Some people put up their guard at the word “spiritual,” suspecting an evangelical membership drive or a snake oil sales pitch. I can understand that. I am guilty of doing the same. I dislike the way the experience of awe has been commodified. I have no truck with retailers who purport to sell me salvation in the form of culturally appropriated, mass-produced dream catchers.

For most of my life I have been a devotee of modernity, believing in science as the only valid epistemology. When I was 17, I turned my back on the Catholic faith of my childhood, and rebelled in the biggest way I knew how, joining the astrophysics team at summer science camp. I used to pit science and spirituality against each other, thinking I had to declare fidelity to one.

The word “spirituality” can be traced to the Latin spirare, to breathe. It has taken me years to allow the spiritual part of myself to do just that. It has been hard, coming out as “spiritual”.........

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