Latest / Vox Novus with Victor Fuhrman / Rev. Dr. Lori Powers Otto - God Is Not What You Think!

Transcript

Rev. Dr. Lori Powers Otto - God Is Not What You Think! · Vox Novus with Victor Fuhrman

0:06
Vox Novus, the New Voice, Vox Novus, the New Dimension, Vox
0:15
Novus thought and movement leaders who will share from their experience and offer tools to
0:22
help us navigate our rapidly changing world. My name is Victor Furman. Welcome
0:28
to Vox Novus, the New Voice. Historically, humanity has equated religion with
0:39
the divinity in their respective faiths. Some religions have used this as a means
0:45
of control. How has this led to divisiveness among peoples and a distancing from
0:51
the true nature of the divine. My guest this week on Vox Novus,
0:57
Reverend doctor Lori powers Otto, has a doctorate in metaphysical theology, is an
1:02
author, Reiki master teacher, psychic intuitive certified life coach, and psychic or
1:07
a reader. She's taught numerous metaphysical classes, including reiki and aura viewing.
1:15
She's also co hosted shows on television and radio. She joins me this week
1:19
to share her path and new book, God Is Not what You think a
1:26
dissertation. Please join me in welcoming to Vox Novis my friend, Reverend Laurie
1:33
powers Atto. Welcome, Laurie, Welcome, Thank you, Victor, thank
1:37
you. I'm excited to be here, very very excited. So nice to
1:40
have you joining us and sharing this amazing work that you just came out with
1:44
your doctoral dissertation. God is not what you think, and we'll get to
1:48
that shortly, but please share with our listeners your early path and how it
1:52
led to your fascination and pursuit of energy practices and metaphysics. Well, it's
1:57
kind of a strange story. It wasn't that long ago. When I was
2:06
forty, I was sick of a lot. I had severe vertigo. I
2:10
was allergic to everything. I mean literally everything except beef, spinach, and
2:15
turkey. Everything else they tested for I was allergic to. And still I
2:24
got to the point they had me on four minute allergy medications a day.
2:29
They told me my thyroid was shot, had me on that, and I'm
2:34
like, this just doesn't work for me. And when the doctors got to
2:38
a point where there's nothing they could do for me, my e n T
2:43
said to me, why don't you try reiki? And I said what is
2:47
that? And she said, honestly, she didn't really know, but it
2:52
helped a lot of her patients. So she sent me to this woman and
2:57
lo and behold, I got better I got all That also led me to
3:02
a naturopath, and between the Iraqi and the naturopath, I take zero medications.
3:07
I'm not allergic to anything. My thyroid's just fine. But when I
3:14
was so sick, I was in bed a lot, and I detest being
3:16
idle. So what can you do when you're stuck in bed? Well?
3:22
I found an online metaphysical school. I checked around with some of my friends
3:29
that I knew dabbled in that, and they assured me it was a great
3:31
school, and so I signed up and I started learning everything and anything I
3:38
could about metaphysics. I mean, I had been a good Christian girl,
3:43
and I'd read my Bible back to back, cover to cover, you know,
3:46
numerous times, but there were so many questions still, and joining the
3:55
University of Metaphysical Science online I could learn about everything. I learned about all
4:01
the world's religions. I learned about everything metaphysical that you can possibly think of.
4:06
They have a course for it, and that just spurred my interests more
4:11
and more and more and more, and it just got deeper and deeper,
4:14
and I grew and grew and grew, and now we're here. So prior
4:18
to age forty You had no involvement whatsoever in any of these practices. Nope.
4:24
Interesting. Interesting. It's interesting that a lot of people that I know,
4:29
for me, it was my mid thirties, mid to late thirties,
4:31
had some type of a development in their life that led them onto this path
4:36
of study of spirit and metaphysics and all of the mysteries of life. And
4:44
for me, it was a wonderful life changing time. And obviously it was
4:46
also for you. Tell us about your work as a psychic, intuitive and
4:50
aura reader. Well, oh, so just back up for a little bit.
4:56
While I was taking those courses, I realized I had been seeing or
5:00
my entire life, and I didn't know what it was, and nobody in
5:04
my community, you know, they would always just tell me it was my
5:08
imagination or whatever. So then I took the ORA course, and I use
5:14
that I teach it as a life skill because it really can just change your
5:19
life for the better. Being able to see auras, you know, I
5:25
tell people if you're dating, if you're looking for a job, if you're
5:29
hiring. I had a student use it to buy her husband a car.
