Who the hell are you and why are you here?

[TM99]

9. Why I am here.

My father was raised Catholic with ties to the Afro-Cuban religious traditions (though he never chose to participate). My mother was also raised Catholic. In graduate school, they met and married. They decided to become Anglican's together. My father is an agnostic mystic, by his own admission, with interests in eastern religion and mysticism. My mother is a very faithful believer in Christ and is extremely active in her Episcopal church in retirement.

I was raised free to explore any and all traditions and was never forced or even encouraged to believe or not believe anything. By age 8, I knew I was an atheist, but as an adult I prefer the term ignostic. I also knew then that I was a Buddhist. I studied philosophy and history in college and my thesis was on Hegel's Phänomenologie des Geistes. Before going into clinical psychology, I did a Masters in religious studies at a divinity school where my thesis was on Gnosticism and its underground traditions in heresies and occult traditions during the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and the Romantic Age.

I continue to read and study on topics related to religion, history, philosophy, psychology, linguistics, etc. In recent years, I have been involved in the Afro-Cuban religions of my ancestors where my non-belief has never been an issue. I continue to be very involved in Buddhist practices both locally and in some instances nationally.

I have been seriously contemplating leaving the field of psychology and at my S.O.'s encouragement starting to write on these topics as well as exploring work involving technology, music, design, and photography. I abhor fundamentalists of any stripe - believers or non-believers. And I really hope that Interfaith can actually be a place where more serious and deep discussions might occur without all the drama of other groups.