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1. I am a Christian. I was brought up a Christian so I have been Christian all my life. My faith has grown as I have grown, and I have grown as my faith has grown. Nowadays my faith is stronger than it has ever been. I have come to understand my religion more deeply than I ever thought would be possible for me. I am comfortable in a church of any denomination - fundamental, protestant, catholic, orthodox, and others, and I consider myself at home in any and all of them, although my preference is for the more traditional services. I enjoy visiting empty churches. I have worked as a Christian chaplain and in doing so have provided pastoral support for people of all faiths.
2. I can leave my body. I have been doing so for over thirty years. I can leave the body in sleep, in prayer and meditation, while relaxing, sitting, active, walking, and in differing ways and methods. I understand and can explain every detail of the techniques and mechanics involved. I can extend part of my consciousness from myself, and/or alter its range of perception. I have other related type skills too, which I have only briefly mentioned, and some I have never mentioned to anyone and probably never will.
I mention those two points because many people in present day spiritual groups and movements teach that those two points cannot go together in the one individual. They say or imply that Christians cannot do such things, that Christians are closed minded and materialistic. Those people are wrong. Christianity is the broadest and most diverse religion on Earth. It teaches the concepts of truth and love to all sorts of people in the way that best suits them. That is why there are so many styles of Christian worship, and is why the parables are multilayered allegories, and are true from their most literal to most abstract meanings, and as such they speak to the individual, whoever they are. Christianity is the only religion whose central teaching is of the workings, practice and power of love and forgiveness, and which contains page after page of teachings on love and forgiveness, not just love and forgiveness to one's own kin and kind but to everyone, including those who hate us and would do us harm.
There are many who claim there exists an alternative and higher form of love, caring, compassion, than that taught by Christianity. Many are the "I'm-spiritual-not-religious" set, the humanitarians, and others, but they would not even have the idea of their alternative if not for the Christian true and original, for before Christ the power of love and forgiveness was only vaguely mentioned here and there in the religions and philosophies of the world, and had not been taught and demonstrated anywhere previously. So although they hate the fact, those who claim to have an alternative are a product of Christianity itself and in a sense they are Christianised. They are part of Christendom for they are a product of it, but they are the anti-Christians, for theirs is a reaction against the true and original, and theirs is false, for there is only one true love, not two. Despite them getting their idea from him, and portraying themselves as the good elite, they can't, won't or have difficulty saying that Jesus Christ is their saviour, and that they are Christians and are members of the Christian church. This is because they are the alternatives, and this is why John said to test them this way.
Occasionally on this forum and others, and much more so in my employments in various capacities where I work amongst many "humanitarians", assorted government funded do-gooders and those who are endlessly claiming to be "caring" and "compassionate", and amongst the spiritual new-age mystic set to whom I teach meditative skills, I frequently hear Christianity rubbished and undermined, referred to as if it is something ridiculous, low level, basic, and even evil; its church welfare services deliberately left out of communication loops, twelve step programs (the most successful self help programs in the world) continually rubbished and clients advised not to attend them, their clients and the public continually subject to a stream of gross to subtle insinuation, condemnation and ridicule of Christians, and often uttered in the same breath with such words as hypocrites, paedophiles, patriarchy, fundamentalists, conservatives, materialists, right-wingers, capitalists.... It is much the same amongst the good elite the western world over.
And all of that is fine, there is nothing wrong with the way things are, as unpleasant as they may be. It is meant to be that way, was inevitable and foreseen from the beginning. Despite appearances, the world is fair, perfect and properly overseen. Do not fall into the trap of thinking it is not, or of believing or thinking that you behold an alternative idea for how society or the world should be, for that is elitist thinking and soon leads to madness of heart followed by insanity of mind. Always value other people's freewill, regardless who they are and how they use it, for God gave them freewill as a means to learn and grow. Valuing other people's freewill keeps our love from becoming hate that believes itself to be love. As far as the individual is concerned, it is important to exercise observance and intelligence, learn to discriminate between one thing and another, to know conscience, to exercise love and forgiveness and discreet helpfulness towards others. To wish well for others, no matter who they are.
