Spirituality Information - John Harricharan's Interview With Terri Marie (Q1)
It’s no surprise that people are searching for spirituality information. They want to know where they stand and what they should do next. People are looking for advice, guidance and support – in essence, they are seeking spiritual help. And those who have been disappointed with the traditional path of organized religion often turn to alternative sources of spiritual wisdom, such as Terri Marie’s metaphysical teachings.
In her book, "Spirituality for the Skeptically-inclined", Terri talks about the information she receives from the spirit world and from her own direct experience. The spirit world is not at all magical or fantastic. It is a place of intelligent energy and it communicates to us in many ways – through dreams, visions, signs and symbols. And as we grow more familiar with our spiritual selves, we can hear these messages more clearly.
Terri Marie's personal story of faith is a testament to both the power of spirituality and the necessity of religion. Terri grew up in a conservative Catholic family which taught that a woman’s place was in the home and in church. Reflecting on her early years, Terri realized that she was not fulfilled; she spent her days cleaning house and taking care of her younger brothers and sisters. But there was something more, something that would provide a spiritual connection to the universe.
Terri’s search to discover her true purpose began with the guidance of a friend who worked with crystals, herbs and tinctures. This friend’s techniques helped Terri to begin opening herself up to a spiritual world full of color and light, where she could explore psychic abilities such as clairvoyance. While these practices worked wonderfully for Terri, they didn’t address the philosophical questions about life and death which were deeply troubling her. She needed to find a spiritual path that allowed her to fill in the missing pieces of her life story.
It was while searching for information on the Internet that Terri discovered metaphysical and spiritual traditions. She quickly realized that she didn’t fit into any of them, as they all seemed to be dogmatic and exclusionary. She was frustrated by their seeming lack of educational material and their emphasis on dogma over depth. It was Terri’s frustration with dogmatic religion and crazy-sounding spirituality that led her to create Spirituality For The Skeptically-Inclined – a skeptical guide for seekers who wish to explore alternative paths to God, spirituality and enlightenment.
In this interview with John Harricharan, author of The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, Terri discusses the truths behind spirituality and religious dogma – the difference between God and religion, why you can’t rely on organized religions to help you find God and the dangers of converting to belief systems. Listen here to learn how spirituality is truly your connection with divine energy.
John: Terri Marie, thank you so much for joining us today. It’s a real pleasure to have you here today on our show.
Terri: Thank you so much for having me.
John: You’re welcome. Where are you calling in from?
Terri: I’m in my house, just outside of Toronto, Ontario.
John: Terri, we’d like to have you tell us a little bit about yourself, about who you are and what you do for a living and so forth. Can you do that for us today?
Terri: Absolutely I can. Thank you for asking that question. Well, my name is Terri Marie and I am the author of “Spirituality For The Skeptically-Inclined”, which is available in hardcover on Amazon and Kindle as well as all eBook platforms. I also happen to live in Canada, as well as the USA, so I’m sure they’ll have it on all of those platforms. I’m also a registered psychotherapist, I have a private practice in Toronto and look after people who wish to talk about the spiritual aspects of their lives and the psychological or emotional aspects. Where ever you are on the spectrum of spiritual experience, I can work with you to help you integrate that into your everyday life.
John: Wow! You are quite a busy woman. What did you do before you started doing this? Did you have any background in spirituality at all?
Terri: No, actually my background was very much grounded in psychology and philosophy. It started with philosophy, which led me to psychology, which led me to spirituality. It was a natural progression for me. I set out on a path where I hadn’t heard anything about spirituality, but I was curious about what it meant. It wasn’t until I got interested in philosophy that things started to make sense and that’s where the interest in spirituality came from for me.
John: Okay. So let’s talk about your book today and how you got it published and so forth.
Terri: Yes. We can do that.
John: And what made you decide to write this book? What is the need for a book like this? How many books are there on this subject and why is yours so special?
Terri: Well, there’s not many books on the market which address spirituality from a skeptical point of view, but what I didn’t see was there were a lot of people who wanted to read about spirituality from a skeptical point of view, who don’t want to read about how we should live our lives and what God thinks about all these things. People are just not interested in it anymore.
John: There’s not much interest in religion anymore.
Terri: Yes. It’s been happening for a long time and it’s been a natural evolution that people are not interested in it anymore, or don’t feel like going there, but they really want some answers. So I think that is the situation here, especially with people who are skeptical of spiritual things, who are spiritually sensitive or interested in spirituality. I wanted to address those questions and those issues head on and I wanted to bring them forward into the light so people could see their own answers.
John: Yes. You’re talking about people who are doubting or having doubts about religion, about God, about spirituality and so forth and you want to give them answers and help them find out what they think.
Terri: Exactly. And also people who are already interested in these things, but they are not sure where to get information on it, what is the right way to go with it – which is usually the more common one – I have seen a lot of these things and that’s why I wrote the book. I was looking for answers myself at the time and due to my research of books on-line in various states of disbelief, I wasn’t very receptive to them either.
Conclusion Of Part 1
John: Let’s go to part two of our interview with Terri Marie. She’s going to talk about how our belief systems control us and some other great things as well. So stay tuned for that segment, coming up soon. This is John Harricharan for Family Life Broadcast. Thanks for joining us today.