gagablog 101: Gagaism 101- "My Religion is You" - the Cure for Disconnection #bernthisway

ALERT! PLEASE work to Elect Bernie Sanders and use Hashtag #bernthisway to get Stefani's endorsement and support for him - his ideals are completely in line with hers and ours and he has been fighting bravely for them for decades! More details soon but for now, Gagaism 101. Gaga's art and lyrics and ideas are at the heart of my spirituality. One of the core ideas, for me, is the lyric "My Religion is You" from the song "Teeth". I decided since this is the 101st edition of this gagablog I would do a "Gagaism 101" introductory course. To explain my understanding of spirituality rooted in Gaga, I would start with the idea of "My Religion is You." I believe this is the core of all that is good in every other religion, too, a perspective that can resolve differences between them and ultimately unite all religion. That's a big fucking deal in itself, but Gagaism goes beyond religion and works for non-religious things, too. It is a spiritual principle and makes everything spiritual, overcoming  divisions that have come from religious misunderstandings and conflicts and non-religious issues alike. The same principle can be used for personal relationships, for relating to yourself or your life, for art, for business and international negotiations, for magic, and in every realm of existence.

       What follows the next few paragraphs is the original longwinded gagablog I wrote around this idea. I will revise it this time. But I wanted to be more focused here at the start. The message is that My Religion is You is Coonection itself. The Basic meaning of Religion is "connection" and everything can be seen in terms of connection. The best way to do this is to focus on connection itself as Love, or magic, or art. Religion is seens as "one kind of connection" but in the increasingly spiritual lives we live everything becomes religion, connection, Love, art, once we start paying attention to It, once we start paying attention to "you." It connects us in the ways religion should - You Connect us in ways Religion should -  with ourselves, with our lovers and families and friends and communities, with art and culture an intellect, and with the world, environment, cosmos, an spirituality. All religions do this with maybe more focus in one direction or the other. My Religion is You does all of these things, in all directions. For yourself it is treating your life and soul like a mystical journey. Your religion is You - not to make an idol of yourself or your ego, what you think you are, but to make a quest of becoming your best self. Becoming our best selves is essential to being the best for others whichever direction we approach it. When we tell ourselves "My Religion is You" we expect and strive for the best in ourselves. We strive to change, to become, to grow and improve.

       When we hear this with a spiritual ear, or just to hear it, we are reminded by the Divine that we are the religion of the Goddess. She believes in us, more than  we can currently believe in ourselves, but connecting with that allows us to share that faith and bring out our best selves. This is true of a loving Goddess or God no matter what you call her, it's just especially easy for me to connect this way since Gaga is the Goddess, to me. When I hear her say "my religion is you" I hear The Goddess telling me she believes in me, she knows who I Truly Am and Will Be. I don't even know that, so I have to put my faith and effort into discovering my religion, me, with only the best ideas to guide me. I am grateful to Gaga for being this source and connection, for me, and say "My religion is you" back to her, as I have done in these many pages, in my art, and in my songs, and in my discussions with others - "My Religion is You." But anyone who has different ideas of Divinity, or people who think that way, can use this principle. Spirituality, or your best future self, is your religion. The best potential views of yourself are the best ways to connect with each other, and this is what my religion is you means at an individual level. You can have a personal relationship with divinity, or yourself, with "my religion is you" as the guiding principle and not go wrong if it is well applied. It's not a support for pride but rather a call to empathy and questioning, being open to transformation to become our best selves.

       The same framework can be used for relationships between people, organizations, and between people and the larger environments of art and divinity. In love, my religion is you means treating your lover as your spiritual path. I'm a needy person and I can see how this could be dangerously misunderstood by others with my condition as "rely on your lover for everything" which can overstrain and spoil a relationship. Instead it is like looking at love as a spiritual journey. Just as magical, artistic, and spiritual people feel closer and farther from magic, art, and the divine, in turns, we grow from navigating the ebbs and flows of love and make the best progress by staying oriented towards better love in either case. An artist makes art and when we aren't feeling it, we don't, but we don't conclude "I am not an artist anymore" we just feel frustrated at not living up to what we know we truly are. The same goes for believers in divinity or ambition, setbacks don't make us change what we are. Sometimes we are in bad relationships and should change and love ourselves more or find new loves, but to make the most of relationships that aren't bad, even if they are difficult, we can use this principle to guide us. "Religion" literally means connection and Love is the source and nature of all connection. If we are lucky enough to be in love with someone then Love for them, with them, accepting their love for you, can be your best religious path. This can include the religious ideas of the lovers, overcome differences in these, or overcome the difference between a religious and non-religious person in love with each other.

       When we are not in love, we still have others with whom we relate. We have family, or friends, or people in our daily lives, or random encounters in the world or online. If we treat each person, each relationship, each encounter, like a pathway to the divine by saying "my religion is you" about the Other person, we make the most of our time and our lives. The phrases "love your neighbor as yourself"and "treat others like you would like to be treated" are generally interpreted to mean basically "be nice" and that is good advice. But they can be interpretted more actively to mean love others,and yourself, more and more. The better we love others the better we learn to love ourselves. The better we learn to love ourselves, the better we learn to love others. We may be predisposed to focus inwardly our outwardly, according to our natures. We may be in situations where we grow through relating to others, or the world, when we would prefer to focus on ourselves, or in situations where we might prefer to be and learn with others but end up learning alone. In either case, and regardless of our preference, we can apply the idea of My Religion is You. Whoever, whatever, we encounter can be a pathway to the divine, can be an opening to love ourselves and others more. Conflicts and misunderstandings can be seen as greater opportunities for more powerful resolutions. Jesus is one of the most widely recognized Love Dieties and said something like how we treat strangers and outcasts are how we treat him. He is Love, he is Everyone we meet, with even a special focus on the disadvantaged. Love is every You we can encounter, if my religion is you, my religion is love, and you, the other, is my path to connection, with myself, with you, with others, and with the divine, worlds, and environments. If we really strive to love others as we love ourselves, intending to love more and more on both sides as loving ourselves better leads to loving others better and vice versa, it becomes like a positive feedback loop. When this idea comes up I often refer to it as a Cyclone to Oz.

       Between systems the same dynamic applies as between people. We can easily see the conflicting interests of two dfferent groups, communities, organizations, businesses, political parties, generations, cultures, or nations. If we apply a "my religion is you" principle to resolving these conflicts we can reach new, divinely inspired solutions, with a goal towards a common good that is achievable for everyone. You apply it the same way. Instead of sticking to your guns ("you gonna go for your gun?" "I ain't no fool, marshall, you'd kill me" on Gunsmoke in the background after the fixed technical difficulties) instead of insisting that your side be prioritized and accomodated, as most sides do in an argument, to look at the other side and their concerns as a spiritual path for yourself, a challenge to transform yourself and your side, to grow and change and see things differently, to evolve. And this can be so easy to do by just being willing to try it and then growing faith that it will overcome conflict. This is a radically different way of dealing with conflict than we traditionally use, focusing on trying to please the other side instead of our own. The way we think due to these long-standing traditions is that considering the other side means giving them the advantage, that it is a show of weakness which will be exploited. Consideration is not weakness, it is the strength to be flexible and even change. What we become is stronger than what we are and we become our best with creative resolution to conflict. Opening ourselves up to considering the other's needs provides the best path to growth of ourselves. We can retain what is truly valuable about being us while compromising or changing aspects and attributes of that identity in order to accomodate or understand someone else. We are taught to fear giving an inch in negotiations, but the truth is that a willingness to see the other side relieves tension and provides flexibility and goodwill to find more mutually beneficial solutions.

