The English novelist Samuel Butler famously wrote, “Analogies may often be misleading, but they are the least misleading thing we have.” Therefore, to return to our scuba diving analogy, even though our novice diver knows he could run out of air in a given amount of time, he is tempted to “push” the dive longer than he should. Why? “Success” “ambition” “respect” “admiration” “popularity” “wealth”—material underwater entertainments that keep our novice diver distracted enough, long enough, that he fails to notice his air tank has almost no air pressure left. None. The air pressure needle is in the “red zone.” At this point, it becomes more difficult to breathe.
When this happens, divers have two alternatives. They make an emergency accent to the surface—follow the analogy—because you have brain cancer or some life threatening disease, or you buddy breathe to the surface—have a Dead Saint experience; find God or Jesus and become born-again. Until an “underwater dark night of the soul” forces our novice diver out of his materialistic reverie, he gives little thought to ascend to the Light realm above, where (Heaven) is all “air.”
Can Somebody Else Bestow Alrightness on us?
Central to the engulfing Alrightness fantasy is the belief someone else can bestow alrightness upon us. Many people spend whole lives building careers, accumulating more money than they can possibly spend, all to impress other people with their alrightness. It is what motivates the political arena—that ongoing three-ring exercise in futility, in which the least fit to lead, fight to lead. True, with sufficient drive, hunger and luck some will reach the top of their chosen field. Only then, at the zenith of their careers, will they realize it didn’t work, not really. The masses may regard them as successes, even role models, paragons of alrightness. However, if they have not established their own inner alrightness, victory will be both ephemeral and hollow…and at some profound level, they know it. If they did not know it, they would not behave the way they do.
However, most of us have been brain and heart washed into a set of beliefs in the name of science and reason that are, upon examination, neither scientific, nor reasonable; we embrace values that have no value. It is not really our fault. Much that we take for granted we have learned in our schools. Crystallizing over time, both the credulous belief system along with its valueless values, are handed down unquestioned as though ordained.
It is at this point, then, that the accumulated testimonials of the Dead Saints, brought back from the Realms of Light, take on significance. Materialist debunkers try to debunk the NDE phenomena, attributing these profound and compelling experiences to brain-manufactured hallucinations, but the power of these accumulated anecdotal accounts resists the debunker-a vast public is not buying it.
A common thread runs through virtually every retelling. The resuscitated Dead Saints have shed their wet suits, fins, and air tanks. For them, worldly delusions and concerns, the obsession with alrightness, have all been left behind or at least put in their rightful place. The core of their message, their bottom line, always comes down to learning love at all its levels. Upon their return, that conviction serves as their introduction into the Greater Mysteries.
The Greater and Lesser Mysteries
Paul Solomon divided Earth University lessons into the Lesser and Greater Mysteries; the esoteric (hidden/inner) and the exoteric (public/written) traditions. The Lesser Mysteries included the arts, sciences, mathematics, religious texts, stone masonry, to name but a few. Typically, the lesser mysteries could be acquired from books, or orally transmitted from teacher to student.
The Greater Mysteries were not discussed. They were experiential. If you can’t recognize the lesson, you’re not ready for it. So what was the purpose of being exposed to these Greater Mysteries? The Greater Mystery lessons trickled down in a sort of hierarchy under the foundation of honesty, personal integrity, and love. These foundation stones were the basis of everything Paul taught, and the basis of every lesson I learned. Early on, I could see Paul was trying to hone my character. In the midst of learning these lessons, I learned essential skills and experiences I needed later in life, including those used to build my company and the writing of this book.
At first, I felt like the Karate Kid. I often thought, “Why am I washing his clothes, cooking his food, filling his pipes, planning his trips, recording his lectures, radio and television engagements?” I was the shadow who never received attention. When will I get to learn the real secrets of life? When would I ever get to teach?
Some of the mop and bucket mysteries thrown in front of me were obvious. The first day I went to Hearthfire Lodge, Paul Solomon asked me to clean off the spiders from the ceiling corners of the back porch. I hated spiders. I had a fear of them since childhood. How did he know? From that moment on, it seemed he knew exactly what was missing in my character needing attention. Just like Felton Jones who had cut off the front of my Bonsai tree, revealing my need to show off and present myself more “knowledgeable” than others, Paul kept pruning my tree even more.
Many of the lessons seemed reasonably obvious. The lesson of Service-awareness of the needs of others. Persistence. Consistency. Organization. Journaling. Cleanliness. Discipline. Focus in meditation and prayer. Awareness and attunement to God’s presence. Alrightness. Caring and kindness. I believe I have learned much from these classroom exercises, and I know I have much more to learn and much I am still trying to grasp. The lessons I am still learning today are embarrassingly long: holding children and people accountable for their actions; paying attention and being fully present during a conversation; communicating clearly; procrastinating what could be done now; mastering anger; praying more often; telling no white lies; patience—not going off half-cocked; better control of appetites and desires; being less of a lone wolf, and more sociable; being in charge of my own thoughts and being more conscious of my actions, words, and keeping verbal promises.
