02-07-2011, 12:01 AM
Very good posts,
And a very important principle.
A bird cannot fly until it falls from the nest.
The day I realized my teacher was just a man like any other was a very freeing and necessary event in my life.
Back in those days (1977) there was no internet and books on esoteric subjects were difficult to find. I had to drive many miles to downtown Chicago or Wheaton Illinois to the Theosphical bookstore to find anything on these subjects.
As I had recently gotten back from Carbondale Ill. where I had gone in response to following Don Juan's advice to leave everthing you knew and stopped the world after a few years of following the teachings outlined in JTI. I was a confused young man having opened the doors of perception and neede some sort of guide. A teacher or philosophy or both.
I considered myself very fortunate indeed when I and a friend found my teachers small church within a 1 hour drive from home.
John called himself a Christian Mystic. A Qabalist and had gone through a spontaneous awakening in 74' which almost killed him. I watched him change the weather many times, he had his home set up like a doctor's office in which many miracle healing were performed.
Short version, to get to my point, is that for 14 years my life was centered on attending classes, church services, bible study and weekend meditations with the man.
In short, I held the man above other men.
As time went on the tenor of teachings got more and more based on old Testament biblical law. Following his system of knowledge I had had many experiences both while in meditation and during waking life. There was no doubt as to the validity of his teachings.
One day while in an early morning meditation group at the basement of our small church, I began feeling love as a force or energy flowing through me. I began to picture, in my mind's eye people that I knew who were away in other states and sending them this love energy flowing through me. All of a sudden John's face came in my mind's eye, but it was different than the others. It was different in quality in that it seemed to be "drawn of white light" like a fine pen and ink drawing but made of light.
I quickly turned away (in my mind) and said to myself, "no not John". Then I though "Why not send energy to John?" I turned back toward this image and watched his face grow a full body in profile with his arm bent at the elbow and his hand extended forward. By now the white light that made up the image had a "living qualty" to it. It sparkled. And he was looking forward at something and I could see the light in his eyes were sparkling with love.
Then I saw that he was holding hands with someone who was standing in front of him as two men might hold hands while shaking hands with each other, but they weren't shaking hands, just holding hands and looking in each other's eyes with love and respect. The other man was not detailed like John, in fact his image appeared to be blurred. Then I looked more closely. The other man was made up of fibers of light like a scarecrow is made of straw. Tiny, almost microscopic, fibers that I could focus in on and see individually. And focussing back out again I could see the love these two had for each other and the idea passing between them seemed to be that this other man was telling John that he had done well.
Then it hit me. I was looking at Jesus.
(Much later I came to the realization that this experience was very similar to what had happened on the Mount of Transfiguration to the three apostles, Peter, James and John.)
I was floored to say the least. I told my friends what had just happened and went home to look in my bible. Having known the last place that I had "found myself", so to speak in the biblical stories of Jacob, I opened to a page and began reading. I read just a few lines and there it was. The answer to the question: Was I to look at John as just another of the bretheren or as something more?
Ge 35:7
And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother The sychronicity of this event astounded me and also the implications. I had more questions than answers.
Jesus is not only alive but he still appears to people to teach and guide them.
John is just like the rest of my bretheren.
The synchronicty, ("reafirmations from the world around us" or "the world agreeing with us" ), extends not only to spiritual visions acting as the "messenger" of those reafirmations from Spirit but also the bible itself seemed to "know" what I was asking when I was asking it.
The phrase "living Word" seemed to hold a different meaning for me. Did the words actually change? Or do we just read it differently?
The events that had just taken place were beyond mere "coincidence."
I took the day off work to go ask John what had just happened and to answer some of these questions.
He told me that of course he was just one of the bretheren, just a guy who had experienced more than others.
I asked him if the bible changes (I was very confused) or if someone else would have the exact same experience as I had just had. He told me some parts apply more to one person and other parts apply to others.
I asked him what he was doing at the exact time I saw him. Was he awake and walking around or was he in meditation???
He said what I had seen was his higher self. That is all the answer he gave me.
Sometimes a person is so dense that they need to be hit in the head with a two by four for something to sink in. That seems to be the case with me. Why have I had more visions and such than the friends with whom I attended that church and meditation classes etc.
That and the fact that I had already opened some doors following Don Juan's system of knowledge before attending that church.
I was wrestling with this experience, trying to understand it when, the very next day, an even more astounding thing (if that is even possible)happened to me. This time I was not in prayer or meditation but sitting in my living room, having a conversation with my wife and a friend.
