore a self organising creative
process that maintains itself in a constant cycle of renewal: From the background radiation of
the spirit realm come patterns of vibrating energy, to form matter, and then returning
ultimately back to spirit. A repeating cycle that creates order from disorder. A process that
moves from simplicity to an evolving and spiralling complexity and therefore greater
stability.

Hence the purpose of life is to create , maintain and increase order, harmony and
balance.*

The simplest parts that came from the massive explosion of the big bang were single
positively and negatively charged vibrating bundles of energy. Pushed and pulled around
each other until the forces between a single positively charged particle of energy encircled by
a single negatively charged particle of energy created a more stable entity: a hydrogen atom.
These simple atoms continued to swirl into ever expanding whirlpools of sparking gases.
As particles were crowded and crashed into each other, the collisions released bundles of
light and energy. The crowding and competition for space created more pressure and more
heat so great that the enormous whirlpool of hydrogen gas exploded to form the first
generation stars.
From these nuclear explosions of hydrogen gas more complex, more stable wholes of
vibrating elemental helium matter were formed until all the hydrogen in these first generation
stars was exhausted. In a thousandth of a second the stars became dark, imploding as they
collapsed on themselves. Then exploding again to create heavier, more complex, more stable
elemental matter. Matter held together by the electromagnetic forces of positively and
negatively charged particles of vibrating energy.
As the gases continued to compress, heat up and ignite they formed the next generation
stars, causing even heavier matter to flow out from their surface.
One of those stars was our sun. The heavier matter thrown out from our sun became the
planets and moons of our solar system, kept spinning around the sun by the gravitational
forces between them.
However not all the new patterns, new life forms, that are created survive. Only those
that have a shared harmony and balance with all the existing patterns can continue. New
patterns, new self organising systems, new life must contribute to a ‘mutual consistency’ with
all other self organising systems, all other forms of life.

* (This explanation of the beginning of the cosmos and definition of life is based on Elizabet Sahtouris’
book ‘Earthdance: Living Systems in Evolution’ Praegor 1999).

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 10

 In this way new patterns are experiments that over time either adapt themselves to the
larger cosmic pattern of all life or disappear. This is the lesson of life: adapt and become part
of a shared and balanced harmony with the cosmos or die.
Each cycle of life since the explosion of the big bang, each level of greater complexity,
whether it be the formation of the simplest elemental matter, to the formation of suns, planets
and moons, to the creation of the earth or the evolution of simple bacteria, plants, animals and
man, is a repeating pattern. A continuous cycle where something whole separates into parts.
As these parts compete, immense conflict can result until negotiation between them reaches a
resolution. Resolution leads to co-operation between those surviving parts to form another
more complex, more stable whole: a holon.
Holons come from within holons: planets around stars within galaxies. Holons join to
form larger holons: a single negatively charged energy packet joins a single positively
charged energy packet to become a more stable hydrogen atom, two hydrogen atoms join to
become one helium atom. Some believe that many holons of bacteria joined together to create
a larger holon to live within: animals like human beings. Tiny coral polyp holons join
together to become large reef holons.
This is the continuing process of the evolution of life, the formation of increasingly
complex, increasingly stable interdependent systems of vibrating energy embedded within
other energy systems.
Then about 4½ billion years ago, from the holon of our sun, the earth was formed. A hot
molten mass of all the elements of the universe. A new self organising system of vibrating
energy: another life.
As the earth’s surface cooled it formed a hardened crust, which repeatedly melted and
cooled, so the lightest elements came to the surface and the heaviest sank to its core. This
continually changing arrangement of simple elemental matter, and the more complex
vibrating self organising systems of new compounds were continuously bombarded by heat
and electromagnetic energy from the sun. Eventually the earth’s energy organised itself into
that of a giant spinning magnet with a continuous flow of magnetic energy through its core,
over its surface and radiating into the cosmos.
This melting and cooling caused other tremendous forces to be released: cracking,
heaving and buckling the crust into mountains and valleys, sliding whole continents around
the surface.
As it cooled further, gases and steam rose from its surface to form a thickening blanket
around the earth protecting it from the sun and most of the relentless bombardment from
meteorites.
Eventually the earth cooled .The water vapour and steam formed clouds and then rain
which pooled on the crust to form rivers, lakes and seas. The evolution of life had created
another holon, a more complex living planet.
Fierce electrical storms struck lightning onto the surface forming new compounds, new
matter. The molten core of the earth and the energy of the sun continued to feed electrical and
magnetic fields with a complex pattern of energy flow influencing the elements, the
compounds and increasingly complex forms of life embedded in the earth.
Over time this living earth with its own cosmic consciousness evolved increasingly
complex self organising holons of bacteria, plants and animals.
As life on earth became more complex, forms of life evolved with ways of remembering
and passing on information: The evolution of the genetic code.
Like all other forms of life in the cosmos this genetically coded life formed holons
embedded in holons, individuals that worked to achieve harmony with their neighbours in
order to survive.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 11

