If you are a Christian and you are reading this, I am going to tell you right now that your fears, worries and accusations are completely unfounded. This is not what spiritualism is about.

It doesn't matter what religious background you embrace. In spiritualism, no one condemns the other in their beliefs. Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Buddhists, etc. are all in that same room together with the same purpose in mind: to be one with the universe and God. We are seeking peace, happiness, laughter, joy, and understanding with God. If you can pray, you can meditate. It is in meditation (which anyone can do) that we begin to listen to God. In prayer, we talk to God. Isn't it better to have a two-way conversation rather than just a one-way conversation with God?

Over these past few months, I have been searching for that inner peace with myself and the universe. For those who know me and have read some of my past articles, they know that I believe in thinking positive and putting out into the universe all of your desires and seeing what comes back to you. "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne only touches lightly on the bigger meaning of it all. There's the part where we have to let go of our own egos, as taught in Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth." Believe me, after I let go of my own ego, I let go of my biggest demon that I've been carrying with me for so long.

After reading "Eat, Love, Pray" by Elizabeth Gilbert, I learned that I am not alone in my search for complete happiness, love, friendship and joy in the universe. Even when our own universes have completely destroyed us, no matter what we are battling, we can be at peace once again. Even an atheist can find God if they truly search for him. Even if they don't believe in God, that peace that comes from silencing your own mind and listening to your own inner voice can be your ticket to understanding your own universe and your meaning within it.

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho taught me that I am on my right path in life. As surreal as my life has become, I understood that there is a higher purpose to why things are happening in my life right now. I have already been a witness to my own "Personal Legend." I'm living that right now. But I know I can't live my own legend without being connected to God and the universe, because it is God and the universe that brings me closer to my fate.

The first time in meditation I saw God, he was on a mountaintop in an outdoor marble palazzo with large silk pillows on the floor and on the benches. The most beautiful and colorful exotic birds perched on the branches of some of the most beautiful flowering trees I had ever seen. I had to cross a bridge that stretched across the sky to get there. When God saw me, he opened up his arms and received me, and I cried as I fell into his embrace because I was finally home.

There was no more sense of alienation or feeling misplaced. I no longer had that feeling that I could not call my own home, "HOME SWEET HOME," because it just didn't feel like home. For years, I had felt that sense of alienation within myself no matter where I went, no matter where I laid my head and called home. It just never felt like I was home. I felt misplaced and cut off from something bigger, someplace I really called home. It came to a point where I looked at the world and said, "I am in hell. What in the world did I do to get here?"

It was in meditation that I realized, I am never too far from home. Home is where the heart is. Within my own heart and soul, I know now that I can always feel at home.

The fears and claims that are coming against us "New Age" spiritualists are the fears that you would expect to come from ignorance. It comes from not truly understanding who we are.

One of the most thought provoking items that came from "Eat, Love, Pray" was something an Italian told to Gilbert. He told her that there was only one word to describe a person or a region. He said that in Rome, that word was "Sex." In New York City, that word was "Achieve." In Vatican City, home of the Roman Catholic Empire, that word was "Power." It wasn't faith, Christianity, or God, it was "Power." Just ask any Italian living in Rome.

When you think about the home of Christianity as being rested purely on power and not on faith or God, wouldn't you question why you are in this religion to begin with? I have stated many times (because I firmly believe in this) that Jesus Christ was made into the golden calf. It was his teachings we were supposed to follow and embrace within our lives and within our hearts. We were not supposed to raise him to the level of the golden calf. To say that the reason why he is placed at that status was because he was the Son of God fails to also show that we are all relatives to Jesus Christ. We are all children of God. I am a daughter of God, just like you are a daughter or son of God. If you believe that is wrong, then why is that when we pray we come to God as if we are his children?

When I look at many Christians who have not learned what it means to listen to God, I feel deep remorse for them because they don't understand their true calling in life. They don't know the answer to the question, "Why am I here?" They hurt others that don't believe as they do. They condemn them for believing differently than they do. They make up false stories about what it means to be a spiritual person. I have heard some stories that would equate us to being witches and warlocks...or just people seeking to be a God. We are none of those things.

We have learned to have a deeper understanding with our own souls and the souls around us. We listen to the soul of the world. We listen to what the universe and God is saying to us. When you are connected to God, the universe becomes a much more beautiful place. You begin to understand the secrets of the universe and you are at complete peace. You learn to not have worries, because they are self defeating and unfounded. You learn to live in the present, instead of wasting your life away to a past that has already gone by (and cannot be changed), or focusing too much on a future (that never turns out quite the way you planned it to be). You only learn to understand that we are always in the present.

You learn that you can stop your own worries with life by acknowledging your worries. You ask yourself why you are worried. You tell yourself that you will get exactly what you are afraid of if you keep projecting out into the universe what you fear. It is when you acknowledge your fears and worries that you can change them into something positive and walk away from it. No one likes the feeling of worry or fear. Worry and fear is only within our own imagination. It's not real. We have the power to solve our own problems. We have the tools to make the changes so that we don't have to worry over our problems. Really...how does worrying about a problem help the situation? It doesn't.

There is nothing to fear except our own egos when it comes to spiritualism. We are not out to destroy any religion or force our beliefs on anyone. We are all in understanding that we are there to seek God, and within God we find peace, love, and happiness. We embrace all religions of the world and respect them, because we understand that all religions are seeking God. In spiritualism, we are only learning how we can truly connect with God by listening.

You don't have to go to a Meditation Center or attend classes to learn how to silence your mind and meditate. You can do it at home without interference from someone telling you what to do or how to believe. It just takes work to silence your mind so that you can listen to God. Sometimes what you hear is your own voice (your subconscious) telling you things that you never took the time to realize. Believe me, you have to have the courage to be prepared for whatever lies within you to come to the forefront and tell you what is wrong with you.

For many years, I have been struggling with finding out why I am so unhappy with life. It wasn't until recently that I heard my own inner voice tell me truthfully what the source of my unhappiness was...and it tacked on to that issue by saying, "Whether you want to believe it or not, but that's the truth."

By meditating, I've been able to dream better (and sleep through the night). My subconscious has taken control of my dreams and it has shown me things within my life that I was unaware of that is causing me pain. It is by acknowledging my pains and fears that I've held close to my heart for so long that I could finally let go of them and be happy.

Even in fate, I've learned that the reason why the surrealism in my life is a reality is because something more amazing is in play right now. I am only taking the steps to find my own treasure, my own fate.

Someone said to me recently that when you realize your place in this universe, when you become connected to God and the universe, you see the world differently. You see that the light is brighter. The grass is greener and the flowers are more vibrant and colorful. You see beauty in irony. You can even look at a homeless man sitting in a wheelchair wearing tattered clothes, looking like he hadn't had a bath in three months, with a cigar hanging out of his mouth and think that the moment is purely beautiful, despite the cigar hanging out of his mouth. You just see the world very differently. Anyone else would have either ignored the man or crossed the street to get away from him, instead of realizing that what made him so beautiful was his soul.

We must be the change in the world that we seek.