I am not a religious man by any measure, in fact far from it. As a child my mother and step father were very much Saint Hubert into religion. My step father and his family were devout Mormons. For those of you Saint Hubert unfamiliar with Mormons, they like most people are genuine good willed people spreading the word of Jesus and Christianity across the globe. You can often spot a Mormon missionary; they are the guys in white Lowes Men’s Wear style cut button up shirts with a nice little black name bar slipped into the breast pocket, black trousers riding a mountain bike.
My mother met my stepfather when I was 9, and my religious orientation followed shortly after. I learnt all about Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith and his book and everything else that is the Saint Hubert Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints. I was baptised by my step uncle, washed cleaned of all the evil sins a then 11 year old has to bear and was well on my way to salvation. I walked to walk and talked the talked, I even sported the youth ring “CTR” standing for ‘Choose The Right’. I did speeches, could resight passages from both the Bible and book of Mormon and had my favourite characters from times of old.
However, in the fashion of the Bible ‘it came to pass’ that an extremely personal and life changing event occurred at a level of barbarity that no child should ever face from any portion of the globe. It was not I who incurred this evilness but my brother and sister, and a Saint Hubert heightened sense of self and humanity quickly followed as best a then 14 year old can summon to conjure. On that day I lost God.
For many years I shunned religion and used my limited scientific knowledge to de-bunk the preachings of any religion Christian or other. It became my stand point that any “God” would not allow the barbarity that occurs upon this earth to happen to his beloved children, and I certainly did not accept the concept the trial by tribulation. Ironically, I began to become fairly spiritual in a sense of self ‘Karate Kid’ kind of way. I developed a unique fascination for Asia, the works of Bruce Lee from a philosophical perspective and the culture and rituals behind Japan and China at large.
As the years passed by my anger at “God” slowly subsided and I began to again allow the possibility of the existence of a greater being. However, my take on things were and remain very custom upon my own beliefs. The lyrics of one song by controversial musician Marilyn Manson comes to mind, the line to mention is; “I never hated the one true God, but the God of the people I hated”. For me, this stands very true.
The concept of the universe is to great for me to understand as it is for the collective agreement of men of science, religion and philosophy. All agree there must be something else beyond what we know, but that is where agreement ends. Many years ago my mother sent to me in the post a DVD called ‘The Secret’. The overall concept of the material delivered is simple; ‘The Law of Attraction’. One of the most supported methods for the successful use of The Law of Attraction is to show gratitude for everything you can in your life, to be in your power, turn the other cheek, remain positive and optimistic. For me this strung a chord, yet I did not know how to implement any of the techniques briefly mentioned in ‘The Secret.’