Supernatural or What?

The personal accounts (of mine) that follow have been extracted from a letter I wrote in July 2006 to the author of the book "The Sins of Scripture" in response to the author's claims that there is no such thing as supernatural phenomenon:

The first of my so-called supernatural experiences occurred when I was a 21 year old agnostic (24 years ago). I was naively fooling around with "automatic writing" one day when I unwittingly set in motion a harrowing experience. Having purposely placed a pen in my hand and invited a ghost to write a message, if in fact ghosts even existed, after no more than five minutes of waiting, a wave of pins and needles suddenly entered my body through the crown of my head. Moments later, the pen began to move, and in short order, I had a collection of drawings which I excitedly brought over to my parent's home (to show my eldest sister). After a rather anticlimactic presentation, I left the drawings in my parent's sitting room (a room that adjoined my parent's bedroom through an open archway) and went back to my apartment. In the meantime, my sister decided to take a nap in my parent's bed - a nap that lasted about an hour, abruptly ending when unintelligible mumbling sounds suddenly became a very clear command to "Get out! Get out! Get out!" Although justifiably spooked, my sister left the room and passed the whole thing off as an odd dream. Later that night, when my mother arrived home, without knowing anything about my sister's dream or my visit earlier in the day, my mother was assaulted by a most vile and repugnant smell the moment she opened her bedroom door. Immediately calling for my sister, my sister soon verified the foul odor for herself, and as she did, she suddenly recalled my visit earlier in the day and the drawings I had left in the room. A half an hour later, the smell hadn't abated when I arrived, having been summoned by my mother to come over in order to remove whatever it was that I had brought into her house. Interestingly enough, while standing in the room feeling angry, ashamed and afraid, I witnessed the smell get noticeably worse as my mother and sister prayed to God for help. That night, we all slept in my sister's room, half expecting more to happen. Fortunately though, the night was completely uneventful. The next morning, the smell was gone and at my mother's behest, I burned the drawings in the fireplace. [Please see The Ghost That Started My Journey for more.]

My second supernatural experience occurred a year later at the age of 22. I had been struggling with unhappiness and depression at the time; however, it had never occurred to me that dropping out of university was an option. And then suddenly it did. And I was immediately overcome by an unexpected flood of joyful tears that was soon followed by a strange vibration that occurred in both of my arms. It was as if my arms had suddenly fallen asleep although I was sitting on a window seat at the time, and the circulation in my arms was perfectly unimpaired. In any event, with my arms suddenly vibrating in a very strange way, I watched in amazement as they slowly began to rise up from my side, gradually moving towards one another until my hands firmly came together in an obvious position of prayer. The vibration then continued for several more seconds while I unsuccessfully tried to pull my hands apart. You see, I still considered myself agnostic at the time, and once my hands came together in prayer, something unexplainable seemed to tell me to get on my knees and pray. But I was so full of ego and pride that there was no way I was going to bow down before God, whether God existed or not; I just couldn't understand why an intelligent being should need to submit and pray. So I refused. Instead, trying with little effect to pull my hands apart until I suddenly had another unexplainable thought: I was dying -- at which point, my hands immediately fell to my sides and the strange vibrations immediately ceased. The effect of the impeccable timing between the thought that I was dying and the cessation of all the unusual sensations wasn't lost on me. Just like that, I truly believed I was dying. And the experience didn't end there. As it happened, over the course of the next two hours, I went on to experience an acute fever and a remarkable visitation by an invisible being who told me he was there to escort me to the other side. Of course, I was anything but cooperative. In fact, most of the two hour ordeal was spent fighting for my life with someone I have since come to think of as the Grim Reaper - a spirit I never actually saw although I telepathically spoke with him as clearly and unmistakably as if he was standing in the room beside me. He was hardly a loving or a patient being; on several occasions he tried to forcefully pull my spirit from my body (through the general region of my solar plexus); a rather unpleasant sensation that caused me to thrash about. Furthermore, when my thrashing seemed to prevent him from taking me to wherever it was that he seemed intent on taking me, he resorted to threats. Needless to say, when the experience finally ended, I could no longer call myself agnostic. (The experience ended when in a fit of frustration, the Grim Reaper threatened to take my father instead of me. Previous to that, all threats were aimed at me and me alone; however, as soon as a threat was leveled at my father, I agreed to go peacefully. Moments later, my fever broke and my experience was over.) By the way, I may have experienced an acute fever (it climbed as high as 105), but I remained fully conscious and aware of what was happening at all times (my family trying to reassure me that I was going to be okay, the doctor that arrived and diagnosed me as bi-polar and left a prescription to be filled). The fever simply created the right conditions for my consciousness to clearly communicate with both the spiritual and physical dimensions at the same time. I never did have that prescription filled. And incidentally, I never did find the courage to drop out of university. [Please see The Grim Reaper and Prescient Dreams for more.]

