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| Book cover for "Hunting Magic Eels" |
Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age, by Richard Beck, is a book about "enchantment." It's about how modern people have lost their feeling of "enchantment." Beck is a Christian, and the book is about how Christians should recapture this "enchantment."
My take on this book is, I agree with parts of it, but overall it was such a muddle, with all these different aspects of "enchantment" thrown together and discussed like they were obviously a good thing, without stopping to answer questions like, what's the point of this? is any of this actually true? is it good for Christians to believe in this kind of stuff?
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What are the "magic eels"?
There's a "holy well" in Wales, that people used to visit, and it was said that the eels inside the well were magic and they could predict if your partner was going to be faithful to you. Beck tells us this as an example of the kind of thing that people used to believe, when our worldview was more "enchanted." People believed in God and the devil, angels and demons, certain places that were "sacred" or "magical", magical objects, and so on. People measured time using sacred language- praying at regular times throughout the day, and instead of saying "it's 10 o'clock" they would say "it's after morning prayers" or something along those lines.
But now our world has gotten more skeptical and disenchanted. The book says the two main causes for this were the Scientific Revolution and the Protestant Reformation. Before the Scientific Revolution, people believed the sun rose and set because God willed it to- an "enchanted" view of the world. But now we know the orbits of the planets are because of gravity. And Catholicism is a much more "enchanted" faith than Protestantism, with its majestic cathedrals, rosaries, the miracle of transubstantiation during the eucharist, statues of Mary, etc. The book says that the Scientific Revolution and Protestant Reformation were good things overall- and Beck is a Protestant- but one negative outcome is that people lost that sense of "enchantment."
So... I'm confused. Is the book saying that modern Christians *should* believe in these eels and similar things that we would describe as "superstitious"? Surely Beck isn't saying these eels really were magic and really could give you true information about your romantic partner. Is he saying that it's good to do these kinds of things so you get that vibe of living in an "enchanted" world, but not to take it that seriously? Is he saying that even though this eel thing isn't true, there's something *better* about living in a world where people believed in it?
Like, a lot of this "enchanted" stuff that people no longer believe in is just not true, right? So isn't it good that we don't believe in it?
(I'm reminded of when I was pregnant and I read a lot of forums for pregnant women where people were discussing how to predict the baby's sex. There were so many different variations on "okay calculate based on your birthday and your partner's birthday and what kind of food aversions you're having and what shape your baby bump is" and then after explaining the whole algorithm, there would always be a disclaimer that this is "just for fun" and not a guaranteed way to know if the baby will be a boy or girl. And I'm like ??? For fun? Just make up random crap that has a 50% chance of being correct- no matter what it is- and pretend it means something- how is that "fun"???)
As I was reading the beginning pages of this book, I was like, "yeah I don't think I buy this."
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I have some experience with making myself believe in an unseen spiritual world
Back when I had a personal relationship with God, I believed that behind the scenes of my ordinary life was an intense, exciting spiritual reality. I believed that non-Christians were all in danger of going to hell, and were living very unhappy lives because they didn't know Jesus. I believed that God wanted so much to get people saved, and that God was doing so much work that I couldn't see- God was causing things to happen in people's lives that would make them think more about spiritual things and lead them to Jesus. I believed that "God has a plan for your life" and whatever happened to me, even if it seemed bad, was actually fine because it was part of God's plan.
One of the main goals of the personal relationship with God is to get you to not just *say* you believe these things, if someone at church asks you, but to truly view the world that way, on an intuitive level. Have this mental model of the world, that says all the people you see walking down the hallway to go to their classes are actually desperately in need of Jesus, and that God is busy taking actions in their lives to lead them to Jesus. To have this as my mental model of the world, despite the fact that when I look with my own eyes, it appears everyone is just fine and going about their lives. But I "knew" it was true, and I would find little hints here and there that could fit into this framework, and I took actions based on these beliefs.
I would like to suggest that this is not a good way to live. Living in the fantasy world of your religious beliefs, rather than the real world of the reality that's right in front of you.
