My Appalachia

by Sidney Saylor Farr

  The conference opened with dinner that evening. The rest of the week was packed with activities. I attended several workshops and healing sessions.

  The first workshop session was spellbinding. Dan Chesbro talked about Tom Sawyer. He told how they had met and described some of the work they had done together, and he spoke of the Order of Melchizedek. As Dan described this group, it felt familiar to me. Over the years, whenever I was reading the Bible and reached the part about Melchizedek calling the priests, I would feel excited and somewhat homesick. Dan said the priests have been called many times when the world faces changes and transitions. He compared the priests to midwives. I was sure that I’d been part of that group before.

  My first healing session was with a young man named Jake. It was very intense. He could tell that before physical healing could take place for me, there had to be work done on the emotional level. He asked me one or two questions, and I burst into tears. I told him I’d been going through a time of intense grief because I’d lost my husband, who had chosen to live with someone else instead of me. Jake asked enough questions to learn my story. I cried as he worked primarily in the solar plexus and heart regions. Jake talked harshly about homosexuality. He said he believed it was a curse against humanity. He said I was lucky to have escaped.

  By the end of the session, Jake told me that he had released part of the burden from my heart and solar plexus, but it felt as though my lower abdomen was tied in knots. He said I was expressing rejection in the female organs and that even though I might have come to terms with it intellectually, emotionally I was feeling rejection as a woman in those areas. His remarks about homosexuality made me extremely angry. I knew about homosexuality from fifteen years of firsthand experience. I knew it couldn’t just be dismissed as a “curse against humanity.”

  At the workshop the next morning, Dan talked some more about Tom Sawyer and Melchizedek. His teachings about Melchizedek were profound. Dan said he had been commissioned by seven archangels to “call the priests according to the order of Melchizedek” and “teach them how to fly.” He had been ordaining priests all over the country and said that within two years the order would be global.

  Dan announced ordination services for Wednesday night that week. I felt a strange yearning to become part of this group. Dan said he was not permitted to invite people to join, they must come of their own free will, answering the call within their own hearts. He also said that at the next day’s workshop we would experience “flying”!

  The next morning Dan instructed us to lie down on the floor in groups of three. It was important to form triads for this meditation, he said. He counted us off; the other two members of my group were a woman from Boston and one from Sedona, Arizona.

  Each triad lay on the floor on blankets with feet and hands outspread so that we were each like a five-pointed star. Because I had meditated for more than ten years, thus honing my imagination, I had no trouble “steering my ship” by feeling in my right and left fingertips and right and left toes to get the ship to move. We seemed to rise up from the floor and then through the ceiling and over the building. Then, in formations of three ships we rose into space, guided by music and Dan’s voice. He told us to stop when we could see the moon. “This is your point of departure,” Dan said, “and you will come back to this spot when you hear my voice. You are to go off alone to a point you have picked out, or you can ask your higher self to guide you to a place you need to be.”

  I asked for guidance and went off. I flew over mountains and cities, and slowed down at a place I knew to be Scotland. I was offered an opportunity to visit there, but thought it was my mind playing tricks and it was not real. I moved on and flew alongside an ocean for awhile. I could see blue water and incredibly golden sand. I went over some strange-looking mountains and came down in a city of light.

  Two beings—a beautiful woman dressed in a spun silver gown with a silver and diamond tiara on her head, and a tall, handsome man with piercing blue eyes—met me. They called me daughter and said they’d been waiting for me for a long time. The woman’s name was Libra and the man’s Maxwell. I somehow knew that this was a future life for me and that these two would be my parents. They showed me lovely art treasures in high buildings—paintings that seemed to be made of living color, statues, and all kinds of objects. To travel, they instructed me to step on two round disks that moved; these took us wherever we thought to go. We moved inside and outside buildings at a smooth, even pace.

  Libra and Maxwell had both been born on a different planet but had come here to live. Maxwell asked if I’d like to see my grandfather and grandmother, and I said yes.

  We went through a kind of tunnel, perhaps a time warp machine, still traveling on our disks. Then we got off and walked into a green grove of trees. To my amazement, my grandfather and grandmother were apes! They welcomed us, hugged and kissed me, and talked to me, but I couldn’t understand them. Libra and Maxwell translated. We ate some strange fruit with them. Then it was time to go.

  As we returned to the city of light, I heard Dan’s voice calling all the ships back to the departure point. Libra and Maxwell hugged and kissed me good-bye.

  It was thrilling to see all the little ships converging near the moon. Dan told us to form a circle and called for two tardy ships to hurry and come on in, it was time to go. Again we formed our triads and flew home.

  To this day that meditation is vivid in my mind, especially Libra and Maxwell. I feel homesick for them sometimes, and believe they are waiting for me in my future.

  After the session, I knew for sure that I wanted to be ordained into the Priesthood of Melchizedek that evening.

