Also, in Voyager, more crew people than ever before in a Star Trek series have religious beliefs of some form or another. Both Klingon and Vulcan are represented, as are Talaxian, Ocampan, and Borg. Additionally, the juxtaposition of the goals and aspirations of the Captain and other Starfleet crewmembers with the concerns of non-Starfleet personnel highlights the many ways Starfleet doctrine and science serve as a religion to many. Granted, Not every member of the crew purports to belong to a religion. Also, some religions mentioned remain very ambiguous with very few details, suggesting either the beliefs are not very extensive and apply to only certain aspects of life, or the writers simply didn't care to develop them any further.

However, despite this occasional ambiguity, some of the characters' spirituality and religious beliefs are touched on time and again throughout the seven-year run of the series. Click on the individuals below to learn more about that crew member's experiences with the unknown and the way those beliefs are treated by the other characters, and the show in general.

In this "Sacred Ground," Kes, in an attempt to explore a sacred altar, is knocked unconscious by a forcefield. The people of the planet all offer their condolences insisting that there is no way to help revive Kes because she has been punished for entering into the sacred space. Janeway, however, learns of an ancient ritual that may be able to revive Kes, believing that some biological or chemical change needs to take place, allowing an individual to walk into the temple unharmed. Janeway goes through the ritual only to be told that everything she's done during it is meaningless, and that all she needs to do is take Kes through the forcefield and she will be healed.

All rational thought would suggest that if Janeway were to walk through the forcefield she would suffer the same fate as Kes, and Kes, passing through it a second time, would most likely be killed. However, there is no alternative option, and all potential remedies considered by the doctor using more scientific means have failed. So Janeway does as she is instructed and carries Kes through the forcefield and she awakens immediately. Later, in Sickbay, the doctor spouts off a complicated medical explanation for what happened, but Janeway isn't interested, calling the doctor's explanation "very scientific."

While this experience doesn't cause Janeway to join a monastery or burn copies of the periodic table, it does open her mind to other possibilities. Not that she was ever completely close-minded to spiritual beliefs. Early in the series, with the help of Commander Chakotay, she finds her animal guide and seeks it out for guidance ("The Cloud"),The Captian's log at the end of the episode suggested she continued the practice for at least a time after the initial ceremony. However, when faced with a problem, she always seeks for the scientific answer. In the end, while she always finds religion rather silly, she doesn't disregard its importance in the lives of her crew.

Chakotay's beliefs were clearly an important part of who he was on the show and those beliefs were respected by other members of the crew. In the episode "Cathexis," Chakotay fell into a coma. His friend, B'elanna Torres set up a medicine wheel to "help his soul find it's way back--find actual quote." Not only that, the holographic Doctor was programmed with complete knowledge of documented Native American medical practices, suggesting the medical minds of the future find certain unconventional healing techniques useful, either because they serve some physiological function or just to appease followers of that faith that may opt for their beliefs to be considered when receiving medical treatment.

In many episodes there are discussions of spirit guides, an animal that offers help and guidance in times of need. When Janeway asks him to help her find her animal guide, she practices a simplistic ceremony in which the traditional practice has been updated using technology common to the 24th century. There is also mention he once helped BÕelanna find her animal guide, and when Neelix is going through a difficult time, Chakotay helps him go through a spiritual experience to help him find some answers.

Alongside his traditional beliefs, Chakotay remains a firm believer in science. Before leaving to be a leader in the Maquis, Chakotay had left his father and his people to join Starfleet where he could study things and learn about other cultures professionally. Despite his devotion to certain Starfleet and scientific ideals, however he accepts that there are some things that science can't explain. Thus, his inclination is to look for the scientific explanation for any phenomenon, but he also respects the beliefs of others ("Emanations").

It's this suppression of emotion, however, that earns Tuvok a number of flippant insults, most notably from Tom Paris, the hotshot, sarcastic pilot, but also from other characters throughout the series when they shrug off his insistence on logic and often smug demeanor that comes with it. Of course, half the fun of teasing a Vulcan is that he or she will do nothing about it. After all, they can't get angry. And it's fun to watch them "squirm."

Regardless, Tuvok continues his religious practice, consisting of intense meditation. He also helps others with meditation.

