565 thoughts on “Catholic Religion Today – is it a Healthy Option?”

1. It is great to look at many aspects of life and see how they actually make us feel and if this is healthy or not. I pondered the other day on the education system and how all the stress and tension that comes with having to achieve actually is not really healthy at all. It is only when we look at these systems as a whole and what their whole output is and not just look at a part that we see the true picture.

2. Like in the package of cigarettes, at the entry of a Catholic Church everyone should be able to read: Coming to this place seriously harms you and others around you.

3. “I’m not convinced that the Catholic religion promotes self-worth (7) or even healthy living but, for me, The Way of The Livingness religion of today is definitely a healthy option!” – The Way of The Livingness is a healthy option for me, because it doesn’t preach, promote or encourage any underlying harm, any killing, war, torture, genocide, separation, exclusivity, specialism/favoured or chosen ones, superiority, and many of the things that many religions have as their (historical) badge. TWOL educates and teaches universality, inter-connectedness, inclusivity and equalness – for all, and so anyone and everyone is welcome irrespective of their birth faith or denomination.

4. Shame, guilt and judgement are poisons that traps us in hurts when we could be accessing insight and deeper understanding. True religion is founded first on the fact that we are all Love.

5. I have to agree catholicism does not promote self worth … it’s whole premise is based on the idea that people are sinners who need to be saved and as such are considered not worthy … indeed the later is recited in catholic service. Everything is about handing yourself over to a greater higher power to redeem you … so I’d say it’s about being less, being small. Contrast that with the Way of the Livingness, a religion that says you have it all in you, it’s just about letting go any impediments you’ve acquired along the way and expressing the knowing you naturally are and bring … the whole premise is that you are whole, you’ve always been whole, you have an essence in you (we all do) that’s forever knowing and connected to divinity … it’s for us to unpick anything we’re taken on along the way that stops us from expressing that divinity. Having grown up in catholicism and left it in my late teens and now having found the Way of the Livingness, I can only say I’ve never felt so at home with myself, with God and with the world … to me the Way of the Livingness just makes sense – it confirms the knowing I’ve always had in me that there is another way, one which supports and celebrates all to be who they truly are.

6. We are seeing very publicly in Ireland at present the effect that the Catholic Church has had on communities. People are very clearly seeing through the hypocrisy of the church’s laws, that some do not live by themselves and also even worse, have been protected from the laws of the land. People see through this and ask is this for me? And from there we make our own decisions. In truth the church have done this all to themselves.

7. We have a history of un-godlike acts being carried out in the name of religion – is it any wonder people turn away from the word God and the word religion?

8. I was not a catholic and was never aware of having anything directly to do with that religion but growing up I was also given the message that I was not good enough and often felt guilty even though there was nothing for me to feel guilty about. Since meeting Serge Benhayon and The Way of The Livingness, I have not only discovered that who I am is ok, I have discovered that who I am is truly awesome, in fact it is Divine and the same applies to everyone.

9. The greatest wound of lies is not the lie itself but the way it makes us shy to go to the truth. The shame we feel for making a mistake holds us back greater than any false faith that we have.

10. Every person has a naturally loving way, which has no need for self-sacrifice or angst. This is what I have come to learn, and to hold very dear.

11. It is nigh impossible to find self-worth in a religion that preaches we are born as sinners and that we need an intermediary to commune with God; a perfect set up for a hierarchical structure with those who or lesser (most) and those who are more, apparently closer to God, a bit or very special or even ‘chosen’.

12. Reading this I can still feel there is work to be done in what religion means to me, as I can feel I have not fully claimed this and it is still not as clear as it could be within my body. I know within every cell of my being we are all One, we are all equal and in essence we are all the same. There is Hierarchy, there are brothers not on this plane of life who have walked the same path and are by our sides as we walk, there is reincarnation .. life is cyclical and God and beyond all this, is much, much more that we do not either currently know or remember. Ultimately religion to me is coming back to the love and truth of who we are and living in harmony. Universal Medicine presents all I know to be true and much more.

13. The Way of The Livingness is a way of living that holds everyone as equals and a commitment and responsibility to live all the love that you are in all that you do.

14. I wonder what our attraction to religion and the church is. Is it about following the leader or is it about being part of a congregation and a community. I get a sense that the community is the most important aspect and that leaving a church or community brings up a fear of losing those connections. Goodness, it is so similar to school, work, sport and family to name a few other communities we feel connected to in a similar way.

    1. I agree Lucy. I also feel it’s about our connection to community. We love being in connection and we love being in community. The question is however, is this way bringing evolution to community? Having grown up in the church and been in one not too long ago for an anniversary, it was very plain to see the effect of the church’s way on the bodies of everyone present. But what stood out the most was when everyone re-connected after the service. It was like watching 2 different groups of people. Quite outstanding.

15. ‘Is it healthy to be in a religion today? Or can being in a religion seriously damage our health?’ Great question Carmel for me it depends if religion is used by way of an excuse or reason to behave in a certain way, or if it is truly used as a way of living that does not judge or preach to the rest of humanity.

16. When you look at the doctrines of each religion, it is possible to feel aspects of truth, just enough to convince its members that truth is what they read in their holy book, but when you look at any of the religions as a whole, especially how each person lives, it is possible to see the facets that divide men from women, for example, creating a basic inequality right from the start.

17. We are only just starting to explore and discover the links between our religious, cultural, nationality etc… belief systems and our health and wellbeing so fantastic that there are blogs like this being written to raise our awareness of these links and effects. Our beliefs shape our behaviours and our behaviours affect our health – simple.

18. To be a part of a religion that supports every individual to be themselves, and redefines again the essence of this word is for me an absolute blessing.

    1. Hear hear Chris, well said and this is my truth too.

19. When you list the history of the crimes committed under the name of religion it’s black and white what feels true and what does not. Growing up I knew something wasn’t right with what was being fed to me about God. I knew it didn’t make sense that he could only love this group and not that etc. Nothing added up and as a result I rejected it all and wanted nothing to do with it. It was not until I heard Serge Benhayon describe religion in a way that felt true to me that I started to wake up to the idea that perhaps it was possible to live in a way that was true and for everybody. The religion he describes is not about right and wrong, it’s simply accepting yourself and others and treating each other equally. There is no Sin and there is no hell, everything is a learning and it’s as simple as that.

20. The stain of just one belief can last for a very long time, ill affecting all parts of our lives.

21. I also abandoned the Catholic version of God in my teens. The whole being a sinner thing and not worthy of God’s love was a ‘bit of a dampener’ to say the least! The Way of The Livingness makes complete sense to me and has filled my gaps of non-understanding. From this, I am living life with far more of me, in greater solidness and true confidence than I ever did previously.

22. ‘Could it be that, despite their belief in God, there is no true love felt, just unhappiness and a deep emptiness within?’ I feel you have hit on something very poignant here. We are always in search of something outside of ourselves to love when we could start right here right now with caring for ourselves just a little bit more and let that caring show us what love we have been missing.

23. ‘I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst.’ These are all forms of abuse Carmel and as a society we ought to view them as such. They may not be punches in the face but nonetheless leave lasting stains on us that actually affect our whole way of living.

24. Although not raised as a Catholic I too ” not brought up with a truly loving God and I was not brought up to care deeply for myself.” it would seem many of the major religions tried to control the masses through indoctrination – man-made at that – so we would not find our true essence- which is love. As true sons of God we would not stand for such deceptions.

25. We are all born the equal Sons of God and never does this fact change, as such we are eternally in a relationship with God. Therefore, true religion is our natural way of being reflecting our intimate relationship with love, truth and God through every part of our living day, guided by the body we are born into. True religion is where equalness is lived knowing that anything less that this is an abuse to who we truly are in essence.

26. I am in a Catholic country now and I can feel the deep sadness of this place. I went to a square one day and expressed joy and afterwards was approached on all sides, the pressure was huge, unseen, but all truly felt. Everything wants me to be like them, to be sad, to be exhausted, and to not be myself. I am feeling challenged but chose to be very gentle with myself even though some reactive choices were made.

27. The catholic religion has been a deterrent for many as their purported images of God do not accord with all we know deep inside – God is not vengeful, God did not send His only son, God does not demand sacrifices, God does not forgive, God does not ask for repentance, etc,. etc.; the list is endless.

28. I didn’t grow up with strong religious beliefs however I still was not brought up knowing how to love and care for myself, somehow I still got the message that I was wrong in some way and worthy of a less than loving life. Nor was I aware of having a relationship with God. We get taught to disregard ourselves from every single angle of life and yet Religion has a flavour of disconnection that has a very distinct stain when we apply our ability to feel energy.

    1. That is interesting Leigh, no religious upbringing yet still a sense that caring for yourself is selfish. I am starting to see more and more, the problem is not religion, it is us needing something and then manipulating so many aspects of life to fit our picture and expectations.

29. Yes… imagine the difference being brought up in a way that we kept our ability to feel and truly know energy.

30. No I do not feel the Catholic religion is healthy, or ever has been. It is steeped in rules, requirements and making you feel less then God, Priest and the Church itself. This isn’t the God that i know and love, there just isn’t an openness and love, it is fire, brimstone and condemnation.

31. There are many options available that would work to disguise our hidden agenda of not wanting to live as a Son of God.

32. It is interesting how the Catholic Religion is always confirming that we are all sinners, and never allowing you for one minute to believe that you may be a son of God – this is evil in my books and shows the enormous control and manipulation that religion has been allowed to hold over others for centuries.

33. The idea that we can adopt some aspects of a religion and not others is pure illusion. Large numbers of people have asked for religions that do not require a commitment to energetic responsibility and so we have a number of false religions that allow and support evil to flourish. The Way of The Livingness is the only religion I’ve ever been able to choose from my heart knowing it is exactly in line with everything I’ve ever felt to be true.

34. The Way of The Livingness predefined set for humanity the essence of religion… A living truth where the words the actions and the thoughts all align in the service for everyone with no exceptions

35. Any organisation that turns a blind eye to child abuse as the catholic church has is not a healthy option, in fact it is a blight on society.

36. Could it be that religion could be either a healing or a harming option for us depending on our choice? This is a question worth pondering on.

37. The guilt that is predominant in the Catholic religion does not seem to me to be a Godly emotion, in that it does not feel like it brings me closer to His love for me.

38. Definitely Catholic religion hasn’t been healthy for me either. I was baptised (obviously without my consent) and received a catholic education that filled me with ideas of inadequacy, guilt and a sense of being the cause of other’s problems. This kind of thoughts are very self-destructive when are taught and ingrained from a very early age. It requires a steady choice to not identify myself with all of those external burdens and a consistent revision of its effects in my life. The good thing is that this process has allowed to me to discern what is true religion and what is simply manipulation, and at this point I can say now that the called Catholic religion in my experience is not a loving one.

39. “The Way of The Livingness is a new religion based on ancient principles. It teaches true Brotherhood, that we are all equal, that we do not harm anyone – not for any reason. This religion presents that even judging another could be considered abusive because judgement is not Love. It teaches that there is one loving God for All of Us – we are all his equal children. With The Way of The Livingness we are encouraged to question everything and to feel our own wisdom from within our bodies, not blindly believe any dogma, or depend on outside influences for our opinions. We are encouraged to live in a healthy way, looking after our bodies and nurturing ourselves.”

    Now this is my religion.

40. Amazing how teaching with tenderness can be so transforming, imagine if this became the role model for teaching everywhere

41. Oh my gosh… what is known as religion today can actually be bad for your health… No surprise really! Considering what the true meaning of the word feels like and how humanity knows this not.

42. “…Is it healthy to be in a religion today?…” This hinges on one’s definition of religion. Is it a religion that re-turns you inwardly to Soul, to love, to harmony, to joy, to stillness, or one that does not? As the qualities of harmony, joy, stillness and love certainly would be a healthy option.

43. I love that there were people who dared speak up and who dared question it all. It is sad that their lives were taken, but aren’t we lucky that people did speak up instead of just turn a blind eye, live a lie and stay quiet.

44. Awesome blog Carmel! Love it. It is shocking what has happened in the past in the name of religion. I really don’t know understand it all and it is so sad to read the facts. It disturbs me in fact. And to think that you can buy a pardon. Yeah right!

45. Learning that we are not sinners and that not a single one of us on earth is considered a bad or evil person by God, and that we are all equal, equally loved by him, is one of the greatest gifts Serge Benhayon has shared during his life of presenting and writing.

46. I love the question of is religion healthy? It’s not just our food and drink and exercise and sleep that contributes to our health but every aspect of every choice and every little part of our lives. Does what we choose to believe, think and espouse contribute to our health and well-being or the deterioration of it? It’s a great question to ask…

47. Religion creates all those things that you have described Carmel, the fact that there are so many religions provides separation in itself, and judgment about being in the right one. I was brought up a Catholic and even though i left it in my thirties the effects of their indoctrination I am still dealing with today fifty years later. The Way of The Livingness brought to me a knowing that I am love and beloved, that is bringing healing to my body and the lies that I once accepted.

48. What has happened in the past is quite shocking but the different more hidden forms are still going on today, so I suppose we have to bring things back to our own reflection of what we put out to the world in order to inspire true change everywhere.

49. The responsibility we live with The Way of The Livingness offers a level of service that encourages a responsible approach to service. No self-serving martyrdom, more a dedication to consistency and a reflection of a simpler way of living that does not harm another.

50. More and more the Catholic Church is being exposed for covering up for their priests who do horrendous things to children and yet there are still those that are willing to let them go as if they are above prosecution -has nothing changed since the dark ages?

51. Being truly religious is a way of life. It is how we move, how we nourish ourselves and how we connect with the world around us, that shows a completely different way to what past religions have been perceived and or worshipped. For many religion is about self sacrifice and devoting one self to the cause but when we choose to live in a way that not only supports us to grow, learn and inspire others we are making choices that show purpose for all and not just for self. When we seek God from outside sources we are inevitably leaving behind our connection to the divine that is housed within and that is a real shame for all.

52. It just makes common sense, every so often take a step back and take an honest look at our lives: what works, what does not, what harms, what inspires. When you look at the history of the Catholic Church it’s hard to miss the incidences of conflict, wars, hatred and sexual abuse. It doesn’t inspire me to take this route, but to return to question again what does my understanding of Love and of God feel like today? Thanks to people like you Carmel I am inspired to live my way and not follow rules in any form.

53. Wow Carmel – I had no idea Hitler was a Catholic and close to the pope but it’s not a huge surprise either as the nazi energy feels very similar to Catholic energy to me. It is important to consider what we are really saying yes to when we choose a religion – we can’t cherry pick the ‘good’ or ‘ true’ parts without swallowing the whole thing.

54. Catholic Religion Today – is it a Healthy Option? A very clear no from me Carmel, no way.

55. God who truly, deeply loves us could not and would not EVER judge us. This one truth alone rips the rug out from underneath the catholic religion.

56. It’s evil enough for a religion to pull us away from the truth of God, but a whole other level of evil when that religion, even if we walk away from it, renders us almost incapable of having a relationship with God, such are the beliefs, doctrines, emotions and ideals that the religion deeply seeds in us.

57. Our beliefs or perception of life, as shaped by things such as ‘religious’ doctrine or dogma, has an intrinsic connection with our wellbeing and physical health – we cannot just say that beliefs are only contained in the mind for the activity of our mind impacts our whole body…

58. Great expose Carmel. I too was raised in Catholicism and left and since I’ve been unpicking it’s impact the biggest of which is how I treat my body. I stopped reading this line today ‘ we can all feel God’s love within us when we live in a way that is healthy, harmonious and loving.’ and it gives me a deeper insight into why we can abuse our bodies and what I saw in Catholicism was an absolute disregard for the body, and of course this is deliberate as the body is our greatest marker of truth so if we abuse it we can’t feel the truth. Everything matters.

    1. Great point Monica. The Catholic Church upholds extreme rules that demonstrate a complete disregard of the body and the soul.

59. To grow up overwhelmed and lost in the thoughts that we are sinners instead of all being equal children of God caps our potential immediately.

60. Carmel, this article resonates with my own experience.
    I invested a lot of effort in being a ‘good Catholic girl’ however it has been at the expense of myself and irresponsibly in disregard of my body. Even sitting on hard wooden bench seats in a cold church in the middle of winter was a form of ‘self-sacrifice’ that I had erroneously come to believe was required to be loved by God. What trickery, when now, through The Way of The Livingness and thus an evolving commitment to the care of my physical body I can feel the warmth and pulse of God from within.
    I remember that I was often confused as a child by how teachers of the Catholic faith often did not live what they spoke of, and the abuse and illness that I observed to be occurring amongst the Catholic community I grew up in. The free will to choose was also not there – I remember around holy communion when I was about 9 years old feeling like I wanted to say ‘I don’t want to do this, it does not feel right for me’ but struggled to do so because I believed I would be a sinner or outcast if I did, and that I would be punished badly even possibly violently if I did. What rot to have allowed, and how gorgeous to now feel that step by step by building self-loving foundations and awareness that I can feel and see and begin to express more openly what is true and not true, and know that those who speak the lies have simply sold out to something as I once did and that it was others presenting truth that has enabled me to claim what I feel more deeply within and the responsibility that now rests for me to simply be me without shying away or going into any judgement or critique.

61. the key to understanding religion is to question, observe, and then apply what you observe to your own life and your observation of life around you. In that way, you are not fooled by the tenets of faith and hope and lead you to believe something that simply is not congruent with the way the world truly is.

62. We are led to believe that if we go to church or live a ‘good’ person, ‘keeping the peace’, giving to charity etc we are closer to God and that God will reward us by sending us to heaven but gosh it really does make me stop and question the empty love there is for ourselves and therefore towards another and the extent of how we are being controlled and manipulated by a force that we do know about but choose to ignore.

63. “I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst. Worst of all was not knowing who I truly was, or how to love and be loved, which led to my engaging in unloving relationships, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, overeating and partying.” This sounds deeply familiar to me. You have a point here! I can truthfully say that the Catholic Religion proved to be an unhealthy choice for me. I am deeply grateful for my new religion- The Way of The Livingness. Thank you Serge Benhayon.

    1. I agree Irena, thanks goodness for Serge Benhayon and The Way of The Livingness it has been a powerful addition to my life in every way and allowed me to feel a beautiful connection with God and the joy of being a part of a true Religion.

64. It has been my experience too Carmel, the Catholic religion affected me at a very deep level and even now at the age of 56 and being a student of The Way of The Livingness things come up I was not even aware of that its origin laid in the Catholic religion I have been brought up with. The very obvious one was that I should first care for others before caring for myself and how men were seen of more value than women and how women should always be obedient to them but of late I discovered how my ‘right and wrong’ and judging myself comes from the same source. Definitely not a healthy source and never from the divine love we all are an equal part off.

65. Seeing ourselves as guilty or ‘wrong’ in some way is seriously bad for our health. After all, if you took a beautiful tree, plant or flower and planted it in a toxic bog, how would you, expect it to grow? Are we any different? Don’t the quality of thoughts we allow about others and ourselves, dictate what comes next, right down to the way our cells grow? After all, as you highlight Carmel if we attack ourselves we attack Love, the truth and our true nature.

    1. I love the comparison here to nature, it is so logical that a tree cannot grow to its full potential if it has a virus, so how can we if our virus is a negative poison that tells us we are not worthy.

66. When we look back at the history of the Catholic Church, all the harm that has been caused in the name of Catholicism, there isn’t any doubt in my mind that this is not a religion I would choose.

    1. I agree entirely. Yet, so many people do – even though they know these facts. It’s a stark reflection of how lost at sea we are that we are prepared to hang on to this most toxic and poisonous of life rafts.

67. Well said Carmel. With Catholicism being one of the most followed religions in the world today it certainly has a lot to answer for. How is it that we have religions that have us deemed as sinners even before we are born, or condone abuse of any form, or keep us from feeling the power of knowing that we are the Son’s of God, each and every one of us? Religion is it’s true meaning is a way of living that supports our relationship with our Godliness through our everyday lives and with all of humanity, where the love we are within is at the heart of all we do, through which equalness is naturally lived in honor of all. The Way of The Livingness is a religion that holds these values at its heart, and living in this way, as many are, our Soulfullness then is a reflection of all that we already greatly are within and is here to freely live together.

68. If we take a stock take of human history, we would have to say Catholicism has caused wars, many murders, division and great hurt. This isn’t about blame or shame but ought we not as a race to simply stop and look at why this is the case? To continue on with words, practices and traditions that have not worked is to me the very definition of madness. Thank you Carmel for your personal sharing.

69. What is interesting to note here is the after affects, so to speak, that being feelings of shame and guilt. I was brought up with out any religion being honoured or revered in my life, but I still carried a drive to be perfect and subsequently heavy feelings of shame and guilt. Just how affected are we all by the simple fact that there are religious body’s in our world that promote fear and the need to be perfect/always good?

70. I love how you have connected health and religion Carmel. People often think of it as ‘health’ is for the body and religion is for the ‘Soul’. But in fact these two cannot be separated. Only in a world divided from its heart divides religion from the body.

    1. ‘Only in a world divided from its heart divides religion from the body.’ I like this sentence – yes, Religion is a whole body experience, not a mental process of saying ‘I believe’. it is because we feel it.

71. “Catholic Religion Today – is it a Healthy Option? I really like how this question is asked because we often assume that organized religion is good for us and therefore do not question deep enough how religion affects us. We cannot just accept things at face value; we have to see how things impact us on a long-term basis.

72. The Way of The Livingness is the only true religion for me. It is the only religion I have experienced where the person delivering the presentations (sermons) walks his talk. An amazing reflection and role model for us all in Serge Benhayon, where energetic integrity is paramount. It seems sorely lacking in other religions and areas of society, where people say one thing and do another.

    1. Yes, the importance of a presenter walking their talk is huge – without it anything said is totally meaningless. With Serge Benhayon we can feel in every cell of our bodies that what he presents is Truth.

73. Cool piece of writing Carmel, it is liberating to talk about it from a new perspective that feels very true to me. Hence when we express from our truth, unity and brotherhood (the whole world, not just parts or groups) we will always find ourselves in integrity as we respect the whole – even if there are different opinions, experiences or choices. True connection, and so brotherhood, never erupts the love we come from. It can only shake the things up that are not real, no truth and no love.