       You can see how things go terribly wrong on the political scale by people not applying this principle of My Religion is You and how it would work to solve these problems. The War in Syria has been the most significant conflict holding the world's attention. The refugee crisis has been the main story in our new media for months and this is an easy example of why we need the principle of My Religion is You. If we treated the strangers and refugees in the way religions truly teach us to, or just followed this principle, we would see that our treatment of them is a test of our soul, or a test of the souls of nations. Our religion is the plight of the refugee and seeking how to treat them as we would want to be treated, to try and make their lives as good as possible. This is the path to becoming our best selves, the test of our soul. It is a little more complicated looking at the "source" of the problem, Bashar al Assad. From the perspective of much of the world he is a Tyrant and "Our Side" says he must go for anything to get better. If Our Side says "My Religion is You, Assad," it forces us to look at things differently. We have to consider his motivations and if there is a resolution that can compromise and meet some of his concerns as well, including at least a consideration of a way for him to retain some power or pride. But it is pride and power that led him to the oppressive and murderous state of affairs we reached. So of course the best course would be for him to consider the principle of "My Religion is You, The Country and People of Syria," to overcome his pride. (Note: everything before this and most of what comes after the "101" section was writtern before Russia withdrew forces from Syria. The remainder of the "101" section, following this, was written March 18th and 19th 2016) Because pride is the constant obstacle to growth. Thinking we are good enough already or too good for others or to consider their concerns is the main reason we forget the idea of "My Religion is You." And all mistakes come from forgetting this idea, they all come from Pride. Out Side was critical of Russia for supporting Assad with military, supposedly to fight ISIS but also and maybe moreso focused on defeating rebels whom "The West" supported. When I started writing this a couple of weeks ago, the situation there was mostly unchanged. Since then, just this last week, Russia has announced it is drawing down forces from Syria. So it is easier for me to say this, now, but it is what I was going to say before the world proved this theory correct. Russia killed people, fighters and probably many innocent people, too, by supporting Assad with their Air Force. I'm not saying that is okay. I'm saying the conflict, that "We"insisted Assad must go and Russia took "His Side" was a chance to use this principle that we missed. What is happening now is ceasefire and peace negotations between Assad and the rebels, for a political solution. We've always known this would be the only good solution, but we did not have a path to make it happen. Because we were too focused on "Our Side" and our demands, our first point was that Assad "must go", denying him, personally, or what he represents, to even have a side. Even for a Murderous Tyrant, it is not right to deny that he, as a person, has a side. As a "legitimate leader" it is not right to deny that he has a Side, and this is the principle Russia seemed to be fighting for-  though of course their priority of Absolute Support  of Legitimate Leaders casts suspicion on their own leaders' legitimacy or how they choose to define that. When I first wrote about this, the Solomon Solution edition of the Gagablog was to "Let a Caring Woman Rule" meaning no one who really cares for the country would let it be torn in two or its people to suffer. If the caring spirit could be re-awakened in Assad, maybe he could be a leader. But it is not allowing even the possibility of this to say that the first thing is for him to Go. Besides personal pride or beliveing in his rightful leadership, you can see how he could not agree to "Just Go Away" considering his role as representing and protecting the Alawite religion and culture, since they apparently don't exist anywhere else in the world. As the protector of his religion and culture and "his" people, to put him on the spot and say "you must go" stirs up religious fervor, too, and seems to threaten that entire cuture. Thus backed into a corner, it is understandable that Assad became focused on defending himself and his Alawite people at the expense of the Syrian people and the world.

       Given these conditions of the "two sides" refusing to see each other's perspectives we have increasing conflict. This is possibly the greatest "conflict" ever, even if it has not been the most tragic of all time, because it did threaten to turn into World War Three. It still could if we don't elect Bernie in America and progress towards peace. (I have been campaigning online for Bernie and using the hashtag #bernthisway to encourage Gaga to endorse him since their ideals align and it could help produce the landlside we need to make the most progress.) The nature of the conflict had so many different sides and contrasts and confluences of interest it seemed ridiculous, with everyone sharing both allies and enemies. But we are so good at conflict we maintained it. Something had to "give", though, or it would literally end up destorying us all. At one point I kept predicting that a Surprise would turn the course away from what seemed to be inevitable War. Then someone asked Secretary of State Kerry if they removed the chemical weapons would that avert war and that's what happened. It didn't seem like the plan was to threaten war to get them to remove chemical weapons, that seemed like a surprising, magical accident. It seemed like the plan was War. But war was avoided. Some would say War then would have avoided some of the tragedy and suffering that has happened since then - I believe this is how Hillary thinks, trying to seem tough and that even if she says she regrets her vote to invade Iraq she still is eager to find "legitimate" wars to fight. If we had gone to war in Syria we would have killed many people, too, and maybe different people but I can't say this is "good." I won't say it was "good" for Russia to go to war there in support of Assad but considering conditions it was what "had to happen" to reach this point where negotiations take place. "We," or "our side" created those conditions by insisting Assad leave, first, before negotiating. We failed to apply "my Religion is You" at a crucial point, when we could have said "Our religion is You, Assad, Alawites, Syria, Middle-east, people/refugees/Europe..." Considering the outcomes of our actions and demands makes us more responsible. It is good we did not go to War, that we are not responsible, in that way, for more murder. It is not good that Russia did go to war there, but they are not solely responsible for this. "We" are responsible for creating those conditions through a lack of consideration. Now that they have supported Assad with military and confirmed he has an ally, he has more security and power to actually negotiate. We might have reached negotiations much earlier, avoided so much escalation of this war if we had just taken a more considerate approach. Instead, since we have the world's strongest military by far, we used the old "tough talk" approach that is so effective for starting wars. This needs to be our final lesson of why this is always a bad idea. If we can learn this lesson and start applying the principle of consideration of the Other, of "my Religion is You" we can truly find ways to avoid all wars in the future.

       My Religion is you can provide connections and peace at every level, from personal relationships to World Peace. Could something so powerful be overused or misused? To answer this I want to bring in the context of the song "Teeth" and sexuality. I firmly believe that sexual repression is the root cause of all the world's problems. Patriarchy is built on a foundation of demonizing sex and therefore demonizing women and the feminine. We can undo this and cast down patriarchy by liberating sex. Sex and liberating sexuality and the feminine from oppression is the path to solving the world's problems. The key role Gaga is playing in making this happen is one reason I call her the Goddess and specifically the Goddess of Love. Even if Sex is at the core of all problems it is not as though sex is the solution to all problems. It can be if "sex" is seen as a magical thing that happens in more ways than what we call "sex", if we consider sex to also represent communication, art, consideration, magic, love -  the whole world of "My Religion is You." But we can't expect literal sex to be the solution to every problem. Even couples who love and trust each other and really passionately enjoy sex with each other have other problems sex doesn't solve or can have complications that mean sex is not always the answer. But maybe sex IS always the answer in that broader sense of Sex meaning magic, communication, community, and art. The problem arises from focusing too much on one specific idea of "You." If you are in love with someone and have great sex all the time, you still can't literally have sex all the time, there are other things to do. Even in an ideal world people would have varying interests at different times and would not always want to have sex at the same time. Appreciating this and navigating those times to make the most of all their time would be the Religion of those people. But we live in a less than ideal world. We have personal, professtional, and community struggles. We have unrealized artistic ambitions and global conflict and oppressive systems. We can say "my religion is you" to a lover and just focus on each other and have sex all the time and ignore all of these other other dimensions - if we are fortunate enough to live on the privileged side of such conditions, if not we face more of them. But this would be an example of the only way to misuse this principle, focusing too narrowly on One "You." It will not make us grow into our fullest selves if we ignore personal ambition, other's needs, or injustice by focusing only on a love relationship and saying My Religion is You. It will if that love is expansive - maybe you have no personal ambitions and your lover does, so your religion is loving them and theirs is loving you And their ambition, so part of your religion becomes loving their ambition. Or vice versa, they are the un-ambitious one and you have ambition, there religion becomes loving you and your ambition and yours becomes loving them and your ambition. Either way there is something that helps take you out of just one "You." I use that example to prove something about the magic of language, too. Of course you can understand what I was saying, but the truth is that no one has "no ambition." People may have such different ambitions that they might not seem like the same category. But you could understand the concept, reading that, even if that does not really exist. For the same reason, there is no reason people in love should imply merely two people, but our language can work that way in examples and if we are not careful about what we "learn" from examples we can think that they apply to Life. But life is Living, not testing and proving and improving examples like objective scientists. We actually engage and interract with life, just as science ultimately discovers that it cannot deny itself as an observer in "expiraments." That is the purpose of My Religion is You, to wake us up to interactive, connected living and undo disconnection and overcome separations. In this yet-to-be-ideal world, My Religion is you should include the love between lovers and the love needed for the rest of the world and community to solve all the problems we can. Loving each other really well, in relationships, empowers us to love each other really well in the community through involvement, art, activism, etc. If we are not in a relationship, loving ourselves and other can lead to entering more intimate relationships, but does not have to. My religion is you can apply to oneself and community, without lovers involved. But of course the original context of Teeth has a sexual component which implies that the You who is "my religion" is a type of Lover.