I'm glad I don't live like that any more. I'm glad that when somebody tells me about their life and their personal beliefs and experiences, I can just believe them, rather than make up some 4-dimensional-chess explanation about how they *say* they are happy but *actually* they are secretly unhappy because they don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, and probably they don't even realize it themselves... I'm glad I no longer worry about people going to hell. I'm glad I don't have to be sneaky and try to nonconsensually direct conversations into interrogating people about their religious beliefs, in the hopes of saving them from hell.
So anyway, all the stuff that "Hunting Magic Eels" says about enchantment, and how we should have an enchanted view of the world- ugh. Does it mean not believing the world is the way it looks when you literally just look at it- you want to believe it's full of imaginary spiritual meaning? Don't you think that could be bad, to live that way?
Oh hey, it occurs to me that I haven't shared the story here on the blog, about that one time when God told me I was going to die the next day (spoiler: I did not die the next day). If any readers are interested in that, I will write a post on it. (Not actually as traumatic as it sounds!) I'm just saying, maybe it's bad to treat your beliefs about the spiritual world/ whatever thoughts run through your head that feel like they might be from God, as more real than the real world you can see.
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And I have to totally disagree with what the book says about "meaning"
Beck says that one reason it's good to live an "enchanted" life, and it's bad that people have lost that, is that being "enchanted" gives you the feeling that your life is meaningful because of God. And now people are looking for meaning in other things, but those are all dead ends because they are things that you could lose. Like what if your source of meaning is your job, but then you lose your job? Being "enchanted" and feeling like your life is meaningful because of God is immune to that danger.
I strongly disagree with this. Yeah, I heard this all the time when I was evangelical- it's no good to find our identity and meaning in anything other than God, because God is a sure thing, unchangeable, unlike everything else.
And I did that. I built my entire life on Jesus. Constantly praying, constantly striving to obey Him and hear God speaking to me, constantly feeling desperate and wanting more and more of Him. And then I lost Him, I lost Him and it was devastating. I left Him because I found out He believed dehumanizing lies about people, and He had used me to hurt people. I could not be with a God like that any more. It was devastating. I wrote about this in 2015: My Identity was in Christ.
Hasn't Beck ever heard of people losing their faith? Hasn't Beck ever heard of people walking away from high-control religious groups? The idea that God is the one certain thing, unlike everything else in this world- it's just simply not true.
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Here's my opinion on the extent to which we should aim to be "enchanted"
I did find a lot of things in this book useful- but I judge which ones are useful to me and which aren't- I don't just think they're all great because they're all traditional Christian practices related to "enchantment", which is the position the book seems to be taking.
Here's how I judge the book's suggestions about how to have a more "enchanted" life:
Okay, so. On paper, Christians believe God is always with us. God sees us, God knows us completely, God hears our prayers. God is all around us, all the time. If asked, we would *say* we believe that. From an intellectual perspective, we would tell you we agree with those statements.
But. Do they *feel* true? Do we feel like God is with us? Do we feel like God knows and loves us? These things are true, but it's possible that they don't feel true.
So, it's good to set up habits to help you to intuitively believe what you already say you intellectually believe. If it really is true that God is always with us, then it's better to live a lifestyle which reflects that reality, rather than to have your feelings and your day-to-day habits carry the assumption that there is no god.
(And it can go in the other direction too! It's not just "you intellectually believe something, so then you should set up your lifestyle to give you feelings that match that belief." I think there's also a large component of belief which comes from the spiritual experiences you have had. In other words, you had a spiritual experience, like God was telling you something, and you just feel so strongly that it's true, and that forms the basis for some of the things you intellectually believe.)
You can apply this principle to plenty of areas of your life, not just religion. For example, how much time do you want to spend on social media every day? If I asked you to think about it carefully and make an intellectual decision, does that decision match the amount of time you *actually* spend on social media every day? If your lifestyle doesn't match your reasoned beliefs, you should set up habits to help you get your lifestyle in line with what you say you believe.
Another example: Every person you see has their own complicated life. That's true, but it might not feel true when you're waiting in a long line, and you view all the people as annoyances which are inconveniencing you. So it's good to get yourself to really look around and see the people around you, and focus on how all of them are just going about their lives, like you are, and they are valuable human beings deserving of respect.
Setting up your lifestyle to match what you believe is true. I want to do that.