5:33
She checked the aura of the car dealership, the car dealer and the car
5:41
because everything has an aura. Everything in creation has an aura, and that
5:45
allows you to see its energy and it's true. It's trueness, you know,
5:49
because especially people, we put up false you know, images that we
5:56
project to the world. Being able to see someone's orraas, you get to
5:59
see the real Then that turned around and helped me with my clients for my
6:05
coaching business, my reiki business, and you know, just being a reverend
6:13
and a like you know, all my things came together because I could see
6:17
auras and I could use them to help people and guide people. Because you
6:23
know, I'm sure you probably counsel people and they tell you what they think
6:26
you want to hear. But when you can see beyond the facade, it
6:31
takes it to a deeper, more open and honest conversation. Absolutely tell us
6:39
about your ordination well through the University of Metaphysical Science, and there I wishtreet
6:46
they changed the name of the church their church. I got ordained through the
6:53
church associated with the university, and it just I've always been very close to
7:01
God and Jesus my whole life. That was I mean, when I was
7:06
little, I took myself to church. No truth be told, it was
7:10
only two houses down the street, so that was easy to do. I
7:13
take myself's church because that wasn't something my family was into, and my sisters
7:17
would come, and so I developed a deep bond with God and Jesus and
7:25
you know, the angels, and so when I had this opportunity to really
7:30
study all the religions and become an ordained minister, it just felt like that
7:36
was the path that God was calling me on. Absolutely same for me in
7:42
the nineties when this happened to me. What inspired your first book, We
7:46
Can Save Her Mother Earth, Climate Change and Us And what did you share
7:51
with your readers about our relationship with and stewardship of Gia. Well, this
7:59
book is very for a small book, has a ton of information in it.
8:03
And why I wrote it was because it's incredibly important to me that we
8:11
take care of the planet. You know, I always tell everybody you know,
8:16
if you take care of the things in your life, and the things
8:18
in your life will take care of you. That includes each other, ourselves,
8:24
and the planet. And the one thing, the one being most people
8:30
fail to take care of, is themselves. So this book is basically saying,
8:35
start with taking care of yourself, be mindful of the products you use,
8:41
the food you eat, the shows you watch, the company you keep,
8:46
all of those make a difference. And once you start taking care of
8:50
your health, then you're able to have healthy relationships with others, and that
8:56
grows your family, your community, and it just keeps going out and out
9:01
now and then as you learned to do all of that, then you're naturally
9:07
instinctively taking care of the planet. And it bothers you when someone throws trash
9:13
on the ground or you see an animal being mistreated. All those things matter,
9:18
and all those things make a difference. And in this book, one
9:22
of the things that people most misunderstand is passage in several religions, but we'll
9:31
go with the Christian religion that basically says God gave us dominion over the earth.
9:37
But that is misquoted. God gave us stewardship of the earth, not
9:43
dominion over it. We're not here to rule the planet. We're here to
9:46
care for the planet. Absolutely. There are a lot of words that have
9:50
been mistranslated. We'll talk a little bit about more that when we talk about
9:54
your latest book, God is not what you think. But you also wrote
9:56
a lighter, practical book about money entitled It's the Little Things two hundred plus
10:03
Ways to save money. What were some of the little things you shared in
10:07
that book. Well, there's a lot of them. I have everything from
10:09
kids, to groceries to health. It's little things. It's like, I
10:16
mean, really is when you're cooking your food for the week, for example,
10:22
cook extra right and freeze it so that you have it for a for
10:26
a later date. And you know, so that way, when you want
10:31
that dish again, it's already made for one. So that saves you from
10:35
having to go to the grocery store, from buying more products and spending the
10:39
you know, utilities to create the food because it's already made. You just
10:43
have to heat it up. But or if someone stops by unexpectedly, you
10:50
can pull something out of the freezer and there you got a meal. I
10:54
mean that's one of the things. But the other thing is you like use
10:58
less. Like when you're running your dishes, are doing your laundry, you
11:01
can actually use a third to a half less than what the manufacturers recommend and
11:09
get just as clean dishes, clothes, what have you. And that goes
11:15
for most products they recommend. We use way more than we need to,
11:20
so start by cutting that in half, and then you've already expanded your budget.
11:24
You know how much money you have. So it's little things like that
11:28
that I have in the book Easy Easy Things. I know when I was
11:31
growing up in the nineteen fifties and sixties, one of the things that was
11:33
stressed was being very conservative with your money and being very careful with your money
11:39
when you earned money to save it, which is something that seems to have
11:41
disappeared in the latter generations. What do you say about kids, any advice
11:46
for kids on saving money? I do have a whole section on kids,
11:50
and one of the things that I recommend is don't be afraid to do hand
11:56
me downs. People get so caught up with the oh, my kid needs
12:01
a new assist, My kid needs a new ist. That now only if
12:03
you teach them to think that way. When I grew up, I wore
12:07
hand me downs. I wore hand me downs from my brothers, you know,
12:11
and there was nothing wrong with that. And people need to get back.
12:15
That's an easy way to for a community to support each other if they
12:20
suffle around clothes and toys and games, because let's face it, our kids
12:24
outgrow all those things really quick. So if you move them around and then
12:28
your whole community gets the use out of them, it saves everybody money.
12:33
Absolutely, And not to mention the fact that today things are so pushed on
12:39
us with marketing about getting the latest and the greatest iteration of the latest iPhone
12:43
or the latest cell phone, whatever it might be, and kids just say,
12:46
I want that because it's the latest and the greatest, and I've still
12:50
got my old iPhone eight. It's worked just fine. When we did finally
12:56
upgrade our phones, my husband had I think it was a five, and
13:01
they laughed at him. He but it serves his needs, so he didn't,
13:05
you know, until he needed to update. He didn't waste his money.
