I was asked what is spirituality? How would I define it? It starts with a cringe, because I was first told to fear that word, as betrayal of a backsliding Christian's self-made beliefs, then as a lazy word for someone who doesn't want to think about it but isn't ready to say there's nothing, then as an all encompassing word for crystal grifters and Topanga gurus. Los Angeles taught me that one can reject organized religion and then resurrect it as astrology, worshipping shiny clear rocks, and tarot cards. All that being the urge to be told what to do. The fundamental hope that the Universe has a plan for you, and that some people, from Pastors to Psychics and Healers, can help you know that plan. We want an instruction manual. I must say the ‘spiritualists’ are much less dogmatic and harmful in my opinion, but it’s magical prescriptive thinking none-the-less. Based on what feels to me to be nonsense. In an attempt to shield myself from all this transposing of superstition as instruction, I just threw it all out. Get that spiritual stuff away from me. I wanted outer space and Carl Sagan only. Of course this is mostly a response to wounding. One cannot think clearly in pain. Then I caught my breath, and gave the word another look. Why does every culture in every corner of the world practice spirituality? Because we want to make sense of this life. It is hard wired in us. Spirituality is emotional pattern recognition the way that knowledge is mental pattern recognition. Let me explain. Knowledge is different than a simple thought because knowledge is information in the mind organized into useful truth. It is organized facts into a string of helpfulness based on experience and pattern recognition. I 'know' that a tree grows from a seed because it has been observed. Ok so to me, the spiritual is the ineffable feeling of pattern recognition in the universe. When you feel the meaning, the awe, the guiding hand. It is a knowing, but in the body, and in the uncanny valley between body and mind, which we call the soul. And with this framework, I see how Carl satiates the spiritual itch, don’t you? Does this make a lick of sense? Or have I done gone off the tracks.