Spirituality can be considered objectively and subjectively. Objectively, spirituality embraces the theories, practices and social structures that answer the subjective or existential questions that arise out of the nature of humanness. These existential questions have to do, psychologically, with identity, "Who am I?"; ontologically, with our being, "What are I?"; and teleologically, with meaning and purpose, "What am I to do?" Through stories, myths and abstract philosophies; through rituals, ceremonies, rites, prayers, meditative practices, discourse and dialogue; and through social roles, authority figures and community structures that facilitate these activities, each of the world's religions responds to these questions. And, when the answers resonate with or are meaningful for the participant, religious or spiritual experience takes place for the participants in the that particular religious community. For those whose consciousness is formed by and who participate in religious societies, spirituality consciously or subconsciously conditions their sense of what it is to be a human being, their relationships with other humans and with the world around them. In secular societies, spirituality tends to be less pervasive. It is one part of a multifaceted existence. As such, in comparison with people of traditional societies, it is experienced quite differently. Then, there are the humanists, the agnostics and the atheists who seek, and sometimes find, answers to the existential questions of existence without the dimension of transcendence, which is generally associated with the world's religions.