74. Part of me still thinks what happened in the past isn’t real and so when it comes to saying things like the holocaust, Hitler, Cathars etc I still have them disconnected to now. Obviously physically you could say they aren’t real for now but it’s the perception that they are in the past and have happened and won’t happen again or like they were a story of someone else and not real to me. It’s hard to explain and I trust this is making sense but it’s almost like history is a story and I apply very little to what goes on now, like we have moved on from there. When I truly look around though I can see these things still actually playing out, it’s just that they are dressed differently.
    The atrocities of the past were horrific but there are things in our day and age that rival those, if not at times go past those, it’s just that because we are in them we don’t see them. I wonder if this was the same in history, those that were experiencing or living in the world didn’t truly see what was happening until after the fact. I say this all with respect to those who have been hit by these things in history, it’s just that I am starting to bring the perceived 2 worlds into 1 world. In that history does repeat itself and like any behaviour it changes and some, if not all of our past, is here with us now in a different form. I see, with regard to the devastation still caused by the Catholic church as an example, and yet in this day and age they are still getting away with it. Has the past truly passed or has it just dressed itself in another way for us to truly see what is going on?

    1. Hi Ray, yes, history does indeed repeat itself even amongst the major religions – our history of fighting and being intolerant of any other religion/tribe/country has led to an incessant world war situation where brother fights brother. And yes, the repercussions of my early childhood affect me now in terms of how I react to events, what I feel is important, how I learn, what I am afraid of – and perhaps there things are carried through from life to life, for example, I’ve never met a deadly spider face to face and yet I was afraid to be in the same room as even a small one. I’ve grown out of that now, after a year of living abroad with cockroaches in the late 70s, but many of us experience unnecessary fears – like the fear of expressing when we are no longer burned at the stake – but it it in our consciousness somewhere?

75. I can so very much relate to this blog Carmel, having being brought up from the day I was born until I had had enough as a teenager. I mean you are literally bombarded that we are all sinners first and have to repent and that we should always put others before ourselves which I felt was mostly an act because people were still selfish, but they just portrayed that they weren’t. Any religion that preaches separation in any form gets no time or respect from me, because I have seen a true way of living and now know the true meaning of religion also thanks to The Way of The Livingness.

76. It is impossible to judge another when we are truly connected to God. When I find my myself judging another it is a great marker as to where I am at and whether I am embracing evolution. Judging another focuses my attention on the outside when in truth the answer is within and my connection to myself and therefore to God.

77. There is one religion that could be considered synonymous with good health, and that is The Way of The Livingness. If one is in The Way of The Livingness, then there is an already established way in life that prepares the body to connect and know divinity. This supports every aspect of health and wellbeing and is called The Livingness. It speaks to the fact of the established Way and health is but a by-product.

78. The Way of The Livingness has transformed my life and every day is an opportunity to deepen the connection with my body which is the bridge to connecting with my Soul and living a simple life, taking care of all my needs which supports living in service.

79. Even though I did not grow up under the constantancy of any religion, I still felt not good enough and full of judgement. How come I ask? I did not have the constant doctrine of a religion, yet in the way of living I was shown growing up the beliefs that stem from religion were held and lived by those around me, so they became mine. That was until I began to choose another way to be in our world. The beliefs I grew up with are fading like a beautiful sunset, letting go of doubts and judgement is now a choice I am grabbing in both hands.

    1. I have begun to understand how a whole country can come under the influence of its religions…

80. There is great truth here in this article, by the fact that when we are taught to worship a God that is condemning, judgmental and wrath-full we are left feeling worthless – which can lead to a multitude of behaviours that are self destructive and abusive.

    1. I agree, Shami, it is appalling that God has been represented as the opposite of how He truly is and that we are not recognised for the equal-to-God beings that we are.

81. This is such a brilliant title Carmel. How many people in the world have even yet become aware that what we invest in psychologically and emotionally is just as important as what we invest in financially – and the acts of both will have repercussions on our health and wellbeing?

82. With everything happening with the Catholic faith these days I would say in the future more and more people will consider what they follow in the future. I remember when I was younger our family following the Catholic faith believing that it was the best thing for us all. As soon I was old enough to make the decision I didn’t go to any of the Catholic rituals as I never believed them as a child. In fact there was so many questions I had that were constantly asked but never answered and so to me none of it made sense. What articles like this are saying make far more sense to what I feel. There is a true religion at there or in here and you need not pit one against another. At it’s very essence this is far from true religion and each one of us already knows and has a relationship truly with religion and like me we have chosen to walk away from it for our reasons. Time to reconnect with religion truly, The Way of The Livingness.

83. I love the way you write Carmel, it comes with a very everyday quality to it that makes it accessible and easy to read yet you present something quite huge for the reader to consider.

84. This blog has alerted me to the harm ignorance and arrogance can have on humanity. I was recruited in the Catholic Faith at birth and never questioned this as it had been in many generations of my family and very heavily relied upon as a ‘symbol of ‘Status’ and righteousness – to question this was equal to blasphemy. Through my exposure to The Way of The Livingness and re-connecting to my own heart, I am slowly shifting the heavy cloak of guilt, unhealthy attachment and blinkered lifestyle I have been imprisoned in. Through my observation, many people do not question the life handed down to them along with all of the traditions this life is layered with. I am deeply appreciative of all that Serge Benhayon and the Ancient Wisdom Teachings have brought through supporting each of us to re-connect and claim who we truly are.

85. Our ideas and imaginings about heaven can be quite bizarre with no connection to love and reality at all. As you say in relation to the suicide bombers Carmel: ‘The promise of rewards in Heaven is coming from pure illusion’. We have an opportunity to express from heaven while on earth but there are certainly no rewards in heaven for killing yourself and others – this is a momentum that has swept up someone very hurt.

86. Yes Carmel, real health and vitality comes from knowing who we are in our essence, and living from it… which is the grandness of love we come from. When that is the energy we have circulating the body, health is a natural consequence. Show me a body full of vitality, brotherly love and true generosity and l’ll agree that whatever their ‘religion’, is worth studying.

87. I don’t think it is healthy for anyone to constantly live with the notion that they are a sinner. If we are constantly told this, what can come from it? It makes living a life and love and light rather difficult.

88. Carmel, I have to agree catholicism does not promote self worth, in fact quite the opposite, it’s all about an authority outside you having more power, and deemed more worthy than you are. I too was raised as a catholic and have left the church, stepping away in my late teens. Over the years I’ve unpicked many of the attitudes and one huge one was and is self worth … I’ve learned to take true care of myself and be loving to me for no other reason than I deserve it. And now I’m learning how to relate to God as someone I am part of and can connect to anytime.

89. Frequently I have experienced blame and judgement from different religions and the reflection for me in that is when love is a living religion, there could never be any judgement to anyone, and that is something for me to take with me to my every single day. What this experiment has confirmed for me is religion has to be living and breathing, before the words or sermons are expressed, religion has to be consistently lived no different from breathing. It is the people and their livingness that make up any religion.

    1. Whereas institutionalised religions seem to be predominantly about doctrines and tenets and vilifying those who don’t believe in the same version of God. God is not catholic and He is not any other religion either.

90. From how I grew up the Catholic religion wasn’t a “healthy option” for me. It was confusing, inconsistent and at times hard to believe. I am not critical of anyone but more saying for me it didn’t make sense and still doesn’t make sense. I remember this was the same for others around me but few stood up and said so. It was like they didn’t feel they were able too. Religion today means so much more to me then just a word. It’s a personal relationship with how I live, a quality of connection with how I am with everything. I love religion and yet that wasn’t always the case. Thank you to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for clearing things up around religion.

91. True religion (the relationship to all) resides in the inner-heart of all people and is not found in any institution that kills, bullies, abuses and lies.

92. Thank you Carmel for sharing your experience of religion, I too was brought up in the Catholic Religion, but left it in my early thirties when I found out about the dreadful deeds of the church during the Dark Ages. The effects of that religion I carried with me through sixty years of my life. With feelings of unworthiness, being a sinner, striving to be good through self sacrifice all to gain Gods favour. Not until I came to understand The Way of The Livingness did I find that God loves, no matter what, that I am a beloved child of God, I come from love, and am love in my innermost being. Whatever our choices are, Gods love is never withheld from us, we are upheld every moment in this eternal and Divine love and for all of that I am worthy to love and appreciate me for being me.

93. True religion would never persecute someone over their different beliefs yet over the years we have seen it time and time again where torture, mass genocide and other horrendous acts have been carried out in the name of God. It is the energy opposite to God that allows men to carry out such atrocities.

94. This is a great question, and makes one wonder what a religion truly is – if that is not supporting us to have a healthy, joy-filled life, what’s the point in having a faith if it only brings misery? There are many things that we accept as the framework of society such as religion, education, culture, media etc. but I am not so sure if they are contributing in any way to truly empower us.

95. In my teens and as a young adult I was unconvinced by conventional religious as practised in my own family and generally. I questioned constantly and no one had any answers. I asked, Where is God? What is the difference between a Muslim and Christian? Why does God favour only Christians, what about everyone else? Why do religions kill in the name of God? Why do we favour one person more than another? With so much hypocrisy, contradictions, lies and abuse, it was a club I very easily walked away from.

96. ‘This begs the question, is it the religion or the people?’ This question opens us up to the potential of our own power. We cling onto dogmas and rules as if we don’t know and need something or someone to tell us what to do and what not, basically how to live, all the while forgetting about or ignoring our inner voice where we deep down know. We follow the pull of the demands of the world (that we have created), instead of letting us being impulsed by the purpose of us all as a one humanity returning to who we are.

97. In fact the religions in the word are not created to unite and to bring us back to God, but to foster separation and to take us away from God instead. It is hard to see this contradiction if you are part of it as the system feeds just that information that will make us dependent ‘disciples’ of the religions we are in, and unaware of the great illusion we are part of..

98. Pingback: Sin, Confession and the True Religion of the Ageless Wisdom – The Truth about Universal Medicine

99. Today’s religions have a lot to answer for, not the least of which is creating people who are disillusioned with God. How’s that for irony.

    1. Absolutely Heather. The Church has done its job of misleading the public whether they fall for the story or are repelled by it . . . and then project that onto disillusionment with God. It all works very well for keeping people confounded. All the while God keeping holding us in his ever-expanding Love.

100. It is a real pity that somehow the true history of mankind was not truly documented, as it has been said the conquering army writes the history books, in what ever fashion they see fit. If people were to truly know what happened throughout history I feel they would be less inclined to follow blindly religions that has caused so much chaos and human suffering.

     1. I agree Kevmchardy – history is generally written by the victor – and if the Catholic Church commits genocide – slaughtering and wiping out an entire community of peaceful gentle Cathars who lived love and did not bow to the corruption of the then Catholic Church that ruled by fear, torture and oppression – then who is there left to present the truth. We all have a responsibility to express and hold steady to truth otherwise we are destined to live in a world that runs by the collective lies we have by our silence bought into and allowed to take hold.

101. ‘With Universal Medicine we are encouraged to learn and evolve as one brotherhood, with each of us serving our fellow man in a self-loving way, not a self-sacrificing one.’ The Way Of The Livingness, true religion, brotherhood, oneness.

102. I have never read or thought about religion in terms of being a healthy option or not and what a great way to view it. Growing up within a christian family meant being ‘good’ in a way that was neither true nor loving for it meant always putting others first, whether or not at a cost to myself. This was definitely not a healthy option yet one that stayed with me until I met Serge Benhayon, which changed everything. Learning to love myself first as the basis to love all others and living life knowing we are all equally Sons of God have been the greatest choices I have made in life for they are the basis of the only true religion I know, The Way of The Livingness.

103. We can say that many things in our physical world are poisonous to us but as a society do we really recognise the poisonous effects of incarcerating ideals and beliefs? If we deeply look at the knock-on effects of harmful beliefs or dogma the implications are huge, on our body’s and humanity as a whole.

104. ‘I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst. Worst of all was not knowing who I truly was, or how to love and be loved, which led to my engaging in unloving relationships, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, overeating and partying’. I could have wrote this Carmel as this was my experience too being brought up in the Irish catholic faith and I can feel now how much damage and harm this has caused throughout my life, as I held the belief that I was not worthy to receive God’s love….. So to answer your question posed in the title of your blog, the catholic religion is not, not, not a healthy option at all.

105. Our world is so very much mixed up when one applies the possibility that ‘God is love’. One has to question every single war, conflict or argument we might find ourselves in. It has now been my experience that one can differ from another in how they choose to be and live, and if there is no need to change another, acceptance of the choices we make brings harmony, not conflict.

106. I was not brought up to care deeply for myself either Carmel, in fact I was brought up to put all others first, second and third and even looking at myself in the mirror was considered vain. Today having been inspired by the presentations of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I have learned the true value of deeply care for myself and have seen that everyone around me benefits from it. I have struggled with this at times as the thoughts come in . . ‘you are wasting time’ . . . ‘what are doing?’ . . . ‘someone or other needs you and just look what you doing?’ . . . ‘ you should have gone there and done that’ . . . whenever I am listening to my body and taking the care that it is calling for.

107. ‘I’m not convinced that the Catholic religion promotes self-worth (7) or even healthy living but, for me, The Way of The Livingness religion of today is definitely a healthy option!’ I agree Carmel. In fact I don’t feel any existing organised religion is of service to anyone anywhere….how can it be if they are all in competition with each other?

108. “Since meeting Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I have learned that who I am is ok, that I am not a sinner, that we are all equal children of God, regardless of our religion or our way of living, and that we can all feel God’s love within us when we live in a way that is healthy, harmonious and loving.” . . . .Hear hear. . .Well said Carmel and this is The Way of The Livingness feeling the connection to the Divinity within us and living from the impulses of this connection rather than the dictates of the mind.

109. My experience has also been . . . “that the Catholic religion affected me at a very deep level ” . . . from the time I went to school I lived in terror as I had very damaged nuns, who were as damaged as I was, who past on their fear of God. I believed that God would strike me down at any moment as I was unworthy to live. The Way of The Livingness that is my religion today, and this religion does not leave me powerless and at the mercy of a vengeful God. It is based on my re-connection to my innate nature, the divinity within us all, and asks me to live in the responsibility of this . . . In short to be the love that I am in thought, word and deed.

110. Agree, if love was the basis of all religions there would eventually be just one.

111. The healthy option is the religion that ‘re-turns’ back to love, which is via through body, and that starts with self love … “looking after our bodies and nurturing ourselves” rather than following some rules and dogma.

112. Many religions have misconstrued the truth of God. The figure of a vengeful judge and the condemnation to hell does not make sense to a child, because they are more connected to the truth of God they know innately, from whence they have come.

113. “I was not brought up with a truly loving God and I was not brought up to care deeply for myself.” If we are brought up and told that God can punish us or is someone to fear we are being brought up with a lie. God never forgives because he never judges.

114. The Way of The Livingness follows the teachings of the ancient wisdom, it has been around for eons and it is known in every cell of our bodies, being religious is reconnecting to that which is within and known in us as it is only until then we know we are part of the all.

115. It begs the question, if so many have been killed in the so called ‘name of God’ and this is supposed to be for a just and true cause that is to bring about healing to the world which so many claim it will do, why do we still have so many wars, utter and abhorrent atrocities happening on mass and so much aggression, that it added together is worse than those of older times in history?

116. It seems harsh to read that you were recruited Carmel into the Catholic religion at birth and that this has had a huge impact on your life, and even when you chose to leave the effects were still evident – this just goes to show that we cannot see organised religion as harmless, and void of cruelty. After all isn’t it cruel to shape a child’s life so that they feel guilty and unworthy for the rest of their life, and then go on to live a far lesser version of themselves?

117. ‘Religion’ and ‘God’ are words that today come loaded with centuries of torture, misgiving, dogma, wars… etc… so not surprising that these words generate a tremor, agitation or repulsion at the mere sound of them – The true meaning of these words are not commonly taught – they should be! – which reveal the meaning of ‘Religion’ as ‘a re-turn to’, .. A return to what? Well… love, which is where reconnecting to our body, reconnecting to a stillness within that one has the feeling of ‘coming home’ … and this is where it all begins…

118. It seems that religions are the perfect place for people to hide and shirk their responsibility by handing over their power to an institution designed to keep you less than.

119. Love this blog Carmel and the truth you share about your experience of the Catholic Religion. It is quite horrific to look through the ages to see what has been carried out in the name of Religion and in fact is still being carried out!

120. “My experience has been that the Catholic religion affected me at a very deep level. I was not brought up with a truly loving God and I was not brought up to care deeply for myself.” My experience was similar Carmel and having been brought up in the Catholic religion I also found myself thinking I was always wrong, insignificant and not worth taking care of. How different is my view now based on the inspiration of The Way of The Livingness and Serge Benhayon. Knowing my worth and value has changed everything.

121. “This begs the question, is it the religion or the people?” Well said. It is also the people who will bring about the change. What I love about The Way of The Livingness is the personal responsibility that goes with it. I am not following a set of rules, I am connected with others as part of the all, knowing that what I do affects another and that I have a responsibility to do no harm. That means energetically as well as physically.

122. What if we were to nurture our children from birth in the confirmation of their innate divinity and glory – children who grew up knowing who they are – there would not be the pandemic of people living with low self-worth, self-hatred, jealousy, comparison across the world – and all the complications and ugliness that stem from this.

     1. How true Annie, young children have a natural joyfulness and knowing of who they are, and this quality in them and ourselves is one to surely nurture.

123. the concepts of guilt and sin as espoused by many religions are designed to keep people in a limited, burdened, reactive, contracted life, void of true freedom, true responsibility or true joy – that serves no one. We can choose to subscribe to these false notions, or can choose instead to step free and embrace the natural call to greater awareness, responsibility and joy that awaits.

124. If we are to truly understand religion, then we need to accept freedom of religion, and freedom to practice religion as long as it does not interfere with other human rights, such as freedom to live from harm, etc. Also, with regards to claims of indoctrination, I find that word a little challenging. Yes, we can all say we get affected by things, but my issue with the word indoctrination is that is seems to suggest that it was out of our control, when the truth is that we align to certain belief systems because it is convenient to do so in some way or another. No one can be brainwashed, and no one in truth can be indoctrinated if they are not at first willing. I grew up in a family that was not heavily christian, but identified themselves as Anglican, and in my early years up to age 13 I went church. I was baptised, and confirmed. And yet never did I feel indoctrinated, not losing my inquisitive nature. During that time I was always questioning the church and minister, to the point that by the age of 14 I left the church, because I felt it did not express the true nature of God as I felt his nature not be. And so, why I say this, is that we must never forget we all have the ability to align or not align to a belief system, regardless of how imposing or compelling it may be.

     1. I wholeheartedly agree. We always have a choice, it is how much we abdicate that choice to feel we don’t have a choice. I had a similar experience with the Church of England and the Catholic church in my upbringing – yet I always knew it wasn’t right because what I saw and felt was not the love they espoused from the pulpit. When I looked more deeply into all religions I found them to all have a foundation in love. So came to the conclusion I would bypass organised ‘religion’ and stick to living love. What made the difference for me? I am sure it was because I knew love inside and that spoke louder than what I was being shown on the outside.

125. You ask a very needed question Carmel. Should any religion kill in the name of God? And you pose more great questions: ‘Could it be that, despite their belief in God, there is no true love felt, just unhappiness and a deep emptiness within? Is it possible that the lack of fulfillment comes from within the religion itself? And then, rather than look at the truth of what’s going on, the religious fanatic blames those outside of the religion who have different beliefs.’ The lack of fulfilment also comes from deep within the person as a result of the choices that they have made and this is why they are choosing a religion that comforts the emptiness while failing to discern the brutality and corruption in which they operate (i.e. killing others, sexually abusing others as we have seen with contemporary paedophilia).

126. I would say most definitely that the religion that asks you to kill another is one that is clearly moved beyond what religion is. Unfortunately they all give religion and then God a bad name, which is a huge travesty as God is love and divinity is everywhere even in the harshest of places, for that to not be felt due to being turned off by the current religious organisation that permeate our society is no accident and one that we have helped create. We are where we choose to be as a humanity.

     1. This is a super important point. Millions turns away from God because of what religion has and is doing across humanity. My experience and knowing of God has zero correlation with almost every single way in which he is represented by the traditional religions.

127. The Catholic religion never promoted self-worth in my time, quite the opposite as we were continuously fed the line that we were not worthy for we were sinners in the eyes of God born with the ‘original sin’. This certainly did not help with our low self esteem. On the other hand The Way of The Livingness has it the other way around for when you know that you are glorious at the birth of the day and this has nothing to do with what you do or say you find yourself singing a whole new harmony.

128. There are some truly beautiful loving and deeply connected people to be found everywhere, but it is not their religion that defines them, but rather their Soul, no matter what religion or culture that they have come from.

     1. Beautifully said Annie.

129. ‘Throughout the centuries, all over the world, thousands have been and are still being killed in the name of God – why?’ – Excellent question Carmel. Almost if not all religions are founded on the belief that God/Allah or a prophet/representation of God of some kind was sent to inspire the beginnings of their religion and show a loving way to live, however the activities of these religions (particularly in relationship to each other) have not reflected this over the centuries. Why is it that there is a clash when the roots of each religion are somewhat similar? Could the fact that we have so many different religions and groups of people, cause disharmony due to how it separates humanity into factions?

130. This is a very much-needed discussion Carmel, and by opening the door on what is happening in the name of religion and God, I feel this could be the way that true brotherhood can become a way of life for everyone.

131. What a powerful turn-around Carmel – from being brought up within the clutches of that church with such a dark history that even today has not been fully revealed with the exposure of paedophilia continuing to happen!. From log cabin to White House has nothing on you – from Catholicism to The Livingness!

132. “I was ‘recruited’ by the Catholic religion at birth.” This is a powerful sentence Carmel, and one that most of us can relate to, albeit not necessarily to Catholicism but to some sort of religion. We are so often born into religion, and that’s just how it is until we are old enough to make our own decisions about it, although this is also not always the case. For me it was Christianity. Although the ‘rules’ were not as rigid as those of Catholicism, its lifelong imprint still left its mark. But thanks to The Way of The Livingness I too am now able to understand religion in the true sense of the word, and make it about the way I live.

133. The way in which we approach everything in life either promotes health or does not promote health – the way we brush our teeth, load the dishwasher,, exit the door for work, speak to our co-workers at work, communicate wit our families and friends, and very certainly, the religion we embrace. The Way of The Livingness is a sure fire way of promoting health, not only for ourselves but for all people and the planet itself. The ideals and beliefs of the Catholic Church belong to the Dark Ages and the plagues that accompany it. Time for us to go deeper and move on.

