How to/Can you shed your spirituality?

[Quintessence]

Perhaps I’m an outlier. Or perhaps it’s possible to break free from environmental influences. More than half of my life has been spent as a patriotic American who bled red, white, and blue. That was a result of my environment for sure. But I broke free from it through my internal beliefs developing. Most of my life was spent as Christian, but I am free of that through internal beliefs.

Reacting against or conflicting with one's environment is still being subject to the power of one's surroundings in terms of who and what one becomes. It's true the example I gave was one of environment being complementary to who I became, but the opposite has also happened. In either case it was something shaped by environment. I didn't mean to imply that the interactions were simple and straightforward - they are not. It is not possible to "break free" from environmental influences since one cannot exist without an environment. We are always subject to it. How it interacts with us varies.

 

[LuisDantas]

One factor that I believe comes from the environment and is more arbitrary and more influential than it may appear at first glance is language.

By defining terms and concepts we establish that they have meaning and communicate that perception of meaning to others. That can be a boon as well as a hindrance; detecting and dispelling phantoms is very much a part of one's personal journey, according to my most honest understanding of what such a journey is and should be.

 

[Quintessence]

One factor that I believe comes from the environment and is more arbitrary and more influential than it may appear at first glance is language.

By defining terms and concepts we establish that they have meaning and communicate that perception of meaning to others. That can be a boon as well as a hindrance; detecting and dispelling phantoms is very much a part of one's personal journey, according to my most honest understanding of what such a journey is and should be.

Language is so huge.

Not just how terms and concepts are articulated but the very structure of a language itself. A language that genders everything creates for itself more significance for this idea than one that doesn't. A language that has personhood baked into referencing all beings (not just humans) creates a different understanding of relationships between humans and non-humans. A language that doesn't have clearly structured tenses referencing past and present and future creates a very different perspective on time and its passage.