Religion, page 10
Other Paths
What the Quakers, Baha’is, Unity, the Unitarian Universalists, and the new age movement bring to the table, sorted by the ideas they share.
Many names, similar ideas
Beyond the great traditions, there are hundreds of smaller spiritual movements. Look closely, and most of them say similar things under different names. One group’s “inner light” is another’s “divine spark” and another’s “higher self.” Describing every group separately would mean repeating the same ideas over and over.
So this page takes a different approach. It briefly introduces five influential paths, then looks at the nine main ideas they share. Each idea is marked with the same labels used throughout this section: wise, questionable or story, or harmful, and some ideas are a mix. Sufism, Islam’s mystical heart, is covered on the Islam page.
Some of these movements have brought great good into the world. Some have also caused real harm, especially where belief has replaced medicine. Both deserve an honest word.
The groups
The Quakers
The Religious Society of Friends. England, 1650s.
Founded by George Fox, a young seeker who concluded that no priest, church building, or ceremony was needed to meet God, because God speaks directly within each person. Quakers worship by gathering in silence and waiting. William Penn, a Quaker, founded Pennsylvania as a colony of religious freedom.
The Baha’i Faith
Persia, now Iran, 1800s. Now worldwide.
Founded by Baha’u’llah, who taught that there is one God, that the great religions are chapters in one unfolding story, and that humanity is one family. Baha’is have no clergy. They teach the equality of women and men, the harmony of science and religion, universal education, the elimination of prejudice, and world peace. Their followers have long faced persecution in Iran, and their world center, with its famous terraced gardens, is in Haifa, Israel.
Unity and New Thought
America, mid-1800s onward.
New Thought grew from the work of Phineas Quimby, a Maine healer who taught that the mind has great power over health and happiness. Its branches include Unity, founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in Kansas City in 1889 and known for its magazine Daily Word and its prayer line; Religious Science, founded by Ernest Holmes; and Christian Science, founded by Mary Baker Eddy.
Unitarian Universalists
America, formed in 1961 from two older churches.
A liberal religious community without a required creed. Members may be Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, humanist, atheist, or none of these. They gather around shared values: the worth and dignity of every person, the free search for truth and meaning, justice, and care for the earth.
The new age movement
Worldwide, especially from the 1970s.
Not an organized church but a loose collection of beliefs and practices: energy healing, crystals, chakras, astrology, channeling, and the “law of attraction.” It draws on Eastern religions, 19th-century spiritualism, and the counterculture of the 1960s, which spoke of a coming “Age of Aquarius.”
1. The light within
Wise. Held by Quakers, Unity, and much of the new age movement.
George Fox urged his followers to walk cheerfully over the world, “answering that of God in every one.” Quakers call it the inner light: something of the divine present in every person, whatever their station, church, or beliefs. Unity speaks of the divine spark or the Christ within. New age writers speak of a higher self.
This is very close to the observing Soul described on our home page, and to the Stoics’ divine spark, Buddhism’s luminous mind, Hinduism’s witness within, and the Sufis’ polished heart. When so many traditions, arising separately, describe the same inner presence, it deserves to be taken seriously. And the Quakers drew a powerful conclusion from it: if there is something of God in everyone, then every person must be treated with respect.
The heart of it
Many paths describe a light within every person. It closely matches the observing Soul, and it leads naturally to respect for everyone.
2. The power of silence
Wise. Held above all by the Quakers, and by Unity’s practice of silent prayer.
A traditional Quaker meeting for worship has no minister, no sermon, and no music. People simply sit together in silence, sometimes for an hour. If someone feels moved to speak, they stand and share a few words, and then the silence returns. Many meetings pass with hardly a word spoken.
Quakers describe a “gathered meeting,” when the shared silence becomes deep and alive, and everyone present senses it. This is the same discovery described on our meditation page: when the chatter of the mind stops, something deeper can be felt, and it is often easier to feel together than alone.
