T&T Interview with Practitioner

To be honest, all my plans to interview someone from different categories went in vain. None of them answered and some disappeared after a while and stopped replying. However, I did had the chance to interview a spiritual practitioner from Slovakia.

A screenshot of the interview

It was indeed a challenge to do this interview with a foreigner. Especially due to the time difference whereby I got an answer per day. But the information that he gave me were valuable indeed. He was an adult whose been practicing for quite a long time, so he had many insights and could express himself with a lot of details.

Here's the interview:

Hi there... So... First question.. Based on your response when u said you're a spiritual practitioner.. Was there any challenges of some sort while your were starting to practice?

Yes. When you begin, you don't know where to start. There's a lot of theories, ranging from technical, scientific psychology, all the way to fantastical rituals, like wiccan practices. Also, your mind is usually a mess of emotional stimuli, since this modern society overstimulates your brain, so that takes time to sort out and settle in...

So... How did you sort things out... There's not only several theories but also several practices, how did you do to find the right practice for you?

It took a long time, but I decided to take a very long path of restructuring from bottom up, so it's not a good measure of average experience. I'm around 15 years into my process and hardly finished, yet...

Have you ever felt somehow confused and lost while learning? would you consider it as a disadvantage of some sort? Or do you believe that it actually helped you to grow towards a desired direction? and would you mind explaining such an experience?

Of course, you're basically jumping into a sea of unknown, so it's an expected state. I'd say being confused too much can be harmful, as it can lead you towards unnecessary, or negative paths, but it could teach you how to navigate within that sea.

The experience itself is like drowning in murky water. Surrounded by unknown and not seeing anything familiar

I actually really like your answers it proves that you've been quite deep into these spiritual practices. My project aims also at a more conventional practice as well for the...so called common people, so as a spiritual practitioner of 15 years of experience, can you suggest a more basic practice that might exclude this challenge? even though there's none, can you still suggest a practice for the conventional people who are just looking for a way out of depression or stress.

Definitely. I'd recommend basic meditation, introspection and some body work, like yoga. Understand yourself by observation and take care of your mind and body. No godhood, or deity needed in that...

What tip would you suggest for get better analyze your own mental health?

To see how emotional triggers bend thoughts and "color" the experience. Same situation can be different for people with different mindset, or in different mood

I'd also like to know a bit about your social life as a practitioner, I've got a few response from the survey suggesting that some practitioners, mostly the youth feel awkward and odd to other, would you say that practicing spirituality can affects your social life?

About the same, honestly. On a surface level, it's easy to blend in, but people will notice the difference, eventually. Solitude is great for my practices, but can hit a sensitive spot in harder times. I guess you have to make a choice between social acceptance and understanding of the world...

would you say that you've achieve your goal through spirituality or you're still in the process? can you also give a description of the goal?

I think it's basically forever. My goal is to observe and understand the entropy of the world, the sort of inevitable sediment of processes and to find ways of intelligent manipulation of the flow to improve life in general. I'm mostly focused on corruption, or taint, as I consider it a sort of informational disease. So, you could say I'm looking for a cure...

Can you do any comparison with your life in the past when u were not practicing?

It's like I wasn't paying attention, or not even aware of myself. At this point I can perceive things like stress buildups and negative thoughts and disperse them before they gather up and affect me too much...

That's actually a really interesting point that u gave here... Like a more conscious state.. There was actually one interesting point that I think only one person selected from the survey... But I feel like u have the knowledge to answer it... So yea... It's about being scared of your surrounding because spirituality gave them a more complex perception of reality.. Any thought about that?

Sure, the more you know, the more there is to be afraid of. I think it's inevitable part of knowing, so a degree of carelessness is needed, so you don't end up fearing everything. I could be afraid that a car might run me over, but if I check both sides of the road before crossing, I can manage that risk...

Do you think that spirituality can be for everyone? Or some people might not be able to handle it? Or if u do know about the various practices... Is there like a practice for each n everyone?

I think some people might be too materialistic to let go. Their minds see value in hard objects, it's like an anchor in unknown. It helps them feel safe, that this thing has a value of 1,42 and no less. The finite value gives rest to doubt, but in spiritual sense, everything is relative and infinite. I don't think such people would be able to handle the constant 'maybe' value...

This question might sound triggering to religious people, maybe not to you.. But I am looking at it in an open mind hoping to find possible solutions and I want your honest opinion.. How do u feel about mostly some of the Abrahamic believes that spirituality is evil?

It's about social control, I think. Scare people with judgement and damnation, since it's hard to control. They'd call me the devil, but I'd only call them blind and pity them...

Lastly... I'd like to know how u came across your practice? Is it through books? Or internet? Or someone showed u?

Bits and pieces from all of that. Mostly internet, filtering the working parts from the noise. Had no one in my area to share with, so it was a personal effort.

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Overall it was a nice experience especially because he did confirm a few part of the data collected like the fact of being scared and some possible challenges. At some point it might seem that spirituality isn't for everyone especially when he explain about the materialist who can't comprehend. But then again there's some biological facts that suggest how simply meditating can help so I believe considering this we might get over this challenge.