     1. Here, here Lyndy, super powerful and wise, joy “full” words of wisdom!

134. There was a time when I considered the only way to have a healthy life was to be religious. However, there was little that I found in the world which reflected religion as I understand it to be. So, I settled for what I could find that was close or near to the truth I felt, and attempted to go along with its scriptures and practises – hoping that I was doing it right and the end result I was so longing for would appear after all of my hard work. I would say that this relationship with religion is not healthy and that I was in fact contributing to the ill-belief that you can settle for part truths instead of holding out for the whole truth that you innately know.

135. BJ TBM
     Hello Carmel and maybe at the first point we need to clarify what Religion is? This is what Religion is to me http://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia/word-index/unimedpedia-religion.html Now that’s out of the way we can speak of Catholicism and how it’s a form of Religion but no true Religion itself. I don’t mind what people think about it but when you know the true meaning of a word and then apply something like this to it you can see it’s not even close to what it is. I was raised in the Catholic faith and it never made sense, even to this day when my parents and I talk about it we all see the inconsistencies and how it is. We laugh now when at one point we wouldn’t speak about it which is a great sign for all of us. The Catholic faiths hands world wide and through the ages are very dirty and can never be wiped clean. This is a sign for us to not blindly follow something just because it claims history in some way, you need to look at the whole pie and not just take a piece.

136. This is a great question Carmel: “This begs the question, is it the religion or the people?” The current established religions like the Catholic Church, Buddhism, Islam etc. have a lot of things in them that do not feel loving or true to me. It is then easy to reject the word religion altogether with the atrocities that are happening because of religious beliefs. Yet it is true, is it religion or are the people who are in the religion with extreme ideals and beliefs? I have found too in the religion The Way of The Livingness that it is not religion that is evil, it is the reinterpretation of the word and the way people act in these so called religions, which is to me not true religion, that is harming.

137. “I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst. Worst of all was not knowing who I truly was, or how to love and be loved, which led to my engaging in unloving relationships, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, overeating and partying.”
     This was my experience of the consequences of religion, until I met The Way of The Livingness. Here I am supported, encouraged and confirmed in everything that is opposite of this. I now make healthy and loving choices for myself, I have loving relationships, I love and am loved and I know that I am in truth a beautiful being.

138. Judgment is so ingrained in the human psyche – it is like a slashing scythe that cuts down swathes of tender human beings like so many blades of grass. It is a defence and defensive weapon to keep ourselves safe and keep the outside fictional ‘marauder’ at bay. And yet we use this scythe against our brothers and sisters, our workmates, our leaders, our friends, and many who are dear to us. I love the way you say Carmel, that ‘This religion [The Way of the Livingness] presents that even judging another could be considered abusive because judgement is not Love.’ Judgment is certainly not Love and there is not one ounce of judgment in God. Our own action in the world has an effect that comes back on us that may not feel too pleasant at the time! But this is not God’s judgment (which doesn’t exist). This is the consequence or effect of the way we have lived our lives, the quality of energy in which we have moved in and treated others, coming back on us. God is simply Love and holds us always in that Love.

139. Even if not a part of a particular religion they can affect us I feel. Religious ways have an impact on how we live, how we live teaches others how to live. I may not wear a cross, offer animal sacrifices, pray towards a building or object but the way we relate to ourselves, God and others is transferred and spread. This is something The Way of The Livingness makes very clear, that everything we do is left behind for others to pick up and follow on from. Where that leads is part our responsibility to how we live and part how they choose to be with that. If I judge myself that allows others to judge themselves. If I believe myself lesser to God then so will others have the energy provided to do the same.

     1. The impact of religious ways have and have had huge impact upon humanity over the centuries and that impact is not very glorious, in fact the opposite. The Way of The Livingness, however, is showing another way, a way that is glorious.

140. I do believe we will be the change we want to see in the world and the Way of The Livingness is the perfect support to guide us there. “With Universal Medicine we are encouraged to learn and evolve as one brotherhood, with each of us serving our fellow man in a self-loving way, not a self-sacrificing one.”

141. Why does being religious rock so many people’s boat?

     In all reality it is a way a person chooses to connect with the world.

142. It is the imposition of there being a right and wrong in the eyes of God that I have found so hard to shake off. ‘Right’ came to equal a transitory smugness and ‘wrong’ just exacerbated the shame, guilt and sense of worthlessness. And yet as a child I knew God would never hold me in either, there was no fear or failure in my quiet relationship with him. My struggle and confusion came from the disparity between these two ‘versions’ of God and I tried to fit in with the outer one for a long time. When I came across the teachings of Universal Medicine it was simply a home coming to that relationship with God that I had always known – a confirmation as it were – and therefore a place that I could start to build life from the truth I have always felt.

143. How ironic that you did not get to know who God truly is, when you were in an organised religion that would purport to bring you closer to God and it was not until Universal Medicine that this happened. We cannot know God whilst we feel less or like a sinner who will never be ‘good’ enough.

144. “I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst”. In speaking with other people who have grown up with the Catholic religion, these feelings are common to all. This would have to suggest we come into to this life with these traits and are drawn to this religion and/or the religion comes with this energetic package. Either way it appears to do harm rather than heal these traits that keep us away from knowing the divine beings we are.

145. ‘I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst’. This is something that is anti-love and therefore anti-Christ and anti the Soul. In other words it is against everything that we truly are and originate from, against God and divinity. So how could a religion with ‘God’ at its head be championing such a state of being as guilt, angst, self-bashing as its foundation? This contagion of an attitude also spreads from other places than the Cathlolic Church. Time to see it for what it is and embrace the life that is truly available to all from God.

146. The Catholic Church has a lot to answer for in terms of the damage it has done to humanity and I feel the Catholics I know today perhaps are choosing to forget the past, not realising that the energy with which the crimes were committed is still there. You cannot take on just the good bits and ignore the bad – it is all one.

147. A brilliant article asking absolutely the questions that need to be asked. The grip that religion has on humanity is insane and when you look at what atrocities have been enacted under the banner of religion it is mind-blowing that we still align ourselves to any of these organisations. So why? Is it possible that we crave connection with God so deeply that it makes us blind to the truth of what these religions are offering (or not offering, I should say).

148. This difference between self-love and self-sacrifice is huge. For many years I had thought that to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others was the ultimate form of love that I could give, and I gave it as often as I could because I all I wanted was to love and to feel loved. However, it is clear to me now that God does not love me for putting myself at the bottom of the list, he loves me no matter what. The love in me is His love for all of us, without anyone being less or more. It is a stable and constant source that runs throughout all of life. And so I learn to not diminish myself under the false belief that this is an expression of love, but to honour myself as this is a great expression of the love that I can give.

149. Carmel today I am rebuilding my connection and relationship with God, for he is someone that I was super confused about having also being indoctrinated into the Catholic religion. The description and exclusivity of God made no sense to me as a child who felt a far bigger purpose to life than what was presented. Knowing today that we all live within God and are all equal Sons of God provides a true foundation to my life.

150. The other day I met up with some old friends from school and some of them were still fully involved in the Catholic Church and I really had to ask the question why, as everyone these days knows the extent of the harm the church has done throughout history and in some cases still does. One of them replied that it was all about community and helping people and that there were a lot of like minded people doing a lot for others. This stopped me in my tracks a bit and I realised how judgmental I have been and although a lot of atrocities have been done in the name of God people are out there still doing a lot of good and that is where they are at right now.

151. The Way of The Livingness comes from the same source as the wisdom of Hermes, of Pythagoras, of Leonardo, and so many more through the ages and epochs.. . and the best thing is it is a living wisdom that all of us have access to – no need to believe in anything or anyone, no need to follow any dogma or rules, simply understanding that we can live in a way that allows us access back to that stupendous love, intelligence and wisdom that lives within all of us equally untouched by this world, and unassailable by any force of evil that seeks to separate from this.

152. “The Way of The Livingness is a new religion based on ancient principles. It teaches true Brotherhood, that we are all equal, that we do not harm anyone – not for any reason.” Until I came across Universal Medicine, I could not get my head around any religion as none that I ever found included everyone as being equal, and they were always about ‘believing’ in what you were being told. The massive difference with Universal Medicine is that it is nothing to do with ‘believing’ or ‘doing’ or even about only accepting certain people in the ‘group’. It is all inclusive, every one is equal, it is about living and being all that you are without ‘doing’ anything to have to prove that, and it never dictates. This is a true religion that I celebrate.

153. ‘Throughout the centuries, all over the world, thousands have been and are still being killed in the name of God – why?’ Because Man’s insecurity, because of not living in our God-given essence is such that we can do any act that we imagine keeps us ‘secure and safe’. Yes all the time we are safe in the arms of our Father and that is maintained and confirmed through Loving our Brothers not killing them!

154. Our health is based on the sum total of all of our choices. If we are going against ourselves in any aspect of life, it will be shown in the body – whether we choose to see or listen to what is shown is another matter.

155. Could it be said that most major religions have a lot to answer for! If we are all here to evolve why have they not changed in thousands of years? Or, have some evolved into something that is no longer close to what they started as? The Way of The Livingness is based on ancient principles on how we are all meant to live in equality; that was made to be forgotten because it went against the different major religions.

156. “Over the last thousand years the Catholic religion has persecuted millions of people living ordinary lives, who dared to speak out against their dogma or who appeared to live in a different way. ” – this is quite shocking to read, and though it is something that is known, it is often not talked about. Sadly many religions don’t seem to live what they preach which is unity – for how can you have true unity if you do not consider another as equally precious? There is much for us to ponder on regarding religions and the combination of truths and untruths that they deliver.

157. To teach children, as the catholic religion does, that God is there to punish us is what I would consider these days to be a crime against humanity. It affects us on a fundamental level. The truth of God is known in our inner heart.

     1. I agree, Elizabeth. Bringing children up in fear of God is definitely a crime against humanity.

158. When we just look at what the gender stereotypes fostered by religion have done to the self-worth, grace, dignity and health of women there can be no doubt about how devastating and destructive institutionalized, ideals and beliefs promoting religion often is. It will take generations to heal the harm the Catholic church has caused in men and women equally.

159. The dismissing of other World Teachers shows how exclusive the Catholic Church can be and how arrogant it is in thinking it has all the answers and the only path to Heaven. Not only that, it completely misses the mark that Jesus taught that we are the same as him, capable of amazing acts of healing: ‘Not only will you do this but more.’ He did not say ‘Only my Priests will know the way to God’ and he certainly would not have condoned the many Godless acts committed by some of those same priests, i.e. paedophilia.

160. I feel the tenets of the catholic church have affected me deeply, despite the fact that I was not raised in that religion. I was ‘christened’ a protestant which is really an off shoot of the same religious root. The Livingness is the only religion that says that everything matters – how we live, eat, relate to ourselves and with each other, and yet does not set down rules. God is within us all to be expressed – thus the quality of our daily choices is a dedication to the divine. How seamlessly wholistic is that!

161. It seems to me that the Catholic Church was bastardised by many of the Roman Emperors throughout the ages to the point where there appears to be little or no divinity in its being or teachings.

162. The fact that religion has been one of the biggest causes of separation and division amongst people, despite that fact that the word itself means to re-align is a significant contradiction and indication of the total bastardisation of that which most religions claim to be.

163. Thank you Carmel, the relationship you illustrate between the indoctrination you received and your longer term health is so important. It is long overdue for us to begin acknowledging that illness and disease has it’s roots in these sort of areas, and that our model of medicine, and even so-called ‘holistic’ medicine is still way short of the mark. No amount of ‘healthy’ eating or exercise will counter the effect of living with guilt or feeling unworthy.

     1. Well said Jenny, for though healthy eating and exercise do care for the body, if we live with guilt or unworthiness we do far more damage to ourselves. And this is a great reminder for us all, to keep stepping up the appreciation for ourselves and celebration of ourselves in a daily basis – for imagine how much ‘good medicine’ this would represent for us!

164. I recently had a conversation with two christians who were looking to spread their message about god, and I listened and discussed rationally with them both, but what I remember from the conversation most is their view of Jesus as being far more important than any other teacher, Mohammed, Buddha as two examples were seen as belonging to another faith and therefore dismissed as irrelevant. In my opinion it is that unwillingness to see that there would have been many influential teachers through the years is harming, and counterintuitive to the very nature of how we would have lived through the ages. Religion often has a very linear one dimensional view of the world, the past and our futures, whereas life is all encompassing and we are all actually equal to Jesus, God and the Universe, not lesser as many faiths wish to spread as a guiding message.

165. I have met a lot of loving and lovely people in my catholic upbringing but also I have felt the heavy guilt trips and the oppression. The Catholic church as it is now being run relies on loyalty to the status quo (which is clearly not working) over honesty, truth and reality. The way of the livingness in contrast is an open religion where I feel free to ask questions, this way I learn to live my religion in everyday life, to grow and expand the love I feel from God that is within each of us equally.

166. In our modern age, religion holds us in a strong grip. It is everywhere, giving is the insidious idea that we are all less. While the total opposite is true when we choose to live the religion to ourself. Reconnecting with the love that we are, knowing we are part of a larger whole.

167. Fearful God, or a God of Love. I was not brought up within an organised religion, and I could not relate to the God that so many represent, who is like one middle-aged, bearded man, who imposingly fathers with a dictatorial air….this is not God. To return to God / to Love, to live religion (a reconnection), I feel is a natural universal law, that often we swim against, but in truth we can find harmony, but it starts from the inside out.

168. “With Universal Medicine we are encouraged to learn and evolve as one brotherhood, with each of us serving our fellow man in a self-loving way, not a self-sacrificing one.” This is the thing that stands out most about Universal Medicine to any other religion that I know about and it makes complete sense. For how can we possibly truly take care of or love another if we are not willing to give that same care and love to ourselves first? Far from being selfish as some would see it, it allows for an honesty and openness with others that would otherwise not be there, and so negating the possibility for any true relationships to develop.

169. Carmel, great to read this article, it feels so crazy to me how the Catholic religion is, all of the killing that has happened in the name of God, all the hate and separation, how can this be Godly, it does not make sense. The Way of The Livingness feels very different, it is truly about love, for all, not just a select group of people.

170. Jesus came to earth to bring the message, ‘Love one another as you love yourself’. Such a simple and beautiful message, that somehow we haven’t yet embraced as a race – partly because so many Churches, whether they be Christian or not, indoctrinate people with the opposite message, ‘you’re a big sinner, totally unworthy, you must sacrifice your good for others’ etc. etc. Not a healthy option!

171. Brotherhood is a word that seems to have been taken away from its true meaning. The Way of the Livingness is claiming it back, in a world full of comparison and judgement, brotherhood brings equality for all, regardless of race or religion.

172. I was also recruited at birth and . . . “have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst.” . . . and I decided to leave the Catholic Church at 15 but my mother insisted I attend mass until I was 16 as she was worried my siblings would follow suit. But leaving the church did not change how I felt about myself. It was not until meeting Serge Benhayon and putting into practice what was presented by him and Universal Medicine that real change started to happen.

173. Choosing to practice the religion of The Way of The Livingness is the healthiest choice I have ever made and the greatest medicine I could give myself.

174. What you have expressed in this blog Carmel is so true, it resonates strongly with me. The Catholic Church has much to answer for and unfortunately it keeps repeating the same harming practices.

175. “Over the last thousand years the Catholic religion has persecuted millions of people living ordinary lives, who dared to speak out against their dogma or who appeared to live in a different way.” How do we end up turning a blind eye to such gross major transgressions – it goes even against the ideology of “love thy neighbour as thyself” and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ which the institution itself claims it stands for? Ha! I can now see how. By thinking that the institution and those leading it know better than your own deep down awareness. By thinking you are not divine and your sense of what is and is not truly in line with God does not count. Ironically beliefs that are prescribed to us by such religious institutions themselves!

176. Carmel, your experience with the Catholic church applies to many churches for the religious consciousness of Christianity is insidious and worms its way into many a religious institution. I had a little exposure to the Anglican church as a child and I too have been plagued by the concept of being a sinner and felt guilty for enjoying being me. It seemed that to be a ‘good’ Christian you had to live a life of denial and penance carrying the burden of responsibility as a great weight rather than it being a joy to serve as I now know it can be.

177. ‘I asked about religion being a healthy option because many religions preach martyrdom for a ‘just cause’ as a ‘good thing’.’ A ‘just cause’ may well be a ‘good thing’ in the sense that the ideal of justice on earth is part of the ‘good illusion’. Where there is an idea of ‘just and unjust’ there is still ‘right and wrong’ and therefore no evolution.

178. I do not give my power away to a higher God, through the inspiration of the Livingness I am wholly empowered to choose a loving rhythm that supports me to feel glorious, for just being me.

179. It’s such a destructive way to live as a “sinner”, how can such a path of religion ever be true. We are born to love ourselves and there is no better way to live than to love, appreciate and accept ourselves as we are. That is a religious path we could all accept without the disgust that many now hold religion in due to the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.

180. I was not brought up in a ‘religion’. My Dad used to say ‘If there is a God he is not in those churches, he is in the rain-forest’ or the sun shining on a sparkling day on the sea’. We used to talk about all the different religions at home, the history of them, their tenets, the atrocities they had committed in the name of God and Love. And yet I still had some of the draw-backs lodged in my psyche that you had Carmel. I never felt I was a sinner, I felt joyful, pure and a bit naughty, but nothing to make me think I was a sinner. But later on in life I would feel lack of self-worth, or ‘lesser than’ and also from my late twenties onwards I experienced angst,. These things I was carrying despite the fact that I was not brought up in the Church. So they are pretty widespread, and no doubt the Church plays an enormous role in propping up such destructive states of being.

     1. Your dad was very wise Lyndy… the insidiousness of it’s teachings are far-reaching and deeply entrenched into our psyche. Freeing ourselves from it requires the ability to see the entrails of it’s teachings at play within us and to re-connect to the truth of who we are.

181. It’s important to ask the question: if the evidence across the centuries comprehensivley shows that the catholic church doesn’t stand for good, then what does it stand for in truth?

182. From my experience as being brought up Catholic and as my relationship with God was attending church and that he was outside of me, a mighty power from above definitely left me in a place where I had lack of self worth and questioning what was true. There was no real relationship with myself and that in actually fact God represents a quality of being, Love. This was so refreshing and it was an instant connection just one that I had shutdown and let go of. One that I can have anywhere anytime its just a moment of connecting. I deeply appreciate Universal Medicine and their support with sharing how life can be if we so choose.

183. I love what you have said here Carmel: ‘With The Way of The Livingness we are encouraged to question everything and to feel our own wisdom from within our bodies, not blindly believe any dogma, or depend on outside influences for our opinions’. To be able to feel truth and wisdom through re-connecting to my innermost and to my body’s intelligence, through the 6th or ‘feeling’ sense has been the greatest revolution in my life! I feel vastly more vital, younger, more joyful, more able to discern what is true and what is not. This is a religion that facilitates us to set ourselves free from the bondage of ideals, beliefs, destructive emotions, thoughts that are not our own. What is left? Only Love, understanding and true intelligence.

184. I also do note the history of abominable acts begin done in the name of ‘God” over centuries. What has the catholic church really stood for, and why was it allowed to lord over societies for so long? It even had Canon Law- this literally meant it was a law unto itself, and beyond the law of the common man. One day we will look back on this as the appalling tyranny that it actually was.

185. The Catholic church has much to answer for; from outrageous atrocities and corruption to subtle manipulation and coercion. I, like you Carmel, have felt the adverse effects of the influence of the Catholic church. What you have expressed here is very telling;
     “with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst”

186. My whole life I denied religion. I felt truly harmed by the separation, judgement, and dishonesty that come with mainstream religions. I could never understand why one can’t simply do good things because it makes them happy, not because they want to get something out of it or perhaps go to heaven for being a good neighbour. This whole thing felt so incredibly fake to me, and I was never really drawn towards it. Now I know that there’s nothing more beautiful than being religious.

187. There are many decent and beautiful people who are Catholic but the church has a lot to answer for.

188. Many issues I see are not just limited to the Catholic Church, but encompass religious institutions in our society. The pomp, the grand buildings, the amassing of wealth, rituals that seem akin to someone entertaining with magic tricks on stage, the interpretation of the words of the original messengers in a way that tells people they are not good enough in the eyes of God, the pretense that those that work for the religious institution have a special hot line connection to God which is unavailable to the rest of humanity, the deliberate alienation of those who do not follow the prescribed dogma or worse dare believe in another set of doctrines, the fear mongering about how God punishes those who disobey what has been interpreted as his word…. All of this creates an environment where the individual has no chance of re-discovering their own true innate connection to the divine, and everyone is actively discouraged from re-claiming the love, equality, power and responsibility that is our true expression.

189. It’s an interesting question. I’m sure many of us do not consider whether a religion is healthy or not. But what is ‘healthy’? As far as I am aware, something is ‘healthy’ if it resonates with us in such a way that we are enriched by it and are not in any way restricted. It needs to be healthy for the whole body in the sense that it is about love first and foremost, and that it is about the Livingness of that love.

190. The Way of The Livingness has helped me understand why I wanted very little to do with religion growing up, None of it made sense to me in the lessons at school, and the story of Jesus was what I questioned most, the way it was depicted sounded too good to be true, and almost fairy tale like in its delivery. Through The Way of The Livingness I have got to feel what true religion is about and I love it’s simplicity. There is no indoctrination or rules to follow, just a connection to my inner heart and a willingness to stay open to life and to God.

191. No matter our own personal beliefs or religion, no one should ever be persecuted or judged for having a different set of beliefs and ideas about God, the world and so forth. The many wars we’ve seen that have stemmed from religious conflict are examples of what happens when we don’t have understanding and why it’s so important.

192. A beautiful sharing on the deep lasting effects Religion can have on us all. The Way of The Livingness, true Religion, restores us back to our inner knowing with God living from the inside out in great honouring of all we are. Thank you Carmel.

193. The Way of The Livingness restores the truth to the word religion.. as it is within each one of us to have a relationship with God, not being told from an outside party how we are to think, act, behave. These impositions obscure us from seeing and knowing who we are, so we are left with a world full of billions of people acting according to, or in rebellion to dogma, ‘beliefs’, and ideals, and from the hurt that these have created in our lives.

194. It cannot be considered good for our health to adopt any belief, tenet or way that does not confirm the love we all equally are, present the truth of energy and does not empower us to live the true us in the world.

     1. Indeed Deborah – the self discovery, empowerment and connection founded by the Livingness is a religion that has no pockets or compartments – it is a 24/7 commitment to love, life and relationships.

