Stories
John has had many amazing spiritual adventures, and we are sharing some of them with you. John feels that it is most important that we all realize that these are the kinds of experiences we could all have when we find our connection to the divine. Many of these stories and more can also be found in the book John of Old, John of New, The Awakening of An Apostle, by Sharon Prince.
Kundalini Rising
I was working as a landscape designer in the Maryland area and performing my comedy show on the weekends at festivals all over the country. In November 1993, I was flying into New Orleans for four consecutive weekends to perform at a festival in one of the city parks. For some unfortunate reason, the weather was not condusive to such an out door event as New Orleans was experiencing record cold temperatures.
My comedy partner, Spencer, was staying in New Orleans during the week in a tent on the site of the festival and on the weekends we would share the tent. Since he had traveled down by car, he had come prepared for an extensive camping trip. I would rely only on what I could carry onto an airplane. This made for some very cold night sleeping on the floor of the tent.
After the second weekend of freezing in the tent, I flew home to my nice warm apartment. I was dreading the upcoming weekend. While watching a television show that week, I saw a news article on a group of Buddhist monks who while in a walk in freezer could raise their body temperature at will. I thought that it would be nice if I had that ability on the weekend.
The weekend came and again I was lying on the floor of the tent freezing. Remembering back to the Buddhist monks I thought it was time to give it a try. I focused my attention on my feet. Once I could really feel my feet, I thought, "Alright my feet are warm." The next thing that happened was my feet got warm! It felt so good! So I continued and I brought the heat up into my legs. Over the next hour I brought the heat all the way up to my chest.
For some reason I could not get the heat to go any higher. It was then I had a new experience. I heard a thought. I know that sounds strange but that is the best way to describe the sensation. I heard a thought say, "Relax into it." So I did.
Suddenly the heat rushed into my face. My eyes were closed but I saw an explosion of white light. My arms, though they were crossed on my chest, felt as if they were straight out to my sides. The heat and light felt as if they were spraying from my body in every direction. It scared the heck out of me.
The next morning I needed to tell someone about this experience and turned to my partner Spencer. After describing the experience to Spencer (a long-time practitioner of transcendental meditation), Spencer’s response was, "You awakened your kundalini. Now that you have done that you may have all kinds of cool experiences."
The following night was just as cold as the previous night but my mind was not focused on warmth. Instead my mind was focused on trying to again awaken my kundalini. I slowly brought the warmth up my body. I then heard a rustling of the tent I was in. I opened my eyes and watched my partner step into the tent. When my eyes opened I began to hear a humming noise. The noise felt as if it resonated through my body.
The next thing that happened was quite unexpected. I looked across the tent watching Spencer come home from a date. As I watched I looked down and there on the other side of the tent was my face. I was looking at myself from the other side of the tent. Fear and confusion overtook me and I was suddenly sitting up back where I was supposed top be. I quickly told Spencer what had happened. "I was looking at my face from the other side of the tent," I said. "Did you hear the humming noise?" he responded. After telling him I had, he said, "You were just out of your body"
He then told me of some of the times he had out of body experiences (OBEs).
I was working as a landscape designer in the Maryland area and performing my comedy show on the weekends at festivals all over the country. In November 1993, I was flying into New Orleans for four consecutive weekends to perform at a festival in one of the city parks. For some unfortunate reason, the weather was not condusive to such an out door event as New Orleans was experiencing record cold temperatures.
My comedy partner, Spencer, was staying in New Orleans during the week in a tent on the site of the festival and on the weekends we would share the tent. Since he had traveled down by car, he had come prepared for an extensive camping trip. I would rely only on what I could carry onto an airplane. This made for some very cold night sleeping on the floor of the tent.
After the second weekend of freezing in the tent, I flew home to my nice warm apartment. I was dreading the upcoming weekend. While watching a television show that week, I saw a news article on a group of Buddhist monks who while in a walk in freezer could raise their body temperature at will. I thought that it would be nice if I had that ability on the weekend.
The weekend came and again I was lying on the floor of the tent freezing. Remembering back to the Buddhist monks I thought it was time to give it a try. I focused my attention on my feet. Once I could really feel my feet, I thought, "Alright my feet are warm." The next thing that happened was my feet got warm! It felt so good! So I continued and I brought the heat up into my legs. Over the next hour I brought the heat all the way up to my chest.
For some reason I could not get the heat to go any higher. It was then I had a new experience. I heard a thought. I know that sounds strange but that is the best way to describe the sensation. I heard a thought say, "Relax into it." So I did.
Suddenly the heat rushed into my face. My eyes were closed but I saw an explosion of white light. My arms, though they were crossed on my chest, felt as if they were straight out to my sides. The heat and light felt as if they were spraying from my body in every direction. It scared the heck out of me.
The next morning I needed to tell someone about this experience and turned to my partner Spencer. After describing the experience to Spencer (a long-time practitioner of transcendental meditation), Spencer’s response was, "You awakened your kundalini. Now that you have done that you may have all kinds of cool experiences."
The following night was just as cold as the previous night but my mind was not focused on warmth. Instead my mind was focused on trying to again awaken my kundalini. I slowly brought the warmth up my body. I then heard a rustling of the tent I was in. I opened my eyes and watched my partner step into the tent. When my eyes opened I began to hear a humming noise. The noise felt as if it resonated through my body.
