Gale Tobin on a Short History of Spirituality

Today, Gale Tobin is going to show you a short but concise history of spirituality. 

It all started back in the Paleolithic Age. Anthropologists and archaeologists believed that this is the same time that modern humans came out in historical records. It was also at this time that the first humans started believing in an invisible force that was perhaps guiding all of them in their daily lives. The first spiritual belief can be seen in cave paintings that were done a quarter-million years ago. 

Gale Tobin also believes that the first humans who created art in the form of cave paintings were exhibiting signs of a belief in spirituality. The cave paintings where hunters are depicted to be stalking their prey are somewhat seen as a sort of special rite or ceremony where the hunters are given special “powers” through a spell. This belief is also enforced by other known archaeologists too.    

Thousands of years later, humanity progressed from staying in caves to living in small groups. These tribal societies ventured into the open world, venerating the many different spirits of nature that they once revered while living inside their caves. When humanity further evolved, so did their belief in spirits and in the spiritual world. These spirits suddenly came in many different forms and names. The different myths coming from different parts of the world are a testament to this type of spirituality. The Greeks and Romans suddenly have their pantheons of gods and goddesses, while the Egyptians and many African tribes also venerated their deities.  

Of course, the worship of these deities come differently depending on where they are being worshipped. In the African and Middle Eastern civilizations, these gods and goddesses come in the form of animals. In Egypt, the guardian of the River Nile was Sobek, a god who took the form of the River Nile crocodile. These particular gods were given these looks as a way of venerating nature itself. Even the River Nile was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians. The same can also be said about the River Ganges in India and the Eternal Blue Sky in Mongolia.  

And then there were the concepts of the divine god-king. Early civilizations started believing in mortals were blessed by the spirits to look after their kingdom as benevolent or divine beings. These divine kings would hold absolute power over their subjects, but that belief would also change as a sign of weakness is often believed that the spirits are no longer in favor of this divine ruler and that he/she must be replaced or removed from power. 

But mankind could only evolve forward as time passed by. From the ashes of shamanism and pagan beliefs rose the concept of one true divine being. Monotheism began to spread all over the world as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were spread by prophets far and wide. Other religious faiths, such as Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, also changed the outlook of humanity towards the spiritual world. Suddenly, people believed that spirituality can be spread and taught to those who are not aware of such a concept.  

Today, the modern concept of spirituality is based on a larger entity that drives all faiths towards the perception of a single universal thought, which is often applied towards inner peace and tranquility. People who believe in this spirituality often do not associate it with the many different religions because they believe that it is something far bigger and more mysterious.  

Gale Tobin, however, believes that true spirituality has nothing to do with spirits or with the divine; that it is actually more of accepting that our actions can be guided by an enlightened mind rather than an entity.

Originally published at https://galetobin.com on November 3, 2021.