Oct 20
29
In The Beginning (20)
TEN
“Tell us what Brad Cullen is like in person, Jeanne,” Walt finally broke the silence. I’ve written him once or twice because of things he said on his website and the personal responses he sent back were incisive and to the point. Jan has written him several times and he always responds with spiritual sensitivity, does that come through from him in person?”
“Walt, that is so funny! I’ve never met the man in person – we are scheduled to meet next week over on the Big Island to begin working on a second interview for which we have already been offered a contract and a book deal from a publisher. That is, of course, exciting to me also, after all these years. .I conducted the first interview, via e-mail exchanges; this one will be a collaborative process with Brad in person.
“I was just back in Jacksonville thinking I’d meet Brad there and we didn’t connect because he made an unexpected trip to Toronto on business. I had to leave Jacksonville several days ahead of what I had originally planned, the day before he returned. The only way I know Brad Cullen is the same way you know him …by what he writes.
“Now here’s what is strange. I have been more excited about the five of us getting together tonight than I have been about the writing project or finally meeting Brad in person. The reason being is that our meeting here tonight …and Jeff and Rob, I believe, will verify that this has been confirmed prophetically, so to speak – and I don’t think I’ve ever used the word, ‘prophetically’ before in my life, but what Spirit has shown me clearly is that tonight is the beginning of something that is going to spread throughout the world.
“Brad’s and my writing will fit in somehow, but this, right here and now, between the five of us is just the beginning …the core beginning. Does that make sense to everyone else as much as it does to me?”
“You said that Rob and I would confirm it, Jeanne,” Jeff said while looking briefly at Rob for confirmation and she nodded her agreement. “The four of us have never talked about what the broader ramifications may be; how we’ve been led out of organized Christianity to embrace the Spirit as our only Leader and Teacher. It was Walt and Jan who introduced us to the Baptism of Spirit and the deeper meaning over and above what our church experience previous to that had been. I told you on the plane how it was also these two,” Jeff waved his hand toward Jan and Walt, “who introduced us to the manuscript you compiled from interviewing Brad. And look at what his writings have opened up for us, particularly his emphasis on not putting any weight to what he is saying, but to go directly to our SPIRIT-PARENT for guidance.”
Jeff’s words led to a long and meaningful conversation about what we felt we collectively agreed upon and jointly understood. All in all it was quite productive and helped us to bond in our sense of unity and oneness.
One interesting thing to me was a question raised by Jan. She asked if I had read Brad’s novel also titled Leapfrog, recently published by Ryan Bruce. Ryan made it available to freely download from the website he had developed.
I admitted that I hadn’t read the novel and asked them all if they felt I should. They all agreed that it was an imperative for me and, while Brad admitted that it was fiction, he had also stated that it was based on real life events. Rob added, “From what Jeff got out of your and his conversation on the plane, some of the characters in the book, as well as the building, also mentioned in the novel, are actually in Jacksonville. Having all of those things in your mind will help facilitate the new book being a sequel to Brad’s first one; you know …if that seems important to you.”
I silently asked Spirit and got a definite “yes” that it was very important and shared that with them. Jeff and Rob told me they had two “shelf copies” of the novel from the publisher and if I’d prefer reading it from a book rather than on-line they’d give me one of them. I told them all that I would begin reading in bed that night and that I knew it was very important to do so, even if I didn’t fully understand all the reason for it being so important as yet.
______
We were finished eating and still at the dining table drinking coffee after what was a totally comfortable and relaxing conversation over our meal. These people were so easy to be with and I was feeling a sense of oneness and unity with them that I simply couldn’t and still can’t describe.
“You know, Jeanne, I would really like your take on something,” Walt began. “I am very careful about handing out the Leapfrog Manuscript and I never do so unless Spirit prepares the way and almost hits me over the head that the person is ready for it. Each person to whom I have given it has eventually fully embraced what Brad and you had to say – a few have taken a bit longer …some have said they thought their hesitation might be because it took them awhile to get past Brad’s total non-judgment of homosexuals; with others it was his seeming relaxed attitude toward abortion and/or reincarnation …and then the names ‘Sunno’ and ‘Novi,’ were a real stumbling block to some …all of these things were initially bothersome to more than a few people.
“Each person who has read Leapfrog has had what might be called a change of heart. Bruce Ryan, the Canadian publisher, refers to these spiritual sensations as the “Leapfrog experience”. It is an awareness of the presence and power of I AM; going through a variation of the same steps you described in the manuscript that brought you to that awareness.”
“That raises all sorts of questions in my mind …and good ones I think, Walt,” I responded, “I did hear Ryan say something like that on one of what he refers to as ‘podcasts,’ you know, those recorded website telephone interviews he did with Brad. If I remember correctly, I thought he was specifically referring to the need to read Brad’s novel as a means to have the Leapfrog experience …is that how you remember it?”
It turned out that none of the other four remembered either the particular podcast to which I was referring nor did they recall Leapfrog to be “required” reading as a means to get to the “Leapfrog awareness”. I did know it was imperative that I read it and right away.
