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Click on image credit links below each photo, for licensing names, details, tags, etc.. Most images cropped/reduced in size

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Ever had a “Vacation From Hell”?

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Well…I think this one might just out-do yours!

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Because…well…just read the next few chapters, and decide for yourself…

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The Scream of Nature – Wikipedia – US Public Domain

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ESCAPING THE IRON CITADEL OF ATHEISM

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So now it was February, as I recall. And it was about 120 or so days after being “tossed out on my ear” from that sad and hopeless, “Iron-Citadel”, commonly referred to as “Atheism”.

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Such a dreadfully depressing ideology! And it eventually drowns its captives in hopeless despair, “who, through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Hebrews 2:15

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Oh yes, the proponents and hucksters of atheism promise freedom for all who join their ideology. But truth-be-told, if you happen to be a thoughtful and sensitive individual, you eventually realize that atheism only gets more distressing, increasingly hopeless, and really depressing, the older you become!

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And those who live under atheism’s cruel tyranny, like I did, often resort to drinking ourselves into a temporary state of blurry-eyed blissfulness (or perhaps drugging themselves, which was not my chosen means of escape), all in attempt to forget about that eventual, “date-with-fate” and our inescapable, “appointment with The Grim Reaper”! (My means of escape was mostly with a little bourbon/cigarettes/television. And also, of course, managing an all-you-can-eat buffet often allows incredible middle-of-the-night “refrigerator raids”!)

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Atheism – Descent of the Modernists, E J Pace, Christian Cartoons, 1922 – Wikipedia –

Weird Tales – Grim Reaper – The Man Who Lived – Wikimedia – Public Domain (2)

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“THE BIGGEST FOOL TO NEVER HIT THE BIG-TIMES!”

(Word-play on lyrics from the 1963 Buck Owens song “Act Naturally”, changing “ever” to “never”)

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But now I was being given, not only songs from the spirit, but also being told a very glorious narrative on just how greatly God was going to bless me in the music world, which industry, by the way, was largely controlled by God Himself! WOW!!!

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Oh, to think that a short time ago I was being mercilessly tormented in a mental ward by demons, swan-diving onto a hard floor, falling onto sharp objects, and going in and out of hellish illusions and devilish delusions!

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And now…BUT NOW…instead, I was being told just the opposite! I was informed that I was soon to find fame and fortune in the L.A. music scene!

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And if that’s not enough, I was JESUS…in a former life!

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This might possibly make that classic, “rags-to-riches” story about the “Count of Monte Cristo”, look like a mere, “50-cent-burger-joint-pay-raise”!

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Ah yes, this was the turn-about of all turn-abouts! This was the lottery ticket of all lottery tickets! 

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This was…uh…it was….sufficed to say, “My prospects for the future were looking much better, thank-you.”

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

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THE BIG TUMBLE!

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But little did I know, nor suspect, that I was once again to be the “butt-end of a cruel joke” by the spirits.

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Little did I realize or was aware, that I was unwittingly being set up like a “bowling pin” by “Team-Lucifer”, only to knock me down flat, for a strike at the “Unlucky-Lanes Bowling Alley”! 

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And these super-intelligentsia (who, by the way, were extremely cunning beings), were gonna take me up to the very top of the tallest temple in Belize…That infamous Jaguar Temple, only to kick me down, down, down… about a couple hundred very steep steps…down onto my head!

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And then thrust me back down into the open-arms of Hell’s awaiting flaming-furnace-inferno, once again!

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Temple of the Great Jaguar Temple – by Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada – for wikimedia – share-alike license

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But let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

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Let’s leave TIKAL for now, and back up a month or two; back to that day in February, 1980, in Klamath Falls, when a very special person walked into my life…

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CHAPTER 21:

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“VACATION FROM (or rather, ‘IN’) HELL”

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“ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT AND I AIN’T GOT NOBODY! (except for the spirits, that is!)”

(First line from the 1964 Sam Cooke hit song, “Another Saturday Night” with parenthetical comment by this website)

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Well, there I was! In a nice little home, all tucked away in a beautiful little woodsy neighborhood in the hills around Klamath Falls.

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No longer was I being terrified with the prospects of being cut up into little pieces! No more was I scorched with the eternal sentence of being, “tormented with fire and brimstone”, for all time and eternity by an angry God!

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And so, it’s not hard to imagine that I was beginning to get lonely, especially after getting dumped by my ex-girlfriend, just prior to when “all Hell broke loose” on my life (actually, I believe she was providentially taken away, to spare her from having to deal with what I was soon to be suffering back in that Unit 3600).

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Oh yes, I had the spirit. And he (or they), was constantly communicating with me!

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Nevertheless, I felt I needed companionship…human companionship! Female companionship!

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And so, I began to pray that God might bring someone into my life. “Oh God, please bring me someone!”

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

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ENTER THE LOVE INTEREST…

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Well, one day, not too long after I began praying about this, the phone rang…

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“Hello?”  

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There was a female voice on the other end of the phone line. But because of her heavy accent (and her obvious shyness and nervousness), I had trouble understanding what she was saying. Something about singing for someone’s wedding. Finally, after asking her to repeat herself a number of times, I figured out that she wanted to hire me to sing at a family member’s wedding.

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Of course, I said, “Okay”.

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PROBLEMS SOLVED

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I’m not quite sure what happened, but before I knew it, this very pretty lady was bringing pots and pans over to my house, and cooking absolutely great Spanish-style food.

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And so ended my loneliness issues.

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One less thing!

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And now I also had someone to sing my songs to. And she was convinced I was going places with my music! And so ended my lack of an appreciative audience.

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Two less things!

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THE LAND OF ETERNAL SPRING?

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And before I knew it, we were planning a trip to her beautiful little country of Guatemala, which borders southern Mexico and Belize. The trip was to last 30 days. This was in February. And the trip was planned for…I can’t really recall…I’m gonna say…in May. Yeah, I think we left in May till June, 30 days. So now I could take a well-deserved “R & R” away from the horrible, horrible, torment I went through up there in Unit 3600!

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Three less things?!

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“IT AIN’T HEAVY…IT’S MY PENNANCE!”…

(Word-play on the 1969 Holies hit-song, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother“)

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When the big day came for us to leave, Becky had managed to fill a large old Army-issue duffel bag with used clothes to take to the people in her father’s church in Guatemala. Her father was a pastor of a Church of God, a somewhat Pentecostal church in Guatemala City. I didn’t know that this heavy bag would have to be dragged for miles…by me!

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The old Army-green bag seemed 4 or 5 feet tall, and as much as maybe 30 inches wide. Well, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Anyway, it was extremely heavy and just as awkward! I couldn’t believe how many clothes she got into that bag! We couldn’t even cinch up the top of the bag for all the tightly packed clothes.

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But bringing clothes to people in need was a good deed! Right? Right! And considering all the condemnation I had gone through for the last 7 months, I figured any check-marks in my plus-column couldn’t do me no harm! So I cheerfully pulled this bag along. Not a problem! “No…thanks, but I can do it myself!”

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And anyway, it beats playing organ in Hell! Correct? (see Chapter 15, almost the bottom of that page for explanation)

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

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“THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT !”

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During this time of getting to know Becky, the spirit was still communing with me. And so, at various times my head would nod “yes” or “no”, or rolling my eyes, or even rolling my whole head (Well, I guess that I’ve already mentioned this phenomenon in one of the previous chapters.) But anyway, I tried as hard as I could to suppress this phenomenon. But I couldn’t stop it! I’m not sure whether Becky noticed it or not, but she made no comment about it (But even though it was probably not even a tiny bit noticeable to others, I could really feel him make my head nod, making me apprehensive when in their company.)

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And to add to this really annoying phenomenon, the spirit would sometimes use my head to make his own commentary on what Becky was saying. So he would involuntarily roll my head in a circular motion (ever-so-slightly, remember), as if to say he was challenging the veracity of what she was saying. You know, kind-of like when rolling one’s eyes in doubt, at something someone is saying. Only he was doing it… not me! And sometimes I could just barely keep from laughing, because the spirit would make me laugh with his incredible sense of humor!

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“THANK YOU…THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!”

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The spirit gave me a song one day when Becky was visiting me. The song came all of a sudden. Just spontaneously. Oh yes, it was a simple song. I suppose it’s not too much to expect that a musician could easily do this. But anyway, here it is…

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When I look into your eyes, I find myself in love—-

And when I look into your eyes, I find myself in love—

Hold me close…hold me tight…always stay with me.

Hold me close…hold me tight…say you’ll stay by me.

When I… etc, etc…

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It was a nice little song, but bothered me because it vaguely reminded me of that old Presley song, “Love Me Tender”, (same tempo, but somewhat different chords and melody).

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THE VACATION FROM HELL

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(or should I rather say, “in Hell”?)…

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DOUBLE PENNANCE POINTS…

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And soon came the day to depart for Guatemala. From Reno Nevada to Miami Florida. Then from Miami Florida to Guatemala City, Guatemala. And oh yes, me dragging that large, clumsy, and very heavy duffel bag through the concourse of both airports. But my “heavenly brownie points” were adding up fast (or so I surmised), with every huff and every puff I made.  There went me… facing backwards…pulling this Army-issue monstrosity through the airports, and Becky leading the way!

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Photo: jetliner – Wikipedia – public domain.

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NEW REVELATION…

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The spirit soon began something very new with me. This fresh new insinuation began like this… “Oh Chuckie-Me-Schmucky, have you ever considered that maybe…just maybe you weren’t Jesus Christ in a former life?”

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The spirit now had my full and undivided attention at this point… “I thought that might get your attention, Me-Chucko.”

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I was now getting really afraid. The needle on my terror-meter was now hitting a solid 10 out of 10! The spirit was being very threatening with these kinds of taunts… “Did you ever consider that you might not be Jesus after all? Did you ever consider that you might have been somebody else in a former life? Somebody such as…say…like…uh…Adolph…uh… Hitler?”

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Okay, I was now in full-throttled fear at this new allegation via my spirit “friend”.

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Anyway, this suggestive torment (or maybe I should say, ‘torment-via-accusations’) lasted through most of the plane trip with me sinking lower and lower into my seat (or I might better say, “sinking into my hot-seat“).

