For about a year now, I’ve been growing away from several views that I’ve held for many years or even my entire life. This started slowly at first but has happened increasingly faster as I’ve continued learning about a wide range of subjects, investigating new things, and allowing myself to fully experience some thoughts and perspectives that I had previously repressed. Talking to several people who either have similar viewpoints or are interested in exploring a wide range of possibilities has also accelerated this process and made me rethink a lot of things.
The most dramatic change I’ve made involves moving away from organized religion. Despite being raised Christian, I never regularly attended church until my senior year of high school and sometimes had a thought in the back of my head that I’d someday leave the faith. Sure enough, and without even intending to do so, that’s exactly what I’ve done. In addition to the conversations I mentioned in the previous paragraph, my experiences with meditation and floating have convinced me that there is far more to life than I had originally thought and that no belief system has a monopoly on truth. There are still things that I find beneficial in Christianity, such as the Golden Rule and exhortations to take care of people in need, but at this point I claim no religion. I simply do what I do in every other area of my life: read a lot, consider a wide range of different perspectives, and find value wherever I can.
I’ve made plenty of other major changes on this journey. Much of what I used to think about family, friendship, society, and life itself has gone away. Since this has all happened in a fairly short period of time, it’s been jarring to say the least. Sometimes I don’t know which way is up, where to go, or what to do. I often feel as if the ground beneath my feet is falling away and threatening to take me with it. Maybe I’ll continue replacing the old ground with some new ground, or maybe I’ll find that I never need any ground in the first place. Either way, I feel much more at peace with myself and with those around me than ever before, so I’m interested to see what else I find as I keep moving down this path.