What is Spiritual Power?

Spiritual Power:
Something most would like to have, wish they had, or think they have.
But what, exactly, is it?
Do you know?
See if you can define it.

Well, it's needed to defeat hollows and Aizen is one hell of a badass butterfly - was anyway.

However, it's not quite my business, so I let those hollows run about for other people to take care of.

That seems like a kind of misleading term which likely could refer to multiple things, and which could be broken down to make it simpler to tell which of them you're referring to. People's individual definitions would likely just be the part of it they're referring to for them, and not be universal definitions.

For me, I would say it's wisdom and virtue, as applied to asceticism. But that should have a more specific term, really.

What terms would you use?
Given that any, are limiting.
Term: a period of time, at the end of which, the term itself, expires...

I kind of use them interchangeably, which confuses the hell out of people who don't know which I'm referring to. To avoid confusion, I often just use the word "enlightenment" even if in an ironic sense for something it doesn't really apply to.

Used in a Kabbalic/gnostic sense, though, it generally means the things I stated anyways. Though I often just use the word ascetism or even just wisdom if I'm sure it's not in a confusing context.

Hmm, a connectedness whereby we acknowledge we are only but a small part in some great design. Is it really a power? To say it's a power is to take ownership of having control of something we can't really define. It just "is". I probably just sound like I'm aimlessly rambling (per usual) but it all makes sense in my head. So, Spiritual Power, it exists but we have no way to understand it completely - it's far too complex...it's part of us, it's part of everything, we can choose to acknowlege it or not. If we exercise the use of our spiritual connection we may only be touching the tip of the iceberg...

Originally Posted by waterviolet

Hmm, a connectedness whereby we acknowledge we are only but a small part in some great design. Is it really a power? To say it's a power is to take ownership of having control of something we can't really define. It just "is". I probably just sound like I'm aimlessly rambling (per usual) but it all makes sense in my head. So, Spiritual Power, it exists but we have no way to understand it completely - it's far too complex...it's part of us, it's part of everything, we can choose to acknowlege it or not. If we exercise the use of our spiritual connection we may only be touching the tip of the iceberg...

I like that. I didn't understand 'spiritual power', it's not something I've heard of before but when I read your post I sort of got my thoughts together. 'Spiritual+power' is weird, I don't get what it is. But when you said connectedness I thought for a second that was a very good definition for 'spirituality', then I thought I had it backwards. Spirituality is the absence of connectedness. And then you're, as always, paradoxically in tune with everything/yourself/something.

So maybe spiritual power is the strenght by which you're not connected(to body, mind etc.).

..Then again maybe it really is better to define it as a degree of connection to the spiritual/god/something. Oh well, "it is what it is". Better not to think about it, mm.

Spiritual power can be good or bad.

And can be measured in various ways.

Power just means the active component of spirituality.

Which has to do with what you rely on for your reality.

Such as the sentiments of validity of truth, based on your experience, and hopes.

When I hear spiritual power, I'm reminded a bit of Rupert Sheldrake's theories on morphogenetics/ morphic resonance. There's a decent body of evidence that, to me, say there might be SOMETHING there, though I'm not sure what. An example or two:

Experiment 1: In the 1920s Harvard University psychologist William McDougall did experiments for 15 years in which rats learned to escape from a tank. The first generation of rats averaged 200 mistakes before they learned the right way out; the last generation 20 mistakes. McDougall concluded that, contrary to accepted genetic science, such acquired knowledge could be inherited.

Experiment 2: In later efforts to duplicate McDougall's experiments in Australia, similar rats made fewer mistakes right from the start. Later generations of rats did better even when they were not descendents of the earlier rats. This wasn't genetics at work. It was something else. Nobody tested it further.

I guess saying it only pertains to humans would be terribly vain. I think it would actually not be constrained at all, though proving its existence outside of living organisms would prove near-impossible.

The book Power vs. Force measures what you might refer to as resonance, and puts people in a scale based on this vibration, including people like Mother Theresa, etc...

You could relate that to various philosophies as well, I'm sure.

Pretty cool. I never actually read it through.