Faith is personal. Religion is collective. Both can be powerful, underlying support elements for individuals and society.  Or, they can be compulsive, divisive, and (ultimately) destructive. People gather to share experience, strength, and hope. They also gather to ask themselves the question: "Is what I'm feeling inside me real, or am I just making this up?"  When I first started channeling The Reconnections, I purposely called together a group of close friends to listen to and comment on the writings. We met every Wednesday Night for the better portion of 1992. Since channeling requires a person to "set aside" his individual ego, in order to become a conduit for the expanded tones coming through him (or her), it seemed fitting that I recruit a group of "mirrors," who could reflect back to me what my emotional body was going through as I explored these new concepts. It was effective, for a time. And when it no longer worked for us, we stopped meeting. The forms we use to worship and relate may change over time. A decision to change does not invalidate what came before. It energizes and potentiates what's happening NOW.