Spiritual Experience

A spiritual experience can be generated in a number of ways. For instance, meditating, reading an uplifting book, watching a mystical movie, taking a spiritual retreat, helping a friend, practicing a spiritual art, like Qigong, etc. Running, because of the runner's high, can also be a spiritual experience. Playing or listening to music, especially classical or spiritual music can have an uplifting effect.

Whatever the action one takes to create this spiritual experience, the action needs to be sustained in order to be effective on a continual basis.

Therefore, one of the keys to sustaining these spiritual experiences is to develop the habit of consistently carrying out the action that leads to the experience in the first place. You'll want to pick a time and carry out the action regularly.

In addition to consistency, finding spiritual resources or tools that can kickstart your journey to enlightenment is another smart way to generate experiences of a spiritual nature. Within this Spiritual Experience website you'll find spiritual articles and links on an ever-growing number of topics. Please feel free to take a spiritual journey through this spiritual site and hopefully it may give you some ideas to generate your next great spiritual experience.

I've also put together some spiritual articles and resources and combined them into a Spiritual Tools ebook that you can download for free. The links lead to a variety of spiritual resources, some free others that require a small investment.

Free Spiritual Tools Ebook

Now you can quickly download this free spiritual tools ebook. It is filled with links and resources to a variety of the newest tools you can use to grow spiritually. Enliven your spiritual journey with some powerful resources that will keep you positive and motivated and accomplishing what you want in life.

Within this free spiritual ebook you'll also find links to free downloads of software and ebooks. If you have a website feel free to give this ebook away to your visitors.

Download your free copy of the Spiritual Tools Ebook by right clicking here. The ebook is in PDF format so can be enjoyed by both PC and Mac users.

For more spiritual tools you can use for spiritual growth click here. Be sure to bookmark that page as I'll be updating it often with the best spiritual tools you can benefit with.

Free Brandable Motivational E Book 50 Spiritual Movies - How Many Have You Seen?

50 Spiritual Movies is a free spiritual e book freely brandable with your money-making affiliate links. The spiritual book is in PDF format so can be enjoyed by both PC and Mac users.

This ebook reviews spiritual movies, motivational movies and inspirational movies. You may also find reviews on metaphysical movies and even a reincarnation movie review. The ebook also reviews the Spiritual Cinema Circle a unique spiritual movies club that finds the best in spiritual cinema to share with its members.

Started by Stephen Simon, the Spiritual Cinema Circle, is a dvd movie club that is unique in the respect that it highlights films of a spiritual nature. If you've ever seen a Stephen Simon movie (like Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve or What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams) then you know what to expect. Although the films aren't primarily G-rated fare like you'd get with the very popular Disney Movie Club, they will often tug at your heart like the Disney movies.

There are no movie downloads with this spiritual cinema club. It is better than an ordinary online movie rental club in the respect that you never have to return the movies - they're yours to keep. Each month you'll receive a steady supply of spiritual cinema in the form of foreign films, short films or shorts, independent films, documentaries and feature length spiritual movies.

After joining the club, many have started a spiritual circle where they gather once a month to share these spiritual dvds.

What the online movie rental clubs have is lots of variety. If you are interested in more than just spiritual films try the industry leader Netflix.

The last time I looked the Spiritual Cinema site even had some inspirational and motivational movie clips. Click below to visit:

Spiritual Cinema Site

Now you can combine a fun-time at the movies with an opportunity for spiritual growth and enlightenment. Take a spiritual journey over to the 50 Spiritual Movies site now to check it out or if you need to contact us:

Click Here to go to the Spiritual Movies site.

While there you may want to read some of the great inspirational articles. Out of the hundreds of spiritual articles you'll find at this spiritual site, below are links to some of my favorites.

