The relationship that strives to give credence and support to the subjugated self and provide awareness, and dignity regarding one’s uniqueness is precious and is found only in a loving Other. This may be the only worthwhile pursuit in human existence, because many of our struggles involve matters of mundane reports. We are taken in by the fabulous, not the ordinary; for there to be meaning things have to "go viral" quite literally in the virtual world, which is our reality these days. As is argued in Pixilated Practices: Media, Ritual, and Identity, that which is preserved as real, and beneficial, is that which appears on a screen. The idea of "going viral" stems from the notion that one becomes infected by an outside entity; that can only be addressed by its antidote.
How does faith go viral? Why does it seem that before a meaningful relationship between the individual, or community, and the Other there needs to either be a fissure, a great break, or a telling moment of infection and insecurity? Does one's relationship with or to an Other than our worldly undergoing always mean there to be crisis or crises. Does there always have to be a tendentious and heart wrenching demolition of human relationships or insignificant alliances in the world as it is known to us.? Does one always have to have a faith crisis involving something like fear and trembling or sickness unto death, as did Soren Keiergaard? It seems that for some it can be as simple as a moment of concern or doubt, for others this shift in reality can be a devastatingly horrific experience.
One of the hallmark identifiers of extreme religious crisis has often been thought to include psychoses. The connection between spirituality and emotional life grows greater whether there are a crisis or crises in life or not. Often these affect our relationships and can only be surmounted by reconciliatory love. So, how does a family or community overcome a breach in relationships and reach such reconciliation and mending? How a meaningful bridge in relationships is gained or regained is a matter of great interest here. Nevertheless, a close look at individual experience is warranted first. neglecting the inner world of hurt frustration, loneliness, and/or loss is never the thing to do in order to address spiritual and/or emotional life.
So, anger and honesty go a long way in the development of alienation or discord with God or ultimate reality. Great dichotomies must be traversed to address such painful situations. Understanding the infinite and the whole, and other great paradoxes are a matter of intellectual fodder. Though these incinerate the soul (if you will) and accelerate pain, intellectual battles are definitely important to look at. But first, consideration of the emotions that come with strong experiences is powerful to grasp or have meaning for the outsider, even the person in crisis themselves. Understanding oneself in the world, or outside of relationship to the world, in the closest place to the person, is a significant feat and traverse. Understanding oneself is very important for anyone, but particularly so for the person in the throes of a struggle of existential protest. Anger with God can be significant, but so can the hurt of the loss of experience with one's God. One's experience emotionally can be charged with feelings and thoughts of betrayal and fear, or loneliness and frustration. However, one has been injured by faith or has been in a collision with inner emotions one has the capacity for extreme alienation from self and others. Most of all one may experience an "abandonment by God", conceptually. Whether not there is the belief that this sort of abandonment can happen is within your belief system; the critical moment comes when this is experienced by the hurting. Believe it or not abandonment is the experience of many who fight their accord with God. Who abandons whom is a theological discourse for another context, here I want to focus on the experience of losing one's life as a crisis of faith happens.
"Emptiness is emptiness" was once postulated by the Mahayana Buddhist teacher and philosopher Nagarjuna, while some interpretations of the opening of the book of Ecclesiastes, "emptiness is emptiness", put on the lips of its writer Koheleth, remind us of the common ways of East and West. A certain kind of emptiness can overcome the subject of concern, fashioned "the one in pain" here, as well as others who have the token experience of frustration with or anger at God. With any of these types of confusion or circumstances comes a flood and torrent of emotions. Think the thoughts of emptiness is emptiness or feel the feelings of emptiness is emptiness, understand the difference. If you want to understand this, you don't! This happening in life is more than like a midlife crisis. It is not an identity crisis. It is concocted by the brain, the body, and God. "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil" takes on a new meaning for those who undergo such a set of life circumstances.
When you see or hear one rebelling with God, consider all the possible vignettes that could be part of their life. Hurt, shame, anger, confusion, these are just some of the things people who have faith experiences like this maintain in their beings. "Spirit dysphoria" may well be a new category of explanation to describe the so-called symptoms expressed in the life of the one who wrestles with God.