I'm not an expert here. I'm talking about an experience I had rather than something I intellectually worked out. From what I can gather, the original mystery religions are still, largely, as the name suggests, mysterious. But they are associated with intoxication, fertility and resurrection.

I grew up with tarot cards and the reading of tea leaves.

In the meditation, of course, the question is repeated and repeated until you run out of answers - or so I hear.

If there is innocence on Earth again, I tend to imagine it in more [Henry David]Thoreau sort of terms.

It's true that Eastern philosophy and religion were not unknown to me as a child, since my father has explored much in that area, and written books more or less in that area, too.

Perhaps I can also add something about the rural setting of Remember You're a One-Ball! The countryside is a place - in mythological and perhaps in very real terms - of mixed innocence and sin. It is seen by townsfolk as idyllic, lazy, free of urban crime and social problems. But those who grow up in the country can tell stories that often surprise those who grow up in the towns.

I did not understand the differences between Catholic and Protestant until I was an adult.