The Event That Changed My Life
Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
The crossing is the true account of the most important event in my life. It was the event that as American pragmatist William James refers to as “the soul crossing a critical juncture to reach higher safety.” This happened to me on May 1, 1974. I haven’t been the same since. It reverberates to this day in the early 21st Century, by setting into motion the vital interior transformation that my life so desperately needed.
Encountering Tom and John
It was the last day of April in 1974 and I had not seen my good friend and drummer Tom for a few months. Being a musician by trade, after our shows Tom and I had spent many a night in bull sessions that usually ended up talking about important matters pertaining to our mutual search for truth. I drove by his place, picked him up and he said, “good to see you Eric (that’s my real name), I’m glad you stopped by, I have something real important to tell you,” as he lit a cigarette and pushed back his long blond hair.
We got in the car and small talked as we drove and he said “let’s see if we can find John.” Now mind you, St. Louis is a big city, so we just cruised around, still small talking and about a half hour later, much to our surprise, suddenly there was John hitchhiking with a book in his hand. What an odd coincidence, I thought. He got in the car and said to me, “Great to see you Eric. I have something real important to tell you.” Hmmm, I thought. That’s the exact same statement twice in a row. So we drove back to John’s small apartment in the south part of the city, with all three of us talking and sort of catching up on where we had been lately.
Stung!
We got to John’s and the book he was carrying turned out to be the Bible. He opened it up and read out loud the parables in Matthew 13. Having a Catholic background, the only thing I remembered from Catholic grade school was the parables, seeing that I had never even cracked open the Bible myself.
However, this time hearing them again, especially the parable of the wheat and the tares, something stung me in the deepest part of my being. My knee-jerk reaction was polite but swift and I said, “I have to go, John.” As Tom and I walked out to my car, on the sidewalk Tom turned to me and said, “You know what John was reading to us tonight is the truth.” This shocked me. Here is my old friend Tom, the most cynical person I have ever known in my entire life, saying that this simple parable was “the” truth. C’mon! It made no sense. How could this be “the” truth?
I had practiced meditation, yoga, read all the intellectual texts on world religions and knew how complex it all was and knew that there were many ways or avenues to God, and here is the cynic of cynics telling me categorically that this was “the” truth. We got in my car and Tom went on, “This was the real important thing I wanted to tell you tonight.” As we drove from south city all the way to West County he told me that when he was hitchhiking to Georgia last month he had some sort of revelation/vision of Jesus Christ.
This is the Truth
“What?? Jesus Christ???” I thought. At this point my curiosity was getting the best of me. I remembered a few years back in Tulsa when Tom, Mike and I would go out of our way to try and stop the Jesus freaks in the mall there from spreading their simpleton lies.
I saw it as a lie because there were many paths to God and they kept on insisting there was only one, namely Jesus Christ. I viewed this as being narrow-minded, destructive, and naïve and something that needed to be challenged. Of course, I viewed Christ as another Avatar, or great master, an enlightened being, but only one of many. To even hint otherwise was to ipso facto rule out all other enlightened beings like Buddha, Krishna, etc., etc. This was unthinkable.
We stopped off at our usual Dunkin’ Donuts and over coffee Tom said to me, “Eric, you have been searching for God for years and trying everything to reach God but all in vain.” I bristled. “All in vain?” I thought. He continued. There is nothing you can do that has not already been done for you on the cross. It’s like a light switch, it just goes on. When it is turned on then you will see. Right then and there I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I was hearing the truth, the absolute truth. It was like a bell went off inside me.
Pinned to the Car
I went to drop Tom off and before he got out of my car he just said, “Think about it. Really think about it.” Suddenly an invisible power came flooding into the car and pinned me to the seat and up against the door on the driver’s side. I literally could not move. Then he said it again, “Think about it.” This time, though, his voice was calm, like before. It was like there was a great voice thundering at me, saying “THINK ABOUT IT!”
