What I Believe

Okay, I will talk about my religion or spirituality, and I will tell you how I came upon this viewpoint. I grew up in a mixed religious environment. What exactly does that mean? It means I grew up in a devoutly Catholic city- New Orleans- which is everything, but Catholic. As you may know, New Orleans is like the original Vegas...from like the 1700's. We had prostitutes, drinking, and up all night partying before Vegas was even a concept. Also, I have relatives that are Christian, Jehovah's Witness, Buddhist--oh yea, my uncle has his own temple---and just plain superstitious. I grew up with friends that were Catholic, Lutheran, Southern Baptists, Jewish, Pagan, and Wiccan (hey, it's New Orleans, I'm lucky I didn't have any vampire friends.) Pretty much I grew up with all and any religious influences you could think of, and growing up with every conflicting message and religion around, I was like, "Wait. Is this total bullshit?" Yea. Because I knew people who I thought were pretty intelligent believing in God knows what and God knows who? Literally. God knows who? So, naturally I chose to be Atheist/Agnostic.

I spent most of my college years being Atheist and feeling much smarter and superior to all those idiotic religious people. Think: snarky Asian chic who watches South Park. I, also, spent most of my college years doing stand up and studying psychology and myself going to a therapist to deal with issues I had with my parents. The more I studied science and psychology, the more patterns I saw that had to do with spirituality. I studied some Native American religions---that idea that we are all one, connected, and everything on Earth had a spirit or energy---plants, animals, etc. This seemed to make logical sense in terms of Science. The scientific idea that nothing is ever created or destroyed made sense with the cycle of life. We take energy from plant and animal matter when we eat it, poop it out, well, you get the idea. I studied Eastern religions, like Buddhism.. meditation, yoga.. It wasn't until my mid-twenties, when I started learning about transformation and religious science (NOT Scientology, not Christian Science---those are different), did I start to understand the purpose and the scientific proof for religion. Okay. So, what is it that I believe to be true?

I believe that we are all energy. Plants, animals, the Earth, the Universe, humans. I believe we are all connected, via the cycle of life. If you would like to call this energy God, that's cool. If you want to call it Mother Nature, whatever. I call it life energy/soul. I believe that there is one God and this God has been called different names and changed into different religions by HUMAN BEINGS. God doesn't say "I'm Christian. I'm Muslim. I'm Buddhist." God is God. Man. Human beings made those distinctions and some said they were "divinely lead", but again. They were human. So, we don't know that. They could've been nuts. They could have been divinely lead. We don't know that. I believe that everyone should have a spirituality. When I was Atheist, I was missing out on the connectedness of spirituality. I do believe now that religion has a purpose as long as you don't use it to further hateful biases against others. I believe you get what you give out. If you want to call this Karma or the Secret or whatever. I believe that we can create our own World/point of view from our attitude. This is called mental projection, it's a psychological thing, and I have seen it happen. Friends I know who have everything and are so negative they can't see or appreciate it, and friends I know who have nothing, but are so grateful and happy.

I believe that our purpose here on Earth is to be the best person we can be and help as many people as we can help. I don't believe we were born in sin. I think every mistake and bad thing that happens is a chance to learn something. This is provable through psychology. If a person has a trauma they will re-create that trauma until they become whole/break the cycle. (I.e. girl with abusive dad is only attracted to bad guys, etc.) Most of my spiritual "beliefs" unless most beliefs, can be proven or backed up by science and/or psychology, and that is why I believe them. The only part that can't be proven, is calling that thing "soul" or "God", but if I call it "energy" it is totally provable. I feel confident in my beliefs because I have seen them proven time and time again, and I also spent a great amount of time researching and experiencing them on an emotional level as well as logical level. I also am confident because I studied and questioned everything, not just blind following or saying "oh, I grew up like this. So, this is what I believe." Sorry, but that is called BRAINWASHING. I believe that all religious texts were written by MAN, inspired by God, but still written by man, who has flaws and their own interpretations. Therefore all religious texts are good guidelines, but are flawed because they are influenced by their human writers and should be updated to modern day, not taken literally. Oh, and if you think what I have done or believe is "wrong", guess what? In ALL the religious texts, your God only choses people that question him first. Most of the stories are of people who question their faith. Hmm....God wants people to wake up and think for themselves?? What a concept!!

Also, please do not spout religious jargon at people if you have not read your so-called religious textbook from front to back. I have read the bible, as well as other texts. Most people let their pastor/preacher/reverend/priest dictate their books to them, and have not actually read the darn thing. So, you are NOT allowed to say "the book says this" or "the book says that" if you haven't read the whole damn book yourself. Just an FYI. It's not a religious thing. It's a common sense thing. You wouldn't watch one act of a play or one chapter of Harry Potter and then pretend like you're the expert on it, but you will read a couple passages from the Koran and pretend to know what you are talking about? No. I don't think so.