195. The time has come for us as a human family to really look at our ideals and belief systems and customs ask the honest question are they healthy or supporting us or are they harming us? For it is clear from your blog that these constructs we carry around in our minds, heavily influence our behaviours and not always for the better.

196. Carmel what a powerful point to raise about the catholic religion “To cap it all, I never learned who or what God truly was/is.” when I look back, that was exactly my experience. Everything was cloaked in mystery and the simplicity of God was never actually presented. There was indeed nothing that was presented that felt fully true to me.

     1. I agree – Catholicism is an emotional experience, it is not something one is able to feel and also to appreciate as what one feels doesn’t seem to be too pleasant.

197. Universal Medicine presents that we can only truly love another when we are truly loving ourselves. It is the complete opposite to how I was brought up as I attended chapel and seeing the actions in another that love was about the giving of ourself with no regard for self as that was seen as selfish. I have come to realise that the only way to truly love another and every thing around me is to give to myself first and then to others and every thing equally but we have to understand what it means to truly love ourselves first.

198. The Way of The Livingness as taught by Universal Medicine, is for me the way of whole life, and a life with one prevailing central theme as you also share Carmel, and that is: to do no harm. No harm on all levels and not just the verbal, emotional or physical kind of harm, but also energetic too. Many of us can tend to overlook such discrepancy (of harm) that does reside in many organised religions of today, though with The Way of The Livingness, there is no such discrepancy to leave full integrity as the back bone of this religion.

199. The truth that you present Carmel is undeniable. The truth as presented in this blog, is that the reality is that the man-made doctrines have given us a false way of looking at God. Serge Benhayon shows that what true religion has is transparency, which is open to all equally.

200. The dogma of most (as in nearly all) religions is a reinterpretation of the lives of the greatest teachers we have ever had on this earth.These were great people who chose to live a life dedicated to lifting humanity out of the mess we were in at the time. The religions that sprang out of those teachings were founded by men who did not know those teachers, and created a set of rules to live by, which are divorced from the life they claimed to be inspired by. Because of the distance between the teacher and the words ascribed to the teachers by these men, they are often very flimsy when put to the scrutiny of the truth. When men who have invested so much into something which has given them power, and that power is challenged by irrefutable truth, they have a historically common fallback position: violence. Intimidation is what has kept many religious institutions in place for as long as they have been, not the truth they claim to be the custodians of.

201. I am always amazed when I meet people who are staunch Catholics, it makes me wonder why they have never questioned their religion in the same way that I did at age 18. The joy of The Way of The Livingness is that we are invited to question every step of the way, to be sure that it is our own personal religion, not one that is imposed upon us. There is no dogma, we are not asked to believe anything, we are simply invited to feel and develop a deep connection with our innermost selves, not with a being that is outside of us. Any presentations and sermons we attend are always open for us to attend or not, we are invited to feel what is true or not and it is entirely up to us what we do with the information that is presented. To me that is true religious freedom.

     1. Yes Carmel I agree, there are no conditions, attachment or a set of beliefs that we have to adhere to. The Way of The Livingness presents another way to ponder and reflect and we are left to discern in our own time as to what is being presented is true for us or not.

     2. “I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst.” This is also my experience Carmel. I carried this heavy burden for a long time, occasionally feeling I haven’t completely left it behind. The nuns taught me that my life was to be one of service to others. Ultimately my worth was to be measured against how much sacrificing of myself I could achieve.

202. Re claiming the word religion to its original meaning of reconnection brings back the simplicity and the true power of each person in the universal aspect of our lives. When we are connected love reigns supreme and from there all the laws of nature apply, never doctrine or dogma.

     1. True Vanessa. There is no division or separation when we are connected to Love for Love is beholding of all and is a Universal Religion deeply known to us all.

203. The whole thought paradigm that we will be rewarded in Heaven for certain sorts of behaviours on earth is a real ‘carrot and the donkey’ trick – a trick that we are all aware of of but sometimes have not applied to ourselves. Even if we have seen through that trick internees of religion, how often do we get caught in achieving and ‘doing’ at the expense of the body, and imagine that this activity is ‘progressing us’? Same thing. As you say Carmel. ‘The promise of rewards in Heaven is coming from pure illusion, geared by those in power to further their own ends. Hence, in the Middle Ages people could pay money for a ‘pardon’ of their sins.’

204. The Way of The Livingness allows us to reignite our connection with the divine within ourselves, so we know that we are everything and all we have to do is nurture and honour our bodies to be in communication with God.

205. “With The Way of The Livingness we are encouraged to question everything and to feel our own wisdom from within our bodies, not blindly believe any dogma, or depend on outside influences for our opinions. We are encouraged to live in a healthy way, looking after our bodies and nurturing ourselves.” – The Way of The Livingness is like no other religion that I have come across. It holds a complete openness, and yet at the same times reflects for us a most loving discipline of caring deeply for self, respecting self and nurturing self and then from this space of fullness, being there in service for others. What a beautiful philosophy, religion and science all rolled into one.

206. ‘Is it healthy to be in a religion today? Or can being in a religion seriously damage our health?’ A great question. If that religion leaves us feeling superior, less, pious, judgmental, righteous, guilty, not good enough, that life if full of ‘shoulds’ then clearly there is something here that is going to not just impact our own health, but on the health of all those we judge to be outside the remit of the said religion. Enter The Way of The Livingness – the only religion I have ever come across that says how we live and how all the choices we make either support our health or compounds it, including the fact of how this affects everyone around us. Within this everyone is the same as it is all encompassing with no delineation, everyone being equal sons of God.

207. There are many in organised religion who do genuinely care for humanity, however the overriding consciousness feels loveless to me, and does not deliver the embodied livingness and energetic responsibility that I am returning to, thanks to the teachings of Universal Medicine.

208. The Way of The Livingness stands alone as a true religion – encompassing all I have always known about the fact that there are no divides between us, whatever our culture, skin colour, race, age, gender…

209. It can be quite seductive the offering of ‘belonging’ and sense of community that comes with joining certain groups, however if we can see clearly we know that this is a false version and that true fulfillment can never come from outside of us, but only from within. Once we know the grandness of who we truly are and where we are from, then we know we naturally belong and we would never sell ourselves short by aligning to a false offering, and all the ills that come with that package.

210. The Way of The Livingness has actually given me back my life. I can now say that I live in a way where I honour myself, continue to deepen my connection and love for myself which naturally allows me to be more open and loving with others. That’s my religion.

211. Many people are naturally religious, however do not claim so because of the atrocities and hypocrisy that they have witnessed in the name of mainstream religion. And the greater evil of such acts committed in the name of religion is not so much the acts themselves -although they are heinous enough – but the fact that they discourage people from looking deeper into what true religion might actually be. And so today, you have people who refuse to use the word “God”, and who talk instead of “the universe”, who say they are not religious, but are rather spiritual. Such claims are made as marks of individuality, and from reaction to the false brand of brotherhood offered by mainstream religion.
     True religion is an individual journey – no doubt – but it is a journey that is circular and cyclical in its outplay, and not a journey to somewhere as we have been lead to believe. And thus true religion is nothing more than the unfolding of awareness as to our true nature – and thus a word that defines the manner of our return to a form of higher being we descended from into physical form, and not an evolution to a higher spiritual form, as the spiritual seeker falsely believes . And whilst it is an individual, journey, in the end, it leads us all to the same point of realisation – that we are individual expressions of the one and same expression, and so we are not individual after all, but unified by our divine origins.

212. We are certainly in a mess in terms of how the world operates, the misery, the violence, the greed and the corruption, but hope must never be lost. For we have within us all a deep love that we can connect to, a way of living that has more integrity. I love what you share Carmel about how even judging others is something we could avoid, it is that level of integrity that will draw us out of the struggle we are currently in. That love for ourselves and from there that love for our fellow beings.

213. The Way of The Livingness is a unique religion in the sense that it is all about how we choose to live our lives, and not at all how we preach.

     1. Indeed Eva it is the ‘Livingness’ of this religious way that makes it so real, so tangible and so inwardly confirming.

214. It is a natural consequence that through the ages we have got the kinds of religion that we were seeking. Whether it was to wield power over others or be a crutch to be propped up with, it always served self. But does this mean there cannot be true religion, which touches all of us to the core of our being and calls us back to a one unified truth beyond self? By connecting to where humanity is at, we begin to ask from the depth of our soul for such a religion and now it is emerging. The Way of The Livingness, the religion we are asking for from the innermost place within us. Part of the great choice of deep healing that people everywhere are beginning to see is so necessary and some, so possible.

215. I was also raised in the Catholic religion but decided to leave my church in my early twenties as what was being presented did not feel true for me and the hypocrisy was too much for me to continue. However what was interesting is that some 5 years after this I met my wife and when she asked me if I was religions at all, before I knew it I said I was Catholic, even though I had not attend a single Catholic event for over 5 years. She said to me at that point that I did not have to continue saying that I was Catholic just because I was born into it. Something inside of me changed in that moment and an unseen tendril I still had with this religion broke and I felt truly free of it. It is amazing how these things can have ties or unseen contracts with us that we don’t even realise are lodged in our bodies, influencing us on a daily basis.

216. To indoctrinate someone that they are a sinner is such a capping , dampening, squashing way of relationship. We know God is Love, forever holding and beholding Love and we know he would never call anyone a sinner. We have all let through some pretty weird energies and behaviours that are not who we truly are, through making ill choices, but we are Sons of God. Such a religion cannot be working with God as they teach their flock that they are sinners.

     1. Clearly I was in the same situation where God was never obtainable and I was a sinner. Now I know my relationship with heaven and who I am. Choosing The Way of The Livingness has been such a loving choice for me.

217. The healthy option seems to be the practice of self love and self care, as this guarantees one a re-turn back to soul, back to love, back with God.

218. What The Way Of The Livingness has taught me is we live our love equally with everyone. Whether we are in an institutionalized religion or not, we are equal human beings. I am reminded to live this love with everyone, whether we feel judged or not, to therefore not judge and defend, but live love equally everywhere.

219. It is interesting the way we can leave a church, or organisation, or even our own childhood home and go off and live life still affected by those earlier imprints. What is it about leaving a church, for example, because we can see that there is something that does not add up, and yet still carry the false beliefs about ourselves? We have not yet cleared the beliefs that we ourselves carry which allowed us to buy into the beliefs of the church in the first place. It is a bit of the chicken and the egg thing. But if we choose to love and honour ourselves the attachment will be cut and we will flourish. This is a truly healthy way.

220. This shows so clearly, how the beliefs we hold determine our life and influence us in every move we make.

221. I’ll be so bold as to say that the Catholic religion has left a great mark on Earth, and not a good one. One that needs quite a bit of healing.

222. Thank you Carmel for your very thought provoking blog. It is interesting to consider what we are actually signing up to when we join a religion, club, magazine, hobby, job, company, organisation or assembly etc. We think we are just signing up to the bits we like and we can ignore the bits we don’t, but really there is an energetic package or consciousness which clearly goes with these groups or religions and as your blog shows these packages deeply affect and influence us and can take a long time to clear from our bodies. So we have to be very discerning as to what we subscribe to.

223. Through The Way of The Livingness I have developed a completely new relationship with the word religion. To be religious in the way I live is about building a consistency and rhythm with the choices that support me to live connected to my body. Once upon a time I was religious about things that didn’t support me which were devoid of Love; I was kept firmly disconnected from my body and the love of God.

224. ‘With Universal Medicine we are encouraged to learn and evolve as one brotherhood, with each of us serving our fellow man in a self-loving way, not a self-sacrificing one.’ Learning the difference between self-sacrifice and self-love has been key for me, as I was strong on self-sacrifice and low on self-love, I now know without a doubt that the more I truly care for me the greater quality of service I bring to everyone.

225. The Way of The Livingness is unlike any religion I have ever met before. In fact it took me many years to realise it even was a religion! There were no rules, no dogma, no ‘you are in and they are out’. It is all about developing or should I say re-kindling your relationship with God, simply from what you feel in your body and being. If all religion was this true, there would be no wars or heinous acts done in Gods name, as we would know that God is but Love.

226. Of all the ex and current Catholics I have met, the common feelings they share are guilt and lack of worth. Surely this can’t be a coincidence. They often share how it was as a child in the Catholic Church, being made to feel guilty for Jesus dying and each week having to come up with (and often lie about) a sin that only the church could absolve. This doesn’t seem like a strong foundation on which to raise our kids.

227. ‘I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst. Worst of all was not knowing who I truly was, or how to love and be loved, which led to my engaging in unloving relationships, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, overeating and partying.’ If we were to consider a ‘healthy choice’ as one that is not only about not making choices that lead to being sick; but one that does not lead to a poor sense of self (as described in this quote) – we would need to re-assess our entire way of living and exactly what we choose to say yes and no to.

228. The level of giving up in society where people simply choose their own comfort and safety, imagining they have no true power to fundamentally affect anything else (a reality I myself was caught in before I met Serge Benhayon) is alarmingly high. Humanity requires loving, inspiring and supportive reflection to remember the love, power and responsibility that is our true expression (as Universal Medicine provides).
     It is shocking that any ideology with widespread access to people rests on telling people that to sin is one of the worst things you can do, and then goes on and makes people believe they are by nature a sinner! It is a fact that if any institution other than a powerful church was doing this, they would have been hauled up for subjecting people to psychological abuse.

229. A great and important sharing Carmel and something that so many of us can relate to also and the understanding of the real effects of the Catholic Religion is so important so we can have a choice to heal this and live our life fully in the love and glory of who we really are in connection with God as one inside us all.

230. A great point about suicide bombers being willing to kill others on the promise of rewards in heaven. A person must be very lost and separated from their own soul to fall for this temptation.

231. Carmel we don’t often think that what we “believe” in is healthy or not. Yet the incredible thing about what you raise here is you bring in what we believe to marry up with our health. It’s clear there is a big connection between the two of them as what we believe in affects everything about the way we move and express in life, which is where I’ve come to appreciate, most illness and disease starts.

232. To be affected so deeply by a religion that purports to teach the word of God, that you are left “with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst”, is so far away from health in any form, that it makes sense why the physical, emotional and mental health of society is at an all time low. To me true health is founded on love, honesty, respect, self care, self responsibility and equality, and from what I have read and heard over the years, including this amazing blog, religion as it has come to be today presents very few of these qualities, qualities that were the hallmark of the world teachers who have graced humanity over many centuries. So what happened between these amazing messengers presenting true religion and the seemingly ‘bastardised’ versions that we have in the world today?

233. We seem to have made something that is in fact very simple, extremely complex. The Christian religion speaks of love and about love. A person who has chosen to align with the love that is innate in us all equally, is full of understanding and in him there is no desire to judge another who is his equal brother. If there is any sense that we are here to judge, punish or harm another, then perhaps it is time to question where that desire comes from. To me, God is a being of absolute and unconditional love. He beholds us in his love – just as space holds the stars and planets – until we make our choice to return to the beingness of that love ourselves. God does not judge, punish or blame – these things are the creations of men.

234. You have raised some brilliant questions Carmel. They are very much needed because everything we choose can affect our health including our beliefs, religious choices and lifestyle choices. Anything that we choose that is not aligned to truth and love ultimately will be harmful for us and others.

235. Thank you Carmel for sharing, I know what you are talking being brought up in the Catholic faith also. I too have been deeply affected by the lies that I have taken on as truth, but now I have come to know the truth of what true religion really means a loving relation with oneself God and all mankind I am gradually clearing this ugly and self abusive energy from my body and filling those spaces with deep nurturing love for myself and others.

236. “And what is a ‘just cause’?” Great questions Carmel. And that is something very important to do, ask questions and feel for ourselves if what is presented is really the lived way and if the pieces match the puzzle. Not just assume it is ok because it is about God.

237. I love your question Carmel, whether religion (any established religion really) as it is practiced today is a healthy option, because it is not – but I had never considered it this way. I totally agree with you, it is one of the most unhealthy options to choose from and it has created nothing but devastation for humanity.

238. We all innately know God – we know there is a loving and harmonious way of living in brotherhood, naturally so… and hence why we can search for many years trying different ‘religions’ searching outside of ourselves for what is naturally already known within.

     1. That is a great thing to feel and know Paula – that we naturally know what true religion is, who God is and what is loving and what is not.

     2. Absolutely Paula, beautifully said. I feel we certainly do already know who God is and who we are. So when I reconnected to the truth, to a true religion, to God and to love, The Way of The Livingness, I felt so at home and so familiar.

239. Religion has a great deal to answer for over thousands of years… we all know the atrocities fuelled by greed and a loveless way, and yet they continue. After all these years, and clear evidence that shows religion has only created separation and division of people around the globe, what is it about us that allows this to continue?

240. I grew up going to a ‘Church School’ and Sunday school when I was little. None of this assisted with any inspiration who God was or my own relationship with God. All I knew was that it was expected to literally pay lip service in the services.
     Meeting Serge Benhayon and his sharing’s about our own relationship with God is truly inspirational. It’s our loving relationship with ourselves knowing that the divine connection with the grandness of God is with-in. Very worth a sermon with ourselves to re-connect to what we all ready are and have.

241. “This begs the question, is it the religion or the people?” – having been raised catholic myself Carmel, and today living The Way of The Livingness, as a marker between both religions, I’d say the person themselves is what makes the quality of any religion; just studying something under the badge of anything like a specific faith/religion isn’t what does it or makes someone religious. The person does it [i.e. is the religion] by their own guiding principals of lived-love and no harm, qualities supported by the whole body of religion which The Way of The Livingness indeed beholds and instills.

242. Any religion that encourages us to follow blindly is definitely bad for our health. Especially as it is shocking some of the atrocities which are acted out in the name of religion, not only in the past but even today these things are still happening. If you go back to the original foundations of the worlds major religions and none of them were so hateful towards their fellow man, but the unloving acts that have followed are a result of mis-interpretation.

243. We seem to have a big drive toward establishing at least a semblance of equality in society. Granted that a lot of deepening understanding is required to get to the bottom of what true equality actually means. Yet when there are institutions that so glaringly put divides and inequality between people as foundational tenets of what they prescribe, such that ‘we’ the people who follow this religion are ‘superior’ in the eyes of God, I start to question their interpretation of the word of God.

244. “With The Way of The Livingness we are encouraged to question everything and to feel our own wisdom from within our bodies, not blindly believe any dogma, or depend on outside influences for our opinions. We are encouraged to live in a healthy way, looking after our bodies and nurturing ourselves.” The Way of The Livingness presents a way to be that is all encompassing, a way that calls us to greater self responsibility and through the consistency of this way we arrive at our own truth, a daily inward confirmation as to our purpose and the colour of our natural expression.

245. What would it look like if religion brought people together rather than separated humanity out into different categories and groups. The fact that thousands of years into our created version of ‘religion’ we are still seeing wars, violence and severe separation between these groups is a big flag that something might be fundamentally missing in how we approach religion.

246. What I have observed is that to simply mention the word “religion” elicits a reaction in people. So many people have been hurt by so called religion that even when they have long ago left the religion they still carry the hurt of having being in that religion. I used to be one of those people and I did not want to have anything to do with religion. In The Way of The Livingness I have found a true religion, one that says that we are responsible for the quality of energy that we are in, that knows love as a beholding energy and that energetic responsibility and energetic integrity are essential if we are to live a loving life.

247. I was not brought up a Catholic but the Anglican religion taught very similar things about sin and the sinful nature of man. The idea has had a big impact on my life and how I feel about myself. But when I reconnect to how I truly feel inside me I find that our nature is in fact Divine. We may choose to express in a way that does not reflect our innate Divinity and that is free-will – and we might believe that choice to be a sin, error or mistake – but it cannot change our essence and the underlying truth that we are Divine Sons of God and one day will make a different choice to return to that essence in full.

248. I have found that many people who are Catholics are full of guilt and they give their power away to a God that is outside of them. These two points alone show me that this religion is not a true one otherwise this would not be the case.

249. There was a bit on the news this morning about the Pope trying to be more liberal, in making it easier for women to be forgiven for having committed the serious sin of abortion! Is the church still locked into controlling its flock? They are not the healthy options offered at my dinner table.

250. It is almost as if the organised religions of the world have been specifically set up to keep us separate from God. They certainly keep us separate from each other, which is weird considering our natural way is to be in Brotherhood with everyone equally, men, women, and children regardless of location, culture or creed.

251. Living true equality is an immensely precious marker that the Master Jesus brought to humanity, something we have not yet embodied as a race. ‘The Way of the Livingness is a new religion based on ancient principles. It teaches true Brotherhood, that we are all equal, that we do not harm anyone – not for any reason. This religion presents that even judging another could be considered abusive because judgement is not Love.’ So true Carmel – anything that is not Love is actually abusive.

252. Mainstream Religion has resulted in many ill beliefs in society in one way or another which affect us all. That we have shame, guilt and good for a start that is readily accepted and played out in societies behaviour is telling of deep religious influence from one time or another. It is truly freeing to understand what True Religion is (Thank God for Universal Medicine and The Way of The Livingness) for in True Religion, no disempowering, judgemental or unequal thoughts, belief or way can exist.

253. As a child I always felt ‘religion’ to be very confusing, and could not make sense of the way it operated. It had nothing to do with all the things it professed to be – Love, Harmony, Brotherhood, and in fact was entirely the opposite! It was not until I met Serge Benhayon and started to live The Way of The Livingness that religion made any sense, and the immense Love that has brought into my life has changed everything.

254. We all have times when we feel a bit lost, we know something is missing and we’re trying to find our way home. Religion has offered a guiding light, of sorts, however, it’s so important for us to discern where the light is leading us, back to our gorgeous selves, or to another place that it still far away from honouring who we truly are, we no longer feel lost, but what are we really a part of? Is the religion completely transparent, does it feel true. The only religion that I have come across that feels completely true and divinely honouring of who I am is The Way of The Livingness.

255. The stumbling block that I always had with traditional religion, I was raised Anglican, was that someone else was telling me how I should behave and what my relationship with God should look like. I was being asked to conform to a very specific model, which seemed to leave the essence of ME behind. I always felt as though everyone was ‘in’ on the secret, apart from me, as it didn’t make sense to me, it didn’t feel right. Instead I pulled away and did my own thing.

256. Growing up as a gay boy being in a constitutionalised religion that is void of lived gay expression was deeply harmful. It took me 3 decades to heal from the false reflection I got, that gay expression is not normal.

257. We don’t seem to have an education yet, that allows us to truly discern whether something is of love and truth or not. There is an ingrained pattern of giving our power away to an institution that determines what God deems good and bad.