The heart of it
Quakers worship in shared silence, waiting to be moved. It is meditation in community, and it shows that stillness is often deepest when shared.
3. Thoughts shape our lives
Wise at its core, harmful at its extremes. Held by Unity and all of New Thought, and by the new age “law of attraction.”
The wisdom inside
Our thoughts and attitudes really do shape our experience. The Buddha said so in the first verse of the Dhammapada, and Epictetus built Stoicism on it. Modern research agrees that optimism, hope, and a sense of purpose are linked to better health and resilience. Unity’s practice of affirmations, repeating hopeful and loving statements, can steady the mind much as a mantra does.
Where it goes too far
Some branches pushed this idea to an extreme. Christian Science teaches that illness is ultimately an illusion of the mind, and many of its followers have refused medical treatment, sometimes with tragic results, including the deaths of children from treatable illnesses. The popular “law of attraction” claims that our thoughts draw wealth, health, or disaster to us like a magnet. That leads to a cruel conclusion: that the sick, the poor, and the unlucky somehow attracted their own misfortune.
Constant positive thinking can also become a way of refusing to feel real sadness, fear, or grief, which, as our Stoicism page explains, need to be honored and understood, not pushed away.
Sorting it
Keep the wisdom: our attitudes shape our experience, and hopeful practices like affirmation can help. Set aside the extremes: thoughts do not cure infections or attract lottery winnings, and no one is to blame for their illness. Use the mind’s power alongside medicine, never instead of it.
The heart of it
Our attitudes truly shape our lives, and hopeful practices help. But thoughts do not replace medicine, and no one attracted their own misfortune.
4. Energy and healing
Questionable, with some real comfort inside, and harmful when it replaces medicine. Held mainly by the new age movement.
Many new age practices are built on the idea of a subtle life energy that flows through the body and can be balanced or healed. Reiki, developed in Japan in the 1920s, involves a practitioner placing hands on or near the body to channel healing energy. The chakras, borrowed from Hindu traditions, are pictured as spinning energy centers along the spine. Crystals are said to hold and transmit healing vibrations.
No scientific instrument has ever detected these energies, and careful studies have generally found that such treatments work no better than placebo. But that does not mean people gain nothing. A quiet room, a caring person, gentle touch, and an hour of rest are genuinely calming, and calm is good for the body, as our meditation page describes. Many people also find the chakras a useful map for noticing where they hold tension.
The danger comes only when energy healing replaces real medical care. As comfort and relaxation alongside good medicine, it can do little harm and some good.
The heart of it
Subtle energies have never been measured, and treatments work about as well as placebo. The comfort and calm are real. Enjoy them alongside medicine, never instead of it.
5. Everything is connected
Mostly wise. Held by Baha’is, Unity, Unitarian Universalists, who speak of the interdependent web of all existence, and the new age movement.
Many of these paths teach that everything is connected, and that at the deepest level all of life is one. Here they echo the great traditions: the Stoics’ single living breath running through the universe, and Buddhism’s teaching that nothing exists on its own but arises through its connections with everything else. An old Buddhist image pictures the universe as a vast net with a jewel at every knot, each jewel reflecting all the others.
Much of this is simply true. Ecology shows how deeply living things depend on one another, and physics shows that we are made of the same elements as the stars. People in many traditions also report moments of feeling at one with everything. The American psychologist William James, studying such experiences over a century ago, found them strikingly similar across religions and cultures.
Where the idea becomes story is when it is used to claim more than it can support, such as that we can influence distant events by thought alone.
The heart of it
Everything is connected. Ecology, physics, and the mystics of many traditions agree. Let the connection deepen compassion, without stretching it into claims it cannot support.
6. Living simply and fairly
Wise. Held above all by the Quakers and Baha’is, and shared by Unitarian Universalists.
Quakers have no creed, but they share “testimonies,” ways of living that grow from the light within: simplicity, living plainly without excess; peace, refusing violence and war; integrity, telling the truth in all things; community, caring for one another; and equality, treating every person as having that of God within.