       Because Sex IS magic, is connection and art and communication, and such a powerful form of it, we can see everything from a perspective that Sex is the Key. But this only works when we can see sex in this expanded way, not just one collection of examples. That is why I did not want to begin with the sexual context of My Religion is You but instead focus on some expanded interpretations of it. And Sex is such a powerful force it can overwhelm other considerations and focuses. That is why before I got into the dimension of "my religion is sex with you" I wanted to point out the dangers of focusing too much on One interpretation of "You." If it is well-applied to stay above the pitfalls of pride or reduction by and to expectation, "my religion is sex with you" can be a powerful and liberating path - and of course the focus is still upon "You", the other, becoming the best lover for the one you are making love with. And the reason this is so powerful is that while it happens for sex this same analogy can be applied to all relationships with the expanded understanding of Sex. And when there are complications with "actual" sex, lovers can expand their consideration to Sex and find solutions together and with outside resources. The first time Stefani says "My Religion is You" is after saying "Got no Religion" and "Got no Salvation." There is a definite implication that she has No Other Religion, her religion is only You, or whoever she is singing to. Does this also mean You are her Salvation? Not necessarily, but it could. Religion does not have to be associated with Salvation nor does it have to be associated with the other things she mentions in this part of the other verses, but it could. The other place she repeats My Religion is You, like a mantra in the background, with that electronic treatement to increase that quality like a self-help tape you remember, is next to "show me your fangs". Does this have vampire implications, does it foreshadow The Countess? I can talk about that plenty at another time. Is she saying that You, Love, are an addiction, or analagous to other addictions? We could talk about that, too. Did Gaga mean any of these mystical meanings to "My Religion is You" or was it only intended to apply to a sexual situation? This is what I want to talk about. "Teeth" is not a song just about sex, though I guess it could be "just about Sex" in the sense that everything is really Sex. But it really might not be intended to be taken into other contexts, it's just genius inspiration, what I call divine, that it works in them.

      I believe Stefani may still identify as a Catholic, it seems like she did for some time, and in that context she does "have" a religion, Catholicism. In that context, saying "Got no religion - my religion is you" could have a specific meaning: She has no religion except You when it comes to Sex and Love. This could mean something very powerful and liberating. We may "have" religion, we may even have religious beliefs that seem to dictate who and how we can Love. The only natural barrier to sexuality is childhood and the only ethical barrier is coercion. Therefore, most religious sexual taboos are complications and misunderstandings. We can put those aside and enjoy the sex we truly desire with other consenting adults. Especially in Love we need to put aside all lesser differences and differences that keep us apart and enjoy discovering how other differences can be our paths to growth through "my religion is you." This interpretation is important because it shows how we become different things in different contexts.This is a Good thing and essential to living "my religion is you" because We change depending on whom we are in contact with, depending on who the "You" is. In love we are a Lover and may no longer be a Catholic. In church we may be a Catholic and in the voting both we may not be. We may get a better Pope and be better Catholics in the voting booth, too, or have less discrepencies as the Church progresses. The point is that context changes identity. We may find that we've been Catholic during sex all along, even when we thought we weren't because the Church eventually changes it's views. I've never been Catholic except possibly by these future standards so I don't  know, I am just speculating. I'm a witch, but if I insisted on only relating to people as a witch I should probably go live in a Bog, not because that is "what witches do" but because if I am only living out one character in other people's realities I will end up conforming to what social expectations and stereotypes about that character are. We stereotype anc chracterize ourselves along with everyone else. My religion is you transcends prejudice and sterotypical judgments to see other's perpesctives but also to see above our own limitations. We are limited by the roles we play. In love or sex we can be liberated to play unlimited roles, sex and love can themselves free us from rstrictive roles we play. I think everyone can imagine the details of this that they feelcomfortable with and there is no need for me to suggest any. I'm just going to say that whatever you think of is an example of magic, of a religious path for you. It is the "You" of your sexual identity that it is your religious duty to become, for yourself, for your lovers, for the Divine, and for the world.

       Since we do change identities and roles depending on our situation, My Religion is You means different things at different times, and to different people including variations of You. The point is that the Other whom you face, including yourself, is a Religious Path for You, the you who you are throughout everything and the You that you are becoming. How you treat others IS how you treat Yourself. As the little girl's mom asks her in the Secret Garden when she is complaining about everyone, "How do you feel about yourself?" (my translation). In a mystical way, every encounter we have, with our own minds, with others, with ideas and situations in the world and imagination, is a Spiritual Path forward. If we treat it as such and try to approach every encounter with love and a desire for recconnection we can exponentially grow ourselves and expand our understanding and applications of Love.

       When we are Lovers, our religion is Love, and our lovers. When we are meditating our religion is ourselves in the universe, or whatever we are meditating upon. When we are making art our religion is art, when we are making magic our religion is magic, when we are making love our religion is love and when we are making music our religion is music. When we are on stage our religion is the other actors, the audience, the play. When we are reading our religion is the book and it's author, their culture and Art. When we watch TV, same thing. When we enjoy sports our religion is the team, the fanbase, or the game. When we are in business our religion is the customer and business. When we are a Politician our religion is the other side. This does not mean tricking the other side into thinking they are getting what they want while only getting what you want. A good politician can try to give the other side what they really need, and what they want within reason, and find creative compromises to move forward. On issues where this seems especially difficult, advances in technology will make it easy if we just have leadership with the foresight to work towards it and assure everyone it will work. A good leader or politician is therefore necessarily optimistic about the future and presents a message of hope and progress. A Bad leader frightens people based on the idea that we have lost something good and can only go backwards, not forwards, to reclaim it. A bad leader frightens people to take power over them. A good leader inspires people to rise up together. The same prniciples at work in a society also work for aspects of ourselves. We have different roles and persons we play. Sometimes certain roles and personas become dominant or habitual in a detrimental way. We always run the risk of playing one kind of role where another would be best. "My religion is you" is the key to determining who we should be in any circumstance, which is the best role to play..Who we shoud be is determined by who you are or who the You is in any situation.

       That is the lesson of My Religion is You. There is a path to divinity, to become our best selves, in whatever You we encounter. In political, social, and ideological conflicts the principle is to determine the concerns of the other side and come up with creative compromises that really satisfy their true needs In interpersonal interactions it is to be the best you possible for the other person. With art, etc, it is to be the best artist you can be and with yourself it is to discover the best way to become the best version of yourself. While one danger is too narrowly focusing on who or what "you" is that we are seeking for connection, the good thing is we can shift our focus and become different selves by focusing on different "yous." If we are overwhelemed by problems in the world, we can turn inward, to company, to closer communities or to art, media, etc. If we are frustrated with art we can turn to politics, relationships, ets. If we have difficulties in relationships we can turn to politics, meditation, or art. If we are struggling to meditate or personal devotion, or consumed with these, we can turn outward, or if any outward thing causes us struggles we can turn inward. Listening to music or having sex can be some of the best stress relief and best views of divinity. Like art and nature, music is a world of magic. Enjoying it allows us to reflect on our best selves. Lovesongs and music with sexual themes can be extra powerful for their extra layers of magical worlds. Sex amd Love are the most direct versions of My religion is you. The spiritual path of pleasing another has the most dimensions and possibilities the more intimate the relationship, the closer the "I" and "you" are. The more closely we can identify with others, the more supposed barriers we can see.beyond, the subtler differences we can overcome, too. I'm watching "Quigley Down Under" as I type this and she just said "I miss you" and he said "who did you miss? (me or him)" and she replies "You!" This reminds me how commonly people bring problems from a past rleationship into their relationships, causing problems there. My religion is you helps remind us that we are with the person we are with, not the person we were last with. This can help us avoid treating our lovers unfairly by carrying over things from past relationships and also means we can avoid letting the stress from past interactions spoil the present moment we have with people, including a hard day at work or bad traffic,etc. Love and sex can be the most direct and intense exmples of this principle in action but the lessons we learn from these can provide analogies for discovering solutions in all realms of activity.

