Difference between “Psychology and Spirituality” - Webinar Discussion

Spirituality Health and Inner Values Academy organized a webinar on 25^th May 2020 to discuss about the difference between “Psychology and Spirituality”

Based on the Webinar, following are some major points discussed and shared by the participants:
 
1.      Psychology basically has its own scope and Spirituality (also called as Indian Psychology - IP) has its own scope but without much vast difference.
2.      Spirituality also deals with mind, emotions but never gets into details of distant past to work on them like they do in modern psychology.
3.      Spiritual Knowledge of Brahma Kumaris as spoken by God, the Father, as it appears in Avyakt Murlis and Sakar Murlis deals with complete aspects of God, Spirit, Mind, Emotions and Actions - how it applies in our day to day life.
Spirituality as explained in Ayurveda explains about the Psycho-Bio-Social factors to lead a healthy life. It explains about the constitution of Spirit and body. The real life application for body is well explained but for the mind and its real life application, we have to take help of other books like Sakar and Avyakt Murlis.
Bhagawad Gita again explains how to lead a detached life and explains about the four types of yoga. Still to make it understand better, we need to refer Sakar and Avyakt Murlis.
Upanishads, the essence of Vedas give a vast knowledge of Self. But again for the real life application, we may refer to the Sakar and Avyakt Murlis.
4.      Psychology helps in dealing with situations using Intellect and Mind – memory, thoughts, ideas, changes in actions, learning new methods, controlling thoughts, venting out emotions, recalling and understanding situations and more.
5.      Spirituality helps in dealing with situations using the power of Self, emerging the natural qualities of self like peace, love, happiness, joy and bliss, Connection with God, which is never been explored by Western psychologists or philosophers so far, although they know about Self and God.
Spirituality also explains about methods to deal with problems using mind, intellect and actions in a different way, which is nowadays being explored by western psychologists in the name of Positive Psychology. And these methods of Positive Psychology are very much similar to Spirituality in dealing with mind, intellect, actions and situations.
6.      Psychology tries to manipulate mind and intellect to set right the action and behavior.
7.      Spirituality focuses on Self and its Qualities to set right the mind, intellect, action and behavior.
8.      Psychology deals with distorted Personality of an individual to set things right.
9.      Spirituality focuses on the Original Natural undistorted Personality of the individual to set things right.
10.  If our basic education focus on knowledge of self, its values, then all our thoughts, decisions, actions become well ordered and useful for the self and society, as it is mentioned in Ayurveda that Intellectual degradation is the main cause of all miseries of both the body and mind.