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Adolph Hitler – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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PREPARE FOR ROUGH LANDING…

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But finally, many of the passengers no doubt looked intensely out their window to get their first glimpse of Guatemala. And we buckled our seat belts to get ready for landing (And I buckled my “mental seat belt”, to get ready for what I feared to be, the ultimate “Vacation From Hell”: or better said, my, “Vacation IN Hell”, in spite of the fact that we were going to such a beautiful little tropical country.)

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Photo of Hitler courtesy Wikipedia. Public domain.

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“ ONE PERSON’S PARADISE IS ANOTHER PERSON’S PURGATORY”

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We arrived in Guatemala City in the afternoon. We somehow found a municipal bus to take to her parent’s house.

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I don’t know how I got the duffel bag on this crowded bus. But I must have… somehow.

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And in a few moments, we were rolling through the crowded streets of that great place…Guatemala City!

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Guatemala the land of Eternal Spring!

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But for me, it would be the land of ETERNAL TORMENT!

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Photo: Guatemala birds eye view – Wikipedia – public domain.

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“A MOTHER & CHILD REUNION”

(Title of the 2009 song by Paul Simon)

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I remember that we were standing up on the packed bus. I don’t know. Maybe we were sitting down. No, standing as I recall, holding on tight to the vertical hand-rails, as the bus kept stopping to let passengers on and off.

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While at one stop, as new passengers got on, all of a sudden, Becky cries out, “Mamasita! Mamasita!” I was startled. I looked to see who this person was.  It was a somewhat middle-aged lady. The woman began politely (but excitedly) hurrying her way through the crowded bus to get to Becky. Obviously it was Becky’s Mother. The lady began crying and hugging Becky. (Wow! I’m a little teary-eyed right now, just recalling that joyful reunion!)

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Transmetro Guatemalan bus – Wikimedia – share-alike license

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TRIPLE OR EVEN QUADRUPLE HEAVENLY PENANCE POINTS !!!!…

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We got off the bus. I managed to get the duffel bag off the bus, still hoping for some more heavenly penance points for my efforts. Still being taunted by the spirit as to just, “Who I was in a former life”.

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After getting off, we began walking through this older neighborhood toward Becky’s parent’s home. I can’t remember how I managed to get that duffel bag down the rough sidewalks. I don’t know. Maybe someone helped me (at least the airports had smooth floors! And actually, I probably used a cart through those places, now that I think of it). But at this point, the duffel bag was “light duty”, compared to the heavy burden this spirit was now laying on my shoulders, about me “maybe” being Hitler in a former life.

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Photo of Guatemala City – courtesy wikipedia – share alike license. Click here for link.

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“DORCAS NO HABLARA CON EL GRINGO’”…

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We soon arrived at the home. It was an older town house in a humble, but fairly nice Guatemalan neighborhood in which each house was about 25 or 30 feet wide, and somewhat long, eventually leading out to small backyards. And each house adjoined one-other. Kind of “shotgun style” floor plans, if you’re familiar with those types. Long and narrow houses with a hallway down the middle. But this townhouse had an open-air foyer inside the front door (of course, the temperature never much fluctuated here, so an open air foyer works in Guatemala. They sure wouldn’t work back in K. Falls!). This foyer had plants (photo on left). And there was a big parrot named “Dorcas” in the foyer.

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And this large flower-laden foyer with a big parrot perched in the middle, made for a dramatic entry. They first introduced me to Dorcas, and tried to get him to talk. But Dorcas was being shy. No talking from Dorcas! This shy parrot was not in a cage. He was just sitting on a perch in the garden-like foyer. Pretty cool! 

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But Dorcas was determined to give me no greeting, try as we did to encourage him to do just that (however, little did I know that this now speechless parrot would give me a very loud, vocal farewell on the day of my departure!)

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(Parrot photo courtesy Brian Snelson for Wikipedia. For Brian’s link, just click here.)

Photo on left of foyer. Photo is greatly damaged.

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PAPA FELIX

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Now as far as being shy and not talking, Becky’s father was a different story. I met Becky’s family, and Becky had to translate for me and for them. Her brothers spoke fluent English, however. Her family was very gracious. Her father (“Papa”) however, was a Pentecostal pastor, and very serious-looking. Not that he was ill-tempered. But he was much too stern-looking for me. He made me somewhat really uncomfortable. Kind-of like, say, for example, my old high school vice-principal, an ex-marine with a crew-cut…Mr. Edigar (who btw, one day, picked me up by my shirt and held me up against my locker, and asked me, “Don’t you think your hair is getting a little too long?”, to which I no doubt answered, “Uh, yeah, I guess so”).

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There are just some people who make ya wanna do a wide swath in order to avoid them. 

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Oh it’s not that Papa was impolite. But what did I expect? After all, I was a perspective son-in-law, who, by the way, was going on a vacation with his daughter! Totally unbiblical! But I was oblivious to all these things. “ethically challenged”, someone might euphemistically put it. Perhaps “morally clueless” might be an even more accurate assessment. Actually, “A full-blown idiot” probably hits the proverbial “nail on the head”!

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“AIN’T GOT NO CIGARETTES!”…

(Lyric from the 1965 Roger Miller song “King of the Road”)

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Now I was a heavy smoker, and I apologized for my habit. I told them I would like to quit. I told them that I was hoping the Lord would help me quit.

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Becky’s dad instantly latched on to that comment! He told me that the Lord could help me RIGHT NOW! “Uh…uh…Yeah…uh..I guess so”, I said.

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“Drats!” I knew I had been caught in my words! And before I could get another word out, he began to pray for me right then and there (not more than few minutes into our arrival!). I couldn’t understand what he was saying in his prayer for my smoking. But even though he spoke in Spanish, I nevertheless could tell he was a “professional pray-er”!

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And so, after the short prayer, I was asked to forfeit my cigarettes. I suppose I reluctantly forfeited my pack of Marlboros (I had extra packs in my suitcase).

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Marlboro – Wikipedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

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“SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME”…

(1926 song composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin)

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But soon I wanted a cigarette. So I went into my newly-assigned bedroom and smoked (Remember this was back in 1980. Attitudes have changed since then about smoking indoors).

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Now, this bedroom only had one window. And this window was close to the ceiling. Outside the window was a stairway which led to the roof (which roof also served as a patio). And before long, Becky’s Dad climbed the stairway and peeked through the window to see if I was smoking. So I just held my cigarette by my side whenever he peeked in at me. This went on each time I smoked a cigarette. And he would peek at me three or four times each cigarette. I got used to it. It was actually kind-of funny and cute. I would see this head slowly rise up and look at me. I would simply hold my cigarette down until his head disappeared. Then about 30 seconds later his head would slowly re-emerge in the window. This went on for, oh, I don’t know how long. But Papa was no fool! He knew!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Marlboro – Wikipedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

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“OKAY…WARM COLA I CAN DEAL WITH…BUT THIS!!!…”

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As with many smokers, I liked to drink cola when I smoked. So after a few days, upon running out of American smokes, I found a little neighborhood quick-mart. Actually it was just a little wooden shed that faced the sidewalk. It was like a hot-dog stand you might see at a carnival, only more primitive. Anyway, they sold my brand of cigarettes and Coca Cola in small bottles. The cola was warm, however, and I, being a spoiled Americano, had to suffer this inconvenience.

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But the cigarettes? No! They were NOT tolerable!

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Even though they had my brand, they were specially made differently for Guatemalans. They were like puffing on a pencil! “NO TASTE!”

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Coca Cola ad – ca. 1943 – Wikipedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Photos of Marlboro logo and Coke glass – Wikipedia – public domain.

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“TEN DOLLARS FOR A CARTON OF CIGARETTES!?! YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING!?!”…

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So it wasn’t too long till I asked Becky if there might be somewhere we could get American cigarettes. So we took buses into the city. And this trip for cigarettes turned into a great sight-seeing tour through Guatemala City.

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We came to the city center, and found an import-shop in the nicer section of the metro area. They had my brand! “Far out!” So I went to pay for a carton. But I couldn’t believe what they wanted for a carton of Marlboro’s. “Ten dollars?!” I said. “What a rip-off!”  This was about two or three times what I paid for a carton of Marlboro’s back in the U.S. (remember, this was 1980). But I knew I was stuck.

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So I reluctantly paid the ten dollars for each carton. (I won’t let this little story end without telling you about my bout with Emphysema. Emphysema is appropriately nick-named the “Living Hell”. This was how God finally cured me of smoking.)

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Photo of Guatemala City post office – courtesy wikipedia – public domain.

Street fair wikipedia & Elvind share-alike license.

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“TO BE OR NOT TO BE (ADOLPH)?”

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“THAT IS THE QUESTION!”

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We managed to rent or borrow a little car, a little old “Hillman” station-wagon (a station-wagon was the old-school forerunner of the SUV). And so began a tour through Guatemala City. We went to a giant street-market. We went to restaurants. We bought tostadas from street-vendors. This all would’ve been great, except for the spirit’s insinuations regarding my “past life” as Adolph. Or not Adolph. The spirit would constantly taunt me. Sometimes he would present me with evidence that would lead to the conclusion that I was Jesus in a former life.

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I remember going to a restaurant one evening (while under a heavy barrage of devilish taunts, assaults and condemnations), where a marimba ensemble was playing in this rather overdone, flower-laden but dark establishment. The whole scenario began to take on a really devilish aura to it! And the very adept marimba player began sounding really evil, playing satanic music like something skeletons might like to dance to! You know, kind-of like the theme music-intro to Alfred Hitchcock’s old TV show, if you’re old enough to remember that.

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As I recall, that entire dinner experience seemed as if I was in the pit of Hell!

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At other times he would present evidence that suggested that I was indeed Adolph. “Yes Adol…I’m mean, Chuck, you were born in 1950, Just a few years after Adolph died. Did you ever think that maybe God is bringing you back to pay for the 3 million Jews that you killed. If you were Adolph Hitler. But I’m not saying you were. I’m just supposin’.” So you can just imagine how these kinds of ominous and foreboding taunts made miserable, what should have been a wonderful vacation! This kept up pretty much day and night! Life was Hell on Earth! Literally! It was like finding out that you had a terminal illness, and only had a few weeks to live!

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“…and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name.” Revelation 14:11

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As this above verse reveals, “no rest, day nor night” was the fate which I was now suffering!