• Retreat and Surrender...Your Stress
• What two secrets allow you to turn any movie you watch into a spiritual experience? Click here to have the secrets revealed.
• Creating a Prosperity Mindset by Randy Gage. Randy can be "a bit blunt." However it is that tell it like it is quality that has won him many adherents. And, the veracity of his message doesn't hurt either.
• Evaluating Your Associations - Part 1 by Jim Rohn
• Evaluating Your Associations - Part 2 by Jim Rohn

For more great spiritual articles Click here.

Now You Can Make Money and Help Others with Your Own Branded Copy of 50 Spiritual Movies - and it's Free!

Click here to get it now.

News
Current News On Beliefnet

Baptist Leaders Urge Obama to Help Haiti Missionaries

(RNS) Southern Baptist leaders have appealed to President Obama to assist in the release of 10 American missionaries charged with kidnapping children in Haiti.

"We do not know all of the facts of this case, but we are concerned that the continued detainment and possible conviction of these Baptist mission volunteers will distract the world's attention and undermine the relief efforts so desperately needed by the Haitian people," wrote the leaders in a Friday (Feb. 5) letter to Obama.

It was signed by Morris Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, SBC President Johnny Hunt, and Frank Page, a former SBC president and member of Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

The leaders said they do not want to interfere with diplomatic negotiations, but requested the president "use all means necessary" to get the missionaries spiritual and medical assistance while they are detained in Haiti.

"We ask ... that you do everything within the authority of your office to secure a safe return home for these brothers and sisters in Christ as soon as possible," they said.

A White House official said U.S. embassy officials have met with the American missionaries and their legal case is being monitored.

"Our government will take all appropriate steps to ensure the well-being of U.S. citizens detained abroad," the official said.

-- Adelle M. Banks
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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Leading U.S. Catholic Bishop Denounces Gay Group

(RNS) The top U.S. Catholic bishop has denounced a Maryland-based gay ministry that has advocated on behalf of same-sex marriage, saying the group "confuses the faithful" and does not speak on behalf of the church.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement on Friday (Feb. 5) that "serious questions" have been raised about New Ways Ministry's "adherence to church teaching on homosexuality."

"No one should be misled by the claim that New Ways Ministry provides an authentic interpretation of Catholic teaching and an authentic Catholic pastoral practice," George said. "Their claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination."

New Ways, which was founded in 1977 and based in Mt. Rainier, Md., calls itself a "gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian and gay Catholics." It keeps track of "gay friendly" parishes and colleges, runs retreats, and works for gay and lesbian inclusion in the church.

As George noted in his statement, New Ways was denied official authorization by the archbishop of Washington in 1984, and two of its former leaders were barred by the Vatican in 1999 from associating with the group or working with gays and lesbians.

Recently, George said, New Ways has "criticized efforts by the Church to defend the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman and has urged Catholics to support electoral initiatives to establish same-sex `marriage."'

Last March, New Ways' executive director Francis DeBernardo testified before the Maryland House of Delegates against a proposed measure that would have banned same-sex marriage.

"We've pointed out that Catholics in polls are consistently in favor of same-sex marriage," DeBernardo said in an interview. "I didn't ever claim to speak for the church, which is what (George) claims."

According to a 2009 poll conducted by ABC News and The Washington Post, white Catholics are evenly split on same-sex marriage, with 46 percent in favor of legalizing it and 47 percent against. In 2006, just a third of white Catholics supported same-sex marriage.

DeBernardo said New Ways plans to speak with the USCCB, but otherwise the ministry will be unchanged by George's statement. "It won't affect our ministry at all," he said.

-- Daniel Burke
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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On Free Jewish Rrips to Israel, Love Is In the Air

(RNS) When Jodie Arbesman and Dan Williams flew to Tel Aviv with hundreds of other college students 10 years ago, they looked forward to a fun, free trip offered by a new program for Jewish young adults.

They had no idea it would also lead to their chuppah, or wedding canopy.

