I believe that this song from Mike and the Mechanics has actually grasped the importance of belief, but it is clearly a different kind of belief to that which many Christians would promote. It is a belief in the magic of a moment, an experience, an awakening, a poem, a speaker … and all of the other things in the song. This is also what religion is about before it gets canned and (yes, our ideas about magic have also been canned in the past, but) if we can regain the spontaneity of compassion and feelings of joy, we would return to the beginnings of many movements before they got burdened by the academic musings of experts and philosophers.
Of course we think things through and find a basis for our actions, but the speculative nature of theology has burst the boundaries of common sense in some cases. Religion is not first thinking and then “doing alms”, but as Jesus said (Matthew 6:3), “when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth”. The exact working out what would be God’s will is what the Pharisees were accused of, Jesus was more for improvisation and ad-lib, be it all on the basis of prayer, contemplation and meditation, but not on deliberate and calculated attempts at “good deeds”.
Especially in the vocation I have, you can experience this magic every day if you go to people who are thirsty, lonely, impaired or demented and get down to their eye-level, hold their hand and wish them well. Of course we need to be congruent in our actions, since even the demented recognise your feelings and what is in your heart, but the magic is enthralling and you get the feeling of what the grace of God is. I believe that this is what the world needs most of all and it is something that we can all give - if our hearts are open and not tied up in moralistic baggage.
Have you tried this kind of spirituality, and what were your experiences? Have you also seen the magic?
Not sure I’ve tried, or if I did, that it worked. But I have experienced this kind of magic. Also the other kind, and I do not mean David Copperfield. There is so much pressure these Days, and for quite some time, to keep magic inside the perceiver: feelings, however profound. But there is weird stuff going on, patterns we are not comfortable noticing. So while I like this poem/song a lot, I also feel like we have been painted into an experiential and ontological corner by some very angry minds - both organized religious and scientific minds - and for what could be called political reasons, not that everyone is conscious of that. While one can, indeed find magic in that corner as a perceiver, I also Think more is going on.
In these times of contention it’s not my intention to make things plain
I’m looking through mirrors to catch the reflection that can’t be mine
I’m losing control now I’ll just have to slow down a thought or two
I can’t feel the future and I’m not even certain that there is a past
I believe in the worker’s revolution
And I believe in the final solution
I believe in
I believe in
I believe in the shape of things to come
And I believe in I’m not the only one
Yes I believe in
I believe in
When I poison my system I take thoughts and twist them into shapes
I’m reaching my nadir and I haven’t an idea of what to do
I’m painting by numbers but can’t find the colours that fill you in
I’m not even knowing if I’m coming or going if to end or begin
I believe in the immaculate conception
And I believe in the resurrection
And I believe in
I believe in
I believe in the elixir of youth
And I believe in the absolute truth
Yes I believe in
I believe in
There is no love in this world anymore
There is no love in this world anymore
I’ve fallen from favour while trying to savour experience
I’m seeing things clearly but it has quite nearly blown my mind
It’s the aim of existence to offer resistance to the flow of time
Everything is and that is why it is will be the line
I believe in perpetual motion
And I believe in perfect devotion
I believe in
I believe in
I believe in the things I’ve never had
I believe in my Mum and my Dad
And I believe in
I believe in
There is no love in this world anymore
There is no love in this world anymore
I’m skippin’ the pages of a book that takes ages for the foreword to end
Triangular cover concealing another aspect from view
My relative motion is just an illusion from stopping too fast
The essence of being these feelings I’m feeling I just want them to last
I believe in original sin
And I believe what I believe in
Yes I believe in
I believe in
I believe in the web of fate
And I believe in I’m going to be late
So I’ll be leavin’
What I believe in
There is no love in this world anymore
There is no love in this world anymore
There is no love in this world anymore
There is no love in this world anymore
There is no love in this world anymore
There is no love in this world anymore
There is no love in this world anymore
There is no love in this world anymore
Thanks for the compliment V, but it is the connection I have with him that you see …
I also have an approach that goes a step further - I have tried my hand at therapeutic clowning in the past, starting with children and going on to elderly patients. That is where the magic is even more pronounced.
Thanks, it has a different perspective but there is no magic in that song. I think it’s because the thought that we could be the source of love that we’re looking for is foreign to the Buzzcocks. It lacks the maturity of the song I quoted, and perhaps the experience of the magic I’m talking about. However, it was written along time ago by young people, perhaps their experience has broadened since then.