Darkness at Midnight
Tom got out of the car, and as soon as I could move again I drove back to my place. I felt so strange, so guilty. I felt like a rat in grease trying to claw out of a huge pan. I tried to sleep. No chance. Around midnight it came— a darkness like no other. It was Christ hanging dead on the cross. I saw him suspended before me. The horror was indescribable. One thing is certain— it transcended physical suffering. I saw him dead in his spirit engulfed in darkness. All capacity for rational thought had escaped me. Then, the voice came. “Eric, my Son was crucified for you personally, what are you going to do about it?”
The Resistance
Having been raised a Catholic and having studied the Buddhist concept of the Buddhistava, one who suffers for another, of course I knew all this stuff intellectually, but here I was being confronted with it in a vision and in the spoken word. I had never denied in a general abstract sense that Christ had died for the sins of the world. But as I said, he was one of only many beings that did that. The sacrificial death motif was apparent to me in my studies of the East and in various indigenous tribes.
Ironically, here I was a seeker of truth, almost 20 years old, and the truth comes to me in such an offensive manner. Needless to say the “one truth, many paths” New Age mythos was totally shattered in my mind at this point. The word that really thundered at me was PERSONALLY. It was like everything else was in small letters and personally was in caps. There it was, “Eric, my Son was crucified for you PERSONALLY. What are you going to do about it?” There was no escape. It was decision time. It was accept or reject. Think me a fool, but for three hours suspended over the precipice of my eternal destiny I resisted. I resisted because I was wise in my own eyes, self-deified, living under the oppressive yoke of the dictatorship of pride.
Me a sinner? Banish such an impossible thought. Besides, I didn’t believe in sin anyway. But like it or not, the battle was on and it wouldn’t let up. I flashed back in my mind over the years with my debates with those Jesus freaks. I had experienced being stung a little bit when they quoted Bible verses. But now I was trapped. I was stripped bare before the living God.
The Crossing
At about 3 a.m. on May first, my resistance ceased and under my breath I simply said “yes… I accept you.” Immediately the darkness lifted. I felt something like a sword pierce my spirit and I was enveloped in pure love. Then I was taken into a golden light that overpowered me with love that was total bliss. My soul had crossed over the critical juncture. It had come to a higher safety. I had been converted. I then fell into a deep sleep.
Initial First Reactions
Being the most reluctant convert in the city of St. Louis, I distinctly remember in detail the first day after my conversion. First off, everything was profoundly peaceful, something like one would imagine arctic peace. Second, I realized that while claiming to be so open-minded and seeking after God all those years, I was really running from God. I was self-righteous and fought for years against the hound of heaven.
My ideas of spirituality were merely self-initiated, yet not revealed from heaven. My so-called truth-seeking was nothing but pride-filled escapist self-deception. But now the battle was over. Immediately my using the Lord’s name in vain was gone. And when people used the Lord’s name in vain around me it was like fingernails scratching on a blackboard. “Strange,” I thought. And then, as I went on to work that morning, these thoughts flooded my head:
- Those naïve Jesus freaks were really right after all.
- Why didn’t I see this before?
- Why hadn’t my few Christian friends sat me down and confronted me about Christ?
- When I tell people that Christ really is the answer they will be so happy I told them. They, too, will cross over into conversion.
Well, boy, oh boy, was I surprised on number four! I began with each one of my friends individually. I told them what had just happened to me. I thought since they were fellow seekers, too, that automatically they would make the crossing. To my surprise, each one of them rejected what I had to say. I couldn’t believe it, until I thought rationally about it, and thought I would not have believed it either until it happened to me. Exacerbated and incredulous, I kept saying “But you don’t understand, this really is the truth.” Their response was the usual relativistic standard line, “There are many ways, many paths, blah, blah, blah.” I did not have the knowledge of debate that I have learned over the subsequent years to show the contrast between Jesus Christ and everyone else, only the comparisons.
All These Years Later
After all these years, thousands of discussions and debates, and my own personal growth with God, I have learned a few things in regards to the nature of salvation and the human race. First off, the comparisons between Christ and other paradigmatic figures through world history that have shifted whole societies like tectonic plates are valid. There is no doubt about that. My initial pre-conversion instincts and studies were accurate in that respect. That’s just basic Metaphysics 101. Elementary, my dear Watson.
