The Indie Spiritualist

About me:

About The Indie Spiritualist What is indie culture? This answer could go a number of ways but to keep it short and sweet I’ll say it’s any from of music, art, literature or film etc outside of the mainstream. It lacks corporate financing and thus allows for individuals or groups of individuals to work in whatever media they do with virtually total creative freedom. What is Spirituality? I think this is a highly personal question for every individual to answer. Generally speaking it may be someone’s path which leads them to a greater awareness of Self or God. It may also be something as simple as sitting quietly in the woods, mindful of the present moment. Even a piece of music or art could be deemed spiritual by many. Who are you and what makes you an expert on either subject? My name is Chris and I’m a 32 year old male living in Connecticut. I am anything but an expert on either subject! I grew up in the punk/indie music scene of the early 90’s which introduced me to what I like to call “indie culture”, which for me consisted of music, skateboarding, tattoos, piercings, literature, film, basically all the aforementioned items listed in the first question. As for spirituality, I honestly could have cared less about it until roughly six years ago. After going through an extremely difficult time in my life including dependence on drugs and alcohol, a professor of mine gave a book entitled “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. I was at a very desperate and jaded place in my life and was really open to anything that was going to take me out of there. This was exactly what I needed. Reading this book truly defined the saying “having the rug pulled out from you” for me. I’m not going to go into the specifics of this book except to say it truly opened my eyes to the paradigm I had been stuck in my entire life. This book was the beginning of my “spiritual” awakening (which is still very much an ongoing process!). I immersed myself in the great spiritual texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, The Dhammapada, Tao Te Ching, The Gnostic Teachings of Christ as well as books from authors such as Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi, Ram Dass , Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche & others. Around this time I also saw a film called “What The Bleep Do We Know” which sparked a huge interest in the world of Quantum Physics and it’s relationship to spirituality for me. I began reading (and actually sort of understanding) books by Ken Wilber and Fred Alan Wolfe. So these are the things that truly excite me in life…Indie Culture & Spirituality, hence my creation of this site. Is there actually a relationship between indie culture and spirituality? I confidently answer this with a resounding yes! Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything that spirituality doesn’t have a relationship with. It just so happens I love indie things and spiritual things and figured why not create a little home on the internet for the both of them. If you’ve ever been moved by a film or song (indie or not) to me that’s spiritual. Granted, I am a believer that our greatest spiritual experiences come right from within ourselves, there is much to be said for those things external that truly move us. So why are you bothering to do this? As I stated earlier, these are my great passions in life. I see running this site as wonderful experience to possibly share both worlds with people who may or may not have been exposed to them. Even more so, I look at this as a way to expand my experience and knowledge in both areas. I love learning and all experiences related. I look forward to conducting interviews as well as running other features with people both known for what they do (musically, artistically etc) as well as not so known so that I may provide as broad a spectrum on all topics as possible! Why call it “The Indie Spiritualist”!? Honestly, it’s nothing more than my own play on words. You have “The New Yorker”, “The Wall Street Journal”, “The Washington Post” and now the non-mainstream “The Indie Spiritualist”. I read an interview/feature on your site and am interested in learning more about the (spirituality, band, artist etc.) I will always include links specifically relating to the material I present, however, if there is something more you’d like to know I highly recommend your favorite online search engine! If you’re still unable to find what you’re looking for, feel free to contact me (see contacts section) and I’ll do my best to help you! Are you in a band? If so can you please, please, please include links to your music? I am in fact in a band. We’re called “brothers & sisters” and sure, I’d be happy to share our links: www.brothersandsisters.bandcamp.com www.myspace.com/brothersandsistersrock Do you adhere to any one particular spiritual path? I actually do. While I’ve learned much from, and completely honor Buddhism, Hinduism, Taosim and other various paths, I’ve found my personal calling as a student of A Course In Miracles. I’d like to make it very clear though that I’m not here to promote any particular spirituality or path over another. As it states in the course "There are many paths, and they all lead to God in the end".