by B Branin
Chapter 16
Excerpt from “Minds, Madness and Impossibility,” A collective work featuring world renown Psychologists, Therapists and Councilors. Pages 340-350 is Dr. Spriggan’s addition to the book.
Pgs 345: While the paranormal is my passion and my profession, I have always had a secret love for theology. Be it a stone-cold atheist or a hardened zealot, the questions of the divine always creeps into our hearts and minds. Be it worry, anxiety, or simple curiosity, we as a species tend to contemplate what happens at the end of the road we call life.
Most intriguing for me is how fragile faith or lack of faith can be. When faced with certain death, even someone with no religious or even anti-spiritual believes might find themselves filled with the love of the divine. I have personally met one man who never even considered the existence of the divine until the day he survived a plane crash and narrowly escaped death.
Yet on the opposite side of the spiritual spectrum are the extremely devote. Despite years of dedication to one religion, to one purpose, we find that even the most faithful might crumble under pressure. Tragedy has a way of breaking that special gift we call faith. We put in hopes, dreams, fears and most of all, time, into faith. We believe in some grand design or divine being has a course plotted out for us. And then, in an instant, the unjust or unexplainable happens and we tend to turn our backs on our old beliefs. We feel betrayed, abandoned and angry that our faith didn’t shield us from the harsher aspects of the world.
These two extremes might be, just that. Too extreme. Their rigid outlooks demand strict, unbending points of view that do not allow “wiggle room” for the unexplained. The unconvinced narrowly escapes an encounter that should have killed him. The faithful are stricken with the unfortunate and the unfair. Each extreme is too rigid to cope with such events.
With such clear cut views on life and what might lay beyond, these scenarios can be devastating. Lack of answers, lack of understanding or lack of justice would dissolve the foundation of these black and white believes. Then one’s entire perspective might crumple and dissolve despite years of dedication.
Yet, we do not all shift from one extreme to another. No, most of us live somewhere between atheism and fanaticism. In my humblest of opinions, that might be the key. You must have hopes, doubts, fears and courage. Only with a unique blend of such feelings would we be able to cope with whatever life, reality or even the divine throw our way.
It is only while being flexible mentally and spiritually that we are able to accept all of life’s surprises be they miracles, tragedy or just plain old impossibilities.