However, the contrast between Jesus Christ and every other so-called enlightened being is enormous. A good analogy to comparative religion is one of epistemology, the study of knowledge. And that is this: the ancient Greeks asked “why” but Galileo asked “how.” So how do we humans escape the things that entrap us? How do we become spiritually free? Krishna talks about dark inertia. The Hindus refer to Maya as illusion. Buddha says we must break out of the cycle of desire that causes suffering. The “how to” accomplish this has nothing to do with us, but rather it is by the power of God in Christ’s death and resurrection imparted to us.
In some mystical way, when he died we all died with him. When he rose, we all rose with him. To miss God crucified in vulnerability is to miss God. This leaves us stuck with projecting a sky God warrior made in our own image, as our post-modern religious world so violently exhibits.
New Agers talk about having the “faith of” Jesus to move mountains, but one cannot have that level of faith without first having faith in Jesus that gives one the power to move those same mountains. It’s all a matter of a power differential philosophically in the Lacanian sense. In a word, only Jesus Christ has the power, precisely because of his divine sacrifice and astounding resurrection. This is the decisive, qualitative difference.
I am fully aware that this message is an offense and totally absurd. I was offended and resisted, but one must first be offended by the foolish message of the cross and pass through the offense in order to be reborn. And the irony of the Gospel is that it’s the world’s best-known secret that happens to really be true after all. I think back on that night when I saw him dead in his spirit to reconcile me back to God by grace. The only thing I can think of is that it is a trade-off. Rejecting the trade-off leaves the existent individual with no Plan B. Accept it and one crosses over into the warm hands of God.
Having given this candid testimony, there remains only one question the reader must answer in his or her own heart, and that is this: “My Son was crucified for you personally. What are you going to do about it?
Rocket Kirchner 
Rocket:
Events like this really demand my attention. One detail distracts me: when you were pinned to the seat, where was the energy focused? For what I read here, both in your original cynicism and in the comments made by others above, is an intellectual journey. What is incontrovertible to most people that have come to conversion, however, is that there is a flood that comes into our hearts, and all the reasons that we use to deny previous whispers from that source are simply swept aside.
Whatever its actual nature, you were lucky to have two friends that felt your readiness to receive that experience. That was a great gift.
Brian
Brian , all of my intellectual and defense mechanisms were de centered at that moment . There was no doubt that it was the Power of God . That is when the wrestling really began until I chose the Crossing .
Kierkegaard in Philosophical Fragments calls this ” The Reason yielding to the Paradox “.
All Socratic recollection dissolves at the moment of conversion . The Epistomology of revelation trumps that of a priori reasoning . It is then that the Paradox of the God Man bestows grace . Hence Rebirth .
Thanks for taking the time to explain.
Independent of Epistemology, Ontology is a field of philosophical analysis that attempts to characterize states of being. Revelation may have a lot to do with being made conscious (ontology) of parts of ourselves that our understanding (epistemology) shields from us. We change our state of being, rather than our understanding.
What we see in the Gospels is that the Apostles themselves had an impoverished vocabulary for relating the transformations that Jesus worked upon them – they simply manifest the transformation in works.
I have a prejudice that becoming prepared to receive him the second time is going to involve conditioning ourselves to experience those transformations (for the same reasons that Moses was told to hide in the cleft when God passes on Mt. Hebron). This is why I say such events demand my attention: I’m driven to enrich our language to better explain such experiences, and so to prepare others to receive them.
Brian , if one is on solid Epistemic Ground then i think that the Ontological Paradigm shifts away from us being the ground of being to the Eternal essence of God being the ground of being in Anslems definition . That shift away from a subtle Spinoza’s Monism that seems to be everywhere in the world of unbelief -to shift to an actual Monotheism of the humility of the God-Man is a start to trek toward a final revelation to which we are being prepared to manifest to others.
in regards to the language of the Apostles , i would take an opposing position to yours . I dont see any poverty there if understood in context of The Markan account being where the game is played between canonical and noncanonical texts…which is a Tri partide Greek Tragedy flipped into being Good News. The influence of Peter and Paul is all over that first Gospel in narrative form .
