Rhea White observed [see Part 1] that at first most people were very reluctant to
open up -- and that was at conferences where topics were
announced well in advance and people were there for that
reason! So, if
you feel at all hesitant or uncomfortable in disclosing your own such
experiences or in taking the initiative to bring up the subject with
others, you're certainly not alone. With respect to those who find
these kinds of events objectionable or even threatening, still,
these life stories feed hope and renewal to others and into the
world. Also, when you are
able to witness in others and in yourself the great gift this mutual
validation can be, that will make the way a bit smoother over time to do
so.
Sometimes we feel our experiences are so personally sacred, we
don't want to risk 'casting our pearls before [the] swine' of
others who may not see them in this light, who may in fact
desecrate them with their indifference or worse.
These intensely sacred encounters can be most intimate and
profoundly touching. Sharing them can feel tantamount to
revealing details about one's love life. Or we may fear
others may feel we are bragging or being
manipulative.
Needless to say, we need to cultivate a sense of discernment,
and each person must draw hir own lines. My suggestion is
simply to ask oneself what would be most beneficial in any given
situation. And trust your feelings. Sometimes
you may make what feels like mistakes in this regard -- chalk it
up to the learning process. But even what may appear to an
unqualified wrong choice to share such a personal story with
another can be a seed planted that will be a great grace to the
listener even years later. I firmly believe this is always
true, regardless of appearances -- but this is not about
force-feeding anyone!
With all the negative STUFF that fills our heads, hearts, and
the daily headlines, this feels like essential medicine to
me. Better to err on the side of too often than too
little. As the old saying goes, "life's too
short." What in this moment can make a positive
difference? Sometimes it is sharing the things that matter
most to us, such as our revelatory stories of this nature -- our
spiritually transformative experiences. Offered from the
heart, whether as listener or as story teller, speaking from
one's spirit being or being heartfully present to another spirit
being speaking of hir own experiences is one more moment made
sacred with another.
It's true, I 'live here' because of a distinct calling.
All the more reason to say, since 'it's my job', take courage,
find ways to open up, reach out, be a conduit for bringing this
Greatest Secret we all share more fully out into the world where
it takes hold and contributes to the fire of greater mutual
recognition and understanding. In this way we together
come to accept more fully this Greater Reality as OUR reality
here and now and make it easier
for others and ourselves to be more open about what more than anything else
speaks of and from their and our own true nature as spirit
beings.
I believe that is the Wake-Up call implicit in this kind of
sharing; we are finally and truly recognizing we are not just
physical human beings in a challenging world trying to be
spiritual; we are spirit beings! I am, you are,
he-she-it is, we are each and all, first and last, spirit
beings temporarily in body suits in order to have this Earth experience
together. Our stories, the most wonderful, heartening,
enriching, life-giving, treasured moments of our lives, make this
so clear!
A delicious thought: what if our taboo behaviors became --
instead of hiding our sacred gifts, such as these experiences --
something on the order of not participating in spreading all the
negative stuff, including the daily news variety we are
reconciled to? And -- have you noticed, or is it just me?
-- most of the negative news and daily chit-chat is absolutely
speculative and/or repetitive. How many hundreds of times
then and since have you seen, read, heard replays of the
horrendous events of "9/11"? How many times in
your day do you trade comments about how awful the weather is
and what it's supposed to be tomorrow or next week? Yet
how many times have you ever felt safe or inspired enough to
share "the most remarkable thing that every happened to
you" or had the rare privilege to witness another pouring
out to you that which similarly blessed hir? And in either
case, how did you feel about it afterwards, kindred spirit
traveler?
If people simply had such experiences and never spoke about
them, which was indeed the case in our society not too many yeas
ago, we as nonexperiencers would never know we all have such
potential and promise. And we as experiencers ourselves
would be left to wonder silently if we are crazy, or we would
repress or deny what that tells us about ourselves; we would pathologize these
events -- and in fact are only just barely outliving the time
when we did just that. People were put in mental
institutions for even admitting to such things. Here is a powerful
story alluding to that very
fear from 1992.
Our great religions exist because a few were brave enough to
share their experiences of this nature. If we only depend
on these few experiencers but deny that what they did, we can
know directly also, we deprive ourselves of the understanding of
an essential aspect of our own natural development and of our
true nature as spirit beings. That's like not telling kids
when they grow into puberty that their bodies and psyches are
going to have new experiences, to prepare them for this and to
help them recognize and accept this very natural part of life. If we
deny our children this knowledge or we create rules and values
that make them feel embarrassed or ashamed or frightened as they
live through those years, we heap suffering on suffering for
them and for us.
Just as you cannot repress or prevent these childhood developmental
processes as natural as breathing, the same can be said for
always out-of-the-blue exceptional or spiritual events, also
natural and necessary to our health, growth and
well-being. These are personal and universal. To
share them gives each of us the chance to realize just how
natural and normal it is to be able to glimpse and eventually
better comprehend ourselves as innately, first and
last, spirit beings temporarily in bodies. Otherwise, we
are stuck with this idea that we are merely these animals
running around on this planet with greater capacity than most
animals to cause incalculable harm as well as good.
Emphasis on harm, because under those conditions, life appears
meaningless, and what can possibly be created out of
meaningless than more of the same? The most dramatically imposing model for
existence, that of animalistic survival of the fittest --
prey and predator -- captures us and suspends us in this 'spell'
that is hard to break out of -- look at how much of this very
theme still draws crowds through what we call
entertainment.
Thus we become stuck, cut off from the possibility of comprehending the
MORE that we are. Insofar as we experience life from this
disenfranchized point of view, we also perpetrate this poison
on others, like an out-of-control virus. We are then cut off from all that makes life
resplendent with meaning and purpose. What's not misled,
sick, and destructive in that? Speaking of
pathological!
Some people imagine and demean Great Good and goodness to be
"unrealistic," which just goes to show
how trapped in that point of view they are and out of touch
with REALITY! We need to help each other to discover and
realign ourselves with our original sense of Direction we
naturally had at birth.
You may remember this story I first heard through Elisabeth
Kubler-Ross, who had heard it from the mother: a little
girl of about three or four years of age
was sooo excited when at last her parents brought home her new
baby sister. She soon asked her mother if she could be
alone with her for a minute, which struck her as odd, and
because her daughter was so young, the mother in a benign way,
talked around the issue, did not immediately respond as the
little girl had hoped. She had to ask several times before, finally,
her parents retreated to leave her alone with her very new
sibling.
Just barely out of sight and within earshot on the other side
of the door, they were wonderstruck to hear their older
daughter whisper to her infant sister: "Tell me
again what it's like where we come from. I am afraid I
will forget."
All to say, and so many Experiencers have said, and quoted here
in Rhea White's words,