• He works with Harry, to help him recover from a crush on a holographic character
• He assists Kes in gaining more control of her Ocampan mindÕs advanced abilities
• He works with Crewman Lon Suder to develop self-control after he commits a murder
• He helps BÕelanna learn to better control over her emotions.

Paris has no particular religious beliefs, and unlike Chakotay and Janeway, he has no real adoration for science either nor does he care much for the Prime Directive, and while he only breaks it once, in "30 Days," he fights Janeway and her devotion to it a number of times throughout the series. Regardless, he's still presented as very moral and very loyal. He spends most of his free time obsessing over the 20th century and designing programs for the holodeck. That doesn't mean, however, that he lives with total disregard for spirituality. He's particularly encouraging to his girlfriend B'elanna, a half-Klingon with a distaste for her Klingon half. He is almost more Klingon than her in his affinity for Klingon culture and he leads her to participate in various Klingon rituals and traditions, and later, when Tom and B'elanna's unborn child is thought to be a savior of a small sect of Klingons, Tom seems far more interested in the possibility than B'elanna.

In "Barge of the Dead" B'Elanna falls into a coma when her shuttle gets trapped in an ion storm. While unconscious she experiences dying and waking up on the Barge of the Dead, a ship that's a part of Klingon mythology that ferries the dishonored warriors into Grethor, a Klingon version of hell. While on the barge, B'Elanna encounters her mother with whom she hadn't spoken in 10 years. As learned from this episode and others, B'Elanna's mother was very serious about Klingon culture and beliefs, and was committed to passing on those ideas to her daughter, going so far as to send B'Elanna to a Klingon monastery to teach her "honor and discipline" and she prayed to Kahless, the most honored Klingon warrior "every day to guide me in the Ways of the Warrior." B'Elanna resisted the traditions, feeling that it was her mother's tendency to go a little overboard with Klingon rituals that caused her human father to abandon her at a young age.

Once she comes out of a coma she believes that what she has experienced is true and when she discovers that her mother was sent to Grethor because of the dishonor of her daughter, B'Elanna takes it into her own hands to take her mother's place in Grethor and ensure her mother's safety in Sto-vo-kor, the Klingon heaven. Although Captain Janeway denies her request to simulate her prior near-death experience to revisit the barge of the dead and save her mother, she comes to understand B'Elanna's need to go through this religious experience and eventually wishes her a sincere Q'apla ("success") as the Lieutenant begins her journey.

As mentioned before, Tom, is also supportive of his girlfriend's religious explorations. In an earlier episode, "Day of Honor," he uses his holoprogramming skills to help her design a program which would allow her to go through a Klingon ritual. When she doesn't want to go through with it, he (and Neelix, the friendly chef) encourage her to do it anyway. In "Barge of the Dead" he reprises this support. Although he's not thrilled about the woman he loves recreating a near-death experience in a medical simulation that could easily go wrong, he's ready and willing to help her explore those beliefs, "Look, I'll read the scrolls. I'll learn Klingon! We'll figure this out--together."

While not the point of the episode, Barge of the Dead leaves unanswered the question of whether B'Elanna's experiences were real or not. That would be another test of the sincerity with which the show as a whole views religion. It's never explicitly stated that Miral did, in fact, pass away, however, when B'elanna is able to speak to her father for the first time since he walked out, he speaks about Miral in the past tense saying, "she would have liked that," suggesting that B'elanna's experiences may hold some semblance of validity.

While there's no evidence that the experience affects Harry, throughout the series he is among the most open-minded, tolerant, and accepting members of the crew. Never really saying anything derogatory, even to Tuvok.

As a hologram, many of the stories involving the Doctor deal with issues of what it means to be a person, despite this he rarely has any interaction with issues of religion. When B'elanna is arranging Chakotay's medicine wheel, he corrects a mistake while saying nothing of its efficacy. When B'elanna chooses to recreate her near death experience he agrees with no argument.

While he is never really a religious follower, he does occasionally find himself as a religious leader. In Fair Haven, a holographic re-creation of a pleasant little 19th century Irish town created by Tom Paris, the Doctor plays the part of the town priest. He takes his part rather seriously going so far as to actually write sermons and request to Tom that his role be expanded. There is little to no content to his role as clergy. It's merely a little bit of fun. He finds himself as a real-life religious leader, however, in the seventh season two-parter "Flesh and Blood."

