A:  To get a frame of reference that will work for you, may I ask you about some very private issues?

  C:  I suppose so....

  A:  Good. Do you believe in God, or something along those lines?

  C:  I suppose so.

  A:  You're not sure what you believe?

  C:  Not totally. I can't know for sure.

  A:  You can't know for sure that you believe in anything? Or, you think you believe that God or something really exists, but you can't know for sure that your belief is correct?

  C:  Right. I mean, it's both. But it's more the second one!

  A:  I understand. But then, How could a person be sure?

  C:  I don't know. Maybe if something happened, you know, to show me, somehow convince me.

  A:  So that would depend on which you believe, what kind of thing might work to convince you. I mean, if you believe in God as popularly understood, that would be one thing. But if you believe in something like God but somehow different, then your revelation might also be experienced differently, right?

  C:  I guess you're right. I never thought about that.

  A:  Okay. Have you considered what the situation might be if you believed reality was one way, and it was another?

  C:  I suppose it would be like life is now: confusing! And worrisome, because what if I give my most basic thoughts and hopes over to the wrong thing?

  A:  Yes. That's a fearsome thing. But I was actually thinking of a different angle, a different problem that could stand in a guy's way of ever knowing for sure.

  C:  What's that?

  A:  Suppose you believed reality was a certain way, or you hoped it was, or whatever. But suppose it was actually different and you had an experience that proved the different thing?

  My question is, would you realize that your question had been answered but it wasn't the question you'd been asking, and that seeing the reality of the answer required you to change your entire outlook? Or would you just be conflicted by how what you'd seen contradicts what you believe?

  C:  Whoa! That's scary! I don't know. I'd hope I'm open-minded enough to deal with it. But you know how belief is, people can be really stuck in something.

  A:  Yes, they can. But we're not talking about the people who have firm beliefs, whether we agree with them or not, because they won't be coming around here looking for answers, will they?! They are satisfied and not looking for anything along these lines. I'd say, leave them alone if their lives are working, and even if their lives aren't working but they don't want to question these things in wondering why.

  But a guy like you, who starts out not sure what he believes, that's different.

  So I have another question: Is it more that you're not sure what you believe, or that you are more hopeful than believing? I mean, is it more that you hope there's something there even if you can't be sure and don't know what it would be?

  C:  Well, something like that last one. But I do think there's something there, something I've been calling God for lack of any other sensible word, but it's not the same as the old grump from Sunday School who won't love me if I don't love him. It's got to be more than that.

  A:  One would hope. So, this 'somethig else' --how would you describe it, the way you suspect it to be, and the parts you hope are there or included in the package?

  C:  Wow. Nobody ever asked me to describe or define God before! Feels weird.

  A:  I'm sure it does. But let me let you off the hook. Instead, let me ask you what I think is a really exciting question: What if there was a way that someone, a real practitioner or priest, if you will, could actually deliver you to the experience of it, so you could know?

  C:  I'm not sure what you mean. How could that be?

  A:  It's a new idea, I realize that. But look. In Buddhism, they have this idea that one can attain a state they call Nirvana, and they teach a process of contemplation and a way of living that's supposed to get you first to enlightenment and then to perfect spiritual contentment. And in India thay have what we know here as Transcendental Meditation and similar methods, that supposedly can be mastered and will take you somewhere beyond merely living in the so-called physical plane.

  What if there was a process or procedure, completely reproducible and doable for anyone, that would take you to a direct experience of Truth? An experience that would show you the true nature of the creator, of yourself, and of reality? One that would settle all your doubts and set the stage for you to move forward into life and take your own dominion in a completely ethical and unobtrusive, but very confident, way?

  C:  Wow again. Just the idea that there could be such a thing. But I'm not interested in changing religions.

  A:  What if you don't have to? What if this experience reveals the truth of all religions and belief systems? You know, shows what's right and strips away what's phony or just plain wrong in all of them too? In that case, you wouldn't really be changing your religion, even though your religion might change around you.

  C:  Heavy thought. But either way, I'd be concerned about finding myself an outcast among the people I know and care about, who'd still react like I'd gone somewhere else or joined a cult.

  A:  Maybe. Or maybe you'd be the one who saw that it was all of them in a cult. After all, a cult is most often thought to be a wrong explanation that traps the minds of those who follow it. But even if that happened, there's no law that says you have to run around pointing out all the flaws in their thinking. That would probably be destructive by any standard. But you could take certain opportunities to reinforce the good parts, and in special moments, to do a little something to clarify the confused or upside-down stuff. Then you wouldn't be an outcast, you'd be a friend, someone people would want to talk to, maybe even a mentor of sorts.