And a very important principle.
A bird cannot fly until it falls from the nest.
The day I realized my teacher was just a man like any other was a very freeing and necessary event in my life.
Back in those days (1977) there was no internet and books on esoteric subjects were difficult to find. I had to drive many miles to downtown Chicago or Wheaton Illinois to the Theosphical bookstore to find anything on these subjects.
As I had recently gotten back from Carbondale Ill. where I had gone in response to following Don Juan's advice to leave everthing you knew and stopped the world after a few years of following the teachings outlined in JTI. I was a confused young man having opened the doors of perception and neede some sort of guide. A teacher or philosophy or both.
I considered myself very fortunate indeed when I and a friend found my teachers small church within a 1 hour drive from home.
John called himself a Christian Mystic. A Qabalist and had gone through a spontaneous awakening in 74' which almost killed him. I watched him change the weather many times, he had his home set up like a doctor's office in which many miracle healing were performed.
Short version, to get to my point, is that for 14 years my life was centered on attending classes, church services, bible study and weekend meditations with the man.
In short, I held the man above other men.
As time went on the tenor of teachings got more and more based on old Testament biblical law. Following his system of knowledge I had had many experiences both while in meditation and during waking life. There was no doubt as to the validity of his teachings.
One day while in an early morning meditation group at the basement of our small church, I began feeling love as a force or energy flowing through me. I began to picture, in my mind's eye people that I knew who were away in other states and sending them this love energy flowing through me. All of a sudden John's face came in my mind's eye, but it was different than the others. It was different in quality in that it seemed to be "drawn of white light" like a fine pen and ink drawing but made of light.
I quickly turned away (in my mind) and said to myself, "no not John". Then I though "Why not send energy to John?" I turned back toward this image and watched his face grow a full body in profile with his arm bent at the elbow and his hand extended forward. By now the white light that made up the image had a "living qualty" to it. It sparkled. And he was looking forward at something and I could see the light in his eyes were sparkling with love.
Then I saw that he was holding hands with someone who was standing in front of him as two men might hold hands while shaking hands with each other, but they weren't shaking hands, just holding hands and looking in each other's eyes with love and respect. The other man was not detailed like John, in fact his image appeared to be blurred. Then I looked more closely. The other man was made up of fibers of light like a scarecrow is made of straw. Tiny, almost microscopic, fibers that I could focus in on and see individually. And focussing back out again I could see the love these two had for each other and the idea passing between them seemed to be that this other man was telling John that he had done well.
Then it hit me. I was looking at Jesus.
(Much later I came to the realization that this experience was very similar to what had happened on the Mount of Transfiguration to the three apostles, Peter, James and John.)
I was floored to say the least. I told my friends what had just happened and went home to look in my bible. Having known the last place that I had "found myself", so to speak in the biblical stories of Jacob, I opened to a page and began reading. I read just a few lines and there it was. The answer to the question: Was I to look at John as just another of the bretheren or as something more?
Ge 35:7
And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother The sychronicity of this event astounded me and also the implications. I had more questions than answers.
Jesus is not only alive but he still appears to people to teach and guide them.
John is just like the rest of my bretheren.
The synchronicty, ("reafirmations from the world around us" or "the world agreeing with us" ), extends not only to spiritual visions acting as the "messenger" of those reafirmations from Spirit but also the bible itself seemed to "know" what I was asking when I was asking it.
The phrase "living Word" seemed to hold a different meaning for me. Did the words actually change? Or do we just read it differently?
The events that had just taken place were beyond mere "coincidence."
I took the day off work to go ask John what had just happened and to answer some of these questions.
He told me that of course he was just one of the bretheren, just a guy who had experienced more than others.
I asked him if the bible changes (I was very confused) or if someone else would have the exact same experience as I had just had. He told me some parts apply more to one person and other parts apply to others.
I asked him what he was doing at the exact time I saw him. Was he awake and walking around or was he in meditation???
He said what I had seen was his higher self. That is all the answer he gave me.
Sometimes a person is so dense that they need to be hit in the head with a two by four for something to sink in. That seems to be the case with me. Why have I had more visions and such than the friends with whom I attended that church and meditation classes etc.
That and the fact that I had already opened some doors following Don Juan's system of knowledge before attending that church.
I was wrestling with this experience, trying to understand it when, the very next day, an even more astounding thing (if that is even possible)happened to me. This time I was not in prayer or meditation but sitting in my living room, having a conversation with my wife and a friend.