Fact or Faith: How Should I Believe

 

Faith Or Facts

A lot of people say "you just have to have faith," but faith is belief without facts.  I need to have some factual basis for my beliefs.  And I don't have to rely on faith, because I have experiences that convince me that there is an unseen other world.  I learned a lot about that other world from my great grandmother who we called Gaga.  The house I grew up in was on her estate, a marvelous block of formal gardens with a mansion on top of the hill and we were in the guest house down the hill.  My great-grandfather built the estate for Gaga and their three children.  He died of typhoid shortly after the house was finished in 1902, leaving his widow in command of the property. 

 

Of course I never really knew Gaga since she died when I was two.  Yet her presence was all through the property.  She couldn't take it with her and she damn well wasn't going to leave it behind.  When we moved into the guest house in 1957 I quickly learned that there was a strong hostile force that could appear anywhere on the property.  She terrified me, chasing me out of rooms she felt should not be invaded by a impudent child.

 

I never saw her.  I made a deal with my subconscious when I was about 7, that while I knew ghosts were there I would never see one.  No specters appearing behind me in the mirror or jumping out at me from darkened closet.  Others, however, did see Gaga.   While she was the bane of my childhood as an adult I realized that she had given me a great gift -- the certain knowledge that something of the self survives death.

 

Since then I have run into other spirits.  In the 13th century North Canonry of Salisbury Cathedral, in a shop in Gettysburg, in an old church being used for a meeting.  I just know when one is around.  It is a cold feeling and it can be terrifying, like an icy hand grabbing my lower spine and giving it a shake.

 

When I was twelve I started having prophetic dreams which I cover in detail in another post.  The dreams are rarely specific enough to prevent anything, but I have learned to accept the warning that something will happen and when it does I will just know that the dream has been accomplished.  I can't define how I know what I know, but then no one else can explain their faith either.

 

Belief in anything that can not be directly experienced by everyone is highly destructive.  It is easy to think that anyone who talks about direct contact with a god is a insane, but that is only because the experience can not be shared.   And as with all experience, the moment it is put into words it begins to shrink in scope, the process by which wisdom becomes knowledge.

 

Every living thing has an innate connection to the divine.  Every sentient being can access the flow of GDW directly by silencing the conscious mind and letting the GDW flow.  The experience can be overwhelming, leaving me struggling to find words to encompass it.  Hence, this blog -- and the constant updates you will find if you return to a previous post.