Play | Spirituality & Health Magazine

Neuroscience

Play
by Peggy La Cerra, Ph.D

Here again, when we’re operating from a higher order self-representation, or from a neural-mental platform of ‘no self’ or ‘universal self’, the thoughts and behaviors we generate are arising from networks that don’t carry the negative weighting of those that we’re encoded when we were pre-occupied with solving the problems of our individual, ego-centric life. In these cultivated states, our mind-brain is much more free to interact with life in a spontaneous, responsive, playful manner than it is when we’re operating from a lower-order self-representation.

Rabbi Rami's Reflections

Play
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

I don’t usually think of religion and play as going together. By linking spirituality and play, are we saying that being spiritual is qualitatively different than being religious?

Think in terms of sports. When you are a kid you tend to engage in sports for the play, for the fun. Then adults begin to organize your play and things become more serious. Now there are fixed and competing teams, teams you are supposed to defeat, teams you may even come to hate. As you get older only the better players get to play, and the word “play” loses all sense of playfulness. And by the time you get to college and professional sports play is deadly serious, and hence not play at all. The same thing can happen with religion. As a child awe and wonder come naturally to you, but as these are institutionalized they become work rather than play, and hence much harder to achieve.

So I would say religion—organized mainstream religion—is play made serious. Spirituality is still play for play’s sake.

The few spiritual people I have know laugh a lot, and most often at themselves. Do laughter and play go together?

Yes I think so. The more spiritual one becomes the more joy one finds in the sheer wildness of being alive. There is something intrinsically funny about life; and the way we go about living can be downright absurd. Laughter is a natural response to seeing the irony of life and absurdity of our lives. But play is more than laughter.

Play is a way of being in the world that refuses to divide into fixed and competing teams, that refuses to taking winning and losing all that seriously. It is fun to win, but the play starts anew, and the winners today may lose tomorrow, so one is wise not to get locked into any fixed notion of winners and losers.

You mean you don’t take things so seriously; nothing matters all that much.

You have to be careful here. Some people mistake disconnection for detachment, and hide what is a debilitating fear of life behind a pseudo–spiritual façade that is more aloof and uncaring, than it is playful and free.

Being spiritually detached means being aware of the fact that nothing is permanent, so holding on to things with the expectation that they will remain the same simply sets you up for needless suffering. But knowing things will change doesn’t mean you don’t engage with them deeply as they are for as long as they are. The spiritual people I know suffer greatly, but not a moment longer than necessary.

Best Practices

To Become Worry Free
By Bradford Keeney, Ph.D

Make a list of three things that you can't possibly imagine yourself worrying about. For each worry-free item, select a color. For instance, you might come up with something like this:

Opening a book that you are not interested in reading: Blue
Washing a sidewalk: Green
Reading a phone book: White
When you have made your list and color assignments, select three dimes. With a marking pen, color each dime on both sides.
Carry these worriless coins in your pocket or purse. Whenever you start to really worry about something, pull out all three coins, shake them in your hand, and let them fall onto the table surface. Carefully note which ones fall as "heads" and which as "tails." If there are any heads, place them on top of your own head for five seconds. For any coins that land as tails, pick them up and spank them with one of your little fingers. If you don't get a head, then repeat the procedure until you get one. After the heads have been placed on your head and the tails have been spanked, place the coins back into your pocket. Say quietly to yourself, "It is important to stretch my foolishness."
Considerations
Can you worry about what you worry about?
If you worry more about worriless things, might you worry less about other things?
Consider how shaking the coins could influence the effectiveness of this directive.
How many different ways of spanking your tails can you come up with?
Could you have chosen other colors for your coins? Is color important?
Consider whether practicing absurd directives in a serious fashion helps you become a holy fool.

To Boost Your Spiritual Motivation
By Bradford Keeney Ph.D.

Go to a party store and purchase three noisemakers. Call them Gabriel's horns and ask for their permission to be used in a shamanic way. If they do not talk back, assume they have granted their permission. Keep these shamanic noisemakers with you when you go to work. You may conceal them in a bag or briefcase. Whenever you find yourself feeling spiritually unmotivated, go to a private place, perhaps a restroom. Take your shamanic noisemakers along with you. When no one is looking, make noise for 10 seconds. Use each noisemaker. Under no circumstance should you make noise for longer than 10 seconds.
After you make the noise, try to keep the memory of the sound in your head. Tell yourself that the reason you are unable to get spiritually motivated is the noise in your own head. If your mind forgets the sound of your noise, reach into your arsenal of noisemakers, pull one out, and sneak in a little reminder.
Considerations
Will you make one noise at a time or make all three noises at the same time?
Recall the name of the noisemakers. Speak Gabriel's name before letting them sound off.
Experiment with other noisemakers and names.
Ask someone to help you. Have them make noise upon your command. Then have them direct you to make noise. Consider a duet.
Listen to whether the world sounds the same after you make noise. Is it quieter? Calmer? Or does it seem more full of sound? Are there times when making noise makes a clearing for your mind? Study the aftereffects of making noise in this way.

Recommended Articles

Shaking Medicine:
We know it's good to meditate, but we've overlooked the healing power of ecstatic shaking . . . until now.
By Bradford Keeney, Ph.D.

In November of 1881, a Squaxin Indian logger from Puget Sound named John Slocum became sick and soon was pronounced dead. As he lay covered with sheets, friends proceeded to conduct a wake and wait for his wooden coffin to arrive. To everyone's astonishment, he revived and began to describe an encounter he'd had with an angel. The angel told Slocum that God was going to send a new kind of medicine to the Indian people, which would enable them not only to heal others, but to heal themselves without a shaman or a doctor. Continue with the article

Stressed Out? Scared? Taking Yourself Too Seriously?
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Forget feathers, bones, and beads. Most shamans dress normally and carry no magic objects. In these exercises you are asked to play. Try the trickster way of tinkering with your life. Seek the visions and the giggling that transform every moment, breath, and heartbeat. Commit yourself to a practice that is deeper because it is lighter. Appreciate the ridiculous. Laugh your prayer in order to find the mysteries of God's humor. Continue with the article

Play That Lightens the Load of Children in Hospitals
By Louise Danielle Palmer

To spice up Sunday School, teachers at Christ Episcopal Church of Pontevedra Beach, Florida, began using a Christian storytelling program called Godly Play (godlyplay.com). The Montessori-inspired program uses a series of Old and New Testament stories brought alive by trained storytellers and followed by an interactive play period during which the kids retell the stories, discuss what they mean, and draw them out on paper. Continue with the article

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