Learning about Comparative Religion

 I was breaking up with a girlfriend in my church that I had planned to marry then in 1969 and the astronauts had just landed on the moon for the first time the month before. It was August of 1969 and I was about to get into my 1968 Camaro and drive home from Shasta Springs (between Dunsmuir and Mt. Shasta City). I kid I knew from church in Long Beach because I was a member of the Los Angeles Church that I had met when I was 14 and he about 11 in Long Beach and our parents knew each other and sometimes had dinner together too.

He came up to me as I was planning to get into my car to drive south to Los Angeles where I had a job as an electrician that day and return to work on Monday the next day after driving about 12 to 14 hours south to Los Angeles. I was 21 then and my friend was about 18. HE was the ideal age to become sort of a hippy which was frowned upon by the church I was in and he wore often about 18 or 20 harmonicas in a belt around his waist and wore his hair like the Early Beatles. 

He was tired of his parents arguing all the time and so he thought: "I wonder if I could get a ride back with Fred to Los Angeles (where he lived in Palos Verdes more near Long Beach) instead of riding back with his parents arguing the whole way home. He was still in high school and I was upset about the break up of a 2 year long relationship girlfriend and I. He asked if he could get a ride home with me. I thought this might be a great idea because he also had a driver's license and might help me drive the 12 to 14 hours driving back home to Los Angeles County so I could be fresher on Monday for work as an electrician in Los Angeles.

So, we started driving south on old Highway 99 then because Interstate 5 wasn't put through yet up the Sacramento Valley.

As we drove we talked about stuff and I was really surprised at how intelligent a person he was and how he liked to climb mountains like I did. When we got down as far as Yosemite National Park I decided for us to climb Half Dome Monday instead of returning to work. (though this later got me fired from my job) it was worth it because I had a new friend that I had made for climbing mountains.

So, I thought it was worth it to lose my job to make a good friend (a new climbing buddy). Also, he was into Rock Climbing too and got me to start using ropes and pitons for safety too because I was a free climber the rest of my life before this. So, I was less likely to die or get injured using ropes and pitons which he already owned which was helpful.

Then I talked him into going to the "I AM" School in Santa Fe, New Mexico which I had graduated from 3 years previous to this. So, that fall he left for Santa Fe and made a girlfriend there at school which was good for him.

However, then they learned that he had a rock n roll band and the church kicked him out of the church for having a rock n roll band because our church was very conservative then about things like this.

So, he was only at the "I AM" school for a few months before he was expelled for being a rock n Roll keyboardist and singer in his own band which was called Bulls eye Electric at that time. He also had already opened for Chicago the rock group at the Los Angeles Forum by then too. and his band were all from Palos Verdes High school there in Palos Verdes. Several of his band mates became professional musicians as well as him after graduating college.

Then he studied Comparitive religion at UCLA and got first his bachelor's degree there and then eventually his Master's degree in History specializing in Buddhism and Sanskrit (the language).

This is where comparative religion influence me a lot where I realized that all religions are pretty similar. 

They all try to shape what you eat and how you get married and wanting your children to be the same religion as you so that money flows back to your religion in the present and future forever if possible.

In understanding all religions I began to understand better the religion I had been raised in too.

However, because we were in Los Angeles there were many influences like from India Especially because the Beatles had studied with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi by then too and so he became very famous like the Beatles in his own way through Transcendental Meditaton nationwide and worldwide.