child prodigy painting god-- real or hoax? a lightning rod nonetheless

A dear friend sent me an email with the title "whenever your faith starts to slip" and a link to a purported CNN video about a young girl, Akiane Kramarik, who is a self-taught artist, and from a very young age, has had visions of meeting god and going to heaven, and paints these visions.  Supposedly her family were atheists who have been converted to faith by the girl's visions. It is a very inspirational video which you can see here: drawing heaven .

Of course I'm very wary of these virally transmitted emails, because, so often, they are fun but untrue.  A quick look online found plenty of skeptics, questioning to what extent the mother is being truthful, whether the mother really was an atheist, whether this is a "balloon boy" type hoax, and whether the girl actually paints the work herself.  Claims are made that the paintings resemble the mother's own painting style, and that requests to watch or tape the girl painting have been refused.  Other cynical comments suggest that proper medication would prevent her from having these visions.

So I found the girl's website here akiane.com . I was amazed by a blog post about her recent painting of a buddhist monk, shown above, where she writes : "irate comments are mostly coming ... that I got deceived by the Devil who allegedly sent a Hindu swami across the whole world as counterfeit to Jesus’s model. ..I am a journalist visionary artist who paints diverse cultures, faiths and realities from both the visible and non visible realms. I am still learning and discovering new cultures, but I can assure you that the monk is no different from all of us who are seeking god and the truth... he was an answer to my prayer; for the past year I had been seeking to learn about different traditions and indigenous cultures from around the world."

Bravo for that.  At this point, I don't care who's writing, when it's such a great sentiment.  Clearly this girl is on an interesting journey.  Is it a sincere journey of faith, or a journey as an accessory to her family to make money by taking advantage of people's faith?  The only truth I can claim here, is that my reactions to the video told me something of myself, and my wants for faith.

Finally I am disturbed by the idea that medication would cure these visions.  We are a way over-medicated society, buying wildly expensive drugs that allow us to tolerate the actual insanity and detachment of so much of our modern culture, forcing us to work even harder to pay for these drugs that make it possible for us to continue to tolerate our work... in a crazy self perpetuating cycle. What if this epidemic of depression is really the healthy honest result of the path our society and our lives are taking?  Then pills are not the answer.  Personally I've been down a lot of roads trying to find that something I was lacking inside, that "good feeling"... sometimes they've been unhealthy and self destructive roads that brought temporary pleasure and relief...followed by trial periods of  prescription medication, that brought temporary relief but ultimately dissatisfaction as well... and long periods of addiction to work and chasing financial success and ownership of "things"... leading me to where I am today, wondering if there is an answer in organized religion for the fulfillment and pleasure I've chased so many other ways... I see other people have found it in religion, and at the same time do good works and become better more loving, just people along the way.  Will I find that? What path do I take? Time will tell... until then I fall back on music and singing. That's where I'm closest. (images by Akiane Kramarik, akiane.com)