I asked him, he being a retired CIA agent whose path and mine crossed briefly in this life, "If you can't tell me what you did, can you at least tell me what you learned?" His reply woke me up to what I already knew and suspect most humans know in their hearts who live on this planet, but don't want to know. He said, "Oh yes, I can surely tell you what I learned...Nothing in this world is as you are being told."

Nothing in this world is what you are being told. That's one of life's bottom line statements if there ever was one. NOTHING IN THIS WORLD IS AS YOU ARE BEING TOLD. Let that sink in. If that is so, and I suspect it is, how can this help us go inside for a personal spirituality that works for us and does not need to be based on the illusions that others wish for us to believe.

Humans, by nature, are creatures of opinions and views. It is these opinions and views we adopt or reject that form the basis for how and what we think about all day. It is opinions and views that divide us up into groups, organizations, denominations, factions, parties and religions. Somewhere, there is the simple truth of what really did happen in the past or is happening in the present, but it is made into an illusion by opinions and views or by those who need to use what happened to an advantage of some kind and turn what happened into what did not really happen. They need to turn a real reason into one less than real and accurate.

In my life, I have come to see that in the world of Christian belief, "Nothing in this world is as you are being told." This is true of so many topics we just know are the way we personally believe them to be..or we would not believe it surely!

The bible is not a seamless whole without spot or blemish. It contains many many mistakes, contradictions, myths and scientific absurdities.

The God if the Bible is not all that loving nor much different than the humans who want to rule the planet with an iron fist. Jesus returning with a "rod of iron" does not inspire me nor endear me to this imagined event. We have had enough bullying, coersion, threats to obey, or else, and beatings administered on the planet to think that this is a good thing. How about returning with a hug?

The New Testament books may be and may not be written by the people we have been told wrote them, nor for the reasons we have been told they did write them.

The Gospels are not harmonious and the stories of Jesus life are not eyewitness accounts.

The birth narratives of Jesus are not coherent and whenever Jesus was born, it was NOT on Xmas!

Precious little is known about Jesus outside of these Gospels as Jesus is not really much of a figure of real history as reported by outside historians of his own day. They simply seem to never have heard of him.

The history of the "True Church" is not as true as one might believe nor as simple.

The characters of both the Old and New Testaments may not be as real as one has been lead to believe.

The events described in both the Old and New Testaments may not be as accurate, historical or real as they have been portrayed to be.

The relationships between the characters of the New Testament were not as loving, kind and cooperative as the text would have us believe.

The motives, honesty and tactics in spreading the "Gospel" of early church fathers might not be as pure and true as one is lead to believe.

The lives of pastors, priests, apostles, popes, true believers, evangelists and all assorted gurus are not as they might have us believe.

And on and on and on it can go.

In the world of politics, "Nothing in the world is as you are being told."

I have no idea who really killed John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King or Malcom X, nor why, but it is not as simple as you and I have been told. One comes to understand in time that whatever the accepted story of any political topic is, that can't really be it.

I have no idea if Senator Paul Wellstone, John F. Kennedy Jr., Senator Carnahan or Hale Boggs died in accidental air crashes but there is lots of evidence things are not as they appear. There is lots of evidence that Waco, Flight 007, 800 and the Oklahoma City bombing are not what they appear to be.

Watergate, Iran-Contra, Vietnam, the Gulf of Tonkin, Pearl Harbor and alas, 911 all, perhaps, are not at all what they have been portrayed as being nor their reasons, causes, perpetrators and motives as simple as they have been portrayed to we common folks.

Why did WTC 7 really collapse, and why, for that matter, did both World Trade Centers collapse? I don't know. Why no black boxes or video of the plane that hit the Pentagon in a city covered with cameras? I don't know. Why did the best air force in the world fail to respond for hours, much less minutes to four obvious commercial deviations? I don't know. Why did the President say he saw the first plan hit the tower and think to himself.."that guy sure isn't a very good pilot," when there was no video of the first plane hitting the tower. Why does nothing appear to be as it is? I don't know.