However , i would add that Bonhoeffer in his letters from prison was asking an important question of communicating the gospel in a ”world come of age -secular way ”. This i practice as a Christian who writes music and performs in nightclubs and has dialogue with people of every belief and unbelief .
So – yes … we need a new language to communicate along with the language of works which is called ”An embodied Apolegetic ” . Avoid cliches at all cost and allow the grace of God to flow thru us verbally . Or as St Francis says ” Preach the good news always, now and then use words ”.
Mr. Kirchner, Nice to see your well read articulated commentaries on Lo Daniels Dandelien Salad page and your WordPress page. I think that you would appreciate the work of Fr James Loiacono, a Missionary priest whom did his dissertion on the anthropology of Pope John Paul II’s phenomenological philosophy.
Here are excerpts from Fr. Jim that shows his grasp of Jesus’s call.
James Loiacono These issues are not trivial and need such serious consideration. The impact of people, especially the powerless, cannot be exaggerated
James Loiacono “I had just begun my doctoral studies in Rome when JPII promulgated his encyclical, Solicitudine Re Socialis, in which he wrote that the economic systems of the eastern and western powers were essentially and morally equivalent, capitalism in two different consumes, reducing the human person to a mere cog to promote the economic machine and causing worldwide economic oppression for the third world countries and misery for the person. He noted that the needy third world was deprived of effective assistance for social and economic development but readily given loans to buy arms for proxy wars between the super powers. The American Embassy to the Holy See was right next door to our house (the property once belonged to us). We invited the embassy staff to dinner, and I was invited to eat with my fellow Americans. The encyclical was discussed, since a meeting was held by the ambassador and the Vatican, because the Reagan administration was especially upset by the Pope’s comparing the economic systems West and East as a morally equivalent and morally problematic form of capitalism. The Vatican Secretary of State’s office explained that the Pope was referring to western capitalism in the past. I responded that the statement was mere diplomacy, no more. I explained that an encyclical is not meant to be a history lesson, but addresses current issues of profound moral consequences. I was emphatic that JPII was addressing the present criises, as did Pope Leo XII in Rerum Novarum and as did all subsequent popes. There was an embarrassed silence. After dinner, my superior general quipt in a friendly way that I probably should not apply for a job with the Vatican Diplomatic Corps. It annoyed me that some underling in the Vatical would try to viciate the impact of the truth of the encyclical which was an important, moral cry to heed and change.”
a.. James Loiacono Yes. I’ve worked with the immigrants (undocumented) and poor since seminary, and I have a great affinity for the approach of the Catholic Worker. In having to facilitate projects, I also find myself working with those ensconced in and with the status quo. They also see the dilemmas and try to work them through within the system as it is, since there is nothing outside of it. Moreover, I’ve been in 10 communist countries, and the system was/is beyond the pale. To speak openly is difficult and the economic reality oppressive and stagnant. Laos, Vietnam and China are no longer truly Marxist, but a form of fiercely state controlled free market capitalism, and the people prefer it to the old system. Sirico is trying to look at the Christian anthropology of JPII and apply Catholic principles to the economic system. I do agree with him that we can’t allow ideology to trump reality – some things actually do stink and don’t work. But, we must be the people who force thinking outside the box, not merely to improve, but even transform in the most essential way. It moves from critique, which criticizes within the system, to meta-critique, which critiques the critique to think even beyond the lenses of the society. The critique only uses the socio-economic lenses of the culture and legitimizes the system. The meta-critique goes beyond and outside to see to problem at a level that exposes and clarifies the legitimating. I find the right and left actually critique within their own ideologies, rather than metacritique. I personally like the approach of JPII, precisely because it is a metacritique which say, “a pox on both your houses.” 2 hrs · Edited · Unlike · 1
a.. b.. James Loiacono Thanks, Chris. I’ll look this group up. Trying to get agreement among all of us is like herding cats, isn’t it? I remember JFK’s comment that if we were to lay all the economists end to end, they wouldn’t reach any conclusion. But, it’s important to keep at it – a moral imperative for the common good which embraces all and ignores and sacrifices no one. c.. CHAPTER X
THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON AS
THE BASIS FOR COMMUNITY:
Pope John Paul II’s Contemporary Catholic Anthropology1
JAMES A. LOIACONO
INTRODUCTION
The history of this century can be read in terms of the emergence of the human person.