“So then,” Jeff summed it up perfectly, “it sounds to me almost as if we need to have a definition of terms before we can even have a productive conversation among the five of us. It seems to me like we need some sort of system of thought and means of communicating some of these things.”
“That was one of the questions that was raised for me,” I interrupted, “is that what you are saying, Walt?”
“In one way yes, but in another way no, Jeanne; your breakthrough into an awareness of another dimension …which, for just a moment, let’s call ‘spiritual,’ started with an idea to write a series of articles about alternative religious experience and your own dissatisfaction with any previous church attendance, am I stating it correctly?”
“At that time, my writing career consisted of finding a topic I thought might find an audience in one of the magazines that sometimes carried my articles. I then interviewed a variety of people and developed the interviews to the point of a series that one of the magazines would run with. So, I looked at it, at the time, as a grand coincidence that this man and I should meet with the recommendation that I interview Brad Cullen on the same day, the same time I got the idea of doing a series on religion. None of this had ever occurred to me.
“Following through with that thought, it was the name of Brad Cullen that turned Jeff’s mild interest in what this old biddy had to say on the plane into an explosion of intense conversation. He wanted to tell me about the changes wrought in his and Rob’s lives through Jan and you as introduced in the Leapfrog Manuscript. All of the above I wouldn’t begin to call a coincidence, but rather an ordered plan of the SOURCE – are the four of you in accord with my synopsis so far?
“Oh, wait a minute, let me add one other piece to the puzzle,” I continued, “Sid Wilmot, the owner of Destiny, who is not merely Jewish from an ethnicity standpoint, but has practiced Judaism all his life and quite strictly, you know the hand washing, dietary laws and keeping the Sabbath …all that. Sid has read the first Leapfrog Manuscript even though it has never been officially published, other than as an appendix and, apparently referred to several times in Brad’s novel.
“Sid’s Editor-in-Chief, Al Edmund, attends a Church of Christ, Scientist, Church and is a rather avid follower and advocate of anything and everything that Mary Baker Eddy wrote. Both of these men think the original manuscript from the interview I did of Brad should be published as a part 1 of a 2 part Leapfrog Manuscript which they have suggested become a part of a sequel to the original Leapfrog Novel. Sid called the manuscript an important work and says that it needs to be distributed world-wide in as many languages as possible, Al wrote me saying this was the reason Sid was making such a generous book offer – and I have to tell you that it is the best royalty and advance offer I have ever seen from any publisher.
“When I asked SPIRIT about it, what I got was that there were to be some significant changes in both the publisher and his Chief Editor, Al Edmund.”
I heard, “NOW!” …and exclaimed, “Oh yes!” The four of them looked at me expectantly. “I was just given the okay to share something,” I began, “…and it is part of the same puzzle piece. When I checked my e-mail, right after we got here from the airport, Brad had sent me a quick note and I was excited about coming right out and sharing it with Jeff and Rob, but Spirit said not then and I forgot all about it until I just heard a loud ‘NOW!’
“The group back in Florida met last night and through a tongue and interpretation received the word that Brad was to come to Hawaii to work with me for the next twelve months. And Sid Wilmot and Al Edmund would not only be coming out of the practice of their respective religions, but they would also embrace Jesus as their Elder Brother. This was not a repudiation of either Judaism or Christian Science; they were simply coming into an intimate relationship with I AM and an awareness of the presence and power of our SPIRIT-PARENT.”
Walt held up his hand to signal he was getting something to share. He looked up and off to the right a bit: “I am seeing a huge wall made of large concrete blocks and each block has inscribed on it the name of every religion we’ve ever heard of; this is the wall that surrounds an inner garden that keeps the adherents of each of those religions from entering this garden which is shrouded in a brilliant, soft, shimmering golden mist – ah, now I am seeing the wall crumble and millions of people are coming into the garden and being restored and becoming one with SPIRIT. Each of them dissolving and becoming an integral part of the mist – this is what is beginning right here tonight.
“We are being transformed and translated into the beginning of what SPIRIT alone will do. We will no longer just be aware; we are one and need not attempt …and, in fact, must not attempt to convince anyone. They are being brought into oneness directly by I AM and Jeanne is being prepared as MY vessel to return and prepare for her mission.”
The vision and prophetic utterance, that had just over-taken Walt, caused a contemplative interlude which seemed perfect as we all sat there in stunned silence for several minutes.
Jan finally broke the silence. “I was in the middle of thinking and wondering something and our SPIRIT-PARENT just told me to share it. Jeanne, one of the many reasons it is imperative for you to read Brad’s novel, Leapfrog, is that Darlene Adams’ experience mirrors your own. You asked Brad, in the original interview, if speaking in a language that you hadn’t learned was an important part of the process of breaking through into what we now refer to as the ‘I AM awareness’. Darlene first had an assurance that she had indeed been baptized into the presence and power of our SPIRIT-PARENT before she acquired what she refers to in the novel as the special language she received with which to converse with her Friend, as she put it, our SPIRIT-PARENT. This brings me to what I was just thinking about and received the go ahead to share right now.