 With every cycle of life there was competition and conflict, only resolved by co-
operation. In negotiating their place, external pressures selected organisms with
characteristics with the most chance of survival, those characteristics being recorded in the
genetic code were then passed to the next generation. Very occasionally a spontaneous
mutation or mistake could occur in the cycle. If it was an advantage it was passed on to the
next generation. The process of adaptation.
But it was not just chance that continued the evolution of more complex genetically
coded organisms.
It is now accepted that most changes in the genetic code are quite deliberate as
organisms use their intelligence, their cosmic consciousness to respond to changing forces
and pressures around them: To reorganise their DNA, overcome problems, to further the
purpose of life, to preserve itself individually and to create more stable and complex living
systems to maintain harmony and order.
In this way bacteria holons created solar technology and recycling systems to create the
energy they needed and maintain sustainable supplies of all the other resources they need.
Even more complex bacteria realised that swapping bits of their genetic code gave faster and
greater scope for responding to changed conditions, negotiating and resolving conflicts in
their relationships with other holons. Hence sexual reproduction dramatically increased the
options for maintaining mutual consistency, the shared harmony of the universe.
With increasing complexity, co-operation between holons enabled them to divide up
tasks, to specialise and stop duplication and hence become more efficient.
This specialisation demanded a crucial balance of independence and interdependence.
Those holons that could resolve conflict and co-operate survived best.
This process continued under the influence of a magnetic field that weakened, reversed
polarity and then surged in strength every one million years. After each reversal of the field,
when North became positive and South became negative and visa versa, massive extinctions
within nearly all species on earth occurred as if the earth was cleansing itself and starting
again with new patterns of life, new self organising systems. Some believe that there have
been six extinctions and renewals of man’s time on earth. Others believe that at each
extinction remnant Indigenous peoples in the far south of Tasmania and perhaps the far north
of the Arctic circle did survive.
The magnetic field weakens before a reversal of polarity. With the surge in strength of
the energy field after each reversal life evolves and flourishes at great intensity.
In between these changes in polarity are periods of great stability. Now the field is
weakening again, particularly in the last 10,000 years.
In the last reversal of the earth’s polarity, about 700,000 years ago, the South pole
became positive and the North pole negative. The magnetic energy field flows around the
earth to join the magnetic energy flow from the sun ,and then down through the earth’s core
to continue the energising cycle of the earth.
These invisible pulsing fields of force drive all life systems and connect them.
The cosmic consciousness creates and continues to create the patterns of these spiritual
magnetic force fields. Vibrating energy fields that are the essence of all matter in the cosmos,
affecting all other matter and connected to the magnetic energy field of the whole cosmos.
This interconnection is illustrated when increases in sunspot activity that cause changes in the
electromagnetic field of the earth every eleven years, increases the growth of trees and affects
the red blood cells of animals and people.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 12

The Creation of Man

Sometime after the last reversal of the magnetic poles about 400,000 years ago or
perhaps longer, modern man evolved.
An evolutionary experiment: perhaps the first thinking being. An experiment that is still
being run with mixed results. While some men like the earth’s Indigenous peoples found a
mutual consistency, a shared harmony with the cosmos, many men have not. Since the
cosmos does not need man and he is presenting an ever increasing danger to the shared
harmony of the cosmos, his life is limited unless he can use his thinking brain in more
constructive ways.
Some believe that the earliest man of this epoch emerged from the strong positive
energies on the oldest continent with the oldest animals, Australia.
The Aborigines chose a rich spiritual life consciously aware through their sensing of the
magnetic field of the energy connecting them with the cosmos, the earth and all of life. They
understand that they are a temporary physical manifestation of that field, connected to the
field and all its other physical manifestations, totally interdependent in a spiritual reciprocity
to maintain order, harmony and balance.
They have always known, what some cosmologists are only now suggesting, that the
physical realm of the life process is a separation of the spiritual energy field into positive and
negative forces that flow in a self organising system of vibrating energy.
The Aborigines, and other Indigenous peoples, resolved conflicts between themselves
and their changing environment by adapting and adjusting to new conditions. (Rising sea
levels since the end of the last ice age, ending about 10,000 years ago, means that nearly all
of the archaeological evidence concerning their early history is under the sea. Geologists who
have listened to dreamtime stories say that the geological events described suggest a history
of being in Australia much, much longer than man in Africa).
However other men, in other parts of the world and subjected to different energy fields
did not, and still have not adjusted or adapted to resolve the conflicts between themselves and
the earth. Why have these men become a liability to the earth and the cosmos when for
400,000 years man was an apparently successful experiment embedded in the cosmic pattern
of life? How did they lose the plot so completely? Some believe that the answer lies in
understanding how man’s own electromagnetic field has been influenced by the weakening
and changing magnetic field of the earth.
The electromagnetic fields created by the vibrating energy of all matter vary in strength
according to the size (amplitude) of the waves of energy and their frequency (how often a
complete wave occurs in a given time).
All matter in the universe is influencing and being influenced by all other matter. Their
electromagnetic fields are the means of that influence. You can actually see the changing
fields of influence when iron filings are sprinkled around a magnet. The iron filings align
themselves in a pattern revealing the lines of force. When you bring another magnet close
enough, the pattern of filings change to reveal the new combined energy field.
As matter organises itself into increasingly complex systems it develops increasingly
sophisticated systems for receiving and transmitting that influence, that interaction. In human
beings every part of a cell, every cell, every organ, every system is constantly sending and
receiving vibrational energy to and from the cosmos on its particular and specific frequency.
Some physicists believe that cell differentiation is largely mediated by waves of
information transmitted by cells in the past to those in the present.(Cell differentiation is the
process by which cells with the same genetic material know what kind of cell to become ie:
Which parts of their DNA to turn on and off. How a cell knows whether to become part of a
toe or part of your brain).