Teachers in Disguise
In 1980, Paul suggested I move to NYC to study business and several spiritual disciplines. While I detail more of my NYC adventures in Book II of the Chronicles, Training Wires of the Soul, an important observation I want to make here was that during the 18 months I lived in New York City from 1980-81, and during my NDE research (2011-13) and the writing of the Chronicles beginning July 2013, I became convinced —focused spiritual discipline attracts supernatural phenomena. At least, so it was for me. The New York chapter of my life was rich in such events.
There is an especially vivid one I’ll tell, but will preface it by an excerpt from the 2007 NDE of Linda who, one year after her full recovery, had a vision of beautiful angelic spirits who seemed to have charge over every individual going about their daily lives on the city streets. One day she was driving down a busy street and stopped at a red light to watch an odd scene unfold before her. A delivery truck had parked on the right about a half-block ahead.
Linda watched as the driver walked around to the traffic side of his truck and began unloading his cargo with oncoming traffic approaching. Inside her car, she said aloud in her little southern voice, “Oh honey, you shouldn’t do that, it’s dangerous.” Then she saw an angel hovering near the truck driver:
Perhaps it was because I had sent a loving and concerned thought about the delivery mans’ well-being that the spirit turned her loving gaze on me. For a brief moment, our eyes met. She smiled at me, then, hovering over the unsuspecting man, returned her attention to her charge who was oblivious to the heavenly presence and was busily going about his business. I was thunderstruck.
Barely breathing for fear the vision would leave, and mesmerized by the vision, I was reluctant to take my eyes off the beauty of the scene; however, from my peripheral vision, I became aware of even more compelling lights. When I was able to tear myself away from the spirit, I glanced slowly at the vista around me and everywhere I looked, every single person in my view had beautiful, loving spirits attending them. People walking nonchalant
ly down the sidewalk were accompanied by spirits. From within cars, unfettered by physical barriers, I could see the glow and form of beings around the occupants. I saw joggers with flutters of light streaking behind them as their spirit kept pace. As people entered and left buildings, light beings followed. 9
As the Saints repeatedly insist, you and I are never alone. However, back in 1980, walking the dirty, dangerous streets of New York at 21, I was, as of yet, oblivious to the unseen presences of hovering angels.
New York City Homeless Bag Lady
I was itching to get outside on this bright sunny day and I decided, for no particular reason, to take a walk down Broadway. Soon, also for no particular reason, I was suddenly feeling happy, walking along the busy street—all smiles which was for me unusual. People, who know me, generally think of me as the “serious” one. So, in this happy, smiley mood I did something I’d never done before in my life. I just started smiling at people as I strolled along, trying to make those unsmiling New Yorkers smile back at me.
Do you know how difficult it is to get a smile back in New York City? This was a metropolis of eight million who appeared to me to be self-important, self-conscious, impatient people, who have a business meeting or something else urgent to get to, and who instinctively distrust anyone who might be smiling … especially for no particular detectable reason.
Paul Solomon had sometimes commented about that studiously cultivated, severe, grown-up city look. If such people see someone strolling down the sidewalk with a silly smile on their face, the assumption was they must be on drugs or had something else mentally wrong with them.
So I was busy smiling away… (Which was curiously unsettling, actually, since I’d never done such a thing before). Walking south, at the corner of 92nd Street, there was a fruit and vegetable stand across the street and I thought I’d pick up a few things to bring back to the apartment. Before crossing Broadway, I noticed a bag lady, her shopping cart stuffed with everything she possessed in the world. She was leaning against a brick wall next to the fruit stand; one of the countless bag ladies of New York—solitary, impoverished women, usually old, pushing all of their worldly possessions along before them in a shopping cart, picking over trash cans near food markets for their food, and dozing in doorways. She was just one of thousands we walk past without a further thought. There was nothing to distinguish this one from any other.
As I crossed the street, I saw she was sniffling and wiping her nose with a Kleenex. Without thinking, as I approached her, I gave her a big smile. To my surprise, she nodded and smiled back at me—really the only person, so far, who had done so. I thought: How interesting! I stopped just in front of the fruit stand and looked back to where she had been. She had walked away from the wall, out to the middle of the sidewalk and was just staring at me nodding and smiling.
Suddenly, and without warning, a holy presence hit me like a lightning bolt. I dropped to my knees, right there in the middle of the sidewalk, and began bawling. I didn’t know what was happening. I felt like I’d been plugged into a million-volt electric outlet. She didn’t move and I didn’t move. I didn’t know what to do. I was so shocked I was afraid to get any closer to her. After about five minutes, she turned and went back to her place against the brick wall. I got up and walked back to my apartment. Had this been an angel?
Reflecting, I kind of felt the way the nine other lepers described by Luke the Physician must have felt—the nine didn’t go back to Christ and thank him for the healing. As the story is told, only one of the ten healed lepers who came back to Christ to thank him. (Luke: 17:12-14) A few weeks later, Paul Solomon flew up to New York to visit me. I told him about the bag lady. I asked Paul, “Was that an angel I met?