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Sometimes however, the spirit would show his sense of humor. Really funny stuff! But these were greatly outnumbered by the constant barrage of attacks he was making concerning my being Adolph Hitler in my last life. “Now suppose, just suppose what kind of  punishment which you, or should I rather say, Adolph would deserve, for those 3 million Jews you/he killed. I suppose, Chuck, that God would have to bring you back three million times only to suffer three million horrible deaths. Just like Adolph made three million Jews to suffer.” With every new charge the spirit made, I sank lower and deeper into despair.

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Hitler-car – wikipedia – public domain

Adolph Hitler – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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THE SIGHT-SEEING TOUR OF ANTIGUA…

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Becky had an itinerary worked out for me to see her country.

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We drove to a town called Antigua one day. It was an old town, the original capital of Guatemala.

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Antiqua!

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A town rich with history!

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A city of quaint beauty!

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A place of historic intrigue!

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A town that might sprain the trigger-happy finger of any photo-snapping tourista!

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And we were gonna see it close up!

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But little did I know that the only thing that was gonna get “sprained” on this little excursion was MY POOR LITTLE BRAIN!

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Antigua guatemala_- 2009 – by chensiyuan for wikipedia – share-alike license. Click here for link.

Antigua, Guatemala – by Pedro Szekely from USA for Wikipedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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C.I.A. SERENADE FOR MANUEL…

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OR…

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“HEY, WHY DON’T YA PLAY, ANOTHER SOMEBODY DONE SOMEBODY WRONG SONG?”

(line from the 1975 B.J. Thomas song of the same name)

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Do you remember that famous South American drug-lord…Manuel Noriega? Remember how, like the CIA had him trapped in some strong-hold? And in order to get him to surrender, they began playing loud and blaring non-stop heavy-metal, or perhaps some other kind of music as well? And eventually he did surrender.

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He probably couldn’t take hearing any more of that Heavy-Metal “music”!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Photo of Manuel Noreiga – Wikipedia – Public domain.

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“EVERYBODY’S TALKIN’ AT ME…ONLY THE ECHOES OF MY MIND”…

(line from the 1968, Nillson song, “Everybody’s Talkin'”)

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Well, I soon found out that the spirit had a similar little serenade planned for me! This was truly an unforgettable day! The entire day, the spirit (or spirits?) were making all sorts of noises in my head. It sounded like bombs exploding, screams, sirens, bells, whistles, chipmunks singing in 3-part harmony, etc…! You name it! I heard it!

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This went on for the entire tour through Antigua. All the while, Becky led me to various sightseeing destinations there in Antigua.  We went to an ancient church that was some sort of museum. It maybe even had a dead person, a cardinal or someone like a cardinal. He was enclosed in glass. Embalmed I think! Why, I know not?

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Anyway, it was impossible for me to enjoy this tour. My head had become a veritable “torture chamber”! The spirit(s) could quickly drive any person to suicide with these torturous plague of noises, especially if the person didn’t know the source of such noises!

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But I knew.

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And yet, when we returned home that evening, the sounds went away. And I’ve never had that phenomenon occur since, to this day. Thank God!

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Other phenomena? Oh yeah! Just not that particular one!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

The Scream – by E. Munch – Wikipedia – public domain – by edvard munch – c.1893

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YOU CAN KEEP THE CHANGE…

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As a matter of fact, there were constant torments and spirit-induced phenomena which I went through during this month-long “vacation”. I’m just relating the more memorable and dramatic ones.

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Anyway, one such phenomenon occurred in the form of the spirit having me perform deeds of “faith”. For example, at a very crowded neighborhood restaurant/bar (somewhat similar to this photo), when I paid for something that cost a few dollars, I gave a cashier a $20.00 bill and the $18.00 or so as a tip. Believe me, the Devil made me do it! (maybe $60.00-$80.00 in today’s money, and probably $200.00 in Guatemalan value back then!). Of course, the cashier remained completely straight-faced, as if she didn’t know how much I was giving her!

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Las Puertas, Flores Guatemala – Wikimedia – Creative Commons license

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MORE TORMENT…

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The spirit presented me with more logic that I was Hitler (in my last life). For instance, one of his big arguments in favor of the “Hitler theory” was that I was being brought to the last place that Hitler lived before he died: Guatemala (I know the prevailing rumor was that he actually hid out in Argentina). But who was I to argue? This was a spirit talking to me, maybe God himself! Regardless, the intelligence of this spirit-being far surpassed that of any human. “Oh Chuck, doesn’t it make sense that Hitler escaped here after the war. And doesn’t it make sense to bring you back to this place, in order to pick up where you left off?”

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All his arguments seemed flawless. He not only talked to me, but also put thoughts into my mind. So he seemed to have control of both the front and rear doors of my mind (as they say in the computer world). How could I resist the logic and power of this vastly superior being!

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Adolph Hitler – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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”OUR EX-SEVEN”…

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The spirit was constantly taunting me about my sports car. “Ya know ‘Chuckie-me-#%$&’y!, your RX-7 could mean that you’ve just plain run outa luck!  The number “seven”  being the symbol of luck. Maybe that’s just your ex-number. Maybe your new number is “two”. You know, like…snake-eyes.”

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I never really played the game, “craps”. But I knew that snake-eyes (two) meant, “you lose!” So I got his point really well about my Rx-7. But what about the “LTD” at the end of my license plate? “Yes, yes, Chuckie-ex-lucky, that’s right. It says “LTD”. And that means ”limited”. Maybe that’s because this Judgment Day is just “limited” to you. Think about it. You, Adolph Hitler (maybe). You being the worst human to ever live. You killed three million Jews!  Think about it! Three million Jews! But maybe you’re not Adolph. I’m just sayin’.” It’s really hard to describe the horror that the spirit was putting me through. If you, the reader, have ever experienced a time of complete hopelessness and death, then maybe you can kind-of understand.

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Photo of RX7 courtesy Click here for link.

Snake eyes wiki…pub. dom.

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LAKE ATITLAN…

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Not every day was filled with torment. There were some days, which I call my “Jesus Days”. This was when the spirit was telling me that, “No I was not Adolph Hitler in a former life. But I was Jesus in a former life.”

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Sounds crazy? Yes indeedy! But this was not at all the torment of my own making. NO, NO!! I was merely enduring the torment which was being dished out to me… by these unseen spirits!

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But as I said, there were some days which were tolerable. There was one day in particular, which was one of my best days there in Guatemala. 

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With rented car we drove over really bumpy, sometimes dirt roads to Lake Atitlan. Hemingway, (somebody told me), once called this lake, “perhaps the most beautiful lake in the world”. I think the key word here is, “perhaps”. And maybe it was the most beautiful lake back in his day. But I would like to have invited Hemingway to some Oregon’s mountain lakes.

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Anyway, we drove into a Mayan Indian village (similar to this photo). The town was very primitive, with little home-made brick huts. There were a few conventional buildings, such as a tavern and store.

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Becky and I found a lady making tapestry in front of her little hut. Becky worked out a deal with her on a number of tapestries to give to friends and relatives. The Guatemalan Indians have their own special pattern. It’s easy to spot a Guatemalan tapestry as this photo shows.

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Volcanoes at Lake Atitlan – wikimedia – share-alike license

guatemalan weaving – wikimedia commons

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MESSIAH MOMENT…

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This happened to be one of the days in which the spirit was presenting “Jesus” logic to me. “Oh Chuck, why would I give you all those nice songs if you were Hitler?”

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Since this was a good day I decided to get my guitar out and sing some of those nice songs which he gave me, to the locals. Becky, at the same time had bought a beautiful hand-made tier. And as soon as I started singing and playing, a large crowd of people collected. I’m not sure if it was more for Becky that they collected, or for me. And with her vivacious personality, they probably were more attracted to her (as this old photo shows).

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Becky had purchased a “tier”, and the large crowd was intent on watching the lady help Becky put it on. It kinda felt like we were famous, the way they crowded around us. I sure wish I could’ve stuffed this really great and appreciative audience with me in that Army duffel-bag, to every gig I performed at, back here in the States.

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“I KNOW YA ARE, BUT WHAT AM I!?!”…

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Just one more little incident of interest.

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You see, while playing before this happy crowd, I happened to notice a young American lady maybe in khaki shirt and shorts and braided hair, and possibly a red bandanna, walking by about 30 yards away. As she passed by she gave me a big scowl, as if to say “You ugly American”. It kinda took the edge off the moment for me. But I just kept playing and singing. And hey!… I’ve dealt with crowds of hecklers at gigs back home! I just kept right on singin’!

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As we drove our little rented 1960′s “Hillman” away from this quaint village, we waived goodbye to our “fans”, and in a moment, this experience became just a little vibrating blur in our rear-view mirror.

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And oh yes, I might add that the spirit was very well-behaved on this great day as well!

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Makes ya wonder, “What’s he got cookin?”.

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“Chuck Roast”, no doubt! “Yeah, and burnt to a crisp!”

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Photo of lake Atitlan courtesy wikipedia & Emilio Piovasan. To link, click here.

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To go to the next chapter just click here:

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Ch. 22 “Fantasy Island”…  

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Fantasy Island always made people better by the end of the show. This Fantasy Island was no exception!

 

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Click on image credit links below each photo, for licensing names, details, tags, etc.. Most images cropped/reduced in size

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Okay, so it was now about 100 days or so after finding out my public school indoctrination which I abundantly received, on the ideology of “atheism”, needed some really serious revamping!

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And now I was conversing with unseen spirits just as matter-of-factly as I would, say…talking with my Uncle Charlie!

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And more than this, the spirit was now giving me songs and telling me things about the world and about the unseen world that few persons had ever been privy to! This was unreal beyond the wildest imagination! But it was real! Very real!

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And so, I’ll share a few more of the songs given, plus some of the information shared by the Unseen One with whom I was now conversing on a moment-by-moment basis. And I really mean “moment-by-moment”! Because this was a morning till night phenomenon! It just didn’t let up!

