At around 2 or 3 years old I had my first spiritual experience, unbeknownst to me at the time. I found my awareness expanding to the corner of the bedroom every night, not understanding what it meant and at first afraid of this experience. Eventually I adapted and then began using this to leave my body and float around the shrub bush around our back yard. There was no one to whom I could explain this phenomenon even if I had the vocabulary to do so. It did, however, present the awareness that I was, clearly, not this body, this dense form. This phenomenon ceased after several years, but it was never forgotten. My father was a 'runaway Catholic' and my mother was a 'holiday Christian", so there was no spiritual information until around 12 or 13 when some friends brought me to a Southern Baptist church where the youth group held great attraction for me. It was there that two things happened that jump started the journey: a Sunday school teacher in this church taught prayer by 'considering a concern and watching for the answer from within' – wow, was I impressed! She also shared the Serenity Prayer which instantly went straight to the heart. I had amazing new tools to get through life! At around 22 I ventured off to an ashram led by Ked Keyes (Handbook to Higher Consciousness), where I lived and studied for many months. This was life changing. Nothing would ever be the same again! After many years of acquiring a great wealth and variety of spiritual practices and teachers, and through many spiritual venues, I found Religious Science. Of the many hurdles along the way there is one that stands out as the hardest and greatest blessing. This gift happened in the duration between my Practitioner written exam and the oral panel; I was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. Having been a Religious Scientist for several years already and a Holistic Health Practitioner for many more, I had acquired quite a 'holier than tho' belief that I was 'not subject to anything of this nature'. One can imagine my shock. It was a huge blow to my ego, which finally relented and was forced to Surrender, after much agonizing ado. After an extensive multifaceted intubated surgical biopsy I was found to be free of the cancer. The doctors were stunned. They clearly expected me to be dead in 6 months. Was it four years of Practitioner studies and intense prayer that facilitated this miracle!?! As it turns out I actually could have died during that surgery. During fully intubated surgery the anesthesia shuts down the autonomic nervous system; meaning that the brain is not functional, shut down, no activity; therefore, no dreams, no thinking, nothing. Yet, I found myself with my Spirital Guides. They informed me that I was done, that I had completed my chosen purpose this time and could use this doorway to go home; however, I would have to return, in a new body, to complete the remainder of the journey to enlightenment, in order to be done with this domain. Since enlightenment is my larger purpose, and coming back to a new body, with all of it's 'stuff', I said an emphatic "no, send me back!" I had no idea what I was to face upon making that choice. Whew! I embarked upon a whole new life's journey, starting with being a Practitioner! …with a very different and blessed life view.

... Stay tuned for the rest of the story...