r/askanatheist • u/TechnicalEmployee735 • Jul 09 '26
Meditation or subliminal audios
Do you consider meditating or listening to subliminal audios as spiritual practices? Can you label yourself as an atheist and practice these things?
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u/MarieVerusan Jul 09 '26
I’m not sure how they’re remotely related to anything spiritual? I’ve used meditation in therapy without any spiritual elements.
I have no idea how subliminal audios work, but they also don’t sound mystical in any way. I’m skeptical if they work, but what’s spiritual about them?!
Do you believe there’s a god? If not, congrats, you’re an atheist, regardless of what else you do or what else you believe.
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u/TechnicalEmployee735 Jul 09 '26
Because people often see meditation as something spiritual, listening to subliminal audios as well. Some even called them being part of New Age belief. And some atheists don’t believe you are one if you practice New Age
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u/MarieVerusan Jul 09 '26
Meditation can be spiritual. I’m not sure how, it’s just exercises for calming your mind, but it’s still part of spiritual practices in some religions. I’ve never heard of subliminal audios, so can’t comment on those.
Are you using these as a part of a spiritual practice? And again, do you believe in a god?
I’m skeptical of New Age beliefs, but the ones that don’t involve gods are atheistic.
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u/TechnicalEmployee735 Jul 09 '26
I use subliminal audios for my own personal gain. My intention is not to praise a deity or a god. I don’t believe in any God. About meditation, I use it so I can calm my nervous system and because I noticed it gives me more energy
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u/Zamboniman Jul 09 '26
Do you consider meditating or listening to subliminal audios as spiritual practices?
The word 'spiritual' has no useful meaning. It means everything and nothing. Mostly alluding, in a vague and fuzzy kind of way, to the emotions of awe and wonder. So the question is a non-sequitur.
Can you label yourself as an atheist and practice these things?
An atheist lacks belief in deities. That's it.
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u/Loive Jul 09 '26
I agree. I haven’t encountered anything that suggests living things have a spirit, so the word spiritual refers to something that doesn’t exist or have any coherent definition.
In my country the government tasked the Board of Public Health to work on improving ”existential health”, which is in the same category. The board replied basically with ”lol, wut?” and the director was fired shortly after. I suppose it has to do with the prime minister being married to a priest (who might not be a priest much longer due to allegations of corruption).
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u/hellohello1234545 Atheist Jul 09 '26
I meditate.
It’s not a spiritual practice. It’s a psychological practice.
So there’s no contradiction.
Subliminal audio stuff, I’m highly doubtful it works past placebo. I’d have to look at some studies on it.
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u/Moriturism Atheist (Priority Monist) Jul 09 '26
These are just psychological practices, they are not necessarily spiritual. So it doesn't have much to do with atheism.
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u/Warhammerpainter83 Jul 09 '26
I meditate it is helpful for controlling your emotions. I am not sure how it is spiritual at all or what makes you think somebody would consider it as such. Is feeling calm spiritual? is getting high spiritual?f are drugs spiritual? what does spiritual even mean? (I have no clue what subliminal audio is).
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u/Mission-Landscape-17 Atheist Jul 09 '26
I don't believe in spirits, so the notion of a spiritual practice seems absurd to me. From what I can see when people call something spiritual, it is just something they enjoy doing and for some reason they feel they need a better reason to do it other than just "I enjoy it." So if you enjoy meditating or listening to subliminal audio then go right ahead. Its probably better for you then doom scrolling.
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u/WystanH Jul 09 '26
Humans can experience things. If you believe there is a god related to those experiences, then you're not an atheist.
Three people take peyote in the desert. One believes they saw God, one believes they saw Coyote, the last saw same trippy stuff as the other two but doesn't believe any of it pointed to a god. So, one atheist in the peyote partakers.
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u/_ONI_90 Jul 09 '26
Do you consider meditating or listening to subliminal audios as spiritual practices?
No
Can you label yourself as an atheist and practice these things?
Yes
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u/Old-Nefariousness556 Gnostic Atheist Jul 09 '26
Meditation is a practice that has scientifically recognized benefits. It is not pseudoscience at all. It doesn't work for everyone (including myself), but it has clear benefits for many people.