You did not define or describe what your "new normal" is. I'm guessing it is taking shape. I seldom suggest anyone should change religions. But if they do that is up to them. Personally I consider that is like changing horses in midstream, and no one who is serious about getting across river does that - they stick with their horse, give it its head and encourage it forward. A large part of an individual's deep moral wiring is in the code of the religion he was brought up with, as his verbal thinking is within the code of his first language. Almost no English speaker who learns German as a second language at a mature age will ever be able to hold an in depth conversation in it on complex technical, religious or philosophical matters. And German is related to English. Try Icelandic or Mandarin. Building upon and further developing our language skills and religious understanding is a different thing and is good. We might even bring in concepts from other sources and build them upon our foundation. I have done that myself. I am familiar with the scriptures, traditions and practices of all major religions, and have a reasonable conceptual understanding of them, and I can see how they intersect, overlap and compliment. If Christianity the way it was practiced where you grew up or the particular Christians you knew then are not to your liking now, then keep what you learnt that has been beneficial, that rings true, good and right, and build upon it, evolve, and develop it further. Bring in other ideas, concepts, that help you climb. Climb the ladder to higher rungs, but be wary of trying to step across from completely off of your ladder onto another ladder, for that is how falls can occur. And when you have climbed higher do not do what many do, which is to look back at the rungs of the ladder below themselves of which they have themselves climbed up from and rubbish those who are behind them on those rungs - like we commonly see the "spiritual" ones on the higher rungs who talk about their unconditional love rubbishing the fundamental Christians on the lower rungs, but in fact those spiritual ones are not even where they think they are. They think they are looking down but they are looking up.
As for prayer, don't aim low. The greatest concept of God you can conceive of, in your soul, mind and heart - pray to that, nothing less or part thereof. And be aware of the most central and core part of your self, that is the part of you that does the praying. So prayer is the joining or communing of those two, yourself and God. Do not imagine God, for to think of a god is to create one, and your bible warns you against worshiping images. Instead, be aware of God, from his awareness to your awareness, from his will to your conscience, from his love to your heart.
To appeal to God "in Christ's name" is not empty words. For those who know his story and his message, to use his name aligns our soul, intent and heart, with the outward flow of light and love from God, which is the only offspring from God, and whose name is Christ. As there is the sun and there is the light and warmth that comes from the sun.
Conscience is in between God and our self. It is our highest sense within our self of what is good and right to do. We can conceive of nothing higher, or else that something higher becomes our conscience. By definition conscience is always the highest. And it is only what comes in via conscience our highest sense of what is good and right, and comes in via the inner upper pinnacle of our being vertically downward that we acknowledge. That is where God will impress upon us. What comes in laterally, upon the sides of mind, is of lesser standard and should be regarded as no significance. Even what comes in via conscience must be treated as information, not divine knowledge, for as your bible says, God has given all judgement to the son. God's love, called the Christ, moves through human hearts. It is not our love, is not generated by us, but exists before we use it, and before it comes through us. No moment of love going through our heart is the same love, like water going under a bridge, it is flowing all the time. All love felt by all people is the same spirit of love. It is alive and can be communicated with. Its name is Christ. It will come to you and obey you within its role and your benefit. Its name is also Jesus, because his life was a reflection of the greater spirit, and he answers to that too. Don't just sit on what you learn in prayer, live out what comes in, in other words, live out your highest standard through words, hands and heart towards those around you, for love and the holy spirit are like the wind, they only exist when moving, and are like water running through a faucet that must run through or no more will come through. If you live out your best then the channel through you from conscience to output will become grooved and free, and the flow into you, through you and out of you will become smooth and steady.
Spare time, once or twice a day to practice. Experiment, trial, practice. Also when sitting, walking, travelling, when doing tasks. Ponder, muse, contemplate, when sitting, standing, walking. Sleep on things. Cultivate virtues as you best understand them to be; develop and evolve them.
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