The Journey

Almost forty years ago I realized that I no longer believed what I had been taught from infancy to regard as ultimate truth beyond question.  The process began with small doubts that grew larger and larger, like cracks spreading in the foundation of a building until the whole structure is undermined.  In the end I was left with nothing but the ruins of a belief system that I had believed would last for eternity.  As everyone I knew was an Adventist, there was no one I could turn to in my bewilderment.  Since I knew little about religious or philosophical ideas outside of those presented by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I had little to guide me as I moved away from my old beliefs.  But I began exploring, reading books, going to places that had been off limits to me, enjoying a found new freedom to consider any and everything. Gradually I began to realize that there were other, more viable for me anyway, ways to live one's life.  My explorations led to academic training in the history of religion and then graduate training in transpersonal psychology.  As a psychotherapist, I enjoy helping people move beyond limited beliefs to new life and joy.  The journey away from authoritarian religion is often not an easy one.  There were certainly some very dark and despairing times for me.  But the life I've lived since leaving Adventism has been so much rich and fulfilling than anything I could have imagined as an Adventist.  The journey has been well worth the effort.