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We're all familiar with the Johnny Dep style pirates of the high seas, and of the much more modern computer pirates of software and music, but what about pirating a religion? Paradigm Piracy is the practice of freely adopting and discarding beliefs and world-views at will. For example, you may be Wiccan right now. In two months, you could decide to be Islamic instead. After a year, you might convert to Buddhism.

While acting as a member of their current religion, a paradigm pirate will be as devout in that faith as a lifetime follower of it. They will attend church and activities, participate in discussions, perhaps even attempt to convert people to that faith, if that makes up their current beliefs. Then, as suddenly as the wind changes directions, they could leave and choose a new beliefs to devote themselves to. This seemingly haphazard switching of religions does not mean that they no longer believe in the religion they just left, or that they even fully believed it in the first place. Paradigm pirates may have their own beliefs, and may use other religions to enhance and refine their own beliefs. A pirate will remain a part of any given religion until they feel they've absorbed the most that they can get out of it. Then they will move on, looking for other religions to sponge knowledge off of.

There could be many reasons people might engage in paradigm piracy. A simple example is one many teens and young adults are faced with... simply looking for a religion that feels right to them. (In fact, I believe many of us here have been through this. I know I have.) Other people do it on purpose, believing religion to be so beautiful and varied that it would be a shame not to experience it from different perspectives. A group that is well known for paradigm piracy is those who practice Chaos Magick. Chaos Magicians "pick and choose" from many different religious practices and combine them together to create their rituals. And what better way to pick something from a religion than by understanding it from the context of that religion?

What are your thoughts on paradigm piracy? Do you feel that it is a valid practice for learning about oneself, or does it show disrespect to the religions in question? Do you or anyone you know have any experience with anything like this?

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Well, thats interesting. My thoughts on this is that, it seems kind of... I am not sure of the word... I guess it would be kind of crazy... But thats just my view. Switching from one religion to another to another and partaking in the rituals even if you don't beleive them. To me, religion is something you should beleive if your that religion... so... I dunno. But then again, I could easily argue this point of view with the other in saying that people want to expierience every religion... so... yeah biggrin

Not exactly. I'll explain more what I mean to point out here.
Again, who owns ideas? Religions are a collection of ideas, more or less. Spend any time studying the world's religions and you'll find religions have many of the same ideas in common. So which religion 'owns' a given idea? Who owns the idea of reincarnation? Since it is more frequent in Eastern religion, does that mean a Westerner who uses it is 'stealing?' Who owns the idea of baptism? Would a new religious movement using baptism be 'stealing' from Christianity? Who owns these ideas and can there really be such a thing as piracy and theft in the first place? This question is perhaps more relevant to the part of your post that discusses the 'pick and choose' mentality.

As for those who shift around in systems a lot... well, this came to mind when thinking about it again. It is said that seeing is believing, but believing is also seeing. In many ways, you can't truly understand a given religious path (or anything for that matter) unless you directly experience it. Direct experience gives a depth of understanding (gnosis) that you just don't get from book learning (episteme). Perhaps in order to fairly choose a system, you really do need to live it for a while to know if it is a fit? Just a thought.

I was just chatting over PM with another guild member and I realised that I've been involved in paradigm piracy alot more than I thought. Here's a rundown of religions that I've not only studied, but been an active part of:

I was born and baptised Catholic, but my mother (my dad's an atheist) fell away from the religion, so I didn't really go to church much. Then while I was in Middle School, I had such a fascination with Native American culture/lifestyle that I began practising Shamanism without even realising it. My freshman year of High School, I converted to Wicca. Two years later, I went back to Catholicism for about a year, even though I knew that I wasn't then, nor was I ever Christian. Then I switched to Neo-Paganism, or Ancient Greek Paganism, specifically. (This was around the time I became Hermetic.) During this time, I also belonged to a Christian Fundamentalist Bible and Prayer Fellowship. I also became Discordian about this time, and I still consider myself Discordian when I feel like being particularly chaotic. When I went to Utah a year ago, I attended Mormon church a few times, though I was never baptised Mormon. At the same time, I attended a multi-faith church called the Church of Religious Science. Now, I'm currently religion-free, not sure when I'll take any up again. But Hermeticism more than fulfills my spiritual needs. (Hermeticism is more of a philosophy than a religion.)

Wow... only 23 and I've had more religion than most people get in a lifetime. ^^;

Wikipedia says Paradigm Piracy is also called Metaprograming or Metabelief, both of those being a reference to Reality Hacking (which is basically "hacking" into your own mind to change your outlook on life). I personally prefer Paradigm Piracy because, well, I AM a pirate... not just a fan of old-fashioned swashbucklers, but a modern day advocate of the free sharing of knowledge (often in the form of software and music. Shh! Don't tell Bill Gates or the Record Industry!). pirate

Seriously though, paradigm piracy in the recognizable form mentioned in this thread has very deep roots in reality hacking. Hackers... and I mean REAL hackers, NOT the ones who purposely try to do harm to your computer... will claim that what they are all about is the free spread and sharing of knowledge. The justification for modern piracy is very much the same. Therefore, while all three terms fit quite well, in this context Paradigm Piracy fits the best.

I'm honestly too tired to reply with anything particularly useful... but I will say that doubt, insecurity, and confusion are the common denominators of the human condition, and that understanding, experience, expression, and exploration of one's self is one of the paramount divine goals. Therefore it does not surprise me that people shift around religions, or even shift around specific ideas while even remaining within the same religion.

Religion can address both human and spiritual needs.

Religion caters to the many human insecurities - the need for discipline, the need for hope, the need for physical ritual, the need for a support system, the need for retribution/vindication, etc. Religion just gives spirituality structure, and often the kind of structure that can provide a sense of community - the sense of not being alone on one's spiritual journey. That's just what some people need.

What degrees and forms of security a person needs, or what kind of ritual brings a person's spirituality into the physical for him or her will likely change over time. In my opinion, the best way to practice religion is in such a way that the spirit is supported and allowed to grow - not stifled. Of course, people certainly exchange genuine spiritual experience, and/or spiritual growth in order to attend to the human aspect of things, i.e. insecurity and/or a resigned sense of comfort.

Spiritual thought, spiritual insight, spiritual experience, and one's sense of spiritual being will change over time - even if these changes are not drastic enough to merit full religious "recategorization." Each person is on his or her own journey, and no two people will have the exact same sense of spiritual being, religious affiliation notwithstanding.

That all being said, someone who is changing religions all of the time, and moreover convincing him or herself that this is "the one" each time, likely has some human issues to deal with before they can really let their spiritualities flourish under religious conditions.

Again, I apologize for the confusing way in which I have written this. I'm really quite tired.