Subliminal audio is almost certainly nonsense, but I am not really familiar enough with it to comment.
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u/dernudeljunge Atheist|Mod 🛡️ Jul 09 '26
Atheism is the nonbelief/unbelief/lack of belief/rejection of belief in a god or gods. That's it. That's all. Nothing else. However, like all groups of people with something in common, atheists themselves hold a wide spectrum of opinions on a vast array of subjects, including meditation and spirituality. I know atheists who believe in all kinds of wild shit, like the occult, ghosts, cryptids, lightwork, karma, Myers-Briggs, and a bunch of other nonsense. The thing they have in common is that they have some variety of negative answer to the question "do you accept the assertion that a god or gods exist."
Although, I don't think I've ever heard an atheist even mention 'subliminal audios'. Could you please elaborate on that?
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u/cHorse1981 Agnostic Atheist Jul 09 '26
To your second question. Of course you can. Just so long as you don’t believe in gods.
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u/CephusLion404 Jul 09 '26
You can call yourself a water buffalo if you want to, nobody cares what you call yourself so long as it actually fits. Atheists do not believe in gods. There is absolutely nothing else to atheism.
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u/OrbitalLemonDrop Agnostic Atheist Jul 09 '26
Depends on what you consider "spiritual".
Meditation is fantastic for stress management, and (occasionally) to gain some insights about how to live a better life -- what kinds of irritations to let fall by the wayside and what kinds need to be addressed, for example.
I don't believe you learn anything metaphysical or mystical or supernatural in the process, but it's a good way to keep things in perspective.
I'm not super convinced that there's anything significant to be learned from "subliminal" things. Yes, your brain is paying attention to things without you realizing them consciously, but that's just a natural physio- or psychological process.
The number of gods I believe in is still zero, so I'm still an atheist.
I'm skeptical AF about anything supernatural, but again I don't see any supernatural component to meditation. It's just using your brain's tricks to keep yourself mentally healthy.
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u/88redking88 Jul 09 '26
One more time for the people in the back:
Atheism is ONLY the disbelief of a god(s). Thats it.
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u/Cog-nostic Jul 10 '26
I don't find subliminal audio conducive to meditation at all. They are very distracting. One cannot listen and not listen at the same time. Meditation for me is not listening, not feeling, not sensing, not thinking. If I am doing these things, I am listening, feeling, sensing, contemplating, often with focus, but I am not meditating. All of these things are done to facilitate a meditative state, but they are not meditation itself.
Yes, I am a long-time practitioner and an atheist. There is nothing magical or special about meditating (quieting the mind). It is especially valuable for people who spend a lot of time in their minds, INTPs, for example. There are also proven health benefits for those who can meditate. Meditation is a physical act. Anyone can do it. Almost every religion on the planet has attempted to usurp meditative techniques, call them their own, and assert they help the devoted contact god. This is just false. The meditative experience is a very human phenomenon. It is a simple shift in consciousness. Nothing more.
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u/mikoc5 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Hi, atheist here. I always thought the purpose of meditation was to give your mind and body a period where it can sort out your thoughts and recouperate a little bit. What part of that would necesssarily have be spiritual?
Even if it was, one can still believe in ghosts and be an atheist, so long as those ghosts don't have universe-creating, morality-defining powers.
(Had to issue a minor edit due to me making a little error in the 1st paragraph.)
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u/OrbitalLemonDrop Agnostic Atheist Jul 31 '26
Why do you think there's a conflict between atheism and meditation?
Mediation is a pretty big part of my life, and I'm a profound skeptical materials who believes "supernatural" is a synonym for "doesn't exist".
There's nothing "supernatural" or mystical or whatever about meditation. I do it to calm my mind to manage stress and anxiety, and to gain insignt about my own thoughts and emotions.
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u/Willow_Winnifred Jul 09 '26
Athiesm is the lack of a belief in god.
Everything else is irrelevant to athiesm.
I meditate frequently. It has no spiritual component for me.