must be earned by loyalty to the group and by compliance with ex-
ternally imposed rules that may or may not serve your best interest.
Such conditioning often paves the way for belief in a religion based
on the dualistic judgment of a Supreme Power creating rules that
are interpreted by self-appointed authority figures.
Here in the United States and in much of the world, we are
blessed with freedom of religion. Such freedom is essential to per-
sonal self-fulfillment, and we respect and are grateful for it. We are
not interested in converting you to a different religion, but we do
want to suggest that you may greatly benefit from a review of your
religious beliefs.
Miriam is a Jew. As a child in the post–World War II United
States, her parents provided temporary housing for a large number
of European Jews, survivors of the Holocaust. During one of her
consultations, I (PL) asked her what it meant to be Jewish. “It
means I am a victim” was her response. Anyone can applaud her
parents’ humanitarian efforts on behalf of the stream of refugees
they housed during Miriam’s childhood. But Miriam felt neglected
by the care and concern the refugees received. Her conclusions led
her to believe that she was a victim, that suffering was required to
be accepted and cared for, and that she had not suffered suffi-
ciently to be accepted. As you can imagine, these conclusions had a
devastating effect on both her career and her close relationships,
until she applied the methods in this book to change these detri-
mental childhood conclusions.
George is a born-again Christian. He reported that his personal
relationship with his savior provided him great solace during the fi-
nancial crisis of credit card overspending that he was facing. I (PL)
suggested that possibly he could benefit even more from this im-
portant relationship by calling on his savior for more than just so-
lace. He felt he would be disapproved of for the mistakes he had
made in accumulating the credit card debt. I asked him to request
forgiveness for these errors and make the relationship more active
by asking for guidance and energy to aid him in paying off his
credit card balances.
Both of these people benefited greatly by reexamining their
religious beliefs and kept the original religion they had at the
outset. What about you? Are you putting your faith in a Supreme
Power that offers you more restricted freedom of belief than the
temporal power of the government that guarantees freedom of
religion?
Religion 171