Heaven Is Real?

I just read “Heaven is Real, But So Is Hell,” by Vassula Rydén. 

“*Heaven Is Real But So is Hell* contains a first-hand account of the supernatural world of God and His Angels and of Satan and his demons. It brings a timely and critical message for our world and ill be one of the most throught provoking books you’ll ever read.” — From the dust jacket.

It’s not meant to be fiction, but it reads like a cross between The DaVinci Code and Constantine, minus all the fight scenes. Being psychic from an early age, Vassula paid little attention to the things she saw until she started writing messages from God and her Guardian Angel. To date, the messages number in the thousands and form the basis of her world ministry to reunite the three branches of Christianity: Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. Along the way, she has met with the Pope, has been villainized, converted thousands of people, had her writings declared heretical by some church authorities, fully consistent with the teachings of Jesus by others, and has amassed a huge following around the world. Along the way, she has had numerous encounters with Satan and demons and her messages, as quoted in this book, talk a lot of the war between good and evil. To be saved, they say, everyone has to pray unceasingly to God to save them from the influences of Satan, who is around us every day, ready to pounce at any sign of weakness.

I Googled her to find out what’s been going on since the book was written. The book was published in 2013, but the it’s accounts seem to end in the early 1990’s, and I wanted to see other points of view and what’s happened since. As far as I can tell, her battle still continues, with millions pushing for church reform and many, very vocal, opponents that call her every evil thing you can think of and would gladly burn her at the stake or crucify her, if they were able. She’s probably one of the most important religious figures of our time, and you’ve probably never heard of her. How such a large movement merits no mention in any religious or secular publication that I’ve seen is a topic for another time.

What’s important to me about this book is the supernatural parts of the story. This book documents many miracles of different kinds, like instant healing, and other manifestations that occur in her presence. How does this jive with the rest of the world, the paranormal and, most importantly, other religions? The picture her messages paint, is of a very Old Testament theology where you must repent your sins and love God or go to hell. There is no other option. Where does that leave other world religions? As being one of the “outsiders,” someone raised in our Christianized western culture, but not significantly steeped in any particular flavor of “church,” I look at this from a different perspective. As you probably know, I am uncomfortable with demonstrative, in-your-face, Christianity, too many bad memories of suppression, discrimination and hypocrisy, both in the past and the present, I suppose. I realized today that if I shift mental gears and think of it as just another world religion, I can accept it as easily as, say, native American traditions. But when I see the actions of the ugly, bigoted, hateful, self-important Christians around me, I find it difficult for me to be comfortable with Christianity as a force for good in the world. 

Where I’m coming from is that Christianity is just one spiritual option. I know, theists of every stripe don’t like that, but it’s the only thing that makes any kind of sense to me, in a just universe. On the other hand, if the Gods are out to get you, it really doesn’t matter what you do, you’re screwed anyway. For that reason, I choose the philosophy that things aren’t really all that bad, the evil is something we put in the world, not the other way around. I know many people can’t conceive of a world without Satan, but that’s not my world. Why that is, is a discussion for another time.

The thing is, “miracles” don’t always occur in a Christian, or even religious, context. The paranormal happens every day, all around us. The research by Rupert Sheldrake, Dean Radin, and many other scientists show that the paranormal is, indeed, more “normal” than “para.” Think for a minute what would happen if this research was accepted my mainstream science, what would it mean to the religious if everyone could work a miracle in the same way that anyone can write code? then all the saints and miracle workers, throughout the ages, would be nothing more than garden-variety psychics, more more “blessed by God” than Madam Zolla, the medium. If “anybody and do it,” no God necessary, then what happens to religion? Of course, religions are about much more that miracles, but most of them depend on them for their legitimacy. 

My view is that these messages are focused primarily on Christians, if other pick up on it, great, but their purpose is not to convert the world, but to try and unit the fractured and bickering sects of Christianity. Overall, Vassula’s message appears pretty much the same as what Jesus said 2000 years ago, yet the authorities are fighting it just as hard now as then. Time will tell if her effort does bears fruit. But, if you’re from another spiritual tradition, you should be aware of what’s going on. These messages and miracles are very real and are very powerful, within their contexts. There are lessons here for every tradition about letting your personal and cultural biases and preference rewrite whatever spiritual messages you are exposed to into something “comfortable.” 

I don’t believe that miracles and contact with non-corporal entities is only limited to some religious or spiritual context. It’s possible that we’re on the cusp of a spiritual transition that makes religious preference akin to the choice between iPhone and Android. Where God is accessible to anyone who cares to look, without going through gatekeepers that tell you what to believe and how to believe it, and, maybe, on the way we will finally get over our stubborn insistence that “like me” equals “good,” and “not like me” equals “bad.”

