An excellent series of suggestions. At the moment, I haven’t left the Church’s community, so I don’t feel that loss just yet. I’ll still keep that in mind.
As for coming up with a “personal religion”, I’ll have to give that some thought. Arguably the one real-world religion that comes closest to my personal understanding of objective reality is Secular Buddhism. Perhaps embracing that more fully could give me some peace.
An excellent response. Thank you for describing your experience—I kind of wish I’d grown up in a similar environment.
I’m familiar with Gendlin’s litany, but I’ve often found it slightly lacking. Humans are imaginative creatures, and our beliefs about a subject hold genuine psychological power. If we imagine that a placebo is beneficial, it becomes so. If I believe that death is impermanent, it loses much of its sting. To invert Gendlin, I’m uncertain if I can stand what is true, for I never really had to endure it.
I’ll still keep your points in mind—they’re valuable. Thank you for sharing them.
This is very good. I’d argue that “sadness” and “wrongness” are irreversibly correlated in this context—it’ll always be easier to create joyful illusions like eternal families than it is to face hard truths like inevitable death—but it’s worthwhile to explore options that would decouple them.
I’m a bit nervous about making my beliefs (and lack thereof) public knowledge for now. The Church wouldn’t necessarily ostracize me, but I could be labeled “inactive” (even if I still participate in events like Sunday services) and my family could be the target of unwanted attention as (well-meaning) people try to “fix” me.
I will definitely explore options for social support, though. Thank you for your suggestions.
Delightfully lengthy! Out of curiosity, to what degree are rationality and/or cognitive science relied on? Material focusing on that is especially what I’m looking for, with I’ll probably check it out regardless.
Good to know. I was asking because my cursory research suggests that it may be oriented towards older people, or others who may be in more need than me.
If it’s not too much to ask, what were the circumstances around your using OT?
You bring up a point that I definitely should’ve mentioned in the post: I am diagnosed with an anxiety disorder (OCD) and am currently taking medicine for it. It doesn’t solve everything (such as the issues mentioned here), but the diagnosis does help to explain why I might be having these problems in the first place.
These sound promising. How would I go about looking for information about these? The terms are generic enough that I’m not sure a Google search would turn up what you have in mind.
This is very interesting; thank you for this. Are you an occupational therapist?
Good question. Often, it’s both. I will be stressed during a task (e.g. racing thoughts and fast breathing while shopping, or planning to shop) and if I think about it while doing something else (e.g. watching a movie with my wife and something reminds me that I need to fold laundry).
Hmm… I’m probably being thick, but it sounds like gears-based reasoning is just commitment to a detailed model. That wouldn’t help you design the model, among other things.
I may need to investigate this on my own; I don’t want to tangle you in a comment thread explaining something over and over again.
Thanks for the quick reply! I’ll check those posts out.
From what I’ve seen (which, again, isn’t much), gears-level reasoning just involves comprehensively investigating a model. I’m sure I’m misunderstanding it, especially if it’s now the basis for most of the posts around here. Could you enlighten me?
Thank you for your comment and your offer for conversation; I’ll definitely keep that in mind. I also really appreciate the wondrous tone of your comment.
Your point about connecting with my desires is good, but at the moment it’s struggling to hit home. I would’ve previously given a sort of “religious utilitarian” answer, something like “I want to ensure that as many souls find eternal happiness as possible.” Reframing that as a more general sense of maximizing human joy is functional, but it feels like it lacks a solid foundation when joy is reducible to an arbitrary arrangement of atoms. My “wants” themselves are just the system trying to self-propagate.
I’ll still think on your points, though. Very helpful.