You are definitely right about that, I just think that this magic can be experienced anywhere, even in an extermination camp, like Viktor Frankl wrote about. It is like what is written about the Holy Spirit and often only needs an open connection between two or more people to brighten up the day. I think there are two movements in us, either away from people or towards them. All movement that joins together has this potential in it. All movement that separates destroys the potential.
The secret of people like Jesus is being able to start a movement towards interaction, even if it is encapsulated within a society which is in strife. But it can work like medicine, whereas the opposite works like a cancer. The positive effect of this kind of magic is potentially in all of us, which is what makes me hopeful. If we can expand, even in the face of oppression, we have a chance to survive.
Neither am I, except when I’m the therapeutic clown “Dr. Bob”, but you have the potential in you, if you can be openly compassionate to anybody. I’d start with people where it’s easy first and move outwards - you can do it!
Yes, I can identify with that, but I use believe in the sense that I believe, I actually see that the magic happens. I believe in the magic or the Holy Spirit or the grace of God because I experience it in so many little ways.
I don’t believe dogmas or creeds, they are just dated attempts to formulate faith and each generation needs their own words.
Or perhaps they are just being more cynical regarding what it means to believe in things like love and magic. And yes, in many respects, they were just Kids. But with respect to relationships like these, I have found that the older I got the more inclined I was myself to be cynical about them.
We can believe in many, many things the songs seem to suggest. And some of them are conflicting or even contradictory. And love itself can wax and wane depending on the context and the point of view.
And while we can be the source of love [or for that matter hate]…what does that really convey other than a particular narrative any particular man or woman has come to embrace in the here and the now.
Okay Bob you makes some jumps. Blessings are happening to everyone. So is it that you just like to call them magic, holy spirit, and grace of god? Perchance cuz you came up with defining all the unexplainables(blessings), that are required to keep us here, in those terms.
I guess they are okay terms. But please explain a little further, as to what you mean by, “I experience it in so many little ways?”
It is not uncommon to have this distaste and given the context you most heavily learned it in, it is hardly surprising.
Unfortunately it is also a very basic Word. Like ‘think’ or ‘feel’ or ‘expect’. In this sense everyone is a believer, at least in something: doubt at a minimum.
It simply means one Thinks X is true.
I’ve had people attack me in non-philosophy forums for attributing beliefs to them. Engineers seem to get really testy about this. They Think it means ‘have faith in’.
We can dance at a party in a way that makes our bodies feel terrible, stiff and jerky, perhaps for some would be like this. Humans dance, many of them, if healthy enough. But perhaps if one is going to dance one will choose a dance that feels good. Humans also make narratives - I am not saying love is only a narrative, but let’s say it is - well, love could be a narrative one embraces. One coudl embrace other narratives, hopefully ones that feel good.
Now is Moreno saying just make up a story regardless of what is happening with the other person?
No, though if that works for someone, well, OK. But that is not what I mean.
The narratives one makes - and even you are making narratives - lead to Dynamics in relation, they are creative also. An invitation to a tango may work perfectly well, but if the other person Thinks it is a salsa, and worse only knows Salsa, then there may be problems on the dance floor. The stories you come with are not disconnected from what is happening - at least not necessarily, though for some they are. She may in fact be doing a tango and in just the way you like it done.
What do we want to create?
If from your position you Think you make no narratives - which is not possible, but OK, I’ll keep black boxing it for the sake of argument - and do nto want to change this, well don’t.
But then I see no reason to poo-poo what you think are merely the narratives of other people - even if this poo pooing is in the abstract and not aimed at anyone in particular. I mean, 1) why bother unless they are doing someone harm - not simply if some love,for example, narratives doing harm, but doing harm in or around the people you are communicating with) and 2) perhaps they are not just narratives and in fact you are trying to spread your narrative onto others. Or meta-narrative, if you like.
The first thing you have to understand is that in Christianity the whole theological construction is dependent upon a speculative Exegesis, whereas the simple explanation shows up as wisdom seldom seen. There are aspects in other traditions, but nowhere is it so unambiguous as it is in Christianity.
So, God isn’t some Grandpa in the sky, but the mysterious power of love or compassion, which Jesus gave the name of Abba, which is the way infants spoke to their Father. John says in his epistle that God is love, and Paul talks about Christ’s obedience to death, but he was “obedient” to love. This is also the gist of observation recorded in Acts, that the Christian community “loved each other.” It is the prime ingredient for Christianity and without it, Christianity makes no sense.
