It is rare that something genuinely new comes along, something so revolutionary that it challenges nearly every convention we ever held sacred, something so evolutionary that it transforms how we understand the world. Natural Spirituality is an agnostic spiritual path that brings a modern sensibility to human spirituality. This is new and different from the ground up.
TRANSFORM YOUR EXPERIENCE OF LIFE
A personal spiritual practice.
Circa 1999
Natural Spirituality is an agnostic spiritual path that lets you restore spirituality to your daily life without fear and fanaticism, myth and magic, gods or gurus, and without a belief in the supernatural. Natural Spirituality has no god to fear, no guru to follow, no scripture to obey and no story to believe in. It is based on easily observable precepts that can be reached by any rational person. Natural Spirituality is elegantly simple yet deeply profound.
For those who can accept that spirituality is not evident of anything supernatural.
AGE: 18 yrs [16 with parents permission]
Natural Spirituality is for someone with a teachable spirit. It is for those who have the courage to look within and change everything. It requires a strong commitment to self-honesty, and the willingness to be taught. Natural Spirituality is for anyone 18 and older (16 with your parent’s permission). While anyone can learn Natural Spirituality, it is not for everyone. Much like learning Kung Fu, to learn Natural Spirituality requires a major personal commitment. Natural Spirituality is for anyone who wants a culture-free way to make sense of spirituality, in a modern and practical manner. If you can accept that you are human and "not" a supernatural being, having a human experience. If you are serious about making a lasting change, then Natural Spirituality can show you how to do this for yourself.
think of it as an upgrade to your thinking
human spirituality
Natural Spirituality is about personal evolution through self-reflection. Natural Spirituality teaches that the quality of your life is controlled by the quality of your thinking. If you want to change the quality of your life, then you need to change the quality of your thinking. How you do this is not something you can figure out on your own. You cannot solve a problem using the same thinking that created it. There is only one way to get a better quality of thinking. Find someone to teach you and be humble enough to learn. Education is not free. Knowledge is something you must earn through your own efforts. What you need to know is how to do this for yourself. This "how" is what Natural Spirituality provides. It is about making a change in thinking and practicing a change in behavior. This is not a way to cope with uncertainty in your life. This is a tool to succeed in spite of it.
Natural Spirituality is a choice you make to learn a modern way of making sense of your experience of life. In practical terms, it is a path to inter- and intra-personal intelligence. Inter-personal intelligence is about understanding how you interact with others. Intra-personal intelligence is a deeper understanding of yourself. The practice of spirituality is a natural path to this kind of intelligence. Developing this kind of intelligence makes an invaluable contribution to the quality of your life. It is not free. Like all true knowledge it has a cost.
TheOne Course takes you from principles to practice.
It is an education for life.
Natural Spirituality is not a faith. There is nothing old or new to believe in. Natural Spirituality is not a cult. There is no guru to follow or group to join. Natural Spirituality has no scripture to obey and no god to fear. You do not need forgiveness to get Natural Spirituality because there is nothing here to condemn you. As hard as it might be to imagine, the fact is, this is new and it is different from the ground up. You get Natural Spirituality by taking a course called theOne course. There are no levels. There is one course at one price, and that takes you from principles to practice. All we are offering is an education in a unique body of knowledge. Education is not free. It has a cost and we are not talking about money. It is about time. You will always make more money. You will never get more time no matter how much money you make. This is not the kind of education you get to get a better job. This is something you learn, in order to live a better life and leave behind a better world.
It is a choice to learn a body of knowledge
This is not a believe or burn kind of thing.
Natural Spirituality was forged for the love of liberity. This is not a convert or be condemned or a believe or burn, kind of thing. There is nothing like that in Natural Spirituality. The premise is education. There is a gap in human knowledge. Our ancestors didn't know about DNA, that they lived on a planet in a solar system or that dinosaurs once walked the earth. They made sense of their experience of life as best they could. There is no reason to continue to use a 6th century model of the human experience and live in the 21st Century. We are not here to save the world. The world does not need saving. We are not here to change the world. The only person in need of change is you personally. This is about how you are going to live and what you are committed to finding out about your own experience. We are educators helping people build a foundation for the rest of their lives. Natural Spirituality brings a rational sensibility to human spirituality.