Their record is remarkable. In 1688, Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, wrote one of the first formal protests against slavery in the American colonies, and Quakers later helped lead the movement to end it, including the Underground Railroad. They pioneered prison reform and fair treatment of the mentally ill, and in 1947 their relief organizations were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for aiding victims of war.
The Baha’i Faith made similar commitments part of its founding teachings in the 1800s, well ahead of its time: the full equality of women and men, the elimination of racial and religious prejudice, education for every child, and a world at peace. Baha’is have held to these teachings through long persecution.
This is the fruit test at work. A spiritual path shows its worth in the lives it produces.
The heart of it
Simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and equality. The Quakers lived these and fought slavery. The Baha’is made equality and the end of prejudice founding teachings. A path is known by its fruit.
7. Many paths, one mountain
Part wise, part questionable. Held by Baha’is, Unitarian Universalists, Unity, and much of the new age movement.
A popular image pictures the world’s religions as different paths climbing the same mountain toward one summit. An ancient Hindu scripture puts it this way: truth is one, but the wise call it by many names.
The Baha’i Faith gives this idea its most complete form. Baha’is teach “progressive revelation”: that God has sent a series of messengers, including Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Zoroaster, the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, each teaching what their age could understand, like a teacher guiding a class from grade to grade. Baha’is believe Baha’u’llah is the most recent of these messengers.
There is real wisdom here. This site itself is built on the discovery that very different traditions point to the same inner realities: the observer within, the power of stillness, and the importance of compassion. Respect for other paths makes for a kinder world.
But the idea can also blur real differences. Religions disagree about important things: whether there is a personal God, whether we live once or many times, what the human problem is and what the solution is. Saying they are all the same can be a way of not really listening to any of them.
A more honest image might be this: many paths climb the same mountain, but they see different views on the way up, and some paths are clearer of rocks and brambles than others. That is exactly why sorting wisdom from noise matters.
The heart of it
Different paths do share deep truths, and respecting them is wise. But they also differ in real ways. Listen to each honestly, and sort the clear path from the brambles.
8. Science and religion in harmony
Wise as an ideal. Harmful where it becomes double-speak. Held above all by the Baha’is, and shared by Unitarian Universalists.
Among the founding teachings of the Baha’i Faith is that true science and true religion can never really conflict, because both seek the one truth. Religion without science, Baha’is say, falls into superstition, and science without religion can fall into cold materialism. They describe the two as the two wings of a bird: with only one, humanity cannot fly.
Baha’is also teach the independent search for truth: each person should investigate for themselves rather than simply accept the beliefs of their parents or priests. Unitarian Universalists share a similar commitment to a free and responsible search for truth.
This is very close to the heart of this whole site, and of our companion site, Deepermind: bringing science and the spiritual life together so that a life can hang together, with coherence instead of conflict.
Double-speak: where the ideal meets its limits
In practice, the Baha’i freedom to search for truth has firm boundaries. The writings of Baha’u’llah and his son ‘Abdu’l-Baha are treated as the final word, and the faith’s elected governing body, the Universal House of Justice, is held to be divinely guided and free from error. A believer may investigate, but only toward conclusions that agree with the writings. Members who publicly question that authority can be removed from the community, and those declared “Covenant-breakers” are shunned by other Baha’is.
Former members often describe this experience. A person who follows the search for truth where it honestly leads, for example to a framework like Deepermind that sorts every belief, scripture included, into fact, false inference, and meaning, would likely find themselves regarded as a heretic and an unbeliever. Experiences vary from community to community, but the rules themselves are the same everywhere.
In this, the Baha’i Faith is much like most religions: free inquiry is welcomed right up to the point where it questions the scripture or the leadership, and there it stops. The ideal of science and religion as two wings of one bird is a beautiful one. It is only fully lived when both wings are free.
