Its come up on several occasions; what religion am I? Especially recently with my son. So I thought Id write something out sort of explaining what precisely I believe in. This, by no means, covers every single aspect… but its a good start.

When asked this question, I always retort Pagan. Pagan, however, is a bit of a blanket term, and not entirely accurate to what I believe. I choose to use it, because there isnt really any religion that perfectly hits on what I believe, and its about as close as I can get. But its probably because what I believe, I dont consider to be a religion; its more like a way of life.

For one thing, Pagans are typically polytheistic, worshipping several gods, or even just two (a god and goddess, or the female/male aspects of all things) I, however, am a Pantheist – I dont believe in many gods. I dont even really believe in one. What I believe in, is a force – or a source of power that cannot be seen with the eyes. It is everything, and everything is it. It has no face, no name to call it. And it is the essence of everything that lives…. even us. I also have a reverence and love for nature, and all living things – and I seek to harness and nuture that energy for a greater good. So, I guess you can say Im a tree hugger.

I was born Catholic – Im half Italian, ’nuff said. My dad made me go to catholic church, growing up. Ive read the bible and I actually love the stories inside it. I think they’re interesting and they have good lessons. Even to this day, I watch the programs on Discovery, and Ive even been known to quote it on occasion (hey, wisdom is wisdom to me) But thats all I think they are – stories. The bible is nothing more than a device, created to further the divide between good and evil. And I often look upon that conceptualization as being… well, sad. Thing is, people should know the difference between right and wrong, without being told…. or being frightened into sobriety by some convoluted horned beast. So, what I essentially believe, is in Karmic law, and the laws of the Universe. I don’t believe in the Devil.

My mom, however, diametrically opposed to my father, was metaphysical – and I also grew up in a new age church. This was the path I willfully chose. It was always a concept that resonated with me and made more sense… and while she had somewhat different beliefs than I ended up having, she ultimately led me to what I believe in now (even if indirectly speaking)

Modern physics teaches us that electricity is eternal. And the energy that makes up us, comes down to electricity; one spark from a larger soruce of energy, both of which live forever. Modern medicine teaches us that the human brain receives impulses; or electric currents, which are routed thru “wires” or the stems of the brain, which stimulate certain characteristics, capabilities, talents, likes, and memories, etc.

The human construct is essentially infinite energy, which is encapsulated in an organic shell. But in organics, everything rots, fades with time, and eventually dies, since its susceptible to disease caused by pathogens and other agents of decay. But the energy does not die, as it is infinite. So when we die, our energy leaves our bodies to return back to nature, and start over once more. Everything we see that’s natural has energy; its just that some things are inanimate. That tree outside… even it has energy. It just lacks the capabilities to do anything but sit there (its simply not programmed or articulated to)

So given all that, do I believe in an ultimate creator? Well, I dont disbelieve in it, but I dont really cater to any belief of it, either. I dont profess to know HOW we came to be. It could be natural evolution…. or we could be engineered by another species entirely. Id be inclined to, however, believe more in the aforementioned to some degree; coz even if something created us, it creates another equal question in how that species was created. Somewhere down the line, spontaneous creation had to come into play. But in any case, I don’t honestly believe it was some supreme deity with a beard.

I also believe in reincarnation; and as far as regression goes, its not really about the memory of a past life, but rather an imprint of one that remains on our energy. I believe our energy manifests itself infinitely. And we can recall these lives thru hypnosis, because we tap into that energy imprint. Truth of the matter is, we can always tap into it. Its just as humans, we only have the capacity to use a small portion of our brains. And we have been “trained” to believe such things don’t exist. If we as a species feel, for the most part, that we don’t have a need to tap into that unused portion of our brains, what is the point of it being there? Hence why we are “generally” incapable and it lies dormant.

I also believe that all energy can be manipulated, for good and bad. Hence the term “magic” Well, its not really magic at all, if you think in more generic terms. Thats just a “word” humans use to describe something that defies explanation; an occurance that happens thru the concentration of thought to will the energy to do what we wish. Consider this: A computer…. you tell it to do a number of commands, and it does them. But a computational command is no more magic than manipulation of energy. And the same thing can be said for prayer.

So do I believe in good and evil? Well, yes… there’s a balance to all things, especially intention. You cannot have good without its counterpart and vice versa. So as already mentioned, I believe in Karma and that everything comes back to you. Because for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In a lot of the same way, it is also how intuition exists. I dont mean reading tarot cards, or tea leaves…. those are just tools that help us decipher things. All intuition is, is the capability of reading energy…. well, and learning to decipher each nuance. And again, everyone is perfectly capable… its just that most ignore such ideas.

I also believe in ghosts. But not in the way most tend to believe. Ghosts are the energies from those whom have passed on, with imprints on them just as we have with past lives. Since energy doesn’t die, where does it go, til it has a new place to exist? Nowhere. To actually add levity to this, the night when my mother died, all the light bulbs in the area where she fell, blew out all at once (and not just one, either) I am convinced it was a direct result of the energy leaving her body; and her ultimate way of telling me she’d gone.

In a sense, I am a fatalist. But only to a certain degree. I believe that there is a pattern to everything, and that some things ARE meant to be, or are orchestrated by a greater balance of things; but I also believe that we have the power to change the way things are and that nothing is written in stone. It is, afterall, our fate to do with what we wish. But this balance also tends to keep us from things, because better things await, or because the universe has a better idea than we do in what’s good for us. So when Im confronted with disappointment, you’ll often hear me utter the words “it wasn’t meant to be” And I don’t generally tend to fight it; I find that if I go with the flow, Im often led to something better.

To make another technological analogy, to explain this concept in different terms – programming. There are several ways you can code something to get a certain end result – how you go about acheiving that end, though, tends to be different in each code pathway. Some ways are easy…. some are hard. And some paths of code in the programming will simply not acheive the result you are looking for. Now one has free will, and can take that last path, beat themselves over the head in trying to make it do what they want, simply coz they are unwilling to accept the alternatives; but in the end, its sometimes just not meant to exist and thereby, you have no choice but to take the alternatives.

If this is starting to sound like I’m coming at this from a technological angle, its not entirely off-base. In a lot of ways, how I believe is very similar to technology. Computers harness energy; and they have a brain, and can (to some degree) think. Our computers, however, to current standards, can only compute so much because thats all they are programmed to do. Our programming, however, is far more advanced… we just havent reached our full potential as a species. Also, step outside the box and consider this for a moment…. computers have been built to harness energy, and use it to better our lives. But “technology” is not something we invented; It was something that was always there, that we figured out a way to tap into. Some people use their extra sensory gifts to perceive energy, or even change it – that is all computers do as well (even if only to a lesser degree at this point)

Its really not mystifying, I suppose, to think of things in terms of this. But lets face it, ancients had a way of mystifying everything that couldn’t otherwise be explained. Like calling a solar eclipse the Sun god Re, or believing the Earth was flat. Its always only a matter of time til science reveals the true nature of things.

So now I come to the part where I have Gnostic leanings. Well, we are pure “light”, and there is a “hidden” world, waiting to be discovered in a different plane of existence. And once we learn how to become that pure energy, the energy from our beings will no longer require a body to exist. We will no longer require a mouth to communicate. We will no longer need air to breathe, or water to live. And from then on, there will be no boundaries.