Every religion has a core premise: a theological doctrine about its solution to the problem of the human condition. It is this theme or doctrine of soteriology that differentiates one religion from another.
The Religare Workshop is a secular, non-denominational, educational conference. Religion is at the core of what it means to be human. This is not going to change anytime soon. The world is fast becoming a global village. Now more than ever it's important to understand religion, not just your religion or lack thereof, but all religions. The Religare is a tool that can help you do that. The Religare is not about answers. It is about how to ask the right questions. The Religare is a course that will help you form a clear and impartial understanding of any religion.
Ethos is a 10-day spiritual course on the essential characteristics of Natural Spirituality. Natural Spirituality is a religion, but it is very different. There is nothing old or new to believe in. It has no god, no guru, no scripture, no savior, no story and no afterlife. There is no group to join. You learn Natural Spirituality by taking a course. No one can tell you if this is right for you. No one can sell you on it. Only you can decide what you are going to know about yourself and how you are going to live. Natural Spirituality is not right for everyone. Ethos will help you find out for yourself, if this is right for you. Think of Ethos as a 10 spiritual vacation where you can explore your own natural spirituality.
You cannot learn what you need to know in a weekend seminar. To develop life skills you need to make a commitment to learning. There is only one way to get Natural Spirituality, and that is through theOne™. TheOne is a 900-hour life skills training course that includes a Curriculum (theory), Practicum (practice) and a Sacramentum (sacred rites). It requires a coach and both classroom and one-on-one training. Through theOne™, you will build a personal spiritual practice that will make an invaluable contribution to the quality of your life.
An adherent of Natural Spirituality is called a Que, plural the Que. The practice of Natural Spirituality is called The Crafting of the Que (aka The Practice). A Que does not pray, worship anything, do spells or anything like that. A Que uses naturalTools. naturalTools are a precise physical and mental processes to effect change. This is no wishing craft, where you petition, wish and hope. The is not a coping mechanism. This is a tool you use to thrive. The Practice is a mental and behaviorial technology for human performance, integrated with a personal spiritual practice.
Natural Spirituality is separate and distinct from any other religion. An adherent of Natural Spirituality is called a Que. No one can make you a Que. The Que are not made they are formed. Formation is a deeply personal spiritual journey that culminates in the baptismal rite of Consecration. In order to join a fellowship, one must be consecrated. The Path to Consecration is 60 hour Curriculum, a Practicum-10 day silent meditation, which culminates in a baptismal ceremony (Sacramentum). Consecration is a sacred rite of Natural Spirituality.
The Church of Natural Spirituality is called a Que Fellowship. An adherent of Natural Spirituality is called Que (plural The Que). Being Que is not something you believe. It is something you do. Natural Spirituality is not a convert or be condemned kind of religion. You cannot convert to Natural Spirituality. Natural Spirituality is a way of thinking about your spirituality and it is something you evolve into. Natural Spirituality is a religion for scholars. The Church of Natural Spirituality Online (iQue) is a private social network open to agnostics with an open mind. Think of the Church not as a place of worship but as a place to learn and connect, with those of like mind.
Religion plays a central role in human life on planet earth. The Religare workshop is a secular, non-denominational, educational conference. Whether you are a Fortune 500 brand manager or a stay-at-home mom, deeply spiritual or a devout atheist, being able to make sense of religion, any religion, is an invaluable ability to possess. The Religare is an amazing course that will show you how to cut through the rhetoric and get the truth for yourself. You will learn more in one class than you would from an entire lifetime of study.
*If you cannot afford tuition we have work/study programs and scholarships for qualified applicants.
Ask your Odigo about financial assistance programs.
