by Andrew Jasko | Dec 18, 2018 | Psychology, Religious Trauma and Spiritual Abuse, Spirituality
Fundamentalist religion works on the psyche like mental illness. It functions by creating dysfunctional personality structures that sort of get you by, but also produce enormous suffering. Anxiety is created by messages of fear and judgment, psychosis (not being able...
by Andrew Jasko | Nov 18, 2018 | Religious Trauma and Spiritual Abuse, Spirituality
Christianity claims to promote spirituality. I sought spiritual experiences for twenty-six years in the fundamentalist iterations of Christianity. Yet I only began to experience them after I left Christianity. And I’ve noticed a curious trend: all the spiritual...
by Andrew Jasko | Oct 24, 2018 | Religious Trauma and Spiritual Abuse, Spirituality
Christian fundamentalism criminalizes normal emotional expression and trains people to repress their feelings. Negative emotions aren’t merely unpleasant (which is bad enough); they become crimes of emotion against god. Emotion crimes come packaged with fear of...
by Andrew Jasko | Oct 15, 2018 | Spirituality
My relational meditation: I find myself increasingly desiring connection and partnership. This can be terrifying, because historically, overwhelming desires can distract and disorient me. It’s easy for me to get into a frenzied state and lose my center, overstimulated...
by Andrew Jasko | Sep 24, 2018 | Religious Trauma and Spiritual Abuse, Spirituality
Is perfection spiritual? Or is it a materialistic distraction that keeps us forever unsatisfied with what we have and who we are–the imperfect, the real. Many spiritual and religious traditions teach that perfection is a virtue. We’re supposed to wait and pray for...
by Andrew Jasko | Sep 17, 2018 | Psychology, Religious Trauma and Spiritual Abuse, Spirituality
The notion of sin is psychologically naïve. It is a complete failure to understand human behavior. Christianity teaches that you have a “sinful nature;” meaning you do bad things because part of you is sinful–you’re bad. Not a single school of psychology accepts...
