Pantheism Explained

I'm pantheist. I typically don't use labels to describe my spiritual beliefs, but if I had to define my beliefs in one simple word, pantheist sums it up quite nicely.

I'm not Christian, I'm not Muslim, I'm not Jewish, and most importantly I'm not theist. Theism is the belief that a separate god or gods exist. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are examples of theism. I was raised Catholic, but was an atheist at heart probably since the age of eleven. I did try every last ditch effort to make Catholicism work for me, but I abandoned it completely in my early twenties when I realized I couldn't reconcile my beliefs of an ultimate reality with what I believe is an artificial dichotomy Western religions create between life and death. It wasn't until the last few years that I abandoned atheism in favor of pantheism realizing that there was a much better way to define my beliefs, for which atheism simply couldn't account.

As a pantheist, I believe god and the universe are the same. I don't believe in a personal god or separate creator, I literally believe "all is god." I believe in an interconnected essence of all things, living and nonliving, in the Universe/multiverse, and I can't imagine my existence devoid of mental recognition of the unity I feel with nature and the Universe.

I can conceive of an afterlife that does not necessitate that our universe is the result of a separate creator, and I speculate the existence of this "afterlife" is also dependent upon our current physical universe. I also don't believe that we completely retain memories of our present lives after we die or even the essence of who we are on Earth--our consciousness. We join the infinite upon our departure.

My criticism of Western religions is that they create an artificial dichotomy between mind and body and life and death. I can't think of my physical birth (or even conception) as the beginning of my life because I am not devoid of a connection between myself and the carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen associated with my body, elements that existed and were recycled in the cosmos long before my Earthly entrance. Science, atheism, and Western religions don't have adequate explanations for my repeated experiences with lucid dreaming and my rare experiences with astral projection. They also don't have adequate explanations for the interconnectedness and dependency I feel to nature and the Universe. So I look to Eastern Mysticism and essentially anything non-Western for explanations!

Science, atheism, and Western religions simply can't explain what I feel, and they certainly don't have adequate explanations for the glimpses of past lives I've experienced. I find myself fortunate enough to have a husband who completely loves me for who I am because I obviously can't discuss astral projection and past lives with just anybody without raising eyebrows. (And for the record, no, I've never done any illegal drugs, and I've been pharmaceutical drug-free for five years in case readers are doubting my sanity.) Until scientific progress can catch up with my experiences, I'm compelled to consider them mystical. I do believe in a universal consciousness, which might explain my glimpses of past lives, so perhaps my experiences are not that mystical after all but merely confined to our physical reality.

I don't derive comfort in subscribing to one specific and narrowly-defined vision of an afterlife. If it's as great as humans speculate, I doubt we can adequately conceive of it anyway, and I don't feel it is something I need to concern myself with in this life. If it does exist, my "Eastern" tendencies prompt me to believe it is multilevel, not a definite endpoint as Western religious teachings would lead us to believe.

I'm fine with my mortality, although if I could live forever through some artificial means, it would be an option I'd pursue because I love life that much and can't ever imagine being bored with living. I'm also comforted by the fact that the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen associated with my body will be recycled into some other cosmological entity. For the present I'll continue to enjoy the amazing experience of life and derive satisfaction in the fact that my physical body will again one day reunite with the Universe.