How many religions have you personally checked into?

[mopaul]

I myself was raised Methodist, drifted into southern baptist, and then became a crazy hindu. now i'm a cranky atheist.

how many sects have you checked out in your quest for the right spiritual group for you?

[RetroLounge]

1. I was raised Lutheran (sort of)

When I found out checking into the insane asylum was optional, I opted out.

But no organized religion does not mean no spirituality.

RL

[NMDemDist2]

2. self delete

I don't think I want to go there.... let's just say lots.

[Maat]

3. I checked into UU, Church of Religious Science and UCC.

I developed the following list, and I read the FAQ's on the website. I regularly attend both UU and Church of Religious Science.

My list of Progressive Churches: questions about them can be answered at the following websites.

Church of Religious Science (focused on affirmations, positive thinking, affirmative prayer),
http://www.rsintl.org/
http://www.religiousscience.org/

Episcopalian Church Main Website:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/index_flash.htm

Judaism – Reconstructionist Judaism: Main website:
http://www.jrf.org/sitetour.html

Metropolitan Community Churches,
http://www.mccchurch.org/

Quaker – Society of Friends (peace-oriented),
http://www.quaker.org/

United Church of Christ (Rev. Barry Lynn, J.D., of Americans United for Separation of Church and State is ordained through these fine folks; they did the great welcoming commercial),
http://www.ucc.org/index4.html

Unitarian-Universalist,
http://www.uua.org/

Unity,
http://www.unity.org/

And to find the perfect faith for you, a very helpful test:
http://www.beliefnet.com/index.html?rnd=538
(take the Belief-o-Matic Test)

By 'progressive churches,' I took a look at churches that passed $ up to an administrative body, with that administrative body passing resolutions or having official policies that were open and affirming.

[CatholicEdHead]

4. Raised Catholic

still Catholic, but going to see how the next few years go with Pope Benedict and may look at ELCA Lutheran or the Unitarian Universalists sometime in the future.

[Wickerman]

5. uh

about 4 or 5. All variations of Christianity.

[KlatooBNikto]

6. I was born a Presbyterian,read a lot about Buddhism but like to

call myself an Existentialist after reading a great deal of Sartre and Camus.I personally do not believe in any supernatural beings,do not believe in the after life, do not even want to admit that our life has nay meaning other than what we ascribe to it and what our acts give to it.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. several

I was raised in the Methodist Church and left it in my 30s to become a Sufi initiate. My particular order is universal in nature; all paths lead to God. We are encouraged to explore different spiritual paths. I have participated in numerous inipis (sweatlodge ceremonies), have supported people on humblechia (vision quest) several times, and supported at Sun Dance once. I have participated in kirtan and arti (Hindu ceremonies) and have witnessed a Tibetan Buddhist ceremony. I have been blessed by Hindu holy people, listened to lamas lecture, and have visited the tomb of a Sufi Murshid and been blessed by Sufi masters. As part of my training in the Universal Worship, I have read and studied the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism ans well as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

[G_j]

19. we share some experiences it seems

myself,

lots & lots of sweats, three vision quests (have one more to complete)
seasonal 'Pagan' ceremonies, Dances of Universal Peace, Tibetan Buddhism, went to India...Registered as a CO during the VN war as a Taoist.
Baptized in a Mystical Christian Church. go figure..

My personal philosophy is if someone has a problem with "God" add an "O" and make it "Good".
Supreme being or no, we can be good to one another and make the world a better, healthier place.
I really don't care at all what people believe, it is how they live in this world and treat their fellow beings, the earth etc.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

55. Glad to meet you!

You are the first poster here I've talked with who has done Native American ceremony. My husband is a pipe carrier in the Lakota tradition and, like you, has done three vision quests. We lead the Dances of Universal Peace in Springfield MO, Harrison AR, Newton County AR, and Fayetteville AR (usually one venue per weekend). If you're ever in our neck of the woods, come by and say hi or join the Dance circle. Here's the website with locations and times:

http://www.ozarkdancecircle.us

worth a peek just to see the sunrise picture.

[G_j]

56. there are some

others here, you can mostly find them in the Astrology/Alternative Healing forum and the Meeting Room. I really connected with myself in a way I hadn't before when I came in contact with Native American elders/teachers. It began when I was working as an activist on Native American rights issues. I then began meeting some people that opened up a whole new landscape to me.

