The American writer Edgar Allan Poe produced a short story titled The Purloined Letter that is considered to be one of the progenitors of the detective story as we know it today. It involves a valuable manuscript that cannot be found by the police despite a careful search. Poe’s protagonist, M. Dupin, finds the letter hidden in plain sight, disguised as a different manuscript by writing on the reverse side, and then rolling it up to conceal the “true” writings. Sometimes we complicate the search for spiritual support in much the same way, ignoring the obvious while searching high and low for the obscure.

Those who pursue the spiritual life, for whom the concept of spirituality is not a theory but rather a path to be lived, ought to know what they are getting out of it. We in recovery came to the quest for a healthy lifestyle from somewhere else. People who have that blessing from the beginning take it for granted, and rarely go out looking for something better. They just live their happy lives and let the rest of us run around searching for a better way to do things. How fortunate they are!

But we are fortunate as well, because the mass of humanity that preceded us spent a good deal of effort looking for the selfsame things that we seek: relative freedom from want, pain, and loneliness, intellectual stimulation, and a reasonably good life for ourselves and our loved ones. Although by virtue of their penchant for procreation they have left us, their heirs, with some trenchant problems, they have also left us with a rich spiritual heritage on which to draw. I do not necessarily speak of religion (although religion can and does serve its purpose for many), but more of the traditions that underlie the various doctrinal paths. If we do not explore these side paths and merely strike off across the swamp on our own, we may discover our journey to be highly unsatisfactory

Many people have problems with religion. This may be a result of having been stuffed, a square peg, into too many round holes over the course of our formative years. It may be due to the hypocrisy of people who taught ethical precepts from one side of the mouth while violating them with the other, from realizing that God can’t be on everyone’s side, no matter what the preachers say, or from simple lack of exposure to enough alternatives, or because of a complete loss of faith. Every religion, however, has its pluses along with its minuses — the cultural artifacts peculiar to it that may cause that brand of spirituality to fit an individual best, even though the dogma does not.

Very few, for example, would say that they have problems with the teachings of Jesus. The Beatitudes, love thy neighbor, be slow to anger, don’t overreact, take care of each other — what’s not to like? Boil it down, and Christian teaching parallels that of all the great teachers before and since. The problems arise when ordinary people try to bend ideas to fulfill their own agendas. As Chief Sitting Bull is reputed to have said, “I would have more faith in the long-haired grandfather in Washington if he did not have so many bald-headed thieves working for him.” This could be applied equally to the shamans. The concepts aren’t that complicated, and one can only wonder what hubris has prompted some to assume that their interpretation is superior to that of anyone else.

Fortunately, every tradition that I know of has spiritual side paths that emphasize living its precepts rather than slavishly clinging to dogma. Many people are able to find the style of worship and the spiritual support they need in those directions. Others feel a need to explore outside their birth traditions, Western to African or Asian, perhaps. Some avoid the concept of religion altogether, nonetheless becoming involved with gurus and other “spiritual guides” who are simply pushing their own off-brand version of older traditions and ideas. When someone claims to have invented a better mouse trap, rest assured that the path will most often lead to a gilded door.

One of the dangers that we run into in rejecting traditional paths altogether is in finding ourselves out of the frying pan and into the fire. Anyone who has had a close encounter with Scientology, for example, or with the Rev. Moon’s organization, can attest to their being just as controlling, in their ways, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses — the difference being that they treat their more docile members very well indeed, reserving the mailed fist beneath the velvet glove for those who stray too far.

Yet another pitfall is winding up with something that looks good, sounds good, but really doesn’t fill the empty place inside. Many of the more eclectic paths fall into this category, allowing their members so much leeway in practice that they might as well raid the New Age section of the library and make up their own path (which, one suspects, many have done).

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking doing your own thing nor, for that matter, the Rev. Moon’s church, if it is right for you. If, however, we try to force ourselves into something new simply because it is new, we run the risk of finding ourselves in the same pew in a different church, frantically trying to fit ourselves into that misshapen hole again.

The key is happiness. Do the others seem happy? I do not mean the lah-dee-dah happiness of people with little substance, but the happiness of people who have minds and who aren’t afraid to use them. Even more importantly, do you find yourself happier, once you’ve gotten your feet wet? If the old shades are still haunting you, you might be searching for the cure in the wrong place — perhaps even searching for the wrong cure. Many a seeker has sought for years, finally finding salvation, not in the circle of a guru, but in the office of a good therapist.

We are ill-advised to throw out the established traditions unless we are sure we are moving toward something better for us. Human thought and consensus built the world’s great traditions, and they are what they are because a majority of people found in them what they needed. When that stops happening, traditions change and move toward the new consensus. That is true of all organizations — some are just more responsive than others. Perhaps our best path is one that is familiar, yet somewhat diverted from the rut we’ve been in. It is much easier to learn a new dialect than a new language.

The final result of a spiritual search should be contentment, relative happiness, and an occasional time of joy — that wonderful feeling that everything is in its place, all is right with the world, and there’s no place on Earth you’d rather be. If you don’t see yourself progressing in that direction, perhaps a review of the road map could be in order.