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 13

 Just as our eyes receive frequencies in the visible spectrum between 390 trillion
cycles/sec and 780 trillion cycles/sec, our ears receive frequencies between 20 and 20,000
cycles/sec. While these are vibrational frequencies of which we are consciously aware, there
appear to be many more that humans sense and have the potential to sense: blind people can
learn to sense the different vibrational frequencies of different colours with their finger tips.
Dousing has been used by many cultures to sense the electromagnetic fields of running water,
the Australian Aborigines sense the subtle magnetic field changes along their song lines and
in rocks and plants and animals.
Dr Percy Seymour, an English astronomer, suggested that the spine is actually an aerial
constantly transmitting and receiving information from the cosmos.
The energy fields of all matter in the cosmos are in a constantly changing system
constantly striving for order and balance. Within the human body this flow of energy within,
around and between the body, its environment, other people and the cosmos has been called
many things by different cultures: spirit energies by Indigenous peoples, chi by the Chinese,
reiki by the Japanese, prana by the Hindus, bioplasmic energy by Russian scientists, psychic
energy by Jung. William Reich referred to bio-energy and homeopathy talks of the vital
vibrational force, Christians talk of light, cosmologists talk of the background field.
The overall electromagnetic field energy of human beings vibrates at 7.8-8.0 cycles/sec.
This is the frequency of the brain in a relaxed, quiet meditative state and it is also the
vibrational frequency of the earth. Human beings are literally tuned to the same frequency as
the earth.
This attunement with the earth was reflected in man’s cultural beliefs and harmonious
relationship with their earth ‘Mother’ for tens of thousands of years. A balanced relationship
of hunting and gathering communities taking from the earth no more than they needed,
worshipping and respecting Earth in rituals and ceremonies celebrating her nurturing energy
and man’s own joy in life.
But then, about 10-15 thousand years ago as the earth’s own magnetic field began to
weaken, man’s relationship with earth began to change. Some believe that this is why man’s
reverence for and bond with the earth also weakened. The common bond of the
electromagnetic field between man and earth was no longer as strong.
This changing field strength affected many systems on earth: the earth became warmer,
the icecaps melted and the seas rose, changing weather patterns caused changes in availability
of food, in some areas more than others. Conditions forced some of mankind to start growing
food and keeping animals: the agricultural revolution.
But in many places, hunting and gathering and very limited agriculture and husbandry
continued unchanged.
Aboriginal dreaming describes man as having much stronger psychic powers until just
before the giant marsupials suddenly died out. Modern man blamed the Aborigines for
hunting the slow moving animals to extinction. Recent archaeological finds confirm this is
not so. The Aborigines had co-existed with these huge animals for tens of thousands of years.
More likely is that the weakening magnetic field would not support the variety and
abundance of plant life these animals needed, also affecting the psychic powers of mankind
just as the Aborigines described. A weakening magnetic field would have made it more
difficult for man to be attuned to the earth itself as well as the spiritual fields of all life on
earth.
Hence in many places on earth, man’s relationship with nurturing mother earth was
changed for ever. Agriculture and husbandry demanded that man change and destroy patterns
of life. Man’s needs were met at the expense of balance and harmony. Land was cleared and
fenced. Man no longer looked to the earth but to the changing weather in the sky that would
affect what he could grow.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 14

 The earth was no longer ours to be shared with everyone else on earth, but something to
be divided up, exploited, owned, yours and mine. Where there had been abundance and
balance and order, there became shortages, conflict and disorder.
Until this time, in hunter gatherer communities women appear to have been revered and
certainly equal to men. Their ability to create life in the mystery of birth, their knowledge of
edible plants and herbs for food and healing gave them power and respect.
Some research has suggested that the weakening magnetic field would have caused
greater activity in the left hemisphere of the human brain: more analytical, sequential,
mechanistic and self centred thinking. Right brain thinking, which is easier for women to
access, is more creative, holistic, selfless and empathetic with other people and the natural
environment.
In this emerging agriculture based social order the right brain thinking of women had to
be repressed so that the earth could be exploited. People could be treated differently
according to their power in the group. Some people could be excluded completely.
Hence hierarchical social structures emerged with the strong ruling the less strong.
Access to and control of resources depended on your place in the hierarchy, social rules
developed that decided mine and yours, concepts like permanent ownership and trading
developed.
The goddesses, created to honour a nurturing mother earth had to be repressed. The
dependence on the weather and heat of the sun meant man now looked to the sky: particularly
convenient as it kept everyone distracted from the changes being made to the earth.