I enjoyed visiting the website! I've always heard the Ozarks are very
beautiful. I would love to see them someday. I live in the Smokey Mts of NC.
Reading about the Zikr was very nice. I once attended one held in one of Joseph Rael's (Beautiful Painted Arrow) 'Sound/Peace chambers'. I still have a tape somewhere.

also a long time member and friend of this lodge/church.
www.whiteaglelodge.org

& good to meet you too! :-)

[manic expression]

8. Interesting:

I was raised (and am being raised) in a Episcopalian (Anglican) family. I am now a Hindu.

A few questions: What do you mean by "crazy" Hindu? And for what reasons did you become an atheist? (I'm just wondering)

[mopaul]

13. i myself am crazy

so my hinduism was as well. but i still tend to cling to it, rather than christianity. i used to ask the preacher things that he had no real satisfying answers for, later i seemed to find them in the baghavad gita. the hari krishna movement attracted me, by way of george harrison. but i fell into despair later, at how it also left me with many unanswered questions.

became an atheist through many paths, but mainly when three members of my family became born again loonies. 35 years ago.

but i feel happier now spritually than ever believe it or not.

[manic expression]

20. Hmm....

I've never been sure about the Hare Krishna's. Some seem to deny that they are themselves Hindus. Did you ever go into the more "conventional" (an EXTREMELY LOOSE TERM, by the way) Hindu practices?

I feel that the Gita is one facet of the entire picture, but it is popular because it addresses action (Karma Yoga), whereas other writings focus on the higher truths (various Upanishads, for instance).

It is great that you have found a place of satisfaction. I hope the best for you.

[mopaul]

21. i didn't shave my head or join an ashram

but was considering it. gave up meat for 4 years, read the gita and other books a lot, but never joined the hares. i think maybe i might believe in reincarnation and karma. but i don't know.

love the Buddhist tenets, and the hindu's too. love their benevolence.

[Flammable Materials]

9. 90-Day Money-Back Trials and Tribulations

Grew up Church of Christ. Rejected it.

Married into an ultra-conservative Lutheran denomination. Ultimately rejected it.

Investigated the Baha'i Faith. Could not reconcile with their stance against homosexuality and the fact that no women serve in the highest levels of authority (Universal House of Justice).

Investigated Paganism and Wicca. I respect them, even though I have finally come to the conclusion that I do not believe in deity.

[Tux]

10. Well

I started out Protestant, then atheist, then Wiccan, then Buddhist, then UU and discovered my beliefs have a name: Deism. Other religions have wisdom that is useful but we all search for meaning.

[etherealtruth]

11. Raised Catholic (RC) ...

Best friend as a kid was Lutheran, we alternated whose church we went to on Sundays. Lived with a Pentecostal (don't ask). Graduated from a Jewish nursing school ( I was able to learn a great deal about Judaism). Married a Muslim (divorced him, but learned a lot about Islam).

I'm probably more agnostic than anything ----but, I love religion, religious tradition, religious holidays and celebrations.

I don't want it "shoved down my throat" and I DO NOT want religious customs and dogma converted into law.

Edit: forgot, I managed a dementia unit in a UCC facility and was very impressed by the progressiveness of the UCC.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. I was raised Lutheran and became an Episcopalian, but along the

way, I had close contact with Judaism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto.

[NNadir]

14. Born Episcopalian and once was invited to a free lunch by the Moonies...

(I accepted because I was hungry.) I actually listened to an incomprehensible lecture from them for about 2 hours in exchange for an American cheese sandwich on white bread with mayonnaise and no tomato.

For many years I was a serious student of Zen Buddhism as interpreted by Alan Watts: It was a California kind of thing to do.

I've been, though, an atheist at heart since I was an adolescent. I am still an atheist.

Lately I'm very frightened that I will someday be arrested for this. I'm trying to get out of the country.

[LostinVA]

15. Catholic to Atheist to Neo-Pagan (within about 20 years)

[customerserviceguy]

16. Several

Started out Catholic, went to Nichren Shoshu Buddhism, back to Catholic, Episcopalian after the divorce, then the Bahai faith. Gave that one up about ten years ago, all religion is mind control disguised as "guidance".

Remember that old seventies' saw, "Drugs are a crutch for people who can't handle reality" (before Nancy Reagan's even catchier "Just Say No")? The stoners came back with, "Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs." To me, religion is the ultimate crutch.

