"And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it." (Old Testament, Isaiah 25: 7, 8).
"But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament, which veil is done away in Christ." (New Testament, II Corinthians 3: 14).
In the article, "Come Meet the Devil," I told of my first 'spiritual experience' which occurred about the age of five. Looking back over my life, I can see that these episodes (of what I call spiritual experiences) were really wake-up calls, or moments of spiritual awakening; and like sign-posts along a long road, each one was a new step in a progressive journey, I didn't even know I was on.
What seems odd now is that I thought everyone had these other-worldly episodes in their lives. I just thought that no one talked about them. I was used to having a Presence with me, ready and willing to counsel me, whenever I turned within my own inner consciousness to approach it. Over the years I accepted the occasional waking visions and prophetic dreams as natural. Many years later, when I did begin to talk of these things, I was surprised to find that only a few people comprehended what I was saying, and more than a few thought I just had a vivid imagination. Many people had never experienced visions, undreamlike dreams, or the teacher within.
It was just recently that it occurred to me that my hidden, spiritual experiences might be of some import to others in the world. When I reviewed each one, I realized that the lesson, or content, was always universal in nature. None of them applied to me alone; but rather, these enlightenments applied to everyone here on the physical plane of existence. So, I've begun to write them down, as best as memory serves me, just so there's a record of one individual's spiritual awakening for as far as it goes. This article describes my second awakening call, which occurred at the age of eight.
As best as I can recall, it began on a sunny, spring day in a school yard in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I was in second grade, near the end of the school year, and so we were allowed to have extra recess time outside on the playground. Everyone was chasing around, as kids do when let out of the prison house, when suddenly there was a screeching sound of brakes and a loud crash in the street next to the playground.
Everyone ran to the fence to see what was going on, only to learn, within minutes, that the two-year-old child who lived across the street from the school had just been run over by a large truck. I won't describe the scene, but the teachers soon came to gather us up and take us inside so we wouldn't be traumatized. Unfortunately, they were too late for me; for I clung to the tall metal fence, completely mesmerized by the horror before my eyes.
As I watched, I tried to make this accident fit into what I knew about God's ever-presence with us, and found that I was utterly confused. How could God let this happen to any baby? Where was God's love and protection? When my teacher pried my hands off the fence, I asked her these questions, specifically, why did God let this happen? She was older than me, so I thought she would have the answer.
When she opened her mouth and spoke, she only added to my horror. The teacher said (and yes, I do remember it) "Well, we can't question God's will in these matters; maybe He's just trying to teach the baby's parents a lesson."
A shock went through my whole system, and I jerked my hand away from her as if it were burnt. My thoughts raced…how dare she speak of God in such an ignorant way! She was supposed to be smarter than me. She was supposed to know the truth about things. How could I let someone like her teach me? She didn't know anything. I had to get away, from this teacher and from this place. I turned and fled from the school yard and began to run blindly for home.
As I crossed the first street, the Presence was suddenly with me. I heard a male voice in my mind say in a gentle, yet firm way, something like, "Calm yourself down, now, and stop running so fast, or you'll have an accident yourself. Stop running and take a deep breath, and when you are calm, I'll talk to you."
I did exactly as directed. I stopped in the middle of the block, feeling on somewhat safe ground again, because my friend, who I figured was God, was with me…He would know.
"Are you quiet now?" It asked. I thought back the answer, 'yes', but then (as I recall) I began to talk instead of listen. I said, "why did You let this happen to the little boy?…why didn't You stop it?…Why do You say we are safe?…I'm not going back to that school, ever! She's so dumb. How can she be my teacher, when she doesn't know anything about You? I'm never going back…You'll have to put me somewhere else, because I'm not going back there!"
I remember that there was a kind of silence, then, and I began to fear that God wasn't really there with me, after all. But then the voice said something like, "Things have changed for you, now. You have to listen to me carefully. Start walking slowly while I talk." I did what the voice said, because I felt safe again.
As I walked, the voice continued speaking, and I'm putting down, here in writing, the content of that talk, as best as I remember it, though it's more paraphrasing than an exact quotation. It said, "You've begun to awake early. Now I must tell you something, so you can continue. Look at the world around you…the houses, the street, the people. Now look up at the sky…see the clouds, the sun?" (I nodded.) "Well, you must realize that all of this is not what it seems to be. These are a kind of form of things. But the real things, and the real people, are not what they seem to be. The little boy's accident and death isn't what it seems. The little boy is really fine and okay. He's not really dead, because no one really dies. But in this whole, big place, where you are now, there is a kind of spell over the mind of almost everyone here. Almost all the people you will meet here, children or adults, are under this spell. It's like a curtain over their minds…or a cloud in their minds. It keeps them from seeing things the way they really are, like the little boy's real safety, even though he seems to be dead now. The curtain over their minds makes people believe this place is real, and they also believe, then, that all the bad things are real, because they seem real here."
The dialogue continued, "In this place, no one can see the real place. No one can see Me, but I'm still here, aren't I? Well, the little boy is still here, too. I'm still taking care of him. He was never even hurt. But all these things are invisible to you, and to everybody here. So, here is what you must do from now on: stop believing in what's going on in this world, for it isn't the truth about anything. Stop believing in the good things of this world, too, because the good thing will only last a little while, and then it will be gone again. Believe in the good you don't see…the good that's really here all the time. It will last forever. Keep believing in my presence with you, for I'm with everyone, all the time. But when they don't know that, they don't listen for me."