But this book didn't approach it in that way at all. All throughout the book, as it was describing various spiritual habits that Christians could have, I was thinking "okay, what beliefs about God is this influencing us to subconsciously believe?" And if they match beliefs that I have, then I think it's worth it to do those spiritual habits. But a lot of these were rooted in things I just don't believe. So, let's not do those.
But the book judged these various "enchanted" practices seemingly based on the question "is there a historical tradition of Christians doing this?" rather than "is this true?" All the true ones and false ones were mixed up together, like it didn't even matter which was which.
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Liturgical enchantments
After talking about how it's a problem that people are less "enchanted" today than they used to be (but failing to convince me that this is actually a problem), the book spends 4 chapters talking about different Christian traditions that have "enchanted" practices. The first one is "liturgical enchantments" which is mainly about Catholicism.
Beck is a Protestant, but went to a Catholic school as a child. He describes how Catholics believe "Matter matters," ie, we should experience our faith through physical space, physical objects, physical actions- it's not just about our thoughts/ feelings/ beliefs.
Catholic church buildings are generally more ornate, more majestic, more fancy than Protestant ones. There's a feeling that the *space* in the church is sacred. In contrast, the Protestant view is more like, God is everywhere, there doesn't need to be anything particularly special about a church building (and also suspiciously raising our eyebrows at the idea that people *have to* come to a church to experience God, like the church is the gatekeeper and people can't just meet God on their own). The book says, yes it's true that God is everywhere, it's good that Protestants believe that, and you don't *need* to come to a church to experience God, *but* it means we've lost our concept of enchanted spaces.
Similarly, Catholics take their liturgical calendar very seriously. The year is divided into different periods, like Advent (when we prepare for Jesus' birth at Christmas), and Lent (when we prepare for Jesus' death and resurrection at Easter), and the church is always talking about where we are in the liturgical cycle, and doing various traditions (like stations of the cross) to get us emotionally prepared for Good Friday, Easter, etc. Time is enchanted.
Once again, I'm not sure why exactly it's supposedly "better" to have your time "enchanted." The book doesn't really make a case for it- it just describes how Beck enjoys having these traditions to get "ready" for Easter, and one time he stopped going to a Catholic church and then SUDDENLY OUT OF NOWHERE IT WAS EASTER and he was like "I'm not ready!" And like, I get that, I get that Christians want to live in a way that's structured around our beliefs, and we want to devote ourselves to Jesus and focus on Jesus, and one example of a way to do that is by labelling time in this way. (I find it very interesting that page 31 lists out the prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours- a schedule of 8 times throughout the day when one might pray- and Beck says he does 2 of them. Oh, so we can choose to just do some of these rituals based on whether they're helpful to us? Maybe say more about that???) But the book doesn't talk about "so, you're a Christian, so on paper you want to live a life centered around Jesus- following the liturgical calendar is one way to implement that." It's just about how great it was when people used to have an "enchanted" view of time, and how we should get back to that.
A few more things about Catholicism being "enchanted":
There's transubstantiation, ie, Catholics believe that the bread and wine of the eucharist (communion) undergo an actual miracle and become the body and blood of Christ. (Protestants don't believe that- we see it as a symbol of the body and blood of Christ.) This is a really enchanted thing to believe- every time you go to Mass, you're experiencing a miracle, wow.
But like, what does that actually mean??? From what I've heard about transubstantiation (I'm a Protestant so I have no idea), it means the bread and wine *are* the body and blood of Jesus, but physically they are still bread and wine- there's nothing about their physical attributes that actually changes, but they are the body and blood of Jesus. In what sense are they the body and blood of Jesus, then? God labelled them as such? What's the miracle, exactly?
Sure, it's certainly an enchanted thing to believe, but is it true??? Is the book saying that it's true? That it's not true but it's good to believe it anyway because it's enchanted? That it doesn't matter if it's true or not, all that matters is if it's enchanted???
Also, Catholics have a giant roster of "saints" and they sometimes to pray to the saints. This is a very enchanted thing to do. Protestants view this as extremely sketchy- we're supposed to pray to God- do Catholics believe these saints have powers like God does? But the way I've heard it explained is, you know how you sometimes ask your Christian friends to pray for you, and that's a normal thing that Protestants do? Well you can also ask the saints to pray for you. So ultimately, when you pray to a saint, you're still praying to God, and it's God who is acting (or not acting) on your prayer.