[Pithy Cherub]

17. Christianity on main street, took a left at Tao Ave,

made the curve doing 90 at Gnosticism Way, double parked into Bhuddism Lane and reversed into a more spritual Christian cul de sac.

on edit: forgot about the speeding ticket on the way to Zen lessons

[Speck Tater]

18. Six

Raised Catholic. As a child I stopped going and declared myself to be a Buddhist. Was Lutheran for a while while dating my Lutheran first wife. Remain "closet Buddhist." Got baptized Mormon and excommunicated shortly thereafter, probably for being too Buddhist. Married my second wife in her church, I forget which denomination. Stopped goin when she left me a year later. Spent several years at the Unity church where they tolerate Buddhists, and adopt a lot of Buddhist ideas. Finally, settled back into being openly what I've really been all along; an eclectic, non-sectarian, hermit Taoist/Buddhist. (Too many Buddhists are too intersted in being a Buddhist and not interested enough in being a Buddha. IMHO The first step is to throw away all the robes and malas and incense and mandalas and mantras and stop being so hung up on playing the "I'm a Buddhist" game. And the second step is to stop trying to be Buddha.)

[Cleita]

22. I was raised a Catholic, but somewhere in the seventh

grade I realized that all religions are man made. Although I went to Friday night services with my Jewish friend to keep her company and I have been to weddings of other denominations, I haven't really sought any religion. I kind of have made up my own beliefs that I live by, allthough I do study the literature and beliefs of other religions for knowledge and nothing else.

No human being knows the answers, so no human being can make up a religion.

[n2mark]

23. None

I've been a Catholic all my l life also an ex-nun. I've been a strong supporter of the catholic church, but recently being torn. I am checking into UCC.org. My church does not seem to care if I attend or not, only if I give $$$'s. At 63 yrs of age I'm having a problem with my current church. I should be at peace with my church at my age, I'm not.

I remain with the idea the Catholic church and the fundies are working together. If so, this is not my church. I keep going back to the fact that shrub and his entourage attended the Pope's funeral, this is something new. U.S. Presidents don't usually attend. The fact the shrub met with the College of Cardinals before the election of a new pope bothers me... something smells. It does not smell, it reeks with something, this truly bothers me.

Am I making sense?

[mopaul]

25. to me, you're making sense

bush's sudden coziness with the RCC is suspect at least.

the catholic church has been put through the ringer lately, it's enough to shake anyone.

keep searching searcher.

[yella_dawg]

24. Born Pagan

But I didn't know it for decades. I was raised in the bible belt and when I figured out Santa Clause, I just applied the same reasoning to god. (This was in `60 - `61. The only god *anybody* in small town Texas had heard of back then was the Christain one.) I learned fairly quickly that my logic wasn't popular. And it didn't really satify me. After a few years, I realized that the only true "church" was to be found deep in the woods in the shade of a majestic tree. I was maybe ten. Haven't changed my mind since.

[Cleita]

27. I'm not a Pagan, but I know what you mean about

going into the forest and communing with the tree spirits. It's really strong when there aren't any people around to distract you.

[mopaul]

28. the whole santa thing threw me for a loop too

my folks went to a great deal of trouble for many years to convince me of the exsistence of santa, then i found out from other kids it was all a hoax. sunday school never seemed the same after that.

that and the death of george reeves, superman.

[Dervill Crow]

35. That was my experience, too.

I figured that Jesus and Santa Claus were both myths. My parents couldn't explain to my satisfaction why some people went to church.

I also thought we were Catholic because we weren't Jewish. My dad's army dog tags said he was Catholic, and that really threw me for a loop until he told me he said that because he couldn't think of anything else.

When I was little I thought I was a witch. My mom loved the occult, so we had gypsy fortune telling cards and a ouija board and other very cool stuff. She was very pagan, but she was from the south and called herself a baptist. She would be horrified if she saw what the baptist church is all about now.

[Dervill Crow]

26. Five and a half.

1. Raised agnostic and interested in Native American religion and Buddhism as a teen. Studied Judaism at 19 since my boyfriend was Jewish.
2. Got born again and confirmed Lutheran at 24. Stayed seriously evangelical for about ten years.
3. Worshipped at a Messianic Jewish synagogue for a short while.
4. Back to very reform Judaism, including attending Cybershul on my computer.
5. Eclectic neopagan at 40, British tradition Wicca at 50.

