It seems that there are a significant number of people who see themselves as non-religious but "spiritual". I really don't understand what that is supposed to mean. Anyone?

Beats me.

It means different things to different people. I personally believe that spirituality involves personal growth, awareness and a level of compassion for all human kind. An understanding that we all are related at some level and interconnected. An appreciation for nature and the universe. No god(s) involved.

Here from Wiki, a part of which could describe a nice acid trip lol:

Traditionally spirituality has been defined as a process of personal transformation in accordance with religious ideals. Since the 19th century spirituality is often separated from religion, and has become more oriented on subjective experience and psychological growth. It may refer to almost any kind of meaningful activity or blissful experience, but without a single, widely-agreed definition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality

But! Here is an interesting article. More at the link:

People hide their true spiritual beliefs as they get older, study finds

What we believed as children about the soul and the afterlife shapes what we believe as adults, even if we don't admit it, scientists claim.

A study has found that our personal beliefs change very little as we grow up, but what we tell others we believe does.

It suggests that such private beliefs are as strong among religious people as and non-religious.

Stephanie Anglin, a doctoral student in psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey began the study by assuming that people have deeply ingrained beliefs about the soul and the afterlife, and set out to measure them.

She asked 348 undergraduate psychology students about their beliefs concerning the soul and afterlife when they were 10 years old and at their present age of just over 18.

Ms Anglin found that participants’ beliefs about the soul and the afterlife were close to what they remembered as their childhood beliefs.

But those beliefs were often very different from what they openly told people they believed now.

She looked out how implicit beliefs varied between religious and non-religious people and found no difference between them.

‘That suggests that implicit beliefs are equally strong among religious and non-religious people,’ she said.

Ms Anglin wasn’t surprised by the findings because she was aware of a 2009 experiment in which researchers asked people to sign a contract selling their souls for $2.

‘Almost nobody signed, even though the researchers told them it wasn't actually a contract and would be shredded right away,’ she explained.

This was despite some participant claiming they did not believe in an afterlife.

Ms Anglin used a well-known statistical tool called the Implicit Association Test, to gauge subjects' implicit beliefs about the soul and afterlife.

Such social psychology tests measure the strength of a person's automatic association between concepts in memory.

In Ms Anglin’s test, each subject saw two concept words paired on the top of a computer screen, so that ‘soul’ was paired with either ‘real’ or ‘fake’ to gauge their beliefs about the soul.

The word ‘soul’ was paired either with ‘eternal’ or ‘death’ to address beliefs about the afterlife.

A series of words then flashed on the screen, and the subjects indicated matched them with the two words at the top.

‘For example, if you had “soul” and “fake” on your screen, words like “false” or “artificial” would fit into that category, but words like “existing” or “true” would not,’ she explained.

Ms Anglin concedes that her study is not conclusive because she did not study the relationship of participants’ beliefs with their views about social or political issues, for example.

She also had to rely on her subjects' memories of what they believed when they were children.

‘It would be really useful to have a longitudinal study examining the same ideas,’ Ms Anglin said.

‘That is, study a group of people over time, from childhood through adulthood, and examine their beliefs about the soul and afterlife as they develop.’

The study was published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z3I8I0N0BU

I suspect that many who use the word to describe themselves are simply being trendy.

Possibly. But it been around for a long time.

Is it any more than a synonym for "empathetic" or "emotional"?

I don't think so Cattleman. Those words don't imply introspection, which I think is critical for personal growth.

Our First Nations folk are really "spiritual"... especially their leaders' bank accounts. Those have reached "spiritual" proportions.

They have strip bars for that in Quebec.

My own thoughts are close to what roseanne has expressed ~ for me, introspection and contemplation are both necessary to feel at peace ~

Sooz

I must be superficial, then.

I am quite introspective and contemplative, but I don't see why that's in some kind of different category to, say, curious. And yet I get the impression that "spiritual" means something different.

And is their something different between "personal growth" and "trying to be a better person"?

As I said at the beginning, it means different things to different people. Whatever it means to those who claim it, then that's what it is.

I guess if simply put, it can mean "trying to be a better person".

It's sort of like asking "What is love?"

Sort of like "why should you have faith" Chaos?

I don't see any problem with the question of "what is love" rose. I know what it means. And besides, I asked a slightly different question.

"Trying to be a better person" is fine I guess, but its a bit insulting to all of us non-spiritual people.

And if "whatever it means to those who claim it, then that's what it is" then it doesn't tell us anything when somebody says "I'm a spiritual person", which means that you are saying its effectively meaningless.

That's actually what I kind of suspected.

The question in the thread title is "What do people mean by spiritual". So, I'll change my wording, which means the same thing "What do people mean by love"

You know what love means to you. You have no idea what it means to anyone else. Some people think that things=love. Children think that dinner and a bedtime story=love. Many men think that gassing up the car or changing the oil=love. There is self-love, romantic love, familial love and Agape (Love of mankind that is also defined as love of God).

You are being insulting to those who claim to be spiritual. I never said that non-spiritual people aren't good people or don't try to be better people.

Depends on how you read "better person" ~ I don't read it as wanting to be a better person than the generic "you", but rather to wanting to improve one's self ~ so I see no insult at all ~

Sooz

spir-it-u-al

adjective

1.
of, pertaining to, or consisting of spirit; incorporeal.

2.
of or pertaining to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature:
"a spiritual approach to life."

3.
closely akin in interests, attitude, outlook, etc.
"the professor's spiritual heir in linguistics."

4.
of or pertaining to spirits or to spiritualists; supernatural or spiritualistic.

5.
characterized by or suggesting predominance of the spirit; ethereal or delicately refined:
"She is more of a spiritual type than her rowdy brother."

6.
of or pertaining to the spirit as the seat of the moral or religious nature.

7.
of or pertaining to sacred things or matters; religious; devotional; sacred.

noun

10.
a spiritual or religious song:
"authentic folk spirituals."

11.
spirituals, affairs of the church.

12.
a spiritual thing or matter.

Those definitions support roseanne's comment that "it means whatever you want it to mean" ~

Sooz

Which makes it a rather pointless discussion, IMO.

Point taken ~ I happen to believe that rambling discussions do serve a purpose ... even if it's only to reaffirm our own beliefs ~

Sooz

Rambling can be good. Circular, not so much.

You're entitled to your opinion ~ and the "fix" is that no one is required to read or post to any thread that doesn't interest them ~

Sooz

Just about everyone I know hated The English Patient. Obviously I didn't. It's my type story; A long, torturous love story where everyone ends of up dead.

Anyway there's a scene where the married heroine reads her soon to be lover's manuscript and this bit of dialogue ensued.

KATHARINE
I wanted to meet a man who could
write such a long paper with so few
adjectives.

ALMÁSY
A thing is still a thing no matter
what you place in front of it. Big
car, slow car, chauffeur-driven
car, still a car.

CLIFTON
(joining them and joining
in)
A broken car?

ALMÁSY
Still a car.

CLIFFTON
(hands them champagne)
Not much use, though.

KATHARINE
Love? Romantic love, platonic
love, filial love - ? Quite
different things, surely?

CLIFTON
(hugging Katharine)
Uxoriousness - that's my favorite
kind of love. Excessive love of
one's wife.

ALMÁSY
(a dry smile)
There you have me.

Love comes in many types and with many definitions. I think spirituality does, too. One may believe in the human spirit, the spirit of the universe, your own spirit, the spirit of a higher power who is not necessarily God or any of his forms.