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But now I’ll share…

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The Scream of Nature – Wikipedia – public domain – by edvard munch c.1893

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CHAPTER 20:

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“AND I WRITE THE SONGS”…

(Lyric from the 1975 Bruce Johnston song, “I Write The Songs”)   

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

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January or February, 1980

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“THERE’LL BE A LOAD OF COMPROMISING “SPIRITS RISING”, ON THE ROAD TO MY HORIZON!”…

(Wordplay on the lyrics of the 1975 Glen Campbell mega-hit, “Rhinestone Cowboy”, inserting the word, “spirits rising” in place of “compromising”)

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I was also led to believe that there were persons in the song business who were “insiders”. They knew about the spirits, and were aware that their music and success was a gift from God.

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He told me that I was going to go down to L.A. to get into the business. He told me that a certain famous recording artist was an “insider”, and knew all about how God was working within the music business. And I was to go to this famous recording artist’s home. And this recording artist (I’m too embarrassed to even mention names!), he would take me in, until I “got on my feet”. He also told me (or I played guessing games, trying to prod him into telling me) just who else in the music business knew about God, or was being led by God. And after guessing, he let me know a number of famous people he had working for him in the music business.

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Okay, Okay, I know how ridiculous all this recording artist stuff’ sounds! And it’s more than just a bit embarrassing to even put it in writing for people to read (not to mention that I myself was merely a mediocre musical talent, even though I wasn’t aware of my limited talent, at the time)!

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But I’m simply telling you what happened. And, just consider how often an article appears in the news about some person claiming that God told him to do this or that! Now what I went through, hopefully begins to explain, at the very least, that some of those “deluded” persons were no doubt likewise being misled by spirits, just as I was being misled.

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Well, my experience explains alot, that is, if you believe what I’m telling you. But if you don’t believe this account, it nevertheless doesn’t make it any less the reality of the unseen spiritual battlefield which this world happens to be! And actually, unbelievers (and Christian skeptics) are truly, the “deluded ones”! 

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Hollywood and Vine – wikipedia – public domain

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“HE HOLDETH MY EYES, WAKING”

Psalm 77:4

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A certain phenomenon also occurred at this time. You see, before this all happened (i.e., my encounter with the unseen spiritual world), I usually got a pretty good night’s sleep. But at this time (Summer 1980) I began to find it very hard to sleep. This was my first encounter with “Insomnia”. And because I realized my problems were spiritual in nature, I also attributed this sleeplessness to spiritual sources…

Just listen to this verse… “When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.” Job 7:4. This verse from The Book of Job (Job is pronounced with a long “o”) shows that Job had a spiritual problem with sleeplessness. The Devil caused Job many problems, this being one of them. Here’s another verse about sleeplessness, being brought on by God… “Thou (God) holdest mine eyes waking…” Psalm 77:4.

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Now I’m not saying that all sleeplessness is due to higher powers. But the Bible does declare that it possibly can be the cause. As these two verses point out, both Job and the psalmist were suffering spiritual insomnia: one brought on by God, and Job’s, which was brought on by an unseen evil spirit.

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And I’m not even saying that my sleeplessness was necessarily of spiritual origin. All I’m saying is that it possibly could have been.

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MHWS – Insomnia – Cropped and altered image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. (2)

Insomnia icon.svg – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Above Painting: Job – Wikipedia – US-public-domain

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“OH GOD”…

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Also, I heard something that gave credence to what the spirit was telling me regarding the music business. And this gave me belief in what the spirit told me. I heard John Denver, in an interview, tell the interviewer that the songs he wrote were a “gift from God”. And he said it in such a way, that made me think that he wasn’t just being casual or flippant. He seemed to really believe that his songs were given him by God!

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Also, at about this same time, or a little later, I heard that John Denver was in a movie, called, “Oh God!”, about a man who had an unseen companion…God. God was played by George Burns. And so I made sure to watch this movie when it came out on TV. And George Burns was a perfect God, as far as I was concerned. Burns behaved similar to the spirit I was communicating with. A lot of humor and irreverence. And so the spirit told me that John Denver was one of the special, “insiders”, in the music business.

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Photo of George Burns – courtesy Allen Warren & Wikipedia – share-alike license. Click here for link.

John Denver – 1975 – wikipedia – public domain

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“AND I WRITE THE SONGS…”

(Title of the Bruce Johnston song, “I Write The Songs”)

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These songs which I was being given triggered an old memory. Years earlier, about 1972 or so, I had just moved back to Klamath from San Francisco, where I had struck out, that is, I failed to “make it” in the pop music industry. It was then that I returned to working in the family restaurant.

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Nevertheless, one sunny spring day, back in the Basin, I was sitting in the back yard with my guitar. I began composing a song. But to my amazement, in just a few minutes time, I had composed a really nice little song. This song just kind of “plopped down into my lap”, as they say. I didn’t even have to put much effort into composing it. And I remember feeling a little weird, when I sang it, because it came so easily. Anyway, here it is. Too bad you can’t hear the music. Because the music is simple, but as good as the words…

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THE GOODBYE SONG

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1st VERSE… “This time come tomorrow I’ll be gone, And I may not ever be this way again. So I’d like for you to have this song, And ya know that you will always be my friend.”

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CHORUS “And God give ya some love to carry along. May your roads be sunny, short or long. And on your way I pray, you won’t do anyone wrong. And God give ya some love to carry along.”

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2nd VERSE “Never let the rain get in your eyes, Behind the clouds there’s a whole lot of blue skies. Just let ol’ Mother Nature be your guide, Cause that’s one girl from who we just can’t hide.”

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CHORUS “And God give ya some love to carry along, May your roads be sunny short or long. And on your way I pray, you won’t Do anyone wrong. And God give ya some love to carry along.”

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3rd VERSE “Life is just an ever-flowing song, And it’s up to you to keep the music strong. So try and fill your world with those ya love, And never lose those dreams your dreamin’ of.” 

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CHORUS “And God give ya some love to carry along. May your roads be sunny, short or long. And on your way I pray, you won’t do anyone wrong wrong. And God give ya some love to carry along. And God give ya some love to carry you along. God give ya some love…to carry along” .

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An old friend from our former high school band liked the song, and a few years later, arranged the song for his new band. He also changed the word, “things” in the last verse, to “those”. So the last line was changed to… “So try and fill your world with things [those] you love…”.  One night when I was visiting Salem Oregon, I went to hear his band. They played that song very well, with the word-change, in three-part harmony. It was a definite improvement.

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Desert Road Highway – Wikipedia – Share-Alike License

Sky – cropped image – Wikimedia Commons – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

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“THERE’LL BE A LOAD OF COMPROMISING'”…

(Lyrics from the 1975 Glen Campbell hit, “Rhinestone Cowboy”)

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But there was another aspect to all this music business stuff. I thought that God Himself was gonna break into the popular music world. And He was gonna use me to do just that! All I had to do was to mingle together some secular songs…with some Christian songs.

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That’s so simple!

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Why didn’t somebody think of that already?!

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This of course, shows how clueless I was about Christianity! Because I had no idea just how big the Christian music industry currently was! It was perhaps already a billion dollar industry!

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But I knew it not!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

church worship music – cropped image – wikimedia – share-alike license

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Anyway, here’s an example of one of the “Christian” songs that the spirit gave me…

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“I CAN TURN TO JESUS”…

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“When I find myself, standing all alone,

I can turn to Jesus…for he is always near.

And when I find myself, losing hope in “Love”,

I can turn to Jesus…for He is always near.”

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“I can turn to Jesus…for He is always near

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“When I find myself, losing hope in “life”,

I can turn to Jesus…for He is always near.

And when I find myself, losing hope in “Man”,

I can turn to Jesus…for He is always here.”

“I can turn to Jesus…for He is always near.”

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Okay, so these lyrics weren’t that great! But as I have stated…when “God” is giving you songs directly, even the mediocre ones seem good. And the music was actually, not too bad, even though very simple.

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But as far as his method of composing, as I also said earlier, he wouldn’t talk during these song-writing sessions. He just made my head nod “Yes” or “No”, depending on the chords or the words, if they were correct or not. I am certain he had very good (and deceptive) reasons for doing this. And I’m pretty sure I know why. But I’ll just let you figure that one out for yourself. Very simple reason.

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A DEAL WITH THE D…?

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Bob Dylan (no mediocre song-writer!) gave an interview in which he made several statements regarding higher powers helping his career. In one statement, he says he made a “deal with the D…” … and then he stops short of actually saying the obvious. When quizzed about this by the interviewer, he began to back-peddle from almost saying “deal with the Devil” and then begins to indicate that his deal was with the “Commander”. With some more prodding, he clarifies that it is the “Commander of this world and the unseen world”.

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Now for the sake of honesty, it must be noted that his comment “deal with the D…” sounded a little like he was merely being flippant. But his comment about the “bargain with the Commander” sounded very serious.  

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Bob_Dylan – June 23 1978 – wikipedia – share-alike-license.jpg

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THINGS THAT GO “CREAK” IN THE NIGHT…

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During this time, I was constantly communing with the spirit. But quite often, there was a “creaking noise” in my house. Sometimes from the wall. Sometimes from the floor. And sometimes from the ceiling. Normally, I would just think that the house was settling. But whenever this happened, I would hear a “yes” or “no” simultaneous to the creaking noise. I reasoned that he was just making it seem like he was making the creaking noise. And I figured that he was just very quick. Because there didn’t seem to be any time-lapse between the creaking noise and his answer. Often, I wouldn’t even be asking him a question, and I would hear the creaking along with a “yes” or “no”. So this was a tip-off that he was just very quick, and the house was merely settling, naturally.

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Medieval ghost – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

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A HIGHWAY SONG…

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I suppose I received about a dozen songs during these times. Some were Christian. Some were secular. All were just about okay. Looking back, I would say that none were what I would consider really good, except for maybe one (“Oregon, I’m Coming Home to You”).

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But at the time, I was totally taken in by the spirit’s story of how I was going to take the music world by storm. So the songs seemed good at the time. After all, when you have a spirit telling you these things, you tend to believe whatever that spirit might tell you (But, to be fair with myself, I suppose that with a good arranger and quality musicianship, they probably could have made a fairly good set of songs).

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But there was another pretty good song I had composed years earlier. The spirit also told me that this song was given me by God. It’s called “A Highway Song”…

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A HIGHWAY SONG

(Whistling introduction to the tune of “Oh Susanna”)

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“I been so many places…I’ve seen a lot of borderlines.

“I’ve seen so many faces… and had me some pretty good times.

“I’ve sung alot of travelin’ songs, about the things I see.