[leanin_green]

29. Here's my list in the order I check them out.

Raised Seventh-day Adventist.
Moved to Utah and checked out the Mormons.
Went in the Navy, Okinawa and checked out Buddists.
Transferred to Bible Belt and checked out:
Baptist
Missionary Baptist
Penecostal
Church of God
Church of God in Christ
Methodist
Catholic
Lutheren
Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
Went to California, checked out
Universalists
Studied under a Zen Buddist
Shamanism under a Crow medicine woman
Studied my ancient heritage(English)and Druidism
Have blended Native American and Druid and Earth Wisdom.

[mopaul]

32. what a trip!

what a long strange trip. i like where you ended up after your long journey.

[leanin_green]

46. Thanks, it's actually the only time. . .

when humanity all believed in basically the same things. When we believed everything was alive and connected. I have done a lot of searching. Christianity today doesn't feed my soul. But I do believe in the Christ.

[Crowdance]

33. Wow! There and back again!

I thought I might post my long history as a "spiritual dilletante," but I couldn't possibly compare. I have sorta' ended up where you ended but without a whole lot of the middle portion of your list. Mahalo!

[leanin_green]

45. Washte yello.

[PsychoDad]

30. A few...

Was raised southern baptist, preacher's kid. Had problems with Christian theology but was so brainwashed by them that there was only one other alternative that I became a satanist (COS), looked into TOS and drifted more into a Luciferian philosophy (That's where I discovered Crowley). The harmony of philosophical Taoism attracted me, along the way I became a wiccan, studied Hinduism, Krishna, Santaria, New Age Ideas and spent nearly 15 years as a die hard Thelemite. (Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law).

Rammadan 2 years ago I took the Shahada and became Muslim.

Pretty wild trip.

[BiggJawn]

31. Several, and they're all bullshit.

I was raised more or less Lutheran. Grandma exposed me to Catholicism. I checked-out that Pentecostal insanity (Holy-Roller Bed-Hoppers. When Gawd says you picked the wrong one, it's OK to change)
And Judaism.
And Taoism.
And Zen.
And Buddhism.
And Bushido
And Wicca.
And "Golden Dawn".
And the "German Sex Magicians"
And Amway.
And various "Native American Religions", as presented by any number of Plastic Medicine Men (and Women).
And "New Age" crap. So quartz crystals are special? S'yeah, right.

What did I learn from all this sifting and sniffing?

That if I wasn't such a MORAL person, I'd start my OWN religion and drive the big Jag and wear the Gucci slippers...

[mopaul]

34. the only true way is the amway

thanks for the first big laugh of the evening

[BiggJawn]

39. Well? ISN'T it a Religion?

Every single damn "Business Meeting" I ever got conned into going to sure the fuck seemed that way...

When I got a job in a religious TV stations years later, I said "Hey, this guy sounds like he's giving an Amway pitch..."

He was some Tellyvangelist friend of the DeVos family...

[OxQQme]

44. ROFLMAO

My Way or The Amway.
Yer either with us or against us.

[Coexist]

36. where do I start?!

I was raised Catholic - knew it wasn't for me as a teenager - checked out several different Christian denominations - but couldn't ever get past the whole Jesus is half-man-half-deity thing. Try as I might, that ain't ever gonna' happen for me. And I did try. It was very hard for me to fathom a life as a non-Christian. Just unthinkable. Even though I loved the churches who let you use your brain, I don't believe any of the bible is word-for-word accurate. I can't lie to my kids and say I believe in the great flood - sorry. Santa I can lie about - arks - mmmm - nope. I can't even be sure that the New Testament is a correct translation of true stories instead of politically motivated versions of rosy recollections - and don't get me started on the stone rolling back - that lost me to Christianity as a young teen.

So - became a Unitarian for awhile because I thought I should have some religion for the kids to grow up with. But the drive was waaaaaaay too far to listen to the insane woman who complained all through the service about use of rituals and music choices, etcetera, etcetera. So there went that (the only organized religion I could stand!)

Read up a lot on Buddhism and some Muslim traditions. Liked Buddhism, but by then I realized that at best I was agnostic or a deist and at worst an atheist. I have periods where I am quite sure I am an atheist, but I try very hard to be agnostic for some reason - I don't know why.