13:11
And that's part of what this book is about. You don't need a
13:13
new car every two years. You don't need a new iPhone every six months
13:18
or however when they come out or whatever. But we have to teach our
13:24
We teach our kids that yes, you do. We let them get involved
13:26
in that commercialism. We need to teach them, no, you don't.
13:31
It's okay to have a five year old iPad And I'm sorry, I don't
13:37
even know what kids under eight need an iPad for but that's just me.
13:41
Maybe I'm just old. No, no, just practical. You know,
13:45
it's nice to write with a pen and paper or a pencil and paper,
13:48
and you don't have to have an iPad to write as I as I try
13:52
to impress upon certain people in my life. Your latest book is your doctoral
13:56
dissertation. God is not what you think. First of all, congratulations on
14:01
earning your doctorate and the publication of this dissertation. That's a lot of work.
14:05
That's wonderful. So congratulations, Thank you. What inspired the message in
14:11
this book, Well, I think I might have mentioned this to you,
14:18
but I actually wrote this dissertation a while ago, and I decided to publish
14:22
it as a book now because I see so many families, communities, countries
14:31
fighting over God, which is ridiculous because God is love. You know.
14:37
No, my name is right, your name's are wrong, You're bad,
14:41
I'm right. No, that's all silliness, And that's why I had I
14:46
wanted to get this out here. We are we are all children of God.
14:52
Everything that we know, sea feel, do is all God. So
15:00
I wanted people to understand that God is not some man sitting up in heaven
15:05
saying, Oh, you're bad because you didn't do what I wanted you to
15:07
do. Well, again, that's silly if you think about it. I
15:11
mean, why would God give us free will if he's going to punish us
15:13
every time we used it. I mean, I'm not saying there's not consequences
15:18
for bad actions, but it's not God saying, oh, you know,
15:22
you kissed a girl, so you're going to hell. I mean, I
15:26
just it's all silliness. So I wanted to really get this out here to
15:30
help, hopefully help heal some families in the community and the world with getting
15:37
everyone to realize that God doesn't care what you call God. I use the
15:41
word God, but you can use Allah, great Spirit, and great beyond
15:46
the universe. It's all the same. What is the definition of the word
15:50
religion. Well, according to dictionary dot com, Well, because you can
16:00
find a ton of religion definitions for religion out there, but this one I
16:06
thought was good. Religion is defined as a specific fundamental set of beliefs and
16:11
practice is generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sex. So religion
16:18
is man made. Religion is something you know, mostly a bunch of men
16:23
would get together and say hey, this is this is what we're going to
16:26
believe in now. And that's fine for them, I mean, if that's
16:30
what they want to believe in, but it's not fine for everybody else.
16:33
And that's why there are so many kinds of religions because different places, different
16:38
circumstances, they needed a different set or they wanted a different set of rules
16:45
right to live by. So that's why there's so many different religions we call,
16:48
you know, some worship God, some worship Goddess, some worship cows.
16:55
I mean, it just depends on reallygion is just man made bs.
17:00
Basically, one of the Latin roots of the word religion is religare, which
17:07
means to tie fast or to bind. Is it necessary to be bound to
17:11
a religion to have faith in divinity? Oh? Absolutely not, absolutely not.
17:18
I mean, like I said, I may be an ordained minister,
17:22
but I believe religion is BS. And I absolutely, with my every fiber
17:30
of my being, believe in God and have utmost faith in God. I
17:36
mean, my life has been very blessed, and I believe that's because of
17:40
my faith in God and my almost continuous conversations with Him Her God, what
17:48
dover you wanna call it. What process led to the equation of God with
17:55
the varied religions? Well, I'm not quite sure I'm going to answer this
17:59
the way you in the question. But the various religions they needed, they
18:07
needed something, a figurehead, and they just some of them named it God,
18:15
and so they use that as a control mechanism. There's something more powerful
18:19
than the rest of you, so you know the rest of us. So
18:22
that's why the religions came up with God or Goddess. It's just to have
18:33
someone else to blame, basically. I don't know if that answered your question,
18:38
but sort of. And so in the beginning, when when there were
18:42
first the first basic civilizations, before there was shared communications and so on,
18:49
what was the first form of worship that you've encountered, the very first form
18:55
of I mean I remember studying and learning that people would worship the sun.
19:00
Initially they did. They worshiped not just the sun, but they worshiped the
19:07
nature and the patterns of nature. And if we got back to that,
19:11
that would be wonderful. And they did that because it gave it let them
19:18
know when to plant and when to harvest their crops and when to migrate,
19:23
because a lot of early civilizations had to migrate for food and water and whatnot,
19:30
and to avoid extreme weather events. So the very first form of worship
19:37
was nature. And then the Sumerians I believe were the first who had some
19:44
form of organized religion. I believe that is correct. There might have been
19:48
one before them, but I believe it was the Sumerians and right, but
19:52
they did that because they needed to get more control. They needed to have
19:57
somebody in charge, someone telling people what to do, you know, someone
20:02
saying, hey, you know, we need to do this and this and
20:06
this to get this and that and that, and it just I think the
20:11
original intent was was actually good. It was just to guide, but religion
20:19
has become so perverted that it's now just all about control. My guest is
20:26
Reverend doctor Lori Powers Auto. Her book is called God Is Not What You
20:30
Think. Laurie. Please share with our listeners where they can get your book
20:33
and find out more about you. My books are available on Amazon, and
20:40
you can find me on Facebook under a Reverend doctor Lori Power's Auto or you
20:47
can find me on Instagram at Lori Power's Auto. And we'll be back with
20:52
more after these words on the own Times Radio network, the best of the
20:56
holistic, spiritual and conscious world om Times Radio IOMFM. Ome Times Magazine is
21:04
one of the leading online content providers of positivity, wellness, and personal empowerment.
