James LaBrie – Spiritual Deist
From http://www.dprp.net/specials/labrie0405/
He may be talking from the other side of the Atlantic, but from the conviction and confidence in his voice, I get the sense that this last idea is one he has spent a lot of time thinking through. Indeed I’ve long had the impression from his lyrics – tracks like ‘Blind Faith’ – that James LaBrie was a practising Christian. He again has no hesitation when I ask him to clarify his beliefs.
‘I was brought up in Catholicism. My parents still go to church every weekend. When I grew up, I went to church every Saturday evening. But basically as you get older, you start to read things, observe, you become your own thinker – or at least I hope you do. I would say that today I’m a more spiritual-directed person.’
Like politicians, in an industry dominated by the culture of sound bites, it is unusual to find a prominent musician willing to unveil more than he or she has to. But warming to the topic, James LaBrie is happy to oblige, when I invite him to go a little deeper.
‘My whole concept on it is that we are in a dimension that is what it is. We are put here for a purpose, but I think it’s beyond human comprehension. I don’t think it’s something that we really need to know. At this point of spiritual evolution, I think we are dealing with this stage that we are in right now. As an existence. We have to go through it. We have to live with it and we grow, so that when we go on into another dimension, it is completely beyond what we could ever conceive.’
‘I really do think that there’s an entity or a creator that has brought the cosmos and has rationale. It’s not necessarily random. I think there is a purpose. There is a place that all of this is going to. I definitely feel that the consciousness that we have, there’s a reason for it. It’s not something that we completely have to understand – for every question and every answer there’s so many yet to come. Anyway without getting into it in great detail – we’d need six hours and more for that – that’s my take on it.’
John Myung – Christian
John Myung identifies as christian. He has stated that Jesus is his biggest influence in life. On the Budokan DVD you can see hos flight case, which has a sticker that says “I love Jesus”.
John Petrucci – Catholic
John Petrucci is a catholic and actively practices the religion. This is also evident in some of his songs, particularly Scarred and Voices. His wife confirmed this on a post on dreamtheaterforums.org:
I won’t normally speak for John or anyone, but he is a practicing Catholic and is very spiritually driven in the way he lives his life. He was brought up with very loving parents who were clearly devoted to the church, eucharist ministers in fact. His first gig was in church and all 3 of our children all attended catholic elementary schools. We try to go to church on Sunday even while on tour. (The service at the Vatican in July was awesome and in Italian) I do know that he is truly inspired by Jesus and strives to be a good person. Many of his songs are inspired by his views and his love of the story telling aspect of historical events and politics, as well as his own beliefs and experiences, and if they happen to include religious undertones then yes, some will reference his Christian beliefs because that is who he is. I don’t believe that it is his intention to preach to anyone and they don’t consider themselves a religiously affiliated band of any kind.
Jordan Rudess – Jewish
Jordan as stated that he is Jewish. He is very interested in Israeli history and culture because of his jewish heritage.
Mike Mangini – Christian
Mike Mangini identifies as a christian. In an interview with Drum Magazine, when asked which historical dramatic event he would’ve liked to have witnessed, he said:
One dramatic historical event that I would have liked to witness was Jesus walking on water to the boat full of apostles. That ranks high on my list of “jaw dropping” events.
Mike Portnoy – Jewish
In a Ytsejam.com “10 Quick Ones” interview, Mike said that he is Jewish, but doesn’t practice the religion. Portnoy is also a follower of the Alcoholics Anonymous program, which is a spiritual program requiring that one acknowledges a higher power than oneselves.
Charlie Dominici – Spiritual
Charlie does not identify as a religious person (in fact, he’s been very vocal against organized religion), but does self-identify as a very spiritual person. He’s an active information seeker, and has been known to dabble in some new age ideas. His O3 trilogy was based on the 2012 phenomenon, something Charlie himself found very interesting. He believed that there was something to the 2012 idea, but not that it necessarily would be an “end of the world”; but rather an awakening of sorts. He’s also been known to spread information about conspiracy theories like chemtrails or 9/11 “false flag”.