[mopaul]

37. because I thought I should have some religion

i find this interesting, that so many people, including myself, felt the need or craving for some sprituality. is it hard wired into humans? not everyone goes through the religious experience, but it seems like most do.

[Coexist]

42. fear of the unknown is hard for humans

also - growing up Catholic and being told I was going to burn in hell all the time makes you want to hedge your bets, ya' know?!

[mopaul]

43. fear of damnation is a hell of a motivator

had me goin' for years

[ElaineinIN]

38. Raised Roman Catholic; now Episcopalian

I was raised RC, and it was hard to leave, because its not just a religion it really is an identity of sorts---there are cultural identifications as well as spiritual ones.

I love the ceremony of the RC mass--its is mystical/spirtual to me. I also love the history and tradition, which gives you a sense of connection to the past and to all other Christians throughout the century.

However, I saw the RCC in the US going two different ways, neither of which suited me. One was a trend away toward the litergy--watering it down, so it lost all the mystical quality that really moved me-- it became lets hold and hands and sing Kum bay ya along to a family of four with an acoustic guitar (I kid you not... one Easter at the church I grew up in... what is this, camp? bleh.) At the same time it was becoming "liberal" litergically, the conservative anti woman, anti abortion anti gay anti birth control anti sex anti EVERYTHING brigade was coming into being as a force that took over the social life of the church. Its not just that church doctrine is that way, but activism to these ends has become a social and spirtual litmus test. So when the priest at St. Patricks in NYC told me that I was going to hell for a sin of omission for not chaining myself to the gates of the local planned parenthood, I left. I wasn't going to change it--the RCC is not a democracy, nor should it be. I could not longer be a cafeteria catholic. My only option was to go elsewhere.

That was 1993... I found a very anglo-catholic episcopal church in NYC, where I was very very happy .... all the litergy (even a boys choir singing in latin with incense!) .... none of the guilt, and none of the misogeny. I've now been married, confirmed and had my daughter baptized there. I have made a financial committment to my church, volunteer, my daughter is in chidlren's choir, etc.

Lesson: if you are looking, you will know when you have found your home.

Best wishes to all on your spirtual journey... may you find fulfillment and enlightenment wherever it may come....

[mopaul]

41. music does it for me too

it's about the only thing that hits me spiritually, or nature, particulary the cosmos and the stars.

[progressivebydesign]

40. Started Catholic....

... dabbled in Lutheran, Methodist, UCC, Unitarian, 7th Day Adventist, even attended a Hari Krishna type event when I was a kid. Read a lot about Buddhism (which I can never spell correctly).

I'd say I am now an agnostic with Buddhist leanings, though lately those wackjob republican/christians are moving me further toward Athieism.

[OxQQme]

47. Music does IT for me too, mopaul

I'm 64 and still see pleasure in playing bass in a classic rock and roll band.

Was wondering if anyone here has read the 'Conversations with God' series of books. They're words of 'god' channeled through the authors head which started with the basic question that this thread relates to.
I've also investigated the many beliefs mentioned so far. Some very deeply for many years. The 'god' persona speaking thru the author makes some VERY good recomendations as to how to fix society's problems.

All behaviors are caused by beliefs.

Fallcies About God:

You believe that god needs something.
You believe that god can fail to get what he needs.
God has separated you from him for your original sin.
God has separated you from him because you have not given him what he needs.
God still needs what he needs so badly that god now requires you, from your separated position, to give it to him.
God will destroy you if you do not meet his requirements.

Fallacies about Life:

Human beings are separate from each other.
There is not enough of what human beings need to be happy.
To get the stuff of which there is not enough, human beings must compete with each other.
Some human beings are better than other human beings.
It is appropriate for human beings to resolve severe differences, created by all the other fallacies, by killing each other.

Truths about Life:

Belief creates behavior.
"Peaceful" is is not something you do. "Peaceful" is something you are.
There is no true religion if it teaches exclusivity and separatism.





Rock and Roll

[mopaul]

53. the only time i really feel that sprituality is hearing or playing music

lifelong blues jazz rock musician too. to me, performing is better than church ever was. it's a zen thing i guess.

[Just Me]

48. Every single one I could lay eyes on,...

,...knowing I couldn't lay my eyes on every single one.

