The day after quitting my position of National Marketing Representative, Mining Division, Dominion Engineering Works Ltd. of Montreal, on February 1, 1975, I experienced a Spiritual awakening as unexpected and powerful to me as I imagine the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus. I was just turning 30.
Before that Day, I was like most of the population. I never thought of God. I had no need of God and made no room for God in my Life. I had no Christian friends, and except for the Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormon Missionaries knocking on my door, never talked about God.
Seven months later, I had sold all my possessions, and with a backpack on my back, on September 1, 1975, leaving Country, family and friends in my Spiritual wake, headed into the United States to discover the Spirit of ´76.
Three days later I arrived in Trenton N.J., scene of the American Revolutionary War battle of Trenton on Christmas Day, 1776 and where Washington crossed the Delaware.
Leaving the downtown Bus Terminal at 1am, it was eerie to be on dark dreary streets with no moving cars or human life to be seen, all the shops having ugly iron barriers over the windows. I thought, ´Jesus, it looks like a Neutron Bomb was dropped and the wind blew all the dust away.´
The nuclear device called the Neutron Bomb, which American power developed from an idea and turned it into a reality, does not destroy the property, but releases enhanced dirty radiation into the atmospheres so only the People die a slow torturous death, with the loot left intact. These days the media just call it a dirty bomb.
Having no idea where I was going, I walked for blocks until I met a policeman on the beat, the 1st person I saw. Naturally stopping to talk, It eventually came out he was a Morman. While I was attempting to share God and Jesus, it seemed to me he couldn´t get beyond Joseph Smith. While our talk was friendly and civil, not being able to reach common understanding, I asked if he could direct me to a clean, cheap, comfortable Hotel?
Giving me explicit directions he then said, ¨But I wouldn´t go there if I were you.” Asking why not? he answered, ¨It´s right in the nigger district.” I replied that doesn´t bother me, as long as the Hotel is clean, cheap and comfortable and continued on The Way.
Following the directions, there was no human life to be seen as I walked down a very wide Boulevard. Across the street was a City Park that was the whole block, locked, with a high iron fence around it. I was told to turn left at the end of the park and the Hotel was at the end of that block.
From the wide Boulevard I turned onto a very narrow street. The park was on one side, with poor, modest housing facing it. There were trees every five feet on both sides of the street and all the branches joined in the middle. The entire block was a tunnel, with the only light at the end of the tunnel appearing to be far away.
I was about a quarter way through when I heard sound behind me. Turning back, two young Black guys were quickly coming toward me. Stopping in place, as they got closer, I spoke first, saying, ¨I´m glad to see you guys. What´s with this town? Where´s the life? You´re the first people I´ve seen other than one cop on the beat.¨
One guy says, ¨Where you cummin´ from, man? ¨Montreal, Canada. Where you guys going?¨ He replied, “We´re goin´ to get some dynamite weed, man.”
Having long hair, a beard and brand new bright shiny red/orange back pack on my back, they had confidence I was not a narc. I replied, ¨Dynamite weed? Sounds like something I´d love to check out. If that’s True, Brothers, if you want to take me, I’m with you.”
We started walking together through the tunnel and one guy pulled out a joint and firing it up passed it to me. By the third toke, the shades went up, the lights came on, and I was enjoying a real good, strong, friendly buzz with these strangers.
I said, ¨If you´re going to get dynamite weed, what do you call this? I think it´s really good.” He replied, “Hey, man. That´s just cheap commercial shit. What we´re going to get is dynamite!”What could I say but, “Brothers, if that´s True, if you want to take me, I´m with you. I´d love to check that out.”
We walked and talked for blocks. I had no idea where we were going. Turning a corner, I could see at the end of the block, a gang of 20-30 young people were gathered around the corner lamp post. In this part of Trenton white people are rarely seen in daylight, never mind at 2am.
In between talking with my new friends, it took a nanosecond to pray/think to God. ‘Lord, I trust I´m here with your Peace, your Love, your Goodness and your Strength,’ and continued on The Way in confidence and no paranoia.
Arriving at the corner, there was a radio blasting good tunes from a window of the corner house. Taking off my backpack and leaning it against the rickety picket fence, I turned to face the crowd. There was an energy in the atmosphere as I was being peppered with many questions as the joints were connecting from every direction. The scene was cool and casual. I was happy and content being there.
After a long time, one guy suddenly came out of the crowd and standing in front of my face, said, ¨Hey man! I want your backpack. I´m taking it. It belongs to me now.¨
The atmosphere changed instantly, and the people who had been calm and casual up to that point became speedy, nervous and shifty. Instantly I prayed/thought to God, ‘Lord God Jesus! Give me the right words to speak.’
In less than a nanosecond, as if the Sword of God came out of my mouth, in a blast of words I said, ‘Hey man! What´s this bullshit you´re bringing on down here? Can´t you see? Haven´t you got eyes? Didn´t you see me come here with my brothers carrying this back pack on my back? What´s this lie? What´s this lie? you´re trying to make, that my back pack is your back pack?’