      My Religion is You can help us with everything. It keeps our focus in the moment and helps us be self-aware, not prideful but aware of our relationship with others and the goal to be our best, for everyone. It distills the best out of other religions by focusing on the best use of any idea towards reconciliation and improved relations with any other. (There was just a commercial for "the Masters, a tradition unlike any other". at same time I typed those last two words.)

       Personally the reason I wanted to write this gagablog was a feeling of disconnection with Gaga for the past few years. While I credit her with inspiring my art and writing and music, and i have made progress, I am not doing all I can do in those realms to meet her halfway or fully respond to the level of inspiration she provides. We did make our first album for Foxzen, and have even.have our first sales and profits from it. I've started many more stories and I'm committed to finishing them. I have started a little more drawing but really feel I need to be an artist again, that this is one of the roles I have let myself down the most. As I typed those sentences there was a commercial where a kid asks his siblings "why we can't go to the game?" and the answer is "because dad went to art school." I resent that I did not become an artist easlier because I gave into this social stigma or pressure that there was no living to be made in art. Iam so grateful to Gaga for supporting all little monsters artistically and telling us there are more paths than ever to make a good living from art. It's a brand new 2016 commercial that is trying to reinforce the idea that art should equal poverty and deprivation. While in the past I have resented that message and wanted to prove it wrong, but at the same time allowed my regular work stress to crowd out my artistic life. I only have this work and stress because I accepted this idea that I could not make a living from art when I know I can. I can even make a better living as an artist "in my spare time" if I actually do it. But I can't blame my work for my not acting like an artist. If I really am an artist, I will make art even if I have to work, just as I will make art even if I don't have to work, or even if I don't "have to" make art for a living, if I already get rich. I've been waiting to have some success to allow me to break out in more ways, and I am starting to see that, but mostly it is up to me to live up to the time that I do have. I've been proud of a lot in the Gagablogs but especially lately I have been wanting to writemy more focused work about Oz-Gaga magic, a book I've been pondering for years. So in that spirit I will bring this to a close and edit the original version. Thanks for reading, please comment if you like - remember, My Religion is You!.

THE FOLLOWING IS THE ORIGINAL RAMBLING VERSION. CURIOSITY OR MAGIC COULD BE AN EXCUSE TO CONTINUE. IT HAS A FOCUS ON WEED, TOO. I WAS GOING TO EDIT IT BUT NOW I'M NOT, I WILL LEAVE A NOTE HERE IF I ADD / EDIT LATER. FOR NOW, "PEE-WEE'S BIG HOLIDAY" CAME OUT ON NETFLIX AND I"M ABOUT TO WATCH IT!

VOTE AND VOLUNTEER TO ELECT BERNIE SANDERS, PLEASE, IT IS IMPORTANT.

PLEASE USE #bernthisway HASHTAG OR ANY OTHER GOOD MEANS TO ATTRACT GAGA'S ATTENTION TO ENDORSING HIM. THE BIGGER AND SOONER THE LANDSLIDE THE MORE PROGRESS WE CAN MAKE. HIS IDEALS ARE COMPLETELY IN LINE WITH HERS AND OURS AND HE HAS STOOD BRAVELY FOR THEM FOR DECADES.

GAGA'S ENDORSEMENT AND SUPPORT CAN BERN UP SOCIAL MEDIA AND MAGNIFY THE LANDLSIDE. THANKS!


The literal maening ot the word Religion is "recconnection." This suggests three things to me currently: Reconnection with yourself, reconnection with others, and reconnection with the Divine / nature / the environment / the World / Art. Gaga is my goddess because she is the most effective at inspiring all of these forms of reconnetion in me. Years before Gaga I had a religous appreciation and connection with Weed for being Nature's Helper to provide me this reliable reconnective experience. Weed can be a useful symbol for many things since it has this natural effect on us to indulge in it. It can be a great model or analogy for discussing all religions, for instance. I was about to say I may have become too reliant on weed to provide my religious experiences, but as I went to get the first bowl of the day ready I decided to clarify that, some. Don't forget the analogy, while I do - some people can be too reliant on their religions, too!

       If I was over-reliant on weed to provide me with religious feeling and experience, that could be called dependency. Calling a belief in religion "dependency" could be flattering or not, depending on how it is intended and received. If I utilize weed more than I need to and am not being appreicative of it, that is a different problem. My issue is subtly different than both of these but includes them. I grew up where weed was illegal and could be hard to find. As I quickly and stongly developed this spiritual relationship with weed it was the same as if my religion was persecuted and so I clung to it even more tenaciously than to Powdered Toastman's buttocks. I know some people would reject this if they read it, saying it is wrong to compare being a stoner to being a persecuted Christian or Muslim or Athiest or whatever. I'm not trying to diminish others' suffererings by suggesting that. I'm just talking about a subtle reality that anyone could relate to if they tried. If weed wasn't illegal and therefore rare, maybe the part of my zeal for it that reached religious proportions would never have happened. It's the whole thing about taboo making something more exciting. But it was not just the feeling of breaking taboo that made it exciting - that could be part of the excuse for why I developed a 24-plus-year cigarrette habit that I completely regret, because cigarrettes just don't do anything good or spiritual for you. But weed does. It has always been so wonderful for me, and that proved all the Oppressors of it to be wrong, and made me feel like their agenda was not merely to restrict people's use of weed for medicine and recreation but they are afraid of it's ability to help people see through spiritual strife. With legal weed, not only will we be able to celebrate Superbowl wins without riots and reduce drunk drving more and more, we will be able to overcome such deep divisions between people who identify with different races and religions.

       Youcan say that I should not compare weed and religion, but I'm just starting out to make this one point about growing up as a weed-smoker in Athens, Georgia in the years from 1992 to 2005. Athens was one of the best places for all sorts of things, too, so I want to give credit to that, but the laws against weed were strict all over the country in these years and were enforced especially strictly in Georgia. This is largely a result of racism in the system and having large black populations in the South - and having harsher laws and penalties that are disproportionately enforced against black people is part of that system, too. I wrote a lot about this in my book "All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Smoking Weed" so I won't rewrite it all here. The point I want to focus on is that weed became my religious experience in a place and time when it was illegal and you were persecuted for being a weedsmoker. And in most part of the country you still are - I can use past tense because I now live in Colorado. The book is all about how believing in weed manifests these changes in life just as it did for me. When you feel like your religion is threatened, you cling more strongly to it. This is a fact that anyone can percieve or feel intuitively. You may not want to acknowlede weed as a mystical, spiritual, or religious experience - probably you would have that attitude if you don't smoke it and less likely to have that attitude if you did. Or, you do appreciate weed but you appreciate your religion "more"and don't accept these premises. In that case, since I am only using weed as an example or analogy, you actually prove my point because accepting weed as Religious could be seen as a threat to your Religion and make you cling more tightly to your religion. Some people have quasi-religious feelings about the Rebel Flag. They clung to it, plenty, but the threat of it being banned or taken away makes them cling even more, and try to get more of them. Same with guns. For me, the analogy is weed. I found my religion in weed and my religion was against the law in most of America, even though it caused no harm an in fact only caused a lot of good.