Ethos is a 10/Day introduction to Natural Spirituality. Ethos is held at our Desert Campus in Nevada. The Ethos course is an awakening to a deeper sense of your experience of life. The Ethos course shows you everything you wanted to know about Natural Spirituality. No one can see past a choice they do not understand. Reading a website will give you information but not an understanding. Ethos can help you understand the choice. Think of it as a 10-day spiritual vacation. In this way, you can decide for yourself if learning this body of knowledge, suits you or not.
TheOne takes you from principles to practice. TheOne is an investment in learning a specific set of life skills. TheOne is a 720-hour life skills training course that includes a Curriculum (theory), Practicum (practice) and a Sacramentum (sacred rites). TheOne is self-directed. You work with a life skills coach and do it on your own schedule. You can do it part-time or full-time. We get many executives, professionals, and athletes that learn it in their off-season, weekends and summers. There are no levels in Natural Spirituality. There is one course at one price, and that takes you from principles to practice. Education is not free but at $55 an hour for training that will make a practical contribution to the quality of your life, it is very affordable. There are financial aid programs for those who qualify and are committed.
Consecration is a word that means to set apart. Consecration is a formal acknowledgment of your commitment to set yourself apart for the purpose of living an authentic life. The Path to Consecration culminates in the Consecration Ceremony where an adherent appears before witnesses sky-clad and takes the eternal vow and agrees to adhere to the covenant of fellowship, and so declare their values to be truly and sincerely held. Consecration is a sacred rite of Natural Spirituality. Consecration is something you do when you are ready to deny all others and completely commit to the values of human liberty. You can take the path to consecration at any time, after Ethos. Usually it is done upon successful completion of theOne Course. The Que are not made they are formed by consecration.
It is very important to understand that The Practice is not about the universe. We use science to understand the universe. The Practice is about manifesting change in yourself. The Practice is a framework and methodology that augments the quality of your thinking and so makes a practical contribution to the quality of your life. To learn The Practice you must be enrolled in theOne course.
The Church of Natural Spirituality is not a place of worship, it is a palace of learning. Natural Spirituality is a sacrament for living therefore it has no concept of or belief in, an after-life, resurrection, reincarnation, regeneration or anything supernatural. The Church of Natural Spirituality does not do weddings. Marriage is a personal contract between adults therefore you do not need our approval, blessing or recognition. Natural Spirituality has no ethical authority therefore it can have no political stance, no opinion, and no "official" position on anything. The Church of Natural Spirituality is not affiliated with or derived from or connected to any other religion, denomination, therapy group, psychology, ethnic group, charity, political group or any other organization. The Church of Natural Spirituality is a sacred space dedicated to human evolution through personal growth and performance.
The Church of Natural Spirituality Online is a private social network open to agnostics with an open mind who want to connect with those of like mind.
Trying to explain the difference between Natural Spirituality and conventional religion is like explaining the difference between physics and tennis. You cannot learn Natural Spirituality from reading a website. This article will attempt to establish some of the core distinctions of Natural Spiritualiy. It is not short as some things cannot be simplified into sound bytes. Suffice it to say that Natural Spirituality is separate and distinct from all other religions. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the read.
Natural Spirituality is based on a philosophy, not the revelations of a guru, or a story or scripture. It has no story of aliens or other-dimensional beings, and their relationship with humanity and the human world. Natural Spirituality posits that human organisms use a model of the human experience to construct their experience of life. The architecture of this model is not genetic. It is Memetic. This model is copied from one human being to another. The model was not created, it naturally evolved through a cultural interpretation of the experience of life. Religion is the architect of this model. Whether you accept this or not does not change the fact. The predominant model of today, in the western world, is a hack, a set of beliefs picked up from books, movies, parents, teachers, friends, family, television, etc. It is this hack that we use to run our lives and guide our actions. Natural Spirituality posits that instead of being stuck with the models we inherited from our ancestors. We are at a point in human development where, those who choose to, can make a conscious choice about which model they will define themselves by. We are at a unique point in human development where, for some of us, we can choose how we are to live.
