My Journey Begins

My Journey Begins
Introduction
Fear within the journey Joy within the coming building A component regarding the heart Gets lost within the learning Somewhere along the road. Dan Fogelberg
Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. Matsuo Basho
The spiritual path - is basically the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just don't ever have knowledge of it. Marianne Williamson
We are not person beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a person journey. Stephen R. Covey
The path of life twists and turns and no 3 directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons return from the journey, not the destination. Don Williams, Jr.
Let your mind begin a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts regarding the globe you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be. Close your eyes let your heart begin to soar, and you shall live as you have not ever lived before. Erich Fromm
Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you can locate earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, Wending through unknown region home. And so, at this time, I greet you, not barely as the globe sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away. Father Giovanni Giocondo
The journey begins. For many, or maybe for all, the journey begins without awareness—before any awakening. Awakening returns later—after we have noticed that we have been walking in circles for most of our lives. Even then, we weren't really walking in circles. No circle is similar as any other. It has changed. We have changed. Maybe first awakening is the awareness that we weren't really walking in circles. Maybe first awakening is that we have been on the journey since the beginning.
The English writer Evelyn Underhill (1875 – 1941) identified 3 variations of mystics on the basis regarding the symbols used to describe their goal and the processes used to reach that goal: (1) the pilgrim on his journey to an improved country; (2) the lover searching for his done mate; and (3) the alchemist performing the best work to attain the done state. For the moment, I shall use the journey metaphor to represent all three.
According to mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904 – 1987), prior to the hero crosses the threshold on his method to perform the heroic act, he receives supernatural aid and/or mentoring from a tutor. In Ian Fleming's (1908 – 1964) novels, this stage regarding the journey occurs when Q instructs James Bond within the use of his sophisticate gadgets when Bond gets briefed on his new mission. In J. R. R. Tolkien's (1892 – 1973) The Hobbit, this stage is represented in Gandalf the Grey's aid to Bilbo and his aid to Frodo in his God regarding the Rings. In this stage we acquire the preparatory tools we shall need later on. We look excitement and anticipation, joy and faith.
I was fortunate to grow up in a family that acknowledged and, to some extent, embraced many of what was soon to grow to the central tenets regarding the New Age movement. On the final page regarding the calendar hanging on the pantry wall was a person figure with arrows pointing to the body components ruled by each zodiac sign. I was Virgo—the intestines. Not exactly the highest many attractive body part. My family members many times reminded one another regarding the similarities between our personalities and our Sun signs. We also talked about precognition, telepathy, psychokinesis, hauntings, spirits, and life subsequent to death. One distant family member was a very gifted psychic, but she died prior to I was born.
My spiritual journey in this life began early. During the summer of 1958 I attended holiday Book of jesus college at the Mt. Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Place of virgin travel insurance next street over—then the Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church. Prior to that, I do not forget my mother, her parents, and my father's mother reading to me from a children's pamphlet of Book of jesus stories. Most regarding the stories were from the Old Testament—especially from Genesis. Some were stories about Jesus from the New Testament. I quickly came to ponder of Jesus as my rescuer and as my older or elder bother.
Most of my family members attended church—the Methodist and the Baptist. These similar to family members valued intelligence, science, reason, logic, and technology. Of course, there existed conflicts between these different ideologies—the spiritual/metaphysical/paranormal, the conventional/traditional/religious, and the scientific/evolutionary/materialistic. But we rarely dwelled on what may have grow to divisive issues.
I attended Sunday college at the nearby University United Methodist Church—then the University Methodist Church. My mother's parents attended the place of prayer regularly. My parents attended fewer regularly. My brothers also attended Sunday school. I sang within the boys' choir. I also memorized Book of jesus verses chosen by my paternal grandmother.
I did not normally attend place of prayer like a child. When I did as an adult, I had little tolerance for the structure and content regarding the place of prayer service. I attended mass at a Roman Person of christ Church. I also attended services at Baptist, Book of jesus Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostal, and Place of prayer of The god churches.








Much later I attended services of multiple Person of christ Science, Unitarian Universalist, Spiritualist, Unity, and Religious Science churches. The content was many better at these later churches, but I not ever located the structure regarding the services to be religious or spiritual in any way. In fact, I locate them completely antithetical to any of their stated goals. How can you concentrate when someone is always talking or singing? How can you grow without participating in a one-to-one personal encounter?