As an example, I've heard that there's a saint that you can pray to when you lose something and you're trying to find it. Okay, sure, that's "enchanted." But is this supposed to give you a higher chance of finding it than if you just prayed to God? Or does it give the same chance, but it's kind of "fun" to give your prayer a theme?
And then there are physical objects, like rosaries, crucifixes, and pictures of Mary and the saints all over your home. In the book, Beck says he thinks these are great, and he has a whole bunch of them. "I've enchanted my space." (p 125) He calls them "material reminders of spiritual realities." Yes, that is what I want to get at- physical objects that remind us of the spiritual things we already believe. I wish the book would have gone in that direction more. I don't think the takeaway message is supposed to be "just get a bunch of religious pictures and hang them up"; it should be about choosing which ones feel meaningful to you. Which ones help to remind you of beliefs which are important to you?
Okay, and I want to stop here and give the Protestant perspective on all this. I've often heard Protestants criticize Catholics for doing all these religious rituals just out of a sense of obligation, or like God is requiring it, God is making us jump through all these hoops in order to be accepted. You have to celebrate certain holidays, you have to not eat meat on Fridays, you have to pray the rosary, you have to do all these things because those are the rules God set. Protestants say all of this is unnecessary! You can just have a personal relationship with God. You don't have to *do* all these religious things- it's not about that! It's about knowing Jesus! And Catholics have lost sight of what really matters, because they're doing all this religious busywork.
Probably there are Catholics who find all of this very tedious but think they have to do it because that's what their religion says- rather than being excited about the "enchantment" of it all, like Beck is. (It is probably relevant to note that Beck is a Protestant who is able to freely choose to do whatever Catholic practices he wants, rather than being raised Catholic and being taught that he's obligated to do all this.) I really think the book is overselling it; I think it's probably very common that Catholics just do all these things because that's what they do, and it feels boring rather than "enchanted."
*But* I also think that Protestants unfairly stereotype Catholics. A lot of these traditions can be good and meaningful.
Also, I have heard that a lot of ex-evangelicals like to go to more liturgical churches, like the Episcopal church. Evangelicalism is all about how we have a personal relationship with Jesus, and what really matters is our feelings about Jesus, having our hearts in the right place, "really meaning it" when we worship, rather than just doing all these meaningless rituals. It's common for ex-evangelicals (and I have also felt this way) to just get tired of all this emotional policing, like our worship only counts if we have the correct feelings, if we "really mean it." There are ex-evangelicals who like to go to liturgical churches and just be told when to stand up and sit down, and that's good enough, we don't have to perform certain emotions and overanalyze ourselves. When our beliefs and feelings are a mess, it's nice to just be in a place where you show your devotion to God by doing physical actions. Sometimes you're in a place emotionally where you're not able to have the "correct" feelings about Jesus, but at least you can stand up and sit down when the church says to. And that's good enough.
Anyway. All throughout the sections of the book where it talked about liturgical practices and Catholicism, I kind of felt like it must be saying that you can choose which of these practices help you. Whichever ones help to remind you of your beliefs, you can do. It doesn't really say this explicitly, but it describes a huge range of traditions, and then Beck sometimes mentions which specific ones he does. Hold onto that thought because we'll come back to it.
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Contemplative enchantments
The next category the book explores is "contemplative enchantments." This means things like, thinking about the presence of God while you do your normal boring daily life things, like washing dishes. Or, another example Beck gives is "roses and thorns"- this means thinking about your day, and picking out a few good things that happened and a few bad things. I think this can be a really good idea because it helps us step back and think about our lives overall, try to summarize your day, rather than just hurtling through time without ever being able to stop and think. Since I read this book, sometimes I ask my son about a high point and low point from his day, and also I tell him mine. (Sometimes he answers and sometimes he doesn't, probably because he is at that age where I am extremely uncool.)
