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(Continued from prior post)
So, at my place, on what (to the best of my recollection) was a Friday night when all of my other housemates were gone for the weekend, my friend and I, along with another good friend, all dropped acid together.
Now here is where things got interesting...
At the very moment I started to feel the effects of the LSD kicking-in, the phone rang.
It was my dad calling to inform me that my (step) grandfather had died earlier that day.
My grandfather and grandmother (“Daddy Brown” and “Mama Stella”) lived in Tennessee in an extremely old and rustic farmhouse with no running water (just a well that you lowered a bucket into) and no sanitary plumbing (just an outhouse)...
...(we’re talking about the “Beverly Hillbillies” here - minus the discovery of oil and the move to Beverly Hills).
Their house was located in an isolated (neighborless) area amidst their chickens, and pigs, and cats, and vegetable gardens, and hills, and trees; all of which was situated in one of the greenest and most beautifully natural settings I have ever experienced.
Every summer throughout the 50’s and early 60’s, we (mom, dad, brother, sister, and I) would drive down from Michigan and spend a couple of weeks with them.
Anyway, I had never before been subjected to the death of a close family member, and after hearing the news of Daddy Brown’s passing...
(a strangely timed revelation, btw, as I was just launching-off into the nether-realms of a powerful psychedelic trip)
...I went back to my two fellow trippers and excused myself.
I then went downstairs into the dark living room/dining room area, and with a glass-enclosed candle in my hands, I began walking in a continuous circle around the inner-perimeter of the two adjoining rooms.
The LSD was now in full force.
As I gazed down at the floor, the acid was causing my now extremely vivid memories of the Tennessee farmhouse to be holographically projected outward to where it seemed as if I was literally walking on the grass of its front yard.
The powerful effect of the LSD was also causing the intensity of my grief to be severely amplified to an unbearable level to where I could no longer hold back my tears.
This went on for a lengthy period of time until I seemed to be prayerfully reaching-out to God for help in ending this ever-growing crescendo of emotional anguish.
Then suddenly, my attention was literally drawn upward toward where one of the walls meets the high ceiling; toward what seemed to be a
"window” that was slowly opening between our "normal" dimension of reality that I was used to experiencing up to that point, and that of a transcendent dimension of reality...
...(and I swear it was like some kind of Hollywood fantasy where light pours down from the heavens, accompanied with an angelic chorus of “aaaahhhh”).
And right at that moment, an absolute
“KNOWING” was imparted to me – a knowing that Daddy Brown was safe and
not actually dead.
(And no, that is not the "epiphany" that this thread is about, so just keep reading.)
It was right around that time when my two friends came looking for me in fear that I was having a "bad trip" and had “flipped-out” in some kind of mental breakdown from the acid.
However, quite the opposite had taken place, for I was in a state of spiritual ecstasy and utter amazement.
I did not explain to them what had just happened (for I wasn't sure myself), but they nevertheless were relieved to see that I was okay.
They then joined me in my circumambulation of the dining room/living room in a hilarious kind of New Orleans style of chanting and singing in celebration of Daddy Brown’s passing.
The rest of the night and on into the next day was filled with laughter,
extraordinary sensory enhancements, and a complete re-evaluation of the mundane earthly
"reality" I was so accustomed to
prior to that point.
Now I am fully aware of the fact that many will dismiss my "window" experience by attributing it to the effects of neural hormones flooding my brain and instigating the sense of peace and relief – all bolstered by the hallucinogenic effects of the LSD,...
...and, normally, that might be a logical assessment of what had happened to me.
However, that event was merely the beginning of a journey that in less than a year and a half later would lead to a full-blown (one-on-one) encounter with God.
(Continued in next post)
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