The fellow fell back on the blast of words, but recovering, came back on me again with his words. I said, ‘Hey man! I´m from CanaDa. I´m not even from this Country. I came down here to see how the American people live? Are you how the American people live, man? I´ll tell you the Truth by God, if the American people live like you, this Country is going to burn, and burn bad, and fall into the pit.
Falling back from the blast, he recovered and came back at me again. It seemed like an Eternity, but in the back and fourth, I had confidence God in me is stronger than he that is in the world.
When this fellow suddenly changed the scene, I recognized immediately I had to suppress all fear, otherwise not only would I have lost my back pack, I probably would have got a beating as well. Macho words and actions would not have saved me. Nor would it have been wise to use words with the effect of pouring gasoline on the fire. I just held firm to what is right and mine.
Eventually, I thanked God, two Angels appeared out the crowd. Not the people that brought me there, but two other strangers in the group came forward, and pushing my antagonist, said to him, ‘Don´t touch that man and don´t touch his stuff.’ The one guy backed down right away and the scene calmed down. The joints were passed around again as I answered many questions.
Truth, Justice and Goodness transcends race, religion, socio/economic status and educational level.
After a while, the people who brought me there offered to escort me to back to the hotel where they found me. Leaving me at the door, one lad said, ‘Hey you crazy white man! What you doin´ cumin down here stirrin´ everyone up like that for?’
It cost $5 for a clean, comfortable room and getting in bed, I thanked God for being Alive and delivering me from evil.
But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool?
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who SHALL BE heirs of salvation?
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
TODAY is the Day The Lord has made. Let´s Rejoice and be Glad in it.
You are lucky to be alive, I hope you know that. You really should have listened to the cop. Assuming they were still alive at the time, you could have cost your parents a child and all the heartbreak that most parents would experience with that.
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Of course it’s not my place to say, and this wasn”t meant to criticize. But that’s the thought that jumps into my head after reading your story. No offense intended…
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I appreciate your comments and concern jj. I hope you re-read the article sometime, because how I described the experience is how it happened.
I felt no fear or paranoia and no tension, confident in the Love of God, but that does not suggest awareness be abandoned. I wrote exactly how I felt as this was all new experience before me.
‘In between talking with my new friends, I prayed/thought to God. ¨Lord, I trust I´m here with your Peace, your Love, your Goodness and your Strength,¨ and continued on The Way.’
That was a prayer to the God I believe in. I thought it, I believed it and I trusted God is able to perform it and continued on the Way in Peace and Confidence.
Personally, I believe and have Faith in this from what I have personally experienced in the Past and could encounter in the Future.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
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Hay DoDa. Perhaps the Lord was looking to see if you will give him the backpack AND the shirt from your back!?
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There is a difference between giving freely and extortion.
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I don’t think it was that kind of test, Mountainman. This was outright intimidation by 1 person in a group mano a mano. I was so relieved when those two strangers/angels in the peer group came to my rescue. I think it was more of a test of my prayer, how much I believed it myself and am willing to act on it according to my Faith. As I turned the corner and recognized the potential danger seeing the crowd at the other end of the block, I couldn’t just turn around and run in fear at that point.
Perfect Love casts out all Fear.
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
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Zechariah 3
Cleansing for the High Priest
1 Then the angel showed me Jeshua[a] the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. The Accuser, Satan,[b] was there at the angel’s right hand, making accusations against Jeshua. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire.”
3 Jeshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. 4 So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Jeshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”
5 Then I said, “They should also place a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the angel of the Lord stood by.
6 Then the angel of the Lord spoke very solemnly to Jeshua and said, 7 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: If you follow my ways and carefully serve me, then you will be given authority over my Temple and its courtyards. I will let you walk among these others standing here.
8 “Listen to me, O Jeshua the high priest, and all you other priests. You are symbols of things to come. Soon I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. 9 Now look at the jewel I have set before Jeshua, a single stone with seven facets.[c] I will engrave an inscription on it, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and I will remove the sins of this land in a single day.
10 “And on that day, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, each of you will invite your neighbor to sit with you peacefully under your own grapevine and fig tree.”
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Blessed be the Word of the LORD.
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look people! our ya’ll still blind to the WORD, did ya’ll not see the actions of our loving creator, for the fallen are here, and they want us to suffer as they are eternally damned, they will try, challenge, trick us, but they cannot make us, for we decide our fate, and we always have many waiting on us, to make that decision, if u accept defeat, then u will be defeated, whats the use of cheerleaders, if the team is already defeated (mentally), for my team is undefeated since the beginning of time, thanks to my cheerleaders (God & his angels)….
