I had a discussion with my therapist today (January 4, 2001) about my philosophy on Beliefs. By this I mean spiritual and religious beliefs held by other people all over the world. Most people, my therapist included, come to a set of beliefs prior to becoming an adult. The life patterns they encounter along the way help to shape these beliefs so that by the time a person is in sight of middle age, these beliefs are held as Truths.

I myself have grown to have a set belief in the spiritual part of me, I know certain Truths about the evolution of my spirit. I will argue my beliefs for hours with pure logic and conviction, because of what I believe is so strong within me. But I will not discount someone else’s belief because it is different than mine. My truth does not automatically negate someone else’s truth. Maybe the truth is what ever a person believes is the truth. It is the believing that makes it exist. Perhaps a person is reincarnated because of the simple fact that they Believe that they will be reincarnated. That doesn’t mean everyone is or should believe they do. Maybe All things are true for those who believe in them.

I believe in Santa Claus. Honestly. I believe that his energy lives at Christmas time and that he exists to make those who believe happy in small ways. He may not be physical, but his spirit visits me every year and I get a gift of some kind. One year I found $200 lying in the snow along the road. No one answered the ad in the paper and I had money for presents when before I had none. Or I get word from someone I thought had been lost to me in time. Or a book that’s been out of print arrives at my favorite bookstore. All this, because I believe in Santa Claus.

I can’t prove my beliefs, nor can I disprove anyone else’s. But so many people believe what they believe and dismiss all else with "It isn’t so, it doesn’t exist, it is a lie, etc." I do not believe in God or in Satan. But my disbelief does not mean that they do not exist. Why isn’t it possible that there is a supreme energy with the attributes of "God" or a negative one with the attributes of "Satan"? I’m not saying that these energies can actually do anything, or cause things to happen. But why is it impossible to accept there might be energies that conform to people’s beliefs? How can anyone say conclusively that there is No such energy that has inspired as many people as the idea of "God" has? Conversely, why can it not be said that the mass of negative energy that compels abusers to abuse be termed "Satan"?

I believe Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and scores of others walked this earth and were what they believed they were. What people have done in their names, or whatever attributes they wish to assign to these men after the fact should be no cause to doubt that these men existed and told the truth as they knew it. As they Believed it.

Take the Creationism/Evolution argument: if you will accept the foundation that whatever event was first in forming the universe was caused by a supreme energy, then the resulting evolution makes sense. There needs to be no question about what caused the "Big Bang" or if "Adam and Eve" were truly the first humans. We can leave those theories as theories and argue the merits of each. Because either Both are the Truth or Neither are the Truth. Doubtlessly they are conjecture and myth at best.

If someone acts in a negative fashion due to his or her beliefs, it is the behavior that is wrong. If there is an energy called "Satan", it is only an energy. It is something that can only be felt deep inside. How a person decides to react to that feeling is on the individual. No one has the right to hurt or negate another. Each person is responsible for how they act on their beliefs. A man who rapes and kills a hooker because he believes he is doing "God’s Will" does not make his belief wrong (the belief that a woman shouldn’t debase herself). It is his reaction to that belief that is horribly wrong. I’ll go so far as to say that those who believe in the darkness are not outside of their own truth. It is a scary and sad belief system, but so long as those beliefs do not cause actions that harm then who is to say that those energies do not exist?

I believe that when I die, I shall be a mass of energy and that I will be able to have my own version of an afterlife. It’s not like any I’ve read about it, but I’m comfortable in the thought I know my death will not be the end of me. My therapist believes that when she dies that’s it. Probably for her that will be the way it is. Her energy mass will go into growing grass or feeding insects or other such acts. My daughter looks forward to coming back as someone happier. She very well may reincarnate (although the happier part is her personal responsibility and no amount of rebirth will give her that innately). A childhood friend told me of a green meadow where all of her pets would be gathered for her is probably there, her own version of heaven, after she died at age 7 from an accident. The man who fears a fiery hell with demons who pinch probably finds his energy in a spot just like that.

To sum it all up: Maybe because someone believes in something, that makes it true. If people could only realize and remember that beliefs are individual things, that your belief does not negate another’s belief, then I think there could be more harmony in this world. It is a big Universe and there is a lot of energy of differing types swirling throughout. Because You Believe, that will make it So, no matter what it is; God, Fairies, Demons, Angels, pink elephants. Belief systems are there for our mental, emotional and physical health. Some people are happy sharing mass beliefs like organized religion. Some people walk a singular path and share what they know. And in no case does any belief negate any other beliefs, because so long as you believe, it is true for you.

So Believe. Simply Believe. Always Believe.