The Creative Force of Memes

The evolutionary experiment of a thinking being with language created another force
acting on all life: the powerful pressure of ideas or memes.
Memes, the information and ideas that had been passing down man’s culture, his world
view and social structures for tens of thousands of years now became an extraordinarily
powerful force influencing man’s social structure and spiritual beliefs. Those who controlled
the memes: the knowledge, access to information, ideas and beliefs controlled the population:
who survived and who did not.
In this way huge distortions occurred in the pattern of order and balance between man,
his world and the cosmos. Man experienced his place in the world through his senses, but
what he experienced was now also interpreted for him by others. Those in charge even
decided what had life and what did not. Earth was no longer a living being to be cherished,
but something dead to be used. Even today the conceit of some men allows them to believe
that only they decide what has life, that life is only found on earth. In their conceit they
conclude that other planets are dead because they are too hot or too cold.
However this conceit has been exposed as we discover life on earth where it was
previously decided life could not exist: in boiling mud pools, in the frozen depths of the ice,
in the acid of our own stomach, around volcanic chimneys spewing forth superheated magna
deep under the sea.
For man the cycle of life went from living harmoniously in a holon of humanity, to
separate groups, competing and fighting. Mankind is still firmly embedded in the
competitive, conflicting part of the larger cycle of life. The necessary negotiation to achieve a
resolution part of the cycle still seems a long way off.
At first it seems the agricultural empires were peaceful, ordered and sustainable but then
they were invaded from the north by people who were herders wanting more land for their
animals. These men were more aggressive and more self centred. The even weaker magnetic

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 15

field in their homelands perhaps causing even greater food shortages and even greater
alienation from their spiritual roots with the energy field of the earth.
Whatever the reason the invaded communities were now full of the memes of these male
dominated hostile people who quickly dominated the existing cultures.
While those with power lived lives of ease, the general population started to suffer badly.
In areas now known as the Middle East, the Mediterranean, India and China, the population
and demands on the resources of the earth grew. Man now lived in shelters, houses and wore
clothes and shoes, he used iron and other metal tools, putting physical barriers between
himself and his sensory awareness of the earth’s weakening magnetic field. As this distancing
from the spiritual field continued it became easier and easier for man to see himself as
separate and no longer part of the earth and the cosmos. His sensory awareness of a physical
world ‘out there’ had always been balanced by a sensory awareness of the invisible
vibrational nature of the cosmos and his connection to it. Now he was cut off from this sense.
Only the visible physical world outside himself was real. Man’s reality became limited and
distorted as he became increasingly spiritually disabled.
As they lost contact with spiritual forces, men also lost awareness of their meaning in life
or their purpose. Instead meaning became based on things they could see, control, acquire or
own. Their spirituality became the creating and control of material acquisitions. The purpose
of life was now to explore, experiment, and create to maintain an order which allowed this
acquisition and control of material things.
For the first time hierarchical social and political structures emerged as those who owned
and controlled access to land used their power over those who did not. Different classes of
people emerged .Some were considered more deserving than others.
With the need to hoard food against times of shortage came taxes and powerful
bureaucracies to manage and co-ordinate supply and demand. The need to keep records
evolved into written language and mathematics to count the hoard. Work was divided up:
farmers, builders, shepherds, soldiers.
As man realised he could not control everything and was still vulnerable to
overwhelming natural forces, those who claimed they could influence such forces also gained
power. And when their claimed power failed they shifted blame to the shortcomings of
ordinary people. The wrath of Gods was punishment for people on earth breaking God’s
rules, not worshipping, believing or sacrificing enough. When bad things happened, the Gods
were simply testing man.
Since man was now so dependent on the weather, male gods in the sky were more
important than nurturing earth goddesses. For many, worship of earth goddesses was
forbidden. No longer sacred, the earth could become a commodity to be exploited, bought
and sold.
Some remnants of spiritual awareness continued with beliefs in astrology: and the
influences of stars and planets on people and their destinies, in herbalism and the power of
plants to heal.
Then about 5000 years ago there began to emerge a class of special people, full time
priests who claimed they and only they could communicate directly with the gods. They
claimed that keeping priests happy kept the gods happy. In that way the priests in their
temples became richer with the taxes and land they were paid.
In Egypt, the Pharaoh king decided the priests had too much power so he declared
himself a God King to whom the priests had to answer.
Some societies flourished with their man made imposed order, while nature and ordinary
men and women suffered even more. At the end of the ice age earth’s entire population had
been about 10 million people, by 2000 BC it was about 90 million and by the time of Christ it
was 300 million.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 16

