As an intro to “My Year as a Hermit,” which Kathleen forwarded to me (thank you, Kathleen), I was moved to make a few comments, to anchor it or trace out a few elements of it.
Why is it significant? Because this is a record of what appears to be a fourth-chakra enlightenment experience similar to what we may experience in the expected Ring of Fire/Wave of Love. (1)
The central part of missionary priest Michael Barrington’s story for me was his spiritual experience. To my way of thinking, it can be usefully seen from two perspectives.
First, it appears to be a fourth-chakra experience – which in this case was a vision of his chosen ideal (Jesus), a totally new experience for him, opening spiritual doors, leading to a change of direction in life and/or a new intensity of living, etc.
Second, it appears to be a particular type of experience known to Hindus as shaktipat or the bestowal of grace upon a follower; usually a new follower. Michael is not a new follower, but it’s his first experience of Jesus which is new, by the latter’s grace.
I guess I should mention my own experience of shaktipat for comparison. I meditated upon a spiritual figure in around 1974 who was new to me; let me call him Baba. (2) I’ll return to my reasons for not naming him in a minute.
He was one who was said to perform miracles. (I later saw him do some.)
In my meditation I cleaned my room in anticipation of a visit from Baba and, as I finished, a white car drove up outside and Baba exited from it.
As he stepped across my doorsill, everything disappeared and a face came scudding out of the distance towards me. When it hit my third eye, I went into bliss.
I went into the kitchen and told my girlfriend that something amazing had just happened to me. She said it must have been; go look. And when I looked in the mirror, my hair was standing on end.
I did not have notions in my mind at the time of spiritual awakening or stream-entering, but, in retrospect, I believe that’s what it was.
I did however recognize it as shaktipat, the bestowal of grace upon a new follower.
But the first perspective on Michael’s experience is the one I find more interesting now – that is, that it’s a fourth-chakra experience such as we’ll be having; in his case, the vision of one’s chosen ideal (Jesus), and the palpable feeling that he is around you.
This was a powerful experience, a totally new one for Michael. It opened spiritual doors, leading to a change of direction in his life and a new intensity of living, which is perhaps why Hindus would call it an awakening of the spirit (Hindu: spiritual awakening).
And it started a new phase in Michael’s life, one of much greater commitment and enthusiasm. He had entered the stream of enlightenment (Buddhist: stream-entering).
Shankara said of it that it changes one’s view of life from being in a courtroom to being in a gymnasium:
“Once we become conscious, even dimly, of the Atman [the Self, Christ], the Reality within us, the world takes on a very different aspect. It is no longer a court of justice but a kind of gymnasium.
“Good and evil, pain and pleasure still exist, but they seem more like the ropes and vaulting-horses and parallel bars which can be used to make our bodies strong. Maya [illusory life] is no longer an endlessly revolving wheel of pain and pleasure ,but a ladder which can be climbed to consciousness of the Reality.
“From this standpoint, fortune and misfortune are both ‘mercies’ — that is to say, opportunities. Every experience offers us the chance of making a constructive reaction to it — a reaction which helps to break some chain of our bondage to Maya [Illusion] and bring us that much nearer to spiritual freedom.” (3)
I totally agree with his description.
Hopefully this discussion helps you place Michael’s detailed description of a life-changing experience in the context of our own Ascension, as a temporary experience of the higher-dimensional river of love that will carry us into the higher realms.
Hopefully as well, it makes the experience familiar to you so it doesn’t shock and surprise you during the Ring of Fire.
Footnotes
(1) See The Ring of Fire, Wave of Love a https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Ring-of-Fire-Wave-of-Love-Compilation-9.pdf
(1) Because after 25 years of devotion to him (Sathya Sai Baba, not Shirdi Sai Baba), I heard the tragic news that he was a pedophile. I substantiated it from conversations with parents whose children he had molested, many of them being rewarded with positions in Baba’s organization for their silence. Archangel Michael also confirmed it.
AAM said that the first time it happened, the higher-dimensional avatar was shocked. The second time it happened, the avatar spirit left.
The human Sai Baba still retained his psychic abilities but the avatar spirit was gone, apparently. His pedophilia continued and got much worse, until in 2000 it could no longer be denied, swept under the carpet, or explained away.
(2) Shankara in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1975; c1947, 24.