Welcome to this special place on the path to spiritual reality. Here, you will find wisdom, insight into the nature of spiritual authenticity, and the encouragement to think for yourself and form a centered, rational, informed perspective on spirituality and religion.
William Edelen has spent his life in courageous pursuit of the historical truth about religion. Basing his research on facts, not popular opinions or religious dogma, he stands for accuracy.
Bill was a Marine Pilot for 12 years during WW II and the Korean War, where he learned his love of reading and scholarship. Earning advanced degrees in anthropology and theology, he taught at the university level, where his classes were always popular. Among his many learned friends were Buckminster Fuller, Walter Annenberg and Joseph Campbell. It was Joseph Campbell who recommended to Bill that he keep pointing people “Toward the Mystery.”
You will find many surprising historical truths in his inspiring lectures and columns, such as the fact that the first six presidents of the United States were not Christians – they were Deists and Humanists and were against the church being involved with government.
Join William Edelen as he presents the documented origins of religious beliefs, mythologies, traditions, and ceremonies, as well as introduces the stimulating spiritual philosophies of some of the world’s greatest minds in modern times and throughout history.
The courage to be true
May 14, 2012
“This above all, to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” Hamlet
The courage it takes to “be true to thine own self” is enormous. We have pressure from all sides to be everything other than our true selves. Pressure is often constant from family, peers, friends, society, relatives for us to be what “they” want us to be. Or that we do whatever it is “they” want us to do. The pressures of society can keep us divorced from ourselves for our entire lives.
One of the giant Federal Judges of our history addressed this problem. Learned Hand wrote: “Since our ancestors rose upon their hind legs to become Homo sapiens there have never been so many people who ate alike, slept alike, hated alike, loved alike, wore the same clothes and used the same furniture in the same houses, went to the same games and saw the same plays, read the same books and magazines, went to the same church and believed in the same God, and yet were all confidently assured that they were individuals and independent.”
There was an American giant of letters. He was admired over the entire world for his brilliance in thought and writing. His name was Ralph Waldo Emerson. He wrote of this problem of being true “to thine own self” in one of his most remarkable and penetrating essays. It is a very simple, direct answer to what you must do if you make the courageous choice to be true to yourself.
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Recent Columns
- The courage to be true · May 14, 2012
- Women without superstition · May 6, 2012
- Albert Einstein and the Dalai Lama – kindred souls · April 29, 2012
- Albert Einstein · April 22, 2012
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“William Edelen is an original thinker in the oldest of thinking worlds, that is, thinking about God. He's in love with the truth. Edelen dares to do his own thinking. He has wide experience to enrich that thinking.”