He said, “No. That was Jesus Christ.”
(Author’s note: While, needless to say, I cannot “prove” Paul’s assertion, it is worth noting in NDE accounts; encounters with Jesus Christ in disguise are not uncommon. Significantly, they show up in accounts of people of other religions, no religion, and even hitherto self-described atheists.)
Ken R. Vincent, Ed.D. researched modern people who have also experienced visions of Jesus in disguise (Migliore, 2009, pp. 137-139).10 In meditation, a woman saw a vision of Jesus:
I went forward, alone, toward an old man who stood at the very end of the rose-covered arches. I stopped before him. He asked me if ministry was what I really wanted. I replied affirmatively. He then used his thumb to make the sign of the cross on my forehead, my hands, my feet, my lips, and over my heart-in that order. Then he said, ‘Go in peace.’ I wondered who he was. He looked at me with sad eyes and said, ‘Don’t you know me?’ With His words, the illusion of the old man fell away, and I realized that He was Christ. (Sparrow, 1995, pp. 150-51).11
Encountering the Christ in the disguise of a Bag Lady on the streets of New York City taught me a great lesson. I took a risk to smile in a hostile environment and found Christ. God allowed me to take into my heart and soul that very real presence of Jesus—an experience magnified thirty years later during His visit in my living room in 2011 while reading an NDE, (chapter 2), being touched by His Presence in moment of Near-Death Lightning.
~ Zen Tradition teaches that after satori (or first awakening to one’s true nature), a student can begin to put into practice what they have learned from their realization. ~Chronicle 174
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Endnotes
1P.M.H. Atwater 2007. The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Co. p. 400.
2Walter Zanger, August 24, 2014. Jewish Worship, Pagan Symbols. Bible History Daily.
3Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, Summary of Key Findings, http://www.pewforum.org/2009/12/09/many-americans-mix-multiple-faiths/
4William C’s NDE, #119, 04.29.02, NDERF.org
5Joseph A. Weiss 1972. The Gospel in the Stars. Originally published in 1882, The Gospel in the Stars: or, Primeval Astronomy. Kriegal Publications: Grand Rapids, MI.
6CymaSonics, LLC. Virginia Beach, VA. (757) 574-4384. Email: [email protected].
7While not often practiced today, changing the name at Baptism was common in early Christian times. Jesus changed the name of the disciple Simon to Peter meaning “Rock” to reflect his future role in the church. Saul’s name was changed to Paul. Meaning of the name change can be found in Eph. 4:24 “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” This means that Christians are called to become new men by God. The old man is dead and new man is born through baptism.
8Term “alrightness” and spelling coined by Paul Solomon. See also, Paul Solomon, Gary and Mary Anna Keller 1985. Love and Fear, Only Two Powers Exist. The Master’s Press: Timberville, VA.
9Ibid. #1011. NDERF.org
10Vince Migliore, 2009. A Measure of Heaven. Folsom, CA; Blossom Hill Books. pp. 137-139.
11Ken R. Vincent 1995. Ed.D. Journal of Near-death Studies, pp. 142-143. See also, G. Scott Sparrow 1996. I Am With You Always. True Stories of Encounters with Jesus. Bantam Books. pp.150-151.
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Dreams: Night School
“If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream.” (Yahweh speaks to Aaron and Miriam in Numbers 12.6)
Since I was 16, I began recording my dreams in a journal. Dreams became so much a part of my life, that during the day, I would still be pondering about the dreams occurring from the previous night. Sometimes I would dream I was flying; at other times I would become aware I was dreaming within the dream and be able to control the dream, an ability known as lucid dreaming.
And the more I recorded my dreams, the more they became alive. If I forgot a dream, I would often begin remembering last night’s dream as I fell asleep the following night. It was like tapping into an indelible recording.
While the Chronicles primarily walk us through the testimonials of the Dead Saints and their near-death experiences, from time to time I insert significant approaching-death dreams (ADDs), dreams containing death symbology, especially applicable to terminally ill or dying patients, and after-death communications (ADCs), dreams containing dialogue from deceased loved ones, when appropriate. As I approach “my appointed time,” these types of dreams have become more intense, more numerous and more “near-death-like.” I’ve integrated dreams as part of our Zen Journey through the Christian Afterlife, a tale that helps explain the opening of the veil, allowing the Lord to communicate with us from Heaven.
Dreams: A Night Time Classroom
When we sleep, we continue learning in our dreams at night. Every night we sleep, our soul goes through a process of analyzing and judging its own activities and thoughts. Every incident of the day, the management of lessons presented and responded to, sets up future events. All lessons poorly handled will be repeated.
We only need to know the past and present to know what the future likely is going to be. This is the real opportunity of dreams, so that we can avoid repeating the same lesson over and over. It’s an initiation in consciousness. If one solves it there, we don’t have to experience it in our outer, daily physical life.
The Dead Saints Chronicles: A Zen Journey Through the Christian Afterlife Page 9