 The imbalance of man and nature caused other problems. The closer man lived to
animals the greater the chance of diseases of animals becoming those of man: measles and
smallpox from cattle, malaria from birds and influenza from pigs and ducks. Man became
sick and frightened. Food shortages created conflict and fear that threatened even those with
power. The acceptance of existing social hierarchies was questioned.
Increasingly man’s spiritual need for order and harmony, to know and understand his
purpose, made him vulnerable to the memes of those with the power to control ideas and
beliefs. The memes of religious teachings fulfilled these needs, especially as they were
proclaimed to be the word of a higher male authority.
The mystery of death became a fear of punishment in death. The priests, monks and
clerics placated and distracted those suffering on earth with the promise of rewards in the
afterlife. The afterlife became more important than life itself. The gods said pursue a virtuous
life. But the priests aligned themselves with the ruling elites and decided virtue meant
obedience.
The ideas and rules of the priests evolved their own hierarchical structures and formal
religions emerged. One of the first, Hinduism evolved in about 2500 BC. Hinduism retained a
belief in many gods, astrology and the connectedness of all animal life. All animal life
including insects had ‘souls’ that could be reincarnated after death into other creatures. There
was great respect for all creatures, but people were segregated according to their caste. As
this segregation became more rigid, Hinduism supported the existing political system. Its
many rules for daily life imposed order, obedience and acceptance of the misery and poverty
of most of the population.
Believing that the more you suffered on earth the greater the chance of reincarnation into
a higher order, maintained and justified extreme wealth for a few and extreme poverty for the
rest.
As long as this acceptance of one’s place in society was not questioned Hinduism was
tolerant of new religions and sects.
One of these was Buddhism. Its founder Siddharta Gastama, the son of a prince, grew up
about 6 BC privileged, irresponsible and initially impervious to the misery of the poor around
him. As a young man confronted and troubled by the misery he saw, he left his wife and son
to find solutions for his own confusion, discontent and anguish. He returned with a simple but
powerful message: that the anguish man felt was due to his self centred cravings. Relief or
enlightenment would come from a life embracing uncomfortable feelings and seeing them as
transitory rather than fearing such feelings and avoiding them.
In many ways the origins of Buddhism was a way for Siddharta to deal with the guilt and
restlessness of privilege. A way to reconcile and live with the contradictions and suffering he
saw in a culture and society disconnected from the oneness of all things, and where some
more than others were deserving.
Siddharta claimed no message from God, or mysticism, only personal insights that
allowed him peace in a world that had lost its spirituality and equal respect for all of the
cosmos and its creatures.
Although he rejected the Hindu concept of caste which made him popular with the poor,
Siddharta believed in relieving anguish through acceptance. Acceptance also absolved him of
responsibility to change anything, so he was no political threat. He saw himself as a healer of
emotional pain, Buddhism was essentially a coping strategy for the suffering in life on earth.
However after his death, Buddhism became a set of beliefs, a religion with many sects
and powerful temples. A religion that spread eastwards, but still squabbles over ‘real’
Buddhism as different sects align themselves throughout the world with political and
economic power. Buddhist meditation practices became more an escape from earthly
problems rather than the embracing of earthly spirituality. (As I said to an ex monk “ Western

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 17

Buddhism sounds to me like a good way to stick your head in the sand without getting your
eyes gritty”. He agreed.)
In Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, and Persia man’s spirituality, his meaning and purpose
was also hijacked by priests aligned to imperial powers.
As everything was now mine and yours, power and greed had overcome respect, caring
and sharing. Corruption, abuse, barbarism and terrible cruelty and oppression threatened to
destroy even those in power. Man became sick and tired of fighting.
Then from the rebellion of Jewish slaves, a prophet claimed a message that there was
only one God, that cruelty was not destiny, that the world of man could change. Fundamental
justice, equality and dignity for all was possible if man obeyed the rules God had given to
man and written in the Torah. Further, the more man observed rituals to God in his daily life
the closer he felt to God. Only those who believed and obediently followed the rules could
experience a spiritual life. Spirituality became complicated, conditional and exclusive. Man
said God was choosey over who he would save.
However it was not long before the priests showed themselves to be men of men rather
than men of God, and again used religion to increase the power of those who had power and
oppress those who did not.
Many prophets tried to bring man back to God’s law. The prophet Jesus gave hope to the
poor and the enslaved to heal themselves in God’s name. With God on their side, the
enslaved and the oppressed would have gained power, so Jesus was destroyed. But his
message lived on. Soon it too was used in his name to justify more cruelty, more inequality
and the domination and exploitation of mother earth.
The connectedness of all things, the meaning of all life: to create order from disorder, to
maintain a harmonious balance. Real spirituality was lost to religions which saw even God,
the creative force, as separate to man and earth. Man said God provided earth for men to use
as he wanted, to control and exploit. Religions hijacked the meaning of life, the purpose of
life in the cosmos, man’s spiritual journey and connectedness to all things and turned it into
the pursuit of power and goods, the carving up of earth according to those who deserved
because they believed and those that did not.
The corruption, exploitation and the misery continued until another prophet Mohammed
was claimed by other men to have all the answers, rules to inhibit man’s power and greed, to
provide for the poor. Again, as long as you followed the rules, as long as you obediently
believed, an afterlife in heaven was yours. If not, you would be condemned to an afterlife in
hell.
The strong and powerful in Judaism, Christianity and Islam have continued to hijack and
corrupt their God’s religious message with tribal and cultural customs; allowing them to
exploit, manipulate, destroy the earth, wage wars and especially control women.
From time to time new religions have been created, sometimes to overcome the
corruption of another. And sometimes to replace God with something that gives man even
more power, without the inconvenience of the restraining authority of a higher morality.
Scientism is one of these new religions.
The most powerful of these new beliefs is Darwinism. Unfortunately the theory of
evolution only focuses on the competitive part of life. The whole cycle: the division of the
whole into competing parts leading to conflict, then negotiation, adaptation and ultimately co-
operative resolution is ignored.
Seeing life only as conflict and competition continues to be used to justify the extremes
in poverty around the world with the rich exploiting the poor within societies and between
nations. The purpose of life, to strive for greater harmony, is abandoned and substituted
instead with a constant struggle to increase power over others and rise higher in the social or