"I wasn't ever planning on dating a Jewish girl, let alone marrying one," Williams said, recalling the surprising sparks that flew between him and his future wife on the tour. "My dad is Christian, and my high school only had about 10 Jewish people, so it wasn't on my mind."

When they eventually have kids, the Williamses plan to raise them as Jews. For now, Dan, 31, credits his wife with making him a more regularly practicing Jew "because she makes it a priority."

The Williams, now settled in Washington, D.C., represent a growing number of newlyweds who found love with fellow travelers or people they met through Taglit-Birthright Israel, a free program that has sent some 215,000 18- to 26-year-olds to Israel from around the world.

While the trips' matchmaking effect hasn't yet been studied formally, dozens of anecdotes resonate with a recent Brandeis University study that showed Birthright alumni have lower intermarriage rates -- 28 percent, compared with 54 percent from a pool of applicants who didn't make the trip.

Supporters seized on the study's intermarriage findings, claiming they show the program has made good on its aim to strengthen the Diaspora's connection to Judaism. Others, meanwhile, worry that the research risks ostracizing interfaith families, who make up as many as half of non-Orthodox Jews in the U.S. and up to a third of Birthright participants.

If the journey to the Promised Land also leads to the chuppah, so much the better, but it's not the point, said Birthright spokeswoman Deborah Goldberg. (Goldberg has repeatedly refuted rumors that financier and founder Michael Steinhardt offers free honeymoons to couples who meet on the trip.)

Birthright's impact on casual Jews -- most participants have never been to Israel and do not attend synagogue regularly -- succeeds by getting them excited about their heritage and inspiring them to learn more about Judaism. It's not about limiting their dating pool to only Jews, said Paul Golin, associate executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, which works to include interfaith families in Jewish life.

In fact, Golin said, putting too much emphasis on Birthright marriages might be counterproductive.

"If this becomes the goal, it's a turnoff to the very people who are going on the trip," he said. " ... (S)aying (Birthright) is worth funding because it encourages Jews to marry other Jews puts us right back to this tribal view of Judaism that is fading away for most young people."

It's particularly upsetting to people like Robin Margolis, founder of the Half-Jewish Network, an advocacy group for children of mixed marriages. For people like her, she complains, promoting Birthright as some kind of antidote to interfaith marriages sends the message that success is measured by whether "fewer people like me can be born."

Sociologist Leonard Saxe, who co-authored the recent Brandeis study, said the marriage issue is only a small part of the larger question of whether Birthright alumni go on to become more actively Jewish.

Saxe said the decline in intermarriage indicates that alumni are at least prioritizing Jewish family values, regardless of whether couples meet through the program or decide to seek a Jewish spouse afterwards.

"The decision of Birthright participants to create their own Jewish families and maintain continuity with Jewish life and tradition is obviously very critical, because it's related to people's sense of themselves as part of the larger Jewish community," Saxe said.

The most important bottom line: "People coming back from Birthright say they really do want to be Jewish."

While observant Jews can find romance through synagogues, schools and other communal activities, those who are less devout have fewer opportunities to date Jews, and fewer objections to dating non-Jews.

Even JDate.com, a Jewish online dating service that claims more than 400,000 members, now counts non-Jews among the 10 percent of members who list themselves as "unaffiliated." The site now features a "Willing to Convert?" question on profiles.

Birthright only accepts young adults who self-identify as Jews for the 10-day trips that are packed full with hiking, swimming, sightseeing and spiritual activities. It's a recipe for romance, perhaps, but one that took many couples by surprise.

For Heidi Mauer Wunsch of Golden, Colo., the experience inspired her to switch majors from physics to Near Eastern Studies. She became president of her university's Israeli Folk Dancing Club and pursued a master's degree at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Along the way, her growing love for Israel grew to include Assaf, one of the Army cadets who had provided security for her group, and is now her husband.

"I definitely didn't expect to meet someone, and my husband didn't either," said Wunsch, 27. "Growing up, I was more `culturally' Jewish than anything else, and my husband is Israeli but not religious."