       Because I really loved weed, but it was illegal and could be hard to find, I developed a particular attitude towards it. I could have said "since this is hard to find I will hoard it and make sure I always have enough for myself." You know, the way people can be about money or other things - love, etc. People can be that way, and I could have been that way about weed. But I decided, or listened, early on and decided to never be that way. The nature of weed, the nature of religion, to reconnect us with ourselves and others, taught me that if I felt bad when I wanted to smoke weed and could not do it, so other people might feel bad, too. I didn't want others to feel that way any more than I wanted to feel that way myself - especially when I considered it to be our religious right. But even without those layers, just being something I enjoyed that by all Natural ways there should be plenty of for everyone, but due to an unnatural and unjust system it was rare and costly, it would just be wrong to not share. I wrote a whole chapter about this. With religious beliefs of "traditional" religions, you have the benefit of your belief and want others to enjoy that, too. If someone is persecuting your religion you might come to emphasise sharing your beliefs with others, to preserve it. Since weed and weedsmokers were threatened it enhanced the natural desire to share. But the effects weed has on us, psychologically, spiritually, or whatever you want to call it, it makes us want to share, anyway. The basic effect of being psychoactive means we have a magical change in our inner experience. We can try to describe that to someone else, make art inspired by it, and all of those are good ways of sharing the experience. But when it is even easier to just share the weed and let someone else experience it, too, or in their own way, and then compare those expressions, well it is obvious why that is desireable. Just like it is more fun discussing a movie with someone who has seen it instead of trying to tell someone who hasn't seen it something about it. This could be said, in a way, for "all drugs", because they provide that altered state that is best expressed by being shared. The problem is that so many other drugs have addictive qualities that can ultimately counteract this stimulus to socialize. Psychadelics don't have those addictive qualities and therefore always promote a sharing mentality. There are some other extremes to beware of other psychadelics, and even weed can be overdone, but the "dependency" potential of weed is what I want to address here and how it arises more from social conditions than from the nature of the plant. And the reason I am bringing it up is to establish how those same social conditions threaten peace between faiths, which is a root cause of so much turmoil and deadly danger in the world today. I truly believe it can all be teased out and resolved with some more subtle understanding and I don't mind taking my time, now, to try and develop that.

       When your beliefs are threatened, you cling to them. When they are not, you might take them for granted. This is the framework in which I will discuss my attitude towards weed, as an analogy for how we handle religion but to get at something even deeper. When I lived under Prohibition and it seemed to take a miracle, sometimes, to get some weed I made it a high priority. I would always try to get weed, always try to share it, always show appreciation for others sharing with me or helping me score, and try to have faith and keep a good attitude when it was hard to find. I've lived in Colorado for 11 years now and weed has always been easier to get and higher quality for various reasons at different times. The last few years, the reason has been that they sell it legally in stores and have great quality and prices, currently the "good deal" is about $130/ounce. It is a different world, I say we are Pioneering Paradise out here because it does get better and better. Weed-wise it is the closest to paradise of anywhere, and of course keeps improving. We have other social problems that hold it back from being truly paradise, like racism and Oil companies and guns and avarice, etc, the same as most of the country - but the changes that weed and the weed-culture are making are improving those areas, too. I have great faith in this direction we are going and that there is "no turning back." I have no reason to continue patterns and habits that I formed in oppressive conditions.  I was clinging tightly to weed in Georgia - not being greedy physically but focused on it because I had to be to overcome the obstacles, stress, and trials of it being illegal. Now I don't, but I end up over-relying on weed if I sometimes smoke it "just because I can" since I used to do that on principle, when I could, because it was not always available. But now it is. It's not free but it is so potent and reasonably priced as to be readily available. However smoking with that some eagerness built on a fear of it being hard to get is just unreasonable and does not show enough appreciation for weed.

       Weed is not addictive but what I am describing is the only "problem" with it and how it teaches us moderation, naturally. More and more people can not only afford weed in Colorado, more of us can afford to smoke more than we need, too. It is widely valued most essentially as a stress-reducer and people have all sorts of stress in this society, from work and family and relationships and finances and diet to PTSD from personal tragdies and war to anxiety and other personal issues. Weed can be great for all of those things but of course it is not the only cure and over-relying on weed reduces it's effectiveness as well as our chances to find other needed methods. We can easily learn from experience that weed is much more effective when used selectively instead of too frequently. it can just become a natural tendency, when something is so reliable, to over-rely upon it. The same dynamic can damage our love relationships. We want to be able to rely on each other for comfort but sharing each others' stresses can of course become stressful. Taking the other person for granted or putting too much stress of dependency on your lover without other recourses can be some of the most dangerous problems in relationships. It's dangerous because over-reliance and taking for granted both narrow our focus and keep us from growing. When weed is legal the "danger" is this over-reliance or taking for granted, not appreciating it and valuing it and treating it like the special being it is. The same goes for relationships. Even though I don't belong to a religion except for Little Monsters I believe the same goes for religion, too. If we over-rely on our beliefs, it makes us les likely to be curious about, engage with, and learn from the beliefs of others. It makes us less open to other beliefs, naturally. Over-reliance is a result of clinging,which comes from feeling threatened. Religious beliefs "should" be the "hardest" thing to threaten or the most unthreatenable things - they relate to the Divine which is above all petty threats, right? But unfortunately persecution of people for religion has made this not the case. It is very prevalent for people to jump to judgemental conclusions about others' beliefs, at least in America where the irony is how much we consider ours country to be built upon the ideal of religious freedom. That happens all the time, all over, but even worse happens and persecutions of people feel like threats to Divinity itself. If one reason Assad is clinging to power so strongly is that he represents the only Alawites in the world and he fears retaliation could exterminate his people and their entire belief, you could see how that is an extra layer of motivation to be considered.

       I'm suggesting there is a way out of all of this and while it blooms into examples from relationships and world events I want to just focus on the Weed analogy a little more before including Gaga and The Cure For Disconnection. I felt like an ambassador for weed, socially, intellectually, artistically and magically. I felt and feel like I am on the side of Good and Truth and Justice and all that superhero stuff, I truly believe that about weed. The other truth is I believe in weed and even believe in people. Which means it does not, or did not "require" me to be a crusader for weed for it to become legal. Did I even do anything, did I even play my part? Maybe not, maybe since very few people read my 2012 book, all I can say is I had a magical effect, if you believe in that sort of thing. So I didn't "have to" take up weed as a cause, as a spiritual mission. It would and will become legal and help save the world "on it's own, without my help." But I like to think i did help, and thinking so makes me feel a part of it and makes me continue to engage in spreading the gospel. Even when I'm not smoking weed I still want to be promoting it, because I do believe in it. But I have to acknowlede that one reason I stayed engaged is because I enjoy smoking it, myself. Since I believed that one day the whole world would wake up to it's benefits, I could have decided to wait until that happened and enjoy it then. But I was eager because I wasn't waiting, I wanted to enjoy it more "now" and wanted others, too, too. The only problem with that, since I was fortunate enough to avoid too much trouble with it, was developing this pattern that is not necessary now that it is legal, here. I don't have to have the same urgency to smoke, now that it is legal. It is wisest to turn that same sense of urgency to letting others know the benefits and encouraging them to come here or change the laws where they live.

       Weed served me well in many ways in those years when it was illegal and smoking was a stress relief that came with different kinds of stress. Most of those years I didn't have and desperately wanted a lover,  too. Weed helped me cope with that stress but I knew it was not going to satisfy me in the ways that I needed. Weed is a great religion for naturally and directly connecting you with the Divine through nature, and also connecting you more with yourself through prompting introspection, but also for connecting with others through the community mindset and sharing it inspires. The fact that it is so good at all of these makes it dependable and Good, but that same dependability can become bad in ways if it is overdone or taken for granted. The natural connection to the Divine Mother Earth really works best if it is followed by engagement in environmental causes or expressions of nature in art and magic. The introspection is much better if it is not just limited to sitting in a beanbag chair pondering things but at least writing them down or telling someone, and hopefully following through on inspirations to create plays, etc, or pursue personal development. And the cue to have social interactions, to share and enjoy smoking with others, can be fantastic to get started but if you only smoke weed together and don't develop the relationships that could arise in other directions you won't be getting the most out of it. The point is that Weed, like any religion, is a good starting place but unless we go somewhere with it, take it somewhere, or take it's benefits to reach something new, it's not fully working.

