The Stars In My Eyes I will tell you that my first "spiritual" experience occurred in 1953 when I was a six year old attending Hebrew School in the thriving New York suburb of Levittown, Long Island. The Bible stories I was taught caused great dissonance in my childish consciousness, I somehow "knew" that the jealous, whimsical, downright murderous "God" depicted in the Old Testament was a concoction of thought, used by those in power to enforce social conformity. My teachers were, of course, relentless with their tales of the vengeance and wrath of "God." Finally, one summer evening, I stood in my driveway, looked up at the stars, and asked the "God" I was taught to fear and obey to strike me down, as I could not coexist in the same universe with such a ruler/creator. The answer was utter silence, there was only the profound, deeply quiet beauty of the night sky -- and so the journey, my "path" to the actual, living "God" began with the stars in a little boy's eyes.