The next thing that happened was quite unexpected. I looked across the tent watching Spencer come home from a date. As I watched I looked down and there on the other side of the tent was my face. I was looking at myself from the other side of the tent. Fear and confusion overtook me and I was suddenly sitting up back where I was supposed top be. I quickly told Spencer what had happened. "I was looking at my face from the other side of the tent," I said. "Did you hear the humming noise?" he responded. After telling him I had, he said, "You were just out of your body"
He then told me of some of the times he had out of body experiences (OBEs).
Out of Body Experiences
I began the study of out of body experiences. After having my first spontaneously, all I could think of was how could I do it again. Each night I would practice the same methods trying to get out. Each night I would get to the point where I felt as if I could step out of my body and I would get stuck. After months of practice I started to see results. I started at my feet and much like warming my body as I did in New Orleans. Instead of focusing on warmth I focused on leaving that part of my body.
I suddenly experienced a closeness to the ceiling as if I was less than six inches away. After several sessions like this, I began to explore the travel trailer I was staying in. Several weeks went by before I decided to venture outside of the trailer. Across the campground I would wander looking at the individuals as they sat in there campsites.
My next step was see if I could travel a greater distance. I began the process of remote viewing. While in my trailer in Annapolis Maryland, I venture out with the intention of going to my home town of Rehoboth Beach Delaware. I found myself at my good friend Tim’s home, but he was not there.
I next went to my friend Beau’s house. There lying in his bed was Beau sleeping. I decided that I wanted to try to get some proof of what I was seeing and to also see if I could contact Beau. Sitting beside his bed I began saying something so out of the ordinary that if Beau repeated it I would know that there was a connection.
"Purple Rhinoceros, Purple Rhinoceros, Purple Rhinoceros." If Beau said these words to me, I thought, it would prove the experience. The following day I called Beau on the phone. "I had the weirdest dream about you last night," he said. "I was standing in front of you and you kept saying Purple Rhinoceros." Verification.
Apartment Angel
One day,while working in Florida, my friend Vasco called me and asked me to come pick him up as he had no car and we were going to work out. "How do I get to you?" I asked. The directions were very detailed:
As I got out of my van, I heard someone yelling down from the balcony above. "Did you find him?" I looked up to see a woman yelling down. "I’m looking for my friend Vasco," I responded. "Who ever lived in 209 moved out yesterday. But maybe they are not completely moved out. Come back up," said the woman. She was, if I was to guess, in her mid eighties, about five feet tall, and dressed in a nightgown that stretched from her neck to the ground.
I walked back up. That day I had been working on some construction projects and was dressed for that task. I was wearing ripped up jean shorts, a dirty tank top, sandals, and at that time I had a pony tail that went to the center of my back. I am six foot one and at that time about two hundred seventy pounds. To say I was scary-looking would be an understatement. The woman was not intimidated by my appearance at all and stayed with me as I knocked on the door of 209. She was looking through the windows trying to be helpful. "You were healthier when you were a vegetarian," she suddenly blurted out. "Excuse me?" "You were healthier when you were vegetarian" she repeated. Continuing, "You are meant to be a healer in this life and you can do that better if you are a vegetarian."
Over the next half hour we discussed healing, meditation, and homeopathy. All topics that I felt were out of the ordinary for a woman of her age. "You don’t meditate enough," she said, "I think you should go meditate right now." In awe of what was transpiring, "Yes Ma’am" I answered. Our conversation ended with her reminding me to be vegetarian and to the van I went to meditate.
Twenty minutes later I ended my meditation. I thought that I should go call Vasco. I drove back over to the convenience store and called. "Where are you?!" Vasco demanded from the other end of the line. "What do you mean where are you? I’ve been outside your door for a half hour," I answered. "Come back over and I’ll come out." Vasco said.
I drove back over to the building and still no Vasco. As I pulled back out, I thought maybe there is another sign for his complex. So I drove back over to 142nd Street and turned right. A little way farther down the street was another sign for his complex. I turned in. Before me stood a building with the letter "H" on it. I turn and drove behind the building and there was a building with the letter "I" on it. Walking down the steps was Vasco. He had lived in the complex for a number of years and no one had ever made the same mistake I had made. He had no idea that there was another "H" and "I" building.
About two months after this happened I was watching the television show Unsolved Mysteries. On this particular episode was a story about a young woman who was in an abusive relationship. She divorced her husband in a time when a divorced woman was not accepted by society. She had two young children. Thanksgiving came and she did not have enough food for a holiday dinner. So she made sandwiches and took her children to the park to make the best of the day.
After a day at the park she returned to her apartment. As she arrived a elderly lady came out and said that she’d been looking for her. "I have dinner ready come inside," the lady who was about mid-eighties and five feet tall said. The young woman and her two children went into the lady's apartment and spent a wonderful evening having a full Thankgiving dinner as the only guests of their new friend. At the end of the evening the elderly lady sent the leftovers home with them.
The following morning she transferred the leftovers into her own containers, washed the lady's containers and took them downstairs to return them. When she got to the apartment she was shocked to find that it was empty, no furniture, or anything. When asking the manager where her friend was the manager said that the apartment had been empty for six months.
Maybe I had run into the apartment angel.