  In the afternoon I went to the Healing Center for a session with a woman named Doris. Her method of healing was through music therapy. She had me lie on a bed, and she played several selections of music while she sat nearby. She spoke about a telephone call she had received the night before, that one of her sons had been badly burned. After giving details of his accident, she started talking about another son, who had tried to commit suicide several times, and how hard she and her husband had worked to save him each time. Finally, she said, she knew they had to release him to whatever would be. She spent one last week with him and left, she said. Three days went by with no word, and then he called. He’d made all the preparations, gone into the woods to kill himself, and somehow could not. He made the decision to live, turned his life completely around, and now enjoys every moment he lives.

  I cried profusely during the session with Doris. At the end of the session, she hugged me and told me I was loved by many people and was called to do a special kind of spiritual work. I left her feeling tired and sad.

  That night at 9:30 I made my way to room 24 of the Hopwood Building for my ordination service. It was the same time as Tom Sawyer’s scheduled appearance in the ballroom, and I wished I could hear him speak, but I knew I was meant to be ordained into the Order of Melchizedek.

  How can I ever find words for that incredible experience? I felt like a different person—I was a different person from the one who entered that room. There were fourteen to be ordained, and it took a long time. The ordinations lasted until 12:20 A.M.

  I felt so drawn to see and hear Tom Sawyer that I stopped by the ballroom after the ordination service was over. Tom was sitting on the stage, and people in the audience were sitting in chairs and lying on blankets. I stayed, spellbound, until after 2:00 A.M. I was glad to know that he would be at the conference for the rest of the week.

  Dan’s workshop the next morning was spent mostly in answering questions about things Tom Sawyer had said the previous night.

  That evening the healing service was for the whole congregation. After the service, I hurried to Hopwood to hear Tom. I sat in a chair from 9:30 that night until 4:30 the next morning, spellbound. (I didn’t even need to go the bathroom!) Tom talked about his near-death experience. At times he’d choke up and have to rest a few minutes. Here is Tom’s story as he told it that
night.

  It was a perfect spring day in Rochester, New York, where Tom lived with his wife, Elaine, and their two sons, Todd (nine and a half years old) and Tim (four years old). Tom was working on his truck. He intended to replace a tie rod end and repair or rebuild the transmission linkage. Just as he began working on the transmission linkage, the truck started to move. It seemed, he said, to fall in extreme slow motion. The frame of the truck fell across the center of his chest between his bottom rib and his breastbone. When it came down, Tom heard no sound; he only experienced the pressure. His neighbors later told him they heard the truck crash down.

  Tom fell unconscious and saw colors, opalescence, phosphorescence, fluorescence, infrared, ultraviolet—millions of hues.

  His heart stopped; all went black; he experienced clinical death. Then, Tom said, he had a feeling of becoming wide awake. All the pain and pressure were gone. The blackness took on the shape of a tunnel, and he felt increasing speed.

  Tom sensed himself fumbling with the jack. A neighbor reached under the truck and took it out of Tom’s hands. For some reason Tom knew the man didn’t know how to operate a hydraulic jack.

  The next thing Tom was aware of was a speck of light he could see in the distance. It was extremely bright, and very intense. The appearance of this light brought Tom a sense of great love and a feeling of camaraderie, greater than any he’d experienced in his thirty-three years of life. He realized that the light was coming from outside the tunnel.

  Tom felt eager to get closer to the light. The light meant the same thing as God to Tom. It was in fact the Light of Jesus Christ, he said.

  There came a feeling of warmth and love from the light. Then Tom received a communication, not in words. “Tom, before you is the Light. Any question that you can conceive of will be absolutely answered.”

  One of the questions Tom asked (which he later thought was rather arrogant) was “What about the Jesus stuff? Was there this dude, Jesus of Nazareth? Was he real—was he a live person? And was it historical truth? Was he the Son of God? Is he divine? Is he at the right hand of the Father? What about the Jesus stuff?” Tom said that at one point it felt as if he were a speck of light on Jesus’ shoulder, and he was able to experience full knowledge of all of Jesus Christ’s incarnations from the beginning of time.

  At the time this happened, Tom was an agnostic. He had a Catholic background, but at that point in his life, religion was to him meaningless. He felt he didn’t need any “hocus-pocus” stuff from the church.

  The communication continued. “Tom, you have a choice. You have the opportunity to choose on your own decision to return to normal life. If you have that desire, it will be facilitated instantaneously, with no strings attached. If you decide to become totally homogeneous with the Light, that’s okay. But if you choose to stay, you will never again be able to choose, on your own decision, to return to normal life.”

  Tom remembers taking a step and leaning forward, indicating he wanted to stay. Immediately he was engulfed by the light and was told and experienced much. He was given specific instructions about things he must do back on earth. Then he felt himself going backward through the tunnel and “slamming” into his body again. “I am the only human I know who was kicked out of Heaven!” he joked.

  Since Tom’s recovery he has traveled the world, healing, teaching, and being a witness to the fact that there is a God, that He is totally love and light. Thousands of people have met Tom in workshops and conferences, through television interviews, and individually. They love the God they feel in him, and they long to be in Tom’s presence.

  I am convinced that Tom is telling the truth about his experience. I have worked with him on many levels in the ensuing years and know him to be completely truthful. I doubt that he could tell a lie. Many times I’ve heard him interrupt himself or another person in order to get the details exactly right.

