Ryker: 1. Jersey Boy

Family: I grew up in a small town in New Jersey. Both parents home every night. Dinner on the table. No outward traumatic experiences. I participated in all sports. I had many rock bands and lots of friends. My sister was gone by the time I was 8, so I was like an only child. Because my sister was 10 years older, she was not really in my life and I didn’t really relate to her emotionally. My mom was very supportive of what I was doing but not very involved. But she would support everything. My dad was completely emotionally absent but he loved me… and would show his love by buying me things. I actually thought that we were – not rich – but well off; because I pretty much got everything I asked for and needed. I had no idea we were lower middle class.

Religion: I was a member of the Protestant church but quit going when I was 11. I got really turned off by the Sunday School teacher. He was very stern and he complained about me not having my homework done for Sunday school. I thought that was ridiculous. He was nasty. Even then I thought “this has nothing to do with God at all.” I told my parents I wasn’t going back -- period. I was only 11, but somehow I already had a very good sense of what was important and what wasn’t. My parents did not go to church themselves, but they wanted me to go for some reason.

Spirituality: The first exposure I had to any kind of spirituality was through my friend’s stepmother. She was into A Course Of Miracles. When I first read a little intro book to that, I was amazed and something turned on in me. She went to a few different card readers and psychics so I took her advice and went to see a few of them myself. That was my first exposure to an alternative form of spirituality. I was 16 or 17.

Education: I was a B student in school. I made very little effort. School was mostly just a social activity to me. I never got any push from my parents to go to a particular college or go toward any specific field. I wasn’t forced to be a doctor or lawyer… there was nothing like that. So I went to 2 years of community college but just before finals, I took off on a road trip. School was utterly unimportant to me. I was very into theater and music. I was in bands and wrote songs. That was what my life was all about when I left home. Writing, singing, playing music. That was the direction I felt pulled in.

Financial: We were lower middle class. Every Christmas, I would get 20 presents. I got whatever I needed for school, any sport I wanted to do, any concert I wanted to go to. Looking back, I‘m sure my parents sacrificed for that but I never knew anything about our financial situation. I had jobs during the summer. Not because I had to, because I wanted to.

Sexual problems: No family problems that were sexual in nature.