Griffin
I was on the road performing and was going to be arriving in Georgia two weeks before I could actually set up camp at the renaissance festival where I was performing. I did not know where I was going to camp for the two weeks. Oddly I began to see the word "Griffin" everywhere. It became almost ridiculous. I would see or hear it twenty to thirty times a day. I even turned on the news one time to here the Anchorman telling the Weatherman that is was strange that they both just named their first-born sons Griffin. I opened a map of the area and discovered the closest place that I could camp was near Griffin, Georgia.
I took this as a sign and drove to High Falls State Park near Griffin Georgia. I arrived and went to the office to find out where I could camp. I was informed that the sites by the water were a little more expensive than the ones a little further back in the woods.
I pulled my travel trailer to the first site in the woods. As I backed into the site a man walked up to the side of my truck and knocked on the window. "Hey, the power is out on that site. You'll have to pull over to the next one," he said. I thanked him and pulled to the next site. He was driving a mid-fifties Chevy truck much like my father used to own. He had long hair pulled into a pony tail like my own; he was wearing shorts similar to the ones that I usually wear. He was someone I felt completely comfortable with.
I backed into the next site and before I unhooked my trailer, I took a lamp from inside and plugged it into the power source. The light came on. After I set up my trailer, I looked for the man who had helped me to find out what was nearby for shopping. But he was gone no where to be found. I settled in the trailer for the night turned on my television. I watched as a major storm rolled in to the area. Before the night was through a tornado had passed within ten miles of the site and the trailer knocked back and forth through the torrential wind and rain.
In the morning I awakened to sunny skies again. When I opened the door to the trailer and stepped outside, I was shocked to see that where I would have been camped lay a fallen tree, one large enough that it would have easily crushed the trailer and landed right where I would have been sleeping. Curious, I got my lamp from the trailer again and walked to the other site. I plugged the lamp in and it flickered to life. There was nothing wrong with the power on that site.
Life As An Indian
One night while I was attempting to go out of body, I started seeing a blue light flashing by. It passed through my vision from right to left. As it passed, I discovered I could grab it with my mind. When I did so I experienced the sensation of being pulled through the light. Bursting through the light, I would suddenly have full sensory awareness of being somewhere else. I could smell smells, see vistas, feel the wind and so on. Each time this would occur I would have a fear overtake me and I would lose focus on where I was and again see the light passing by.
After twenty or thirty attempts to stay on the other side of the light, my final attempt would be successful. I burst through the blue light and found myself sitting on a horse. I could feel the sweat of the horse on the inside of my bare thighs. I could feel the heat on my back and hot air breathing into my nostrils. I looked over beside me and there sitting on two horses were two Native Americans. Interestingly enough I recognized these men as two of my friends from this life, Tim and Beau. Looking down I realized that I too was a Native American and with that realization I lost the vision and found myself looking at the blue light passing by again.
This was my first and only other encounter of past lives. I often wonder if the blue lights would lead me to different past life experiences. It was my introduction into the concept of past lives as it was something I had never even considered before.
Biker Shaman
While camping at a Renaissance festival in Maryland I became acquainted with an unexpected spiritual teacher. The campground was filled with various travel trailers and a few tents. In the middle, one tent stood out more than the most. It was a twenty-five foot tall teepee. It’s owner was a practitioner of Native American philosophy. He was a grizzly-looking man of about five feet ten inches tall, always in his worn black leather jacket. Rhett was his name and his voice was raspy like he had one too many cigarettes.
One day I got into a conversation about spirituality with him. He surprised me with knowledge of energies that I had never heard of before. Raising his hand above my arm, I could feel first heat, then a tingling sensation that actually raised the hair on my arm. "What was that?" I asked. He explained to me that if you focus your attention on a point, that energy is created at that point.
He then said, "When I tell you, hold your hands out in front of you, palms up." I watched as Rhett faced his palms towards each other and focused his attention between his hands. He then told me he was ready and to raise my hands into position. He raised his hands above my own and opened them, as if dropping something into my hands. I felt a weight hit my hands. It shocked me at first. Then I felt the heat and tingling sensation again, traveling up my arms. I was stunned.
"Would you like to see the energy?" he asked. I answered with an enthusiastic "YES!". We walked out into a field behind the campground. The sun had just fallen below the tree line, but it was still light out. Rhett told me to hold my hands above my head and point my index fingers at each other about an inch apart. "Focus your eyes between your fingers."
My eyes focused and between my fingers I could see an energy passing from my right hand to my left. I closed my eyes, shook my head and looked again wanting to be sure I saw what I saw. I then began to take my fingers out of alignment. Moving them slowly up and down, I was amazed to see the energy arcing between them like a science project.
Over the next few weeks I would play with energies and I began to see them around people and then witnessing the interplay of energies between people. I also began feeling energies as people would walk by me I would feel them some more powerful than others.
One day while standing in the campground taking to some friends, I suddenly felt a rush of energy at the back of my head. I turned to see Rhett on the other side of the campground about a hundred feet away. He was laughing. My new friend had created an energy ball and hit me in the back of the head as if it was a snowball.
Meeting Sharon
I found myself in Canada, performing at the renaissance festival in Ontario. I had flown in to do the show and was without a vehicle, and it was during the week inbetween performance weekends. One evening a group of us had gathered at a friend’s house. Sitting in the corner, I was enjoying my latest pastime, watching auras around the room and the interplay of energies.
