Uh, nope. I think that a lot of people feel like they're part of something larger mostly because they WANT to be part of something larger not because it's reality.

I agree. Spirituality is nothing more than the feeling of awe and wonder. It's a feeling of connection to the earth. I agree it is a misinterpretation to let that give rise to a belief in gods. There is nothing magical, miraculous or mystical about a feeling of awe, wonder or connection.

The closest feeling I’ve ever experienced that could possibly be described as a spiritual feeling was the first time I saw images of multiple galaxies. I was immediately aware that what I was feeling must be what others experience through religion and labeled as spirituality.

You are aware that that feeling can be induced with a large magnet, right? It's called Transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS.

[mayoclinic.org]

Ever listened to Van Morrisons "Days like These" ? Sometimes it feels like everything is in sync, the universe loves you and it all seems to click.
And that is such a 'bigger than you ' feeling, that you cannot but help feel that there maybe is a design or purpose. And beauty, such as a landscape or a sunrise affects us deeply because internally we know it is ephemeral and fleeting, hence the awe in Being in the moment. It makes you feel so small, that like a child, you almost yearn for an adult hand to steady yourself. But we are the adults now.

I think this is an interesting article on the science behind that spiritual feeling. [livescience.com]

I believe people are more "spiritual" the same way some people are at risk of becoming alcoholics.
It's chemical dependency, the difference is spiritual people are addicted to endorphin and similar stimulating substances occurring naturally from sensory experiences, ritualistic behavior or vivid imagination.

It also seems to me that the more we learn about the nature of reality and the universe, the more we are inclined to that feeling of awe. Lack of knowledge leads to mystical explainations, superstitions, magical thinking, religion....etc. As humans sought to make sense of the world and find meaning in their experience......now we know that meaning and purpose are human constructions.....we are the meaning makers.....we make meaning individually and collectively, historically, socially, emotionally, psychologically, and even spiritually. Such meanings are revealed in the stories we tell....the lessons we share....the understanding we seek and the world we construct.

Ah, some good old woo woo.

Yes, I have thoughts on this. No.

I am an , in the fact of my existence, an insignificant flyspeck in a universe of bounded chaos.
What meaning and connection I have is that which I create by my own choices and actions.

It's not a feeling of CONNECTION TO someTHING; it's the recognition and understanding of being PART OF EVERYthing. I am not just "connected to" the universe, I am, in an important sense, an integral part of the universe. The universe is comprsed of molecules, and I am comprised of molecules. Molecules are indiscriminate in their attachment to each other, with exception to the chemistry and physics of them that leads to such attachments. I exist presently in the form I do only until those attachments become physiclly untenable, at which point my molecules will be resistributed as the molecules they are, presumaably to go about the business of being molecules and parts of the niverse. Oneness is not a spiritual belief but a recognition that we are all part of the universe, or multiversi, as it were, the oneness of everything that is. Nothing spiritual there, just scientific fact, as far as we can know it.

They're widespread globally because they're part of politics even though they shouldn't be. I believe the top are unscrupulous nonbelievers that have figured out how to control the masses with fear and promise of salvation so as they give money and turn over power. It all boils down to money and power and some killer marketing copy and gimmick.

As about the feeling of connectivity it could be there, brains are highly susceptible to suggestions and the more people claim to have a certain experience the more others will want to mimic consciously or subconsciously just to belong. We're all energy though so we do have some connection, if some can feel it great! I'm one of those that don't feel connected to anything and the closest I've come to a spiritual connection, it has been in some amazing architecture but that passes as soon as the lightening changes.

There are scientific experiments that indicate that this is part of the biochemical composition of our brain. You can actually produce these feelings by stimulating certain areas of the brain. Now if you want to speculate on why we evolved that way, that gets into evolutionary psychology, but there are indications that religion, born of spiritual feelings, provided an evolutionary survival advantage over those who did not have these feelings and the accompanying religion.

I think people search for something to give meaning and purpose. That something is, of necessity, greater than they or the others of their kind. It’s a must because they neither see themselves. Or others as being powerful enough to create all that they see. And, couple that with banding together out of the need to belong to something and be part of a larger group with like beliefs and you have the beginnings of religion. Most people can accept a greater being as the creator more easily than they can accept either not knowing or accept nothing. Again, it’s the need to belong.

Almost from the outset we humans have been trying to understand who we are, where they came from, and what is our purpose for being, if any, and if one takes a close look those are the very questions both science and art are trying to answer at this very moment. At first, I suspect that early people relied upon their five senses. They believed they saw the sun rise up in the sky each morning and disappear again every night, so those early people, as soon as tey had devised a means of communicationg with each other, made stories about the power of the sun , and they speculated that it was something to be feared. Nighttime was a time to fear, and it might have been interpreted as a kind of test devised by the sun. That's how myths began and how they continue. It's just that they have gotten much more sophisticated, sophisticated, that is until one looks closely at them and realized that they are just the latest stories we are telling trying to answer those basic questions. People mistakenly think of myth as chidish, false, and
just made up by people." Well, no shit! So are all of our explanations created by us None come from the sky in neat packages and constitute ULTIMATE TRUTH. I won't go into scientific method here, assuming that most of you know about it anyway, but I will repeat what Neils Bohr, the Nobel winning physicist of atomic theory fame once said: There are two kinds of truth: there are the trivial truths, the opposite of which are clearly false, and there are the Great Truths, the opposite of which are also true. Understanding that will carry ou far into understanding the nature of being human, but it is a quite large and complex subject.

I think people feel it at big gatherings, like spiritual revival meetings or rock concerts. It's a nice feeling.

Humans have always been good at inventing gobbildygook. Demons to frighten us. Angels to protect us. Back in the eons of time we formed tribes to ensure our personal survival. We learnt to cultivate the ground. When the rains did not come we invented angry gods to sacrifice to. We fought with other tribes to ensure our tribes survival, invented gods of war to ensure victory and sacrificed our enemies to them. We developed commerce and created nations to ensure our survival and went to war with other nations. Our leaders adopted divine powers and we conquered other nations with god on our side. Some of us still go to war with god on our side. Religions are steeped in barbarism and drenched in the blood of our ancestors. Spirituality is simply a hankering to return to mythical happier times when we lived in harmony with the earth. No such time existed. Humans are a plague upon the world

You're right about being connected to nature, but I think religious belief undermines this obvious fact. Instead of giving our love and respect to nature, people bow down and praise plastic figurines, their concept of the Creator.

In my opinion it is nothing more than wishful thinking, feel good imagination and self deception. Your mileage may vary.

Generically these are feelings of transcendence and non-duality and yes the feelings are real for many. That doesn't mean the interpretations and labels those people have to try to describe it are correct though.

I have never had a feeling of spirituality of any kind. It is a feeling that is totally alien to me.

I do not have those feelings at all.