Then the voice went on to say another thing that changed my life dramatically from that moment on. It said, "So, now I'm telling you a new thing: You are no longer a child in many ways. But you will be a child for many more years to the people here. You must treat adults of this place with respect. You must be kind to them, let them be your teachers and learn all you can from them of certain things. You must do this because I ask it of you. But while you let them teach you some things, here is what you must not let them teach you…You must not let them teach you what is true anymore. You must come within yourself for the truth. Accept nothing as truth taught to you in school, unless you go away and prove for yourself that it is true. Don't let any church person tell you of God or truth. You must listen within only. For there is a curtain over the minds of the people who live with you in this place, even your parents and all your friends. You are different from most of them now, because of what you know. Keep this within yourself as long as you're a child here. When you are an adult, you'll be freer."
As I continued to walk home, the voice kept speaking: "And from now on, don't read or study the books on health or the body in your schools. Don't take any physical science classes that have to do with teachings about the body. Refuse to learn diseases. Ask to be given something else to do to make up for skipping health and physical teachings. Don't be afraid…it will always be allowed for you. No teacher or school will stop you from being excused from these teachings, since I will be with you. Always learn as much as you can about this world from every teacher. Every teacher will have something to give you of value. Try to do well on every test, but know that the answers are only what they believe to be true in this place. This is the thing you have to remember: whatever you learn of this physical place, you are only learning what the people of this world believe…not what's real. Be the best student you can be while in schools…always remembering you are learning the beliefs of this place only. I, alone, will give you the truth, that isn't of this world. Go home now, and we'll talk again."
I walked home with much to think about, but I had absorbed most of it. My parents, whom the school had contacted, expected a hysterical child; but I was fine. I even returned to the same teacher, understanding, now, what was wrong with her and just about everyone else. So much of life now made sense to me. The seeming power of evil began to lose its grip again. I did, however, begin to feel alone as a person; but, thankfully, the voice had also told me that there were some others in the world, who did know much of the truth about things; so not everyone was different from me.
At eight years old, this was a major change in my life, which took several years to absorb more fully. But from then on, I knew that God was now in control of my education. I felt no fear; I knew everything was all right. The next year, third grade, we'd moved and I attended a new school. By fourth grade they tested me and said I belonged at least two grades ahead of where I was. Due to perceived social problems in moving me forward, I stayed with my age group but completed the next two years of grade school, doing pretty much what I liked. In fourth grade, I spent many school days alone in the school library, studying things outside the school curriculum--since I'd completed the year's work in about the first three weeks. I moved to other schools, after that, but because of my academic record, no teacher ever forced me to take health or even read a book on the subject. I usually chose what thing I'd do to make up for it. For example, in high school I was excused from biology by doing a project for the school.
As a growing child, I'm sure that many adults found me too independent, too self-reliant, and some teachers found me to be a challenge in class, especially in college--until I finally learned to stop trying to answer every question, as if there were a necessity to do so, or as if I had all the answers. It was a work in progress.
As time moved on, I began to understand that the 'curtain' or spell over people's mind which was described to me when I was eight, is the belief in material existence or material reality that the Bible refers to as "the covering cast over all people," and "the veil that is spread over all the nations." This covering over consciousness is also said to be "which veil is done away in Christ." I think this means that Christ Jesus tried to remove this 'veil' by showing the invisible kingdom of God, ever-present, right where the material existence seems to be the reality, and by showing a view of man that is spiritual, perfect and eternal, right where the material body and personality of an individual seems to be their reality. Thus, the way to remove the veil over consciousness is to realize the message and truth of spiritual existence--rather than material existence--that Jesus the Christ (the spiritual identity of the seemingly material Jesus) was trying to teach us.
As a footnote for any teachers reading this who might feel uneasy that I escaped studies on physical body and health in the school system, it might help to know that my path eventually led me (at age 27) to a spiritual, healing religion (Christian Science) where, had I filled my head with the laws of physics and health, I'd have had to spend years unlearning them in order to practice effective spiritual healing. Even my own questions were answered as to why I was directed not to study the physical so-called 'laws' of life and health; since even before I encountered Christian Science, I was already healing spiritually, without the encumbrance of having to unlearn all the false, material beliefs and so-called 'laws' of material existence that would have hindered me. It was basically the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that I didn't eat in my youth.
The principles revealed by Mary Baker Eddy (discoverer of Christian Science) on the subject of spiritual existence gave cement and structure to my own feeble attempts at healing. Back at the age of eight, I had no idea what my path was to be, nor down what roads it would lead. I only see, now, the divine Wisdom that held my hand, all the way, and finally brought me to those others, far above me in spiritual understanding, who took away my loneliness--these spiritual teachers who still help me today, in my own struggle to remove what's left for me of the materialistic veil over consciousness.
Publishing my second spiritual experience is meant only to share whatever light might bless another who is looking for it. While each of us goes about our daily sense of life, our divine path and purpose, (which we may not detect for awhile) is quietly leading us in Its own way, sometimes in direct opposition from our own chosen path. If we yield to this divine Will, our spiritual awakening will most probably occur in a way that may take a thousand years off our journey. There's a stanza in a poem by the 19th century poet, James R. Lowell, that speaks particularly to me on this point: (As written in Boston Courier, December 11, 1845)
Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.
