Saw a couple of tweets from someone yesterday and I’ve been wanting to do this thread for a while now to talk about something I rarely talk about publicly and more so on social media Spirituality, Faith, Religion and so on in relation to a generation younger than mine.

I’ll start by saying I believe in the existence of a dimension other than that which we can see.

I believe in the existence of Divinity and I am a Christian, by birth and by choice.

But I believe everyone must chart their own spiritual journey by themselves and for themselves.

So let me say clearly from this point that I have no problem with anyone believing as they would - I respect you as human and affirm you on your journey towards finding your own spiritual beliefs.

But I have a problem with social media culture and your spiritual process.

I fear that taking a public stand on social media culture at a relatively young age against the spirituality of others to affirm your non-religious stance sort of locks you in and prevents you from growing on your journey.

Again, no issues with the position but the public stand.

And I say this as one who was born into a Christian home but who deviated at some point and became everything from an atheist to an agnostic to a theist before dabbling into various religions and beliefs before finding my way back to Christianity.

But I didn’t have social media.

About 2 decades ago at a study centre in Surulere with other teenagers, I used to argue that God didn’t exist or that God and the devil were the same and that there was nothing wrong in devil worship - they called me lucifer, I answered.

I was on a journey, but no social media.

They would bring folks to debate with me - I was raised a Christian so I could twist scripture and they would leave with some silly excuse and a shake of head.

@chancellor_iron was there, and another lady on twitter who is still my good friend (both APC today, funny).

I remember I and a friend, Runo, going to Yaba to inquire about joining a fraternity in the search for a rosy cross - they turned us back for being too young but I had read books like the ones below - which I still own today.

It was a journey, but no social media.

They didn’t let us join them but I was still determined - so I went and inquired about another fraternity, a more traditional one that Yorubas are familiar with, the reformed version.

Those once told me I needed a woman to be aware or involved in the initiation process.

I was barely out of my teens at the time I think, so I wasn’t married and it had to be my mother.

And my mother was a deep Christian who would slap the devil out of me if I told her.

So I couldn’t join any fraternity officially so I continued my journey on the new internet.

Year 1 and 2 in the university, I told my roomies @rolling247 and @TosinGlobal to call me Frater - which was the first level of that first fraternity I was studying.

They somehow came to calling me “Ebora” - a Yoruba word connoting a strange spiritual being or bohemian.

After a while, I became agnostic I think or pantheistic - @kenny_keisha09 got me Muslim prayer beads and I started doing all the religions, also had a meditation book by the Opus Dei founder and some other stuff social media doesn’t need to know; but it was my journey.

Checked this morning and found I still own about 6 of this guy’s books - used to have all 14 titles from him and studied them all.

(Turned out the dude was nothing but a common fraud from UK, and I believed him back then like no man’s business )

But not on social media.

I think it’s okay to explore spirituality for yourself and not just swallow what you’re told.

I think if God wanted us all to be in one direction, he would have created us as zombies.

My problem is locking yourself publicly into a position while you’re on that journey.

If I’d been known publicly as any of those things I believed when I believed it most fervently, if I’d associated publicly with those who believed as I did, I may never have taken my spiritual journey further.

And this is where I think younger people need to apply discretion.

One of the epiphanies I had before getting married was this:

All my life up till my early 30s was still far less than half of the years I hope to live on earth.

In other words: if I’d spent 30ish years as this or that, I had more years to change it or become another person.

So if at the age of 30, I could very confidently say this or that kind of lady was my spec for example, what’s to say that my next 30 years wouldn’t find me loving another spec?

And matters of spiritual beliefs are even more complex and personal than that.

Why lock yourself into anti-mainstream positions on spirituality at a young age when you have a lifetime ahead of you to see new things and grow on your journey?

All that does is that it makes it more difficult for you to recant when you see another light and understand better.

I hope this makes sense anyhow and someone who needs it can understand the point.

The internet gives access to various teachings and beliefs that come across so persuasively that you feel emboldened to challenge established spiritual positions or deny them totally.

The organisations I tried to join back then are more easier to join these days but even they require more rigorous application of self to study than what many are willing to commit to these days.

You’ll read, memorise, perform symbolic rituals etc beyond just reading Internet.