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 18

religious hierarchy. Meaning is becoming less and less about the quality of your relationships
and what you do to make the world a better place.
The dominant human cultures surrounding the single God religions have lost their
awareness of the spiritual field that surrounds and connects everything in the universe.
But there are some people whose lives do have real meaning, where spirituality has
remained inclusive and firmly grounded, respectful of the earth. Their simple godless
spirituality has a respect and oneness with the earth that threatens those who want to continue
to exploit it. Those with so much power but no meaning, have tried to convince and then to
destroy those people who refuse to be distracted by a man in the sky and life after death.
However, gradually many of those who believed in God are feeling deceived: there are
just too many ‘true’ gods. To these people institutionalised religion seems too divisive and
too dangerous. Too poisonous. They are abandoning tainted religion, disillusioned with their
false promises, elitism, abuses and hypocrisy.
Unfortunately many of them have thought that with loss of religion came a loss of
spirituality and abandonment of its responsibilities too. This has allowed cults of false
prophets like ‘market economy’, ‘economic rationalism’ and ‘free trade’ to almost destroy
the richness and the diversity of our home on earth, creating intolerable division between rich
and poor.
But the disillusioned, the poor and the humiliated have started to grumble, alarmingly!
The spiritual force of the life cycle that creates order from disorder cannot be contained. Just
as an angry young man called Jesus struck at the symbols of corruption and overturned the
tables of the money changers, so did angry young men in flying machines strike what they
saw as symbols of greed and corruption and overturned the towers of the World Trade
Centre.
Feeling religious and scientific theories have outlived their usefulness, many people
desperately search for answers but avoid the crucial question:
“When I die, how will it matter?
Will the earth, the universe, the cosmos breathe a sigh of relief that I’m gone?
Or will I be missed?
Will I have done what I could to leave the world a better place.
Will the legacy of my life be greater harmony or greater chaos? What will be the impact
of the memes, the ideas I leave behind?”

Mankind needs beliefs that respect and honour spiritual responsibility, that speak to
humanity, rising above religious, racial and ethnic differences. Beliefs that reveal the
meaning and purpose of life and hence the ethics needed for our survival.
Meaning comes from discovering our place in that vast field, how we matter, how we are
connected and how we choose to influence what happens around us in a positive way.
But it is impossible to have real spiritual meaning in your life without awareness.
Awareness using all our senses: physical, emotional and especially that electromagnetic field
sense that flows through us and beyond us to the cosmos. (How to become aware of your own
energy field is explained in my book “Your Mindbody Energy” available on my web site as a
download).
With true awareness comes awe and respect, humbled by the insignificance of your
individual life within the aeons of time in the life of the cosmos. With humility comes
increased awareness that you as part of the whole of mankind must earn your place, must
contribute to increasing stability and harmony or be erased as a chaotic influence.
True awareness, enhances empathy: the ability to understand the cosmic place,
perceptions and experiences of all other creatures, all other life forms. With empathy comes
greater respect and even greater awareness of the responsibility we all have as individuals to

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 19

make ethical choices. Ethical choices that will enhance the positive spiritual energy within
ourselves, our families, our communities, our country, our earth.

These three qualities: AWARENESS, RESPECT and RESPONSIBILITY are crucial

to living a Spiritual Life without God.