I think this is something that can be good about prayer: it's about summarizing what's going on in your life, picking out the important points to share with God, thinking about what your goals are and what you want to happen. If you never stop and think about your life, well, you should do that. You don't need to pray- it's not about that- I'm just saying this is a positive side-effect of prayer- the way it leads you to contemplate what's going on in your life and what you want.
So, the contemplative enchantments are about your awareness and attention- reminding yourself that you are in the presence of God, and loved by God, always, even when your life is normal and boring. I like this. I didn't object to much in this chapter- and you see, that's because the enchantments in this chapter are based in things I genuinely believe (God is with us all the time, etc).
Beck also mentions prayer ropes here. Some people carry a knotted rope, and pull it out when they're standing around bored (waiting in line or whatever) or when they're stressed, and they pray a repetitive prayer while fingering each knot. The book gives the Jesus Prayer as an example: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." I think it can be helpful to have a physical object like that.
And, the book says, when you make a habit of focusing on God and being aware of God's presence, it leads to "encounters with God." Spiritual, emotional experiences which are hard to describe. I've experienced that too, so I'm not gonna knock it.
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Charismatic enchantments
Next, we have a chapter on charismatic enchantments. At more charismatic or pentecostal churches, people get really into the music- it's loud, it's exciting, people are dancing, waving flags. Feeling the emotions, participating with your whole body. Back when I was evangelical, I really liked this kind of worship style, and in my experience Black churches are like this. Using your body to express your feelings about God, through over-the-top singing and dancing. Okay I still really like that but I don't feel safe about showing my feelings in church, so I won't do it any more. (With one exception- if it's an event specifically for queer Christians, then I would.)
Also, charismatic Christian traditions make a big deal about how God is personally intervening in your life to help you all the time, and people are very excited about sharing testimonies about stuff like this. Someone was sick and then got better- it's because of God! Someone didn't have enough money to pay rent and then got a mysterious deposit in their bank account- God did it!!! I don't like this.
For one thing, the big picture doesn't make sense- over and over, we run into little problems in our lives, and every time, God does the bare minimum to help you squeak through- why doesn't God plan ahead better to stop these things from happening in the first place? Why doesn't God help you get into a better financial situation, so you don't have to worry about where the money is gonna come from for the rent, and experience a stressful "miracle" about it every month?
And for another thing, sometimes people are extremely quick to jump to the conclusion "God is helping me, God has totally solved my problem, praise God!!!!!" when it looks like things are turning in a better direction- but sometimes that doesn't actually end up solving your problem. And then how do you walk that back? You made such a big deal about "praise God, God is so good, God did a miracle to help me" the moment it looked like things were getting better- and maybe you felt like you were required to do that, because God won't help people who aren't sufficiently appreciative and worshipful and full of faith- and then it turned out that whatever you thought was going to solve your problem actually didn't. (For example, you need money to pay rent, and then you find out that you're going to get a surprise transfer from somewhere- OMG PRAISE GOD, a miracle! And then you find out that actually you're not going to get that surprise transfer. Or, you're having some kind of medical problem, and you're really worried about it, and you get some test results back and you misinterpret them and think it means the problem is not as bad as you thought- !!!!! God did it! God healed you! Tell everyone!- treating those test results as an extremely significant turning point, but it turns out that's not what they meant at all.)
Then what? Then you issue a correction that says "it's actually not a miracle"? No, nobody does that. So what you end up with is all these amazing "testimonies" about "miracles", that people announce when they're still in the middle of the situation and don't actually know yet if their problem has been solved (but it's important that they tell everybody that God has solved their problem- that's what faith means). And it's all a bunch of hype and nobody's actually following up on the real results.
(In my experience, it's not an environment where you can be honest about "I really believed God was helping me, I really had a lot of faith, but then it didn't work out.")
Also, this chapter of "Hunting Magic Eels" talks about "spiritual warfare" and I just totally don't buy that at all. For those of you who don't know what "spiritual warfare" is- it's the belief that the mundane happenings in our lives are part of a grand battle between God and the devil/demons. So for example, maybe you feel like God is telling you to do something, but then some difficulties arise to make it harder than expected, or to make you discouraged- those difficulties and feelings of discouragement were caused by the devil themself personally intervening in your life in an attempt to sabotage God's plans.
