Originally Posted By: sybert777
For respectful discussion, why would a self-avowed atheist start a thread like this if not searching and hoping to be persuaded?


This thread has taken a really weird turn. Let me remind the participants that this forum isn't for proselytizing, or for asking to be proselytized to. Some atheists are just as bad and as close-minded as their arch-nemesis, the Christian fundamentalists, about this sort of stuff. Don't be them.

Maybe we can make this thread more productive: what specific spiritual techniques would you recommend to achieve calmness, clarity, strength, etc., in a survival situation?

One thing that I can recommend is to meditate upon the figure who represents the very essence of the quality that you want. It doesn't matter who it is, but that figure just has to stand for that quality in your mind. So atheists can meditate upon Richard Dawkins if they want to attain, say, some clarity of scientific reasoning in figuring out where they are on the topographical map. In my experience this sort of stuff is not magic, but when performance matters, you want to be 100%, and not the 50% you are often reduced to in an emergency.

If you meditate regularly, you can focus your mind more efficiently, and as a consequence you can achieve greater performance. Meditation does require practice, so I'm not sure that you should start when you're up the creek without a match or water.

Now, I have never been up the creek without a match or water, so I can't say that meditation helps. I talk better, think better, fight better, and shoot better after focusing mentally, for sure. Maybe some real survival experiences are called for here. There are some archeologists amongst us, right? Hikermor? Do indigenous people have spiritual practices that give them an edge in survival situations? Can we, in our modern cultural environment, make use of these practices?

As for divine help, if anyone knows how to call in, urh, an "air strike," whatever religion you believe in, please let us know. That seems like a useful skill.

In other words, I'd encourage you to think of spiritual resources as "technology" or "equipment." After all, this is "Equipped to Survive." If you can make use of something, why not.

May the Force be with you.