SCUBA and spirituality: brainstorm 1

My brain has been on fire lately.  I have so many projects to do, so little time. One of the more crazy ideas I want to try is to write an article for California Diving News, the premier magazine about SCUBA diving in California. I wrote to Kim Sheckler, one of the main writers of this magazine, and wife of the editor, what articles she prefers, and she replied:

The editorial drive of the publication is to inspire and inform the beginning through intermediate divers into seeking the full underwater experience that California waters have to offer. All material is upbeat and positive. Please, no “Why this diver died” or shark attack type articles. Our goal is to encourage divers to get out and enjoy California scuba diving more often.

Rather than writing about something light, however, I have decided to dive off the deep-end (pun not intended) and write about the connection between SCUBA diving and spirituality.  It's a topic that is not explored in great depth (ha ha).  However, like in many other sports (such as surfing or running), there is a universally acknowledged spiritual element involved with diving.  Some might argue that scuba diving has an even stronger spiritual element than some other activities because a high degree of breathing awareness is employed. But more on that later...

My first question, inevitably would be, what is Spirituality anyway? I would be the last to know, since I am adamantly non-religious, and not very spiritual either. So what is a gal to do? So I did some internet research.  There is a well-written article on the subject here. According to this article, the last thing one can do, I found, is to define spirituality. Spirituality, the author argues, is more like a mixed bag of experiences:

• Feeling lost in the moment
• Feeling part of the whole universe
• Feeling a sense of awe and mystery
• A sense of epiphany

All of the above apply to the experience of diving in my mind...

To be continued...