On the other side of the room, a woman stood up. She looked directly at me and said, "I know what you're doing, You're looking at my aura!" She crossed the room to where I was and continued, "You're looking at my aura, aren’t you?" "Maybe," I sheepishly replied. "You are meant to be healer," she continued. "I’ve been told that before," I said.
Her name was Sharon Prince Wothke. She was a psychic. At this point in my life I had never had an experience with someone who claimed to be psychic and had no opinion of the validity of the skill. But I watched as friend after friend would go to Sharon and have a 'reading'. Each one came away changed in some way. One good friend, Kosha, after it was done could only say, "Oh my God." I decided to give it a try, but our time in Canada had run out and we scheduled for a reading in Maryland in a couple of weeks.
I arrived in Maryland, set up my trailer, and prepared for the show. Sharon and her husband arrived, as his band was performing at the festival. A couple days after they set up we arranged for the reading. On the appointed day she came to my trailer and we sat on my couch.
She prepared in her own way for the reading. Over the course of the next half hour Sharon told me of my relationships in my life. She explained a lot of my personality traits. It was very moving for me on very deep levels and gave me some affirmations and direction. Near the end of the reading Sharon’s face erupted into a smile and she said, "They’re telling me you walked with Jesus." This statement is not one you hear every day. The odd thing for me was somehow I knew I had. I cannot explain it just deep within myself I knew I had walked with Jesus. "Yes I did," I responded. Our reading ending and I immediately started asking for another. I wanted to know more about this "walking with Jesus" thing.
Cape Henlopen
My second reading from Sharon would take place near my home town of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Just north of town was the Cape Henlopen State park. I decided that my next reading would happen on the point of the Cape. Sharon and I made the two hour drive from Annapolis to Rehoboth.
We arrived at the cape as the wind and rain began to kick up and we walked down to the beach on the bay side of the cape. We found a horseshoe shaped dune that provided a haven from the wind and we sat to prepare for the reading.
As Sharon prepared, she began to become visibly upset and began to cry. "What is wrong?" I asked. "I feel that something is going to happen and I don’t think that I am worthy to do this." She exclaimed. She continued to weep. I assured her that she is not only worthy, but I am honored that she would do this for me.
All at once Sharon stopped weeping, her back straightened, and her face was overtaken by an expression of pure bliss. "John of Old, John of New, I love you. I have always loved you. I will always love you. I am with you. I have always been with you. I always will be with you." Her words were calm and loving. She then began reciting scripture. Afterwards we found out it was from the book of John. The interesting thing about that is that Sharon did not know scripture.
Then next thing that happened was even more unexpected. "Do you want to see me?" Her words, though a question, seemed almost rhetorical. I responded, "Yes." "Then close your eyes and see." Following her direction, I closed my eyes.
Though my eyes were closed I experienced another sort of sight. I watched as my eyes pulled away from the sand. I could see the sand fall from me to the ground below. My hands were in the sand before me. I raised my head up and in front of me in the sand were two feet. I raised my head higher and standing in front of me was Jesus. I was lying at his feet.
I looked up into his face, the sun broke behind him and he faded into the light. Suddenly I was being hit in the face with blowing sand and rain. Before me was Sharon. The wind and rain began to blow harder and we ended our reading and ran to the truck.
Readers
After my experiences with Sharon, I decided to find other readers to verify what I had heard and seen. I sought out readers and was repeatedly given the same information. In total, to date, there have been thirteen psychics to verify this past life as John the Beloved.
Although many told me there are a few that have great meaning to me. My good friend Cybelle, while sitting at a festival chatting, blurted out, "You were John the Beloved." This being an unsolicited reading was powerful because there was absolutely no reason for her to just say it.
Once while at the Whole Life Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a reader walked up to me unannounced and said, "They're telling me to tell you that you were John The Beloved." Again being unsolicited held strong value. My good friend Sharon while having a reading of her own asked about my past life and she was told, "He was the man." In a follow-up reading of my own with the same reader she told me that I was indeed, "John the Beloved returned."
Many readers have read but few have become close friends of mine. Atira Hatton is one exception. "I didn’t know I was reading for John the Beloved today, yeah, you are who you think you are!" Atira has become a close friend and confident and has helped me personally in some of the most troubling times of my life.
Floating Above The Bedsheets
As far as readers are concerned Atira Hatton is without a doubt one of the clearest readers I have ever experienced. She reviewed my life with such accuracy that my siblings were amazed by her descriptions of different times in my life. I am blessed to be able to call her a friend.
Connections that Atira have made for me have enriched my life beyond words. One of the things that she did tell me was that when I was a small boy I had an out of body experience that was more than an out of body. She compared it to the experience of the apparition of Mary in Fatima, Portugal. I told her that I did not remember it. She then said, "You’ll have verification in about a week."
A week after my reading with Atira, I was out to dinner with my father and my brother. I had recently read a posting that my brother had placed on my Hack & Slash website. In the post, he made cryptic references to things from my childhood. In the middle of the post was this Statement: I was here when Hack, as though filled with hot air, mysteriously floated above his meager bed-sheets and peered down on those of us in the cluttered room.
Sitting at dinner, I asked my brother what the statement meant. He unfolded a story of me at five years old with a very high fever. In his own words sent to me in an e-mail later:
All I remember about it was Mike, you and I shared the bedroom. You were in a small bed by the front window on Carla Ave. You had some sort of flu or something, and because of the fever, you were hallucinating about floating in the room, and were saying things like, "I'm higher than both of you."