21:11
A philanthropic organization, their net proceeds are funneled to support worldwide charity initiatives
21:15
via Humanity Healing International. Through their commitment to creating community and providing conscious content,
21:22
they aspire to uplift humanity on a global scale. Ome Times co creating
21:27
a more conscious lifestyle. If I could be you and you could be me
21:32
for just one hour, if you can find a way to get inside each
21:36
other's mind, walk a mile in my shoes, Walk a mile in my
21:40
shoes, Walk a mile in my shoes. We've all felt left out,
21:45
and for some that feeling lasts more than a moment. We can change that.
21:49
Learn how it Belonging begins with us dot org. Brought to you by
21:52
the App Council. Welcome Out in my Shoes. Hello, I'm Sandy sedgeby
22:00
a host of m Times Magazine's flagship radio show, What is going On?
22:06
My passion is sifting through information, research and innovations from new thought teachers speakers
22:11
and researchers pushing back the boundaries of what we know about life, energy,
22:15
metaphysics, and the universe. I love shifting perceptions about who we are,
22:21
why we're here, and how quickly impossible becomes normal when we open our minds,
22:26
expand our awareness, and accept that the only limits that exist are those
22:30
we place upon ourselves. So if you're the kind of forward thinking, eager
22:34
investigator of what lies beyond the current reality that most perceive, why not make
22:40
a date to come play with me in the Field of Possibilities at four pm
22:44
Pacific time seven pm Eastern time every Thursday, and together we can discover what's
22:49
really going on. They are our cuddlers and coworkers, per machines and lovebugs
22:56
and constant companions. They are our pets, our family, and they make
23:02
life so much better when we face unexpected challenges in life. So do our
23:07
pets. That's why we're on a mission to support people who love their pets
23:11
and the pets who love their people, ensuring these families stay exactly where they
23:17
belong. Together, and you have something to offer with an open heart and
23:21
mind, there is nothing you can't do. There's no gesture too small or
23:26
too big when it comes to helping, whether donating a bag of kibble,
23:30
sharing an Instagram post of a lost cat, or welcoming a foster pet into
23:33
your home, every bit of kindness counts. You can help keep pets and
23:38
people together. Visit Pets and Peopletogether dot org to learn how to be a
23:45
helper in your community. This has been a public service announcement brought to you
23:48
by Mattie's Fund, the Humane Society of the United States, and the ad
23:51
Council. Back on Vox Novus, my guest this week is Reverend Lori powers
23:56
Otto. We're talking about her latest book, God Is Not what You Think,
24:03
Laurie. Several early religions included the worship of the feminine, divine or
24:07
goddess, still present today in Hinduism and Jainism, certain sects of Buddhism and
24:15
pagan practices. Why do you think the mother was left out of other religions?
24:21
Control Men, for the most part, are afraid of women. They're
24:30
afraid of the energy, the power, the love that women exude, and
24:37
so in some religions, not at all. In some religions, it was
24:41
very deliberate to keep the woman down, to make her less. That's why
24:48
they say Eve was made from Adam or a woman is a man's property.
24:55
You know, they had they had to make her less to control her in
25:00
you know, because it's more women than there are men in the world.
25:03
So their minority got scared and said, well, let's make some pig rules
25:10
up. And if women were included in this concept of divinity, if it
25:17
was not God the Father but God the Mother, what do you think would
25:19
have happened. It's my belief that if we included both, not one or
25:30
the other, it should be both, that it's more complete and everybody gets
25:37
a seat at the table, everybody has a stake, everybody gets empowered.
25:44
And that's how I would like to see us as a planet move forward in
25:49
our beliefs that everybody has value, so it shouldn't be God or Goddess,
25:56
it should be both. And in the process of doing that, how does
26:04
that change religion? Oh, it dramatically changes religion. You know, women
26:11
in Middle Eastern countries won't be raped and beheaded for a hair sticking out of
26:18
their you know, clothes, or you know, even women in this country
26:26
won't be subjected to well, you know WHI I'm demand you're going to do
26:30
what I say, and you know, not have like control over their bodies
26:37
or their thought process. I mean, people have to remember it wasn't until
26:41
the seventies that a woman could have a credit card in her own name,
26:47
right, So right, both bringing them both to the table. Everybody gets
26:53
empowered, everybody gets strength. And it would also bring more empathy and compacts,
27:00
wouldn't it. Yes, I do think it would. It would bring
27:03
more love, more more caring, more like you said, compassion and empathy,
27:11
but also more engagement with each other, with our neighbors, you know.
