Do we all have the same connection to God?

A controversial question. We’d like to believe that God can be reached by all of us equally. Is that really so? And if not, why are some people more in tune with the Lord than others?

The ones with a special link to the Lord are called prophets. They decipher the Lord’s message for the world. They interpret the infinite into the kind of language we understand. They are chosen by the Almighty to deliver a message of salvation to humanity.

Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS Church (visited by the Angel Moroni – with all due respect, not the best name), Muhammad (visited by the Angel Gabriel – Muhammad thought he was demon possessed, or influenced by demons).

All sorts of books were written where we can supposedly find the truth about God. How about the Voynich Manuscript? It has never been deciphered.

“Voynich Manuscript,” the world’s most mysterious book. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich (he was Polish-American, by the way). The manuscript appears and disappears throughout history, from the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to a secret sale of books in 1903 by the Society of Jesus in Rome. The book’s language has eluded decipherment, and its elaborate illustrations remain as baffling as they are beautiful.

The question always arises: how do we know they are prophets and not conmen in it for the usual: sex, power, and money? So many angels visiting so many people claiming to be prophets – they can’t all be right, unless we are to believe it’s the same force manifesting through the ages.

It doesn’t need to be a scam. Psychiatric patients truly believe they are Jesus Christ and, if there’s indeed an endless number of realities, then it’s true, just in some other reality. It goes even further. In some realities, Jesus was the Son of God. In some, a schizophrenic. In some, just a man we would call a cult leader. Gets crazy, huh? Religion and quantum physics don’t exactly mix. God, on the other hand, perectly aligns with parallel universes and much more.

At the same time, so many scientists tell us there’s definitely no life after death because the existence of a soul violates the laws of physics. The soul could only exist if it’s beyond the ability of science to measure. Stephen Hawking said that any kind of belief in the afterlife is for people who are afraid of the dark. ”No heaven for broken down computers,” as he put it. Who knows, maybe faced with the prospect of an imminent death, he changed his mind at the last minute? As an insurance, if nothing else?

Prophets often exist in a liminal state. The state on the threshold. The state of in-between-ness. Tiresias from Greek mythology is a good example here. He hit two snakes with a stick and for that, Hera turned him into a woman. He stayed female for seven years (Lady Tiresias was a prostitute of great renown, something tells me she had no say in the matter), after which – back to his standard self, if at all possible after such a dramatically different life, he was being constantly asked awkward questions. Who has better sex – men or women? – was the most popular question.

Oracles and witches. Both had contact with the divine. Oracles were the good guys, so to speak, while witches – demonic women. No wonder witches were accused of all sorts of strange things to justify their persecution.

Still, that, shall we say, unique experience, made Tiresias a powerful prophet famous for clairvoyance. Touched by the mortal and the divine, he could see much more than others.

It seems that existing on the borderline is a feature that many prophets share. They are either tested or punished by the Lord. While not a prophet, the story of Saul of Tarsus is one of my favorites. All can be redeemed, it seems, but some (psychopaths and fanatics would be my guess, and these two are sometimes one and the same) can only be redeemed by the divine intervention.

Redemption usually involves a conversion. The adoption of a new name and new beliefs, often the beliefs of the group one wanted to wipe out. Saul, a zealous Pharisee, persecuted the first Christians until a vision of Jesus, experienced while on the road to Damascus, converted him to Christianity. Now we know him as Saint Paul.

A question arises: how does the Christian doctrine explain this? Saul was a criminal and a notorious zealot. He would’ve been like a Nazi, or a Z-patriot if we had taken him to the modern era. He hated Christians and was an advocate of their genocide. Yet, he is now known as a saint. We know that murder is an unforgivable sin. How come, then, that Saul became Saint Paul, instead of being condemned to hell? I’m sure theologians explain it away by saying it’s God’s will. That God makes exceptions. I don’t need to tell you that argument is a slippery slope.

Could geniuses be closer to God? Could their powerful intellect be inspired by the Lord because they have a special mission to carry out? I can see scientists rolling their eyes at me and muttering, ”It’s their DNA, it’s genetics, stop saying nonsense.”

Are some of us more souled than others, so to speak? Indeed, various schools of esotericism teach that not all of us here on Earth are souled beings. According to George Gurdjieff, an Armenian mystic and philosopher, a soul has to be earned by introspection and consciously trying to understand the world. Living without giving what’s going on around us, and within us, any thought, and just taking the world for granted isn’t going to get us that divine spark which survives death. He is also rumored to have said, ”If you knew how many people around you are dead inside, you’d go mad [crazy] with terror.” It’s a dangerous philosophy, because some nutjob can claim, ”Oh, I didn’t kill a real person, he had no soul.”

Solipsism, a philosophical thought that states we can only be sure of our own existence and everything else could be an illusion, is another one. If all the things and people around you are figments of your imagination, then anything goes without consequence because you’re God of your own world and you make the rules. You don’t really hurt anyone because they don’t exist. They are mirages of your mind.

Non-mainstream schools touch upon similar topics. A spiritual dimension is an integral part of Waldorf education, for example. Could being in touch with the spiritual make it easier for us to reach God? Or is this just inviting the demonic into our lives?

In a world where so many claim a special link to God, we ought to remember that the Lord is waiting for all of us to send Him a message. Sometimes, a focal point helps. A building, a statue, even a mascott. It helps to focus our prayers. We can’t really measure who has a better line to God, so to speak. That’s why it’s so dangerous to follow people who claim to speak for Him. After all, speaking for God is the greatest sin.