(See also, this post, On demons and what really matters. Maybe I should also write a post about why I just totally don't buy "spiritual warfare", the whole thing is just absurd and makes me go "ugh." Any readers interested in that? Basically spiritual warfare doesn't make sense for the same reason that all the pokemon in your hometown are level-2 caterpies.)
The book warns us that sometimes charismatic Christian groups get into "prosperity gospel" ideology, and that's bad. I find it fascinating that the book picks out this one thing to warn us about, when there are so many other problems with this way of thinking.
Also, the book says that "skeptical" Christians will find all this talk of "signs and wonders" and "spiritual warfare" to be extremely weird, but it's kind of framed as, these are legit Christian "enchantments" and therefore the problem is on your side and you should have more of an open mind. I guess I am the "skeptical" Christians.
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Celtic enchantments
Then we have a chapter about St. Patrick and Ireland and Celtic Christianity, which was really interesting because I didn't know about this before. When St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland, it combined with the pagan religion that was already there. Celtic Christianity has pagan influences, mainly about nature, enjoying the beauty of nature, seeing God in nature. Also, wholeheartedly enjoying the pleasures of life, like food and alcohol, celebrating how it all comes from God.
One part I really like from this chapter is St. Patrick's breastplate prayer (p 183-184):
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me;
Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me;
Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me;
Christ in my lying, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising;
Christ in the heart of all who think of me;
Christ on the tongue of all who speak to me;
Christ in the eye of all who see me;
Christ in the ear of all who hear me.
I love this.
(I don't know, maybe at this point you're like "okay so Perfect Number has a set of Christian beliefs she likes and a set that she doesn't like, and Richard Beck has different ones" so I shouldn't be criticizing this book. Yeah, maybe that's true. I guess there are all kinds of reasons why other Christians might end up with a different collection of beliefs than me.)
Anyway, the thing that this chapter warns us about is, we don't want to do things that are *actually* pagan. Like, it's good that Celtic Christianity has this appreciation for nature, which paganism also has, but one danger here is that it can go too far and actually *be* kinda pagan. So the important thing to remember is we don't worship nature as a magical thing in and of itself, but that we see God *through* nature. It points us to God.
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"Discerning the spirits"
Near the end of the book, there's a section called "Discerning the spirits," which is about how we shouldn't necessarily just believe all of this "enchanted" stuff, but we have to "discern" them. I was like, oh good, finally. But then it turned out to not address any of the concerns I had.
As I said, the chapter about charismatic enchantments warned us about prosperity gospel teaching. And the chapter about Celtic enchantments warned us about paganism. In a sea of questionable ideas, those were the only 2 things we are warned against. So basically, because those 2 things are Officially Recognized by Correct Christian Teaching as being Wrong. Besides that, there wasn't any discussion about "what underlying beliefs is this 'enchanted' practice influencing us to believe, and are they things that we actually *do* believe?"
So anyway, in the "discerning the spirits" section, there are more warnings about paganism. In particular, it's trendy now for people to be spiritual and be interested in yoga and candles and meditation, etc, and Beck doesn't like the way people think of this as a personal choice. Like you can just do whatever fits your lifestyle or budget. Beck says this is not right, because following God is supposed to be about being held to a standard. About doing the right thing even when it's hard. It should be challenging. It shouldn't be something you can just choose if it's convenient for you.
Hey, remember the chapter about liturgical enchantments, which discussed a whole bunch of Catholic traditions and symbols, and seemed to be saying you can choose which ones to practice based on what's helpful for you? Remember that? I'm failing to see what's different here.
Or, rather, I think what's different is the underlying beliefs behind these traditions. If you like to have candles or whatever "pagan" things because it gives you a *vibe* of being spiritual, but it doesn't have any real meaning beyond that, I can see how one might say that's not good. If you like to have pictures of Jesus around your home, because they remind you of your commitment to Jesus, which is real and solid and important and challenging, then that's good. (And it can certainly go the other way too- "pagan" symbols can remind you to do good, and pictures of Jesus can give you a *vibe* of being very holy and religious without actually requiring you to do anything.) So these "enchantments" should be judged by asking "what beliefs is this reinforcing"- it's all about that! But the book doesn't talk about that at all!