Despite their own happy endings, newlyweds who met on the trips say they wouldn't want the program to gain a reputation as a dating service -- that could raise false hopes for travelers and run the risk of participants who return home empty-hearted feeling somehow cheated.

"The goal is to get to see Israel and meet new people and build more of a Jewish network and identity," said Yimi Kierman, 28, of Lawrenceville, N.J., who first kissed his wife Stacey during their group's visit to a Bedouin encampment six years ago.

"If you happen to find a relationship, that's a great, fantastic thing, but once you start pushing it too far, you'll take away from the experience."

By NICOLE NEROULIAS
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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NCC Head Challenges Goldman Sachs on Bonuses

(RNS) The head of the National Council of Churches is challenging investment giant Goldman Sachs to use half of its $20 billion bonus pool to help rebuild Haiti after its devastating earthquake.

Haiti's entire gross domestic product (the basic measure of a country's overall economic output) is $8.5 billion, which is less than half of Goldman Sachs' bonus pool. The government's bail-out in 2009 left Wall Street's biggest name with a contentious amount of money.

Last September, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said, "Compensation continues to generate controversy and anger. In many respects, much of it is understandable and appropriate."

In light of the dire need in Haiti, the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, and George Hunsinger, professor of systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, urge Goldman Sachs to donate half of its bonuses to Haitian relief.

Kinnamon and Hunsinger said in a statement that by doing this, "They will outmatch the Haitian GDP, and improve not only their image but their tax liability... and surpass the $100 million that President Obama has pledged to Haiti, by a monumental factor of 100."

In Haiti, hundreds of thousands are feared dead while 1.5 million are homeless, and experts say these figures are only going to worsen without a major intervention.

"Relief for Haiti needs to come in the form of grants, not loans,"

said Kinnamon and Hunsinger. "The last thing this stricken nation needs is more debt."

According to a report from The Center for International Policy, cited by Kinnamon and Hunsinger, Haiti spent $57.4 million on foreign debt in 2003, compared to receiving just $39.2 million in foreign assistance for education, health care and other services.

Haiti needs grants and $10 billion -- or even $8 billion, which is half of Goldman Sachs' recently scaled-down bonuses -- could make the difference.

"A golden opportunity is knocking for Goldman Sachs," Kinnamon and Hunsinger said.

-- Kimberlee Hauss

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Vatican Drops Condoms-AIDS Study

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican office responsible for health care matters said Friday (Feb. 5) that it had stopped work on a long-expected study of condoms and AIDS, and that "nothing serious" had been done on the project.

"There was a project, there was, but nothing serious was delivered,"

said Bishop Jose Luis Redrado Marchite, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, at a Vatican press conference.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, former head of the health care council, said in 2006 that his staff was preparing a "profound study," requested by Pope Benedict XVI, that would consider "both the scientific and technical aspects linked to the condom, as well as the moral implications in all their amplitude."

Catholic teaching forbids the use of condoms as a form of contraception, but no pope has definitively addressed the morality of their use to prevent AIDS and other infectious diseases.

Benedict, however, provoked an international furor last March when he told reporters on a flight to Africa that "one cannot overcome the problems (of AIDS) with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem."

Lozano retired as head of the health care council last April.

Redrado did not rule out further study of the condom question.

"It is in the air, a study is thought about and talked about," he said, "but we are not on that track at this time."

-- Francis X. Rocca
Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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Colts Coaches, Players Carry Deep Faith Into Super Bowl

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (RNS) It's easy to see why, if there are no atheists in foxholes, there are also few on a field where huge, strong men collide at tremendous speeds. Football players who gather at midfield to pray together show that faith is an ever present part of the game.

But with the Indianapolis Colts, it all seems to be something bigger.

At Super Bowl XLIV, faith is a topic that has come up repeatedly.