27:18
I mean, I just think it would just it would open up everything
27:27
for everybody. Absolutely. How has a belief in an afterlife shaped Western religions
27:37
and the relationship with God. They've made people afraid. It's made people afraid
27:44
of God. You know, if you don't do what God says, meaning
27:48
what I tell you God says, then you're going to hell and you're going
27:52
to be punished forever. So people get afraid, and people don't live their
27:56
authentic selves, and they a lot of people come to hate themselves because they
28:03
feel they're not good enough, you know, and they're not going to get
28:07
to heaven and you know, or it's yeah, it's it's really taking religion
28:15
to some of its worst aspects, and it's taken us away from living like
28:23
honoring this planet. Right, so many people are waiting to get to the
28:29
other side that they don't take any care of this life. And this is
28:32
a beautiful, precious gift God has given us that we shouldn't be squandering or
28:37
ignoring for something in the future. And the concept of sin created by man,
28:49
not by God. Yes, absolutely, absolutely, sin is just another
28:55
thing word that they used to control you because they can't even agree on what
29:02
sin is. Which sin and you know, I mean some religions this is
29:06
a sin. Some religions that's a sin. And it's like, okay,
29:08
you can't even agree on that, and then you're gonna you know, it's
29:12
just like I have a lot of you know, LGBTQ plus friends and relatives
29:22
and you know, these really some of these religions are telling them that they
29:26
are sinners because of the way God made them, and I just can't ascribe
29:32
to that. So what when they say that, I look at them,
29:34
I say, so you're saying God made a mistake, because you're saying God
29:37
doesn't make mistakes. But now you're telling me God made a mistake because he
29:42
allowed this sin to happen. I don't get it. Talk a little bit
29:48
if you can, about what happened with the foundation at the Council of Nicea
29:55
under Constantine and how it changed the approach that Jesus had brought. Well,
30:00
what people don't seem to understand is, first of all, that was originally
30:07
convened for the benefit of the Catholic Church, who now does not even use
30:11
that because King change, change changed it. But they just took you know,
30:19
these took a bunch of stories and and like Matthew, Mark Luke and
30:23
John I think are all written by the same person. But people don't realize
30:27
that. They think that Matthew wrote his and Mark wrote his, and etcetera.
30:33
It's not true. And a lot of it is just made up stories.
30:38
That's why two of the books supposedly tell the exact same story, but
30:44
they're they're slightly different. And it's like, why you need two books talking
30:48
about the exact same thing. I don't I think it. I think it
30:53
destroyed the teachings of Jesus. I really do. I know way too many
31:00
people that say, they're Christians that don't believe in the things Jesus bleeved in
31:07
helping them, you know, homeless, feeding the poor, taking care of
31:11
each other, loving one another. They just don't believe in that. And
31:18
I think it's because of this council that was put together and they put out
31:22
lies, like they threw out the book, you know, the Mary Magdalen's
31:29
Gospel. They you know, because she's a woman, we can't put that
31:32
in there again, guys to keeping women down, and you know, and
31:37
just like calling her a prostitute and a whoror which wasn't true. And even
31:41
if it was, back in that time, it was considered a great honor
31:45
to be a a whore for the temple. So where are they going with
31:52
that? And a lot of the omissions really were the omissions having could do
32:00
personal freedom with equality, with loving each other, right, right, because
32:07
if you love you know, I don't know back okay, So back when
32:15
there was a big movement against interracial marriage, they tried to say that was
32:22
based on the Bible, but it's not, because if you read like the
32:27
Old Testament, a lot of the kings would marry daughters from other countries.
32:32
Clearly not the same race, right, you know, or nationality, so
32:38
you can't say that it was wrong. We intermingled all the time until somebody
32:45
came up and said, oh that's bad. Don't do that. So yeah,
32:50
sorry, no, no, no, not at all. And this
32:52
is an important conversation now. And God is not what you think. You
32:57
researched and wrote extensively about religion being that mechanism of control. How did that
33:04
evolve? When I started studying the world religions is when I realized how much
33:12
bs it really is. And so I wanted to study this to find out,
33:19
well, why why did we even create religion? What was the point
33:22
of it if we were going to just make it up? I mean,
33:27
what was the point right? And that's when I realized through my research that
33:32
these religions were based to control the populace. And you know, you put
33:37
a few men in charge and they got everything. They had, the money,
33:45
they had, the house they had to close, they had, the
33:46
food, and people would start and whatever. And and when people were like,
33:51
oh, we're starving, there's famine, and they'd be like, that's
33:52
because you made God bad. Now go do this and you'll make them happy
33:57
and you'll get food, you know at some point. Yeah, so religion,
34:02
I get very passionate about this side. You know, religion is just
34:08
at this point, purely for controlling people, purely for controlling how they feel,
34:15
how they think, what they say, what they do. I mean,
34:19
I know, when my grandson turned fourteen, his church sent him a
34:24
letter saying he had to start paying to be a member of the church.
34:30
So he left because he's like, I'm fourteen, where do you expect me
34:37
to get money from? And their basic response was, well, your Christmas
34:43
money or your birthday money, or when you get a job, Well you
34:45
can't get a job to you. You know, that's that's amazing. By
34:52
the way, when she uses the term bs, she's talking about blasphemous speech.
