A soul sickness. For many people, "God is dead." Most assuredly. Maybe a broader, deeper sense of spirituality is lost too? How to fill the void? Many of my fellow human beings have turned to pharmaceuticals. Mood-enhancers. Pain-killers.
So god, or a belief in a god-like goodness, or purpose, is replaced with a drug, a chemical cocktail. This is a different thing than taking a drug to find a way to god. There was that psychedelic movement that used the chemicals to find some kind of transcendence. This was primarily replaced with a movement towards drugs that led to a numbness, a search for a certain oblivion. "Let's party!"
No longer the search for god, a turn to an all-encompassing, medicated state.
Most folks taking pharmaceuticals today have given up a search for transcendence and replaced it with a deeply medicated existence, they are using the drugs to maintain; trying to make it day to day, trying to find a reason to live - battling depression, bi-polar disorder, etc. I mean, what else you got?!
This is not a lament. Just an observation. It is kind of amazing how pharmaceuticals have completely invaded our culture, and have instituted themselves as one of our major, mainstream religions.
I've never turned to the pill, never have bowed down to Big Pharma. I do not believe in the meds. I mean, I don't doubt that putting chemicals in your body can change you. We all do it, in a way, with food & drink, and physical activity. We play with the chemistry of our bodies all the time. But this giving up to a day to day medicated state, as if living itself is a sort of illness that needs to be treated & overcome, seems like a hollow path.
I believe many of us are suffering a soul-sickness, a spiritual crisis. The meds are a sideshow.
I'm still on my own clunky, funky, personal spiritual quest. I say each to their own. We all must find our way, the way we find our way. God? Well, who knows? I do know I have experienced an all-encompassing connection to everything that lives. And everything lives. As far as I can see.
Is that enough? Probably. I'm still working it out. Clear-eyed, clear-headed, or at least as clear as I can be.