Religion has always drove me nuts because I meet people who are so insanely smart, intellectually, yet their religious belief systems make no sense what so ever. You might agree with me, and you might not. That's fine, but whatever you chose to believe, make sure YOU believe it. Make sure you have read your book of worship and actually agree with something before you say, "I am [insert religion]." Cause you might get to the end of the book and there's a twist or something. Do your research. Explore other religions. Make sure you are not being brainwashed. Trust me. Your God wants you to question everything. That is how we express our individuality, by having an opinion, a viewpoint. That is true freedom because your money, home, friends, family can be taken away. Your thoughts and beliefs can not. They are yours. So, make sure what you claim you believe is true and not just a regurgitation. People have died for you to have that right. Use it.

The Truth

I don't know why, but for some reason I got home today, and I had the uncontrollable urge to blog. I think it's because I'm a twitter addict, and sometimes 140 characters just doesn't give justice to the word vomit that is ready to come out of my mouth. First off, I want to say that there are certain truths out there, and 99.9% of people are completely missing most of it, and the people who understand it have no forum to discuss it or tell others about it because the way that people become famous or popular goes against most of these truths.

I'm not saying "truths" in a closed-minded, "there is only one truth, and it is [insert religion]" kind of way. I'm saying there are certain provable laws of the universe or common sense, and no one seems to have these truths or understand them except very few people. Like people are completely missing the point, and we are just a bunch of animals unsupervised on this planet, running amuck and making our own rules and no one is here to watch us and tell us, "hey, you silly people. You are doing it all wrong."

Where to start? It's everywhere, it's hard for me to make sense of any of it or even begin to a point that makes sense. Ok. Most recently, religion. I heard this horrific series on NPR called "losing our religion" and it goes on to interview people who were once a certain religion and now just can't make sense of it in the modern age or who want to be spiritual or religious but can't find proof of it in science or just don't believe in traditional religion. Sounds like a nice piece, right? Wrong. The story just kind of interviews people and doesn't leave any closure. It seemed to point to the fact that religion was bullshit or at least Christianity, which drove me nuts. Did not explore ANY eastern religions or new age religions and the examples sucked.

I'm not a religious fanatic nor super religious, but if you are going to try to show religion through science, DO IT. Don't just sit there and say that they can't co-exist and therefore you are Atheist. That is basic kindergarten thinking. Delve deeper into the actual scientific evidence that exists on the matter. If you are already shaking your head right now and thinking, "Rosie, there IS no scientific evidence on religion," then you've proven my point that information has been so suppressed in our society that people tend to believe one thing or another with no further probing. To make matters worse, when you google "proof that God exists" online, you get a series of fanatical psychopaths on youtube, preaching the power of Jesus Christ or Allah and not actually listing proof. Scientific proof. And yes, it does exist.

Anyone who knows anything about one of the great scientific geniuses of our time, Albert Einstein  knows he was quite a spiritual man and many of his findings and famous quotes are of a religious nature. Nikola Tesla did many experiments on the soul and even found that there is an electro-magnetic field around each human being that disappears when we die. This all sounds like pretty good proof to me??? In addition to that, some of the most spiritual people I know are scientists! Yes, you heard me. I was baffled, too. Back when I was agnostic, I met many physicists who told me after watching thousands of cells and atoms split in perfect harmony time after time, they believed that there was something out there greater than science controlling things. Then, most people go, "Well, I don't believe in Christ, therefore, I don't believe it." ::sigh:: There are more belief systems than Christianity!!!!! Stop making Christ or Allah or the main religions your default not to look deeper!!!! It might be mother nature, whatever. There is something and just because it doesn't fit into your tiny idea of what religion is, doesn't mean it's not out there.

This is just one example of pure ignorance. Don't you think if you wanted to use science to prove religion, you should actually use...science???? People on either side of the argument for/against religion never seem to have very good arguments that encompass all of the facts. In fact, some of the arguments for evolution and against religion are some of the worst I've heard so far. (FYI, calling religious fanatics "idiots" is not considered a sound argument.)

Also, people that usually bash religion go for traditional religions (an easy target). Yes, it sounds very improbable there is an angry man in the sky or you'll get 72 virgins when you die. I know. I know. But very few target new age religions, many of which use - SHOCKER- common sense and science. Or Eastern religions or philosophies which deal more with energy (ya know the stuff Tesla was talking about??) instead of storytelling nonsense about demons and judgement. The Catholic Church is losing members daily, as well as other traditional sects. We get to understand that there are belief systems out there that make LOGICAL sense and match well with modern society. If you are so closed minded, that you hear the word "religion" and "spiritual" and immediately think nonsense, you need to do more research and stop being an opinionated asshole.

