Hello:
Neil, thanks for posting this. I was outside drinking my tea and watching life and thought "I would like to post something about how other ME/CFS'ers are approaching spirituality." I came in to do my daily "vote" and found this!
As to your 4 questions, my response is "yes" to all even though I would have said "yes" prior to having ME, I now would say "YES, definitely and more intensely".
I have always known, seen , felt things that were in the future or past about me or other people and wondered:
- Did my knowing, feeling, thinking make it happen? Or was it going to or did it happen already and somehow I knew, felt or thought it would... (The chiken and the egg theory.) In other words, "How did I know these things?"
I tried to "stop knowing" when I was much younger as there were as many bad things as good and I didn't want to know about the bad things. I finally went to a Psychic who worked with the local authorities so I could understand why I seemed to know these types of things. As my session with her began, she said to me, "Why are you here, you already know, yet you close this part off?" She taught me better ways to cope with this situation which is a different topic.
Because of this, I have tried different "religions" and to me, personally, they all seem to be somewhat similar in their spiritual means, but maybe different protocols or processes. In my humble opinion, almost all religions, when the end is "good for the world", would serve each person their own personal path to spirituality.
Which brings me to my current thoughts on spirituality:
I am beginnning to believe more in a "Collective Consciousness". What we tell our consious mind percolates through to the subconsious, then to the universe to be picked up with other thoughts by other "souls". If we "tune in and listen", we will have a knowing....
Sometimes, I get stuck or forget about a spiritual path, but that happened even before I got ME. I was always busy with something... Type A+ personality...
I am now currently reading the book "You Can Heal Your Life" by Louise L. Hay. I see it as "positive thoughts project positive future outcomes". Others may see it differently. What I have noticed is that based on the PENE protocol, I am using less energy on negative thoughts (Why did this happen to me? When will they find a cure? I hurt so bad. Oh, I have so much I cannot do.. etc) and have been able to use the energy to fix better foods, sleep better, feel less pain, start excersizing again (and this is right after a severe relapse.)
I am also expecting another spiritual path to emerge for me that will help me to continue the process of learning, living, loving and enjoying life.
Love and peace to all,
Karen