“But there’s no one here to lend me an ear—–,

“So I’ll sing this one for me.”

CHORUS

“So I keep movin’ along…singin’ my highway song.

“Some folk gotta settle down…but me I gotta roam.

“Gotta keep…movin’ along…Gotta keep…movin’ along,

“Cause freedom is the highway…and the highway…is my home.”

VERSE 2

“Sometimes I get so lonesome, lying under the starry sky,

“And wishin’ I’d-a settled down…and made that girl my wife.

“But I was young an’ restless, so I set out on the road,

“And when I looked behind, I couldn’t seem

“To find my way back home.”

CHORUS

“So I keep movin’ along…singin. my highway song…etc…”

REFRAIN

(“Singin’ Oh my Lordy Lordy, such a fine ol’ day, singin’

“Oh my Lordy Lordy, a pretty, pretty fine ol’ day, and I—am well on my way!”)

VERSE 3

“Sunrise come tomorrow, I’ll be headed for the western plains.

“Tonight I’ll stay in the Cascades, in this dang ol’ Oregon rain.

“But I heard in Carolina there’s a big bluegrass Jamboree,

“An’ for a guitar pickin country boy—

“…That’s just my cup o tea!”

CHORUS

“So I keep movin’ along…singin’ my highway song.

“Some folk gotta settle down, but I’m just a rollin’ stone.

“Gotta keep movin’ along, gotta keep movin’ along.

“Cause freedom is the highway…and the highway…is my home.”

(Ends with whistling “Oh Susanna” as song fades out)

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This song took quite a while, and with quite a few changes. But after composing this song, I became a little nervous about the music. This is because the chorus and tempo sounded vaguely like the chorus of the song, “Garden Party” by Rick Nelson (My distant cousin!!! Too bad I didn’t look the least bit like him! Just the opposite, actually! Sigh…oh well. But on the other hand, I probably would’ve gotten into a whole lot more trouble in life, than I already did! And so, my average looks probably saved me from being a complete “unholy-terror” on the world!).

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But as far as “Highway Song”, I thought it necessary to do a little re-arranging on the chorus to make it not sound so much like Nelson’s song.

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End of Guitar – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Hitchhiker in a forest – cropped image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

ABOVE PICTURE: Winter – Revelation 12 Woman with Eagle Wings

highway – Adrian – wikimedia commons – Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

Rick Nelson – Wikipedia – US Public Domain

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DREAMS-N-VISIONS

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Now during this time, a very incredible phenomenon occurred a number of times. While sitting in my front living room, I would go into a trance-like state. And as I sat in my chair, I would hear a long (and annoying) buzzing noise, and then I would slip into a dreamlike state (this probably occurred just two or three times). And everything looked very surrealistic, but very real! It almost was like these computerized digital cartoons, but even more realistic! Yeah, these visions/dreams seemed so real, that I thought they were, until I would come out of them to realize I was only having a vision!

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Now I can only remember one of these, in which my parents came to me, asking me… “Where what did you do with the “Crimie?” By saying the “Crimie”, they were referring to a huge, old Chrysler, which we all sometimes used as a back-up vehicle. The reference to “Crimie” concerned my embezzling money from the restaurant, and me living such a life of crime, in various ways.

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And after a few moments, when I awoke from these dream-like visions, I was amazed that it was only a dream or vision, because it seemed so incredibly real!

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Surreal Painting – Willyvallez – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

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“IMAGINE THERE’S NO HEAVEN…NO HELL BELOW US…”

(Lyrics from John Lennon’s song, “Imagine”)

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The spirit told me lots of things…”Oh God”, I begged him, “does the Devil really exist?” I really wanted to know. “No Chuck, there’s no Devil. Only God. All that Devil-stuff is just man’s imagination. To explain evil.”

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So I guess the spirit’s story about no Heaven nor Hell was in harmony with that very famous song, “Imagine”, by John Lennon. “Imagine there’s Heaven…No Hell below us…No religion too!” Wow, there’s no Heaven, and no Hell! Wow! I was getting “inside information” that few people knew about, if any! What a news-flash!

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But the difficult thing about John Lennon singing that song is this: it’s hard to imagine a deceased man, like Mr. Lennon, getting all excited that there’s no Heaven…no eternal joy…just nothingness for all eternity, now that he’s dead.

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Truly, atheism has to be the world’s most miserable religion! And it’s more than a little disconcerting to listen to someone singing about the glories of “no Heaven”, knowing that the man singing has been long ago deceased.

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Even the false religions promise you eternal bliss! Many people suppose that even a FALSE hope is better than NO hope! Maybe or maybe not.

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Photo of John Lennon courtesy of Roy Underwood for Wikipedia share-alike license. Click here for link to Roy’s site.

John Lennon – Джон Ленон в Могилів Подільському – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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“IMAGINE YOU’RE AN EARTHWORM…IT’S EASY IF YOU TRY”…

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And one of the horrible aspects of atheism, is that the older I got (as an atheist), the more miserable and nervous I became, whenever I thought about my prospects for the future. Prior to all this trouble I was now going through, I was experiencing some frightening nights, thinking about eternity. Because I was an atheist prior to all this. And I really didn’t want to be dead for all eternity. (Truly, “Darkness” is the atheist’s worst enemy! Atheists quite often need to have music playing or a little light burning, or the TV on, when they go to sleep at night, for fear of the darkness of eternity!) And so I would sometimes lie there in bed at night and try to think that possibly I might come back someday…somewhere out in the universe, as maybe…an earthworm or something.

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Pretty bleak as far as prospects for the future…huh?

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Photo of earthworm by Ryan Bushby &Wikipedia share-alike license.

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ATHEISM NOT VERY COMFORTING!

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So John Lennon’s song about “atheism”, though a pretty song, musically/poetically, was not much comfort for me back then, when I was an atheist. And even right now, as I’m writing this, my dear father is struggling with aging and Parkinson’s Disease. And it rips me in pieces to see him face eternity as an atheist. It’s a real heart-breaker! He’s facing death and he has no hope for the future!

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On the other hand, I can agree with Lennon on this one point: that no hellish torture chamber which goes on for all eternity is something to sing about! He was correct about that! And I was totally on board with him on that point!

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(Just a note: I remember reading an interview with John Lennon not too long before his death, in which he stated that he was “beginning to understand the parables of the Bible”. So it’s possible that God was working with Mr. Lennon prior to his untimely death. So maybe when he finally died, he had already become a believer in Jesus!)

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Imagine!! John Lennon in Heaven!! Now that would really be something to sing about!!

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John Lennon – Strawberry Fields, Central Park – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

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And speaking of that, “Magical Mystery Tour-guide”, John Lennon, the following article excerpt on him was written by the Internet site, www.faroutmagazine.co.uk…

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“John Lennon had a wild ride as part of The Beatles…The Beatles provided Lennon with the space to note down his feeling and emotions on paper and put them in a song and, on occasion, THE SONGS WROTE THEMSELVES DOWN.

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“One such track…was ‘Across The Universe’, a song which Lennon says “wrote itself”.

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“The track is often thought of as one of Lennon’s best works, but the singer admitted he felt like he had little contribution to the track after explaining its conception to David Sheff…“(the song was originally written in 1967)…I kept hearing these words over and over, flowing like an endless stream.

“I went downstairs and it turned into a sort of cosmic song…It’s so interesting. ‘Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup/ They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe.’ Such an extraordinary meter and I can never repeat it!”

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“Lennon would hold his hands up and suggest that he had little to do with songs final construction: “It’s not a matter of craftsmanship—it wrote itself. It drove me out of bed. I didn’t want to write it… and I couldn’t get to sleep until I put it on paper… It’s like being possessed—like a psychic or a medium. The thing has to go down. It won’t let you sleep, so you have to get up, make it into something, and then you’re allowed to sleep.”

“It may have had something to do with the time in which he wrote it, a dreamlike state which McCartney has also professed to have found fruitful for songwriting. “That’s always in the middle of the night when you’re half-awake or tired and your critical facilities are switched off.”

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“However the song came about, there’s no doubting that it is one of The Beatles finest. The fact it arrived seemingly of its own accord is the icing on the cake.”

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The Beatles magical mystery tour (cropped) – Wikipedia – Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Photo of John Lennon courtesy of Roy Underwood for Wikipedia share-alike license. Click here for link to Roy’s site.

John Lennon – 1969 (cropped) – Wikipedia – Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

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MANY OTHER DREAM-INSPIRED POP SONGS

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Well, there were other famous pop stars who got their inspiration from dreams. Such talents as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards, Billy Joel, and others, which by surfing the Internet, these and similar accounts can be discovered. 

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Jimi Hendrix statue outside Dimbola Lodge – Wikipedia – Public Domain

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To go to next chapter , just click here…

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Ch. 21 Vacation From Hell

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(or should I say, “in” Hell)”… 

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If you think your vacation went badly, just read about this one!!

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Click on image credit links below each photo, for licensing names, details, tags, etc.. Most images cropped/reduced in size

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“The noise of thy viols…O Lucifer…

the workmanship of thy tabrets

and of thy pipes

was prepared in thee

in the day that thou wast created.

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth…”

Isaiah 14:11, 12 & Ezekiel 28:13, 14

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Here’s a question for you…“Where does literary inspiration come from?”

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Here’s another question…“And why do most prolific music composers just run dry after a while?” (After all, you’d think that with time and experience, they’d only become that much more prolific in their composing!)

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And here’s another question…“Why do many of the really great songs and the really wonderful music compositions just seem to simply, ‘drop into the lap’ of composers?”

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And just one more question…“And just how could a very young child compose a sophisticated symphony, which requires translating years of maturity and life-experiences into music, which the child simply has not yet attained to?”

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OH COME ON!!! Even if they had a great big brain, they’ve just not experienced the many life-lessons required, to be translated into extremely sophisticated music!

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Well, read on, and maybe you’ll learn the secret that some have already learned…

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Stuck Luzifer – ca-1890 – wikimedia – public domain

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  CHAPTER 19:

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“I AM MUSIC” …

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“THERE’S A HOUSE…ON A HILL…”

(First line from the 1972 Gordon Lightfoot song, “Cotton Jenny”)

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Well, now that things were going well for me, a realtor friend showed me a little house for sale in a new subdivision over by Klamath Lake. It was a hilly area with lots of Pine trees. It looked like a little “gingerbread house” in a forest…on a hill.