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Thanks for turning me on to this article. You are a gifted writer, with the ability to make words visual. As I read your post I was reminded of a move titled Peaceful Warrior, (trailer) http://youtu.be/gegNMYvY_yg ,especially the scene “Give it All. Youtube use to have a clip of this scene but has removed it due to copyright grounds.. Nick Nolte (nicknamed Socrates) played the part of an ‘enlightened’ teacher/stranger. He and Dan, the young man he felt led to ‘enlighten’ were held up in a back ally being robbed by 3 thugs. When the robbers got what they wanted, Socrates calls them back, taunting them and putting himself and the young man in danger in order to teach a lesson. After the they start to walk away, getting their wallets. Socrates starts asking the armed robbers questions, i.e., don’t you want Dan’s jacket?…his watch?… etc. Dan and Socrates ended up almost naked. Socrates’ lesson could have been a deadly one, and Dan had more common sense than his own ‘enlightened’ teacher. Dan said “You could have gotten us killed.” He was right.
I would have to agree with JJ’s comments, that you could have gotten yourself killed. Often, after what is termed as a spiritual awakening, the right amygdala (fear) can become less active, and the left amygdala (positive emotions) becomes more active. This can give a person a false sense of security. You said: “I felt no fear or paranoia and no tension.” That’s a perfect example of an inactive right amygdala, explained here –> http://www.shaktitechnology.com/enlightenment.htm You also said: “confident in the Love of God” Not everyone is as fortunate as you. I’ve seen people of great faith killed, murdered, maimed, all the while trusting that god would protect them. To say that your faith was greater than those that died or harmed by others would be inappropriate and inaccurate. (Not saying you would). Teaching that reciting the Lord’s Prayer as some sort special protection could potentially put another life in danger if they take you at your word.
I experienced a life changing ‘spiritual awakening’. This occurred several years after I renounced Christianity, after spending 2 decades studying the Bible. I considered myself ‘born again’, and had deep faith and love for god. It was studying the Bible, along with Greek and Hebrew as well as studying how the Bible came to be, and by whom that brought me into a spiritual crisis and I begain to question my beliefs. I was not studying any other religion at the time I had this experience. After the awakening, I paced the hallway floor, weeping in awe. I had no fear. I could hear internal dialogs. They were my own. At times my mind was completely still and I could perceive the most minute details around me. I had an acute awareness, and it seemed as though I received a ‘download’ of information that I needed to process, but that’s not what really occurred. I’ve spent the last several years seeking to understand what I experienced, and I found my answers.
I can certainly understand why some people would attribute this experience to a god, especially considering the cultures we are in It can happen after having a temporal lobe seizure. http://youtu.be/qIiIsDIkDtg — http://youtu.be/5z4B5BYbjf8– It can happen while having a stroke. http://youtu.be/UyyjU8fzEYU It can happen through meditation. It can happen after going to major stress. It can happen after a brain injury. It can happen after intense soul searching. It can happen when one is spending a good bit of time in repetitive prayer. It can happen with neurotechnology, i.e. brainwave entrainment and/or low intensity complex magnetic signals applied to specific areas on the scalp. “repeated, simultaneous stimulation of the left amygdala (associated with positive affect) and the right hippocampus (associated with a positive cognitive style) will, over time, raise the baseline activity of these two structures, allowing a positive emotive and cognitive style for individuals, possibly by entraining their neuroanatomical substrates with each other. This is postulated to be within the range of personality alterations described popularly as ‘Spiritual Transformation’.” http://www.shaktitechnology.com/shakti/shakti_proposal.htm
Anyone can have these ‘spiritual’ type, life changing experiences and find enormous inner strength, compassion, empathy, and awareness, yet never believe in any god. Anyone can experience a sensed presence when the conditions are right, yet they may attribute that to a god, when it is actually a rather common brain phenomena. http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2008/12/spontaneous-experience-of-sensed.html — http://www.shaktitechnology.com/sp.htm Religious indoctrination has really hinder our capacity to have these experiences. If there is a god, it doesn’t care whether we believe or not. Abnormal electrical activity in specific parts of the brain will bring on these types of experiences. That’s the beauty of it. No one can boast of being ‘special’ which can lead to ‘othering’, yet we are ‘special’ in our own unique ways whether we chose to attribute these experiences to a god or just embrace our humanity. Thanks again for the discourse on RS, for being a gentleman, for following my blog and reading my ramblings. =)
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=82b_1241911391
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From my recounting of the incident, when I saw the gang at the end of the block, I recognized the potential danger, moving me to pray the brief prayer invoking Divine protection. I believe Christ’s teaching, The kingdom of heaven is WITHIN you. Praying to God in my own mind is summoning up God already in my body I came alive to only on February 1, 1975.
I suppose taking a line from the Peaceful Warrior trailer, I was acting “in the moment” when that 1 fellow came out of the crowd and it worked for me that time. I wouldn’t want to have to deal with something like that every Day. I’ll have to watch that movie.
If I was killed there, the 1976 Marker of Time, The Kansas City Times newspaper reports would not have been possible later along the voyage.
I do appreciate your post.
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