This is a very interesting thread actually, because since I have started reading, I have pictured myself as a devotee of the Lovers’ Temple. It was not always like that however, I am the oldest of three kids and I was raised strictly Roman Catholic (k-12th grade - 13 years of private, catholic school education), which means that I was taught basically this: no sex before marriage, no sex or physical intimacy with anyone other than your spouse, and it’s sinful to be associating sexually with people of your same gender. I was raised with this mindset and had no idea that the world could be any different until I was 16 and had the most amazing summer job EVER. I was invited by some friends of the family (who I didn’t really know) to come work at their lodge in the Canadian Rocky Mountains the summer I turned 16. I was thrilled by the prospect - it was thousands of miles from home, in the mountains, and away from anyone I really knew, including my parents. Let me just say that in several ways it blew my mind! Nothing against the folks I was working with – I love them to death – but they did not at all follow the “catholic lifestyle” I had been taught to observe. It was a real eye-opener for me to how the rest of the world actually operates, outside the little bubble I had been taught, and actually it was extremely refreshing. I spent the next couple of years thinking about and analyzing the ideas and experiences I had gotten from Canada. It took me a while to integrate those notions into my own because it was extremely difficult to alter the concepts that had been pounded into my head for so long. I have come a long way from the taboo ideas I initially learned about sex (having a boyfriend for 3 years helped with that), and now I am extremely comfortable talking about sex with others, and even swapping naughty ideas and tricks. Also, while I still believe that sex should be saved for a committed partner (married), I am not opposed to the idea that other people want to and will have sex with a partner in a close relationship. I also believe that passion for one’s partner can be expressed sexually without having vaginal intercourse. I have told my friends (who were also raised strictly catholic) that I believe a bit of experimentation is not a bad thing (even with same sex), and that if intercourse were a more casually regarded action, I would have, to put it crudely, “tried several of them out by now.” With that open mindset and the very caring, compassionate attitude I try to bring to everything, I believe I would make an excellent devotee of the Lovers’ Temple, perhaps even a Beloved.