Sl.No.	Points Shared during Webinar	Views, Suggestions for further discussions
1	Spirituality is the mother of all sciences which involves the realization of the self as soul, consciousness.	It can be said: Spirit or Soul or Consciousness is the mother of all sciences.
	Whereas Psychology is the scientific study of the mind,human behavior and cognition.
2	Spirituality explores the soul, Supreme soul by means of silence and meditation.It works on soul level.	In Western Psychology according to Father of Psychology Wilhelm Wundt and Father of American Psychology William James,  Spirit or Soul is the background or connecting string or consciousness that tie all the thoughts and experiences of mind and body. And they left the soul untouched because it seems to be of no use in daytoday life, although they know about the Soul due to their knowledge of teachings by the Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and Immanuel Kant.
	Whereas Psychology explores the mental processes, thinking patterns, emotions, Perception, intelligence, attention, subjective experiences, motivation, Brain functioning and personality by means various psychological tools and techniques.It works on mind level.	In Indian Psychology or Spiritualiy, It is th Soul or Self that creates the Intellect or mind(thoughts) and all that exists. And all aspects like mind, intellect, behaviout are discussed without avoiding Spirit. But the main difference is Western Psychological techniques more focused on every action or thoughts of the past whereas Indian psychology gives less importance to the thoughts and actions of the past.
3	In Spirituality, happiness is attained immediately in the present moment through meditation,by connection with God.	It is attained for those who are normal, without any neurotic or psychotic symptoms.
	Whereas in Psychology, for happiness, psycho-bio-social factors of the past are taken into account for achieving the future goal.	Because Psychology deals with variety of subjects for counseling. There are vast scope for pscyhology like in career, organization, forensic, etc. Even in spirituality or Indian Psychology, Ayurved deals with psycho-bio-social factors for both mind and body.
4	There are limitations in psychology.	Limitations are there in both psychology and spirituality. All subjects are not applicable for everything. Every subject has its own purpose.
	Whereas Spirituality has no limitations and can do miracles.	Spirituality and Psychology both can do miracles. And here, we have to define what is miracle. If it is meant for any Extra ordinary powers, it happens only with very few people and it is not applicable for any common man or masses.
5	Psychology may or may not consider God.	It happens that most of the people differentiate between life and profession. We can see many God-fearing or believing persons are psychologists.
	Whereas Spirituality always considers God as the focal point.	Here again, we have different definition for God. Even amongst spiritual people, some believe everything as God and self as God, infact they negate God although they speak about God.
6	Psychology reminds us of our unique identity, personality, attitude.	It also applicable to Spirituality.
	Whereas Spirituality always emphasizes that we all are one.	Although we may talk about Universal Brotherhood or universal awareness, we still see individual spirits or consciousness which are separate.
7	In psychology, changing the life circumstances to what I think is good for me, is important.	Even Spirituality may follow the same.
	Whereas in Spirituality, surrendering to supreme self is important.	Even after surrendering to Supreme, every individual has to make their own effort. The real meaning for surrender is to do all your actions or put all your efforts to do what you feel good, but don’t worry if the result is not upto your expectation.
8	Psychology mainly involves resolution of problems.	Applicable to both
	Whereas spirituality involves meaning and purpose of life.
9	In Psychology, more efforts & time are required by both Counsellor & Counselle to fix the problem.	It depends upon the issues.
	Whereas in Spirituality, less efforts are required as connection with Divine aids faster healing.
10	In Psychology, a guide / counselor is required to bring about the change.	In both, there are: one who gives knowledge and the other who make use of the knowledge.
	Whereas in Spirituality, Self awareness is used to bring about change.
11	Psychology deals mainly with emotions and behavior of an individual.
	Whereas spirituality makes the psychology strong.
12	Psychology is a long term process like CBT, Psychoanalysis etc.	Because it deals directly with issues.Again it depends upon issues.
	Whereas in spirituality , results are faster and easy to understand.	Here, it indirectly deals with issues. Faster and easy if the person is normal.
13	You get into a problem and then you have a technique i.e. then you take help through psychology.
	Whereas if spirituality is a part of your life, you will never get into any problem.	There is no problem when we take care of psy-bio-social and other factors through clear intellect gained by regular practice of spirituality.
14	Psychology is a cure/remedy.
	Whereas Spirituality is a way of life and prevention.
15	Psychology mainly deals with neurotic and  psychotic disorders.	Psychological counseling is provided for both psychotic, neurotic and even for any health disorders. Nowadays Psychology scope is being widened like there are career, organization, social, political and more.
	Whereas spirituality deals with neurological disorders.	Even Spiritualiy has a wider scope since it deals with the Clarity of Intellect and happiness which increases the efficiency of work of everyone.
16	Psychology is for rich people ( it requires money).	In other words, it may require lot of time and effort to understand and implement.
	Whereas spirituality is for poor people (Do not require money).	It is very simple to follow as long as issues are not much complicated.

After the discussion, the team of participants has agreed to practice the following to experience Spirituality in real life:

Practice to experience Natural Bliss:

It is said that Bliss (sweet silence) is our natural Nature. How to experience Bliss?

1. Sit silently, if required look at any space or wall.

2. Keep observing and go into depth of silence. Quench yourself the deep thirst of silence.

3. More you go into depth of silence, at one point you will feel Bliss oozing out from within you, like in a fountain. Let it be natural.

It happens when it is least expected, when you even leave the grip of silent self awareness.

Principle: The silent self is realized when you slowly detach from 5 senses, mind and intellect. The Bliss (sweet silence) is attained when you go even beyond the silence of self awareness.

Suitable time to practice: morning or evening, to practice it atleast for 7 days.

Outcome: Once you connect with your natural bliss, then it becomes easy to connect with God's divine nature anytime, becoming God-like.

Talking to God and receiving His response can happen in any normal conciousness but to experience Divine nature, we have to become Blissful.

Note: Please share your experience after 7days of practice, on 1st June 2020.