His description sure sounded like the out of body experience of a five year old. Yes, the information came one week after Atira told me it would.
Mary in the Clouds
My first reading after Sharon was a phone reading with a reader recommended by Sharon. While waiting for the appointed time to call, I began to question all of the bizarre things that had happened to get me to this point. I asked for a sign that I was on the right path and, to put it bluntly, not insane.
I glanced above me at the sky that was speckled with small clouds. One particular cloud caught my attention. Something on top of it seemed to glow as if the sun was lighting it more than anything else in the sky. I got really curious as I examined the cloud further.
When my eyes adjusted I could not believe what I was seeing. There above me, directly after my asking for a sign was Mary the Mother of Jesus standing on the cloud. I took it as verification.
Mary as a Cloud
I had been hearing of a lady in Conyers, Georgia named Nancy Fowler, who had been having monthly visits by Mother Mary. I felt compelled to go. A date was set in October for the next apparition and I had purchased my ticket. In a moment of doubt and fear I began questioning my decision to go. While walking through the campground at the Maryland Renaissance Festival I asked God if I was deluding myself.
Walking from the campsite I looked up into the sky. It was a breezy fall day and the leaves on all the trees were at full color. The clouds were dappled across the sky and stretched long and thin with the wind.
In the center of all the clouds was a single cloud larger than the rest. The odd thing about this cloud was it stood vertical as all the other clouds were stretched horizontally. I looked closer at the cloud and could see the shape was the Mother Mary kneeling in prayer. Upon further inspection I noticed it had all the details intact, eyes, hair, veil, and fingers. It looked like a black and white painting of Mary.
I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. I looked again. This time I noticed that the horizontal clouds were in motion and Mary was not. The clouds gently passed around her. I took the flight. The gathering was large and there were representatives of all Christian faiths. I am not sure what my reason was for being there that day but I am sure there was some purpose.
Jesus in the Audience
During my comedy sword-fighting show my partner and I salute each other and my line is ”For God!” When I say that line I always look to the sky. One weekend while performing in Maryland I said my line and instead up looking up I turned my head out to the audience. The day was extremely hot and humid. The crowd was dressed in shorts and tee shirts using their show programs as fans. Except for the man whose eyes I locked with when I turned out. Sitting in the middle of the audience was Jeshua dressed in a long sleeve shirt and jeans, but undeniably it was him. As I turned while saying ”For God!” We locked eyes. He smiled and nodded. We erupted into a swordfight on stage which is the next thing that happens in the show. Throughout the action I kept trying to get glimpses of him. We would fleetingly lock eyes. At the end of the show my comedy partner and I bowed. When I rose up from the bow he was gone. I search the venue for him but to no avail. . . he had just popped in as a sign.
I began the study of out of body experiences. After having my first spontaneously, all I could think of was how could I do it again. Each night I would practice the same methods trying to get out. Each night I would get to the point where I felt as if I could step out of my body and I would get stuck. After months of practice I started to see results. I started at my feet and much like warming my body as I did in New Orleans. Instead of focusing on warmth I focused on leaving that part of my body.
I suddenly experienced a closeness to the ceiling as if I was less than six inches away. After several sessions like this, I began to explore the travel trailer I was staying in. Several weeks went by before I decided to venture outside of the trailer. Across the campground I would wander looking at the individuals as they sat in there campsites.
My next step was see if I could travel a greater distance. I began the process of remote viewing. While in my trailer in Annapolis Maryland, I venture out with the intention of going to my home town of Rehoboth Beach Delaware. I found myself at my good friend Tim’s home, but he was not there.
I next went to my friend Beau’s house. There lying in his bed was Beau sleeping. I decided that I wanted to try to get some proof of what I was seeing and to also see if I could contact Beau. Sitting beside his bed I began saying something so out of the ordinary that if Beau repeated it I would know that there was a connection.
"Purple Rhinoceros, Purple Rhinoceros, Purple Rhinoceros." If Beau said these words to me, I thought, it would prove the experience. The following day I called Beau on the phone. "I had the weirdest dream about you last night," he said. "I was standing in front of you and you kept saying Purple Rhinoceros." Verification.
Apartment Angel
One day,while working in Florida, my friend Vasco called me and asked me to come pick him up as he had no car and we were going to work out. "How do I get to you?" I asked. The directions were very detailed:
- Come north on the turnpike
- Turn left on kendall drive
- Drive out a few miles and turn right on 142nd street
- Turn right when you see the sign for my complex
- Turn right into the driveway with the building that has a letter "h" on it
- Drive behind the building and park in front of the steps of the building with the letter "i" on it
- Come up the steps turn left
- Go to the third door on the right which will be 209
As I got out of my van, I heard someone yelling down from the balcony above. "Did you find him?" I looked up to see a woman yelling down. "I’m looking for my friend Vasco," I responded. "Who ever lived in 209 moved out yesterday. But maybe they are not completely moved out. Come back up," said the woman. She was, if I was to guess, in her mid eighties, about five feet tall, and dressed in a nightgown that stretched from her neck to the ground.
