My Teenage Religious Education When I was a young teenager, I had four younger brothers, the youngest of whom w as eight

years younger than I and I was trusted to baby sit them for short spell s during the daytime on the weekends, which gave my Mum a little more time to ge t out of the house. Therefore, I suppose, there was no longer any need to take m e and my next brother to church on Friday nights to give her a break. Whatever the reason, my Dad stopped taking me to church with him when I was a yo ung teenager. I did not miss it. However, I continued to wade through my mother' s books on Buddhism (especially Tibetan) and my father's books on yoga. I say 'w ade through', but I found the ideas fascinating and 'so obviously true', althoug h I hardly ever talked about them with my parents. The only discussions we had on a regular basis in those days were about dreams, but we had discussed dreams since I was around six. One of my earliest recollect ions, when I was around six, was going down to my parents after being sent to be d and complaining that I could not get to sleep because 'the Indians kept talkin g to me' - I (was talking about|meant} native Americans. My parents did not shout at me or tell me 'not to be silly'. Instead, Dad came u p to my bedroom and talked to the Indians, explaining that I had to get my sleep . I could still see them, but they stopped talking to me. The next week-end, my wallpaper was changed for one with cowboys and Indians on it and I never had tha t 'difficulty' again. During my teens, one of my favourite times of the week was discussing my dreams with my mother while eating breakfast. One day I was telling her that my dream t he previous night had been about her and me standing on a pier in Portugal, when a vehicle pulled up. She stopped me and said that she had had the same dream. S he described the car, it's colour and what took place next. We had had the same experience and she referred me to a book on Astral Travellin g. I had already read it, but it was great to have had a personal, practical exa mple. There was no holding me from then on. I began rising three hours before I needed to go to school to do yoga exercises both physical and breathing forms. I meditated for hours every week. My father's mother must have got to hear of this and she asked me to go down to visit her. She praised my interest in what she called 'spiritualism' - she would not call i t 'the supernatural', because she said it was as natural as sunshine. Anyway, th e purpose of the summons was to warn me of the dangers of carrying out spiritual activities 'without permission'. Serious spiritualists, she explained, asked permission to 'hold a seance' at lea st a week beore conducting one, which is why seances and services are held on a regular basis. The person holding the seance or service has to organize protecti on for those going to the session. This is easily done and almost always granted , but you still have to do it. My grandmother claimed that people do not change into angels just because their body has worn out. There are good dead people and mischievous dead people. Witho ut permission, that is without a guard, these mischievous spirits might enter th e living body at the base of the spine and make that person seem to be mad. She made me promise there and then never to 'do anything spiritual' without perm ission, but particularly never to use Ouija boards and never ever to 'attempt an ything' if I was under the influence of any drugs that made me 'lower my guard'.

At the age of 13-14 in South Wales in those days, I had no concept of drugs or a lcohol, but I have never forgotten my promise, because I know that she hasn't ei ther. If you want to read more on this subject go to my blogs at: <a href="http://behi nd-the-smile.org">Behind The Smile</a> and <a href="http://owencerijones.com/wor dpress>Owen's Blog</a>