I don't mean to offend, but what if the "longing for connection" that some people feelin in regards to their spiritual drives isn't much more than the unresolved emotional longings from childhood seperation anxiety?
Need for human love that went unfulfilled that gets interp. as "I feel a longing for something more, therefore there must be something more".

The difference is here: To say something may be the case (like you have here) is not necessarily a belief. To say it is the case, however, is a belief.

Again, I will say, I am not arguing about the validity of any specific belief, just about what qualifies as a belief.