What happens to spirituality when belief in traditional religion falls away? Can ritual, mysticism, awe, contemplation, divination, sacred stories and experiences of transcendence still have value without requiring supernatural explanations?

Britt Hartley is a religious deconstruction educator, author, and atheist spiritual director who helps people rebuild meaning, identity, and family culture after faith. She is the author of No Nonsense Spirituality and a doctoral student whose work explores existential crisis, secular spirituality, and life beyond traditional religion.

In this livestream, we will explore Britt’s concept of secular spirituality and her attempt to navigate a fascinating middle ground between organised religion, atheistic scepticism and contemporary alternative spirituality. We will discuss religious deconstruction, nihilism, meaning-making, mysticism, ritual and the psychology of spiritual experience, as well as the question of whether practices traditionally associated with religion and the occult can remain meaningful when their supernatural interpretations are suspended.

We will also venture into some particularly interesting territory for Angela’s Symposium: astrology, Tarot, psychedelics, intuition, altered states of consciousness, the Divine Feminine, cognitive bias, the relationship between mystical experience and metaphysical claims, and Britt’s distinction between useful spiritual tools and what she describes as “woo”.

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00:00:00 No Nonsense Spirituality Introduction

00:01:23 Meet Britt Hartley

00:05:20 From Mormonism to Atheist Spirituality – Britt Hartley’s Story

00:07:49 Hard vs Soft Polytheism: Can Atheists Be Pagan?

00:09:07 Why Humans Create Gods: Religion as a Human Project

00:12:33 Is Spiritual Atheism Actually a Form of Paganism?

00:13:34 Sufism, Shinto, Christian Mysticism and Spiritual Atheism

00:16:48 Chaos Magic, Fictional Deities and Spiritual Scepticism

00:19:42 Can Ritual Work Without Belief?

00:22:51 The Science of Ritual Without Metaphysical Belief

00:26:16 Why Practise Spirituality If You’re an Atheist?

00:33:40 How to Build a Secular Spiritual Practice

00:37:05 Situational Belief: Can Belief Be Used Temporarily?

00:41:22 Belief as a Spiritual Tool Without Dogma

00:43:59 Belief, Cognitive Bias and the Western Mind

00:49:03 Spiritual Tools Without Metaphysical Truth Claims

00:51:57 Nihilism, Phenomenology and What Is Really Real?

00:55:39 Philosophical Nihilism, Spiritual Experience and the Self

00:57:19 Is Belief Another Tool for Spiritual Practice?

00:59:05 Religious Trauma, Trance and Feeling Safe Without Belief

01:04:36 Does Everyone Need Religion or Spirituality?

01:08:17 The Paradox of Atheist Spirituality and Religious Belief

01:13:29 Clothing, Makeup and Adornment as Spiritual Practice

01:19:15 How you can support this valuable work