Lately I've been struggling with a spirituality crisis I've had all my life. Here I am, a self-loathing WASP who was raised in churches, but is embarrassed by Christianity - and yet black gospel sends chills up my spine. I can't recite the Lord's Prayer at Christmas without a twinge of guilt, yet the Soul Stirrers' "He'll Welcome Me" stirs up feelings of ecstasy. I'm skeptical about Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but the gospels of Sam, Stevie, Donny and Marvin speak to my soul as only soul music can. Maybe I've already lost you; why should you care? Well, have you ever thought about the role of music in your life? Have you been touched by a song or sought salvation in an album?

I was reborn the first time I listened to Sam Cooke. He comes from a strong gospel background, a soul pioneer by way of crossing over to popular music by changing the meaning but keeping the feeling. That feeling is the same feeling that we grasp at every day of our lives: love.

In Arthur Maslow's 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation," he describes a hierarchy of needs, represented by a pyramid. Basically, the idea is that once humans meet "basic needs," they're driven to examine "higher needs." At the base of the pyramid are physiological needs (breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, excretion) and safety needs (shelter, resources, property, employment) that are the basic criteria for simply staying alive. After those needs are satisfied, the next most important tier is love/belonging. The idea is that before you can even get to worrying about your self-esteem or self-actualization, you need love. Sexual intimacy, friends and family all come before morality, creativity, respect and confidence. Soul searching is done only after the depths of the heart have been plumbed.

Music hits you at that primal level. It's not more important than survival, but when it's done right music can provide that sense of belonging we crave - it can take away pain, it can inspire, motivate and ease stress and tension. For a long time music has been used as a means to transcend worldly suffering.

Religion has used music as the most direct line of communication to a higher force since its foundation. At the basis of it is underlying beat. These days it seems like the groove is fading a bit - the music industry is sanitized of emotion, let alone grit. Even in a nation ruled by conservatism, spirituality scares people - and as a result the message has gone from love to fear. The focus is outward, as if examining your problems on any deeper level is frightening. It's tremendously sad and indicative of our current generation that blues is dead and its spirit is masquerading in a bastard form called emo.

Musicians will tell you nothing is better than the feeling you're channeling music from a higher place. The beautiful thing is we're all capable of it with a little hard work and an open mind. It's not easy, but fortunately we've been blessed with a handful of prophets did us the favor of recording their moments of transcendence. You can't tell me that there wasn't something greater than man speaking through Sam Cooke or Stevie Wonder's voice or preaching through John Coltrane's saxophone. If you can't find some comfort in their work, how about the poetry of Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen?

The words don't have to be explicitly spiritual to convey a greater love. Different religions have different ways of expressing this higher meaning, but if a lesson from music can be translated to theology, it's that its best to blend voices. I don't only listen to gospel - in fact, I don't think there's a genre I wouldn't like to explore. But for me it seems like the music that most moves me can be traced back to holy roots. It's a strange dichotomy between what I listen to and what I believe - or what I feel and what I think I know. It's human nature to seek meaning in things, and music is no exception, but if you let go of the message and concentrate on the energy, sit back and open your ears and mind, you might just find yourself vibrating along with the universe.