Born again?  In the course of some traveling I did recently, I had occasion to discuss with people exactly what these words means.  Jesus uses the term in the Gospel of John (chapter three), as does William James, in his insightful studies of religion (which he presents in his Varieties of Religious Experiences).  Yet it was in the Seventies that the term "born again" received the most attention in the West.  Millions of Christians, led by then president Jimmy Carter, proclaimed, on the basis of an experience which they believe they had with God, that they were "born again," made new people by Jesus.
     Many of us may respond that it is not God who is the author of such experiences.  But how do we know?  Using psychology and corporate manipulation and hysteria to explain what someone believes to be a supernaturally induced experience only goes so far.  Eventually we must realize that, in truth, we have very little way to explain why thoroughly rational and generally well-adjusted people decide, usually on the basis of significant thought and reflection, that they have had an experience of the supernatural.  Why would they claim such things when they had every reason not to?
     Compounding the challenge is that people who claim to be "born again" remain, for the most part, the people they were before.  They do many of the same things that anyone else would do, enjoy many of what they had before.  However, and this is an important however, they affirm a very different starting point to all that they do.  Now everything begins with God.
     Yet what does this mean?  Only that although the world is the same and much that such people do remains the same, they have a new lens to see them.  Significantly, however, it is not a lens which they themselves made.
     So who did?  This is a question for all of us to ponder.  If someone had genuinely encountered the supernatural, could she really go on as if nothing had happened?