– In Asia, the century opened with China still an empire and all power centered in the one person of the Empress; this was overturned in 1911. Eventually power was transferred to the people; progressively, through mechanisms of the economy and of civil society, personal initiative emerges and the country leaps ahead.
– In Europe, the seemingly invincible totalitarian powers of the 1930s fell due to their oppression of the people and were replaced by forms which respect and promote the person.
– In Africa, the external colonial powers have retired and the peoples struggle to assert their own identity and destiny.
Throughout all of this it becomes cumulatively clear that the central value of our times is the human person. What suppresses the dignity of the person dies, due especially to having deadened creativity from within. What diminishes the life of the person is bad and fails of itself, whereas what promotes the realization of personal life is by definition good and in practice thrives. That, thankfully, is the basis of our hope and confidence in the good. It is crucial then to look for the roots of this sense of the person and for the manner of its emergence in our times.
1. In order to avoid possible misunderstanding, it might be helpful at the outset to note six points which are found in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity: (1) The human person is basically good and not totally corrupt because of sin. (2) In spite of the absolute goodness and transcendence of God, absolute alienation does not exist between God and the human person. (3) From the beginning God continuously seeks intimacy with the human person and unity with all creation. (4) While God is totally other in his transcendence, in his love for the human person he has freely entered into a paradox of simultaneous immanence through his incarnation as Jesus Christ. (5) The physical and social dimensions of being human are not ephemeral or negative. (6) Family, community and culture are not seen as incompatible with faith or authentic Christian commitment. Catholic and Orthodox anthropology finds its roots in Judaism.
2. Poland was for centuries one of the greatest and most important kingdoms in Central Europe. It saved most of Central and all of Western Europe twice from Turkish conquest and domination under the Ottoman ruler, Sulayman, the Magnificent. In the 1700’s, Poland was divided through conquest and occupation by the Prussian, Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.
I think you would enjoy reading the writings of a Missionary priest I know, Fr. James Loiacono as he writes about many things you speak of:
THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON AS THE BASIS FOR COMMUNITY: KAROL WOJTYLA / JOHN PAUL II … by James Loiacono
—One of the most widely acknowledged and important contemporary thinkers regarding the Catholic sense of the human person or Christian anthropology is Karol Wojtyla — who, not incidentally, was named Pope in 1978, with the name of John Paul II. His effort has been to synthesize tradition and modernity, enriching centuries of Catholic thought on the human person with contemporary, especially phenomenological philosophy. This provides the foundation for the ethical-moral values of the concrete person as the responsible agent in interpersonal and community relationships. From this anthropological vantage point John Paul II in two major addresses to the United Nations has been the voice of modern aspirations for the respect and promotion of personal dignity and for a vision of society which would enable human aspirations for the coming millennium.
Click to access Jan-April98-1.pdf
https://books.google.com/books?id=BrgmuR7ry-oC&pg=PA155&lpg=PA155&dq=james+loiacono+pope+john+paul+II&source=bl&ots=rF3QrJwuLf&sig=vxAUgtAioy_lx_U8UOx9K0fALMY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB45_zjtvMAhUHph4KHaQvCiYQ6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=james%20loiacono%20pope%20john%20paul%20II&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=GT7K0QuumdMC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=habermas+loiacono&source=bl&ots=yFmI7da98d&sig=Jq4ryz6vIZW7nLGQnIP4Z11h1Iw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2jCTU4KIBueF8gHwqICIAw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=habermas%20loiacono&f=false
Chris – right on . I was going over recently the French Neo Thomist Jacques Maritain’s ”The Person and the Common Good ”. What builds up in French Catholic thought of Peter Maurin and the early Catholic workers as well as that whole time period is ”Gentle Personalism ”. The post Vatican 2 Popes really build on that in their encyclicals which are in full bloom with PoPe Francis in his 3 Encyclicals . The dignity emphasis pushed John Paul 2 to close the loophole on the death penalty since Constantine , sealing up the sanctity of life from the womb to the tomb.
