We humans tend to believe in miracles instead of seeing that what we call a miracle is actually a glimpse into what is real. We distance ourselves from the miraculous by remaining in our conventional sense of who we are. We continue to be defined by our past experiences, so that what our parents believed and taught us and what we have learned about this world and the universe dominate and limit our experiences. Our minds pattern our world and keep it tightly circumscribed, limited to the most physical, sensate experiences. Parents, other family members, and teachers are forever present in our minds and always will be, as long as we relate to the world as they taught us to. They are part of a larger worldview and live on within it as part of us, limiting our freedom and restricting our perceptions from expanding. Even after these people have died, we are in constant relationship to them in our minds; they are still there, patterning our experience of ourselves. – The Power of Divine Eros: The Illuminating Force of Love in Everyday Life, ch. 6