Unconscious Spiritual Learning
Verse: “In Christ every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes’.” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
To be alive is to learn. This begins from birth (or arguably in the womb). Initially we learn without language. And this continues but is rarely noticed. For example can you ride a bike? Can you describe exactly how you ride a bike? Arthur Reber called this “implicit learning”, or learning without words, a term that is familiar in academic psychology.
I wrote a book called Before Belief: Discovering first spiritual awareness (Lexington, 2020), which argues that such learning helps to form our spiritual and religious attitudes. Unfortunately almost no one has read it – it was published Feb 2020 when COVID hit the world. In my frustration I bought 50 copies and sent them free to major libraries. So it is out-there but probably still unread. But you, my ‘captive’ congregation will hear something about why this largely unnoticed dimension of experience is important.
1. Early Learning
Think about a baby just born. He or she responds to touch, smiling faces and learns to cry when hungry. Every experience is a learning experience. However, the problem with early learning is that we simply learn, there is no filter. Think about Susanna born to a heroin dependent single mother with numerous violent partners. Susanna experiences both neglect and frequent domestic violence. What will Susanna learn about the world? Will she feel safe or provided for? Clearly not. It will take years of development to realize ‘my home was not normal’ and perhaps only as an adult can he or she begin to undo the psychological damage of such a childhood. Now consider how much this might influence, unconsciously, her spiritual attitudes. What image of God would she have? You can see the problem.
Self-esteem provides a good example of what I am talking about. You can think about it on a spectrum from overvaluing the self to a profound self-loathing. Why do people feel worthless? I think of Princess Diana, the celebrity princess of my generation. Apparently, she had it all: fame, beauty, wealth, aristocratic blue blood, and loyal friends. She was human, of course, and had an unhappy marriage to a king-now-about-to-be-crowned. However, if the tabloids are to be believed, she was not happy. She may have been admired but she was plagued by chronic low self-esteem. Low self-esteem is a felt sense of having no value. Initially, it is a belief without propositions. It is another example of unconscious learning. But theologically low self-esteem makes no sense. We are created – of at least equal value and in the light of Christ dying for us: we have enormous value to God.
Both negative and positive life experiences shape us in profound ways—especially when we are young and most vulnerable. It is not surprising that we all have a mixed bag of psychological and spiritual, positive and negative, true and false learning.
Exercise: Sentence completion Exercise: (be curious and a little playful)
The most important thing I learned as a child was …
As a child I learned that I must …
God is…
In relation to God, I made the decision to …
A friend, a professor in psychology completed “The most important thing I learned as a child” with “you’re on your own, kid”. When I did it, my sentence was “It is hard to be noticed.” When I did the “God is …” my answer was “over there”. (not here) A good indication of early learning is how it catches you by surprise and has energy.
2. Assessing Hidden Learning
First, a natural question: “Why not simply accept what we ‘know’?” One difficulty is the early origins of hidden learning. The process begins with birth or before, prior to any cognitive capacity for evaluation. Everything is accepted. It is natural to believe parents and authority figures, whether it is right or wrong, such learning feels true.
This can result in ill-informed assumptions about “the way things are,” about life, and ultimately about God.
Therefore, this legacy will need to be evaluated. First, use reason. Our society values critical thinking, which is taught in schools and universities. Rightly, we respect rigorous thinking. Truth is too important to be sloppy in our approach to it. This is the most natural place to begin a process of testing. We can begin with the “truths” accepted in our families of origin:
I remember my parents speaking negatively about “colored people.” Such racist attitudes were part of my childhood. My father was a captain in the army, and he would tell stories of his company of “negro soldiers.” Later, my mother did not accept a daughter-in-law from an Asian country. This was an aspect of my hidden learning that I have since re-evaluated from an adult perspective.