The reductionist mindset is to even question if we are persons or not . This is seen in the Rust Cohle character on ”True Detective ” from the writings of e.m.cioran . the concept of the illusion of personhood runs in a parallex with the Church Universal position of the reality of the human person in all its dignity . Without this dignity – life turns cheap and has destructive consequences .
Hi Eric….30 years is a long time…good to see you are doing well and are happy! I remember the song you wrote for me “Fine China”….Cheers! Lisa Means
That is a powerful testimony. I would suggest that you look up the writings of Rudolf Steiner for a far more detailed and accurate understanding of the being of Christ than you will find in any mainstream or evangelical group. They have part of the story right, but are missing the mark, in some fundamental aspects. There is a great deal of misunderstanding about who Jesus was, how Jesus and Christ are two different beings, and what the Second Coming is really about, understanding of the Gospels and the mystery of Golgatha and so much more that you could assimilate in a lifetime. If you are patient and open minded enough to really read and contemplate what he is saying in your Soul, I’m certain that you will find great value in these teachings. God Bless.
Humanitarian , thanks for the comment . yes , i am familiar with Steiner’s work . i dont limit myself to evangelical or mainstream stuff . in fact i am outside of that world . i am more into the Catholic mystics and their relationships with the Buddhists and Sufis, ala Thomas Merton .
in 39 years of being a follower of Jesus , i would have to say that Soren Kierkegaard had it right . it is a subjective journey that is passionate and not verifiable to empirical evidence . you might want to go to youtube , type my name in and my synopsis given here at a lecture i gave at the University to an athiest group called ”Kierkegaard reconsidered ”.
what i do object to is any gospel that avoids the cross and seeks as the Second Treatise of Seth ( a Gnostic gospel )does .. to ignore the literal sufferings of Christ on his cross .
JESUS THE MAN, CHRIST THE CONSCIOUSNESS HE RECEIVED WHEN JOHN THE BAPTIST BAPTIZED HIM IN THE JORDON RIVER. GET IT RIGHT PLEASE. THE 2ND COMING OF CHRIST IS THE CONSCIOUSNESS JESUS RECEIVED, AND IT WILL DESCEND ON US LIKE A DOVE………… <3
Apolonia , you are refering to an inner eschatology at his first coming and a possible inner eschatology at his second . this was proposed by Swedenborg. i like where you are headed with this , but i think that Process theologians like Jack Miles view the baptism of Jesus as more than that. since Jesus is divine, and has always been divine.. unlike us , the act of baptism was a part of his process of becoming human . When one is reborn of the Spirit as i was in 1974 the Dove came inside me …hence fullfilling Jesus words in the gospel of Thomas ;”The Kingdom of Heaven is within you ”. You say for me to ”get it right ”. There is no getting it right . that is dogma . there is only experience of the Parosia ( the real prescence of the Risen One ) in the here and now . this goes byond dogmatic rights or wrongs. testimonys are not debates . they are Peak Expereinces in the Eriksonian sense.
There is a no doubt that Kierkegaard was a bright light- and I agree with your Youtube video, that the light of his thinking is needed again today to overcome rationalist fundamentalism. Have you read Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom? I’m certain that you won’t be disappointed, and will find more similarities than differences between their philosophies. One key difference perhaps, is Steiner’s emphasis that spiritual reality is accessible to us consciously, if we prepare ourselves in the right way- that there is indeed an objective spiritual world accessible to us- though of course it is experienced in our feeling life in an entirely personal and subjective way. He has provided methods, whereby we can indeed access these worlds and indeed his writings were obtained using such methods, which allowed him to read from the Akashic Chronicle, which is a record of all life. His writings, if they are accepted, present a very different understanding of Jesus and Christ than perhaps any other Christian philosopher or mystic, before or after. They provide a clear understanding of who Jesus was and who the Christ Being is, and how they came together at the Baptism in Jesus the Christ. The mystery and importance of Christ’s death on Golgotha, as the defining event in his cycle of Earth evolution, is fundamental to Steiner’s teachings. Of great importance is the issue of His Second Coming, which was prophesied by Steiner before his death in 1925 as happening in the inner etheric plane (not the physical plane) and not just as an overarching descent of consciousness in humanity, nor as a return to a physical body. Those that are attuned to this plane of existence, recognize that Christ has indeed come (in 1933), indeed is with us now, living in the Etheric plane, and if we can only raise our consciousness and vibrations we can encounter him as Saul/Paul did at Damascus.