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Really quaint!

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I liked it!

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So I bought it.

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And as with each new house I bought over the past eight years (I bought-and-sold houses as a money-making sideline back in those years), I was excited to move in. With all the trees and hills, this house was like living in a forest. It wasn’t a very big house. But it was comfortable for one or two persons. About 1200 sq. ft, or so.

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

The Scream – by E. Munch – Wikipedia – public domain by edvard munch c.1893

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NOT EXACTLY “A STILL SMALL VOICE”…

1st Kings 19:12

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And I was still really busy with this spiritual realm that I was now dealing with!

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Days were spent communing with the spirit.

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And as you can probably imagine, I had lots of questions for him: questions about the past. But especially questions about the future. And the spirit would sometimes answer me by ever-so-slightly nodding my head “yes” or “no”. Sometimes he would make my head to circle around (also ever-so-slightly), just like someone might do when asked a dumb question. Or circle as if to say, “maybe”.

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Other times he’d answer by speaking directly. It wasn’t exactly an actual audible voice. It was more like a small nondescript voice in my mind. But it was definitely a voice! When he talked, he’d often include my name in his comments. And he frequently joked as he answered.

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At other times, he’d make a statement, and then retract that statement, saying, “Oh, I was just kidding, Chuck.”

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The Scream of Nature – by E. Munch – Wikipedia – public domain by edvard munch c.1893

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BACK-SEAT DRIVER TAKES THE WHEEL

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I hadn’t returned to work yet, and so I’d often go for a drive. And he’d direct where to go.

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Frequently, I’d feel him take control of my hands on the steering wheel, and turned me in whatever direction he wanted me to turn.

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Alotta times, he’d have me drive to a very scenic little park east of town on “Lost River” (as you can see in this great photo!).

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Like I’ve already said, I was always asking him questions about the past, present, and future.

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“After all”, I probably thought to myself, “Why waste this golden opportunity to dig out info on eternal things from this eternal being!?”

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But I have to admit, his answers were kind-of vague, to say the least!

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Mazda Rx-7 dash – cropped and altered image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Stevenson Park – Photo by Chuck Collins of Klamath County H.R. Dept

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RX-7 LICENSE PLATE

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One day he said, “Chuck, you wanna know what your license plate stands for?”

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My license plate was a special plate I ordered when I bought this car. It read “RX7-LTD” (My RX-7 was a limited edition. Hence the “LTD” on the license plate)

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But the spirit had another interpretation ready for me…“’RX-7′ means you’ll live another seven years, and then you’ll get sick and die. So the “RX” stands for Rx.” (Rx obviously being the common universal tag used to indicate prescription medications).

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“The “7″ stands for 7 years. And the “Limited” stands for your limited life ahead.”, said the spirit.

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This didn’t bother me too badly. After all, 7 years was quite a while! That’d give me until about 1987, which was a long time from now (It was still 1980 when this happened).

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And isn’t 7 years a long time?

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Right? Well…right?

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And not to mention, he promised the next 7 years would be filled with glorious things! A real win-win proposition, wouldn’t you agree!?

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“And you know what else?”, (said the spirit), “Do you want to know what else your little black car symbolizes?”

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Mostly everything was a guessing game with this spirit. So I played along with his question-&-answer game, and eventually he’d tell me… “Your little black (actually metallic cobalt grayish-black) car looks like a coffin, doesn’t it? It means you’re going to die in 7 years.” 

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And so, upon hearing this, I looked out my window at that little car and squinted and tried to see it as a coffin.

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“Well…yeah…maybe it does look a little bit like a coffin”, I admitted to myself. “Yuuuk!”

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Mazda rx7-1st Generation – wikipedia – GNU-free-user-license

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“ROUND, ROUND, ROUND, ROUND, I GET AROUND, YEAH!…”

(first line of Beach-Boys hit-song, “I Get Around”)

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Yes, I did a whole lot of driving during those days.

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And there was a whole lot of chatter going on between the spirit and myself. Sometimes he talked. Often, he’d just shake my head. If I guessed the answer, he’d simply shake my head very slightly, “Yes”.

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Needless to say, this could be a bit embarrassing when I’d come up to a stop-light! My head would be shaking. I felt like one of those little dashboard figurines that shake its head as you drive down the street! And I was always afraid the driver next to me would think I was crazy (can you imagine anyone thinking me to be crazy!? How absurd the thought! lol!), even though my head wasn’t shaking so much, as to be even slightly noticeable.

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But in spite of trying hard not to, I just couldn’t stop my head from shaking. If he chose to answer me by shaking my head, it was going to happen, whether I liked it or not!

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Anyway, this is how the spirit told me about all the things that were ahead for me.

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Mazda RX-7 – 1981 – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

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“BLIND DATE & BLIND FAITH”…

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During this time period, a friend set me up with a date.

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You see, just prior to my troubles beginning, my girlfriend, at that current time, broke up with me. So a caring friend set me up with a blind date. Even though I was in no mental condition to be going on a date, I still went over to meet the very pretty lady.

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But when I went to her apartment, and while she was getting ready, the spirit began to put me through another “test of faith”.

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You see, while she was in the bathroom, the spirit told me I should lay back down on her bed, where I was sitting.

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Oh not for any wrong purposes. But just to lie there on her bed…which I knew was really crossing her boundary line, as well as making me look slightly ridiculous!

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But what could I do?

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If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be showing my faith.

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So I did (the spirit promising that he’d keep her away, “as long as you have faith, Chuck!”).

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Well that didn’t happened!

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Yes, I really felt a little foolish when I had to jump up as she suddenly entered the room! I’m not sure if we ever actually went out on a date, or not. But if we did, I never saw her after that.

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Oh yeah, now I remember! We went out for lunch or something.

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If only I’d known that passage in Scripture…“Then the devil took Him (Jesus) up into the holy city, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, And said unto Him, ‘If you be the Son of God, cast yourself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning you: and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone’. Jesus said unto him, ‘It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord thy God’.” Matthew 4:5-7

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So this passage prohibits us from doing something foolish, to prove our faith that God will help us at the last-minute, even in small situations of life.

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Oh, if only I’d known this passage, it would’ve saved me a whole lot of grief! And not just in this little situation, but even more, in a few “bigger situations”!

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Cause he was always compelling me to do outrageous things to, “Prove you faith, Chuck!”

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Mazda rx7-1st Generation – wikipedia – GNU-free-user-license

James Tissot Brooklyn Museum Jesus Carried up to the Pinnacle wikimedia US public domain

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SECOND DATE:

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“DATE WISHES SHE WAS BLIND!”

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About this same time, I somehow met up with a certain lady I knew from the club I played at on the weekends (actually, Thursday nights through Saturday nights, from 8 pm to 1 am). Well, to make a not-so-long story even shorter, I asked her to go with me to Reno for the weekend.

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So this extremely pretty lady and I zoomed off to Reno.

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I badly wanted to make a good impression on her! I was wearing my best slacks and big fat gold/diamond ring and oh man… was I dressed to kill!

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Fancy new sports car to boot!

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So there I was…cruisin’ down the highway to Reno! Me…my slinky metallic-black RX-7, and a beautiful babe sitting next to me! The wind blowing through our hair! The bright lights of that infamous gambling mecca just over the horizon! Spending our time at the gambling tables! Or perhaps going to a dinner show and watching some world-class entertainer!

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“What could be better!?”, I ask you…“What could be better!?”

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Ol’ Heff woulda been proud!

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Well…probably not!

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Hugh Hefner – Glamourcon 2010 – Wikipedia – Photo by Glenn Francis of www.PacificProDigital.com – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

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AT THE “CASINO-NOT-SO-ROYALE”!

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Anyway, we arrived there five hours later and got a room at one of the casinos. I can’t remember which hotel we stayed at. I usually stayed in a suite at the recently built MGM Grand Hotel. But maybe I didn’t for some reason. I just can’t remember. Maybe Harrah’s. It’s not really that important anyway. But I wanted to impress her, so I’m gonna go with… the MGM Grand. It was brand-new and very impressive!

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Yeah, it was definitely the MGM Grand! Now I remember!

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Okay, so I’ve set up this story properly.

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But as one radio old announcer always used to say…“And now…for the rest of the story!”

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I GOT “BORED-STIFF”…LITERALLY “BOARD-STIFF”!!

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No sooner than we got there, and up into our large and very impressive suite, my entire body went stiff like a board!

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I mean, I couldn’t even bend at all!

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Oh yeah, I could walk, but just barely! I didn’t know what-in-the-world was happening to me!

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And so, we decided that I should go to the emergency room of the local hospital. So we walked to my car (actually, she walked…I waddled…totally humiliated! She had to stuff me into my small little car.)

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This was definitely not the best way to impress a lady! 

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Well anyway, she drove me to the emergency room of the local hospital. And after an hour or two, they released me, giving me some medicine, shrugged shoulders, and no further encouragements.

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Mazda rx7-1st Generation – wikipedia – GNU-free-user-license

Photos of Reno & Grand Sierra (formerly MGM) courtesy Wikipedia, public domain.

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“TAKE THE ‘GONG’ WAY HOME!”

(satirical wordplay on the 1979 Supertramp song, “Take The Long Way Home”) 

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Well, needless to say, this brought my “perfect weekend” plans to a screeching halt!

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She drove me home…me still stiff as a board! Cruisin’ down the highway, still wearing my best slacks, my big fat diamond ring and oh man…and…uh…dressed to kill.

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And the not-so-bright-lights of Kalamity Flats (Klamath Falls) just over the horizon!

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I repeatedly apologized. And she was a good sport.

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Yes, she was as gracious as she was beautiful. 

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And I was as mortified as I was…uh…oh whatever!

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As we were driving home, I began to suspect that this entire ordeal (or should I say…this entire “horrordeal”) was brought on by my unseen spirit companion.

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Mazda rx7-1st Generation – wikipedia – GNU-free-user-license

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“A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass (donkey), and a rod for the fool’s (my) back!”

Proverbs 26:3  

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When we got back to Klamath that night, my body quickly returned to normal again. She said goodnight to me…with no further encouragements…never to see her again!

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And by that time, I realized that the whole incident was courtesy of my unseen spirit “companion”. Yeah, that old Hope-You-Guessed-My-Name Guy was at it again!