       When I moved to Colorado in 2005 weed was effectively being legalized and was easy enough for me to get that I worried about it less and less. It was "medically legal" for maybe a decade or more before I got here, but until Obama took office and people overcame fear of federal punishment those laws had not resulted in any actual widescale availability of weed. All that changed when Obama took office in 2008, thanks Obama and voters! Within months thousands of weed stores opened up. But even before that, because I was lucky enough to have a friend who was a fantastic grower, I was getting out of the "illegal" mindset and all the oppression that came with it. Now I just feel like I have the residue of sometimes taking it for granted, not learning my own lessons from prohibition to value it, or over-relying on it, not doing more on my own. Which is kind of an offshoot of taking it for granted: It feels good to smoke weed. It feels even better to smoke weed and get something done. If you feel bad from not getting something done you could smoke more weed, but that's the danger you want to avoid, to make it exta motivating to be productive.

       I felt like moving here was the key to unlocking my creative productivity, even though I was leaving Athens which is a creative oasis of the entire country. I wrote a book, "Wendy the Witch School Drop Out" and was feeling my confidence as an artist, writer, and musician returning. I felt like, in the story of my life, my reward for going for that and chasing my dreams, finally, was the Arrival of Gaga, when I discovered her in 2008 (or 2007?) when Just Dance came out. When I realized Gaga was the Goddess I had anticipated for over 20 years it is not like she replaced Weed as a Goddess figure to me, they really go well together. Early on smoking weed helped me feel inspired and make art and writing but also helped me deal with stress of not "being an artist" and not having anyone to be in love with or have affection with. Then I met my love and still weed would help inspire me but also helped me cope with a feeling of failure at not "being an artist." I did believe and continue to believe in the power of weed to inspire and my art and writings, including "Wendy", pre-Gaga, are a testament to that. But just as actually meeting and being with my lover helps me take it to another level, Gaga helped me take it to another level. While weed puts me in touch with the Divine through Nature, Gaga puts in in touch with the Divine just as directly throuh Art, through the divine inspiration I can sense in her lyrics, quotes, and messages of her art.  Gaga's music makes me introspective, to engage the poetic mystery of them, to resonate with Truth in my soul, and conjuring love and themes of love and art and becoming itself, of transformation and evolution and Peace. And Gaga connects me to a community of little monsters. We don't sit in a room together and smoke weed - well, I did that once with another little monster, years ago, but I never go out. Mostly I interact with other Little Monsters on facebook, and I have not been very eager about it at all. But in the first month of accepting and sending monster friend requests, probably in 2009 or 2010, I had reached the 5000 friends limit I did not know existed. I'm still friends with most of them, but we never really interact. Since we made a facebook page for our band, Foxzen, I sent invites to all of them and noticed how scattered they are all over the world. This is an interesting kind of connection that is internet-specific. Even without much connection, it's nice to me to have any. And when I do participate in facebook groups of Little Monsters, or meet us in other groups, they are the most supportive and creative people. I feel like I am part of that community even if I don't participate much. And I feel like as I participate more in the future I will feel stronger and more effective in my monster identity. It's time for that, now, it's overdue.

       I can only say I've been the one holding myself back. Not that there aren't other forces and influences from the world, there are. But I should use those challenges to make myself stronger and better. Weed has always been a source o inspiration but if I have relied too much on it, or not appreciated the inspirations enough and gone further with enough of them, I needed another kind of religion as well, to reconnect me in a different way. I got that through being in love and Gaga but I repeated variations on the same theme, in a way. In love I repeated that same pattern I had with using weed to connect with the divine - it keeps working well so keep doing it, and failed to develop alternative methods and so came to over-rely upon it which could turn love into a source of stress instead of a relief of stress. I did the opposite with Gaga: because we don't know each other, live together, or directly influence each other's lives there was No Pressure. Gaga was revealed as the Goddess to me. I felt like my role was to Listen, pay attention, and share the message with anyone I could find who was ready for it. I realize now that even though that was a sort of pressure, the whole No Pressure attitude was a mistake. The role I should have played, and still should, is to become the artist I truly am and in that way Best receive her message and transmit it to others most effectively, through art. I know I am always trying to talk myself out of continuing these, here, and spending my time on more  creative work - that is the transformation I am talking about now, and why i see the No Pressure attitude, with Gaga, as a mistake. I could have used, and can use, now, more pressure to be who I really am, in relation to Gaga, and less pressure to be a certain way or expect things to be a certain way in relation to my lover.

       I can also say I've been holding the world back. I've always felt this vibrant talent in me. Weed helps bring it out, in opposition to some wordly forces that suppress it. Love does, too. So does Gaga. These are my religions and they do work for me, but I need to go even further than these. I need You. That is why it is such a powerful phrase, My Religion is You. There are only 3 ideas: Me, You, and Religion. The idea is we connect with ourselves, each other, and the divine, that this is "religion" and it is also "you and I." We are all and always these things. No matter what someone beleives, it doesn't matter or mean anything until it influences actions. Our actions are to and for each other, or if "no one is around", to ourselves. If we treat each other, ourselves, and our interactions as Our Religion, it will naturally lead to the One True Religion that all religions actually are, which is Love. All it takes is a simple readjustment of how we look at religion itself. Religion isn't beliefs. It isn't actions for the show of actions, it isn't just performance. Religion is what it does. Religion is everything happening between us, and we have good and bad religion. Weed is not religion, but if it makes me kind to people and inspires me to help spread awareness and love, that is a religion. Gaga is not a religion but if she connects people, supports and encourages and inspires us - personally doing this for us or just the idea of her doing this for us - that is a religion. These are good religions, to the extent they do these things. Some forms of religion seem to be gathering a group of people on a regular basis. This can be good, bad, nuetral or different combinations of these things, depending on what they do, what is accomplished by the gathering. A form of religion is supporting a political candidate like Trump or other Republicans because of a fear of a loss of way of life or other threats. This is an example of a bad religion, of people connecting over bad, fearful ideas. All hate groups are such bad religions. Another religion is Feelin the Bern, changing the system to fix problems that entrenched interests don't even want to acknowledge. This movement is a continuation of the tidal wave of support for Obama and is refined by people feeling like Obama did not do enough to change things or fulfill the promise of hope because he got too caught up in the political machinery. That is to say it is not a religious movement based upon the figure of Bernie Sanders, while there was more of that element to electing Obama as the first black president and as a repudiation of Bush, but a movement based upon those ideals and the insistence that they need to be carried out, starting with taking back the government from those powers. Bernie is inspiring because he is a good speaker and the ideas are inspiring. But he does not have the sensational appeal as Obama did and that is a good thing. Divested of that aspect puts even more of a focus on the ideals themselves. The sensational appeal of Obama was a good thing, of course, too, representing a triumph over racism in some ways but revealing so much racism in our culture as a sign of how much more work we still have to do.