In "Flesh and Blood" Voyager encounters some renegade holograms created by the Hirogen, a predatory species that used Voyager's holographic technology to create holographic beings to hunt so they would never run out of prey. The holograms were programmed to learn, however, and became very adept fighters. Voyager was recruited to help the Hirogen fight them off and in the process the Doctor found himself on the ship with the rebellious holograms. Because he is the same kind of entity as themselves and yet has the respect and admiration of his fellow crewmembers, the other holograms choose to make him a prophet and looks to him for guidance regarding how to achieve similar autonomy. In the end the Doctor rejects his role as spiritual leader and helps to destroy the holograms that have become too violent and misguided to be redeemable. While he is shaken up by the experience there seems to be little residual spiritual impact.

Talaxians are kind of like Delta Quadrant hobbits. They're happy, optimistic people who love to eat and share stories in the company of friends. Descriptions of their home planet Talax even bears a resemblance to the more happy portions of Middle Earth, including lush, green forests that serve as the backdrop of the most developed religious belief among Talaxians featured on the show, and that is the belief about the afterlife, which we learn details about in the episode "Mortal Coil."

In this episode, Neelix is killed by a beam of energy on a shuttle mission. When the shuttle returns to Voyager, Seven is able to use Borg technology to revive him. Neelix is discomfited when he is brought back, however, because, while he is told that he was indeed dead, he did not experience the Talaxian afterlife. According to the Talaxian understanding of death, Neelix would find himself at the Great Forest surrounded by all of his deceased loved ones. As his entire family had died in a rather brutal war, he had found great peace and comfort in knowing that one day he would see them all again. When he learns this is a false hope, he doesn't quite know what to think.

When it's clear his reversed death has caused the Talaxian emotional damage, Chakotay helps him come to terms with some things by helping him reach an intense meditative state to find some answers. While meditating Neelix sees visions of his family telling him how silly his faith is and it drives him further into disorientation causing him to choose to kill himself. In the end, Chakotay finds him in time and reminds him that regardless of whether his beliefs are wrong or right, Neelix is a part of the Voyager family, and people need him, and he can't throw that away.

In the end that seems to be enough for Neelix. The episode ends with Naomi, Neelix's god-daughter, dreaming of the Great Forest that Neelix had told her so much about, suggesting that regardless of whether the Great Forest, or any kind of afterlife or spiritual world is real or not, it can bring comfort to people. In the end, maybe that's enough.

As a Borg who has been disconnected from the "hive mind" as they call it, she learns to value her individuality and seeks to develop it (with the help of the Doctor) throughout the years. However, as she spent most of her life as a Borg, she still seeks perfection in everything she does.

That perfection is Seven's religion, and she has her own spiritual experience in the episode "The Omega Directive." In this episode Voyager encounters the Omega molecule, a very powerful molecule that can be disastrous if put in the wrong hands. Starfleet captains are the only ones notified of the moleculeÕs existence and they are commanded to destroy it immediately if they ever discover one.

The Borg are interested in it for another reason. Due to its power and nature it is viewed as absolute perfection. When Voyager discover some Omega molecules Seven requests the chance to stabilize it saying to Chakotay, "If you had the chance to see your God, your Great Spirit, what would you do?" While Voyager still destroys the molecule, Seven watches it stabilize itself shortly before being jettisoned from the ship. Janeway calls it her first spiritual experience, because, as Seven put it "For 3.2 seconds, I saw perfection."

One thing that is established is that the Ocampa have rather interesting mental abilities. These abilities have been mostly disregarded by most Ocampa and are viewed merely as age-old myths, however, as was established in "Caretaker," Kes believes them to be true. The Ocampa simply forgot how to access those abilities when they began depending too much on the Caretaker, an entity that protects the Ocampa and provides them with everything they need.

Kes proves her theory right when she gains the ability to rearrange matter, and she eventually progresses to such a state that she feels there's nothing left for her on Voyager and she leaves to achieve a higher, more advanced state of being ("The Gift").