Very interesting observations. I just wonder though, when you say, most types of spirituality are not focused on the individual being, but on bringing the individual out of himself to experience and know God, isn't that still going inward?

I'm familiar with eastern spirituality, and there is a big difference between the individual that has jobs to do the world, vs the individual that is in and through playing all the roles. This is a drawing inward, discarding superficial identities for the basic person, that is a reflection of God.

I think there has been an aspect to organized religions that have moved away from connecting the individual directly to the divine, in Catholicism it is taught that there is a need of a priest to act as God's intermediary. So the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction in the West, now the individual wants that direct experience.

But there is no real map for many people that call themselves spiritual. There's a vague idea, a feeling that being on the spiritual path is right, but no destination. Like getting on a bus without knowing where you want to go, somehow being satisfied that you're on a bus, maybe you'll end up someplace better, maybe not.

Morals and ethics have also been discarded as being outdated, every man for himself. The media perpetuates that. It's sad because these things that you mention, charity, love do evolve us as a group, like you say, and are also a source of inner happiness, a type of happiness that is sweeter than the new car, or the new stuff we're being told we need. But it's sweetness is an acquired taste, I suppose.