Through my reading/studying, I have surmised a ‘new’ reason to follow a religion, and that is to attain a higher consciousness. To achieve this, I believe that one should be able to practice/perform many religious acts from differing religions. For example, I practice yoga to gain clarity in my day to day breathing, I meditate almost every night, and during the day I run to gain a sense of Satori which is an elevated state of the mind where one doesn’t feel pain, and has a heightened sense of one-ness with their surroundings. I also attend mass once or twice a week to ‘purify’ myself. Now the question becomes, should a person be able to pick and choose parts of a specific religion and mix it with aspects of another religion to gain an heightened consciousness.
I went to mass today to speak with the priest about this theory, and he refused to speak with me and told me to go back to my house and write him an email, which I thought was rather audacious of him to turn away someone asking to speak with him. Thus I left the church I grew up in feeling ostracized and doubt that I will be returning again to the church.