Surviving Religion

I was watching Harry Potter 8 tonight for the second time and it reminded me a lot of growing up in my parents religion. I suppose it doesn't really matter what religion it is around the world, there are always different factions of people within the religion. There were always the "If they don't believe in this religion they are all going to Hell". I usually gave these people a wide berth because I always figured that they had suffered from Child Abuse growing up and were compensating so they just wouldn't go completely nuts. Then there were the "Country Club set" who didn't really know what they believed but only came to church for the social aspect of it. They were just pretending. I usually felt put off by both of these types because God was always a very real experience for me after I was about 15. God was real when I was younger but then I was almost dying from childhood epilepsy between ages 10 and 15 and I finally had to come to terms with God in order to stay alive at all. So long about age 14 God became very real and the real fear of God or more precisely terror of God came into me. But by age 16 I decided that if I was going to belong to God that I wasn't going to be one of the ones you meet all over they world afraid of his or her shadow. NO. If I was going to have to believe in God then I was going to have fun doing it and I got into what I call the alchemy of Joy. I decided to see how much good I could do in life for people and all life in a joyful way. So, I wasn't going to be afraid of God. I was going to be the best most helpful person to God ever. So I learned to use my gifts from God to help others.

So even though I was raised a Christian Mystic or more like a California Christian New Ager you might call that today(there was no word like that in the 1950s when I grew up.) my life in some ways looked more like Harry Potter. So, when I started to read the books it reminded me of my own life. And like Harry Potter I always had a few friends that were much like Hermione and Ron and the others.

But somewhere along the way I had to leave my religion which I guess would look a lot like Harry Potter 8 supernaturally at least. And then I tried to live without the friends I knew in my religion which was very hard because I don't make lasting friends easily. I am a very loyal person but since that loyalty tends to be to the death I prefer not giving that loyalty to people not worthy of that kind of loyalty. So, I choose my deepest friends very carefully. Most of them have died now so it is my children, my wife and me and a few friends here and there in California mostly these days. Most of my relatives have died now and sometimes it feels very lonely with them all gone too. So mostly I live on for my kids now and to continue writing for those in the past, present and future on earth and beyond who can benefit from my wisdom of this lifetime.

Wisdom and enlightenment take us all by surprise when we least expect it. That has always been my experience. "The way that can be written about or spoken about is not the true path or the true way."
If you are reading what I'm writing you might say, "If this is true then why do you write?" I write because without some hints most people never get there. So just telling them that you have to experience it to understand what enlightenment is can be useful. So, I write to give hints. "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." The same is true of people. So everyone in the end has to find their own way.