The theology of Natural Spirituality, in regard to the problem of the human condition, is that ignorance is the problem and an Education that Works™ is the cure. It’s not the kind of education you get to secure a better job, it’s the kind of education you get to live a better life and leave behind a better world. This means, from Natural Spirituality's perspective, there is nothing inherently wrong with man. He is not born bad, wronged, in sin, or has somehow fallen from grace. Man is not in need of saving as there is nothing to condemn him. Man's destiny, so to speak, is a question of choice. It is about what he chooses to know and how he chooses to live. Each person, beyond the age of reason, that is capable of making a choice about who they are and how they are to live, possesses the means to their own fulfillment. What such a person needs to know is "how” to realize this for his or her self. It is about taking responsibility for the quality of your thinking, making the effort to learn to see the world differently, and accepting the challenge of changing your behavior for yourself. The individual who is serious about doing that needs to know “how”. Teaching "how" is, therefore, the function of Natural Spirituality, as a religion. Most religions are about why. Natural Spirituality is about “how”.
Conventional Religions are about answering the question of soul. Whatever the term one uses for soul, the questions remain the same: what is it, how did it come to be and what is it's true nature? Religious knowledge and even some Psychology (the study of soul using reason), revolve around the mind-body-soul problem. Natural Spirituality abandons the mind-body-soul or Trinity model of the human experience, which frames the context of most of these bodies of knowledge. Natural Spirituality is based on a philosophy called Quantumism and not on the revelations of a guru or ancient scripture. Quantumism (Dhryl Anton 1999) is a philosophy derived from the Meta-Transition Theory (Valentin Turchin 1970) and uses a systems approach to the Binding Problem of Consciousness (David Chalmers 1995). Quantumism presents a framework for building a practical body of knowledge around consciousness. Natural Spirituality is therefore drawn from a connected body of rational precepts that are systemically classified under a framework of models. It is an body of knowledge, not a story book to be believed. And as such, it is based on easily observable precepts that can be reached by any rational person. Natural Spirituality is different from the ground up.
We live in a world where there is a struggle between science and religion. Conventional Religion is a culture of belief. It provides a story and a reason to believe it. It uses faith to make sense of the experience of life. Natural Spirituality is a religion of disbelief. Natural Spirituality has nothing old or new to believe in. Natural Spirituality uses reason. Consequently Natural Spirituality has no such conflict. We accept science as a means to understand the universe. We accept a model of the human experience, as a means to make sense of our experience of life. We believe in evolution. We accept Autopoiesis as a valid model of processes in the natural world, until there is something better. This means we reject the reductionist view of the world and thus abandon humanism. Science is in the midst of the materials revolution, where we realize that if you change the materials a process uses you can dramatically impact the result. Quantumism makes a quantum leap forward and goes even further, it asserts that it is the Organa (organization) of a thing that makes it a thing. If you affect the organization then you change a things potentiality. Nowhere is this more evident than in human cognition. This is not a revaltion but an observation based on insights in systems theory. We do not "believe" in creation, the theory that aliens created humans, earth or the universe, nor for that matter do we accept the genesis principle (big bang version or alien god version). We do not believe that there is any supernatural dimension to human experience. These are all variations on what is merely a primitive explanation our ancestors used to make sense of a world because their model was ill-equipped to comprehend the complexity of reality as it is. As Que we have a different philosophy and thus use a different approach to how we understand our experience. We are different not better than. We see the world differently; consequently the old categorizations and conflicts do not apply. We accept science as a means to understand our world. We accept religion as a cultural understanding of the human experience.
