I’ve met quite a few people I’ve come to think of as ‘seekers’. They’re religious people without a religion. They may try out various religions or sects, rejecting each one in turn when they fail to come up to expectations. We even had a C of E rector in our village who’d done this – he’d tried various denominations. The last I heard of him, he was doing missionary work in Africa. Poor Africans.

A woman who contacted me about joining our Humanist group was keen on crystals. She clutched them, apparently, because they did something or other to calm her. I’m afraid she lost interest in joining the group when I commented that I didn’t think that clutching crystals was any more likely to benefit me than clutching a pair of wellies. Stroking the cat’s a different matter; there is evidence that cat stroking (or stroking any furry pet) lowers your blood pressure. As my blood pressure is already very low (an effect of ME), I have to ration my cat stroking for fear of going comatose. Being stroked by someone you love is quite nice too!

But seriously: if you’re looking for spiritual guidance or some sort of transcendental enlightenment, we’re not for you. Humanism is for free-thinkers, with the emphasis on thinking. We don’t do emotional manipulation, or any of that new-agey, blot out the world and feel good stuff. We do thinking, talking, reading, arguing, friendship, and laughing. We don’t do gurus, but we often feel good anyway.