I walked back up. That day I had been working on some construction projects and was dressed for that task. I was wearing ripped up jean shorts, a dirty tank top, sandals, and at that time I had a pony tail that went to the center of my back. I am six foot one and at that time about two hundred seventy pounds. To say I was scary-looking would be an understatement. The woman was not intimidated by my appearance at all and stayed with me as I knocked on the door of 209. She was looking through the windows trying to be helpful. "You were healthier when you were a vegetarian," she suddenly blurted out. "Excuse me?" "You were healthier when you were vegetarian" she repeated. Continuing, "You are meant to be a healer in this life and you can do that better if you are a vegetarian."
Over the next half hour we discussed healing, meditation, and homeopathy. All topics that I felt were out of the ordinary for a woman of her age. "You don’t meditate enough," she said, "I think you should go meditate right now." In awe of what was transpiring, "Yes Ma’am" I answered. Our conversation ended with her reminding me to be vegetarian and to the van I went to meditate.
Twenty minutes later I ended my meditation. I thought that I should go call Vasco. I drove back over to the convenience store and called. "Where are you?!" Vasco demanded from the other end of the line. "What do you mean where are you? I’ve been outside your door for a half hour," I answered. "Come back over and I’ll come out." Vasco said.
I drove back over to the building and still no Vasco. As I pulled back out, I thought maybe there is another sign for his complex. So I drove back over to 142nd Street and turned right. A little way farther down the street was another sign for his complex. I turned in. Before me stood a building with the letter "H" on it. I turn and drove behind the building and there was a building with the letter "I" on it. Walking down the steps was Vasco. He had lived in the complex for a number of years and no one had ever made the same mistake I had made. He had no idea that there was another "H" and "I" building.
About two months after this happened I was watching the television show Unsolved Mysteries. On this particular episode was a story about a young woman who was in an abusive relationship. She divorced her husband in a time when a divorced woman was not accepted by society. She had two young children. Thanksgiving came and she did not have enough food for a holiday dinner. So she made sandwiches and took her children to the park to make the best of the day.
After a day at the park she returned to her apartment. As she arrived a elderly lady came out and said that she’d been looking for her. "I have dinner ready come inside," the lady who was about mid-eighties and five feet tall said. The young woman and her two children went into the lady's apartment and spent a wonderful evening having a full Thankgiving dinner as the only guests of their new friend. At the end of the evening the elderly lady sent the leftovers home with them.
The following morning she transferred the leftovers into her own containers, washed the lady's containers and took them downstairs to return them. When she got to the apartment she was shocked to find that it was empty, no furniture, or anything. When asking the manager where her friend was the manager said that the apartment had been empty for six months.
Maybe I had run into the apartment angel.
Griffin
I was on the road performing and was going to be arriving in Georgia two weeks before I could actually set up camp at the renaissance festival where I was performing. I did not know where I was going to camp for the two weeks. Oddly I began to see the word "Griffin" everywhere. It became almost ridiculous. I would see or hear it twenty to thirty times a day. I even turned on the news one time to here the Anchorman telling the Weatherman that is was strange that they both just named their first-born sons Griffin. I opened a map of the area and discovered the closest place that I could camp was near Griffin, Georgia.
I took this as a sign and drove to High Falls State Park near Griffin Georgia. I arrived and went to the office to find out where I could camp. I was informed that the sites by the water were a little more expensive than the ones a little further back in the woods.
I pulled my travel trailer to the first site in the woods. As I backed into the site a man walked up to the side of my truck and knocked on the window. "Hey, the power is out on that site. You'll have to pull over to the next one," he said. I thanked him and pulled to the next site. He was driving a mid-fifties Chevy truck much like my father used to own. He had long hair pulled into a pony tail like my own; he was wearing shorts similar to the ones that I usually wear. He was someone I felt completely comfortable with.
I backed into the next site and before I unhooked my trailer, I took a lamp from inside and plugged it into the power source. The light came on. After I set up my trailer, I looked for the man who had helped me to find out what was nearby for shopping. But he was gone no where to be found. I settled in the trailer for the night turned on my television. I watched as a major storm rolled in to the area. Before the night was through a tornado had passed within ten miles of the site and the trailer knocked back and forth through the torrential wind and rain.
In the morning I awakened to sunny skies again. When I opened the door to the trailer and stepped outside, I was shocked to see that where I would have been camped lay a fallen tree, one large enough that it would have easily crushed the trailer and landed right where I would have been sleeping. Curious, I got my lamp from the trailer again and walked to the other site. I plugged the lamp in and it flickered to life. There was nothing wrong with the power on that site.
Life As An Indian
One night while I was attempting to go out of body, I started seeing a blue light flashing by. It passed through my vision from right to left. As it passed, I discovered I could grab it with my mind. When I did so I experienced the sensation of being pulled through the light. Bursting through the light, I would suddenly have full sensory awareness of being somewhere else. I could smell smells, see vistas, feel the wind and so on. Each time this would occur I would have a fear overtake me and I would lose focus on where I was and again see the light passing by.
After twenty or thirty attempts to stay on the other side of the light, my final attempt would be successful. I burst through the blue light and found myself sitting on a horse. I could feel the sweat of the horse on the inside of my bare thighs. I could feel the heat on my back and hot air breathing into my nostrils. I looked over beside me and there sitting on two horses were two Native Americans. Interestingly enough I recognized these men as two of my friends from this life, Tim and Beau. Looking down I realized that I too was a Native American and with that realization I lost the vision and found myself looking at the blue light passing by again.