Now return to my childhood religious education. The Methodists were an enlightened bunch. They took an up to date approach to spirituality and to psychological, social, and economic problems. They valued the knowledgeable contributions of modern science and saw no conflict between Christianity and evolution. They demonstrated concern about corporate and psychological problems and took positive action to aid the poor. They taught that science should heal the body, psychology should heal the mind, and like should heal the world.
Occasionally, they voiced the belief that science should one day comprehend the nature regarding the soul and pierce the barriers between life and life-after-death. A learn that reported the loss of a minuscule no. of mass at the time of death was proof that science should one day locate the soul.
The Methodists accepted person diversity and taught spiritual universalism—the eventual salvation of everyone. In Sunday college we studied other religions and went on field trips to other churches and synagogues. I learned Greek and Roman mythology at college and Hindu and Buddhist mythology at Sunday school.
Although they officially believed within the Nicene Creed and frequently recited the Apostles' Creed, the Methodists viewed the stories regarding the Book of jesus as symbolic allegories that provided guidance for moral and spiritual problems. Jesus was regarded as our teacher and exemplar, the done human--not a supernatural savior or a god.
One of my Sunday college teachers performed past life regressions during Sunday school. This was not the official position regarding the church, but it demonstrated the openness regarding the critical Methodist place of prayer that I attended. At the time I had my doubts about reincarnation due to the fact that most Westerners tended to oversimplify the process of rebirth. "If reincarnation definitely occurred, it should be subject to the laws of science like all natural phenomena," I thought. "One cannot return and leave willy-nilly as one pleases. There should be mechanisms that determine the process."
By 1962 I had grow to aware regarding the workings of numbers in our lives. The positive force regarding the no. three—thesis, antithesis, and synthesis—was difficult to deny. The lucky three. Even The god seemed to prefer to manifest in threes. Within my own head I detected 3 tough forces and 3 simple voices—the id, ego, and superego, the Parent, Adult, and Child.
Then came 1964. My young, well-educated, and somewhat charismatic science teacher was adamant in his teachings that it was good that astronomy had separated from astrology, chemistry from alchemy, and physics from magic. He taught that the new sciences replaced the old, superstitious pseudosciences. He acted as if it were ludicrous and possibly even immoral or illegal to mention the once noble pseudosciences. No educated person should ever release them a moment of their time.
As many as I loved science, it was obvious to me that for many regarding the population astrology, palmistry, and the paranormal were not only an accepted component of life, but should also be beneficial at times. If astrology did not work, if it were pure superstition, then how should so many people be deluded for so long? Horoscope book books and magazines were sold everywhere. If astrology truly was a pseudoscience, then should not science prove that there was no truth to it, and these books and magazines be removed from the isles of our grocery stores?
And so, I began my first personal experiment in astrology. At the end of each day I should view the day's description in my Sun sign pamphlet and compare it to the events regarding the day. My findings were inconclusive. Some days were what may be described as accurate, some were not. The fact that some predictions were right-on certainly demanded distant attention.
Either astrology was true or it wasn't. As simple as that. Right? Well, not exactly. First, my understanding of astrology was limited to the personality descriptions regarding the Sun signs. I had no system how anyone arrived at any critical daily prediction.
Even more importantly, my understanding of what it means to be true or real was based on the simple dichotomy of true versus false, yes versus no, black versus white, right versus wrong. My understanding of what is true, what is real, and what is truth was about to shift dramatically. Not just a shift, but a paradigm shift--a change in my simple assumptions about what is, a radical change in thinking, a significant change from one worldview to another. And not just one shift! But one shift, then another, then another, and then another. I am happy to speak that I still undergo dramatic shifts. I dare speak that creating such shifts is the true purpose of life.
I cannot do not forget a time that I was not avidly interested within the force regarding the mind. In addition to being exposed to the hype within the media, my parents and grandparents talked freely related to the force of prayer and positive thinking, spiritual healing, life-after-death, hypnosis, ESP, and parapsychology.