The heart of it
Science and religion are two wings of one bird, a beautiful ideal. But in the Baha’i Faith, as in most religions, the freedom to search ends where it questions the scripture or the leadership. Both wings must be free to fly.
9. Predicting and contacting the unseen
Questionable or story, and harmful when it drives serious decisions. Held mainly by the new age movement and older spiritualism.
Astrology claims that the positions of the planets at our birth shape our personality and future. Channelers claim to speak for spirits or ancient beings. Psychics offer readings, and past-life regression claims to uncover who we were in earlier lives.
These claims have been tested, and they have not held up. In a well-known experiment published in the science journal Nature in 1985, astrologers tried to match people’s birth charts to their personality profiles and did no better than chance. Memories “recovered” under hypnosis are known to be easily shaped by suggestion.
Still, like the Buddhist legends, these can be enjoyed as story and symbol. Reading a horoscope for fun, or using the signs of the zodiac as a way of thinking about different personalities, harms no one. The line is crossed when people make serious decisions about health, money, or relationships based on them, or pay large sums to those who claim special powers.
The heart of it
Astrology, channeling, and psychic readings have been tested and have not held up. Enjoy them as story if you like, but never let them make your important decisions.
Our companion site
Deepermind: the best of both
The paths on this page show the same longing again and again: to keep what is wise in the world’s religions without having to accept what no longer makes sense, and to live a spiritual life that does not ask us to switch off our reason. Our companion site, Deepermind.com, was built to answer that longing. Its heart is a simple conviction:
The world is scattered. This isn’t.
Everything hangs together.
For centuries, science and religion have often been treated as rivals, as if a person must choose one and give up the other. Deepermind does not choose. It takes the best of both.
From science
Careful observation. Honesty about what we know and what we only believe. The willingness to test ideas and let go of the ones that fail.
From the spiritual traditions
The soul, meaning, love, and reverence. Practices of stillness and prayer. The wisdom of how to live well with others, gathered over thousands of years.
Four ideas at its center
The inner telescope
A telescope lets us observe the stars. Meditation lets us observe our own inner life with the same care and discipline. Deepermind treats meditation as a genuine instrument of discovery, not an escape.
Five inner players
Look through that telescope and five players appear, each with its own nature, including emotions given the full standing most traditions deny them.
Three kinds of belief
Every belief can be sorted honestly. Some are verified fact. Some are false inferences we can let go. And some we hold because they give life meaning, like a radio carrier wave that carries the music without being the music.
Cleaning the mind
Much of what we think was poured into us by our culture before we could choose. Like a washing machine, logic rinses out what does not hold up, feelings soften what remains, and what comes out is clean enough to live by.
This is exactly the sorting this whole site has been doing, tradition by tradition. Deepermind is where the method was first worked out. The result is a life with coherence instead of conflict, where the mind no longer has to fight the heart, and faith no longer has to fight reason.
What they add together
Taken together, these smaller paths add something valuable to the picture. The Quakers show what the light within looks like when it is lived: in silence, simplicity, honesty, and courageous work for justice. The Baha’is bring the vision of one human family and of science and religion working together. Unity and New Thought remind us that attitude matters and that hope can be practiced. Unitarian Universalists show that people of very different beliefs can share a spiritual home. And the new age movement, for all its noise, reflects a real hunger for direct spiritual experience outside traditional churches.
Their noise follows a clear pattern too: it appears wherever a belief makes claims that can be tested and fails the test, and it becomes harmful when it replaces medicine or blames people for their own suffering. A good gardener keeps what bears fruit, enjoys what is simply beautiful, and pulls up what harms.
That completes this site’s tour of religion. Across every faith, large and small, the same pattern has appeared: a core of real wisdom, a rich layer of story, and harm wherever ancient rules are treated as eternal and enforced by those in power. And underneath them all, the same discovery the home page began with: when the mind grows quiet, the observing Soul comes forward. You are welcome to return to the meditation page and begin there again.