Now we are mired in a war, whose motives, benefits, perks and intentions are not as we have been told. It might not be just that we are stopping terrorists before "they come over here." We have been told that the reasons we went to war were to stop a crazy dictator from unleasing WMD's on us poor folks, and yet, not finding any, the reasons for going to this war keep changing and the average person just keeps saying "whatever you say George, whatever you say."

Speaking of which, we seem also to have a President, whose family ties, intentions, background, beliefs and motives may be a whole lot less glorious than we poor commoners have been led to believe. We have a President whose own willingness to serve during dangerous times in his youth, is suspect and tells one story, while the facts seem to tell another. In fact, when we look at the presidency as a whole and the men who fill that spot throughout history, "nothing in this world is as you are being told." Perhaps Presidents are not ELECTED, but rather SELECTED after all by the gang. These presidents and politicians are not who they appear to be, doing the jobs they appear to be doing, for the motives they appear to be doing them for. What's a commoner to do? Do those who rise to rule over others simply know that lies work and the average man is a fool when it comes to being controlled and herded into beliefs and practices that others deem good for them? It appears so. Nothing in this world is as it appears to be.

Gulf War Syndrome, prescription drugs safety, Democrats, Republicans, the Left, the Right, Christian Politicians, Jerry Falwell's, Pat Robertson's. Benny Hinn's and the 700 Club...no one is who they appear to be, and nothing done is for the stated reasons given for doing it. Perhaps Forrest Gump was right..stupid is as stupid does.

And on and on and on..makes a guy want to join On 'n On Annonymous!

So, since I seriously doubt I can ever really know what is going on in this world and yet suspect and research well the idea that it's not what one might think and certainly is not what one is being told, what's a commoner to DO?

1. Be willing to recognize that when any side in any issue gives any explanation or reason for any answer to any problem, question, statement or practice, they are not telling you the whole story. Basically when their mouths are moving, keep an open mind.

2. Never stop looking to find the simple truth of any matter. We live in an age where the information is out there on that which one might wish to pursue. Sure, you might come up against another idea, view or opinion, but keep looking anyway. It still is a good idea to search out a matter rather than believe the lie. The perspective and information available to those who want to know more than what they are just being told is more available now to the common man than at any time in history.

Use your internet well. In time I suspect you will see the powers that be wanting very much to limit your access to that which opens the mind to other possibilities in the world of social, political and religious ideas. As the early corporate church was not very happy when books became available to the commoner, and thus books not to be read became a popular form of control, the internet is not the best news for those who lie and deceive even themselves.

3. Develope a spirituality that does not despair of nothing in this world being as you are being told. Birds come home to roost. Truth rears it's beautiful face in time. What goes around comes around...just ask Trent Lott, Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay, or CEO's who stash their millions and destroy the lives and careers of the commoners working for them. Read about any Caesar who acted like he was God. Ask the Apostles, Evangelists and Popes who live their lives of intrigue, power and manipulation at everyone elses expense. We're all just people and those who bluster and bully their way to the top of whatever mountain they think they have to conquer seem the weakest and most insecure of them all. The higher you go, the more of your rear end you expose. How thou art fallen, oh Lucifer, thou son of the morning...An oft told tale. Every ladder goes up AND down. Every shenanigan pulled has a price exacted upon the puller and every mountain will be made low in time. Everyone dies and life goes on just fine, without them or us.

Men protest too much about the things they really want to do or, in fact, are doing. Every pastor I have ever heard habitually ranting about homosexuality was wrestling with it. People pass laws they would not keep if they had a need for it not to be a law in their case. Others expect you to believe and do what they do not believe or do themselves. A spirituality that takes these truths into consideration will keep your own body, mind and spirit in tact. We can address what kind of spirituality can do another time. Hint. Fundamentalist Christianity is not designed to lesson anxiety levels. After all, it demands you be right about every topic under the sun, or burn in hell. It demands you know what God is really doing and demands of you and you better be busy doing it, especially tithing :). Not exactly a formula for peace of mind.

So, "since nothing in this world is as you are being told," let's grow up and keep searching for the simple truth of all matters so this is less and less true. I don't want to live in a world of illusions and lies as scary as that also might be.