Another thing that irritates the living crap out of me, if you're not something, you're not that. Stop doing it. What do I mean? I mean people saying stuff like, "I 'm Catholic/Jewish/Muslim/etc etc etc but I don't believe in it. I just go to church/temple/mosque for my mom/grandma/dad/etc." Um....we''ll than you're not [insert religion]. Have some balls and stop being a follower!!! Go out there and learn FOR YOURSELF what you believe. If you do this, you have NO RIGHT TO AN OPINION on religion because you have not done any independent research except being a complete follower/sheep.

Guess what? You can be super religious and be a complete idiot AND you can be an Atheist and be a complete idiot, too. What a concept!! Next blog, I will explain my belief system and how I got to that....or I might talk about how our healthcare system is total BS. Not sure yet...

The Past

You ever have one of those moments where your mind wanders and you think about a moment in the past...you're not bitter. You're not sad or upset or angry. You just think about a situation you were in, and it's like "What the fuck was I thinking?" And then you just want to vent about the situation to someone? No one in particular. You don't want to bad mouth yourself or beat yourself up. You just have to verbalize the stupidity. Yea, I had one of those moments like 10 minutes ago. I was stepping out of the shower. The glass on the mirrors was fogged up, and it's too cold in my house to open the door and let all that nice steamy shower heat out. So, I was just kind of forced to stand there and wait for the mirrors to clear. Then, I can get ready for my show. Put my make up on and fix my hair and whatnot. I started thinking about one of my ex-boyfriends, and what a TOTAL moron he was, and what the hell was I thinking to go against everything in my gut to fall in love with this guy? I am in an amazing relationship now that's filled with love and openness and we never ever fight, and he's cute and charming and loves me and takes good care of me when I'm sick, and I just thought about what a volatile nightmare my ex was. How he would set up these absolutely horrible situations where I just couldn't win even if I wanted to. Yet he did not see these actions as clear self sabotage. Is this why self-sabotagers do this? Because they can't see it? It was so clear to me, yet he would enroll me into getting confused when the situation was clear. The most annoying one was his ex-boss. He hated her. At the time, he hated his job and would complain CONSTANTLY about how much he hated it and how much he hated his boss. He would say she was controlling and a huge bitch, and he would say how jealous she was of our relationship. He also said she would badmouth me, and she didn't like me. I don't think he ever said one positive thing about that job or his ex-boss. I had NO point of reference except to encourage him to quit that job because all he would do was bad mouth it 24/7. When I would encourage him to take action towards um...being HAPPY by getting another job, he would then accuse me of trying to sabotage him! I think back at this, and ask myself, "Rosie, why the hell would you allow this obvious insanity to go on?" This guy was a nutjob! I could go on and on, but the only person who can take responsibility is me. Why the hell didn't I get out of there? Geez! What a total waste of time. There are only a few minor positive things I learned from that relationship. The most important one being to TRUST MY GUT. If I feel like the guy's beliefs or actions don't make any sense in most of his daily life, RUN. Self-sabotagers have very low self-esteem and they will take you down with them. The hilarious and sad thing is that when you hear his "perspective" about our relationship, it is totally delusional and off key. He believes, to this day, I would "sabotage" him. Any person with their head on straight could go play by play in our relationship and see clear as day that he would sabotage himself. In fact, we went to a couple's counselor, and she actually pulled me aside one day and told me that she thought he was a complete whack job, and I needed to get away from him fast! She said she saw this all the time, and it was really hard for her to be "neutral" when she saw that one person was clearly causing most of the issues, but that she couldn't be "sided" or the other person would not be interested in continuing couples counseling if they felt their "side" wasn't being heard. That is complete bs, if you ask me and sad! If someone is causing most of the problems, they should be confronted by the third party. Sometimes people are so brainwashed into thinking they are "right" that they need someone else to smack some sense into them because they are too proud to listen to their partner. I just wish she would have told me what she REALLY thought the first day in there. So, I could have not wasted several months of my hard earned money on counseling. She said she knew he was off the first few sessions by some of his warning sign behaviors. Well, share those with me please! Well, lesson learned, Rosie. You have the power to RUN from psychos. I can't blame him. He was just being himself! I had the power of knowledge and obligation. The person who is more sane has the obligation to dictate the situation. I like my relationship now where I have a responsible guy, and I get to be the crazy, unstable artist! I didn't like "taking care" of a psycho. I like being the psycho! =) Yay! For my normal and healthy boyfriend!

