When I discuss spirituality with people, I might as well be speaking Martian: People’s eyes gloss over and saliva drips from the corner of their mouths. Maybe they think I’m no one to be discussing spirituality or maybe they’re afraid to talk about spiritual matters. But, in my opinion, the main reason people cower at the idea of spirituality is that it immediately brings to mind religion. However, religion is NOT spirituality, although there can be a relationship between the two. From my perspective, religion is the set of rituals and beliefs of a specific “faith” community, while spirituality is the care and maintenance of that which is sacred to a person. Furthermore, religion is communal, while spirituality is personal.
These concepts are not really interchangeable, especially from an addiction treatment perspective. When a person is actively maintaining his addiction, the only thing sacred to him is his drug and the “hustle” through which he goes to get it. This singular sense of value allows for any form of malevolent behavior because the drug is all that matters and nothing or no one has any value in comparison to the drug. When we factor in the physical impacts of the drug’s pharmacology, we can see that the malevolence really can develop into something evil.
For example, heroin addiction provides abundant material for the study of malevolent spirituality. I’ve written at great lengths about the relationship between heroin addiction and demonic possession and I have no doubt that heroin addiction really can open a “portal” through which pure evil can enter a person’s humanity. That’s not to suggest that heroin addicts are evil, because they aren’t. However, heroin creates the perfect storm for the emergence of malevolent spirituality. Even if a person doesn’t believe in “spirituality,” it’s not hard to see how a heroin addict becomes inhuman with those who love and care for him. Lying and stealing are the domain of the addict; however, heroin’s short half-life and intense withdrawals exponentiate the lying and stealing for the drug.
I believe that it’s important to define a healthy and benevolent sense of spirituality as a part of a treatment program. Each layer of humanity must be addressed, including the re-initiation of healthy sense of the sacred within a person’s life. There are ways to do this that don’t involve religion or church and can be built without even using the term, “spiritual.” More on this method to come…
