[Moon321]

Originally Posted by asearcher

Hi, in my small world of family friends co-workers I have noticed that a lot of the close relationships I have with females that they are more spiritual than the men are. I have noticed few to be in my soul group that is we have been together in past lives so perhaps this is why we are both in a similar place spiritually, this with the females. Only I have noticed that the few men (from one exception) I have too recognized as soul mates from past lives are not and they ought to have been around as long as the female has. Could it be something in the brain that is preventing the spirituality to kick off for the males in my surrounding? There is also a female that I have recognized to have been a male in a past life and she is less spiritual than another female that I too have recognized in a past life but then as female then too and she is more spiritual. The only exception for me is one male that was very spiritual in my past life and is this way in this life too.

I hope no body get upset with me for posting this, maybe it is just a coincidence in my life with the male verses female spirituality. I am only curious...

I find your questions interesting. I have 2 ideas that I will try to formulate into a response. One is a cultural viewpoint and another is about our own personal cognitive framework. I will start with the cognitive framework.

I have noticed that I contain my own biases and preconceived notions about people based on gender. I tend to make assumptions about people based on what I perceive their gender to be. This often comes into play in subtle ways that we don't notice in our everyday interactions. This is a natural thing and is easily observed. For example watch men interact with men, and than watch them interact with women. Men tend to give other men more space, but when talking to women, men tend to stand closer, touch them more, interrupt them more, and dismiss their ideas more readily. Even some of the nicest of guys tend to overlap into women's space, often without noticing it. Because I tend to be aware of such things, I try to observe how this plays out in my life. How it is that I choose words when I speak with men and woman. Do I choose “lesser” words when talking with men (such as "perhaps it could be" ) to make room for "the man" but more stronger words around females (“it is like this because”) because I feel I can take more space around a female? What I find interesting about this approach is that when I work with spiritual things, I find that my cognitive biases sometimes "interpret" information based on the models of reality that my brains holds about gender. Say I perceive a spirit as having softer traits than another, I "receive information" that it is a female. Is that true or am I "receiving" that information because it matches my biases? Here you talk about soul groups and past lives. I believe that doing these types of readings for yourself, and interpretations, can be wonderful tools, but in the process that one may be best served to realize their own unconscious ideologies about gender in the process that may murk the waters abit when it comes to interpretation.

Secondly, I have thought about your point in relation to females tending to be more spiritual, recently in my life as well. I don’t know where you live, but in Western society, I have noticed this. It seems , for example, that so many females in Western society are looking for an alternative spirituality than the oppressive, patriarchal Christianity one that was given to them culturally. It seems that in this search there is a “new market” for Eastern religions, and thus for marketing to those who are interested in such things but also live in a materialistic society. Now things are sold in droves such as yoga supplies, lotus flower and Budda figurines, etc. This is not a bad thing, but I think that much of the online information, many of the books sold, many of the material items sold, are not necessarily from an authentic base that is true to the spiritual base practice as it is being produced, and then reproduced off of that copy, and than a reproduction is made from that cop, often for money, to sell more books, to sell more items. I think some of the truth of the foundations of the practice gets lost as practices are merged into an individualistic society as well, when the spiritual tradition was not made in that type of society. What does this have to do with gender? Well what I am getting at is that females, who are searching for spirituality in Western culture, are finding peace and answers in cultures other than there own (and this can be a great thing, for why go for a patriarchal religion that has a history of oppressing one’s gender and thus sense of self?). In the quest for this search you see many females (and some men), leaning heavily on incorporating many Eastern religions into their Western lives. I have often stopped to ponder “why females”, like you have. But than I realize that this is again a cognitive filter that I see the world through my perceptions. In this case I am not convinced that just because I see females around me engaging in spirituality and males not doing so, means that is necessarily true. It is not necessarily always true that men are logical and rational and females are softer, more emotional, and more spiritual. When I broaden my scope throughout human history, or even current human life in other cultures, I see that it is not just females. When I look at religious and spiritual practices from other cultures I see mainly males, in fact. The yogis, the sages, the gurus, the monks, those that teach authentic practices from Buddhism….. to my view they seem predominately male. When I look to Chinese culture, with Kung Fu and other meditative practices, once again I see mostly males teaching things like restraint, mind-body connection. It seems to me that the “females are more spiritual” theme is more of a Western idea. When I look to the East, I see mostly men are involved in “enlightened” spiritual practices that teach things like nonresistance, mindfulness, yoga, compassion for self, body, and others. I think the idea of females being more spiritual is at times a Western thing, and I think that may in part boil down to the way men are raised here. Men are raised to be “logical” and not be in touch with this side of themselves, often rejected when they display other traits. It may be something like a soul that is coming to Earth is looking for a culture and family that will help them learn the lessons that are for them, so the more spiritual males may not be born in the West as often because the West does not encourage such traits in males, so such males are perhaps choosing more accepting cultures for that type of lesson, in some cases. But that doesn’t mean that the majority of males across human history, or even nowadays in all cultures are less spiritual than females.
Of course with all things, there are expectations. Some women are highly logical and cut off emotionally and many men are spiritually and emotionally in tuned, in all cultures.