Holistic and multidimensional spirituality is about fully acknowledging and encompassing every aspect of life, including our shadows, denials and ultimately death. And, most of all, it involves embracing the shadow side of spirituality itself, including God’s. (Franco Santoro)
Holism is based on the experience that all aspects of life are intimately related and part of the same whole. Holistic principles have existed since ancient times in the most varied cultures and contexts, including science, sociology, education, religion and medicine.
In ordinary life, we are not aware of the unity of all things, but divide the world into separate objects and events. This division is useful and necessary to cope with our everyday environment, but it is not a fundamental feature of reality. It is an abstraction devised by our discriminating and categorising intellect. To believe that our abstract concepts of separate ‘things’ and ‘events’ are realities of nature is an illusion. (Fritjof Capra)
The term multidimensional describes the presence of different dimensions or aspects of reality. The dimensions are considered in the mathematical, physical and scientific fields, as well as in the esoteric, occult and mystical fields, including the shamanic experience. Prevailing scientific theories suggest that there are at least 12 dimensions, existing simultaneously, as well as major esoteric traditions. The multidimensional approach is that all aspects of existence are intimately connected and parts of the same Whole.
According to a holistic and multidimensional perspective, there is no separation or dualism, and we can find our sense of purpose only if we acknowledge the wider and united reality in which we exist. This reality also includes what lies beyond our ordinary perception and can effectively deepen the awareness of who we truly are; our core self.
For many people, the term “God” has lost interest and in some cases even produces strong resistance. In certain situations, it is awkward to mention “God,” since this can easily give wrong impressions and cause prejudices. This is probably because some concepts of God trigger fear, guilt, and judgment. “God” is merely a term, which can take other names and forms, and even no name or form at all. What counts here is the direct experience of God, and of our true nature, devoid of any assumption.
What most people on a spiritual quest seek today are not mere formalities, doctrines or creeds, but paths of direct experience. They search for a first-hand knowledge of their true self, or a direct encounter and communion with God, which is ultimately the authentic essence of what all spiritual traditions pursue.
The main characteristic of our beliefs and tools is given by their explicit provisionality. Practices, rituals, cosmologies, techniques, the ideas we convey have a purely strategic and theatrical function, the purpose of which is to facilitate a direct experience of the mysteries that concern our nature and of the reality in which we live or believe to live.
Spirituality for us is not a race to achieve individual enlightenment or an effort to spread religious ideas around the world; it is an experiential process of recovering our original unity, returning to be consciously part of the Whole and understanding the mystery of existence, accepting also the possibility that there is really nothing to understand.
A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. (A Course in Miracles, Manual, p. 77)
Interspirituality highlights and shares the most precious gifts of humanity’s religious and philosophical traditions, to foster a common ground that, while respecting diversity, is intended to achieve the ultimate goal of spirituality. Interspirituality encourages people of different traditions and cultures to meditate or pray together, to enter into a profound dialogue, not only to show tolerance and accept paths different from their own, but above all to learn profoundly from each other. The purpose of this learning is intended to create a nucleus of inner intimacy based on the direct experience of unity and spiritual communion. When this happens, diversities, far from causing conflicts and misunderstandings, reveal themselves as luminous gifts, fragments of the Oneness. Beyond the diversity of religious beliefs, rituals and dogmas, there is a deep unity of experience that represents our common spiritual heritage. This experience is the emanation point of all religions of humanity and of every spiritual path.
All authentic spiritual paths, at their mystical core, are committed to the common values of peace, compassionate service, and love for all creation. An inner life awakened to responsibility and love naturally expresses itself through engaged spirituality, in acts of compassion…, contributing to the transformation of the world and the building of a nonviolent, peace-loving culture that includes everyone (Wayne Teasdale)
The Institutum Provisorium (Provisional Institute), directed by Franco Santoro, supports interspirituality and unity among all religions, honouring traditional doctrines, mystical, gnostic and alternative paths. We pray and work for total ecumenism, spiritual healing, expansion of consciousness and the recovery of our multidimensional nature.