On the other hand, if Christianity without love and compassion makes no sense, then those people who are unforgiving and remain revengeful are no longer Christians, since it is this attitude of Christ which Paul pleadingly encourages in the Philippian church and very poetically describes in the letter to the Corinthians. There is no Christianity without love and compassion.
It is also a fact that all theology and Christian philosophy must be measured by the simple measure of compassion: Did you give me water when I had thirst, did you visit me when I was imprisoned, and did you clothe me when I was naked? Ivory towers, let alone inquisitions, have no place in Christianity and if someone wants to preach, he must first go to the poor, the lame and the dying. This is what completely changed my attitude after entering nursing after having become a lay-preacher, and I couldn’t preach for a while.
Coming to terms with reality and realising what the call really meant, the literalism and dogmatic approach of many fellow Christians became unbearable for me. I looked for what we could identify as the “Christ-effect”, the experience that turned ears red, made eyes watery and produced a clear understanding of what it means to “obey love” in the way that the Gospels show us that Christ remained obedient to death. I found that very often it was Non-Christians who impressed me most, and especially in situations in which they were simply “connected” to people.
Unfortunately, this revelation wasn’t welcomed in the church and apart from a few people, the rest seemed to see my observation as an affront and as moralising. A few told me that if I didn’t mention Christ I would be “robbing them”. So I shifted outwards and pursued this simple spirituality, finding an echo in the gospels and a smile in the faces of people who “had nothing to do with the church”.
The magic I am talking about soothes and comforts, it is a warm embrace in the cold wind of life’s chilling consequences, and it is company when you feel left alone. It is a skip in your heartbeat, when you suddenly realise that you are not alone, even when no-one is to be seen. It is the force of tears in our eyes when beauty, innocence or sadness connects us with the soul of another person. It is the hairs standing on the back of your neck when you realise that you have made a mistake, or red ears and a heavy heart, when you have missed a chance to tell some-one how you feel for them.
The magic I am talking about is the connection of human souls, and the realisation that we can’t exist without each other. It is the awareness of all the things I have, that were given me by other people. It is also a connectedness with nature, with the vast organism called Earth, and all plants and creatures in this miracle called life, but most of all it is the connection of human souls with each other.
This is all true. I agree. But the manner in which I react to someone telling me, “I believe in magic and love” – or any other such frame of mind – is reflected more in the Buzzcocks rendition. Or so it seems to me.
My reaction, in fact, might be analogous to “sour grapes”. I wish I were able to believe in those things too. Just as, at times, I wish I were able to believe in God. But I am not able to. I filter these value judgments now through dasein, through the existential implications of contingency, chance and change.
My cynicism here flows from the manner in which I view these relationships. It seems reasonable to think of them in this way. They are rooted in my first person subjective and subjunctive point of view.
I can only fall back on the hope that this frame of mind might change. One day I may well begin to grasp the magic and the love. But at this juncture in my life I’m running out of days.
We only have so much control over the narratives we have come to encompass. And we only have so much understanding of them. There are simply too many variables [going all the way back to our birth] that go into the fabrication, construction, invention, creation etc. of an identity.
And my motivation here is two-fold:
1] To encourage those who are considerably less cynical about these things to explain their reasons. Who knows, maybe someday someone will succeed in upending my own.
2] And, failing that, to bump into someone who does think about these things along the same line that I do. To, in other words, find others that share my own considerably more skeptical vantage point.
I appreciate the cynics standpoint although I disagree that it is only selfishness that motivates us. I am not a particularly selfless person, but I let myself be moved by what I notice other people are feeling, and I have an intuition about flow. It seems to be a “common sense” to be empathic towards the people in need I encounter in homes or on the street and I know many people who feel the same. I am saying that I see no particular merit in spontaneous compassion, it seems normal to many, but I see a vast loss where it is lacking.
This morning I was speaking to a stately man who is suffering dementia and general weakness, and whose son had developed a brain-tumor and consequently had to leave him to cope for himself. His other son, who lives further off, called me with the problem and because someone had just died, I could give him a room. When speaking to the Father, I could feel his pain which he managed to hide behind a facade and I adjusted my words to support the appearances he was trying to uphold. He thanked me at the end of the talk, and his son said that he found my approach applaudable, but it is second nature. What is there to applaud? But that is compassion in action, just as the holding of hands of the husband whose wife had just died, who himself is an amputee and suffering the first stages of dementia.
The magic can be exuberant or it can be subtle, it can have people laugh in amazement or it can have us shed tears of sympathy. The important thing is that two people connect in a way that (re-)binds them together and provides a basis for community life. That is an example of what I am talking about.