258. The fact that women are not treated with the same rights as men in catholic religion is proof for me that it is not a healthy option.

259. When you place the Catholic Church with its history of slaughter and paedophilia alongside the true good will of The Way of the Livingness it is a no-brainer to choose which religion promotes a healthy and loving way of being. Amazing Carmel, that you have extracted yourself from the grip the Catholic Church and chosen a caring and loving way of living that knows that all are equal Sons of God.

260. I’m aware that religion is something that we can hide behind. As long as we appear to be religious we can be perceived as being ‘good’. However, we all know the amount of corruption that takes place behind the name of the church. The grand scale corruption is simply a reflection of the small scale corruption within our own lives. To be truly religious is to live what we know to be true in our own hearts. If we live in that way there is actually no need to belong to the church at all.

261. “I’m not convinced that the Catholic religion promotes self-worth (7) or even healthy living but, for me, The Way of The Livingness religion of today is definitely a healthy option!” I couldn’t agree more Carmel. To know that true religion is about living a life that truly supports our health and vitality makes so much sense as it embraces everyone and excludes no one.

262. To me, how I see the Catholic church has and is ruling the big part in the world is by not sharing the love of God among people but instead it is only about self gain, practising power over ‘the flock’ and to keep them in the false belief that God is to be feared of and that we are sinners at birth.

263. Wow big subject Carmel. I know that from all the religions I studied love was the essence of all of them so what happened? How did man reinterpret? Do we have agendas and have a need to control through fear? It seems the test of time has shown this to be, in part, a part of it.

264. I love the title of this blog. Who’d have considered so directly the effects of religion affecting ones health? – and not just the easy quip of people slain in religious wars but the everyday effects of guilt and shame, judgement and a lack of joy has on one’s life and ones life’s choices when it comes to caring for ourselves. Are we presented with religion as a loving relationship with God and us being equal and worthy or with a punitive God who we constantly have to appease?

265. ‘I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst. Worst of all was not knowing who I truly was, or how to love and be loved, which led to my engaging in unloving relationships, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, overeating and partying.’ These ills that come from a lack of relationship with ourselves, and therefore God. If you were left feeling this way from being ‘Catholic’, it exposes the quality within the ‘Religion’ that your body shows was clearly not Religious.

266. We really need to talk about religion in the way this blog does. I feel the title “Religion” may cause some to dismiss the abuse and corruption that goes on because “it’s religion”. But saying you are an authority of God, having titles, formal recognition, buildings and uniformed people means very little, as we can see by the history and current pedophilia and corruption within the Catholic Religion. If a person falsely wears a police officer’s uniform and commits crimes but says “I’m a police officer and I have authority to do this” it’s still fraud and a crime. Why is it not the same in religion?

267. As I see and feel it, The Livingness is not an option because it is a reality that is all by itself. To me, to have an option I must be choosing against something else and there are no other choices as a religion, as I understand what the word religion means. True religion is to re-connect or re-turn or re-bind to that aspect of God we have let go of. True religion is love, which is The Way of The Livingness. All other options are at best a man-made substitute.

     1. The Way of The Livingness can be felt as a true religion in every aspect of the word religion. The Livingness as a religion is an all inclusive, non-imposing, non-judgmental, not for profit religion that is about humanity returning to God.

268. This is a great question you ask Carmel ‘Catholic religion today – is it a healthy option?’ My thoughts are that the Catholic religion and our health system have an awful lot in common – the quintessential core ingredient of love is sadly lacking in both.

269. When I read about and talk to friends who have been brought up Catholic I am always so shocked at the extreme beliefs that they have and how that has affected them in so many ways and I appreciate that it was never imposed on me even though parts of it was just because those around me had been brought up that way.

270. When you belong to a religion, whether you realise it or not, you align with the whole lot, not just the bits you like or that ring true, it is the whole thing. And so, you’re supporting all the ‘good’ that it does and also the harm (paediphilia, corruption, killing, etc). This surely must have an effect on a person’s health.

271. I had a very similar conversation this week with a local mechanic Carmel, who it turns out is a descendant of the Huguenot people of France, who were also persecuted for holding a different knowing of ‘God’. His ancestors fled to England and eventually spread through much of the world, including here in Australia. His words: “control the people and you control the money”.
     How much blood has been spilled, to grab for land, money, and apparent ‘power’… How much blood has been spilled when another way was shown – by the Cathars for example – a way that held all as equal, and by virtue of the quality of this being lived in real community, naturally dismantled those walls and means of control that would hold some as ‘more’ (or closer to God) and some as ‘less’… No wonder the violence became so very, intensely brutal. If you can’t control a people and hold them under your dominion, then genocide is the ‘answer’ (simply obliterate their presence)… This can only be the behaviour of those who have long forgotten the love of God that yet resides in their hearts.

     1. It is truly unbelievable that the Catholic church to this day gets away with rape and murder and has never been made accountable for the atrocities that they have committed in the past.

     2. Yes, well shared and I agree too Victoria, that history shows us that religion has always been about controlling the mass of people… But times are changing and people are waking up, having more ability to question and consider beyond the boundaries of imposed ‘rules’ and doctrines.

272. How to keep millions of people believing that they are less than who they truly are – simply preach a doctrine of the ‘miserable sinner’ (who can never remove the stain one is born with) and that there has only ever been ‘one’ who is God’s son.
     That we have bought such diminishing beliefs for so long is a great travesty. That we awaken from them, as you have Carmel, and discover that this is not representative of God’s Love at all, has every bell ringing in Heaven – of that I have no doubt.

273. It doesn’t seem possible that you would be tortured to death for not agreeing with another’s beliefs even though you lived a fully harmless life, not hurting anyone., and yet this has been done in the name of God and the auspices of ‘love’ countless times over. and just when we think it couldn’t possibly happen again in our current so called civilised times – the same rears its ugly head once more.. so how do we get to that state of affairs.. how do we get to have individuals willing to go along with such atrocities.. what is in us that we can allow this to occur when we know it goes against all that is truly love. It comes back to each one of us looking honestly at what we do and how we let ourselves be run, how we are in reaction to the world, or perceived hurt, or in fear, or protection such that we are willing to see what is not true be allowed to continue, so long as we can hold on to our protection or not have our hurt triggered.. wouldn’t it be more freeing to get to the bottom of our own hurts and see that we can not in fact be hurt, that protection only confirms to another they need to protect themselves and perpetuates the loveless cycle we are all so caught in. We can all stay in protection and separation from each other or we can embrace true brotherhood and learn together, how to all return to love once more.

274. To know God is to deeply care for and love ourselves and each other because we know we are all equal sons of God. My religion is my relationship with myself and therefore my relationship with God.

275. I was raised a Presbyterian, and I can say I did not get a true sense of God or self-worth either. I actively rejected the religion around the age 16-17 because it was too painful feeling a sinner all the time despite my best efforts. I’d been reading history and was shocked by the practices of the Catholic Church – buying of penances etc which was so far from the teachings of the Christ Jeshua, someone I had always felt a warmth toward because of his love and wisdom. The crusades & the horrific practices of the Catholic Church and many of the beliefs and dogma made me question how intelligent rational people could subscribe to such nonsense. However the question of God remained a puzzle, because there was a knowing that a purely humanist viewpoint didn’t satisfy … The Way of The Livingness is a religion without dogma that embraces us all equally so.

     1. I feel what you have shared is one of the great evils of religions. As kids we can spot the things that just don’t make sense, like being able to pay to clear a sin or that God lives inside a church, only accessible through a priest. It is great that we can see the falseness of these things but it leaves us in doubt about God, and who/what he is when he is presented in these ways. We can end up wandering many years without a true relationship with God (religion) because of this early doubt and repulsion towards what has been pushed on us as the truth.

276. How can a religion be true if it makes our bodies unhealthy? That doesn’t make any sense. Love and health go together. A religion that fosters true love in relationship – in relationship to oneself, God, others, the environment around us – will then honour the physical body and care for all its needs. People sacrificing their lives or the lives of others is actually anti- true religion. Likewise the encouragement of seeing ourselves as guilty sinners is extremely unhealthy psychologically and physically. Religion is about relationship and true Love which has not one ounce of emotion or belief in it.

277. The idea of sacrificing ourselves for our country, for a religion, or for whatever, seems so perverse or even perverted. We can inspire and heal through living our full love and not through sacrificing to anything – one of the most damaging beliefs that is handed to us by false religion.

278. “Since meeting Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I have learned that who I am is ok, that I am not a sinner, that we are all equal children of God, regardless of our religion or our way of living, and that we can all feel God’s love within us when we live in a way that is healthy, harmonious and loving.” It is sobering to know that so many people who are attached to a religion are living in a way that does not confirm who they are, but actually promotes feelings of guilt if they do not conform to the beliefs that the religion holds.

279. After growing up a Catholic and being completely turned off by religion by the time I left school, The Way of The Livingness has redeveloped my relationship with religion in a truly healthy and loving way.

280. I would not consider myself a catholic or of that religion, however I grew up within a ‘somewhat’ catholic family. I say ‘somewhat’ as we were like part-timer’s as going to church was left to what were deemed special occasions like Christmas, easter or other ‘special days’. It was always a bit of a family joke our part-timer status. Even so, the ingrained beliefs of a right or wrong, never being good enough and guilt are all things I have had to deal with throughout my life. This has shown me that even as a part-timer it was still damaging to my health.

281. The Way of The Livingness is the healthiest thing I have ever done for myself inside and out, mind and body, everything wins.

282. “I was ‘recruited’ by the Catholic religion at birth” This really stopped me in my tracks and made me consider the insidious evil contained in the seed of almost every religion – spreading everywhere like a noxious weed that is extremely difficult to eradicate.

283. Such an interesting title to this blog. We’re used to considering whether smoking or eating dairy is a healthy option, but something intangible, like religion? Given the impacts Carmel describes (and no doubt many of us resonate with) it is well worth considering the impacts of our mainstream religions on our bodies which, at the end of the day, reveal the story of how we have lived, what we have embraced and the choices we’ve made.

284. I am often in contact with people who are heavily involved witht the Catholic church and there is no responsibility whatsoever in the way they look after their bodies- it all seems very mental, they eat and drink the foods that are harming to their health, they live in constant reaction to the world and judging others and seldom in connection to their own bodies in order to truly know God. The Way of The Liivingness allows me to know God every moment I choose to live in connection to who I am.

285. The Way of The Livingness promotes true health and wellbeing for all people equally in simple accessible and universally applicable way. Now that’s a religion I’m positive God has a hand in.

286. If we trace back the true meaning of religion, as Serge Benhayon has done, we can see that this union of us with God and everyone, is so far from what we have grown up thinking religion to be. If this term has gone so far off track, so out of whack, is it really the only one? Or are we living and discussing life with terms whose meaning has been substantially changed. No wonder we then get ill Carmel when we say love and this ends in war, we say brother and it results in enemy. It seems to me it is high time we revisited the true essence of words and life and what it all means.

287. When you consider that religion has been behind every world war, it makes sense to reflect on our relationship with religion and if we like feeling exclusive or better than others in any way.

288. “I never learned who or what God truly was/is” – it’s amazing to feel the love within my body and how I’m actually held all day in the Love of God. But that this relationship, this religion is only tangible when I choose to connect to it. Because the moment that I choose to disconnect from it, I lose the connection. To me this is true religion. A religion that leaves it up to me to choose. True love, a holding love – rather than a force telling me what to do or not do.

289. Wonderful expose of catholicism Carmel. What stood out to me was this sentence ‘I was not brought up with a truly loving God and I was not brought up to care deeply for myself.’ The Catholic religion certainly does not ask us to deeply care for ourselves. This can be exposed easily by its offering of cold, draughty churches and hard wooden pews to sit on. Where is the care there?

290. The number of religions today that claims to be in support of brotherly love and do things in God’s name have deviated just a wee bit over the years from the truth. Do as I say and not as I do, fits a fair few! The Way of the Livingness not only walks the talk but lives it every day, not one special day of the week. Somewhere in that first book ever printed, the words ‘the truth will set you free’ still ring true.

291. “Even though I made a choice to leave the religion when I was 18 because of the indoctrination I experienced, it has affected me all of my life.” I think we are still to see the influence modern day religion has (had) on people, how they feel about themselves and life and how they are living because of that. Thank you for starting the conversation Carmel.

292. ‘I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst.’ Our religious organisations have a lot to answer for. Unfortunately all of this is reinforced within the education system too, so it really is no wonder why so many, if not all of us, struggle with our internal relationships with self, which explains why it is hard to get a handle on it all. Like a catch 22 add in the factor that in this emptiness so many of us need these systems and align to them despite the fact that they contribute to our sense of isolation in the first place, and we have the perfect set up that prevents us from connecting to who we truly are or expressing this in full.

293. With losing our faith in church – which is totally understandable and has good reasons – we tent to give up on religion as well or searching a spiritual connection to a modern guru or new age idea. Whereby our true religion is waiting for us to be discovered again: our natural connection to God, our divinity. Life makes no sense without religion. To give up on it leave us lost. So religion is not just one aspect in life to make sense but the one thing that is in every aspect of life the foundation and key. Where we are coming from and go to, who we truly are, gives everything the true meaning. Without this connection and understanding we can’t understand life or evolve. All progress without religion is empty and does at the end just spin around. There is no true development/evolving without religion. OK, we are disappointed by the current ‘religions’ – but to shy away from religion in general does not make sense or make life any better. What is needed is a true expression on religion again and for me The Way of The Livingness is such an expression.

294. Your article Carmel exposes the dangerous assumption humanity has of deciding who is worthy of God’s Love and who is worthy of conversing with the Almighty. Every single person on this Earth regardless of our gender, the colour of our skin and even regardless of our religious beliefs has a direct connection to God within us and can if we wish live from this connection everyday. The evidence of this connection is the reflected in the quality of our behaviour. Connection to God reflects stillness and compassion, commitment to life, harmonious relationships and caring communities, heavenly qualities that can be tangibly felt and inspire everyone to re-align to our Divine power. To behave in any other way simply exposes the fact that we have aligned to another energy that might attempt to mascaraed as Religion but in truth is in direct opposition to the immense wisdom and all encompassing Love of God.

295. You’re quite right, Carmel. In my various experiences of organised religion, I too never felt encouraged or supported to deeply care for myself. The Way of The Livingness has shown me how the loving quality in which I live and breathe is carried with me throughout the day to everyone I meet. It is at this level of responsibility that the true principles of religion are founded.

296. And once it is felt in my body then I can’t un-know it. This is a true religion.

297. Although my family was not religious in any way, the school I went to and what I learnt from the world around me was that God was a figure outside of us, someone that we had to do the right thing by and a figure that by all accounts was watching our every move to make sure we did the right thing otherwise there would be some sort of punishment. I was very sceptical about this story although as a child it played out in the back of my mind but it didn’t add up. I had a knowing of God, I had a connection with God and what I was being told didn’t match what I knew. I rebelled against religion said I was an atheist and went down a spiritual path which took me further away from my truth. When I came across Serge Benhayon, I already knew the spiritual path was not it and when I heard him speak on religion I was so relieved as at last I was listening to a man that made sense. It all added end up. The Way of The Livingness felt true as all my questions could finally be answered.

298. We cannot but be religious even when we think or choose to not be, but we can choose what our religion is, ie our relationship with everything and hence we should choose wisely as what we choose consciously or unconsciously is what makes us who we are determined by the consciousness and energy we align to. The history of the Catholic religion clearly shows what consciousness is running this so-called religion that is far from the livingness of its original teachings.

299. The strangest thing about this blog is that after well over 2000 years, this religion is not able to provide you with a relationship with God. For a religion that is a pretty big problem!

300. If we consider the billions of people world wide committed to one religion or another and yet we know the majority of people is plagued with illness and disease, something clearly is wrong. The Way of The Livingness, and true religion places healing and well-being of members at its heart and offers support that goes far beyond anything I have experienced in traditional church settings.

301. It is very revealing that there is often no true love and care within some religious groups, the only group I know where their exists true love and care is “The Way of the Livingness”

302. This is a very succinct and powerful summary of the disharmony and devastation caused by religion throughout our history. I know one day we will move beyond the division created by our separate religions and the exposure of the impact of this divisive-ness is welcome.

303. It is understandable that the institutionalised religions do touch us very deep. As we are all religious beings we naturally connect to that higher aspect of us, the aspect that is connected with a grander whole, the same aspect that is being appealed to by the institutionalised religions that do not contain the whole truth but only snippets of truth, and with that do leave us with self doubt, lack of selfworth and in questioning of who we truly are and the reason of our existence here on earth.

304. “I’m not convinced that the Catholic religion promotes self-worth (7) or even healthy living but, for me, The Way of The Livingness religion of today is definitely a healthy option!” As a former Catholic who renounced being part of the religion at the age of 15 I can relate to everything you share Carmel…for me The Way of The Livingness is the healthy option! Equality, love and understanding is the only way to go!

305. “Catholic Religion Today – is it a Healthy Option?”, if we want to know the answer to that question then we need to ask the body, the body will always give us an honest answer based on how it is feeling.

306. It’s a very interesting question that you pose Carmel “Catholic Religion Today – is it a Healthy Option” and one that often is probably not considered as we are part of a religion because we have been brought up with those beliefs without questioning it perhaps until later in life. I was brought up a Catholic and by the time I left school I was very disarrayed with Catholicism as so much of what was taught just didn’t make sense. One of the hardest things that has taken to shift from my years of being in the Church and I still feel it in my body is guilt. Definitely not a healthy option.

     1. Correct the guilt of being born and having to be baptised before you become full of sin, crazy. The guilt of being a sinner and imperfect and the guilt that god had to send his only son to clear our sins and yet we keep sinning! Such an incredible set up. So good to see it clearly for the loveless institution it is.

307. It seems that the most healthy and loving religion is the one that supports a re-turn and re-connection back to our body, a body of love that is forever developing and deepening through the practice of self care and self love.

308. The key to understanding all religion is not via the application of reason alone, nor by the dogma of faith, but by the application of energetic discernment. Ponder, contemplate, consider. In other words, by all means reason, but do not ignore what you feel, for ultimately it is that ability to discern life energetically that will be your true salvation.

309. I totally agree Carmel that The Way of The Livingness is out of all the different paths that I have tried, the one and only one that calls me to be accountable for my own health, my body and my own relationship with God. To be able to see that there is no one special or the chosen one but rather an absolute equalness. It is our relationship with God that will be the level of connection that I have with myself and all others.

310. I’ve not been raised with God or been shared with who or what God is. Now I’ve opened up to re-connect again with God. This feels very joyous, yet also something fragile and somewhat vulnerable. It’s important for me to feel that I’m holding a Divine part within me. And after doing everything to sabotage it, I’m now ready to let it out and share my essence and love with the world. Completely different than giving in (= up) to institutionalised religion. True power doesn’t need any need or belief, it just is a movement within every body. Of course that needs time and Will to flow again, but God’s providing us with everything that we actually need. It’s up to us to seek and choose truth over any form of bastardised truth.

311. This is a very simple clear sharing on Religion Carmel, and it all makes sense. True religion is one of love and equality of us all therefore all the wars, suffering, fighting and dogmas cannot be part of this and must belong to a bastardised form, and this is simply not true. Living from our essence of who we are is the only truly healthy option that I have seen in the world, allowing our amazingness to be reflected and inspiring humanity to live this also. The Way of the Livingness also holds the answer to all illness, disease and simply is healthy living and true medicine also..

312. ‘Is it healthy to be in a religion today? Or can being in a religion seriously damage our health?’ What a great opening question Carmel! In the past I cannot imagine that many have asked this question because the need for security and comfort has been so pre-dominant and encompassing that to ask such a question is beyond the realm of what the ‘comfort’ illusion will allow. This blog explores this so beautifully. Thank you!

313. From my observations most people follow their religions like a 1 day per week diet eg church on Sunday, and then go back to their ‘normal’ daily diet for the following 6 days. Whereas The Way of the Livingness is about embodying our natural essence of love and our connection to God so that it becomes a part of how we live 24/7.

314. A few years ago I was required to escort a lady that I was part of the care team for to the local roman catholic church for Sunday mass – I can’t remember how long the service was but it seemed like forever – I could not believe how cold the cathedral was, zero love and care in requiring people to sit in such conditions.

     1. I have noticed this too Michael. Going to church always felt like seeking approval e.g. maybe today I will be approved of and I will be forgiven for the sins I have committed!!! Crazy and controlling, now I reflect on it.

     2. Michael a really interesting point you raise here, as that was my experience as well. Perhaps a bit of bad childhood nightmares coming back but the cold benches combined with the fact I had to indoctrinate myself into being a sinner, guilty of evil and was bad certainly didn’t do anything for how I valued or cared for myself. If this was a healthy option the feeling would have been full of warmth, a lightness and a true unity.

315. Great sharing Carmel, there is evidence every where we look in our history and todays society, that following a religion that is not based on love and equality for all is detrimental to one’s health. If there is no self love and care involved there can be no true health or true religion.

316. To be raised in a religious family which included boarding school for you Carmel and to come out the other end in fear and feeling sinful and guilty says it all really. Who were these people that raised us? They were others who had been caught in the web of separation from the love and light we all inherently are. Religion has been and still is a very effective distraction from feeling our own inner divine light at allowing it to guide our way.

317. “Throughout the centuries, all over the world, thousands have been and are still being killed in the name of God – why?” – if one person is killed in the name of God then that is that person’s interpretation of God. I’ve always questioned how can there be so many variations of God across the various religions, it just didn’t ever make any sense with me and hence I rejected religion. For us to live on this planet with all that nature provides us with speaks volumes of a loving God, not a God that would support the killing of another because of their beliefs, skin colour, gender, etc.

318. It is funny that you ask this question when health is something I have never heard in relation to a sermon given on a Sunday at any church. There has never, in all my experience of Christianity, ever been someone asking how I am living in my day to day – am I truly healthy? This has only occurred in recent years for me when I met Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, whereby true health and wellbeing is religion, is science and is philosophy. There is no agenda only the truth that is The Way of The Livingness.

     1. Gosh..this is such a great comment Lee…you are so right…never, ever have I heard any words about health, self-care or how we are living delivered from a pulpit. And yet, if God is inside of us, then surely an organisation that professes to be all about finding God, would encourage a loving, nurturing relationship with self? The wooden pews and freezing cold churches might be a bit of a giveaway!!

