I was reflecting on this question following the “Seven MORE Deadly Sins” blog that I wrote, for I am a Catholic by choice. I was raised Lutheran, and chose to convert. I haven’t looked back in regret. For me, I felt closer to the Higher Power I choose to call God in the Catholic rituals than I did in the Lutheran.
Because human motivations are as varied as the day is long, the reasons to convert will be likewise as varied. I think that the biggest reason people convert is to marry, or because of their fiancé is one way or another. A very dear family member of mine converted when she was introduced to the church in a new way. She would have converted whether she married her fiancé or not. He change, however, was within Christianity. What about those who choose a larger difference? For example, I knew another couple some years ago. She was a Catholic-American; he was a very traditional Hindu-Indian. When they discussed marriage, he offered to convert to Catholicism to please her family. Would he really believe in the Christian idea, or would be just be Catholic in name? Does that really matter? Is one “God” different from another? Or are they different faces of the same being?
Why do people convert to religious traditions other than their own?
By sahara - Posted on November 21st, 2008
A good portion of converts change their religion for the sake of marriage. It helps to minimize differences in the family, since the children will not be subjected to multiple religious teachings, especially if one (such as Christianity) says that it is better than another (such as Hinduism, with its multiple gods). Such radical differences in religion can make things difficult.
However, that's not the only reason people convert. I'm in a group for people who choose a certain religion, and many of them just feel called to it. They aren't being asked to convert for marriage; they simply feel this is the best spiritual path for them.
Then there are people like me, who start out exploring conversion for the sake of marriage (though not entirely... originally I said I wasn't going to convert even if we did marry, but my opinion changed over time). Then, after I broke up with the person I had planned to marry, I still feel that this path is the right one for me. So, I was drawn to it with the idea of marriage and pursue it for my own sake now.
~C
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What you refer to as God is actually omnipresent, it is everything you see, touch and feel!
In order to get a feel of IT not him is fairly easy, lol, one just need to let go. Meditation is one way to get somehow caressed by it, I hardly practice meditation and whenever
I do so it is always in company of a large group (200) of people.
Practicing meditation with a large group is no more than kick ass amazing an experience to live. Whether you are a novice or not is unimportant because the energies of those who are tuned in gulp you up anyhow, lol.
For me it’s more to enjoy the energy rather than the spiritual aspect of it, one which I can easily obtain in a similar state of mind without any meditation.
The easiest way to get in touch with the divine is to trouble your mind in a positive way, to catch up with beauty can trigger your brain to respond or tap into other planes of consciousness, this is way cool and if you push it further, it can literally rewire your brain. Whenever this happens, it is always accompanied by some really strong overwhelming brain orgasm, lol.
It’s like a door opening up inside your brain, mind and thoughts bringing new knowledge like a breath of fresh air! In other words to crazy to be true!
When I say, letting go, it means to open up to the new (knowledge) realities while letting go of the old ones.
In order to trigger this, one needs to pounder deeply within, like making your brain work at a higher rate, we hardly ever do this, unless we are facing fear or find ourselves in trouble.
To pounder deeply within while asking the bigger questions are exactly the things one needs to tap into new planes of consciousness, we are walking batteries and our brain is actually a transmitter receiver. These days, more than ever before, people are gaining in ability to USE it for what it’s meant too.
The younger you are the more easy it is to operate, one can still do this at an older age, (past 40) but this requires a different approach and strong discipline.
We are part of the nature which surrounds us, especially when we are young we still feel that bound with nature, t actually never leaves us, but we get consumed by our daily lives which actually drives us into that stress we all experience.
Anyhow, our minds have become to active and restless while frustration is never far a reality for all to deal with, eventually this leads to a tormented mind which will find itself fighting addictions, sugar being the number one worldly addiction.
The best guide is to be found within your own self, if you can skip the fear and push it out of your thinking, a channel will open up and knock at your inner door!
Consider it to be a vice within that speaks to you, I hear voices in my head, lol.
This voice is nothing more than your own (guiding) intuition, to put some trust in this intuition will make such that life itself will unfold itself in front of you.
Your decision-making will become affected in a positive way while your mind will become more and more clear.
This guide is the link between your soul and the source.
The source is where we go to take a rest after we leave the (dead) physical body!
Stories about paradise, heaven or hell.... well, they are nothing but a bunch of cheer whatever I think of it, lol.
The only soul who is going to question (not judge) your previous actions n the physical is your own, punishment, shame, regret or whatever are just like fear absent when rejoining the source.
So unlike believing on needs to become receptive to his own intuition, this will allow one to skip believing while experiencing absolute truth! What you seek resides in YOU!
There is no face or being to be found, one is always both sides of the same coin and reflection.
If you don’t know where to look within, feel free to ask, I can only point towards, the path one needs to walk alone.
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