Once we recognize our hidden learning, we can evaluate it. I would suggest a number of tests for hidden learning. Is it rational? We might note any logical inconsistencies, the presence of emotional reasoning, dealing with a “felt sense,” the test of life experience, and seeing the relational implications. The last two are important – is this attitude supported or contradicted by my life experience. For example, I think Barack Obama was one of the best presidents of the USA. And what are the relational implications? How would I relate to people of different ethnic backgrounds especially in a multiracial country like Australia. Or in this congregation GUC. You can see that my life experience contradicts my early learning.
How about spiritual learning? It is exactly the same. We must recognize and then evaluate. If we discover spiritual learning is dysfunctional, then to reconsider one’s commitment to certain beliefs, attitudes, or practices.
Early beliefs influence the later course of a life:
Melinda was raised in a proudly humanist family. Her parents objected to any form of religious “indoctrination” in public schools. When Mel attended university, some of her friends were committed Christians. She began to wonder about what she had always assumed.
But this applies both ways. It is common for children raised by Christian parents to later doubt their faith and become agnostics or atheists. This also is process of testing what is assumed or actively believed by parents and family. The question is: “What’s true for me?” This is a journey that can lead to many destinations.
3. Integration
Integration happens through a conscious process of recognition, evaluation, possible change with acceptance and integration. I am arguing against a passive acceptance of whatever our parents modelled or spoke about. Of course, if you were raised in a healthy family MOST of what you learned, consciously or unconsciously, has enormous value and deserves an honoured place in your life. But I consider my family stable, responsible and mostly healthy. I feel grateful to God for them but one of my adult tasks in life is has been this process of critical evaluation.
Illustration: Hans the tailor
Both self-awareness and self-acceptance are illustrated by the author Irvin Yalom, a psychiatrist, in his memoir. The view from his old age was better than he expected.[i] In one chapter, he recounted having a dream of his mother and asking her, “Momma, how’d I do?” The implication was staggering: “I have been conducting my life with this lamentable woman as my primary audience!” [ii] He ended on a positive note. At age 85, Yalom acknowledged that this book was likely to be his last, so he concluded with words from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “Was that life? Well then, once again!”[iii]
Conclusion
I know that I have asked you to struggle with some unfamiliar concepts in this sermon. I worked the central thesis over about 7 or 8 years as a research academic. And yet it is important. If you want to take this line of thinking further, read the sermon which will be on the GUC website. If you want to go even further, be one of a handful of people to read my Before Belief: Discovering First Spiritual Awareness (Lexington 2020).
Dr Bruce Stevens is the supply minister at GUC. He was the Wicking Professor of Ageing and Practical Theology CSU 2015-2019. He is an endorsed clinical psychologist.
Exercise: Sentence completion Exercise: (be curious and a little playful)
The most important thing I learned as a child was …
As a child I learned that I must …
God is…
In relation to God, I made the decision to …
The Early Spirituality Profile
1. Think about your experience of God using the following dimensions, and put an X on each scale:
| (a) | Personal | 1………………………………………………………………… 10 | Impersonal |
| (b) | [If personal] Male | 1………………………………………………………………… 10 | Female |
| (c) | One | 1………………………………………………………………… 10 | Many |
| (d) | Immanent | 1………………………………………………………………… 10 | Transcendent |
| (e) | Eternal | 1………………………………………………………………… 10 | Transitory |
| (f) | Clarity | 1………………………………………………………………… 10 | Confusion |
| (g) | Ecstatic | 1………………………………………………………………… 10 | Distressing |
| (h) | Life giving | 1………………………………………………………………… 10 | Draining |
| (i) | Fullness | 1………………………………………………………………… 10 | Loss of self |
| (j) | Sacred | 1………………………………………………………………… 10 | Profane |
Is the matrix you have done different from your earliest experience(s) of God? If so, use an O on the scales to describe that experience of God. If you compare the two matrices, what conclusions do you come to?
To Read further: Bruce A Stevens (2020) Before Belief: Discovering first spiritual awareness (Lexington).
[i] Irvin D. Yalom, Becoming myself: A psychiatrist’s memoir, Basic Books, New York, 2017, 233.
[ii] Yalom, Becoming myself, 253.
[iii] Yalom, Becoming myself, 342.