I am especially drawn to those who are inclusive.

How on earth, mopaul, can you be a cranky (oops, I mean) crazy Hindu,...now crazy (oops, I mean) cranky atheist.

As if Hiduism could possibly do you wrong,...NO WAY (unless you ARE an ego *LOL*).

BAH!!! You are damned lucky to have a wife who tolerates your gravitational shifts. I do hope you never those human skills and love for granted.

[DanCa]

49. Well

After the catholics kicked me out a good friend of mine took me to the Episcopal church. Mother Maggie was so nice and warm and genuine she took the time to help me and from there I have been a practicing Anglican ever since. For God and King Richard.

[Djinn]

50. was always an atheist

even when I was too young to know what that meant I never ever believed in any kind of God, people will probably assume that's because my parent's were militantly atheist but they'd be wrong, Dad didn't believe but he didn't care enough about it either way to make it a topic of conversation ever, mum's a bit wishy washy, she believes in "God" but not the construct promoted by the monotheistic religions.

that said I think I'm probably better informed about several religions than many practicing them, mostly the "big 3" just because they're the most prominent where I live, but also have a pretty good understanding of Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist faiths, also studied a fair few "dead" religions - you can't disagree with them if you don't know what they are.

This is a really interesting thread, I'd love to see the responses on an Australian political board (but there really isn't one) religion has always been a private/backburner thing here and I'd bet you'd get a lot more answers of the "well technically Anglican but no-one in my family ever went to church" type - things are moving a little though the AOG fundies have been REALLY good at organizing and have built up a fairly solid base, enough to propel a fucking "Family First" candidate into the Senate at the last election - fingers crossed it's a passing phase, one of the best things about Oz has always been our healthy attitude to religion or the lack of it.

[karlrschneider]

51. I was sorta raised Methodist too up to about age 12. Then went to

Christian Science church at the behest of my nextdoor neighbor for about a year or so. Decided that was also bullshit and quit going to any church 'services' other than a VERY few weddings and funerals.

[Beam Me Up]

52. Krishnamurti and Gurdjieff

Some human beings operate from a whole other level of understanding than the rest of us. In my physical life I've crossed paths for a few minuites with two such beings but did not speak to either one of them. In both instances they transmitted a lesson to me directly through their very being in the world--without words.

That said, I spent a great deal of time as a child studying the New Testament. As a previous story indicated, I was aware from an early age that powerful forces were acting in my life. (They still are.) The Christian teaching as it came to me played a very profound role in my spiritual development and I took certain things ascribed to Jesus very seriously. I still do. Inwardly, however, I found myself in conflict with the Christian teaching as it was presented to me. For one thing I began to experience my homosexual feelings as an adolescent and I had to struggle with this conflict. One way I struggled with it was to look beyond the limitations of Christianity as it is ordinarily understood. In high school, for example, I was already reading books on Zen Buddhism by D. T. Suzuki and feeling that I could follow them. By the age of 19 I was already experimenting with some very potent and pure psychedelics. At 20 I found God--and, yes, I was very high on LSD at the time but that doesn't matter. God and I met in eternity where we have always met, are still meeting and will forever meet. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, life goes on. I cried and cried and cried--everyone thought I must have gone nuts.

It took a while for it to begin to become clear to me that taking psychedelics and spiritual awakening were two very different things that only occasionally overlapped in any meaningful way. I moved to California, the San Francisco Bay Area, in 1973 and although a lot had changed since the height of the Sixties, there was still much here at the time that was truly unique in my experience. Crisscrossing paths with everything from Moonies to Harikrishnas to 'One World Family Commune' to ESTies to Dyanetics to Delancy Street to the Simbionese Liberation Army to People's Temple to a wide variety of Eastern traditions from Buddhism to Hinduism to Zorasterism to the Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology movements--I truly could go on and on. It was all right here and much of it still is.