Alex Malarkey

Today I’m finishing up “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven.” I can say that I have mixed feelings about this book. The book is the true story of Alex Malarkey, a boy who had his spine severed at the base of his skull in a auto accident. Although that type of injury is presumed to be fatal, he survived. He remains a quadriplegic, but he has no brain damage and recovered his ability to speak. Way beyond what doctors expected. During the accident he left his body, witnessed many things that occurred where he was not physically present, and then spent a week in heaven while his body was in a coma. After he woke up he sees angles often, and many explicable things happened around him in the time after his accident.

My feelings are mixed because of the point of view of the book. Even though I was raised in this “christian” society, I have seen way too many hateful things done “in the name of Christ” and way too much hypocrisy to be comfortable with the language of this book. I’m sure it’s aimed squarely at Evangelical Christians, because it will turn off pretty much everyone else. Phrases like “our God is awesome” border on paganism, at least according to the theology that I’ve learned, that there is only one God. Are they claiming the one-and-only creator of the universe as their very own, and nobody else’s? Alex mentions the Devil frequently as well.

That said, there are many events in this book that are not explainable by medicine or science, and I’m sure that every non-religious public figure, and most conservative religious, will write write them all off as coincidence, selective memory, hallucinations or anything else that makes them comfortable. I’ve read Christian theologians arguing against any kind of “direct influence” of God in todays world. “Small” miracles are acceptable, but big, bold, blatantly supernatural things are just not how God works.

Near the end of the book, Alex Malarkey received what’s called the Christopher Reeve operation, that would allow him to breath on his own. This case received so much publicity that there were front page stories in the local newspapers. Kevin Malarkey noted that an editor had removed all references to God from the statements they’d made. I find that interesting, but probably not for the reason you might think.

We live in a secular society, enforced by the Constitution. But for most of our nation’s history, Christianity has gotten a free ride, in terms of getting it’s practices and views inshrined into the customs and laws of these United States. What other religion has all it’s major events made into national holidays? “In God we trust” printed on our money. Christian prayers at governmental events. During the Kennedy era, there were jokes about how silly it was that we could have a Catholic president, (as opposed to Protestant) These things have changed in may way over the past 50 years, but we still hear, way too often, that “We are a Christian nation.” And that, in practice, “Freedom of Religion” only applies to Christians, as they fight to get their “Christian” principles back in the law books.

In this climate, it’s understandable that editors might not want to appear to fan the flames by publishing too much “faith in God” stuff. That could make it appear that they are endorsing that point of view. I find that a little surprising, considering that this is rural Ohio, but, perhaps, they hoped that the story would be picked up by the national new services and they didn’t to come off as bible thumpin’ hicks. I thought the idea of object news is to report what happened and what people said, not to edit it to make readers more comfortable. Isn’t that censorship?

These editors appear to be treading a thin line. But I think what’s really going on is more subtle: Our society is so afraid of anything non-materialistic that even articles were religion plays a central role need to be “sanitized” to remove anything “supernatural.” I suppose there’s a certain amount of sense in that, since all of the three major world religions claim exclusive rights to God’s grace and any miracles that come from that. I find it endlessly amusing that the media of our culture are just as afraid of Jesus, as they are of UFOs, ghosts, spirit mediums, channeling, and paranormal events and research in general.

Now I’m going to throw my own interpretation on what Alex Malarkey reported. From my point of view, the boy Alex’s descriptions of heaven and other events are very childlike, and very much suit the Sunday schools lessons aimed a six-year-old, which he was at the time. I’m not saying that’s where he got his information, I’m saying that the message and information was expressly tailored for a six-year-old.

This is my interpretation of views outside of this reality: What you see is expressly aimed at you, personally. It’s adjusted for what you can accept and are comfortable with. While NDE experiences can seem very different, they do have commonalities that link strictly Christian experiences to completely new-age pagan ones. And there is the strong implication that there is some intelligence orchestrating how these experiences play out. In Alex’s case, it’s clear that the message was aimed squarely at the Evangelical Christian community that he is a part of, while Dr. Eban Alexander’s NDE, for example, was notably non-Christian and clearly for a different audience.

I have never be comfortable with the idea the “God is running everything.” I get this message from every corner of the faith spectrum, but I always have assumed that it’s all about my own intension and “natural laws” of the extended reality. I’m beginning to question my assumptions. One thing I do think is true, is that the realty beyond this one is unknowable, in the sense that it can’t be expressed in this one, and all attempts to do so are bound to express only a fraction of what’s there. Like trying to explain what life is really like to a subsistence farmer in Africa. You may think he understands, but you know that what may look like heaven to him is anything but. Every description of the afterlife will express only a small fraction of the whole picture, and it will be ripe for misinterpretation. It could very well be that there are “natural laws” in the extended reality that push us toward a peaceful and loving world society, or it could be an intelligence that is pushing for that goal, using every tool at its disposal. There’s probably no way to definitively know, short of crossing over. I don’t believe that the afterlife is Christian, Muslim, Jewish or whatever, but it’s the essence from which the core of all these religions sprang.

