I think you misunderstood my post. :)
Would you be so kind as to help me understand it? :)
You wrote: "
I didn't hear him say anything remotely like "Christian ritual works experientially for me therefore the Christian belief structure is true".
Initially it must have been the other way round, ie he thought: "The Christian belief structure is true for me therefore Christian ritual works". But the two things obviously are intimately interconnected. In other words, it cannot be a coincidence that Christian ritual works for him and he also happens to believe that the Christian belief structure is true. Do you think, for example, that he would get the same effects he described in the interview by going on a sacred pilgrimage to Mecca, the place of birth of Mohammed, who does not play any role whatsoever in the Christian belief system? Or by performing a Voodoo ritual?
I think Sheldrake definitely implied that the two things (belief system and rituals) are interconnected - he was drawn back to the rituals of his tradition when he realised he did not endorse the Buddhist and Hindu belief structure:
"
So, I live in India for about seven years, partly because I was so intrigued by oriental philosophy, and the last thing I expected was being drawn back towards a Christian path, I thought I’d left that far behind me. But the longer I was in India, the more I realized that a great deal about my own nature and being was shaped by my Christian background.
For example, I had a conversation with one of my Hindu colleagues, this was in the evening after work and he said, “Why do you do what you do?” and I said, “Well, I want to help poor farmers and I want to help poor people lead a better life by improving cropping systems and breeding better crops,” and I said, “What about you?” He said, “For me it’s a job, it’s a good job.” I said, “But what about helping people?” He said, “If people are poor, that is their problem, it is their karma, that is from their previous life. That is not your problem. Your problem is to look after your own spiritual development,” he said.
Then, I realized so much of Southern Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism and Hinduism is about following your spiritual path that basically leads to vertical takeoff for those who follow it. The rest of the world is a hopeless place with waves of reincarnation and samsara and karmic bondage, things are basically getting worse, according to their world view and will continue to do so, and the only thing an individual can do is get off."
Of course, he also said:
"if there’s a consciousness underlying nature and underlying the universe, which is, I think, shared by all religious traditions," but this means very little since it then leads to profoundly incompatible belief systems, from Animism (which sees the universe as populated by innumerable spirits) to Christianity (according to which we are the creatures of an omnipotent consciousness who dearly loves us, although it is still punishing the whole of mankind for Adam and Eve's original sin etc) or, according to Buddhism (see the First Noble Truth), has given rise to a "
hopeless place with waves of reincarnation and samsara and karmic bondage, things are basically getting worse, according to their world view and will continue to do so, and the only thing an individual can do is get off".
So, all religions and spiritual beliefs are most definitely not saying the same thing, even if many people (and of course their good intentions are very endearing, but their arguments are not convincing) desperately wish to find a minimum common denominator for all of them.
Hence, believing in one religion and yet following other religions'/schools of thought's spiritual practices (nowadays there are even atheists' ceremonies and rituals!) would seem improbable to say the least...and if one did so thinking that "it doesn't matter, it's all the same thing" this would suggest that their effects are not derived from the "Source of Truth" these spiritual practises refer to, but are somehow produced by the state of mind of the person performing them.
Bottom line, I think these are the possibilities:
1) there is only one belief system that has the Ultimate Truth (I see there are many Christians in this Forum who will no doubt say it's Christianity); obviously its ritual works because it addresses its "Source of Truth" and hence the rituals of other religions etc cannot work (so any reports to the contrary are delusions or lies)
2) Since rituals referring to mutually contradictory beliefs work (according to the people who perform them), all these beliefs must be right - which is logically impossible
3) Whatever is behind reality (a single God?? Many spirits, some of whom are tricksters?) deliberately perform(s) "miracles"/make people feel ecstatically good etc, even if they perform the rituals of a religion which has nothing to do with the Truth (say, Scientology - or maybe there's a scientologist here who can correct me if I'm wrong :)), just to confuse mankind (which would be more understandable if there was more than one God, unless he enjoys playing with humans).
4) none of the above is the case, it's all in our minds - as long as we believe in something 'spiritual', no matter if it's true or not, we feel uplifted and some even experience (bring about??) what is commonly referred to as 'miracles'.
(Feel free to add possibilities to this list.)
So, I would have liked Rupert Sheldrake to tell us which of these scenarios is the one that he considers most likely, given that spiritual practices appear to work for believers in wildly different metaphysics. And I'm sorry, it's not true that all religions/belief systems are about the same Ultimate Truth - Sheldrake recognised it himself, by explicitly saying that his world view is very different from that of Buddhism etc. I understand that he wanted to be ecumenical and respectful but I prefer to call a spade a spade :)
