Reports of spiritual visions would be easy to dismiss as hallucinations and fabrications except that many of these experiences have been reported by credible, successful people who have nothing to gain by lying.
Writer Phil Bolsta has spoken with dozens of prominent people who have had spiritual encounters. He has discovered that these encounters often occur during times of personal crisis, when people are willing to drop their intellectual armor and open their minds to the possibility of a spiritual world around them. Spiritual encounters often trigger deep, positive changes in the character, attitude and behavior of those who experience them, and they frequently lead to a strengthening of religious faith.
True stories of spiritual awakenings from five well-respected sources…
Joan Borysenko was sitting at her dying mother’s bedside in 1988 when she had a clear and profound vision. Borysenko saw herself giving birth to a child — but in her vision, she also was the baby being born.
Borysenko had not always seen eye-to-eye with her mother, but this vision of childbirth instantly reframed the relationship in her mind. Just as her mother had given physical birth to her, Borysenko now believed that she was giving birth to her dying mother’s soul as it departed the world. In a flash, Borysenko understood that the problems she had had with her mother over the years were not problems at all. Though the experiences were difficult at the time, they helped shape Borysenko into the very special person she had become.
When the vision ended, Borysenko found herself back in her mother’s hospital room. She saw that her mother had passed away in her sleep. To Borysenko, it appeared that the objects in the hospital room were interconnected and made of energy and light. Before Borysenko could say a word about her vision, her then 20-year-old son, Justin, also in the hospital room, said, “Mom, the whole room is filled with light. Can you see it?”
She could.
Wayne Dyer is not a world-class athlete, yet one day in October 2000, Dyer performed a feat of strength that should not have been possible.
Dyer was leading a tour group through a castle in San Damiano, Italy, that once had been home to a convent set up by St. Francis of Assisi. In Dyer’s group was a young man with muscular dystrophy who could walk only with the help of leg braces. A few steps up a narrow three-flight staircase, this young man realized that his leg braces made it impossible for him to climb any farther. He could not turn back either, because a long line behind him blocked his way.
Dyer offered to carry the man, forgetting for the moment about his own physical condition. Dyer was then 60 years old and suffered from significant knee and leg problems. The man he had offered to carry up three very steep flights of stairs weighed nearly 200 pounds.
After only a few steps, Dyer could feel his knees crumble under him. At that moment, he experienced a vision of St. Francis and felt a surge of energy like he never had before. Dyer virtually ran up the remaining two-and-a-half flights and was not even winded when he reached the top.
To Dyer, the incident confirmed that there is a supreme, benevolent intelligence that governs everything around us.
In 1989, Tom Gegax’s life was falling apart. He had been diagnosed with cancer, his 25-year marriage had ended and his company was struggling. Gegax decided that he needed to spend some time thinking. Fearing that his busy everyday life in America made such quiet reflection impossible, he decided to do this thinking in the Greek Islands. He had heard that Greece had a terrible phone system and reasoned that it would be the ideal place to avoid interruptions.
After several blissful days of quiet meditation, Gegax woke suddenly at 3:00 in the morning. He saw a bright, glowing treasure chest on the pillow next to him. The chest looked very real, and Gegax felt certain that he was awake. After about 10 seconds of staring, Gegax tried to touch the chest, but it disappeared as he reached for it.
Everything seemed bright and magical to Gegax for the remainder of this retreat. His senses were heightened, and he felt that he was experiencing life at a deeper level than ever before. The meaning of the vision was clear to Gegax — there were immense treasures to be found in stepping back from his hectic life.
Gegax soon regained his health, remarried and rebuilt his business, Tires Plus, into the largest independent tire-store chain in the country. (He sold the company to Bridgestone/Firestone in 2000.) He continues to find time for quiet reflection.
Early in his career, Trent Tucker rarely got off the New York Knicks’ bench. The young Tucker was on the bench during a 1983 game in Madison Square Garden when fellow Knick Ray Williams sprained his ankle. With Williams hurt, the Knicks had to depend on Tucker. There was no way to know how the unproven player would handle the pressure.
Suddenly Tucker felt a presence. He looked up and saw a spirit shaped like a cloud coming down an arena aisle at the opposite end of the court. Tucker sensed that this was a higher force, a positive force. The spirit removed all of the tension and apprehension from him, leaving him in a state of sudden and unexpected calm.
The spirit then spoke to him, saying, “I’m here. I’m going to support you. You have done what you were supposed to do. It’s time to go out and play now. Your time has come.”
Tucker began to establish himself as a quality NBA player that day. Perhaps more important, the experience gave him a new perspective. Ever since then, Tucker has not let minor problems bother him. He understands that his life is not all about him. A quarter-century later, Tucker still credits his arena vision with broadening his horizons and making him a better man. After retiring from basketball, he founded the Trent Tucker Non-Profit Organization to give back to his community.
Back in the early 1970s, Ornish was a freshman in college struggling with his grades. The harder the young Ornish pushed himself to do well in his classes, the more sleep-deprived and depressed he became and the more his grades suffered.
One day, Ornish experienced what he considered to be a spiritual vision, the message of which was, “Nothing can bring lasting happiness.” This seemingly hopeless message made Ornish even more depressed. He withdrew from college and considered suicide.
Ornish then met a spiritual leader called Swami Satchidananda, who had helped his sister cure her migraine headaches. The swami was speaking to a group at Ornish’s parents’ home. Remarkably, the swami’s first words to Ornish were “Nothing can bring lasting happiness.”
Though Ornish had earlier taken these exact words as a bleak message, the swami saw them as a cause for joy. Nothing can bring lasting happiness, he explained to Ornish, but you have happiness already until you disturb it. Just stop chasing all the things that you believe will make you happy.
Ornish returned to college and graduated first in his class. When he felt angry, afraid, anxious or depressed, he no longer saw it as a problem — he saw it as a helpful warning that he was looking in the wrong places for peace and happiness. Pain was not punishment, he realized. It was just information.