34:57
That's what she's saying. Okay, thank you, you're welcome. But
35:02
getting back to this whole thing now, in Catholicism, the priests are not
35:07
allowed to marry. You know what caused that. I actually I don't know
35:13
the exact reason because I didn't look into that, but I know in one
35:22
religion whose name is escaping me, they wanted, supposedly the men to be
35:30
pure and focused solely on God and doing Jesus' work, and they felt that
35:38
if they had wives and families, they would be distracted from their purpose,
35:45
their mission. And what I've read and understand was that in those days,
35:52
if a man passed, his wife would immediately inherit his property, and since
35:58
the property belonged to the church, they didn't want the property to go south.
36:04
Of course, another way of keeping women down. Yeah, and that
36:07
makes total sense because that happened in not just in religion, but in many,
36:15
many, many parts of the world. They would use that same logic.
36:22
They don't want the woman to inherit when the man dies, it has
36:25
to go to another man. So they made rules and regulations to ensure that
36:31
doesn't happen. That sense, like what the Catholic Church did. Unfortunately,
36:36
I've known several Catholic fathers that, well, they might not be married,
36:44
but that doesn't mean they don't enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. It wouldn't
36:50
not be natural, wouldn't it be more? Actually, someone will be more
36:53
balanced if they had the ability to not have to either put on the facade
36:59
of celibacy or not have to be involved in celibacy. Would not make them
37:02
more compassionate? Yes, it would make them more human, you know,
37:08
they would just understand more. Yeah, absolutely, the idea. This idea
37:16
actually caused families to fall apart with the ostracization of children who did not follow
37:23
their parents' practices. You share about this in your dissertation. How did you
37:28
feel about this when you learned it? Oh? Well, the one story
37:34
I put in there extensively, and I didn't even put all of it in
37:37
there, is just gut wrenching. I mean, there's two in there that
37:42
just tore my heart out. How do you turn your back on a child
37:49
that you created simply because they don't follow your beliefs. I just I don't
37:57
get it. I can't wrap my mind around how anyone can love a made
38:04
up religion more than they loved their offspring. And I believe the story you
38:09
should had to do with a young man whose parents were Mormons. Is that
38:14
correct? Yes? Yes, he I mean, having known several Mormons throughout
38:20
my life, this story still this it's still took me by surprise, the
38:30
extreme hate these parents built for their child simply for being who he is.
38:45
And it's interesting because I have several Mormon friends and they would never do anything
38:47
like that to their children, right, That's why I mean, this took
38:52
me, This extremism took me by surprise, but I guess it shouldn't have.
38:57
Growing up, we had a neighbor the son became a Mormon and caught
39:04
all ties with his parents because they were Baptists. It's mind boggling to me.
39:09
They were the nicest people in the entire world. Getting back to women
39:14
in ministry, one of the things that I've found is I have several wonderful
39:20
women friends who are ordained, interfaith ministers who are ordained. One of them
39:24
in the Old Catholic Church. He's a bishop in the Old Catholic Church,
39:29
different various religions. Having women in clergy, I think is such an important
39:32
thing, don't you. Absolutely I do. Like I said, it brings
39:38
more balance, it brings more compassion, it brings more depth of understanding.
39:46
And I don't get me wrong, I men are wonderful. We're just raised
39:52
differently, right. I don't know that we're necessarily made up differently. I
39:58
think we're just raised differently. We have different beliefs and instincts drilled into us
40:07
throughout our lives. Times and women just tend to be more empathetic, more
40:13
understanding, and can see beyond the obvious. Does that make sense? Absolutely?
40:20
I actually had the blessing. My dad passed when I was fifteen,
40:22
and he was sick from the time that I was eight, and I had
40:25
the blessing of a mother who really taught me a lot of the lessons that
40:30
we're talking about today by compassion, about empathy, about caring for others.
40:37
And I'm grateful to her, you know, with her teaching, she made
40:40
me the person that I became as a man, and I'm grateful to her.
40:45
And I think that type of education, having that balance. You know,
40:49
it's wonderful to have the dad teach the son all the masculine things,
40:53
but it's also important for that mom to teach the child, the boy,
40:58
how to love and be empathic, be compassionate. And I'm grateful to my
41:01
mom for those lessons. My guest is Reverend doctor Lori powers Atto. We're
41:07
talking about her book God Is Not What You think. We'll be back with
41:09
more after these words on the Old Times Radio Network. Humanity Healing International is
41:16
a small nonprofit with a big dream. Since two thousand and seven, HHI
41:22
has been working tirelessly to bring help to communities with little or no oh.
41:28
Our projects are not broad mandates, nor are they overnight solutions, but they
41:32
bring the reassurance then no one is alone and that someone cares to learn more.
41:37
Please visit Humanityhealing dot org. Humanity Healing is where your heart is.
