Chasing windmills is a strange pass time. Don Quixote had to have them be monsters, because he meant to revive mythical chivalry. Dragon slaying. So where there were no dragons he made some. People do that when they adhere to creed without faith. The character had a loss of faith, and he sought to revive it with creed. Acting on it was admirable, sort of like Emperor Leopold was it? Norwegian guy who just declared himself emperor of the world? He started acting like it, and even producing his own money. He had such passion, such conviction, people went with it. He was an idealized leader, truly beneficent, though lacking any actual temporal power. He came about for a reason.

Hail that guy over there? Basically, yes. This was in an era with no king. No one having faith in any leader.  It’s even fashionable now to have no faith in leadership. Is that absolutely wise?

Faith is needed and will be found no matter what? Human instinct? Yes. They have even found a link genetically, and it isn’t an aberration. It is never omitted and it is connected to human health. But it produces hormones that can induce what science deems hallucinatory experience, a.k.a. spiritual/religious experience. If this gene is damaged, the person will become psychotic. Fortunately, it isn’t a single gene as no functioning gene produces a single copy, but I dare say in the case of the Japan example, high levels of stress hormones might have an epigenetic bonding affect on it, blocking it over and producing different hormonal signals.

It’s in the water? Yes, the 90+% water of the human body.

Saying you have no faith is basically a lie? You always have faith in something? Yes. Ignoring them is not acknowledging traits in yourself.

If we know we’re going to have faith no matter what, the reasonable thing to do would be to find a faith that serves us? Which doesn’t have to be held by anyone else, though if you are honest with yourself your “made-up” faith is perhaps held by more people than you recognize. We’re not self contained beings. Cellular memory, the collective unconscious, whatever you want to attribute that to. “Fake it until you make it.” But if you test that idea, you will discover that in fact you are either faking everything, or you are faking nothing.

I became sober and AA told me to create my own higher power. I was never told that I could do that before, and it was the most freeing experience I’ve ever had. My own spiritual awakening. When you make up your own higher power, are you actually making anything up? It’s just a focus, and your focus will determine your whole reality.

Do I have a higher power I want other people to adopt? No. A creed I feel other people should hold above all else? No. You are where you are. You believe what you believe. I hope to show, as the group name ‘One World, Many Paths’ suggests, that it’s one world and that there are many paths. To thine own self be true, and as night follows day you can’t be false to anyone. Keep the faith, not mine. That’s my faith. Give ME the Cookie!!

Unfortunately, we need a lot of reinforcement to keep the faith against the pressures of society today. Support helps, and if you find you agree with a lot of what I say, that’s fine. It will make communication easier. If not, that’s fine too.

Understanding promotes cooperation. Yes, and our community in Second Life exists on cooperation, not some person with their one truth, and their big moral agenda. No committee meeting, but not because other peoples opinions aren’t valued.  We’re not just teachers and students and that is the bottom line. No committee, because no politics, no hierarchy, not in the reality we share here.

You have to have a bottom line to walk. In matter they call it the ground. But with the bottom line described, I dare say it is much more than two dimensional. It’s one line, and allows many paths.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~