Most people who claim to believe the words in the Bible are actually believing what someone else has told them. Few of us feel qualified to interpret “The Word” ourselves, and for the most part we are discouraged from doing so. We look to preachers, clergy and biblical scholars to do it for us. Under Constantine, the Bible was edited to reduce self-determination and give power over the populace to the Church State. Even holidays were selected to erase other religions and the accompanying belief systems.

The Bible is an extremely valuable document. This I would not dispute. But its meaning is subject to debate. Einstein asserted “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” The Bible is an oracle. On any given day, some new insight into the reader’s own soul can be gleaned, without help from the pulpit. And it is there, within each of us, that any connection with God can be found.

The difference between religion and spirituality is that religion is man-made, while spirituality is experiential. Books are man-made. To suggest that man cannot find God without the Bible is to suggest we cannot see the stars without a telescope.

Meditation or ecstasy will bear interesting results regardless of one’s beliefs. The universality of this fact does not diminish the profundity of spiritual revelation, but does suggest it as highly personal, subject to personal interpretation.

I don’t trust any preacher or religious know-it all to interpret my experience any more than I trust Jung to interpret my dreams. For a spiritual counselor to be qualified as such, the first thing they should say is “you do not need me”, thereby disqualifying themselves. Any spiritual leader who does otherwise may at best self-absorbed and at worst a fraud. Then they might say …”but if you choose to remain, and listen to me speak on the subject of your soul, you should test my words as tentatively as you would test the ice on a lake to see that it might bear your weight.”

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