This was my first and only other encounter of past lives. I often wonder if the blue lights would lead me to different past life experiences. It was my introduction into the concept of past lives as it was something I had never even considered before.
Biker Shaman
While camping at a Renaissance festival in Maryland I became acquainted with an unexpected spiritual teacher. The campground was filled with various travel trailers and a few tents. In the middle, one tent stood out more than the most. It was a twenty-five foot tall teepee. It’s owner was a practitioner of Native American philosophy. He was a grizzly-looking man of about five feet ten inches tall, always in his worn black leather jacket. Rhett was his name and his voice was raspy like he had one too many cigarettes.
One day I got into a conversation about spirituality with him. He surprised me with knowledge of energies that I had never heard of before. Raising his hand above my arm, I could feel first heat, then a tingling sensation that actually raised the hair on my arm. "What was that?" I asked. He explained to me that if you focus your attention on a point, that energy is created at that point.
He then said, "When I tell you, hold your hands out in front of you, palms up." I watched as Rhett faced his palms towards each other and focused his attention between his hands. He then told me he was ready and to raise my hands into position. He raised his hands above my own and opened them, as if dropping something into my hands. I felt a weight hit my hands. It shocked me at first. Then I felt the heat and tingling sensation again, traveling up my arms. I was stunned.
"Would you like to see the energy?" he asked. I answered with an enthusiastic "YES!". We walked out into a field behind the campground. The sun had just fallen below the tree line, but it was still light out. Rhett told me to hold my hands above my head and point my index fingers at each other about an inch apart. "Focus your eyes between your fingers."
My eyes focused and between my fingers I could see an energy passing from my right hand to my left. I closed my eyes, shook my head and looked again wanting to be sure I saw what I saw. I then began to take my fingers out of alignment. Moving them slowly up and down, I was amazed to see the energy arcing between them like a science project.
Over the next few weeks I would play with energies and I began to see them around people and then witnessing the interplay of energies between people. I also began feeling energies as people would walk by me I would feel them some more powerful than others.
One day while standing in the campground taking to some friends, I suddenly felt a rush of energy at the back of my head. I turned to see Rhett on the other side of the campground about a hundred feet away. He was laughing. My new friend had created an energy ball and hit me in the back of the head as if it was a snowball.
Meeting Sharon
I found myself in Canada, performing at the renaissance festival in Ontario. I had flown in to do the show and was without a vehicle, and it was during the week inbetween performance weekends. One evening a group of us had gathered at a friend’s house. Sitting in the corner, I was enjoying my latest pastime, watching auras around the room and the interplay of energies.
On the other side of the room, a woman stood up. She looked directly at me and said, "I know what you're doing, You're looking at my aura!" She crossed the room to where I was and continued, "You're looking at my aura, aren’t you?" "Maybe," I sheepishly replied. "You are meant to be healer," she continued. "I’ve been told that before," I said.
Her name was Sharon Prince Wothke. She was a psychic. At this point in my life I had never had an experience with someone who claimed to be psychic and had no opinion of the validity of the skill. But I watched as friend after friend would go to Sharon and have a 'reading'. Each one came away changed in some way. One good friend, Kosha, after it was done could only say, "Oh my God." I decided to give it a try, but our time in Canada had run out and we scheduled for a reading in Maryland in a couple of weeks.
I arrived in Maryland, set up my trailer, and prepared for the show. Sharon and her husband arrived, as his band was performing at the festival. A couple days after they set up we arranged for the reading. On the appointed day she came to my trailer and we sat on my couch.
She prepared in her own way for the reading. Over the course of the next half hour Sharon told me of my relationships in my life. She explained a lot of my personality traits. It was very moving for me on very deep levels and gave me some affirmations and direction. Near the end of the reading Sharon’s face erupted into a smile and she said, "They’re telling me you walked with Jesus." This statement is not one you hear every day. The odd thing for me was somehow I knew I had. I cannot explain it just deep within myself I knew I had walked with Jesus. "Yes I did," I responded. Our reading ending and I immediately started asking for another. I wanted to know more about this "walking with Jesus" thing.
Cape Henlopen
My second reading from Sharon would take place near my home town of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Just north of town was the Cape Henlopen State park. I decided that my next reading would happen on the point of the Cape. Sharon and I made the two hour drive from Annapolis to Rehoboth.
We arrived at the cape as the wind and rain began to kick up and we walked down to the beach on the bay side of the cape. We found a horseshoe shaped dune that provided a haven from the wind and we sat to prepare for the reading.
As Sharon prepared, she began to become visibly upset and began to cry. "What is wrong?" I asked. "I feel that something is going to happen and I don’t think that I am worthy to do this." She exclaimed. She continued to weep. I assured her that she is not only worthy, but I am honored that she would do this for me.
All at once Sharon stopped weeping, her back straightened, and her face was overtaken by an expression of pure bliss. "John of Old, John of New, I love you. I have always loved you. I will always love you. I am with you. I have always been with you. I always will be with you." Her words were calm and loving. She then began reciting scripture. Afterwards we found out it was from the book of John. The interesting thing about that is that Sharon did not know scripture.
Then next thing that happened was even more unexpected. "Do you want to see me?" Her words, though a question, seemed almost rhetorical. I responded, "Yes." "Then close your eyes and see." Following her direction, I closed my eyes.