“The point of Brad using the term Leapfrog had to do with linear and sequential thinking. The writing of the manuscript caused you, in Brad’s mind, to leap frog over his head in certain spiritual frames of thinking and his statement to the effect… there is no seniority in the realm of SPIRIT.”
“Yes, seniority,” Walt interjected, “your writing of the original manuscript was in the year 2000. I first read it about eight years after you wrote it, Jeanne. In that sense you have “spiritual seniority,” but I received a baptism of the Spirit with the so-called evidence of speaking in other tongues after attending a Full Gospel business lunch almost twenty years ago …before Jan and I bought our first store. We were attending a little non-denominational church near where we lived, in Hawaii-Kai, at the time.
“Jan saw the huge change in me, and became very, how would you say it, Jan… hungry?”
“You guys wouldn’t believe the changes that had come over Walt …at peace, and a sense of spiritual purpose – whatever it was that had happened to him, I wanted it! He told me how it happened and bought me a copy of the book that was co-authored by John and Elizabeth Sherrill with David Wilkerson titled The Cross and the Switchblade. That really cinched it for me. Then I got the book John Sherrill wrote, “They Speak with Other Tongues,” from which I guess you could say I learned how to seek the experience for myself – I’m sorry I shouldn’t have gone on so long” – Jan stopped abruptly, and looked at Walt and simply gave a miniscule shake of her head and said: “Continue . . .”
“Well, anyway,” Walt hesitated and closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them again. “Jan and I both made the mistake of sharing our experience with some of the people at the church there in Hawaii Kai and basically we were asked to leave – somewhat a parallel experience to what Jack and Darlene and their kids experienced in Brad’s novel, although theirs came as a result of talking about demons… more why I think it is important for you to read the novel, Jeanne.
“At any rate,” Walt continued, “I told the produce manager at the store in which I was working at the time and he was the one who had invited me to that Full Gospel luncheon and I told him about being asked to leave our church and why. He recommended a little Pentecostal church in Waimanalo which he told me would be supportive of our experience. Jan and I visited and felt comfortable there and even invited these guys,” moving his hand to indicate he was referring to Jeff and Rob.
“Jim Fukushima, that produce manager, called me, I think it was in 2007, and asked me for my e-mail address. I hadn’t heard from Jim since Jan and I bought our first store in 1994. I asked him what was up, and he said he’d been praying that morning about something and my name came into his consciousness. What he e-mailed me was your manuscript Jeanne. Here’s what I mean about seniority. I printed out the manuscript and asked Jan to read it. She started with the knocking and demanding until, just like you, she had sore knuckles. She broke through long before I did in hearing Spirit directly.”
My eyes strayed over to Jan to see how she was reacting to the story (she didn’t show any) and then Rob and Jeff who later explained that they had never heard this particular story before.
“So,” Walt continues, “we have seniority …first you then us, but the thing that intrigued me about Brad Cullen is that he insisted to you during your interview that there is no such thing as seniority in the Spirit realm. Both he and that Canadian publisher insist that people not get hung up on their experiences or what either of them say, but everyone needs to go directly to SPIRIT for guidance and in that sense we can and should by-pass all human leadership. Now, I am sorry that I went on and on so long.”
“Well I’m not sorry that either of you told this story. It confirms in me what you’ve all been saying about the need for me to read the novel Leapfrog. Now then, as wonderful as this time has been together and it is to be continued, I believe shortly after Brad arrives, we’ll either be coming over here …I’m just seeing a picture of the six of us sitting around at the pool at Sid’s retreat, being instructed by SPIRIT as to what is next. Is that possible? There are five bungalows over there that will more than accommodate all of us …”
Roberta spoke up and said, “I see both happening; the four of us coming over there and then, in about three weeks, you and Brad will be coming here to stay down in Kailua at Jan and Walt’s home.”
“That is exactly what I am seeing,” Jan exclaimed and Walt sat nodding his head with a knowing smile.
“Wait a minute,” I said, “do you have a place over on the Big Island too?”
They explained that I was thinking Kailua-Kona and their home was about ten minutes away from Jeff and Roberta’s and right on the beach at Kailua Bay about half way toward Waimanalo town – “Yeah,” Jeff said, wait till you see the mansion they live in, but now, Jeanne, I’m supposed to get you one of our copies of Leapfrog and you are supposed to get started reading it; Rob is supposed to take you to the airport in the morning. We are evicting you and that is what you had started to say, you need to get to work, am I right or wrong?”
“Well, it seems as though Spirit has given us a plan …first the six of us will be meeting over on the Big Island, probably the week end after this one coming up? – ah, Spirit will show you when and I will pick you up at the airport. Apparently in a week or two after that you will return the favor and pick Brad and me up at Honolulu International, right?”
Jan said that is exactly what she was seeing. Walt added, with a puzzled look on his face that Jim Fukushima (the produce manager with whom he worked so many years earlier) was to re-enter his life and become an integral part of whatever “SPIRIT was leading us into.”
Rob said laughingly that I was to get to bed and begin my reading assignment and that she would take care of making my reservations back to Kona. Each of the four hugged me good night, and I have never in my whole life experienced such love and closeness with other human beings.