Another aspect of "discerning the spirits" that this book presents is: sacrificial love. The book gives some examples of people who had spiritual experiences which had a significant emotional impact and led them to take drastic, self-sacrificing actions to do good and help the world (for example, Martin Luther King Jr). So, the point Beck is making is, a valid "enchantment" will involve God calling us to something that requires sacrifice.
I'm... I'm very iffy on this, and I'm struggling to explain why. I guess it's because of these 2 reasons:
One, just because your religion asks you to do something difficult, that will require sacrifice, and tells a big grand story about how you're doing it for the greater good, doesn't mean it's actually a good thing. I'm thinking of how I used to do evangelism, how I asked people invasive personal questions, how I warned people that they were going to hell, how I worried that it would ruin my friendships with them, but Christians reassured me that "the most loving thing we can do is to warn people about hell." That was very difficult for me, and it was motivated by self-sacrificial love, but it was all wrong. I'm thinking of missionaries giving up their comfortable lives in their own country, moving somewhere far away from their families and friends, struggling to learn a new language and culture, all for the purposes of forcing their mission targets to give up their own culture and religion and live in a more western, "Christian" way. I'm thinking of gay Christian men who get married to women, because they have great faith that God will then change them and make them straight.
When you have a life-changing spiritual experience, and it impresses on you a message and a mission that you are to do, is that mission really from God, the true God, who loosed the cords of Orion? Or is it from whatever construct of God your own little religious community has presented to you? Immerse yourself in teaching that says God wants you to warn people about hell/ wants everyone to give up their culture and become a certain kind of Christian/ didn't actually make anyone gay, and when you have a spiritual experience, that is the voice you will hear.
That's why I keep saying, the point of all this "enchanted" stuff has to be about what underlying beliefs are these practices assuming? You construct an environment and habits for yourself, to help you intuitively believe in a spiritual reality- well is that spiritual reality actually true and worth believing in??? Or are you getting yourself to subconsciously believe the magic eels are real, to the extent that you end up hearing the voice of "God" telling you to sacrifice yourself for them?
And two, the idea of making big sacrifices because it's the right thing to do- it's such a big thing, bigger than you imagine when it's just words. I don't believe we're required to do that. I'm saying this because I moved to China. I moved to China because of abstract moral reasons, about how the world is so big and diverse, and how I know so little of what the world is really like. And also because of an overwhelming emotional pull, wanting to be here, wanting to learn more, being in awe of immigrants who can speak multiple languages and wondering if I could do that too. And it's been much harder than I could have known. And giving up my life in the US is a much bigger thing than I thought.
So anyway, I no longer view it as "well, logically, this is the right thing to do, therefore I need to do it even though it would require a huge sacrifice." I don't think people are required to make such big sacrifices like that.
Yes, you should take action to help the world, but it doesn't have to be whatever huge sacrifice feels "logical." You don't have to do that. (And I don't know if I'm explaining this well- it relies on my own intuition of what is "logical." Basically, what I'm trying to say is, John the Baptist said if you have 2 tunics, you need to give 1 away. That's what I mean. That's logical.)
So I'm not really a fan of Christians talking about role models of our faith who took huge risks and made sacrifices, like Martin Luther King Jr, with the implication being that we're all supposed to do that. Sure, when someone does that, it's a good thing (I mean, as long as it's in service of something that's actually good, not like, telling your friends they deserve to go to hell or something). But we don't all have to do that.
We all have to do a little bit, at least. Take actions to help the world. But you're not obligated to give up your life. Jesus said, count the cost.
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Conclusion
Well you probably can't tell from reading this review, but I'm glad I read this book. It gave me some good ideas about things I can do to be more aware of things *I already believe*, like "God is always with us." The key is "things *I already believe*." I was aggressively filtering as I read this book, throwing out a lot of stuff like "well I don't buy that." I really don't agree with the overall point, that it's "better" to be "enchanted" than "skeptical." If "enchanted" means you believe a bunch of spiritual-sounding stuff which is actually all nonsense, then no that's not good.
But the traditions that match up with beliefs that I actually believe, those ones are useful to me. I should start doing some of these things.
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