Though my eyes were closed I experienced another sort of sight. I watched as my eyes pulled away from the sand. I could see the sand fall from me to the ground below. My hands were in the sand before me. I raised my head up and in front of me in the sand were two feet. I raised my head higher and standing in front of me was Jesus. I was lying at his feet.
I looked up into his face, the sun broke behind him and he faded into the light. Suddenly I was being hit in the face with blowing sand and rain. Before me was Sharon. The wind and rain began to blow harder and we ended our reading and ran to the truck.
Readers
After my experiences with Sharon, I decided to find other readers to verify what I had heard and seen. I sought out readers and was repeatedly given the same information. In total, to date, there have been thirteen psychics to verify this past life as John the Beloved.
Although many told me there are a few that have great meaning to me. My good friend Cybelle, while sitting at a festival chatting, blurted out, "You were John the Beloved." This being an unsolicited reading was powerful because there was absolutely no reason for her to just say it.
Once while at the Whole Life Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a reader walked up to me unannounced and said, "They're telling me to tell you that you were John The Beloved." Again being unsolicited held strong value. My good friend Sharon while having a reading of her own asked about my past life and she was told, "He was the man." In a follow-up reading of my own with the same reader she told me that I was indeed, "John the Beloved returned."
Many readers have read but few have become close friends of mine. Atira Hatton is one exception. "I didn’t know I was reading for John the Beloved today, yeah, you are who you think you are!" Atira has become a close friend and confident and has helped me personally in some of the most troubling times of my life.
Floating Above The Bedsheets
As far as readers are concerned Atira Hatton is without a doubt one of the clearest readers I have ever experienced. She reviewed my life with such accuracy that my siblings were amazed by her descriptions of different times in my life. I am blessed to be able to call her a friend.
Connections that Atira have made for me have enriched my life beyond words. One of the things that she did tell me was that when I was a small boy I had an out of body experience that was more than an out of body. She compared it to the experience of the apparition of Mary in Fatima, Portugal. I told her that I did not remember it. She then said, "You’ll have verification in about a week."
A week after my reading with Atira, I was out to dinner with my father and my brother. I had recently read a posting that my brother had placed on my Hack & Slash website. In the post, he made cryptic references to things from my childhood. In the middle of the post was this Statement: I was here when Hack, as though filled with hot air, mysteriously floated above his meager bed-sheets and peered down on those of us in the cluttered room.
Sitting at dinner, I asked my brother what the statement meant. He unfolded a story of me at five years old with a very high fever. In his own words sent to me in an e-mail later:
All I remember about it was Mike, you and I shared the bedroom. You were in a small bed by the front window on Carla Ave. You had some sort of flu or something, and because of the fever, you were hallucinating about floating in the room, and were saying things like, "I'm higher than both of you."
His description sure sounded like the out of body experience of a five year old. Yes, the information came one week after Atira told me it would.
Mary in the Clouds
My first reading after Sharon was a phone reading with a reader recommended by Sharon. While waiting for the appointed time to call, I began to question all of the bizarre things that had happened to get me to this point. I asked for a sign that I was on the right path and, to put it bluntly, not insane.
I glanced above me at the sky that was speckled with small clouds. One particular cloud caught my attention. Something on top of it seemed to glow as if the sun was lighting it more than anything else in the sky. I got really curious as I examined the cloud further.
When my eyes adjusted I could not believe what I was seeing. There above me, directly after my asking for a sign was Mary the Mother of Jesus standing on the cloud. I took it as verification.
Mary as a Cloud
I had been hearing of a lady in Conyers, Georgia named Nancy Fowler, who had been having monthly visits by Mother Mary. I felt compelled to go. A date was set in October for the next apparition and I had purchased my ticket. In a moment of doubt and fear I began questioning my decision to go. While walking through the campground at the Maryland Renaissance Festival I asked God if I was deluding myself.
Walking from the campsite I looked up into the sky. It was a breezy fall day and the leaves on all the trees were at full color. The clouds were dappled across the sky and stretched long and thin with the wind.
In the center of all the clouds was a single cloud larger than the rest. The odd thing about this cloud was it stood vertical as all the other clouds were stretched horizontally. I looked closer at the cloud and could see the shape was the Mother Mary kneeling in prayer. Upon further inspection I noticed it had all the details intact, eyes, hair, veil, and fingers. It looked like a black and white painting of Mary.
I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. I looked again. This time I noticed that the horizontal clouds were in motion and Mary was not. The clouds gently passed around her. I took the flight. The gathering was large and there were representatives of all Christian faiths. I am not sure what my reason was for being there that day but I am sure there was some purpose.
Jesus in the Audience
During my comedy sword-fighting show my partner and I salute each other and my line is ”For God!” When I say that line I always look to the sky. One weekend while performing in Maryland I said my line and instead up looking up I turned my head out to the audience. The day was extremely hot and humid. The crowd was dressed in shorts and tee shirts using their show programs as fans. Except for the man whose eyes I locked with when I turned out. Sitting in the middle of the audience was Jeshua dressed in a long sleeve shirt and jeans, but undeniably it was him. As I turned while saying ”For God!” We locked eyes. He smiled and nodded. We erupted into a swordfight on stage which is the next thing that happens in the show. Throughout the action I kept trying to get glimpses of him. We would fleetingly lock eyes. At the end of the show my comedy partner and I bowed. When I rose up from the bow he was gone. I search the venue for him but to no avail. . . he had just popped in as a sign.