Precious: WARNING Spoiler Alert

Just saw "Precious" last night. Couple things, first of all ANTI-CLIMATIC ending, as far as I'm concerned! We're supposed to be happy Precious is free from her mom (played by Monique)? She's HIV positive, has two kids she can't take care of, and don't know what she's gonna do next? Yea, she got some tiny bit of self-esteem by the end of the movie but damn...sad ending that was supposed to be "uplifting"... Also, Monique look bad. I know they were trying to make her look bad, but I don't think they were trying that hard. It seriously looked like that's what she naturally looks like with no make up. It doesn't look like they put fake make up on her to make her "look bad". I think she just look bad. They were probably like, "Ok Monique, just come to set the way you look when you wake up." Another thing, when the characters in the movie were talking about "everyone watches Oprah." Oprah is executive producer of the film. Way to plug yourself shamelessly in your own film. Wow, talk about product placement. I can imagine Oprah in the shoot meetings, "Even kids in the ghetto in the late '80's were watching me! I'm soo amazing." Mariah Carey was supposed to be her welfare counselor for a year, but she's only in two scenes? They could have had one or two more scenes so we know about TIME PROGRESSION. Finally, the small "alternative" class Precious was in only had like six ethnic girls, then in one random scene the producers put in some random white girl to make a joke about Precious' incest, and then this character is NEVER seen again. The movie was very good, funny, and cute, but the issues with it were glaring and obvious and kind of hilarious. Like when Mariah Carey is like, "I've been your counselor for a year now..." and you're literally like WTF? A Year? You were only in ONE scene like WAY in the beginning of the film? I can see why the film did well at Sundance though. It was emotional and the lead character is unlikely, but damn the film nasty. Showing Precious breast feeding her baby and way TMI in the sex scene. They don't "show" a lot, but her dad's sweaty, hairy belly and moaning noises were presented in a way that was way nasty. Also, a lot of nasty fried chicken, where they zoomed in on the oil. Think they were trying to make the film look "gritty" but it just looked nasty. Overall, a good film. I would recommend you watch it, but I personally wouldn't watch it again. Mariah Carey's New York accent was also kind of fake and annoying. Wish they would have either gone ALL out and made the ending super sad/tragic/profound or actually had a REAL happy ending where our protagonist doesn't have AIDS. Jesus Christ. How depressing...

Spanksgiving

Just got back from Indiana, visiting my beau's family. It was fun, learned a lot about him...mostly that his house is super 70's looking. My house used to look like that, but worse. My parents had the deep wood panels on the wall and orange linoleum floors with a fridge that literally would stick closed, and you'd have to pry it open. My dad was SO attached to those ugly wood panels, when we went to re-do the house, he wouldn't let the contractor take it down. Normally, they just tear and down and it's fine. That's it. My dad had them DRYWALL OVER the wood panels. In case the panels ever came back in, we could tear down the drywall. Wow. That is sad, daddy. He really loved those ugly panels? Indiana kinda sucked weather-wise because I was hoping to see some damn snow! All these people from the midwest always talking smack about how L.A. doesn't have no seasons, and I go up there and it felt EXACTLY like L.A. except dreary. I was like WTF? Where is my snow mothafuckas???? Woke up in the middle of the night last night to my little doggy, Mitzy barfing. That was nice, then I stepped in it. That was nicer. This always happens when I put up nice Christmas decorations. She suddenly is all sick and sometimes poops on the Christmas tree base skirt. It's so pretty. It has a pic of santa on it. It's like the LAST thing I want poop on. OMG my house is soo cute for the holidays. I have pet stalkings up, a tree with lights and bulbs, and lights on my bushes with a wreath. I listen to the country stations heavy this time of year b/c they are the only L.A. stations that play the hardcore Christmas music. Screw "Happy Holidays", it's Christmas! I'm not even Christian, and it's Christmas. This has nothing to do with religion, it's just more FUN to sing Christmas songs and get a tree and be festive. I was humming Christmas songs all day yesterday!! Went to Target to stock up on scented pine cones. OHHH HELL YEA! Those are the BEST. Did a show, took my man out on the town, decorated my house, ate chocolate! This is the time of year to gain 5 or 6 pounds. So, you can feel bad about yourself in that slinky New Year's eve dress...Ok, gonna check on my sick pooch...

Why Women Why???

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Saturday

I have a show Saturday at the Spotlight Comedy Club in Studio City, CA. I will be hosting the show! I think we start at 8pm. Come out laugh, buy my Rosie Tran Cookies, and give me a hug! xoxo