The Smithsonian Institution states in an essay “Music and spirituality are intricately related, with spirituality often being the inspiration for the creation of music, and music so often creating the desired atmosphere for a spiritual occasion. While spirituality is not necessarily experienced through religion, many people use religion as a conduit for their everyday spirituality.”
Think back to a time when you heard just a snippet of a song or even a drumbeat like pulse or tempo. Then immediately got a flashback to a time or instance of great joy. Maybe you hadn’t had this thought in years before. “Where did that come from?” Maybe your head started bobbing, you tapped your foot, or just swayed with the music and memories. You didn’t just hear it, you FELT it!
Religion and spirituality, related as they are, are different. I once saw an example of this as a picture of a fishbowl. It was complete with a single goldfish, submerged in an ocean of water. The mamouth ocean was spirituality while the tiny fishbowl of water was religion. Religion is a very small part of Spirituality. Spirituality is personal and Divinely inspired while religion is man-made and humanly inspired. This is not a judgement of anything, just an explanation of what it is. If something, even religion, is man made, it is subject to the whims of man and can be changed as often as mankind can change its mind.
When I discovered that my Higher Power, who I now choose to call God, is not “up there somewhere in Heaven, judging, directing, and punishing. He is in the heart, mind, gut. In other words, up close and personal to all of us. He gives us guidance and wisdom. He has also given us free will. This is where problems can and many times do arise! Free will has produced Saints and tyrants. Ministers and street thugs. God does not communicate verbally. He communicates with other, deeply felt ways. These others may include instincts, flashes in our minds, feelings, moods, intuitions, hunches. This is where music enters the equation for so many. Music is not only heard but also FELT!
Our podcast is about to be blessed with a discussion of Spirituality and Music with Pete “Fat Cat” Flanders, an iconic radio personality from the Mid-Michigan-Flint area who was well known in the early Soul, R&B, and Rock communities. He was also a concert promotor who was regualrly with stars of this era. He traveled for a year with James Brown. The discussion will be Monday, March 28, 2022. It will be The podcast Episode is 2-33 and can be found at https://anchor.fm/james-b-boylan in the afternoon of March 28th.
Please let us know what you think. We can be reached at Spiritualityandrecovery@gmail.com or 810-965-6140 usually within hours and many times instantly.
Please come join us at our AA Zoom meeting. It is every Monday through Friday, 3:00 PM EST, including holidays. Meeting ID is 6035280704. Password 399778. It is simple to locate the blogs and Facebook pages. Simply search #spiritualityandrecovery For the podcasts, just go to https://anchor.fm/james-b-boylan