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But thankfully, the spirit never put me through that same phenomenon ever again.

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Other stuff?

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OH YEAH! 

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Just not this particular one.

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Devil Goat – Wikipedia – Public Domain

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“A woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together”

Luke 13:11

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Well, if there’s some morale, or life-lesson, or any further encouragement from this rather embarrassing experience it might be the following…

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You see, I much later discovered the story, from The Gospel According to Luke, Chapter 13, in which an evil spirit caused a woman to be bent-over for eighteen long years, prior to Jesus meeting her, casting out that spirit from her, allowing her to stand upright once again!

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Thus, the life-lesson learned is, these spirits do indeed have the powers to do such things which outwardly appear to be merely physical ailments! And thankfully, this phenomenon didn’t last eighteen long years like that bent-over person in that Bible account.

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Christ healing an infirm woman on the Sabbath – James Tissot 1886-96 – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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SONGS FROM HEAVEN?…

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One sunny day, about a month after moving into this house, I felt the urge to take my guitar out of its case, and sit down in the living room. And before long I had a nice chord progression worked out, along with some nice lyrics. 

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“Is it time to start giving me songs?”, I inquired.

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The spirit was silent.

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So I kept up composing this song… .

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“Too many people in this town. There’s confusion…uh…uh…growing…” .

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“What should I say next” I asked the spirit.

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But the spirit was still silent.

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So I continued till the words and chords finally came…

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1ST VERSE

“Too many people in this town..

“There’s confusion growing all around…

“Long to hear the wind outside my door…

“Long to see an eagle homeward soar… .

2ND VERSE .

“This city’s got me upside down…

Gotta get my feet back on the ground…

So I’m gonna pack my bags and go…

To that place I left so long ago…

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CHORUS

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“Oregon I’m coming, Oregon I’m comin’

“Oregon I’m comin’ home to you…

Oregon  I’m comin’,

Oregon I’m comin’,

Oregon I’m comin’ home—-to you.

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REFRAIN

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Can’t remember the words to the refrain! Sorry

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3RD VERSE

I left that land so long ago…

Went to the place where money people go…

Tried to get myself up to the top…

It’s time for this ol’ spinnin’ wheel to stop…

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CHORUS

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“Oregon I’m coming, Oregon I’m comin’…etc….

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LAST VERSE

“I guess that I’ll be movin’ on……

Can’t find a reason to hang on…

And when I get myself back home…

You know I’m never gonna roam…”

CHORUS ONE LAST TIME…

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“Oregon I’m coming, Oregon I’m comin’…etc….

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END OF SONG (THIS SONG WAS ABOUT MY GOING TO THE BIG CITY TO GET INTO THE MUSIC BUSINESS, SEE CHAPTER…One Flew Into The Cuckoo’s Nest, Part 3: “Do You Believe In Magic?”)

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“Are those the right words?”, I asked. The spirit made my head to nod, “Yes”.The spirit did no talking during this time. He only made my head nod either “yes” or “no”. And so, this song went on like this until completion. At the time, I thought it was a great song. But over the years, I began to suspect that he really wasn’t interested in making that song a good one. And truth-be-told, it was possibly just a mediocre “Oregon version” of John Denver’s Colorado schtick…

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Or, maybe not.

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I dunno.

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“(GOD) HE IS THE GREAT SOURCE, MY INSPIRATION…”

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Jimmy Webb, one of the most celebrated secular song-writers in the music business (no mediocrity in his songs!), once made this statement… ”I couldn’t write a song without God. Sure, I could hack out hackneyed phrases and clichés, but to write anything meaningful I have to be in tune with God. He is the great source, my inspiration, the current that I have to connect to. Sadly I’ve not always used the gift He’s given me—the answered prayer—as best as I could or should have. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve done things I wish I hadn’t done.” (Incredible compositions such as “Wichita Lineman”, “Up, Up, And Away”, “Galveston”, “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”, etc., etc….)

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Jimmy_Webb,_2011-Michaeldemartin for wikipedia share-alike license

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“I’VE BEEN ALIVE FOREVER”…

(Lyrics from the Bruce Johnston song, “I Write The Songs”)

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The spirit also told me, “I have a lot of people in the music world who have received my songs.”

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And he even led me to believe me that the song, “I write the songs” was about him.

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“I WRITE THE SONGS”……by Bruce Johnston

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“I’ve been alive forever And I wrote the very first song I put the words and the melodies together I am music, and I write the songs”.

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“My home lies deep within you And I’ve got my own place in your soul. Now when I look out through your eyes I’m young again, even tho’ I’m very old” …

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“…Oh, my music makes you dance and gives you spirit to take a chance And I wrote some rock ‘n roll so you can move. Music fills your heart, well that’s a real find place to start. It’s from me, it’s for you It’s from you, it’s for me. It’s a worldwide symphony” …

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[Chorus:] “I write the songs that make the whole world sing. I write the songs of love and special things. I write the songs that make the young girls cry I write the songs, I write the songs”

“I am music and I write the songs…” 

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Okay, so I totally believed the spirit, that this song was indeed written by him and about him. After all, the song was about some spirit entity who has been alive FOREVER! And he writes all the SONGS! Yeah…this all made sense! After all, he was giving me songs. Why would I doubt that he was giving other people songs too?

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You can form your own conclusion about this.

Satan presiding at the Infernal Council – Wikpedia – US Public Domain

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“The noise of thy viols (stringed instruments)…O Lucifer…

the workmanship of thy tabrets (percussion)

and of thy pipes (wind instruments)

was prepared in thee

in the day that thou wast created.

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth…”

Isaiah 14:11, 12 & Ezekiel 28:13, 14

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Stuck Luzifer ca-1890 wikimedia public domain

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“TRY”

Here is another little song he gave me…

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“When you try to understand…

All the power you have at your command…

When you try to see the light…

Take a little time to make it right…

Yes you have the gift of love…

It goes with you like a shining dove…etc…

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I wish I could remember more of this song lyrics. But I think you get the idea. Kind-of a “look-for-the-light” type of song. But it was Christian enough for biblically-challenged me, at that moment in time.

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PAUL TELLS ALL!

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Paul McCartney made the following statement… “I woke up with a lovely tune in my head. I thought, ‘That’s great, I wonder what that is?’ There was an upright piano next to me, to the right of the bed by the window. I got out of bed, sat at the piano, found G, found F sharp minor 7th — and that leads you through then to B to E minor, and finally back to E. It all leads forward logically. I liked the melody a lot, but because I’d dreamed it, I couldn’t believe I’d written it. I thought, ‘No, I’ve never written anything like this before.’

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But I had the tune, which was the most magic thing!”

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Paul,_George_&_John-wikipedia-share-alike license

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This particular song, “Yesterday”, by Paul McCartney, was voted best single hit of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine and MTV in the year 2000.

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To go to next chapter , just click here…

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Ch.20  “And I Write The Songs”… 

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More songs by a pretty good song writer.

 

 

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Click on credit links below each photo, for licensing names/details/tags/etc.. Most images cropped/reduced in size

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Have you ever heard a voice in your mind, talking to you?

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Well, truth-be-told, there are many people who have! And not just those who are considered “Crazy”…like me.

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Yes, even high government officials, statesmen, celebrities and/or their spouses have admitted that they too have had communications with unseen spirits of various origins! According to Wikipedia, even some of our most celebrated presidents, such as Lincoln and Reagan had attended seances and/or received astrological advice during their presidency!

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And not just secular persons claim to hear voices (from dead loved-ones).

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But maybe even millions of Christians receive advice from voices on a daily basis (claiming either God, angels, or dead saints are speaking directly to them).

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Well, just read this little chapter (and subsequent chapters following), and maybe you will gain a greater insight and perspective into this current-day phenomenon…

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People Involved in Seance – The Ladies’ home journal (1948) – Wikimedia – No Known Copyright Restrictions

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CHAPTER 18:

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“ON SUCH A WINTER’S DAY”

(lyric from the 1965 mega-hit, “California Dreamin”, by the “Mamas & Papas”)

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“ALL THE LEAVES ARE BROWN…”

(lyrics from the 1965 mega-hit, “California Dreamin”, by the “Mamas & Papas”)

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 “All the leaves are brown”, as the songsters sang!

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But the skies were definitely NOT gray! 

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As a matter of fact, sunny skies were the order of this particular day! But the big old Dutch Elm trees which lined the sidewalks of this old Oregon logging town, were now stripped bare by reason of the frigid January air. And all the grass was, likewise, a deadish brown (except for maybe in some of the most geothermal areas of town).

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And on this crisp January morn, there was no denying that winter had now fully embraced the Basin! But just like a typical winter’s day in the Basin…lots of blue skies and sunshine! And actually, not nearly as cold as many other places in the good ol’ U.S. of A..

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Klamath Basin gets cold, but also gets lots of sunshine.

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SUNSHINE!!! What a redeeming aspect to this little high-country community! Nestled right next to the foothills of the Cascade mountains, Klamath graces the eastern slopes of those mountains, but also nearly borders the high deserts of Eastern Oregon: perhaps you could say it’s a hybrid of these two environmental zones.

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

The Scream – by E. Munch – Wikipedia – public domain by edvard munch c.1893

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“STOPPED INTO A CHURCH…”

(lyric from the 1965 mega-hit, “California Dreamin”, by the “Mamas & Papas”)

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The Christmas at the Oregon coast was very peaceful (see Chapter 17). But now back in Klamath, it was January. And being delivered from the satanic “Chamber of Horrors”, which was my experience up there in Ward #3600, I was now in an infinitely better position!

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Or so it seemed.

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And yet, in spite of being freed from that Unit 3600 nightmarish horror-show, I felt void of the spiritual power which I believed only God could fulfill in me.

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And so I decided to find a church where I could pray. And I went to one I knew of. The arched doors and windows were beautiful, as was the rest of this building. It looked somewhat like a Spanish mission. And stained-glass windows galore! I figured this was my best chance!

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As I said in the last chapter, it seemed as though the Spirit had departed from me.

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I lost God! And I needed Him back! Desperately!

