00:11My upbringing, I was raised a Catholic, my father was a very strict Catholic, and I had
00:20gotten into, he made sure I got into Bible study because if you went to the public school
00:27system, you had to go to Bible studies, I had to go Mondays, two hours, Wednesdays and Saturdays
00:35before Mass, I went from first grade probably to the eighth, and then kind of went off into
00:43my own little journey.
00:46My mother, on the other hand, was a little more liberal, sometimes, you know, in that
00:53kind of an environment of, I didn't always want to go to Bible studies, but as I, you
01:01know, reflect back, I'm glad that did happen in my life because it got me on that path.
01:06And I used to have a friend that, even my younger age, probably around my fifth grade had brought
01:13some books to me, and I actually went into, thinking I could probably debunk them, I was
01:23attached to Christianity, and I, they're beautiful people too.
01:31What I really started that was I had this desire to figure out, and it's a very small part in
01:37the Bible that the wise men that come as kings in, in the scriptures, and I'll probably paraphrase,
01:47I'm not going to quote scripture, I'm sure those will understand, that they, they find
01:54this Messiah by following a star in the east, I'm sure we all heard the story or watched the
01:57Christmas story, but I mean, I don't know if a lot of people put the thought that I did
02:02into it, because to have kings come and bow before any infant, especially from another
02:09culture, it wasn't their culture, when you go back and read on these kings, they were
02:14from the Orient, from Persia, they are called Magi, that's what, that's what they were called,
02:21they brought the gifts, of course, we all know the Bible story, the Christmas story, and
02:26by going into that, I didn't even realize that was a religion, at that time, so I had
02:33a friend that had brought by, what's called the teachings of the Magi, and writings on the
02:38prophet Zarathustra, the prophet from Persia, and like I said, I actually went into that,
02:45within that first one, in that case, it was a desire to find out, but yet I was still in
02:49that Christian box, and had a very hard time breaking out of that, because it's something
02:58that just happens, I think, naturally, you know, you feel that you're whole, and I think
03:01you get locked in a box, and I did have this happen, actually, for a while, each time I experienced
03:06a new religion, I would start getting attached, and I started realizing I have to break out
03:13of these molds, if I really wanted to study these, these different religions, or philosophies,
03:18that I had to watch, but I didn't get attached to attached, as I got older, I, a couple of
03:25them really, you know, you start getting that feeling of, I'm complete, you know, I found
03:29what I was looking for, and I think that rebirth, or ascension, or resurrection, spiritual,
03:38in a spiritual way, it's always progressive, I started seeing that, and I started seeing all
03:43these connections in these religions, I didn't look for the negative, the negatives are easy
03:47to find, you could go in there, and read any religion, and start fighting all kinds of
03:52things that you don't agree on, it's not so easy to go in there, and find those that you
03:57connect with, because a lot of those religions, that I studied, or at least the ones that I
04:02had studied, I had started seeing the same things that Christianity was saying, not everything,
04:10but extreme connections, and the more I read, the more I studied, got into like, you know,
04:17American Indians, or Hopi Indian readings, I started falling away with these labels, fell
04:22away with the labels, I think that's what causes a lot of the disunity, or diversion, because
04:29people, I think, get attached to these labels, I really believe that, still do, you know, and
04:34my search will continue, and that was my point of, when we had mentioned ascension, you know,
04:39to me, ascension is a spiritual awakening, I don't think that awakening ever stops, I think
04:45it's infinitely progressive, and not only in this world, I think it's going to be the same
04:51in worlds to come, an example is, you know, in nature, you see that progression, you know,
04:59the seeds planted, it germinates, it sprouts, it forms trunk, roots, branches, leaves, it
05:06blooms, and then it gives seeds, and I see that cycle in everything, and that's what I
05:13see, that I see a lot of the division comes from the attachment to where one may be at root,
05:20or one may be in the embryo stage, that is that the other person's in maybe the adolescent
05:27stage of their spiritual growth, and there's going to be that disunity, you know, until
05:33we learn to respect, or at least, you know, have some tolerance towards where everybody
05:40is on their path, I spent years on these old message boards, they were, you know, you'd
05:45go on there, you know, 2,000 people on there, and you're in little groups debating, and I'll
05:50give you an example, I had gotten into a religion called the Baha'i Faith, and I didn't, I was
05:56becoming attached, but I wanted to share that, and as soon as I shared it, I went back a couple
06:03days later, and I said, warning, Magi's a Baha'i, I thought I'm a Baha'i, and I'm studying
06:07it, I hadn't even really gotten into it that much, I was just wanting to share, and then I
06:14found other boards that were way much more acceptable and would allow others, and I tried
06:19to, you know, go to those, and we would bring everybody on, I went to a certain board that
06:26the woman was actually an evangelical pastor, but she allowed everybody, and as long as you
06:33kept decent and respectful, you know, you didn't get banned or put in the penalty box, and I learned
06:40a lot, but I did learn to fellowship and communicate, and set back and know when to listen, and I
06:48don't mean this in a negative way, but you really can't start fellowship out with, I don't believe
06:55what you believe, you're going to hell, and not by everybody, you know, I don't know why someone
07:03would think you could start fellowship out coming from that angle, you know, and we would invite
07:10these people on, and we never booted them for that, we tried to walk them in, just ask
07:14them to show some respect, and it came from other religions as well, I think what happens
07:18is people try to pull each other on each other's path, they want you to see what they see, it's
07:24probably passion, I understand that it was for me, but I did learn, I'm on my path, and my path
07:32is to communicate and fellowship with at least respect for each other's path that they're
07:44on.
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