On Solitude

           

This picture represents much of the spiritual formation view of solitude. An article in the Word World suggests that most people find being alone with their thoughts and with no distractions is unpleasant. Some people would rather give themselves electric shocks than sit alone thinking for even six minutes. Timothy Wilson and some colleagues at the University of Virginia and Harvard University conducted a series of 11 studies. The abstract, published in the July 4, 2014 issue of science magazine, summarized the results in the following way. 

"In 11 studies, we found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much more, and that many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts. Most people seem to prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is negative." 

            Participants ranged in age from 18 to 77. Those conducting the study told them to entertain themselves alone in a room with just their thoughts. They could also imagine doing one of three pleasant activities, such as hiking. Regardless of age, the participants showed no fondness for being alone and thinking. On the nine-point scale, the average rating was in the middle. They would rather have something to do than have nothing to do. This was true, even if we are talking about a brief period. In one phase of the study, you had the option of being alone for 15 minutes or administering yourself an electric shock. 12 of the 18 males (67 percent) and six of the 24 females (25 percent) gave themselves at least one electric shock during the 15-minute period. The conclusion of those conducting the study is that the human naturally engages the world. Even when we are by ourselves, our focus is the outside world. Without training in meditation, people would prefer to engage the world.

            The point of the study is to highlight the challenges of the disengaged mind. By disengaging, spirituality wants to suggest that we focus upon the inner life, and consider in a meditative spirit the way in which we process our interactions with the external world. Much of spirituality focuses on limiting or modifying the influence of the external world. The failure to spend such time alone for considering such matters may well lead to spiritual issues. It highlights that we cannot really disengage from the world, but we can consider how we interact with it. I wonder how personality type, especially the introvert versus the extrovert, would relate to such a study.

            Does the difficulty in spending time alone mean that our society is working too hard? Does such a study indict our sinful nature? Does it mean we are hard-wired for external rather than internal reality? Wilson thinks our minds do have some hardwiring toward engaging the world rather than focus on our internal world. What does this mean for the whole notion of quiet time with God? It may well mean that spirituality is as much involved in our engagement with the world as it is sitting in silence.

            Maybe the truth is that we can be active and engaged in the world and thinking deeply at the same time. We may need to spend more time considering how active engagement and pondering join in our spirituality. Scott Peck writes of the importance of thinking well. It does not come naturally. We must learn to think well as we process relationships with people and our world.[1]

            Stan Purdum will say that the bicycle is a marvelous thought machine, combining activity with thought and silence. Brother Lawrence, a monk of the 1600s, wrote The Practice of the Presence of God. At one point, he writes that the time of business in the kitchen does not differ from the time of prayer. The point is that we need to find the means that works best for us to ponder the issues of life and the things of God.

            Here is something to ponder. 

Sloth is not to be confused with laziness. Lazy people, people who sit around and watch the grass grow, may be people at peace. Their sun-drenched, bumblebee dreaming may be the prelude to action or itself an act well worth the acting. Slothful people, on the other hand, may be very busy people. They are people who go through the motions, who fly on automatic pilot. Like somebody with a bad head cold, they have mostly lost their sense of taste and smell. They know something's wrong with them, but not wrong enough to do anything about it. Other people come and go, but through glazed eyes they hardly notice them. They are letting things run their course. They are getting through their lives.[2] 

 

 

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[1] Peck, M. Scott. The Road Less Traveled and Beyond. New York: Touchstone, 1997, 23 ff.

[2] --Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (Harper & Row, 1973), 89-90.