Humanitarian , if we take Steiners view of THE EVENT on the cross by Christ along with Augustine , we will find similaritys in the fact that history runs in a trajectory , as opposed to it being only cyclical as in Oriental thought . Or should i say ; pre-Christian thought in the West. Augustine built his case thus: if the greatest event in all of history –Christ death cannot repeat itself , therefore neither can lesser events in history repeat themselves . so the cycle must run linear , sort of like a spiral moving upwards. At this point i would like to bring in the importance of Saint Hildegaard and her visions . The movie ”Vision ” is something to watch . you may have already seen it . Where i would part with Stiener as well as Swedenborg is fixing a date to when or if Christ came back . In a sense , he never really left.. .being very present by his Spirit . Hildegaard seems to nail it right in her visions without putting a date on it , as read in the classics of Western spirituality series .
Concerning the Akashic records much can be said about them either way , but what interests me is one thing for the Chrristian practioner : SAINTHOOD . i believe with all my heart that it is attainable in this life only at the cost of our own life , as we die to self daily via Divine Grace. Paul’s last words were a little letter of one page to PHilemon that had the tone about it that was truly immersed in love and saintly . from murderer to saint. wow ! Here is a question for you ; do you think that in Carl Jung’s Red Book it is any coincidence that Jung’s guide was named Philemon ? just as Dante’s was named Virgil . I recieved a revelation on the little letter of Philemon in the N.T. ( the last book that Paul wrote ), and i am wondering about what i got thru direct revelation about Paul immersed in love in that letter to what it extent it means in the Jungian sense. Your thoughts on the matter?
Without invalidating the experiences of Hildegaard or other mystics, or the recognition that Christ is indeed, since Golgotha, with us “until the end of the ages”, seers such as Steiner have perceived that the Christ being (this must be conceived of as different from the being of Jesus) periodically takes upon a vehicle in order to perform an invaluable function/mission. 2000 years ago it was imperative that He take upon a physical body, in order to die and unite His consciousness with the Earth, to “save the world from sin”. In the 20th Century, this happens again, in a finer physical body, called the etheric body- the same kind of body that Saul/Paul perceived.
About the Philemon of Jung, not having read enough of his work, I can only speculate. He said that Elijah appeared to him and then changed into Philemon. Philemon is depicted with the sun halo and the winged disk image of past deities, such as Osiris, the Egyptian Sun God. As John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah and announces the Christ, and as Osiris, was in fact a pre-Christian name for Christ, and as Jung himself said that Philemon was the same being that had appeared to Moses and Jesus and Mohammed, I can only surmise that Philemon is none other than Christ himself. It is mentioned that Jung accepted, personally, that these archetypes are not merely symbols but actual beings (just as is taught in theosophy, anthroposophy and many other esoteric schools), despite not having enough courage to express this publicly. just as Christ appeared to Paul some 2000 years ago, Philomon/Christ appears to Jung.
However, I have not had any direct spiritual insights or revelations myself about this matter, so this is an unconfirmed speculation. I’d be interested to hear what your opinion is of the connection between the two Philemon’s, nearly 2000 years apart.
Hello Rocket,
Yours is a fascinating story and through your stunning writing skills, superbly conveyed.
Also wanted to let you know: I haven’t forgotten our former conversation, but I am in a difficult position to discuss this. The religious mystical experience is a very special topic: it is a very sensitive and complex one. In addition, I equally understand your inside perspective, and the perspective of those who in lack of such experience are outside. In addition I did my own research.
In the past few days I started to recollect my thoughts on the topic – it was a while ago when I was busy with it – but I am concerned if I elaborate my points, it won’t be easily understood and received well.