The Colts, seeking their second NFL championship in the last four years, were molded by Tony Dungy and are now coached by Jim Caldwell, two devout and openly Christian men.

Several Colts players and assistant coaches share that faith. In addition to questions about football, there are also representatives of various Christian media outlets following the team.

Yet while religion can be controversial when it repeatedly crops up in conversations focused on more secular pursuits, it doesn't seem to be an issue with the Colts.

"I don't think so because it's not something that anybody tries to force on anybody," Colts center Jeff Saturday said. "We talk about our faith openly. I don't ever try to hide it.... It's the same way for Caldwell and a number of players on our team. But at the end of it we're all a team and we're going to fight together and bond together. We enjoy what we do and we don't let (religion or faith) become the centerpiece of it."

Assistant head coach and receivers coach Clyde Christensen spent a portion of his time Wednesday (Feb. 3) talking with a religious television crew about the role Jesus Christ plays in his life, and then filmed a pitch for Haitian hurricane relief efforts.

Head coach Caldwell fields questions on the topic at seemingly every public appearance he makes. He, too, never tries to downplay his faith -- he quoted Scripture in answering a question about the Colts possibly losing to the New Orleans Saints -- while insisting he doesn't think he should use his perch to proselytize.

"Obviously it is no secret that I am a Christian and I don't hide from that fact at all," he said. "I am not here to prove anything. I am not here to prophesize. I am here to do a job.

"It just so happens that you have a guy that is a Christian doing the job and I don't hide from that fact."

Dungy said that he and Caldwell shared long conversations about how their faith molded their approach to coaching -- one Dungy characterized as built on positive feedback. Their goal was to forge a new coaching template in which winning was achieved without sacrificing personal lives or forcing onerous burdens on players and staff.

What's more, Caldwell said his faith not only shaped his personality but contributed to his success.

"My father and my mother both were very fundamental as Christians and our household was basically one where your adherence to Christ and his commandments were extremely important," he said. "It taught us discipline. It has helped a tremendous amount. I think it does instill some things in you that help you in terms of leadership."

Again, though, he stressed that is not his locker room speech.

"I am not really out to make any kind of impression at all, that's not my goal and aim," he said. "I certainly think our platform is such that we use it for Christ's benefit but also want them to understand that I do my job. That's what I am here to do. I am there to direct the team and make certain that we're in the best possible position to win."

(James Varney writes for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.)

Copyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

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Attorney: 10 US Baptists Charged with Child Kidnap

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Ten members of a U.S. missionary group who said they were trying to rescue 33 child victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake were charged with child kidnapping and criminal association on Thursday, their lawyer said.

Edwin Coq said after a court hearing that a judge found sufficient evidence to charge the Americans, who were arrested Friday at Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic. Coq attended Thursday's hearing and represents the entire group in Haiti.

Group leader Laura Silsby has said they were trying to take orphans and abandoned children to an orphanage in the neighboring Dominican Republic. She acknowledged they had not sought permission from Haitian officials, but said they just meant to help victims of the quake.

The children taken from the group, ranging in age from 2 to 12, were being cared for at the Austrian-run SOS Children's Village in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday.

The U.S. citizens, most of them members of an Idaho-based church group, were whisked away from the closed court hearing to jail in Port-au-Prince, the capital. Silsby waved and smiled faintly to reporters but declined to answer questions.

Coq said that under Haiti's legal system, there won't be an open trial, but a judge will consider the evidence and could render a verdict in about three months.

Coq said a Haitian prosecutor told him the Americans were charged because they had the children in their possession. No one from the Haitian government could be reached immediately for comment.

Each kidnapping count carries a possible sentence of five to 15 years in prison. Each criminal association count has a potential sentence of three to nine years.

Coq said that nine of the 10 knew nothing about the alleged scheme, or that paperwork for the children was not in order.

