What happens to spirituality when belief in traditional religion falls away? Can ritual, mysticism, awe, contemplation, divination, sacred stories and experiences of transcendence still have value without requiring supernatural explanations?
Britt Hartley is a religious deconstruction educator, author, and atheist spiritual director who helps people rebuild meaning, identity, and family culture after faith. She is the author of No Nonsense Spirituality and a doctoral student whose work explores existential crisis, secular spirituality, and life beyond traditional religion.
In this livestream, we will explore Brittโs concept of secular spirituality and her attempt to navigate a fascinating middle ground between organised religion, atheistic scepticism and contemporary alternative spirituality. We will discuss religious deconstruction, nihilism, meaning-making, mysticism, ritual and the psychology of spiritual experience, as well as the question of whether practices traditionally associated with religion and the occult can remain meaningful when their supernatural interpretations are suspended.
We will also venture into some particularly interesting territory for Angelaโs Symposium: astrology, Tarot, psychedelics, intuition, altered states of consciousness, the Divine Feminine, cognitive bias, the relationship between mystical experience and metaphysical claims, and Brittโs distinction between useful spiritual tools and what she describes as โwooโ.
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00:00:00 No Nonsense Spirituality Introduction
00:01:23 Meet Britt Hartley
00:05:20 From Mormonism to Atheist Spirituality โ Britt Hartleyโs Story
00:07:49 Hard vs Soft Polytheism: Can Atheists Be Pagan?
00:09:07 Why Humans Create Gods: Religion as a Human Project
00:12:33 Is Spiritual Atheism Actually a Form of Paganism?
00:13:34 Sufism, Shinto, Christian Mysticism and Spiritual Atheism
00:16:48 Chaos Magic, Fictional Deities and Spiritual Scepticism
00:19:42 Can Ritual Work Without Belief?
00:22:51 The Science of Ritual Without Metaphysical Belief
00:26:16 Why Practise Spirituality If Youโre an Atheist?
00:33:40 How to Build a Secular Spiritual Practice
00:37:05 Situational Belief: Can Belief Be Used Temporarily?
00:41:22 Belief as a Spiritual Tool Without Dogma
00:43:59 Belief, Cognitive Bias and the Western Mind
00:49:03 Spiritual Tools Without Metaphysical Truth Claims
00:51:57 Nihilism, Phenomenology and What Is Really Real?
00:55:39 Philosophical Nihilism, Spiritual Experience and the Self
00:57:19 Is Belief Another Tool for Spiritual Practice?
00:59:05 Religious Trauma, Trance and Feeling Safe Without Belief
01:04:36 Does Everyone Need Religion or Spirituality?
01:08:17 The Paradox of Atheist Spirituality and Religious Belief
01:13:29 Clothing, Makeup and Adornment as Spiritual Practice
01:19:15 How you can support this valuable work