  After hearing Tom’s story, and being in his presence in the ballroom that night, I knew I would love him through eternity.

  The birds on campus were whistling for daylight as we walked back to our rooms. But I knew that Dan’s workshop that Friday morning was meant for me. First Dan led us in a meditation to help us overcome a fear or phobia. I knew I had to deal with my fear of snakes.

  As we meditated I found myself able to look at a big snake lovingly, and I willingly talked to it. It told me that in a past life I had been an African woman who was captured, tortured, and thrown into a pit of snakes. The snakes in the pit were not attacking me maliciously, the snake told me—they were just following their nature to protect themselves, and they were sorry I died. I felt compassion for the snake as it spoke to me. Dan told us to ask for a gift to bring away with us. The snake gave me three gold rattles and said to take them and use them as a blessing to my people.

  “The next meditation will help you release a person, place, or thing that you need to release,” Dan said. My heart constricted; I knew that this was what I’d come for. He told us what he’d ask us to do and said we must be sure we wanted to do it before we entered the meditation.

  I found myself standing on a hillside under a tree. I was holding a beautiful pink helium balloon by a string. Inside the balloon was Grant. Dan said, “Now let yourself climb inside and say good-bye to the person, place, or thing.” I did. I could see Grant’s beloved face so clearly. We talked. I told him what I must do, and he said he knew it was right for both of us. He said he loved me, would always love me, and that he knew I loved him. I felt he’d been waiting a long time for me to give him his freedom. I started crying. He held me, tenderly, lovingly, and we communicated without words.

  “Now say good-bye and let yourself climb back outside and see yourself holding the string of the balloon,” Dan instructed.

  Grant and I said good-bye and I was again standing on the hillside.

  “Now, if you are a hundred percent sure you are ready, let go of the string when I tell you to, but only if you’re absolutely sure.”

  I held tight to the string, tears streaming down my face.

  Dan called, “Now let go.”

  I couldn’t for a moment, but then I released the string. The balloon started rising and floating out across the river.

  “Good-bye, Grant,” I called. “I release you to go to your highest good. No longer will you be tied to me on any level.”

  Then I was aware that Christ and I were sitting on a bench at the top of the hill under a large tree. He put his arm around my shoulders. We watched the pink balloon move out over the river and disappear.

  In the weeks and months after that meditation, this image stayed strong in my mind. I had released Grant. Some of my pain went away. But it took three years for me to experience a final release.

  When Dan called us back to the room and our chairs, I could hear people sobbing all over the room. A woman came, sat down beside me, and put her arms around me. She held me for awhile as I cried. It was a time of intense grief. If Grant had been dead and this was his funeral, I don’t believe my grief would have been any deeper.

  After the class ended, Dan told us good-bye and thanked us for allowing him to do what he loved best.

  I decided to ask Tom privately if he would lead a meditation for the group. Dan had said that if we ever had a chance to be in a meditation with Tom, do so, because powerful things happened with him. I wrote Tom a note:

  Dear Tom,

  I want to ask if there’s any possibility of your having a meditation with some of us. I would so appreciate such an opportunity. I came to this conference for two specific reasons, (1) to receive physical healing and (2) to release a beloved husband who has chosen to live with someone else. This morning in Dan’s workshop we had a meditation on release. I feel so privileged to be able to be in your presence and listen to you talk.

  Sidney Farr

  I’d made an appointment for a healing that afternoon, but decided it would be more beneficial to go listen to Tom. When I went to the healing center to cancel, a woman nam
ed Helen King was standing there. I heard her tell the woman at the desk that she was available if anyone needed a healing. I asked if she could work with me right then. She said yes. We went to her healing room. She used the laying on of hands and psychic powers. I felt powerful currents surging through my body. Afterward she looked directly into my eyes and said, “You have passed the test. You chose a very hard life this time around, but you have done well in meeting every phase of this life. You are now coming into your most specific and valuable work. Your power is in your hands.” She blessed me and let me go. I thought she meant I would be using my hands to heal people; only later did I realize I was to use my hands in writing.

  When I got to Hopwood, Tom was sitting in his usual seat. He had put my note in his bag. I began to feel that whether he mediated with us or not, his love and compassion were already working on my behalf. I listened to him until 5:00, at which time a woman interrupted and reminded him she’d promised to see that he had time for a shower before dinner and the evening lecture. The others left, and he gathered up his things.

  Some of us walked to the dorm with him. He showed us pictures of his truck, the spot where the truck fell on him, his wife, his sons, and other photos.

  A butterfly suddenly flew in front of us. I was delighted, because I’ve always loved butterflies.

  “Did I tell you what happened at the airport?” Tom said. “I came outside with the young man who met me and suddenly a cloud of butterflies flew all around us and settled on me—even on my duffel bag.” He laughed and said how surprised the young man had been.

  After the evening service, Phyllis and I went to a meeting of all the ordained priests. Dan talked with us about our ordination and what we could expect to have happen to us in the following weeks, now that we were newly ordained members of the Order of Melchizedek.