       The point is that all things are religious or potentially religious. We can come together over a gum wrapper on the street. We can come together over a TV show we both like, or hate, or some of each. It's all about the way we come together, whether in conflict or companionship. In every case the secret is "my Religion is You." Of course it's easy to see how "my religion is you" is exemplified in moments of shared passion and inspiration and love, or friendship or family. All of the good stuff is obviously a way of reconnecting with each other, and if we really appreciate it we can let these moments remind us and make the most of the notion that "my religion is you." But even conflicts and arguments are "my religion is you" - and in the case of arguments it might be, at that time, a bad religion. A solution is to leave, leave the argument, leave that bad religion. In relationships, chances are you'll be back there someday. WIth strangers, chances are that bad religion will crop up with a different one, later. Leaving is a temporary solution or relief, but the best path is to turn bad religions into good ones. If we always remember "my religion is you" it will effect how we interact. If someone is being mean to us, we can look at that moment and say "my religion is you" and mean "you, you and I, this experience, is my opportunity to reconnect with something I'm disconnected with." With that context we can defuse anger and hostility. We are naturally likely to be angered by someone being mean to us - imagine a stranger, for example. But of course they don't know you, there is no reason for them to be mean "to you" and the likely reason is that they felt bad or "were just a mean person" which is another way of saying they feel bad a lot. I learned so much more about Magic the second time I read The Secret Garden, a few years ago. One of the best lessons was when the girl said she would be badmouthing everyone and her mom would ask her "what do you think about yourself?" Of course people do mean things to each other but to be overcome by that means it made you feel bad or some deeper hurt is stirred up by petty wrongs, but basically you must be feeling bad to express a lot of negativity. And truly it is from deep hurts and bad feelings about oneself that anyone is ever mean. Thinking about this and feeling sorry for Jeb Bush after seeing a meme of Trump abusing him and him making a sad face at the debate, I wish Jeb could turn to Trump when he is being insulting and just say "You must feel really bad about something to be so mean to everyone all the time - lets forget all the politics for a moment and just talk, heart to heart, because I care about you. What's wrong, why are you so hurt inside?" I don't know how Trump could respond but I just feel that is the only kind of thing to change the dynamic. Even the phrase "bullying is for losers" just turns the tables on the bully with social pressure, using numbers to bully the bully. You want to heal the bully so they can change and stop being a bully.

       This might not seem to apply to you, maybe you don't care about politics and aren't around any bullies or have sympathy for those who are. But we all have bullies within us, too, and this applies to them, too. We can't just reject negative or destructive aspects of ourselves and expect them to go away. We have to heal them and until we do they are like bullies inside of us. Maybe they are only minor bullies but many of us have some pretty big ones. And they are all created by some unresolved hurt.

       I came to all these conclusions from some recent turmoil in my relationship with my lover. It might have been much faster to address this in that context, but I went with weed instead because maybe it felt less personal. One conclusion I reached was that we all have something deep down which we will never forgive ourselves for. Its too hard to even face it, so instead we find fault outside, other things that are easier to focus on and address because they are outside ourselves, they are not the result of that flaw in ourselves that we don't want to face. When I say we all have that thing, it makes me want to avoid implying that it is a big deal or secret source of shame, it could be something very subtle and barely noticeable. But whatever it is, because we don't want to face it we look outside for things to blame for things that seem easier to deal with.

        This is what I would call the origin of the mind, of the ego. The Mind, the mental world, the world of ideas and inspiration, is open to all of us. But we become divided at a very early age and come to feel like we are a mind and a body, two things and a built-in, natural separation. There is something natural about the separation of body and mind but it is probably an emergency program that is not supposed to be used very often at all. Instead our culture has turned it into a standard practice and we identify with our minds and have a separation from our bodies in most of our experiences. The glorious and magical thing about sex and weed is they allow us to unite with our bodies again, potentially, and experence that long-sought healing of disconnections. Experiencing music and art can do this in other ways, allowing our minds to explore fantasies that we can use our bodies as an artist and create actively and as an audience to experience passively. When we are moved by a play or movie or song we feel it in our bodies. It comes in through the filter of our mind, but while we use our minds so often to filter out and ignore our bodies, the context of submitting to art is your mind opening up and allowing yourself to feel again by letting someone else suggest the feelings. We naturally have feelings of our own but because of this deep distrust and unforgiveness of ourselves we don't trust our own bodies in our minds and try to use our mental ideas to make our feelings conform to ideals and standards instead of paying attetnion to the way we feel and our whole responses to things. Our minds tell us how we think we should feel about things but our bodies tell us how we really do feel. In this society of physical and sensual repression we put all the emphasis on what we "should" feel in order to maintain socal standards but these are mostly bullshit. All we have to do to start healingnourselves of the effects of a repressive society is get back in touch with our bodies and unifying outselves.

       We can do this alone. Meditation and introspection are the keys for this. We can also be helped by various pratices, from exercises to hobbies to smoking weed. And we can benefit from the influences of music and art even by ourselves. In the context of being alone, "my religion is you" means your religion is yourself, focusing on and helping yourself. It can still also mean "an other" or "all others" with the understanding that what you do to truly become a better person will not be just for you but true improvement is determined by how it makes you better able to help others. It's like the sign of the best self-improvement is the concurrent improvement of others and of conditions. Alone, "my religion is you" canmean taking care of yourself. With music or other influences from other people, when the people are not there, "my religion is you" can mean as fully as possible engaging with that "person" or artist through their art, letting the person speak to you through their art and even change your very soul. In this case, "you" is the music and your honoring the music by treating it like religion. There is a difference in saying the music is religion, then "my religion" identifies you with the music itself and "you" becomes "you",the person, like a project you are working on, and "you"  - the one who says "my" identifies with the artist who made the music. If I am chasing dream of becoming more like Gaga when I listen to a Gaga song, "I"  - the one who says "my religion" - am taking on the Gaga role to myself and telling "you", myself as an artform, that all Gaga / I want is the best for You / me. This is to show how it works both ways, you become both sides of identity with the phrase "my religion is you." I can say "my religion is you" to Gaga, to her songs, hear her saying it to me in her songs, or in my memory, and it can mean me personally or my art, directed at me, just as it can mean her personally or her art, directed at her, or anyones. You can be anyone.

        This is how "my religion is you" has all sorts of mystical applications even when there is just one person to have both "my" and "you" applying to me in different ways. It teases us out of our limited ideas of ourselves. And it works like that for interactions between people, too. My religion is you in times of enjoyment or ecstacy between two people means pleasure is a religious experience - we should value, cherish and promote it. My religion is you in times of conflict between two people means we have an opportunity, when something has put us at odds like a misunderstanding or an injutice, to resolve that problem. All the factors that make one person one way and another person another way so that they come into conflict are available in contentious interactions.  We can see them as opportunities to open upan grow and we will by remembering that in all occasions My Religion is You can be the path to the mystical truth of mutual improvement. And it only take one person injecting this perspective into interactions for it to catch on and spread to other people. If we recognize that whatever conflict is taking place is the result of conditions and that all the negative conditions arise from being unable to face and deal with deep hurts, we can see how we are in the same position, we  are all the same,hurt in ways we can't face so we turn those negative expression on each other, or ourselves.

       I took a break from writing this to watch an episode of Barney Miller that had two examples of this. One was the man who attempted suicide. He worked on a suicide hotline and couldn't take it anymore and almost jumped out of a window. The lady who called him every day shows up at the jail cell and talks with him. At first he's upset with her and then by the end she tells him she likes him, she sometimes calls just to talk with him, and he starts to feel better. While leaving the precinct she gives him her phone number and the advice "don't do anything I would do!" and he says he thinks he will call her when he gets out of Bellview, where she recommends the brunch. Two people disconnected from life, connected yet miscnnected on the phone, since it is her calling every day that helped drive him crazy, he became her connection, her religion to life and she over-relied upon him in this way, dragging him down. But through the jail cell, seeing each other in person, she becomes his religion and reconnects him to life. They reach a deeper connection, a greater intimacy, by being in the same room, face to face through the bars. She is there to save him because she cares for him, specfically. He had been working at the Suicide hotline because he cared about people, generally, but her over-use of him caused him to "believe her" negativity, specifically, and come to want her to die or want himself to die to escape it. At work, over the phone, even in such a crucial role, people become set in their ways and become overwhelmed helping others when no one is helping them. She pulled him out of that and back into life by showing up and showing how she cared for him. If she had not shown up to talk him out of it who knows how it would end up. It's not specifically what she said to him, .just as when Barney tells him "it gets better" his response is "don't you think I've said that?" It's not specifically something she says but the fact that she showed up for him, that she really cares. She becomes his religion in this way just as he is hers, but they find each other and can be together and that is what makes it work. Before, on the phone, society, loneliness, the phone system and annonymity - all of these things were "between them" keepin them apart. Her religion was him, calling every day to have him be her connetion to life, and listening to her, advising her but not being able to help in that personal way that she needed, she became his religion but in a bad way, connecting him to all the depressive thoughts. But all of that was a function of conditions. If she showed up at the jail cell but he was in the condition to totally reject her, this progress could not have happened. Because there was an opening, because they started to connect more intimately than they had on the phone, they reached a new and better version of My Religion is You and Love could occur to heal the wounds of hurt and loneliness.