One year to the day later (without being aware of the date until after the fact), a set of unique circumstances led me to feel a sudden urge to pray for the very first time since my experience with the so-called Grim Reaper. Not wanting a repeat of the traumatic experiences of the preceding year, I immediately capitulated by kneeling down and bowing my head to the floor for the very first time in my life. No sooner did I do this, I began to weep from the very depths of my soul. Moments later, the following words spilled forth from my lips: "Why are we so bad? Why are we so bad?" At the time, I hadn't the slightest idea what those words meant, or why I was saying them. All I knew for sure was, I was crying and speaking words that weren't a function of my conscious awareness. Moments later, my confusion was overshadowed by an unseen force that suddenly began to press down upon my back, having the instant effect of paralyzing me; quite literally, I couldn't move a muscle. A few seconds later, my head was firmly grasped by unseen hands that turned it to the side where my eyes immediately beheld a bearded man kneeling on the floor beside me. The man was already gazing into my eyes the moment he was revealed to me and for reasons I can't explain (other than to admit to the immense love and compassion I felt pouring into my soul from his incredible eyes), I immediately knew this man was Jesus (even though I wasn't a Christian nor had I ever had any form of religious education or training). Not a single word was spoken and yet I was filled with a euphoric feeling of calm. A second or two later, the man I recognized as Jesus turned his head away from mine and bowed it to the floor in prayer, and as I saw him do this, my head was turned away to face the floor once again (where it had last been prior to Jesus being revealed to me). [Please see A Beautiful Being's Message for more.] For the next two or three minutes, I remained paralyzed while a movie suddenly played on the screen of my mind. In this movie I was shown a frightening scene of urban warfare in my home city (at the time it was Toronto, Canada), accompanied by a frightening soundtrack of human distress. I thought I was being shown a vision of the end of the world although this was never confirmed. And then the paralysis ended and I was released from the floor. Mind you, the experience didn't actually stop until another forty hours had passed, during which time several events occurred that I would also classify as supernatural. But it would serve no purpose to discuss these additional experiences because I have already given you the highlights. Furthermore, just in case the thought might have occurred to you, none of my experiences happened under the influence of alcohol or drugs, nor do I or anyone in my family have a history of mental illness or substance abuse. These experiences simply came from nowhere, and left me to my own devices to sort them out. And while nothing supernatural happened again for the next twenty years, armed with nothing more than my own personal certainty of God, Jesus and the need for prayer, I tried as best I could to live my life, always wondering why I had been so blessed to have the awakening that I did. Suffice to say, finding answers to the question "Why me?" has been a journey without end.

In closing, all I wish to add is that unlike many who look to religion (and other external sources) for answers, I have spent the last twenty five years looking inward for answers (ever since that first ghost experience). As a result of this practice, I have been guided to find my spirit guide and my guardian angel and I have been taught more about life and love than I ever imagined possible. And because of all that I have learned and experienced, I clearly appreciate and understand the need for religious reform. And I applaud your courage and the efforts you have made and continue to make in support of your convictions. In recent years, I found forgiveness in my heart for myself and for all those who had harmed me in some way during the course of my forty years of life. Soon after, another supernatural event occurred in my life - an experience that left me knowledgeable about something that is conspicuously absent from "The Sins of Scripture". I had always believed the devil was a mythological creature. And then I had an incredible experience that unequivocally taught me otherwise. Evil is a real force in the world. It seeks to destroy life and love and it derives its power from the negative thoughts, emotions and actions of human beings, whether here in the flesh or deceased. I would never have understood this had I not been blessed to experience life in a supernatural way. Consequently, just like life and love, I now know so much more about the nature of hatred and fear than I ever imagined possible; not only why it is so pervasive in our world but why it is so essential for us to strive to align ourselves with unconditionally divine love and to trust and abide in that love above all else. [Please see Anatomy of a Psychic Attack -- Part 2  for more.]


Having reread the above extraction just today, I realized that I should also have included reference to the 1111 phenomenon -- something that had first come to my attention in dramatic fashion in August 2005, before once again overwhelming me in a similar way in July 2006 -- right around the same time the above (letter) was written.