Living a Spiritual Life without God is open to anyone at any time. It is a life that is
liberating, simple, joyous and deeply satisfying. It provides perspective on troubling and
disturbing events, and while struggling to come to terms with, and overcome difficulties is a
necessary part of life, suffering is not. Suffering is questioned, not tolerated as a condition of
a better life in the hereafter.
A Godless Spiritual Life is equally respectful of yourself, others and the world around
you. Your life, your needs and desires are no more and no less important than anyone else’s.
You take and use what you really need, not everything you want.
Spirituality without a God demands that you accept responsibility for what is happening
in the here and now. How you live your life now is the issue.
Your individual life is a privilege, a gift to be honoured, an opportunity to participate in
the creation and promotion of greater harmony and stability in the material world of the life
cycle.
Being spiritually responsible is built on simple things: planting a tree, helping a
neighbour, being politically aware so that you carefully consider your vote, supporting a
sharing of sustainable wealth with all mankind.
Being spiritually responsible honours bio-diversity because with the complexity of
interconnected systems comes greater stability and order.

Taking responsibility gives real purpose to life, and how you do that provides real
meaning.

Making the ethical choice in everything we do is practising a spiritual life. Not looking
away but doing everything we personally can, and actively supporting those who can do
more, to create a fairer more respectful world: because a fairer world respects others and the
planet as much as yourself. A fairer world creates a sustainable world, and a sustainable
world enhances the stability and order of the spiritual life of the cosmos.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 20

PERSPECTIVES

Personal: Memories and Mysteries

I remember it was always hot, very hot. I would swing on the

creaking front gate in the hazy heat. Waiting. Soon they would appear
again. White butterflies floating past our house hovering around
awkward children in ill fitting clothes and with strange stares,
shepherding them into an orderly procession down the road to the
beach.
The yearly return of the nuns in white with the butterfly
headdresses to the children’s holiday camp on the corner was my first
experience with anything religious.
No-one in my large boisterous extended family was religious.
Religion had been abandoned many generations ago. A great uncle’s
wife did become a Jehovah’s Witness. This was excused because ‘they’
had ‘got to her’ when her young daughter died of a brain tumour.
At the end of our street lived the Black Moths, nuns from the
convent school on the hill. Whereas the white butterflies had smiling
kindly faces scrubbed pink, the black moths always looked cross and in
a hurry, clutching rosaries to their chests.
Next door lived elderly twin sisters who had been missionaries in
China and forced home by the revolution and the ‘heathen’ communists.
One was tall and skinny, the other short and round. When we were very
bored we would visit these gentle women who would let us eat crumbled
queen cakes with chopsticks while they told us stories about Jesus,
heaven and hell. To us such tales were just like fairy stories. Not to be
taken seriously.
On the other side lived a widow, her young twin daughters and
their no nonsense grandmother. The twins told us their father was in
heaven with the angels. Their mother did not seem to like the idea of her
husband with the angels as she was always unhappy and intensely
irritated by everyone and everything. The birds that lived in the trees in
our garden sang and woke her up too early. Apparently the birds did not
go into the trees in her garden. She told my father to cut down all our
trees so she could get more sleep. The thought of cutting down these old
trees made me sick. Mum and Dad said "No way. Where would all the
birds live"?
At the other end of the street was the Presbyterian church. Each
Sunday I watched the congregation walk past our front gate and up the
hill to the church. There seemed to be a lot of single women. They
always looked sad and lonely. They were strangely angry and annoyed
when I tentatively waved or said hello. Mum said I had to try and
understand because they had lost their boyfriends in the war and would
probably never marry or have children.
One day the cranky widow next door discovered I’d never heard
of the bible or the ten commandments. She was appalled to realise that
none of us had been christened. She said we would surely go to hell if we
died. She and her girls would go to heaven with the angels. I wasn’t
worried. The idea of being stuck anywhere for ever with her pointing out

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 21

 your faults did not sound like something I was going to miss much. But
the alternative of hell was a bit worrying.
I became more and more curious as I watched all these people
walk to church so they would be loved by God and be especially chosen
to one day live with him and the angels in heaven.
One day I announced I was going to church. I was five. Carefully
I dressed in my best dress. It was blue. With my red patent shoes with
white socks, a matching blue hat and clutching my little red patent
handbag I was ready. Mum put one of her special lace hankies in my
bag with sixpence for the plate. I’d heard at school that most sixpences
ended up as black liquorice choo-choo bars bought on the way to
church. But even though I hadn’t been christened and was a heathen, I
knew this was the wrong thing to do. Self righteously I knew that mine
would end up in the plate.
Mum waved me goodbye at our gate and I walked importantly up
the hill to church. I felt goodness in me already.
I only went twice. The confused stares and curious twitters of the
adults in the congregation towards this little heathen in their midst were
just too much. Besides the unhappy sour faced spinster who played the
organ and the man who stood up the front terrified me. A pity because I
loved the music and all the little rituals of standing up and sitting down
that went on. The pretty stone building was a calm and peaceful place
with old wood and the sun shining through beautiful stained glass
windows. But only the god fearing could enjoy it. Besides I wasn’t
feeling any different. I still fought with my little sister.