Natural Spirituality is a religion. It is not a label most people like but to say otherwise is deceptive. We are not here to please people. We are trying to live a better life and leave behind a better world, whcih we consider to be more important than a label. The Church of Natural Spirituality consists of an educational institution (UniQue) and a sacred sanctuary (CliQue), which is member supported. Natural Spirituality is a sacrament for living therefore it has no concept of or a belief in, an after-life, resurrection, reincarnation, regeneration or anything supernatural. The Church of Natural Spirituality is not a political institution. As a religion, Natural Spirituality has no ethical authority therefore it can have no political stance, no opinion, and no "official" position on anything. The Church does not do weddings. Marriage is a personal social contract between adults therefore you do not need our approval, blessing or recognition. The Religion is the repository for a teaching. The practice is a self-educational process. The Church is a place to learn that teaching. The physical church is a sacred place to meditate and practice. It is space for cognitive care not a community center.
The mission of Natural Spirituality is to fill a gap in human knowledge evident in our educational system. It is a body of knowledge about the non-physical part of your experience. This is not something you believe. It is something that you learn. Learning it makes a practical contribution to your quality of life. Education is not free. We try to keep the costs to a minimum so that it is affordable. The Church is not a means to wealth for anyone. It is a true not for profit organization. Its function is to provide the teaching and build sanctuaries where its members can practice their spirituality. There is no other mission. It does not perform charity. It is not a community center. It is a kind of gym, a cognitive care organization. Natural Spirituality was forged for the love of human liberty. It's core belief is that ignorance is the problem and self education is the cure. The purpose of the Religion is to offer rational people a choice, that they may <i>roam no more.</i>There is no longer any valid reason to continue to use a 6th century model of the human experience to try to live in the 21st century. For those who choose to learn, who can be taught, and who are willing to do the work, there is now a better way. Natural Spirituality brings a modern sensibility to human spirituality. It is not grounded in the past or in any culture or ethnic perspective. This is new and different from the ground up.
THE RELIGION OF NATURAL SPIRITUALITY IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH, DERIVED FROM OR CONNECTED TO ANY OTHER RELIGION, DENOMINATION, THERAPY GROUP, PSYCHOLOGY, ETHNIC GROUP, CHARITY, POLITICAL GROUP OR ANY OTHER ORGANIZATION. NATURAL SPIRITUALITY HAS NO GOD TO WORSHIP, NO GURU TO FOLLOW, NO SAVIOR TO ADORE, NO SCRIPTURE TO OBEY AND NO STORY TO BELIEVE IN. WE ARE EDUCATORS HELPING PEOPLE WHO CHOOSE TO LEARN A MODERN WAY OF UNDERSTANDING HUMAN SPIRITUALITY. NATURAL SPIRITUALITY IS DRAWN FROM A CONNECTED BODY OF RATIONAL PRECEPTS DERIVED FROM OBSERVABLE PHENOMENA AND SYSTEMATICALLY CLASSIFIED UNDER A FRAMEWORK OF MODELS. NATURAL SPIRITUALITY IS BASED ON EASILY OBSERVABLE PRECEPTS THAT CAN BE REACHED BY ANY RATIONAL PERSON. THERE IS NOTHING SUPERNATURAL, ALIEN, EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL OR OTHERWORLDLY IN ITS TEACHINGS. NATURAL SPIRITUALITY IS A HUMAN RELIGION. NATURAL SPIRITUALITY IS A SACRAMENT FOR LIVING. THEREFORE, IT HAS NO CONCEPT OF OR BELIEF IN AN AFTERLIFE, RESURRECTION, REINCARNATION OR REGENERATION. THE CHURCH OF NATURAL SPIRITUALITY DOES NOT DO WEDDINGS. MARRIAGE IS A PERSONAL CONTRACT BETWEEN ADULTS. THEREFORE, YOU DO NOT NEED OUR APPROVAL, BLESSING OR RECOGNITION. NATURAL SPIRITUALITY HAS NO ETHICAL AUTHORITY. THEREFORE, IT CAN HAVE NO POLITICAL STANCE, OPINION OR "OFFICIAL" POSITION ON ANYTHING. NATURAL SPIRITUALITY IS A PERSONAL, SPIRITUAL PRACTICE. WHAT THE RELIGION DOES IS SHOW YOU HOW TO DO THIS FOR YOURSELF.