319. Carmel, it is clear from what you have shared and from my experience that The Way of The Livingness is very different to other religions, there are no rules and dogma, it empowers people to know that we are all equal sons of God rather than the many other religions that teach that there is a God who is outside of us and that we are lesser to this God. The Way of The Livingness is a very beautiful religion that makes a sense and feels very loving and true from my experience.

320. The Way of The Livingness is the only religion I have ever know that doesn’t make you feel in anyway different, guilty, fearful, benevolent or good, it simply is a relationship with all of life.

321. So strongly has the Catholic religion held sway over the masses for it’s own control and manipulation, that expression of our natural light has been threatened, blackmailed and silenced, to the detriment of our naturally joyful way and the evolution of humanity in brotherhood.

322. As far as I am concerned, the catholic faith is very far removed from any sense of self-worth; believers are expected to hold themselves as vastly lesser beings in the face of an almighty God who is very far removed and metes out punishments and rewards – hardly an all-loving God at all. How come, when God is love?

323. This is a really interesting blog. Things like guilt, judgement, feeling unworthy, hatred and isolation or separation are not just unhealthy they are currently in epidemic form worldwide and are actually killing us. There are many medicines that innoculate against those ‘dis-eases’, such as, understanding, acceptance, inclusiveness,self worth, harmony, equalness, laughter, joy, to name but a few, and the most powerful of all, love.

324. Carmel another point your article raises for all readers is that what we “believe in” or “take part in” or “are a member of” actually affects our health and the way we interact with all others. Lifestyle and health is no longer simply about food and diet but this shows its about everything.

325. A deeply powerful and honest blog Carmel, thank you for laying it out as it is. I agree with you, The Way of The Livingness is definitely a healthy option.

326. ‘…we are all equal children of God,’ lovely reminder. I felt the truth of this the other day and it brought tears to my eyes to feel how loved I am. I have tried to control and rule my world with horrible effects on my relationships with others, my health and the relationship with myself and with God. Feeling and surrendering to the world and myself just being feels both humbling and innocent. It requires no extraneous effort or drive or mental planning of every eventuality of just in case which is exhausting. It’s allowing myself to simply be and accept how I’ve lived up to this point.

327. This is an interesting breakdown of religion, what we’ve translated that word to mean and how the ‘main teachings’ of certain religions (e.g. that God is all loving) have not been expressed or reflected through their actions in recent or past years.

328. There has been much written, voiced and exposed about the Catholic Church and my feeling is that we are only just scratching the surface. However, Carmel you have taken the debate to another level by relating it to the issue of our actual physical health. The damage that the Catholic Church has done over the ages is often beyond my comprehension and when you then factor in the plethora of personal stories out there that would be very similar to yours, one begins to deeply understand the abject need that humanity has for the one unified truth. Enter Universal Medicine that offers us ALL (utterly irrespective of race, colour or creed) a path back to the true God that is, and always has been, inside of us all.

329. I cannot truly say that the Catholic Religion is a ‘Healthy Option’ for anyone in this day and age! The fact that there is so much untruth in the teachings including; we are sinners and unworthy to be called His equal Sons.

330. “To cap it all, I never learned who or what God truly was/is.” Which is so crazy because in fact there is nothing to learn, there is nothing for these religions to teach us in that we all know God innately already. So here is an organisation called a re-ligion (meaning return to God/Light) that is actually doing exactly the opposite to what it professes to do. Even if you ignored all the other gross atrocities that have occurred under it’s watch, that fact alone would be enough to get any other organisation investigated, challenged and closed down.

331. “With The Way of The Livingness we are encouraged to question everything and to feel our own wisdom from within our bodies, not blindly believe any dogma, or depend on outside influences for our opinions.”
     This is a crucial point that we are not dependent on the outside but are able to feel what is true through The Way of The Livingness. This allows such a freedom in the body.

332. “With Universal Medicine we are encouraged to learn and evolve as one brotherhood, with each of us serving our fellow man in a self-loving way, not a self-sacrificing one.” This to me is true religion one that brings everyone together and doesn’t segregate or separate. It feels so natural and free from any dogma that so many religions like the Catholic Church keep you under.

333. ‘I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst’ – any religion that promotes humanity to live like this, will only serve to live in separation from each other.

334. I have to say that no religion is a healthy option if it promotes separation in any way.

335. I was raised in two very different families both Christian in faith: one Methodist, the other fundamentalist and evangelical. From child to adulthood, I participated in church services and family prayers and discussions about God and religion, but never connected to either. I remember trying to get ‘it’, hearing words yet not finding truth, questioning, but not getting answers that made sense to me. I went in search of something, not knowing what that something was, until I found a ‘true religion’. Universal Medicine brought the truth of religion home to me and for the first time I understood and connected to the ageless wisdom shared. We are all living reflections of the one God. Religion is lived not done or preached about and flows from a loving heart equal in its expression to every other human being.

336. You said it all in saying ‘the Catholic version of God’ for that is exactly what it is .. a version and not the truth. And a very ill version at that! How many of us have carried or held ill beliefs either from this life or past lives that we are not enough, a sinner, wrong, guilty, lesser than others including being lesser than God? It is completely insidious. Thank Goodness for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine who present the absolute truth to humanity breaking the veils of illusion. Evil is not our natural way. The Way of the Livingness is an ancient wisdom teaching and reminding us that how we live in every moment, if choosing true love, is the path of return to the divine love, joy, stillness, harmony and truth that lies innately within every single one of us as in truth we are all one.

337. Any religion, practised for decades, that leaves you to carry and express hurts and never shows you how to love and care for yourself is not a true religion.

338. The words Religion and Health are not often put together in one sentence and until meeting Universal Medicine I would not have brought the two together either. However in my experience now, true religion automatically includes health, well-being and self worth as an important part of our daily religious practice. Taking care of self establishes a strong platform from which we can support others.

339. When we talk about religion we first have to understand the true meaning of the word because it has been so bastardised. Religion is not what the major religions of the world say it is. Religion is something that lives within us, a knowing that we belong to something grander and that we can easily re-connect to.

340. Carmel thank you so much for being so honest and sharing your deeper insight about religion. You wrote: “My experience has been that the Catholic religion affected me at a very deep level.” That was my experience too I was trapped in Catholicism without being aware of it. Not before I met Serge Benhayon I broke these deeply ingrained images e.g. being a sinner. Can you imagine that each movement I did in the past was based on being a sinner. Therefore every action I did was based on being a sinner – my whole life was based on being a sinner. Now since I am nearly free of these ingrained images my life is completely different as I can feel so much more stillness and love inside of me. Imagine how my body moves now and how my life looks like now . . .

341. Re-ligion is returning to the love we have always been. Could we say most religions put conditions on us and try to funnel our love, how they want us to express something that will always be ours! The Way of The Livingness is a celebration of the love that is within us all and by expressing it shows we are all the same but different.

342. Many might say religion has nothing to do with health, but when considering the scenarios you present, I can see that is a limited view. Religion has harmed many people with its dogma, rules and beliefs, to the point where many have turned away from religion. Enter The Way of The Livingness and a totally new way is on offer. A religion that empowers any and every person to live from their essence knowing we are all equal sons of God.

343. A healthy religious option is to be fully empowered, to live in a way where religion is not about seeking a God outside of ourselves, nor about a building, a priest or Pope. It is about living in a way where we know that we are all equally the Sons of God and we are living within his body, we are not separate from Him. The Way of The Livingness provides me with this healthy option, it is a true religion, it is my religion, it is The Way.

344. Carmel this has been very eye-opening to read. Could many religious followers be reacting to the deep hurt and sadness and not wanting to feel that what they have been fed and chosen for years or even lifetimes has been empty and loveless, so they take it out and make it about other groups? Any religion that does not encourage looking and feeling within for the truth and being discerning, that makes you feel less than or even better than others, that asks you to follow a set of rules, ideals and beliefs is not a healthy option.

345. Where there is a true understanding of God and the living of love there can be no guilt, no judgement, no feeling unworthy, no hatred, no separation. Those things are just plain unhealthy for all concerned.

346. It feels like a lot of religions are about ‘control’, re-assuring people that they are on the road to a higher existence as long as they do x, y and z and, of course, give generously to the religious house that is there to ‘look after them’. They do not seem to come from the premise that we are already everything we need to be and that this life is about learning how to live this in full, no holding back. The only exception I have found is The Way of The Livingness, a religion that is all about confirming who we already are, inspiring us to live the truth that we feel inside, knowing that we are all a part of something so much grander. To live in unity, supporting each other so that every single person on this earth can feel their own divinity, that they are a part of this whole, equally so.

347. If a religion is pro-porting to be about love and truth, about treating others as we would like to be treated ourselves, yet behind the scenes it is ‘looking after’ some of its teachers, those who are supposedly setting an example for all to follow, after they have appeared to commit the most vile and heinous crimes against children, It cannot be considered to be in anyway healthy when there is a complete contrast between what is said, what is being taught and how some of the ‘teachers’ of that religion are behaving. When its leaders choose to turn a blind eye – they become tarred with the same brush. It’s not what we say that affects others the most, it is how we act and the quality that we bring to all that we do.

348. ‘To cap it all, I never learned who or what God truly was/is’. ‘Cap’ is such a good word Carmel to describe what most religions do to their followers and which the followers say ‘yes’ to. Ever noticed that many religions have their high officials wearing special little caps on their heads? The irony is very clear! They are exactly symbolizing in their dress/ costume/uniform the imitation they have consented to, by caping the crown (connection to God).

349. “I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst.” This is not a great advert for an institution that is supposed to be about loving and caring for others. In fact its a shocking reality that this is how so many people feel about themselves who are totally committed to not only Catholicism, but all sorts of other religions.

350. No one can tell us what to do. We’re the ones to commit to ourselves. In everything. Instead of listening to the outside world, where there are a lot of books that tell us what to do or what not to do. But the simple fact is that our first religion (relationship) is with ourselves. It is up to us to surrender and commit to that relationship, to that connection within. Institutionalised religion has become as powerful and big because we’ve chosen to align to it, rather than exposing it for the evil it contains and the lies it spreads. As everywhere, there are many genuine good people that have chosen an institutionalised religion, so there’s nothing wrong as such. What it means that we’re to discern / feel whether what people share and live makes sense to ourselves. Is it truly love or not. But if we don’t live it ourselves, we’re not able to distinquish between the two. And in this we get lost.

351. I have been adamant since I was 18 that I am not religious, never specified if I believed in God or not, because I really didn’t know, and hearing about The Way of The Livingness for the first time as a religion a few years ago caused me a little unrest, but now I fully claim it as my religion, because it all makes so much sense and it inspires the way I live. Today, filling in a medical form, there was space where I could write my Religion, so I wrote ‘The Way of The Livingness’ and that felt good. When further down the form I was asked if there were any aspects of my religion they needed to know about, I said ‘It is very gentle and non-imposing and works well with conventional medicine.’

352. Beautifully expressed Carmel… In fact I was so intrigued by this article that I didn’t scroll down immediately to see who wrote it, but rather read it in full and there was delightfully surprised to see your name as the author… It was also interesting and extremely relevant to read this today because just recently due to my choice of connecting with a religion that I feel is absolutely true and just brings decency and the essence of love and the connection with the divinity or God that is basically within us all, I was rejected from teaching in a certain institution… Purely because of my choice of religion. And I was contemplating… ( In the bath as one does ☺) if it was fully understood the depth of the depravity of the catholic institution if anyone who was associated with this awful organization was refused work… Where would we be?

353. Can religion damage our health? Great question. I’d say yes it can as many religious beliefs keep people in fear and judgement of what might happen if they are not ‘good’. But the good is based on a perception of what ‘good’ is and not necessarily based on a truth. Walking around with a conscious or unconscious fear running through our body is definitely going to damage our health.

354. As I read this can feel how ingrained I’ve been in the ideal of self sacrifice- and this is without a formal religious upbringing. This goes to show how these religious beliefs are cemented in our society – I see it in education and teaching of right and wrong. But without love as impulsing how we behave, our society for all its good intentions, will be loveless.

355. ‘I was ‘recruited’ by the Catholic religion at birth…’ – this is such a powerful statement Carmel and really pulled me up when I read it. The majority of the earth’s population have been recruited from birth and never questioned what they have really signed away by being involved in these ‘traditional’ man made religions. How many choose to leave their religion of birth and open to question what life is really all about and to re-connect to who they really are? It is enlightening to ask the question – What are we religious about and to begin to pull these apart and expose what this involvement is keeping us separated from.

356. Religion still has a firm grip on humanity, it is based on control. Making us feel unequal and it is still exposing to us the false image we fall for for thousands of years.. It hasn’t changed.

357. Carmel this is key ‘With Universal Medicine we are encouraged to learn and evolve as one brotherhood, with each of us serving our fellow man in a self-loving way, not a self-sacrificing one’. So many religions have a kind of painful,self sacrificing theme running through them. Fasting, pilgrimages, for-going comfort, giving to others before self, existing on less etc all simply increase the amount of self harm that we are living with and in doing so, prevents the very thing that will return us to God, self love.

358. Your last point is such a good point Carmel. What is the healthy option? If a religion makes you feel dis-empowered or full of guilt that is not healthy.

359. How is it that religions get away with killing so many people over thousands of years and yet the man in the street goes straight to jail for killing one person.

360. The words ‘sin’ and ‘sinner’ should be completely scrubbed from every single language that we have on Earth. They are harmful words, in that their meaning holds power over people by suggesting that in the eyes of God there can be wrong, which is simply not true as the concept of right and wrong is a fabricated concept that has been constructed out of energy that does not come from God. When God looks out, he sees only love and there’s no-thing that he does not see.

361. Great questions to contemplate Carmel… if God is all loving then no singular person can be any more or any less than another in Gods eyes – we are all equal.

362. Most religions hold love as nothing more than a concept, The Way of The Livingness has love as an embodied state, which, when you consider that God is in fact love, is pretty incredible.

363. I was not brought up Catholic but it was around me from others who were and it seemed like a thick oil slick that had damaged those I knew in some way. They had tried to wash away the oil but part of it stayed and stained them for most if not all of their lives. They carried ideals and beliefs that were so stuck to them that they didn’t even realise they were carrying them.

364. Carmel what you share about religion causing you to ‘not know who you truly were’ is one of the most evil aspects of all of the false religions that purport to be true religion. That something can be disguised as bringing people to the truth of life and yet contain barbs that actually prevent people from accessing the truth of who they are, is vile beyond belief.

365. “Throughout the centuries, all over the world, thousands have been and are still being killed in the name of God – why?”. God is Love, so what has been done in the name of God, shows how far away they are from knowing God because you cannot kill someone in the name of Love.

366. I too grew up within the Catholic Church and what I know from that experience is that our own wellbeing never came into anything. As I think back as a child I used to love going to church, not for the church but for seeing my friends and hanging out with my Dad. So really it was all about people. But as I grew older I couldn’t feel that what was being presented at mass was about people and truly accepting and understanding people, I have to say that it was more about control. I was recently in a mass (which I haven’t been to for a long time) and I could feel how pious everyone was when in the church and then how they were more themselves outside afterwards. Interesting to observe.

367. “With The Way of The Livingness we are encouraged to question everything and to feel our own wisdom from within our bodies, not blindly believe any dogma, or depend on outside influences for our opinions. We are encouraged to live in a healthy way, looking after our bodies and nurturing ourselves.” – Carmel, I could not agree more, The Way of The Livingness does ask us to be more responsible on all levels, including the health of our body, mind and spirit as well as soul.

368. As politically incorrect as this may sound…we have been tricked by the religions of the world as they currently stand and have stood throughout the ages in the sense we have been sold a false version of who God is and with that who we are also. Re-ligion simply means re-turning to the love we already are and re-learning how to live this in full once more. Therefore, any religion that does not let us know this in full along with the truth we are all the equal Sons of God on this journey together and that our spirit is the aspect of ourselves that separated from the love and light of our Soul, is not a true religion at all but merely an illusion set up to entrench us further on our wayward path away from our innate divinity and not back to it. No one is corrupt in essence, but we can be manipulated, coerced and polluted by any belief that does not hold true to the love that we each in essence are and remain regardless of the ill way we may choose to move.

     What you are presenting for us here Carmel is fundamental if we are to arrest such waywardness and war in the world. Rather than continue to follow blindly that which we have been born into, we need to look very astutely at what it is exactly we are being fed and ask ourselves, does all this truly nourish us or does it impose on us? Is it love or is it not? Only then will we be able to discern what is true in the sea of lies in which we otherwise sink/swim.

369. Carmel, such as simple message about true religion: “Since meeting Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I have learned that who I am is ok, that I am not a sinner, that we are all equal children of God, regardless of our religion or our way of living, and that we can all feel God’s love within us when we live in a way that is healthy, harmonious and loving.”

     1. True responsibility in all aspects of life is indeed a real game changer.

370. The Way of The Livingness is a true religion and I find it very healing to be part of this. A religions that allows you to make loving choices for yourself, addresses many issues in the world and is truly non-judgemental of anyone else – only truthful.

371. The atrocities you mention are so very real and the fact that they are carried out in the name of religion should be a constant awareness to us all every day, so at some point there is a foundational ground swell of people saying enough it has to stop.

372. When we realise that living emotionally, not being honest with how we feel and not loving all in equal light actually has a lot to do with causing illness and disease, it will be obvious that institutionalised religion is indeed a very unhealthy choice.

373. There is much to consider about religion and what it means. Perhaps it is time to consider what it is we would like it to mean, my experience of religion has been that of having to be grateful, never being enough and being in sin. If we live any religion from a basis of being in sin then we are on the back foot and not able to accept ourselves and be loving in how we act. Religion can’t be about following others, I believe being truly religious means we choose our own script with no dogma and that to consider others equally is of utmost importance.

374. If the Catholic church were to be for the wellbeing of all or even those who follow it, why does it still hold so many secrets that are not for everyone but only for a few? What is it that it does not want others to know?

375. ‘Worst of all was not knowing who I truly was, or how to love and be loved, which led to my engaging in unloving relationships, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, overeating and partying.’ A sad indictment that we have so accepted dogma and organised religion as our way of being that this is the norm. In essence we are love and are amazing and yet we grow up so reduced because of what we have been fed. We choose to disconnect from this and have to learn the hard way. I am so grateful for what I have learned though Universal Medicine, learning to get to know myself again, accepting the loveliness that is there and appreciating it so much.

376. Thanks Carmel for sharing your experience so freshly, in what is a sensitive area for many. Far from being ‘good for your health’ if we look back we would have to see the Catholic church has been associated with some of the darkest atrocities in human history. The interesting question to ponder is do these past events just dissolve? Do we move forward with a brand new slate? or does all our foul play come with us every day, until it is honestly addressed? If this is the case (and it is) then just what is it we buy into when we sign up and embrace the Catholic church? and in a bigger context how would it feel to bring this energetic integrity to our own life? For it surely applies everywhere.

377. What a rich blog. It’s quite incredible to me that institutionalised religions have so much influence on our modern society. It’s understandable as this is passed on generation after generation. We’re so much more than any book from institutionalised religion is telling us. When we start taking care of us and build a body that we would love to live in, how different would we experience life? Could it be that we would relate to life very differently? There’s more that meets the eye.

378. I was very much drawn to not actually Catholic religion but Jesus when I was around 9 years old and having my preparation for the sacrament of holy communion, but nothing that was presented, not the so-called faithful parishioners including the priest who was teaching us lived what was talked about, it made no sense to the point that it was far from the love and grace that I simply knew to be true and in line with the way Jesus had lived. The lived reality nor the distorted images of God and a devoted life in Catholic religion match the truth earthed by Jesus and his family, therefore leading us astray from what it is all about.

379. Religion became a tool of control for the few over the many – which still stands today.

     1. So true Michael… a tool of control and a pathway for greed.

380. The Way of The Livingness is definitely reflecting the true religion, you cannot deny it when you are able to experience it for your self. There are many religions with great truth but also lots of corruption and most have no true self worth at all.

381. All religions impose a dogma, and a set of teachings, but it actually comes with a whole way of living. Adopting the christian beliefs, or Hindu beliefs now means that the way we relate to life changes, but on reflection I can see that before we were any religion we were naturally full and joy-full.

382. The life long effects of the ideals and beliefs, not just of religion but of other aspects of life, that we’ve taken on and internalise as part of who we are can be far reaching – we often begin to see them as a part of who we are and identify with them, when it truth they are like a sticker we have put on our jumper – not who we are but something we carry with us and think is a part of us. Although I have not been a part of main stream religion in my lifetime, for me an example would be loyalty – the idea and belief of absolute loyalty to one person or one thing/group above and beyond all else is so strong in me that I erroneously thought for many years it was an aspect of who I am and even now, although I can see that it is simply something I have so identified with that it has amalgamated into my view of myself, it can feel hard to extricate and change. This is what I love about The Way of The Livingness, for it has supported me to know who I really am, beyond all the ideals I have carried with me in life and therefore supports me to let them go.

383. Awesome discussion starter, Carmel 🙂 I find it strange that institutionalised religions, no matter their flavour, all hold one person as a Saviour and / or exclusive Son of God or beheld in ‘special’ terms by their God. Only The Way of The Livingness postulates an absolute equality for All. On this foundation, there is no conflict possible since all are equal in Love. Other religions, founded on a fundamental inequality, invite in conflict from the start because who among us truly wants to be held as lesser in the eyes of God?

384. In shunning religion, through its gross misinterpretation and bastardisation, we actually shun ourselves. For true religion is simply connection, connection to who we truly are and hence from where we come from and everything we are interconnected to. To dismiss this deep reverence is to reduce who we are to 3 dimensional functional beings. It’s a very sad state to accept.

385. I grew up with Catholicism the religion of my whole family, my school and my further education when I was a teenager. This religion has never gave me the idea I was an equal son of God. God was something/someone outside of myself and I never could truly connect to the love I felt I was. Since I am a student of The Way of The Livingness I have felt just like you Carmel the enormous influence Catholicism and other religions had and has on us and life in general. The Way of The Livingness is a true religion, bringing equality, love and responsibility back in our lives, in other words we are claiming back our living connection with God through our bodies.

386. The Way of The Livingness allows us to understand that we are not our ill actions but through our unresolved hurts and emptiness we let in that which is not from soul.

387. It is very healing to explore the detail of exactly what we are placing our faith in.

388. “The Way of The Livingness is a new religion based on ancient principles. It teaches true Brotherhood, that we are all equal” – and once we hold this as a lived fact that actually is embodied, then we can begin to make some real foundations upon which to stand upon as a society and humanity. Thank you Carmel for sharing this!