----------------------------------------------------------

We had a wonderful friend who wore crystal beads that rested

upon her ample bosom and crystal earrings that jiggled as she laughed.
Her husband had been a famous singer in Europe but had been unable
to work in Australia because he was ‘dark’.
Mrs Hunt was a spiritualist. She often talked about her ‘boy’, but
we never met him. It was many years before I realised that he was her
medium to the spirit world.
While most of the town shunned her and her husband, they were
always welcome at our house. Mrs Hunt had been a concert pianist. She
would play our piano and her husband would sing with the most
glorious voice that ran tingles down my spine and made the glasses
rattle.
Even though we weren’t believers she would sometimes hold
séances at our house which were hilarious affairs as no-one could keep
a straight face. She was a heathen too.
Every Christmas we went to her house and cut a branch from her
big cypress tree for a Christmas tree.

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Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 22

 Dad and his Mum could do things other people couldn’t.
Dad had a habit of making electrical and electronic gadgets go
haywire. Whether it was light dimmers, calculators, computers or the
washing machine if Dad went near them they wouldn’t work. The same
machines worked fine for other people.
Nana B, his Mum, could change the radio station just by putting
her hand near the radio. She didn’t need to touch it. Moving her hand
toward and away would make the radio fade in and out.
Nan B said we shouldn’t laugh at Mrs Hunt’s séances because
"You never know".

----------------------------------------------------------

At school we talked about religion at Easter and Christmas. The

Church of England had the best Easter egg hunt but you couldn’t go if
you weren’t C of E. There were lots of conversions the week before
Easter.
School could be cruel. The poor kids, who had dirty hair, no
lunch and sometimes no shoes were called ‘refos’ even though they were
anglosaxon fifth generation Australian. Mum said we should play with
them just like anyone else. According to the other children Refos were to
be avoided. Easy in our country town where there weren’t any.
Except at our house. On weekends Mum and Dad’s friends from
Melbourne came down with strange names, different but delicious food
and accents difficult to understand. Grandpa would sometimes arrive
with his car loaded with lonely friends of friends he’d found. They’d
come for a ride and a rare day outside Melbourne.
Mum and Dad said we had to be particularly friendly to the
children and share our toys as they didn’t have grandparents, aunts,
uncles or cousins. They’d all been gassed in ovens.

----------------------------------------------------------

While we waited at the bus stop for Nana, my Mum’s Mum, Dad
said we could go around the corner and see what the council had been
doing. All week, even from our house the sound of chainsaws could be
heard.
As we rounded the corner I stood still, absolutely stricken. The
huge trees that had lined the road out of town were gone. Huge limbs in
mountainous piles, sawdust and the massive stumps were all that was
left. I couldn’t speak and was shaking all over. Dad took my hand. A
terrible pain was in my chest.
Dad looked down at me feeling what I was feeling. As if someone
had hacked deep into my body, gouging out pieces and leaving jagged
holes. "Its awful, isn’t it. They’re going to widen the road. Some people
think its progress".
We collected Nana, chirpy and bubbly as ever. As we drove past
the fallen trees she commented brightly "Nice to see the town going
ahead isn’t it"?

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 23

 ----------------------------------------------------------

"You can never be a really good person if you don’t have

religion"
A Year 7 Catholic Friend

----------------------------------------------------------

"If you don’t follow God’s rules each day you can’t become a
truly spiritual person. Your life can have no meaning"
Jewish Patient

----------------------------------------------------------

"How do you live, how can you be happy and contented with no
religion in your life"?
Muslim Friend

----------------------------------------------------------

For two days we had been practising various hypnotic

techniques. Fifty psychologists and psychiatrists putting each other in
and out of trance states day and night. A seriously weird atmosphere
developed. Post hypnotic suggestions had people doing wacky things
when trigger words were dropped into the conversation.
Being the youngest at the conference and knowing no-one well, I
kept apart, distinctly unimpressed by the antics of some of my colleagues
and the liberties being taken in the name of training. The group’s
dynamics and the pressure to conform put me off direct hypnotic
induction techniques for ever.
I was extremely grateful to the few who sensed my unease and
taught me self directed techniques instead. These techniques were just as
powerful but left me feeling totally in control.
But as the week-end progressed I started to feel an intense heat
all over my body. I felt like I was on fire. My feet especially. It was as if
they were burning.
The sensation was much stronger whenever I was actively using
techniques on others or myself.
It took many days to subside.
No-body could explain it.

----------------------------------------------------------

You’re going deaf. You will never work as a psychologist.

The tinnitus is so loud that it overwhelms what hearing I do
have. The more I focus on what they are saying the worse it is.
Focus instead on everything else. What can I see and feel this
person telling me?
More tingling and burning.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 24

 ----------------------------------------------------------

“How did you know I was thinking that? How did you know that
happened?”
Like many others dealing with people who are acutely stressed
or terminally ill there are moments between you when there appears to
be a total telepathic empathy. No words seem necessary.
You just know.

Spirituality without God  Copyright Louise Samways 2002 25