41:45
Imagine yourself being transported to India, to the banks of the Ganga and an
41:51
ashram in Rishikesh. Visualize that you are welcome to Satsan with an American Sanyas
41:58
who shares the wisdom of her God. Your visualization has manifested. Join Softvie
42:05
Bagawati Saraswati for inspiration and transformation every Thursday at eleven am Eastern on Old Times
42:12
Radio. More than twenty four million Americans have an autoimmune disorder, and that
42:17
number continues to grow. I'm Sharon Sailor, and I'm one of those twenty
42:22
four million. To put that number in perspective, cancer effects about nine million,
42:25
and heart disease up to twenty two million. That's why I've brought together
42:30
top experts and those thriving regardless of their diagnosis, to bring you the latest,
42:34
most up to date information. Join me, Sharon Sailor Friday night,
42:37
seven pm Eastern for the Autoimmune Hour on Life Interrupted Radio. To find out
42:42
how to live your life uninterrupted, Grab a cup of tea or a glass
42:47
of wine and tune infer inspired conversations with publisher Linda Joy on Tuesdays at two
42:53
pm Eastern. Linda creates sacred space for leading female luminaries, empowering authors,
43:00
art centered female entrepreneurs, coaches, and healers. A soulful venue where guests
43:07
openly share the fears and obstacles they've overcome, wisdom and lessons learned, and
43:13
the personal journey that led them to the transformational work they do in the world.
43:19
Inspired conversations to empower you on your path to authentic, soulful living.
43:25
Hi, this is Bill Mark. I can find humor and almost anything,
43:29
but one thing I never laugh about. It is cruelty to animals. If
43:31
you don't get the joke either, right, People for the Ethical Treatment of
43:36
Animals five on one Front Street in Norfolk, Virginia two three five one Oh,
43:40
my name is said. When I arrived in the US at nineteen,
43:45
I struggled to find job opportunities without my high school diploma. My entire life
43:50
changed when I took a chance and got my high school diploma at age twenty
43:53
two. Everything I have, my education, my career, my marriage,
43:58
I owe to the adultry center and my teachers. They were with me every
44:02
step of the way, helping with my English and man making sure I pushed
44:07
through all the challenges. Arielle, your success, Pruce, do what I'm
44:13
doing as a teacher has real meaning. It was an honor helping you achieve
44:19
your greatness. Now you're helping others achieve theirs. It inspires me. Education
44:24
was the key that unlock all my opportunities. When you graduate, they graduate,
44:30
find free and supportive adult education centers near you at finish yourdiploma. Dot
44:35
org brought to you by Dollar General, Literacy Foundation and the AD Council.
44:39
Back on Vox Novus, my guest this week is Reverend doctor Lori powers Auto.
44:45
We're talking about her new book, God is Not what You think?
44:50
Or is some of the ideas that you researched and shared in your dissertation.
44:54
Our religion is based upon fear and religion is of business. Please share some
45:01
examples with us. Well, we all see how religion is based on fear.
45:07
We see it all the time. You don't do what we say.
45:12
You're going to get punished, You're you know, eternal damnation and all that.
45:16
But the business part is what really should make people wake up. The
45:23
churches in this country have so much property, money, resources, but they
45:36
want they keep it for themselves. And that's what makes them a business is
45:40
you know, they don't They donate less than three percent of their value to
45:46
charitable organizations, and that's across the board. But they what they do is
45:52
they buy shopping malls and schools. You know, uh pay for schools,
45:59
not even schools, you know, they buy schools and they generate income.
46:05
The Mormon Church, I believe it is Latter day Saints is the one of
46:09
the largest cattle ranchers in this country, doing those factory farms that's destroying our
46:15
environment, destroying our beef industry, and they're making a ton of money.
46:22
I mean, look at we've all seen these ministers. Joel who wouldn't open
46:28
his church up to flood victims, right, has a massive estate, a
46:35
private yacht, private jets. You're gonna tell me that's God's work. No,
46:39
that's because he's a greedy businessman. And he'll tell a mother who can
46:45
barely feed her children as she has to tithe to his church ten percent of
46:50
her income every week, or she's going to hell when he could easily pay
46:55
for her family to live for twenty years and not even notice it missing.
47:00
But they pay their taxes, don't they. No, they do not pay
47:04
taxes. And that's why you can't find out how much they actually make because
47:09
they don't pay taxes. And they don't pay taxes on anything they buy with
47:14
the church. So that shopping mall, they don't pay taxes, that movie
47:17
theater, that school. There's ranches and tax free. It's all the yachts,
47:27
the mansions. It's it's you want to if you want to call something
47:30
a sin, it should be that. Okay, putting aside organized religion or
47:35
disorganized religion. Who is God? And what should we understand about the Divine
47:43
God? Is God is everything? I mean literally, science has proven it.
47:51
Science has proven that everything is made of energy. I mean literally everything,
47:59
you're your dog, everything is energy, That trees, and God is
48:05
that energy. God is the source of all that is, all that ever
48:10
will be. And and we just need to reframe how we think of God.
48:17
God is not some benevolent man or some punishing deity. God is us.
48:24
God is everything. So everywhere you look, everything you see, everything
48:29
you touch, smell, feel here sense is God. And science has proven
48:35
it to be true. And does prayer manifest an energetic change. Absolutely,
48:44
Prayer is one of the most beautiful things we can use it. You know.