389. True religion is an aliveness that is forever renewing itself.

390. Carmel, when you explain how your religious up bringing affected you “I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst. Worst of all was not knowing who I truly was, or how to love and be loved, which led to my engaging in unloving relationships, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, overeating and partying” It is clear how our beliefs and ideals affect the way we think and feel and therefore the choices we make in life – healthy or unhealthy ones.

391. Interesting how babies are, as you say Carmel, ‘recruited’ into a religion such as the Catholic Church at birth and are brought up to believe that their way is the way. Some people never question it, and others, walk away from any notion of God and religion because of the untruth they feel within that religion. Serge Benhayon has presented what true religion is and it is very simple and lived through The Way of The Livingness religion.

392. Hello Carmel, your detailed article nominating the hypocrisy of many religions is very much welcome and appreciated, how lucky are we to have made contact with Serge Benhayon?

393. It is quite possible to receive and express love around the Catholic church. It just may be a little hard at times.

394. I really like the question you are posing here Carmel, you are asking the reader to link health and their relationship with religion. This is not that common a question, usually we link our spirituality and or mood to a religion but never our health. I know that I am the healthiest I have been since discovering The Way of The Livingness.

395. The Way of The Livingness is a true religion it is my religion. It is as the name suggests a way of living that makes it a religion (religion meaning connection and union with God) and this comes about from the way we treat ourselves, to how we move, to how we interact with others. It is a religion that does not ask us to look for God outside of ourselves, it has no place of worship and no confessionals. It can be accessed anywhere at anytime when we choose to live from our inner-heart.

396. Carmel thank you for an interesting and informative read from your experience of the Catholic Church. The hold and life affecting influence it has had on you I’m sure can be recognised and felt by many. The Way of The Livingness is the only religion that has ever felt true for me, true equality and unity of humanity. Brilliant blog.

397. Any religion that states you are anything other than equal with everyone else is not healthy, nor is it true. We are all God’s children, held in his blanket of love, equally so. A true religion, such as The Way of the Livingness unifies, bringing people together to re-connect with their brothers and sisters, to once again live in brotherhood and harmony.

398. A great conversation to be having, Carmel, thank you for starting it. I would say that I have had felt a ‘lack of self worth’ my entire life, until I started listening to the teachings of Universal Medicine. Whilst I had an ‘Anglican’ upbringing, my family wasn’t especially religious and I’ve never felt the need or urge to go to church. However, I was brought up to always strive to be more and I feel this is the root cause, not being met for who I am, but rather always being encouraged to push myself to be ‘better’, to make myself more worthy of the love that I craved.

399. I too was recruited into the Catholic religion at birth and because of the indoctrination that occurs at an early age it takes a long time to see through the actual harm it causes. It took me for example until I lived the principles of the Ageless Wisdom to go from being a recovering Catholic to a healed Catholic!. All mainstream religions seem to promote that somehow there is something terribly wrong with us. This does not support people to change, never has and never will. We need to know that we are enough as we are and from that place if we see that there are things that we do that are not loving then we are naturally motivated to change them. The truth of the matter is that we are love first and foremost but sometimes we do not express this love.

400. Insightful post Carmel about the catholic faith, religion and how we are within it whatever our denomination, simply by the way we’re holding ourselves – if that is in separative angst, unequalness, superiority and so on …then we’re going to be this with another irrespective of the religion we’re aligned to. For me, there are many, many wonderfully truth-serving members of the human race who are inside all major religions, and just being part of that the religion and wearing its badge hasn’t made them this [truth], but instead they’ve made themselves that by the way they live, hold themselves and in this all others too. Religion is a deeply loving embrace – of oneself, and together with the all.

401. The Way of The Livingness is what I feel a true religion should be like. Based on the absolute equalness of all and that everyone is a Son of God, willing to explore the big life questions and based on a direct connection to God. I feel I have come home where religion is concerned. The Way of The Livingness is my religion.

402. Thank you Carmel. I can relate to much of what you share in your experience and felt the same as I was growing up. It has taken me quite a lot of work, well deep self care and unpacking to undo the damage eg. ‘giving power away’ ‘feeling automatically in trouble’ ‘feeling lesser’ and so on. I was brought up Catholic,attending Catholic primary and high school and even university, then started my teaching degree in the Catholic system – so I was quite dipped in the consciousness although I did question a lot.
     The greatest damage is the feeling lesser and not enough – it delivered no true connection to my heart or my actions in my life. Also like you I smoked, drank, over ate, ate poorly or super healthy, never from what I felt but to deliver an outcome, had caffeine and sugar in regular amounts, over exercised at times, chose poor relationships, hardened my body with martial arts and the way I expressed – but now I live from how I feel and what my body needs in my way. So no cigarettes, no alcohol, no caffeine, no sugar, no hard exercise or poor choiced relationships and so on.
     A great change is the way I move today. Before I moved with a thump and a drive in a speed, but today I feel like silk gracefully gliding through life with an elegance. All of these changes have not come from a docrination but from living in connection to my heart and listening to my body. Deep thanks for The Way of The Livingness and Serge Benhayon who simply presented a supportive loving way to be with ourselves. Life today feels like an expansion not something I am just getting through.

403. I like the title of your blog Carmel. What a great question. From my own experiences and the facts you quote in your blog relating to all the wars and deaths that happen in the name of religion, my answer would be a definite ‘no.’ However The Way of The Livingness is a religion I can say is all about love and responsibility.

404. Carmel most people would not associate a religion with health or being healthy yet what you’ve shared with us is something that clearly shows the religion we choose has a direct effect on our health and on the entire way we are in society.

405. I have come across many people who rejected religion for similar reasons to the ones you express here Carmel. The way religion was presented never made sense to me and so I was an atheist for many years, but I can see how it still has an effect on some of the choices we make in life and how we feel about ourselves. The ideas of guilt, sin and going to hell are deeply ingrained beliefs that stem from religious teachings.

406. ‘I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst’….. I read this and realised just how much I have bashed myself up over and over every time I felt I got something wrong. I also held strongly the belief that I did not deserve love because there was something wrong with me, it was like I crucified myself. I can feel now this was all under the catholic consciousness; we are all sinners! Great blog for me to read today as I now slowly realising and nominating just how much a hugely negative and poisonous impact the catholic faith has had on me.

407. Rebranding the Catholic Religion is a marketing ploy! Is it a Healthy Option? Is it not the same as selling War as a healthy option? The phase of a leopard changing its spots comes to mind. When brotherhood is bastardized it is no longer brotherhood, it can never not be what it is, where religion has always been open to interpretation. The Way of The Livingness comes from within us all and can be felt with the truth is presents to all equally.

408. This is a great point Carmel, ‘In all walks of life there are murderers and extremists – are they naturally that way or is it the religion and the religious leaders who create an atmosphere of separation, intolerance and hate?’ So many religions bring this hate and separation, this is not loving and not true religion, The Way of The livingness does not have rules and does not bring hatred, it is about us knowing that we are love and that we are all equal sons of God, no matter our culture, skin colour, sex. This makes sense, is simple and beautiful.

409. Having been raised in the Irish Catholic faith, I relate so much to everything you share Carmel. We had to attend Sunday mass every week and as I child I felt it was all one big show. Put on your best clothes, make sure you are presentable to attend God’s house (church), for that one/two hours every week, and then for the rest of the week, live as you please and mostly what I observed God was very quickly forgotten. Did not make sense to me at all and so when I was old enough I stopped attending church which felt so right and very freeing.

410. One deeply tragic aspect of the extreme corruption, war-mongering and abuse that has been enacted under the banner of the Catholic religion is that it utterly and irreversibly destroys people’s relationship with God, leaving them totally stranded. My step father used to (semi-jokingly) say that he doesn’t like the French. When I asked him why, he blamed the food. It’s a futile example to give in such an important debate, but it is a good illustration. He is separating himself from a whole nation of people just because of one factor. Millions of people turn their back on God because of their experiences within organised religion.

411. This is a very interesting question. I had never thought about the relationship between being religious and being healthy – no more than the fact that certain religions forbid alcohol and certain food and appearing to have somewhat ‘clean’ life style.

412. Thank you, Carmel. Growing up in Northern Ireland during ‘the troubles’ constantly revealed the hypocrisy of organised religion to me, and like you I was keen to distance myself from it, feeling disillusioned about God and life. However, Universal Medicine has re-connected me to the true experience of religion, of brotherhood and love as the basis of all, for all equally.

413. Utterly essential reading.

414. Good question Carmel. Is it religion or is it the people that get it wrong? Well that is quite an easy one to answer as all the teachers or prophets had the same message of love and oneness, it is us that somehow turned that around into we must kill anyone that doesn’t see it our way.

415. Going to Sunday school and being brought up to live as a Christian in the way we know it today also had an enormous impact on me and my well-being. I placed everyone before me thinking I had to give to everyone other than myself. You can imagine how I felt inside – empty. I am learning every day to love myself, as I know and have always known, but chose to ignore. that I can only truly love another when I am first loving me.

416. It is quite amazing just how much humanity has twisted the real meaning of the word religion, a word that means “to bind fast” and create a “bond between humans and gods” in the recognition that we are all innately sacred. How did we ever allow religion to become an institution that tortures and kills those who don’t agree with its principles and indoctrinates us into thinking we are born sinners? I used to have such an adverse reaction to religion as a consequence, until I met Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. It is with huge appreciation of Serge’s lived example and wise teachings that I have been able to re-claim the true meaning of the word religion and how to live it again. To be religious is a moment-by-moment choice to bond with God inside me, to honour my own sacredness and fully appreciate the divinity in everyone I meet. No churches, priests or doctrines in sight.

417. Serge Benhayon does not claim he is a priest or cardinal – he claims The Way of The Livingness. He does not follow any order but the order of The Universe. Like all before him, the messengers of God, the word maybe reinterpreted but not The Livingness. It’s a living fact in the body. This time around there are many who will not let the veils of illusions cast the shadows over The Truth. We are in the presence of someone great reflecting back to us how grand we are.

418. ‘Indoctrination’ is certainly the correct word to describe the introduction of children into orthodox religions. This cannot be said of The Way of The Livingness as a founding principle, if not the founding principle and a founding principle of parenting, is that one has to determine for themselves what is true by discerning the energy with which it is being delivered, whether it is from love or not.

419. I believe that the way religions up to this day have been constructed is a way to mask what religion could be truly about. As you say if there is one God, which I have no doubt about, then he cannot love some more than others, that does not make sense.

420. Life is interesting isn’t it? This is a great example of how different consciousnesses affect our lives even when on a physical level we leave them.

421. These are seriously worthwhile questions Carmel. From my own perspective I know that the feeling of being wrong, of not being an authority in my own life can in part be traced back to the Catholic Church. You didn’t touch on their attitude to women – that is another huge topic. This lack of deep self care and love is absolutely bad for our health. This idea of everyone else first, especially for women, is disastrous for our health. God is love. That love is within me. Anything that teaches me that I am less than this is wrong and does not come from love. Anything that is not love creates a conflict in my body which is ultimately bad for my health.

422. There is a huge arrogance with catholicism, I was raised catholic in a majority catholic country where the church seriously abused the power they wielded and caused untold damage and suffering to many and indeed still do. I knew it wasn’t right but I had a deep need to know God and an understanding that there is so much more than here – in my teens I stepped away and I’ve never been back. And over time I’ve learned to unpick all the insidious and damaging beliefs I acquired while in catholicism, one for instance is the idea that somehow the one true way is catholicism and all others are lost and condemned – many other religions have their own variations on this, but this one is particularly vicious and leads to serious problems when the catholic church meddles in social issues, for example contraception in South America (which they disagree with), leading to many faithfully following their rules even while it causes them many problems and condemns many to poor care and access to choice with their sexual health. We need to stop and consider how many of these corrupt and self-interested organisations we’ve allowed to hold sway without considering the huge and devastating impact they have had and continue to have today.

423. Brilliant blog Carmel. So much to ponder on from what you’ve shared and awesome to start the conversation. My experience was I stayed clear of institutionalised religion because I felt most of the teachings just didn’t make sense to me. The biggest one I saw was how they were fostering separation, they were judgmental and condemning. None of them appealed to me, I felt that we are all equal and that religion was about love but what I saw was not love. I questioned how could one religion be better than another and why were these institutionalised religions not able to be open and loving towards each other and live harmoniously? Something was seriously missing, I had so many questions about religion and felt I didn’t really want anything to do with any religion that didn’t feel true. I saw that none of these institutionalised religions were actually about God, or love, to me they all felt to promote a false version of God. It is The Way of The Livingness that supported me to reconnect to the true meaning of religion and who God is and who we are. We are all sons of God, no matter where we have come from or where we have been, we are always a son of God, held in his love. God to me is, all loving, nonjudgmental and resides with us and within us all-equally.

424. That something that purports to be about love, actually sets up a life of pain is in itself all the evidence that is needed as to ascertain its origins.

425. “Serge Benhayon, who presented in a different way the truth of who we are and how we relate to God – equally, all of us, not just any one religion”. And that is the difference with all the experiences I had with other religions, including New Age religions, there was always something missing, that didn’t make complete sense, never felt completely true and there was always an arrogance or inequality, exclusiveness and not inclusiveness of everyone equally, a lot of talk without the walk, certainly not a healthy option for me. The recorded history and division within the accepted religions surely is enough for people to question what is most religions hidden agenda? Is it possible it is for the want of control or power over others? When I first heard Serge Benhayon present I knew at long last this was the truth, a truth I already felt within me, maybe not always comfortable but always true, and nine years on in many different ways the truth has only ever been, and continues to be more deeply confirming and expanding.

426. The Way of The Livingness has a vibrancy about it, as opposed to so many religions, which feel grey and rather lifeless.

427. Spoken from the absolute truth of your body Carmel, which for me, is living gospel.

428. Thank you Carmel

429. To see the link between the religious beliefs taken on by a person, and how these beliefs have an impact on the way they process and the choices they make in life, (self worth, not good enough, guilt, suicide bombers) certainly from an objective stand point, one can see that they do not promote a healthy option.

430. How much ill needs to be presented by any organization, any belief structure or any system before we are prepared to see what is blatantly in front of us? I am staggered with how much rot we are prepared to put up with in many of our established religions, in politics, in the media, in corporates – without calling out that enough is enough.

431. I too was ‘recruited’ or indoctrinated into the Catholic religion from birth. It was not my choice. I never found The Truth in it, in fact it made me feel sick with the feeling of unworthiness, being wrong without doing anything, and the feeling of guilt for being a sensitive tender open man (Explain yourself Catholic religion!!!). Serge Benhayon from the word go did not hold back any of the ‘what is’ AND ‘what is not’ – The Truth was presented. He lives what he presents – an extremely healthy, rich life with the highest of integrity.
     The Catholic religion does not confirm the love I know and feel inside me. Serge Benhayon confirms every cell in my body – he confirms who I am, and always does, the love that I am and it’s huge.

432. It will never stop being ridiculous the very fact that we grow up being taught that if we’re bad we will go to hell, that life is about being a ‘good person’. It’s so outrageous what we’ve come to believe and then worse still, accept as truth. Truth, this is not.

433. Cool Carmel! Thanks for the article! I love it. I particularly like your explanation of The Way of The Livingness. A religion that makes sense, one that many people talk about as if it were something unattainable because we have all these other things going on that blind us from what is actually possible.

434. Through The Way of the Livingness I have really begun to see the levels to which we as humanity judge each other, and the deep level of mistrust and anxiousness that can result from this. Throughout the ages it has been shown how much religion has played it’s part in condemning and judging those that were not part of their belief system and religious practices. There is not an ounce of judgement in God, he loves us all equally and the more I can feel this in my body the more awareness I am able to bring to any judgement that I might allow to creep into my thoughts.

435. I love this idea of the benefits to your health of religion and my experience certainly resonates with your experience again with the Catholic church. It literally majors in guilt and worthlessness, not attributes I associate with a loving God or in any way is reflected by the beauty and divinity of nature around me.

436. That is an expert summary of religion Carmel. We seem to accept so much about religion that really isn’t all that cool, if a religion can only merely tolerate those that don’t share their beliefs then it isn’t really a religion in the true meaning of the word.

     1. I agree. When we look for love and truth we can get it quite wrong.

437. Thank you Carmel for your clear and concise sharing. I was brought up in an Anglican household though my Dad was born into the Catholic Church but chose to live and worship in the Anglican way. They have both passed over many years ago. I found the Anglican church very similar to the Catholic church in their presentation of a Angry God who saw us as sinners and not good enough! I agree that The Way of The Livingness based on the Ancient Wisdom as presented by Serge Benhayon shows us as loving God who sees us as all equal Brothers. The Brotherhood of man.

438. It feels like the established religions foster separation and elitism rather than the one-unified way of The Way of The Livingness, the new religion for all of humanity.

     1. It truly is unifying because it supports each one to be in connection with their heart and soul and from there the quality is one.

439. The word ‘religion’ shouldn’t be used for a group of people who separate themselves from other human beings because of their belief system. Religion means to re-connect, which is the opposite of separation.

440. This is brilliant Carmel. When we look at what has been done in the name of religion it has shown us it most definitely not a healthy option. “The Way of The Livingness is a new religion based on ancient principles. It teaches true Brotherhood, that we are all equal, that we do not harm anyone – not for any reason.” This is true religion.

441. Thank you for this very clear and revealing blog Carmel. The following words show how tight a grip that religion likes to keep upon those that enter Catholic families, to ‘cement’ them (as you so well describe it) into their ways. In fact you were actually recruited before birth! ‘I was ‘recruited’ by the Catholic religion at birth and this was further cemented with my baptism and first holy communion, then by entering a Catholic boarding school at the tender age of six’. This religion still has sway over a huge percentage of the population even though the Dark Ages seem years ago, the consciousness still lurks. That any ‘religion’ would kill any human brother is beyond sanity.

442. As many traces of truth Catholic religion may contain it has never been a lived truth that truly served humanity; this is obvious by the history and today’s posture of the Catholic religion. Truth is only true when it is lived, a self-evident fact we need to honour to make religion a living religion of truth. The Way of The Livingness is such a true religion.

443. Thank you Carmel – I took on the ‘not being worthy’ ‘Being good’ ‘Being self sacrificing’ and always apologising for my sins or searching for sins to tell in confession. Catholicism never offered reflections of who I truly am and the love, wisdom and tenderness that was innate within me that would guide my choices in life. This religion set down ‘rules’ or ‘commandments’ to live by. There are many religions operating in the world that have been setup to keep people as less than they truly are and not invite them to feel within themselves the wisdom that is there already. The Way of The Livingness has asked me to re-connect to what I already know to be true within and to live my life from that place, to bring to life the amazing stillness and presence I hold and have always held.

444. I was bought up in a religion that taught we are all Gods children, equal in his light, but it still didn’t connect me to the responsibility, self love and self care that brings about the livingness. I always knew I was missing a part of the puzzle and it was when I first heard Serge Benhayon present I knew in my body this was it, the connection to the love I hold within first then to humanity.

445. I absolutely agree Carmel ” The Way of The Livingness” is the only truly healthy option I’ve ever connected to. I’ve tried many, many other options over the years but none offered that we are already part of the magnificence of the universe and all we require in the form of love, wisdom and intelligence is already with-in. Once I became aware of the external beliefs that are delivered by religious authorities and others and allowed myself to appreciate that with-in I have access to all the authority required, living became so much more than getting through the day. There is a genuine spark in me, a (developing) openness with people and commitment to being responsible for all I am. The Way of The Livingness is the healthiest choice I have ever made for my self and my physical well-being is a testament to this.

446. Thank you Carmel for a blog that makes a lot of sense when it comes to religion. But what stands out most is linking our choice in religion to our health. Areas of our lives that are not usually linked, however in what you have presented in regards to how we might consider ourselves in terms of feeling good enough or feeling worthy, of course this would have an effect in how we live and what choices we make which ultimately affects our health. Good call and a blog I will return to.

447. This is a great article, Carmel, and gives the reader much to ponder on. I can relate to the feelings of guilt and fear from my Catholic education. And it’s taken me years to dump those beliefs about who or what God is. The simple truth is that religion is separative and therefore can’t be Love. If we started with Love first, I don’t see how religions could exist.

448. I had lunch today with an Indian gentleman who is a practicing Catholic. We had a discussion about Catholicism in India – amongst other things – and what struck me is that he was a genuinely nice man who loves and cares for his fellow man. Your question here ‘is it the religion or the people?’ Carmel is very poignant. I feel it is very clear that no matter what labels we give ourselves or we are given by others, if we choose to live and express the love in our hearts that is what will make a true change in our world. With the recent political shifts across the world, maybe we should all remember that whatever political party is in power it is the choices we people make every day that really count.

449. I loved what you have shared Carmel, and can so relate to it having been brought up in the Catholic religion. I left the religion when I found out about the atrocities by the church in the dark ages but their indoctrination has sat in my body and moulded my view of God as judgmental and myself as a sinner unworthy, and this has lasted through most of my life until coming to Universal Medicine and gradually started to clear all the lies held in my body, and claim myself as a loving and deeply beloved son of God.

450. Indeed Carmel, when I feel how behaviours, thoughts, beliefs and ideals are all upheld and fed by the established organised religions in the examples you gave, I can see how humanity is controlled and neither given any hint of the truth of who they are, nor the absolute nature of God.

451. Stunning article and as a fellow student of the Way of The Livingness I loved reading how you wrote about it – very simply and easy to understand and the key principles were beautifully displayed for all to read. I felt my body expand as I read them. To be reminded that we are indeed all equal and no harm is to be done to another and that even judging another is causing harm, is a confirming moment that this is how I want to (and am to, no perfection) live my life.

452. I totally agree Carmel when you say The Way of The Livingness is a ‘healthy option’. Having spent my childhood in the Catholic Religion I also had similar unpleasant experiences with their version of God and love. Nothing ever rung true for me about Catholicism yet everyone around me seemed to be blindly following this Religion. By the time I was 17 I told my Mother I would no longer return to Church and turned my back on Religion. This finally changed when I was introduced to The Way of The Livingness and every cell in my body knew this was a Religion that was based on principles such as truth, love, brotherhood, respect and integrity.

453. Having sailed around the world and lived in many different countries, and experienced many different religions I have been very skeptical about religion and to be honest, didn’t like any of them. It has not been until recently that I understood and realised that I was a son of God and that we are all equal and my whole perspective of God has changed. It has changed because finally I found a religion that feels right to me. The Way of The Livingness doesn’t have rules or should do’s. I am not a sinner if I try something else and I won’t be going to hell.