       In this example the implications is that they actually do fall in love. But in all cases My Religion is You leads to the power of Love to overcome any obstacle or difficulty and it always is Love that prevails over conflict and difficulty. The other example from Barney Miller was a different kind of love but the same dynamic. Harris had written a book about the precinct and needed Deitrich to sign the release to publish it. Deitrch refused and cited personal reasons and Harris said he would just cut him out, his parts weren't that good anyway. Then he asked Barney to convince him, appealing to a higher power, and told him Deitrich made two ofhis best chapters. This could be related to some traiditional religious approaches and to general socialization.  Barney tells him to take the My Religion is You approach, that Harris should tell Deitrich himself what Harris told Barney, to tell him the truth that he was important to the book. Harris takes the advice and tells Deitrich that he needs him for the book, giving him the respect he is due instead of trying to play it cool like it didn't matter, being prideful and ignoring his obligation to Deitrich. Harris has a passion for writing and culture, Art is his religion in a way, and Deitrich refusing to sign is an obstacle to his religious experience. As long as Harris is being self-righteous about his art, insisting Deitrich should sign out of respect for art, which I think he does at some point, too, literally, he needs to repect Deitrich and the moment they are in. With the approach that, even if his religion is art, the experience of the moment means that his religion is Deitrich, he can give him that due respect, tell him the truth that he is some of the best parts of the book and he doesn't want to cut him out, and that he cares for him, personally, not just as a character, and respects him. And this connection, reconnection, religion, is the key to getting his consent, which is the path to being able to express himself as a writer and therefore experience his "own" religion, Art, which is also the shared religion between artist and audience. He wants to live up to the best "my religion is you" with his audience but must make the most of my religion is you in the conflict with Deitrich to make that happen.

       I mention this example because we always..have the ability to improve relations with my religion is you. The nature of religious ideas is they can trump other things, and if they do so to make us act better to others than we otherwise would, they are good religious ideas. But if they lead to mistreating another, they are bad religious ideas. This can seem simple and obvous but we can also overcomplicate thingsand make excuses for not doing this, but the secret, or one secret, to overcoming this pitfall is remembering and acting on my religion is you. The extreme example is religious extremists who hurt and murder people in the name of religion. Those bad religious beliefs lead them to think their religion compells them to deny respect to you, to the other. As I typed that a character on Mork and Mindy said "Join me on mycrusade, I'm going to take golf from the rich and give it to the poor." This is a silly but fitting exampleof how a religious idea, a crusade, can get us to treat people as things to be dealt with in ways instead of as people. When you get to the rich to take their golf away, saying my religion is you could give you sympathy to want them to still have golf, and find another way to give golf to poor people, too. Approaching poor people with my religion is you might give you the best way to give them golf, without assuming it must be taken from anyone. This is just an analogy and "golf" a variable to represent anything. When "life" or "rights" are the value, bad religious ideas, bad ideas, can lead to devaluing another's life or rights in favor of those of "your preferred people." One extreme example of this is terrorism, putting the value of the life of other beneath the value of expressing some idea. My religion is you can never do that, can never devalue the life or rights of another. Politically fearing that other people gaining rights will cost you your own rights denies that their is a way to protect more and more people's rights. But my religion is you always insists that meeting someone with different rights is an opportunity to connect and overcome that and then find a way to rectify the injustice of rights. It's great when people who have experienced the same persecution can get together and support each other, that's a special kind of magic. There is another possible magic between a persecuted person and person who oppresses others or represents oppressive beliefs. It is possible, with the my religion is you approach, to seize that moment of conflict and turn it into something good.

       When the value of money is what we think of taking from some to give to others it is the noble Robin Hood approach. Everyone senses the goodness of taking from the rich to give to the poor when the rich aren't doing enough on their own to help others. The current political debate and popularity of Bernie Sanders is basedupon this Robin Hood idea. I will say I fully support his campaign, the movement, and this approach, to tax the rich and get big business out of controlling and corrupting government. Its the best way to go, by far. And as much as I support it I still think there is an even better way. But this is the best way, by far, and the whole idea is the rich could be persuaded to help others but if they aren't being motivated to do it enough themselves there must be some mechanism to make it happen, becuase it simply has to happen. A political revolution is much nicer than some other kinds. I feel like a new, better understanding of religion, like my religion is you, can and will do it, too. But in the meantime it is right to come together and exress what we really need, to give the "others" the opportunity to discover that their religion is Us, their path to connection, to the world, to their own souls, and to each other, including us, is us, the others. If we only resort to force, even political force, to compel the rich to help others, we will be met with resistance, such as the resistance of current politics. But if we appeal to them that it is for their own good and part of the general good for all of us to reconnect, if we can appeal to them based upon my religion is you, that idea will catch on. People want to do things willingly when they realize it is in their own interest and the truth of the matter is the very best interests of every individual are ultimately served by the best interests of all others, too. This seems contrsadtictory to the experince of all conflict being based upon conflicts of interest. But we also assume, in that mentality, that only one interest can prevail. With the my religion is you approach, conflicting interests are a cance for both parties to discover and then heal deep wounds that lead to different ideas and conflicting priorities. But the whole key is to truly feel concern for what is causing the other person a disconnection, to be willing to change the ways we are or represent the causes of that disconnection, and honestly seeking for the other person or party to do that for us, as well. My religion is you can solve everything from personal problems to relationship issues to nuclear debates.

       "What happened to Nonviolence?' Mindy just asked Mork and he responded "The Sixties are over." This is the continuation of the episode where they decide in spite of eath-folk objections to get married then Mork gets the Orkan objection as well. There are ideas that sparate people "they can't get married, they're from two different worlds." But the better ideas bring us together and all of these arepart of my religion is you. I truly believe this approach, this belief, this core of all religions and all good beliefs, even what are considered "non-religious ones", will and must save the world. Its a huge responsibiltiy and duty to keep striving to live this way and set a good example and encourage others to live this way. And its empowering since it is the nature of empowerment.

       Once again last night Colbert referred to himself as America's Premiere Catholic. At other times when guests say "you know, your Catholic" he responds by saying "not a very good one." He is very knowledgable about Catholicism and proud about that, just as he is about Middle Earth. But he admits to not practicing his religion very well. I mention this because I can relate to it. I've always said I'm a little monster. I've always sai Gaga was my Goddess and that's probably the main way most people online know me, either the onl thing they really know about me or by far the main one, their strongest impression of me. I've been advocating Gaga in this way, and in this gagablog, but i have also been using these methods to avoid going further, to hold myself back.  Acting like this is enough or like I have all the time in the world is just not good enough to keep up with Gaga. I've allowed myself to fall away, in a way, because I know how inspiring she is, how much it makes me burn with artistic passion to feel close to her. I think it might represent why I did not try to get closer to her in my dream the other night, trying to be patient and knowing I would hve my own time to meet her in the future. I do feel this way, and my intuition has always told me that the way that I would meet her would be to become an artist, to make art and gain some audience and hopefully her notice. And as convinced as that as I am, I have not been eager to make my art and music as I should be, inspired that way. Instead I have contented myself to "tell others about it" instead of living my beliefs. I don't need anyone else to believe along with me. My religion is you works when I am the only one believing it and acting on it. Its nice to have someone else "in on it" but it works regardless. I don't need anyone else to believe me or know what I am doing or why I am doing it, I just need to do it.Of course I love talking about it with anyone who is curious or feels the same way, but that is part of my religion is you in the moment of meeting someone like that. The most appropriate way to bring up my belief in Gaga for me, is through making the best art, music, or stories and books possible, and acknowledging her inspiration and support to make it possible.