  C:  Boy, wouldn't that be something: me, a mentor instead of a Doubting Thomas!

  A:  It sure would. And then there's this: If this experience really is common to and clarifying for all religions, you'd have a new depth of common ground with everyone on the planet who's in any religion. And if that were the case, over time as more people from all walks of life found their way to this, all the conflict that stems from opposing beliefs and their morals standards would dissolve. We all know that most wars are about money and religion. And both of those are really about power over people. What if people just couldn't have power enforced on them? Who'd support the wars and oppression?

  That's what you'd be part of bringing about.

  C:  Yeah, that would be something. I'd be willing to be surprised in my beliefs if it could lead toward that.

  A:  Great! Because that is exactly what the New Epiphany Chapel is all about. It's about getting you to and through your own personal epiphany, and into the expanded reality and life that waits on the other side of the experience.

  C:  My personal epiphany? What are you talking about?

  A:  An epiphany is a sudden and startling realization of a previously unsuspected aspect of reality.

  We have a way to walk you to the threshold of your own enlightening experience of Truth as it concerns you. The truth of yourself and what and who you are and your true potentials. The truth about God or whatever, and the truth about your interconnectedness with all things. We can take you through that door on your own terms. And then we even have some things you can learn, some tools for living, that will help you fix the parts of your life that prove to have been broken all along, and to be successful in just plain living and dealing with things.

  You'll be more certain of your own validity and therefore more confident; you'll be more aware of your relationships with others and therefore more respectful; and you'll be more creative and therefore more successful at whatever you finally set out to do.

  C:  Well. That would certainly be something.

  A:  It would. It is. Of course, that's the good news.

  C:  There's bad news?

  A:  Yep. A couple of things. First, it takes about a hundred hours of confessional-level coaching and training to get through and re-established. And unhappily, time is money in today's world. And then, of course, there's the fact that you have a lot to lose: you have to be willing to give up every bad thing about your life!

  C:  And that's a bad thing for what reason?

  A:  It's bad because it's scary to let go of old ghosts and comfortable shoes, no matter how painful they may be to wear. Too often, the familiar seems far more comfortable than the as-yet unknown better.

  C:  That makes sense. How do you handle that?

  A:  We don't. I mean, it's not up to us. You, just like anyone else, must make the decision yourself. It's your chance to take. You know, we make a really big deal about free will. It's a basic tenet in most religions, despite the fact that most religious organizations do their damnedest to prevent you from exercising it. On our part, though, we have a Non-indoctrination Policy that says you have to be let make your own choices. Not simply allowed, but more than that, because to even position things that a permission is appropriate in a violation. We're most adamant about it. Look: you're supposed to find your way back, right? To find your way to God through an act of Free Will, is the way it's said in the Christian faith. We're just making that our Prime Directive.

  C:  So you're telling me that you have this thing that you say will change the world, rock me to the core of my being, and you won't push me to do it?

  A:  That's exactly right.

  C:  So how will you ever get enough people to do it to make a difference in the world?

  A:  Well, there are two way to look at that. First, if we make a difference in only one or a hundred lives and the world blows itself up, we've done well by the ones we did help, and we have to take that as it is.

  But the other thing is, there are two classes of people who will find our proposition attractive, and they comprise a group so large we'll be years in training enough practitoners to help them all. Those classes are the desperately dissatisfied and the actively seeking. Neither of these groups fits into the complacent middle ground. And that middle ground is not the majority. Most people are fed up. They want real answers that work, they want true leaders who don't turn out to be hypocrites, and they want themselves to be more than what they are now, without having to pretend to be something they're not, without having to play to social and political rules made by insane or two-faced power-mongers.

  C:  Huh. That's pretty strong. Are you that angry with the world?

  A:  No, of course not. I'm just that blunt about it.

  I'm actually the eternal optimist. I am convinced that with this new service we can finally make a difference and break the cycle. Yes, there's a lot of ignorance and manufactured confusion out there, and eventually every vested interest on the planet will come to fear what we're doing. But they, or more correctly the people who are their blood and bone, will gradually come our way too, because in one's deepest desire, everyone wants a better world.

  So what if we have to tear down a few shoddy buildings to build anew?

  C:  Man, that's quite a vision.

  A:  Thank you. The fact is, I think we're very, very lucky to be here now, to be able to do something about it at the most personal level.

  So what do you want to do?