454. A brilliant blog Carmel. As a young girl I went to a Catholic school and have clear memories of being taught to fear God as we would be sent to hell if we sinned. That is a pretty intense doctrine for a young child to feel joyful about embracing. Yet even though this is was what I was being taught at school, my experiences at home and more so with nature reflected a completely different sense of what God was and felt like, as I felt and had very strong experiences that God was in me and that I was at one with God. However I grew in uncertainty as to what I was feeling was true as this was not confirmed in any way at school nor as I grew up, in the world around me. I lived with uncertainty about myself and as such began to carve out a life that was based on seeking approval and recognition through work and lifestyle. But honestly, the restlessness of uncertainty was always residing under the surface. When I came across Serge Benhayon and The Way of The Livingness I knew from deep within me that I was being presented was the truth of what I already had known and touched on as a child. And so began my return to deepening a loving and very healthy relationship with myself, with others and with God.

455. ‘in the Middle Ages people could pay money for a ‘pardon’ of their sins’. There are still plenty of people around the world who are giving money to temples and religious statues in order to have a better life, to become richer or more healthy or sometimes for specific things like the birth of a boy for example.I have been amazed sometimes in my travels to find a family spending nearly everything they have for a religious ceremony for their child while the family lives day to day on the poverty line.

456. ‘This begs the question, is it the religion or the people?’ That’s a great question to ask. We tend to think it’s the people – a few bad apples, for example – but what if it is the religion? We are probably prepared to accept it’s the religion in the case of suicide bombers, but what if it were also the religion in terms of far more subtle things, such as lack of self-worth?

457. As a boy I was fascinated by God, but as I grew older and learned about what religious people had done in God’s name, I became sceptical of his existence at all. If these were people who claimed to know God better than all others, then could he even exist if such evil was committed in his name? I later came to realise that there was a lot more to life than I had accounted for in my scepticism, but it was not until meeting Serge Benhayon that I truly began to understand the deep relationship between myself and God. Now I can say truly that yes I not only believe in God but know him and his love.

458. I wasn’t brought up Catholic Carmel but I’m recognising all of what you share about the impacts it had on your well-being. So much so that I suspect I have lived Catholic lives previously. It feels too familiar to ignore. Actually, I’m guessing many of us have done so across the last 2000 years.

459. What a profoundly honest look at the Catholic church and religion Carmel. History shows that our current religions have, and still do let us down on almost every level of human life and wellbeing.

460. The Way of The Livingness is not a new religion, but one that has been around for longer than any other religion that came in and bastardised the word. Much has been done in the name of religion which in fact is not true as no harm could ever come from true religion. What we have been presented with is not true religion but people wielding their power using a false version of religion to gain power over others.

461. “…..until 2005 when I met Serge Benhayon, who presented in a different way the truth of who we are and how we relate to God – equally, all of us, not just any one religion.”
     And the beauty of this different way is that it is so spherical, so relatable to every aspect of ones experience of life.

462. I think the whole framework of the dominant religions that we have in the world today do need to be questioned… There are great truths in them but as a whole package there are also many things that just don’t make sense to me and foster further separation amongst us rather than bringing true unity and connection.

463. You cannot argue with lived experiences like this! The bottom line is what quality of life are we ultimately wanting to live?

464. Religion, indeed needs to be reviewed, as its true meaning and expression seems to be vastly different to what we see around the world today. It is a shame that we turn away from god, based on a bad experience, it is a bit like saying you will never be in a relationship because of a bad experience. The experience was of what is NOT relationships, same with my experience of religion, before and after The Way of The Livingness.

465. Love it Carmel. Totally a revealing point that you shared that even though you choose to leave the religion when you were 18 it still very much effected your life for a long time after. What we take on in a deep conscious level is mind blowing.

466. In saying with all that has been said. We must also be aware there are more religions to choose from than ever before. Through a quick internet search, there are roughly 4,200 known religion in the world at the moment. We have more choice then ever before to free ourselves from the shackles of the old, however we must be wise not to attach the same restrictions just with new labels. It’s time to return to our inner most that have no allegiance to external forces but rather a loyalty, strength and love for all humanity equally. There is much more to be said.

467. Great blog Carmel and very insightful. One of the problems I have found with the Catholic church is that it is based upon giving your power away – whether it be to a saviour, to God or to the local priest. From my experience it does not get you to claim the Kingdom of God that is within us all. Ultimately if we did this we would not need churches or priests etc.. at least not in their current format. It is also interesting how much of the many subtle beliefs and ideologies we still hold onto and carry even though we are not a part of that religion or belief.

468. Brilliant article Carmel. For a moment there where I read this . . .“I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst. Worst of all was not knowing who I truly was, or how to love and be loved, which led to my engaging in unloving relationships, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, overeating and partying” . . . I thought are you writing about yourself or are you writing about me or does every born and bred catholic feel this very same way? Thank God for Serge Benhayon and for The Way of The Livingness as it certainly proved to be a healthy option for me also.

469. The corruption of the Catholic Church can’t be denied and institutional religion has a lot to answer for. Whereas The Way of The Livingness, reawakens the religious way that I have always known, which is me being in devotion and communion with me, with all that is around me, with God and forever committing to deepening my love for humanity and for myself. Simple, exquisite and absolutely religious through and through.

470. The term ‘healthy option’ is very apt here, for there is a healthy way to be with everything.

471. Carmel – you raise a very important point when looking at people vs religion. The fact is, it is people who have decided what is and is not OK – who have developed religions to be so extreme, to be separate and to be constrained too. It is great for you to talk about your experience with the Catholic church and how even though you got out of it at 18, it still effects you – this I am sure can be said for many. But it is only harming our bodies to hold onto a way of being that is not true to who we are.

472. Yes true love (which does not contain one ounce of emotion) is very healing and healthy and anything other than love is harmful – it is that simple. Also God is love and does not punish, judge, murder, rape etc – that is pretty simple too! All the harm you have listed is everything but God and true religion.

473. “With Universal Medicine we are encouraged to learn and evolve as one brotherhood, with each of us serving our fellow man in a self-loving way, not a self-sacrificing one.” I love this sentence, it simply and purely expresses the quality of life that we are made to live.

474. Something I have also come to realise is that we have to take responsibility, for in truth we reincarnate in every lifetime, back to what we have chosen before. So if we come into a group, abuse, institutionalised religion, this is because we have chosen to align to it in a past life.

475. Carmel being born into the Catholic religion too I can really relate with what you share, “I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst.” Considering that the teachings of Jesus promoted love and equality I found the Catholic Church lack of tolerance shocking with the tone of “we are not worthy”. I rejected the religion at the age of 15 but this feeling of not being good enough remained and I was deeply affected by it. Through The Way of The Livingness I have also come to understand life myself and God differently in a way that makes complete sense with love, equality and truth at its core.

476. I feel we have to claim the word religion back in its true sense, and with that call other man made forms of religion the truth of what they are and that is ‘institutionalised religion’, then we can make and feel the clear cut energetic truth and lived difference in them.

477. I’ve never seen it in this way but it makes so much sense. All institutionalise religions promote, advise, endorse and impose a way of living. But are these religious lifestyles truly healthy for us individually and as a society?
     From this example it would appear not and even a glance at history one can find a long trend of abuse, separation, corruption, war and more when we live to these dogmatic principles. Which is what makes The Way of The Livingness such a breeze as there are no do’s and don’t’s – only an allowance of space for everyone to have their own relationship with divinity and God, in however way that plays out in life.

478. Religions of the past have had such a stranglehold as we have allowed them to dominate our minds and consequently our bodies as we succumbed to what felt like their power. We lost our true sense of truth as we trusted more in our physical well being and abandoned our soul. As we learn to re-connect back to our sense of knowing from within we will no longer feel the need to search outside and lose our true connection to God. We will trust our own ability to feel the truth and build a life that is all embracing knowing that within each and everyone of us there is an essence to be truly honoured, as we come back to living life as one in a quality of harmony and love.

479. Carmel a stunning description of the effects of being recruited into the Catholic religion. I also went through the same process and whilst I choose to leave the religion some of the traits like feeling I was not good enough, was a sinner, needed to be guilty over everything remained and have been hard to let go of. These are certainly not “healthy” virtues. However of all the experiences I’ve had with The Way of The Livingness is a very healthy religion indeed.

480. It’s fundamentally taught by many religions that God is all loving, so how does this justify judging others and violence to defend any so called ‘idea’ or belief?

481. “My experience has been that the Catholic religion affected me at a very deep level. I was not brought up with a truly loving God and I was not brought up to care deeply for myself. I am learning this now through The Way of The Livingness, as presented by Serge Benhayon.” Carmel thankyou for sharing your experience of religion, which I am sure many can identify with, Catholic or otherwise. I was brought up under the guise of being a Christian and there are many parallels here. What Serge Benhayon is presenting regarding religion is all encompassing and uncompromising in its delivery that we are all equal, and should all be treated so, along with caring for ourselves in a way that does not compromise what we truly feel. If this religion was part of our everyday education, the world we live in would be a very different place.

482. Thank you Carmel, the wisdom you share from your lived experience is gold. Fancy bribing your way into heaven – its laughable and yet many attempt this in one way or another. Religion is absolutely no excuse to absolve ourselves of the responsibility to discern truth and Serge Benhayon actively encourages those who choose The Way of The Livingness to discern, discern, discern every word he presents.

483. Could it be that a true relationship with religion brings true healthiness to us and that a relationship with religions based on images (like in the established religions) brings unhealthiness our way?

484. If a religion is espousing that we are less than God then it is not for me. We are all equal.

485. As Catholicism and other religions have greatly bastardised the meaning of the word religion I would definitely agree that it is not a healthy option whereas The Way of The Livingness has encouraged me to become responsible for my own health and well being and in doing this I have so much more to offer to others. Thank you for providing so much background information which certainly contributes powerful evidence of the unhealthiness of the Catholic religion over many centuries.

486. One thing that stands out from your blog Carmel is the level of which the Catholic Church beliefs retard people and still play out in their lives even when they renounce or limit their involvement. It really brings home the level of separation the major world religions have in contrast to The Way of The Livingness, which holds everything and everyone in the utmost Love and equalness.

487. I’ve not really put health and religion in the same sentence before, but what you are presenting makes perfect sense. Every part of our lives is an energy we choose, which of course affects our body and our health, and any religion we choose to espouse has a massive effect on our lives.

488. So true, many religious ideals tell us to put others before us, and caring and loving ourselves is put behind all else.

489. I had similar experiences concerning self doubt and anxiousness and I also was baptised in the catholic church. It has quite an impact on ones own life if we allow to feel it.

490. It is no wonder that so many people have an issue with the word religion when we consider the history and actions of our intitutionalised religions across the world. I was the same and used to react to just the word itself but have come to learn that true religion has nothing to do with the institutions which have been formed around it but rather a choice within me to re-align back to the loving truth that has always been there, that can be felt, known and lived with my own simple connection to it.

491. The fact that so many people are religious shows that we all appreciate a sense of belonging, community and togetherness. The problem is many religions are exclusive in one way or another.

492. When I read this blog, I want to ask – how can we as a global race of human beings, justify the torture and killing of each other under the banner of seeking a religious life? As Carmel very astutely points out, it is people who commit such crimes, and not the religion itself, which can be used as an excuse to behave in such ways – but the choice to harm comes first – and this is perhaps were we need to start looking.

493. What I find ironic is the way in which we happily label some of the minor faith systems that exist as “cults”, yet the gargantuan list of atrocities, deaths, slaughters, abuse, corruption, illegality, theft, rape, torture, extortion etc..that has happened under the banner of the Catholic faith outstrips anything that any of these ‘cults’ have ever been accused of by a factor of a billion. Truly. It’s insane that we allow this stuff to go on without questioning it. Where are we at? How we can allow our brothers and sisters to be subjected to any of the above list and still claim to be in relationship with God?

     1. Great point Otto. It’s so true people will victimize something that is a size they can manage. So smaller groups can be singled out, labeled and branded as not good, regardless of the truth. But when it comes to taking on the ‘big end of town’, high rollers etc. they slink back and saying it is too hard. Even with all the proof and facts before them people still haven’t wanted to take responsibility to say that the atrocities are not acceptable for fear of their own safety.

494. I can totally relate to what you are sharing Carmel. I have never gone to church or being ‘in’ the Catholic religion but my parents were raised with that religion. Even though they were not with the Catholic Church anymore when I was born I have felt the same as you described in your blog “I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst.” To me it makes sense that these feelings were in my parents way of living which I then learned to also have as a child – this shows the enormous effect the teachings of a religion like this can have. It is for us to ponder on if we would like these lack of self-worth issues to be what we receive by choosing a certain religion or not.

495. Great article Carmel, reading what you have shared about religions most of them simply do not make sense, they are certainly not loving and do not feel true, instead they feel separative and certainly unhealthy. The Way of The livingness is the only religion that I know that does makes sense; is truly loving; all encompassing and that I have witnessed has inspired change in many peoples lives in a positive, healthy way.

496. This is a crucially important blog which to me is encapsulated in the insanity of this one line “To cap it all, I never learned who or what God truly was/is.” Isn’t that the whole point of religion? Just because millions of people align to the Catholic faith, that doesn’t protect it from this kind of assessment. (remember that we once thought the world was flat). There is no judgement needed – just a transparent and honest exposure of what has actually happened at the hands of this organisation. If we can step back and look at it without attachment, emotion or fear (is it a coincidence that the catholic faith actively instils all three of those emotions within its congregation?) then we will be able to see the whole picture.

497. So much suffering, violence, sacrifice, and murder in the name of religion in the world really does not make religion a healthy option I agree Carmel. The understanding of true religion, a way of living in connection with our soul God, the ancient wisdom pure and not bastardised. A living way that we are all part of by our very essence that deeply cares for who we are bringing, and sustaining health vitality and integrity to our bodies. Appreciation is the key to knowing who we are and the The Way of The Livingness is the greatest gift in the world.

498. Thank you Carmel for a deeply expressive blog on religion. True religion is about our connection to God, and about our connection to all people including ourselves. People can make many and varied choices in how they live life, and the truth of connection comes out in the choices and not from an affiliation to a church or a religion as such. I know of religious people who are deeply loving and hold family (in the broad sense of the term) as very precious and they do not make religion about going to a church, and likewise I also know of churchgoers who see non-churchgoers as sinners. And there are those who do not belong to a religion and are in deep disconnection and then those who are deeply religious without attending church or a popular religion. I certainly feel very blessed to have come across the religion The Way of The Livingness as presented by Serge Benhayon. My life has transformed tremendously with embracing these principles in my life and choosing to live life in a more simple and open way that sees us all as equals.

499. I agree Carmel, “The Way of The Livingness religion of today is definitely a healthy option!” and its my healthy option for the 21st century and it does exactly what it says on the tin, encourages people to Live in a Way that restores integrity, respect, self worth, nurture, brotherhood and wisdom. The Way of The Livingness restores true religion: the science of re-aligning to God within us, coupled with a deeply loving moral philosophy and the Sciences of the Universe that we are all immutably governed by. In truth, it a religion that encompasses humanity in Love, with zero tolerance of any harm, aggression or malice in whatever guise, good, bad or indifferent. Any religion that engenders war, torture, self sacrifice or self harm in any format is by its very nature is the very antithesis of true religion, the act of re-aligning to the immense and infinite love of God within every single one of us. It is a word that we humanity have used to control one another for thousands of years, it is not the work of God. Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and The Way of The Livingness are re-claiming the true meaning of Religion, a living example of what it is to live, work, build communities and raise families in direct accordance with the Love of God.

500. It is a revelation and blessing to have all the trapping to conventional religion stripped back and replaced with The Way of The Livingness religion. As you say Carmel true religion is a way of living and being that honours self equally to every other human being: true brotherhood that preaches love, not hate and does not denounce or harm another.

501. Thank you Carmel for elucidating so clearly how the religion of The Way of The Livingness is a religion that is healthy.

502. Well written Carmel I was brought up in a Catholic boarding school too from an early age and was affected ever since. It was only on meeting Serge Benhayon and The Way of The Livingness that I discovered true religion, a loving way of living and the true love inside us all equally. It has changed my life and that of many others by our choices to a beautiful way of living with true care and responsibility, walking with God within us all with no judgement only love. Love is everything and allows appreciation for who we really are and the oneness of us all evolving everyday.

503. I can relate to what you say here Carmel about being wrong and filled with guilt, shame and angst, even though there was no involvement in any formal religion, apart form being christened and Religious Instruction lessons once a week at school. Is it possible that various religious institutions have been controlled by a far greater force of consciousness, that is designed to keep us locked in to a cycle of guilt etc to not experience the natural innermost connection with our divine essence and the love we truly are?

     “I have lived with a constant feeling of somehow being wrong, never being good enough, filled with guilt, constantly self-sacrificing and full of angst. Worst of all was not knowing who I truly was, or how to love and be loved…”

     1. Could it be that there is a greater awareness to deepen and see that the world is controlled by this consciousness to keep humanity in contraction and in illusion, far from the truth of love – it is not confined only to religious institutions but all walks of life?

504. The bastardisation (by man) of different religions has a lot to answer for. “Since meeting Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I have learned that who I am is ok, that I am not a sinner, that we are all equal children of God, regardless of our religion or our way of living, and that we can all feel God’s love within us when we live in a way that is healthy, harmonious and loving.” So true Carmel.

505. It is a great question you pose Carmel – is it the religion or is it the people. The teachings of Yeshua / Jesus were about love – and there is no violence, murder or torture in the way he lived, and yet so much of this has been perpetrated in his name. The religions rule by dogma and man makes the religions so it is a self-perpetuating cycle – and none of this is to do with the truth of God.

506. I had the basic indoctrination of the Lutheran religious upbringing which was ok, for the history was it was started by a rebel at the time that turned its back on the Catholic church. It was like the working man’s religion. When I finished school, my only association with religious organisations was driving by them. The world and its plethora of variations of God and what he wants just keep evolving into something that is no longer recognisable, but people are willing to die for their beliefs. The Way of The Livingness is a way to live with everyone because of our beliefs.

     1. I’d rather choose living what I know than dying for a belief. Love it, Steve.

507. I had a similar upbringing to you Carmel, I had no choice in the matter, I was at church every Sunday and so called holy day from the day I was born and I was pretty convinced I was a sinner and filled with inner conflict which resulted in me drinking and smoking from an early age. The Way of The Livingness has been the only religion that has made sense to me, teaching that we are all equal sons of God, and no martyrdom in any form, only self-love which in turn results in true Love for all.

508. Any belief system that sets one against another creating separation and magnifying differences is not founded on love. The Way of The Livingness is founded on love; the love of God, love for and of others and love for and of yourself all equally so.

509. How I experience the institutionalised religions is that they do not deliver the truth of who we are and how we relate to God. I also grew up in an Catholic environment, but same as you Carmel, I never have found God in there, as it was presented that we are not worthy and are sinners and therefore had to do our best and to do good to win the appreciation of God. How different in truth it is, God lives already within and we are OK, wherever we come from and is just waiting for us to reconnect to that inner spark that will lead us out of this created and reinterpretation version of God that the institutionalised religions continue to present to humanity.

510. This is definitely one very big thought provoking why. “Throughout the centuries, all over the world, thousands have been and are still being killed in the name of God – why?” It just doesn’t make sense that this is the bloody and cruel history that we look back upon, when the world teachers that these religions have as their foundation offered nothing but teachings of love and brotherhood, not hate and separation.

     1. I absolutely agree Ingrid, I felt this too. To me God is all loving, and so anything that promotes separation, hatred, conflict, war, murder, the list goes on, none of this to me relates to true religion or God. Yet I see a lot of this in pretty much all institutionalise religions. I have seen many people react to the word religion, I did too at one stage of my life, but not anymore, because I now see so clearly what true religion looks like, The Way of The Livingness for me, is it, a true religion.

511. This is great Carmel. I’d have to agree with what’s presented here; there are so many instances where organised religion has seemed to lead to a dark path… A lot of wars have started due to religious differences and I do not know one religion (apart from The Way of The Livingness) which teaches purely love – instead of tolerance, better than’s, and fear mongering. A lot of Mental health problems can exist due to believing you are not good enough or you are this/that. I love how you have explained The Way of The Livingness. This is one religion which I am wholeheartedly with, it’s like a breath of fresh air, with all the people you love standing by.

512. Well said, Carmel. I’m the only one in my family who truly believed in God from a young age and went to Sunday School through choice. However, I soon lost interest when my questions were not answered. As a result, I lost my connection to myself and God over the years, but now, since discovering The Way of The Livingness, just over 2 years ago, I really feel like I’m coming back home. My life has completely changed, since discovering what it means to truly self-care and self-love. I am much more committed to life, I have a good job, a loving partner, which I never thought I’d have, as I was just so shut down, in what I thought was protection, and I’ve recently started evening classes to study HR. This is another thing I had given up on but now feel I have lots to give and could really support others in this kind of role. Life just keeps getting better and better!

513. Super cool blog, thank you Carmel! What incredible straightforward words about the truth about religion and life.. It makes just simply a lot of sense what you share. It brings us back to the origins of our choices and how we have chosen to separate to think that it is all outside of us.. When I hear your words all the illusions that have come to my mind are broken. Simply because I am reminded of truth, one that I have been missing for a long time inside me and one that has not been reflected in true full sense since I was born – this time for me in 2010 by Serge Benhayon.

514. “With The Way of The Livingness we are encouraged to question everything and to feel our own wisdom from within our bodies.” Having been inspired by Serge Benhayon’s teachings I have found true religion in the way we live, move and express everyday. I now see God is found within our every expression for we are all sons of God and that beauty shines outwardly so, from the choices we make living life everyday. True religion is a living breathing way of life which is pretty cool to explore and evolve with constantly.

515. True religion or a big group of humans with similar opinions and agendas….how do you know the difference, the practice of true religion would never diminish another.

516. Cracker article Carmel and from one former Catholic to another thank you. I was mixed and matched through the Catholic faith and schooling, coming out the other end not loving God and being confused by the teachings. I carried this into work life and really never understood what was going on in the world I just knew I had to try and not be ‘bad’. The Way Of The Livingness and Serge Benhayon supported me to open my eyes. I didn’t get told something new but more supported to see clearly something I already new. I was a mixed match of many things and The Way Of The Livingness just cleared the mix up. In other words it was all there, I was all I am but confused in how it was. Thank you again Carmel I will re read this again.

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