When I was little, I pictured God as Colonel Sanders: white beard, white suit, and probably a secret recipe for the universe.
By my teens He'd become more complicated. Less chicken, more mystery.
Then, years later, I found these notes at the back of Mark Anders' book Conversations With Naboth:
- Worship is nonsense.
- Consciousness creates reality.
- The mind and body are not conscious - they are in Consciousness.
- ‘You’ are Consciousness witnessing a body and mind which you mistake for ‘You’.
- ‘You’ are a co-creator of reality.
In plain English: You don't need to bow down to anyone. Your mind creates your world. Your body and brain aren't you. They're more like the costume you're wearing. The real you is the awareness looking out through them. And you help make reality happen.
Hmm. So the buck stops with me. Not with the Colonel.
Anders suggests picturing God (or the universe, or whatever you want to call It) as one giant living Being. Everything alive is part of its body: ants, zebras, bacteria, giant redwood trees. And you.
Every part has a job, and every job matters. No experience is “right” or “wrong”. It all counts. And some of us are a little bit aware of the part we're playing, which means we get some say in what happens next.
So maybe we're all making a film without realising it.
You write the script with your beliefs. You direct it with your choices. And you star in it every single day.
In that sense, you and I are small “gods”, helping to create the world. The buck stops with us.
Which brings us back to blame.
If we're making the film, there's no critic in the sky handing out bad reviews.
An angry god who punishes mistakes? That picture was painted by our beliefs. A kind, loving god? Also painted by our beliefs. Even the spirits and guides people see may be characters we've written ourselves.
So is God to blame? Not really. Here's another way to look at it: you're not a person who happens to be conscious. You're Consciousness, having a go at being a person.
The superpower you forgot you had
Humans have a superpower: imagination. As far as we know, no other creature on Earth has one this strong. It's what lets you think about yourself, and it's the tool Consciousness uses to build your life.
The catch? It never switches off. If you're not steering it, it runs on whatever beliefs are lying around in the back of your mind, including the gloomy ones. It's like leaving a toddler in charge of the TV remote.
Take the controls, though, and everything changes. You stop being imagination's victim and become its boss. You can look at all the gods, spirits, guides and scary stories people believe in and realise something amazing: you don't need any of them.
So, is there a God?
God knows.
But there are definitely gods. Next time you brush your teeth, smile in the mirror. One's smiling back.
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