On the other hand, from a very early age I was also no stranger to life's problems and their accompanying emotions of anxiety, stress, and depression. By the age of thirteen, I had view Ainslise Meares' Relief without Drugs, Ralph Wynn's Hypnotism Created Easy, William C. Gibson's Therapeutic Self-Hypnosis, Richard L. Hittleman's Richard Hittleman's Introduction to Yoga, Yogi William Zorn's Yoga for the Mind, and Maxwell Maltz's Psycho-Cybernetics and his Creative Living for Today. I learned relaxation, meditation, hypnosis, self-hypnosis, and raja yoga.
From there, I studied psychology, psychotherapy, and astrology. Eventually, I got the fabrics I wanted to calculate a horoscope. I discovered the American Federation of Astrologers, became a lifetime member, and got certified in natal astrology.
I studied witchcraft and became greatest colleagues with a teenage witch—Nancy, not Sabrina. I guess Christine O'Donnell spoke about it best, "I dabbled in witchcraft. But I did not join a coven." I was unable to locate any covens to join. Maybe Christine was unable to either. Unlike Christine, I cannot speak "I am not a witch." Sorry, Christine, once a witch, always a witch. I should have been located guilty at the Salem witch trials, if the zeitgeist regarding the time should have allowed them to acknowledge the existence of male witches.
I studied mysticism and should invoke mystical states of unitive consciousness at will. I soon seemed to outgrow the United Methodists. I waited a while for them to catch up, but they didn't. I view Mairy Baker Eddy's Science and Well-being and visited one regarding the 3 regional Person of christ Science churches. I was turned off by their rigidity and by their unwavering dependence on Mrs. Eddy.
I had studied the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and many fewer well-known Transcendentalists. Now there was a religion I should back. Many regarding the Transcendentalists had been Unitarian ministers. They rejected the Unitarian place of prayer due to the fact that of its conservative doctrines, and they had very little positive to speak about Unitarianism. However, since there were no Transcendentalist churches, I thought I should try the Unitarian Universalist Place of prayer and leave from there.
At the age of sixteen I visited the regional Unitarian Universalist Church—called the Universalist Unitarian Place of prayer at the time. The UU Church—as they called themselves—held many surprises for me. First, I discovered that my maternal grandfather used to be a member and that many of his relatives were active members there. Second, the place of prayer seemed to hold a disproportional many Gay members. And third, the modern, liberal UU churches had changed so many since Emerson's time that it created Transcendentalism look conservative and orthodox. I'm not sure whether Emerson should be elated or appalled by the new UU. Hopefully the former.
I started attending the UU Church's monthly reveal houses. At one such reveal house, I happened to walk into an area where the team talking about psychic phenomena. My spiritual growth was about to increase exponentially. I was about to enter the Spiritual journey freeway. To use a term well-known return then, I was about to blow my mind! There I was within the midst of astrologers, theosophists, psychics, yogis, and college professors. I learned that 3 nonprofit organizations were soon to form. One—to incorporate at a later date--would grow to the Illinois Federation of Astrologers.
The other—Expanding Person Awareness—was the brainchild of multiple psychics, ministers, and physicians living in central Illinois. The purposes of Expanding Person Awareness (EHA) were to introduce the general public to topics like ESP, parapsychology, spiritual healing, life subsequent to death, and reincarnation through local and worldwide speakers and to give opportunities for members to learn and develop their latent abilities. I joined EHA, attended lectures and workshops, and gave some.
I learned of Peoria's Spiritualist Place of prayer of Harmony. I attended place of prayer there and eventually became a member. Later, neither directly or indirectly from my connections with EHA, I took advanced lessons in hypnosis, studied graphoanalysis, and learned regarding the Science of Mind, the Unity Place of prayer of Christianity, Silent Unity, and the Daily Word.
The greatest present I ever received from EHA occurred subsequent to a lecture one evening. I met 3 angelic beings disguised as middle-aged women. They told me of a "meditation group" that met within the building of one regarding the angels. They lived in a mini village about thirty periods away. Their team grew out of their interest in a past life regression class provided by a chiropractor who was also a member of EHA. They were studying the A Look for for The god materials, published by the late Edgar Cayce's Association for Studies and Enlightenment (ARE). Their team met once a week. Attendance averaged around eight each week. Once again, my spiritual growth was about to increase exponentially.