YES, INSPIRING ROCKET. WHEN YOU MEET GOD, FACE TO FACE, OR AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN GET, THERE WILL BE NO DOUBT WHO OUR CREATOR IS, AND THAT IS A FACT, ALL DOUBTS WILL BE REMOVED. JESUS ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU WOULDN’T NOTICE, IF HE WALKED RIGHT BY YOU. DIFFERENT BODY, DIFFERENT TIME.YOU SEE, JESUS WAS A SIMPLE MAN, LOVED HIS 12 SMELLY FISHERMAN BUDDIES AND A WHORE THE MOST, THAT TELLS YOU PRETTY MUCH WHERE HIS HEAD WAS AT FROM WORD GO.DOWN HOME AND SIMPLE. NOW CHRIST,IS A CONSCIOUSNESS, THAT JESUS RECEIVED WHEN BAPTIZED BY JOHN, IN THE JORDAN RIVER, THAT WAS THE FIRST COMING. THE SECOND IS IN EFFECT RIGHT AS WE SPEAK. SO MANY PEOPLE WANT TO SEE THE PACKAGE,THE LONG HAIR, WHITE ROBE, PERFECT BEARD, SANDALS, AND IT’S FUNNY, THOSE THAT WANT TO SEE JESUS AS HE WAS, ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE BELIEVERS, THE ONES THAT RELY ON FAITH, THAT DON’T NEED TO SEE. SAD, BUT TRUE..JESUS DIED FOR WHO’S SINS? WHAT HAPPENED TO “YOU REAP AS YOU SOW” ? AND IF JESUS REALLY DIED, NOW DOESN’T THAT TAKE THE ETERNAL LIFE SCENE, HE WAS TRYING SO HARD TO EXPLAIN, OFF THE TABLE? NEVER THROUGHOUT TIME,, HAS GOD BROUGHT BACK A SOUL IN THE SAME BODY.. THE SOUL MUST TRAVEL ON,, AND THE BODY MUST RETURN TO DUST……. <3 CARRY ON ROCKET, CARRY ON MY FRIEND…<3 , JUST KNOW, WHOEVER YOU THINK JESUS IS, HE LOVES YOU,, BECAUSE THE TRUTH,, THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH, IS AS UNDENIABLE AS HIS LOVE……………… <3
Thanks for your response. really , when all is said and done ”The Crossing ”: the event that change my life, is not a debate but rather just straight reportage . However , to answer your question about ”what happened to you reap what you sow””? i would have to state that divine grace cancels out karma . Seeing that God is all merciful , all means all. you asked if jesus death takes the eternal life scene off the table . No , actually it places it squarley on the table in the hear and now as a qualitative transaction imputing true rightiuosness and the expereince of a life that transcends the mere biological . The life that is uncreated and has always been enters the world and brings forth a new scene, as recounted in the book of the Acts of the Apostles .
You stated that Never in time has God brought back a soul in the same body . This almost true . But the trouble with almost is that a partial truth is a lie . In that i mean that there is one enourmous exception in all of history , and that is that Jesus Christ literally rose from the dead. It is that that changes the whole game , and brings about a new paradigmn.
Thanks for sharing your testimony Rocket. It is so awesome when any individual feels God stirring within them, as if waking up from a deep sleep. From that point there is still a long way to go. Jesus in His Flesh always saw God as being Higher, Greater.
TODAY is The Day The LORD has made.
Let’s Rejoice and be Glad in it.
even if there are problems and setbacks in any Day.
thanks courtney . e-mail me and tell me what you are up to these days . i am all over youtube. feel free to download my music free. my e-mail rocketkirchner [at] hotmail [dot] com
Hello Rocket! I have thought of you so very often through the years. I don’t think you ever knew what a centering force you were for me in my Columbia days. I didn’t even realize it at the time. Every once and a while around dinner time I have the urge to look out the window to see if you will be jogging by so I know to make extra! I hope you are well dear friend!
What a wonderful summer of conversion!!! I found Him the summer of 1974….Praise God for seeking us out and drawing us near to reveal His wonder. What a wonder God….what a wonderful friend we have in Jesus. Thanks dear friend…we had wonderful times in ’74 and how much fun to reconnect after a few years apart. Keep preaching the truth…He is the Truth.
I love you Eric….your friend in Christ+ Steve Neuwoehner