"I'm going to do everything I can to get the nine out," Coq said. That would still leave mission leader Laura Silsby facing charges.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington the U.S. was open to discuss "other legal avenues" for the defendants - an apparent reference to the Haitian prime minister's earlier suggestion that Haiti could consider sending the Americans back to the United States for prosecution.

Several parents of the children in Callebas, a quake-wracked Haitian village near the capital, told The Associated Press Wednesday they had handed over their children willingly because they were unable to feed or clothe their children and the American missionaries promised to give them a better life.

Their accounts contradicted statements by Silsby, of Meridian, Idaho.

In a jailhouse interview Saturday, Silsby told the AP that most of the children had been delivered to the Americans by distant relatives, while some came from orphanages that had collapsed in the quake.

"They are very precious kids that have lost their homes and families and are so deeply in need of, most of all, God's love and his compassion," she said.

In Callebas, parents said a local orphanage worker, fluent in English and acting on behalf of the Baptists, had convened nearly the entire village of 500 people on a dirt soccer field to present the Americans' offer.

Isaac Adrien, 20, told his neighbors the missionaries would educate their children in the neighboring Dominican Republic, the villagers said, adding that they were also assured they would be free to visit their children there.

Many parents jumped at the offer.

Adrien said he met Silsby in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 26. She told him she was looking for homeless children, he said, and he knew exactly where to find them.

He rushed home to Callebas, where people scrape by growing carrots, peppers and onions. That very day, he had a list of 20 children.

As they loaded children onto a bus in Callebas on Jan. 28, the Americans took down contact information for all the families and assured them a relative would be able to visit them in the Dominican Republic.

The Americans' journey began last summer after Silsby and her former nanny, 24-year-old Charisa Coulter, resolved to establish an orphanage for Haitian children in the Dominican Republic. Coulter is among the jailed Americans.

They began buying up used clothing and collecting donations from their Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian and in November, Silsby registered the New Life Children's Refuge Inc., the nonprofit organization coordinating the rescue mission. It listed the address of her now-foreclosed home in Meridian as its headquarters.

Then the quake hit. Silsby and Coulter moved into high gear, gathering donations and assembling a team to go into Haiti and urgently take out children, the younger woman's father, Mel Coulter, told the AP from his home in Kuna, Idaho.

The group packed 40 plastic bins of donated goods into a U-Haul trailer and drove to Salt Lake City on Jan. 22, where they took a flight to the Dominican Republic. They made their way to Haiti, where four days later, they were introduced to Adrien.

Adrien, who had served as the go-between and translator for the missionaries, said he had no knowledge of the group's larger plans; villagers said they were told none of their children would be offered for adoption.

A Haitian-born pastor who said he worked as an unpaid consultant for the group insisted the Baptists had done nothing wrong.

The Rev. Jean Sainvil said some of the children were orphans and might have been put up for adoption. Children with parents were to be kept in the Dominican Republic, and would not lose contact with their families, Sainvil said in Atlanta.

"Everybody agreed that they knew where the children were going. The parents were told, and we confirmed they would be allowed to see the children and even take them back if need be," he said.

Sainvil stressed that in Haiti it is not uncommon for parents who can't support their children to send them to orphanages.

Even Prime Minister Max Bellerive has said he recognized the Americans may simply have been well-meaning who believed their charitable Christian intent justified trying to remove the children from quake-crippled Haiti.

Only minutes before the charges, the Americans' Dominican lawyer, Jorge Puello, had said he expected at least nine of the 10 to be released and said he was arranging a charter flight for them from Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital.

After the Haitian lawyer's announcement, Puello could not be reached by telephone for comment.

"I'm at the airport (in Santo Domingo) and we're getting the plane ready. We're just waiting for the green light," Puello said. "I spoke to a source inside the jail - a government official - who said nine would be released but one would be held for further investigation."

---
Associated Press - February 4, 2010

Associated Press writer Greg Bluestein in Atlanta and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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