Somehow amidst this stew I found the words of two very different teachers to be of extraordinary help. Psychedelics had taught me that our social reality is a construct and, as such, there is the theoretical possibility of reconstructing it in a form that is more conducive to those human values embedded in the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Human beings, it still seems to me despite all evidence to the contrary, really OUGHT to be able to achieve this simple aim of peaceful coexistence IF they wanted to and IF they were allowed to by others who would not profit from any such peaceful coexistence. Krishnamurti helped me begin to understand that what separates us from ourselves--our innermost selves--and one another is certain habits and attitudes manifesting as 'thoughts' within the mind. We do not come to this moment fresh and new like an innocent child. We have stored within us not only the memory of our personal experiences but the storehouse of memory we were given to learn from our respective cultures. In those days the great human divide on a global scale was between the United States and all that it represented (or pretended to represent) on the one hand, versus the USSR and all that were told it represented on the other. Krishnamurti's point is that it is our own fear and the thoughts in our head which separate us; NOT something more fundamental. That is to say, if we turn our attention inward and look directly at how our own sense of identity is manufactured, we will see that it is manufactured in precisely the same way by most everyone else. Doesn't matter whether one is a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Jane or a Moslem or a Jew or a Christian; a Capitalist or a Communist or a Socialist or a German or an Italian or a this or a that. Krishnamurti saw that there is a living, moving fundamental ground of being from which all of us arise like waves on an ocean. He maintained that if our attentions could move beyond the distraction of memory, thought and difference, we could touch something in ourselves that is universally human--and more than that, Universal in a far greater sense. Although Krishnamurti was wary of words and never named it, I think I can safely say he was pointing toward both Being and Consciousness--and possibly other attributes as well.

Krisnamurti--who is by no means 'easy'--is a piece of cake compared to the ideas of G. I. Gurdjieff. Where Krishnamurti was ademant that "Truth is a pathless land," Gurdjieff argued that man as he is can only know a completely subjective 'truth'; that to know an Objective Truth required a man who could be objective in relation to himself. From the Gurdjieffian perspective, Krishnamurti represents a "stupid saint;" that is, someone who has achieved a new level of being awareness but who, ultimately, does not know HOW he did so. He is not wrong to say that Truth is a pathless land (in other words, you can not follow anyone else to it) only, Gurdjieff insists, humanity as it is can never find this 'land'. Not only do we not know where to look, most of us asume we can know the truth as we are, already do know the truth for the most part or can, in any case, recognize the truth if and when we see it. Gurdjieff insists this is quite wrong--and we haven't any idea how wrong it is. At the same time, Gurdjieff insists that one must not simply accept this because he says it. His teaching is a methodology for observing one's self and direct learning as a result of this observation. It is also the exposition of a system that represents the potential for a radical paradigm shift among those who are capable of recognizing what this actually means and what is necessary to sacrifice in order to bring it about.

[unsavedtrash]

54. raised Southern Baptist

looked into all kinds. UU, Unitarian, Hinduism, Paganism, Buddhism, and Native American beliefs before deciding on Judaism.

[kwassa]

57. the spiritual path is ultimately personal and endless, regardless

of what particular faith I have been studying.

I was brought up Unitarian, recovered later, was long involved in a metaphysical denomination, and now attend an Episcopal church. I'm not a great fit there, but the perfect church for me doesn't exist, since I am continually exploring new things.

I do like the Episcopal ritual, the liturgy, the communion of taking God within and most of all good classical church music. If I hear a good sermon along the way, that's good, too. Singing is very important to me as an active and participatory form of prayer.

The Episcopals in my area are very, very politically liberal, too.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

58. Read a lot but never joined up formal-like

with any group.

Raised RC, first falling away upon introduction to feminism; subsequent introduction to charismatic movement had little impact.

Got interested in turns in existentialism, Eastern philosophy, Jung, Gnosticism and Buddhism. Not claiming to have understood everything I read, or to have been a great scholar of any of it. "Dabbler" probably the most fitting term.

Have a brother who lost over 10 years of his life to a major cult, so I'm gun-shy about joining up with anybody. Also watched a close friend go from being Catholic to a macrobiotic primal screamer, to a follower of "Seth" ('member that crap?), to a Scientologist, to a convert to Judaism. Had another close friend deeply into Gurdjieff. While all who found new paths made it clear that outsiders like me were too dumb to get it, only the Gurdjieff student was right about that.

Too uncommitted to be a full-bore atheist, I stick with agnostic. Secular humanist works too. Still, with my German ancestry I'm down with the tree spirits. :thumbsup:

[spanone]

59. I 'checked out' of catholicism. Religions are for fanatics.

God lives within.

[scarlet_owl]

60. I was raised to be a Wiccan, dabbled in Buddhism, Hinduism,

Judaism,and now I'm a Catholic.