48:47
I've heard people say prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening,
48:52
and that is partially true. But we are constantly in contact with God talking
49:00
and prayer is why every time you pray and the energy shifts. And there
49:07
are studies and somewhere in this in my book, and there's other studies you
49:10
can find all over the place where they'll take hospital patients and they did a
49:16
blind study where they prayed for some half of the patients and not for the
49:22
other and the ones that got prayed for healed faster, stayed healthy, needed
49:29
less medications, got out of hospital quicker. I mean, in every puzzible
49:34
area, the pray for prayed for patients excelled over the non prayed for patients.
49:40
And they've done that experience with crops. Crops that are prayed for grow
49:46
bigger, fuller, stronger, more nutrient dense than crops not prayed for.
49:53
So, Yes, prayer can make a difference in any any situation, in
50:00
any application. And do you and I, both as reiki masters and reiki
50:05
practitioners for many years, recognize that reiki energy is another form of the same
50:09
thing. Yes. Absolutely. When I was creating my own reiki program,
50:16
I studied a lot of the Japanese programs, which are very similar, not
50:21
like the ones in the United States. And one of the definitions of the
50:24
term reiki is God's love beautiful. And when we pray, you know,
50:34
in traditional prayer, we're praying to God, to the Lord, to our
50:37
Father, to Jesus, to whichever faith we're in the way we were taught
50:40
to pray. What do you pray to? Well, I said, I
50:45
use the term God, but in my mind that is everything, that's the
50:52
energy of that creates all. So I do pray to God. I talk
50:58
to Jesus regularly, but not the Jesus most people believe in. Who is
51:05
the Jesus that you speak with. I talked to the Jesus that fed the
51:08
hungry, befriended the sinners, cared about the poor, that helped others,
51:17
and wanted to create an environment where people were valued, loved, and respected.
51:25
And who do you consider Jesus to be? Well, I don't consider
51:30
Jesus to be the son of God. I don't. We're all the sons
51:37
and daughters of God. And I know some people say, well, Jesus
51:40
never really existed. Well, history begs to differ. I know that in
51:50
Japan there's a tombstone for Jesus of Nazareth, and there's something similar in France.
51:55
So you know, take that however you want it. Jesus is to
52:04
me, Jesus is the example that everyone should follow. Yeah, He's the
52:10
I was going to use the word the essence of right. If you wanted
52:15
something to follow, it should be that that energy, that experience. You
52:22
know. One of the things that I learned while attending the New Seminary of
52:25
the nineteen nineties is that there is an iteration of the Golden rule in virtually
52:31
every faith. Do unto others as you would have them doing to you,
52:36
Love thy neighbor as thyself. Why have so many religions forgotten this basic tenet?
52:44
And what would our world be like if everyone just practiced those two things?
52:50
Well, I think the religions they teach those things to the children and
52:57
then teach the opposite to the adults. Love your neighbor as long as they
53:01
think the way we think, right, And we need to get rid of
53:08
that because we need to get back to those Because if we could live by
53:13
those so called golden rules, because they really are golden rules, we would
53:17
know peace, we would know love, we would know the end of starvation
53:22
and homelessness and you know, mass shootings. And I'm not saying that everybody's
53:30
always going to agree on everything, but we would learn to disagree in a
53:34
peaceful manner and to work out our differences with each other instead of fighting each
53:39
other over silliness. There would be an end to war. Yeah, there
53:46
would be an end to hunger because everyone would share, right. There would
53:52
be an end probably to disease because a lot of disease is caused by worry
53:55
and fear. Yes, stress. People don't realize that we manifest these diseases
54:01
in ourselves for various reasons. You know that we may not ever fully understand.
54:08
So yes, it could lead to the end of illness in you know,
54:13
disease, even injuries, because we'd be stronger, healthier, take care
54:19
of our bodies more. What would you like your readers to take away from
54:23
God is not what you think. I want them to understand that God is
54:32
not one single thing. God is everything. And you could have a relationship
54:39
with God without subscribing to a religion. And you can. God's not some
54:50
far off entity. God is you know. Go out and talk to the
54:52
tree in your yard. That's God. Talk to your pet, that's God.
54:55
Talk to yourself, yourself, It's all God. God is everywhere.
55:00
God is everything. God is not good or bad. God is not you
55:05
know, angry or benevolent. God is just everything and an example in that
55:15
energy, in that love of what each and every one of us should aspire
55:20
to. My guest is Reverend Doctor Lori Powers Auto her new book, God
55:28
Is Not What You Think. Laurie, one more time, please share with
55:30
our listeners where they can get your book and find out more about you.
55:36
My books are all available on Amazon dot com and you can find me on
55:40
Facebook at Rev. Doctor Lori Power's Auto or on Instagram at Loripower's Auto.
55:47
Laurie, it is a pleasure to have you with us and sharing this message.
55:51
It's also a pleasure to call you my friend, even though we've never
55:52
physically met. We've been friends on Facebook for a long time. You thank
55:57
you, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Victor,
56:00
and thank you for joining us on Vox Novus. I'm Victor, the voice
56:06
perman of a wonderful week.