As uncomfortable as the language of this book makes me feel, I believe there’s a message there for me. I think I need to be a little less judgmental of these views and really try on the idea that, while I’m responsible for my life, I’m not the only one who has input, and it’s Ok to ask for help. That’s difficult for me, especially when the helper is a nameless, faceless, being of unknown origin and providence. The quality of my meditation have changed markedly, in the past few months, and this might be where they are leading.

P.S. I have been reading the articles about Alex Malarkey recanting his story and saying the book had “substantial inaccuracies.” You never know what to make of these types of stories, they play so well into our cultural narrative that you can never be sure where they may have come from. It’s clear his story elicited considerable anger from certain conservative parties, sales of the book were lagging and the message was being “reinterpreted” in certain quarters to suit various agendas. It’s possible it’s all fiction. It’s also likely that the book interpreted parts of the story in ways the rest of the family was not comfortable with. It’s known that Alex and Beth Malarkey (his mother) had grow extremely uncomfortable with the types of attention they were receiving as a result of the book, so, perhaps, recanting looked like one way of getting out of the spotlight. It’s even possible the fractions within their church were putting pressure on them to recant. In any case, we will probably never know for sure. It’s been said that if Jesus showed up today, conservative Christians would label him a dirty, socialist liberal, undermining the Christian/American work ethic and family values by helping the poor and forgiving prostitutes and sinners, just as the authorities of Jesus’ own time did. As in all articles of faith, judge for yourself. The material world will be no help.

Friends and Changes

This week I continued my education by starting in class in Ericksonian hypnosis techniques at HCH Institute. I found out right away that it’s a bit different than I thought, and it takes a lot more skill and practice than I realized. Frankly, I don’t think a four week seminar is going to teach me anywhere near enough to use it well. I expect that I’ll end up with a good idea of what I need to practice and some resources to explore further. 

What’s really tricky about the Ericksonian technique is that you don’t have any direct feedback from the client. I always had the impression that the Ericksonian practitioner was pretty much, ‘flying blind’, but that’s not it at all. What the practitioner is really doing is constantly modifying his script, based on subtle physical queues from the client, and intuition too, I suppose. The trick, of course, is learning to read those queues and also having a ready supply of things to say, at your fingertips. That may be my biggest challenge.

At the break, I got to connect with two friends from previous courses. That was very cool cause I feel very close to them.  It would be nice to see them more often, but I’m getting that would not be the best idea right now. Which leads me to thinking about relationships again.

I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever really ‘get’ relationships, especially with women. I suppose that I don’t worry about my relationships with men because it’s easy to take ‘em or leave ‘em. It would be nice to have friends to hang out with, but I know if I know what that means. What do these thinks look like from the inside? I don’t know. I do know it feels really awkward to ask anyone to hang out or get a beer or something. “Hanging” always ends up feeling awkward, unless there are other people there, or there’s some definite purpose for the meeting. The whole idea of “dating” just feels weird. I think my issue comes from the fact that, when I was younger, dates were all about sex, and now that has be pushed way to the background I have no idea what to replace it with. 

I think my problem revolves around not being any good about having friends. I’ve spent most of my life getting people to like me. Now that I don’t really care about that any more, what else is there? I expect that I will, eventually, meet the right people with the right personalities and enough common interests that we have things to do together. I have spent so much of my life being the significant other, the plus one, the friend, the hanger on in somebody else’s group, that I never found, or built, a place for myself. A place where I was me, not somebody’s attachment. Finding those groups and building those relationships takes time, especially at my age. On of the blessing of my age is that time passes quickly. Days, weeks, and almost months, go by before I notice them. So, waiting isn’t really all that hard. 

My life is so much more positive now and good things keep coming my way, so I have high hopes that “this too shall pass.” That the present difficulties and awkwardnesses will work themselves out. I’m only focusing on those few things I have to do, like work, taxes and finding a place to live, and letting everything else be a game. I psychic told be recently that I need to stop worrying so much about making the “right” decisions, decisions that will last me another 20 years. I can kick back, relax, cruz, have fun and take my time. It’s still hard to completely let go of that feeling that I need to fix and solve everything right now, but it’s important that I do. “Marry in hast, repent in leisure,” applies not just to marriage.

I’ve spent a lot of time “trying on” different kinds of relationships in my meditations. I find that everything I imagine doesn’t work very well when placed in the context of my real life. I think that’s telling me that my fantasies are a bunch of crap, and reality, when it shows up, will be something very different. So I don’t know what to expect and that’s a good thing. Life would be a lot less fun if I knew everything ahead of time, good and bad, so let’s raise a cold one to the unexpected. My it keep us on our toes and nimble of mind and heart.