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And this church looked holy. Really holy! And I didn’t want to be alone—without God…So I would go in and beg for Him to return…

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“Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: On the left hand, where He does work, but I cannot behold Him: He hides Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him…” Job 23:8, 9 (Job is commonly pronounced with a long “o”) 

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I somehow heard that they’re always open. Church doors, you know? Maybe some hobo, just coming in from the cold. Or perhaps some local resident in desperate need of prayer. Or maybe even a ‘Mama’ or a ‘Papa’ to get down on their knees and pray for their children. Anyone with a deep need could come here for a quiet house of refuge. A safe-place where one could get alone with God. A haven of rest for the weary soul, in which one could cry out to that oft-elusive, yet Great Unseen One!

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Whoops! The doors were locked!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

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“I PASSED ALONG THE ‘WAY’…(“Kit Carson Way”, that is)“

(“I passed along the way” are lyrics from the 1965 mega-hit, “California Dreamin”, by the “Mamas & Papas”)

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I hopped back into my little black car (actually dark metallic cobalt) and zoomed off, in search of another church in which to try to regain contact with the Spirit. (Thinking about that last church, it’s not hard to imagine that a church is just as subject to vandalism these days as any other place. You really can’t blame them for locking their doors in this increasingly decadent/lawless society!)

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Anyway, I next thought of a big old church which was on the “Kit Carson Way”. “They always have something going on there. I’ll try them!”

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And so I pulled into the parking lot.

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I walked cautiously up to the side door.

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This grand old building was once the community’s local hospital, “The Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital”. But as long as I can remember, it’s been a church. Well, church is also a hospital too…for sinners…right?

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It had massive white pillars, and the building was made of red brick. The new hospital, which replaced this old one, was re-named, “Merle West Medical Center” (the 60 Minutes TV show once unfairly renamed it, “Murder-West” in one of their many weekly hit-piece reports on various people, places, and things).

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But this once-hospital-now-turned-church was on a busy street called the “Kit Carson Way”

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Now how it got that name, Kit Carson Way, I have not a clue!

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Oh yeah, I understand who Kit Carson was. Kind of. But even though I often wondered how it got that name, I never researched it. Maybe someone around here decided to honor Kit Carson for some reason. Well, I just figured that was why; simply to honor a famous person. (Maybe now with Internet I might just look this stuff up.)

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Okay, I just looked it up online. Kit Carson (photo right) was a scout for John Fremont (painting below) and his men who came to Klamath Lake in the 1840′s, and made camp here. It was a somewhat brutal experience, and a sad point in history for Carson and Fremont with their deadly back-and-forth skirmishes with the Modoc and Klamath tribes. And history says that Carson was angry with Captain Fremont for ordering that deadly retaliatory skirmish.

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But in spite of this great blemish on his character, Carson, in his day, was mostly liked and respected by white-man, and even Native Americans alike (according to Wikipedia, at the time of this writing. Wikipedia’s info often gets changed, you know, to keep current with the oft-changing politically-correct viewpoint). And Carson liked the Indians as well. Also, he probably had more of a conscience than other men of those days. His conscience caused him sorrow for following Fremont’s orders to execute a dozen or more people during his stint with Fremont. As for Fremont’s conscience, that might be another story. Carson died at 59 of a blood-clot, by the way.

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I can’t believe I’ve never researched this before! My brother could probably recite names, dates, places, and events on this and any other subject concerning Carson and Fremont! But I just didn’t have enough interest in history. And of course, because of Internet, researching these things has now become much easier!

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Mazda rx7-1st Generation – wikipedia – GNU-free-user-license

Photo of Kit carson – courtesy Wikipedia. Public Domain.

John Frémont Wikipedia US public domain

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“STOPPED INTO ANOTHER CHURCH!”

(lyric from the 1965 mega-hit, “California Dreamin”, by the “Mamas & Papas” with the word, “another” added)

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Anyway, I was glad to find the door not locked, and so I went in. There was a secretary inside, doing some paper work. I asked if I could go into the sanctuary.

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She said, with a smile, “That’s just fine”.

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The sanctuary was not nearly as large as I thought this big building was capable of having. And I was surprised at how—uh— unorthodox everything looked. I hadn’t been to church but very rarely. And always, those churches looked very traditional: pews, murals with angels and cherubs…stained-glass windows & tall cathedral ceilings. And a pipe organ.

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But not in this church!

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But here were simple folding-chairs and a portable podium. And there were guitar amplifiers, and mic stands, as if there was a rock band or something. And the ceiling wasn’t even as tall as my ceilings at home! And just white sheet-rocked walls, like in most homes. No stained-glass! No statues! No murals! No angels! No Cherubs! And…no-o-o-o…pipe organ!

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How odd!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church pipe organ wikimedia share-alike license

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“WELL, I GOT DOWN ON MY KNEES…”

(lyric from the 1965 mega-hit, “California Dreamin”, by the “Mamas & Papas”)

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Nevertheless, it was a church! I would have preferred the first church, however. It looked much more holy and reverent than this place. But I was desperate! So this place would have to do. So I got down on my knees in front a folding chair. But then I decided to move up closer to the altar (podium) thinking I could get as close as possible to God.

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

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“AND I BEGAN TO PRAY…”

(lyrics from the 1965 mega-hit, “California Dreamin”, by the “Mamas & Papas”. Actually the original lyrics were “I pretend to pray”, but Mama Cass mistakenly sang, “I began to pray”)

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And I began to pray…“Oh God, please come back into my life. I’m sorry I let you down. Don’t leave me forever, God, etc…” As I knelt there, I just thought that maybe I felt something like my head move up and down, ever-so-slightly, almost as if He was saying “Yes. I’m here.”

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“Is that you God?” I didn’t really know if my head moved or if I was simply imagining it. And so I continued to pray. And I pleaded some more. And afterward, once again, I thought I could barely feel my head nod almost unnoticeably , “Yes”.

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But just then, several people came into the sanctuary talking together. So I got up and left.

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Outside I hopped back into my Rx-7, jubilant over the prospects that the Lord of Heaven might be back! As I drove down the road, my head began to nod continually as if He was saying, “Yes! I’m here! Yes. Yes. Yes!” By now, tears were streaming down my cheeks. I was so happy! I decided to just drive. Anywhere! It didn’t matter, now that God was back in my life!

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And so, up the Kit Carson Highway I drove. Northward! To Chiloquin! My head now nodding up and down continually. Tears still rolling down. ”You’re back!  OH HAPPY DAY!!!”

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I was like that Bible parable of the “Prodigal Son” (although at that time, I knew nothing about that parable of the prodigal son). A son who—at last—came home to his Father! (see Luke 15:11-32)

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But I was really happy He was back! And I just wanted to go for a drive! I didn’t know where. And I really didn’t care! So I drove northward towards Chiloquin, about 30 miles north of Klamath Falls.

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Chiloquin OR – welcome sign wikimedia creative commons license

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“I’D BE SAFE AND WARM…IF I WAS IN L.A….”

(lyric from the 1965 mega-hit, “California Dreamin”, by the “Mamas & Papas”)

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Now as I was driving northward, the Spirit began to speak! This was too good to be true! What a victorious moment!

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And so He spoke and I listened intently…

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“Oh Chuck, I have big plans for you.”

“Why are you talking to me Lord?”

“Oh I have big plans for you. (in Los Angeles!)”

“What kind of plans?”

“Big plans, Chuck. Very big plans!”

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You can just imagine how absolutely great this kind of news was to me! After all, I had just gone through almost two months of absolute Hell! Now the Lord was telling me that I was in store for very good news! He spoke of my going to L.A. to get back into the music business! Whoa! The music business!?

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So I asked, “Why me? Am I someone special?”

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“Very special Chuck. You were someone very special. In a former life.”

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I just sensed where he was going with this… “Was—I—Jesus?”

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My head began to nod in the affirmative.

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“I was Jesus Christ!? In a former life!?”

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“Yes Chuck. You were Jesus in a former life!”

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Los Angeles (California, USA), Hollywood Boulevard, ‘The_Beatles’ wikimedia share-alike license

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GRAND-MAMAS & GRAND-THEFT PAPAS…

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After this, I was urged to drive to a public park near Chiloquin, about 30 miles from Klamath Falls. Chiloquin was a little town where my great-grandparents settled just after the beginning of the last century, in the early 1900′s. It was originally an Indian village, of the Klamath Tribe, led by Chief Chiloquin. My great-grandparents started a general store, post office, and I think maybe even a small hotel, in about 1905, or thereabouts.

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“Oh Chuck, I have very big plans for you. But first let Me tell another reason you are very special. Besides being Jesus in a former life, you have someone in your family line who was very special. Someone I owe a big favor to.”

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Now I didn’t know much about my family history. I did hear that we had someone who was on the “Most Wanted” list. Someone like “Machine Gun Kelly” or something. And I also heard we were related to the Nelson family who starred in that old TV show, “Ozzie and Harriet”. But I began prodding him as to who it was he owed a favor to.

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“Oh Chuck, it was your Great-Grandmother. She was a great lady. Oh I loved that lady.” At times, the spirit sounded like he was getting all choked up. Like he was sobbing. But I kind-of got the slight impression that he was doing so in a mocking way. Nevertheless, this story made sense. And I was really happy about all this…uh…information the Spirit was feeding me. Because, when talking to people, I liked to always work into a conversation about my Great-Grandparents starting the first store there in Chiloquin, and My Great-Grandma being the first Postmaster there.

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But the spirit began telling me many stories about my great-grandparents, and the wonderful things they did. And he kept this up for a while until his speech turned again towards me.

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“I loved that woman. But I hate you!”

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Why do you hate me?” I asked.

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“I hate you because you are a great sinner! And you’ve done a lot of rotten things in your life. But I also love you, because you were Jesus Christ in a past life. And I have big plans for you. You are going to do something very special for Me.”

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And so began a guessing game as to what it was that I was going to do. But finally He revealed what it was I was going to do for Him.

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Photo of the Nelson’s copyrighted. But used under “fair use” rationale. Information provided by Wikipedia. See “Fair-Use” rationale. Just click here.

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“The Candy Kid”, Richard Reese Whittemore & girl-friend, “Tiger Lil” Public domain www.theweirduniverse.com

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“CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’…”

(Title of the 1965 mega-hit, “California Dreamin”, by the “Mamas & Papas”)

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“I am going to give you songs. And you are going down to LA to record them! You are one lucky S#%$!&B! You are going to be famous very soon! You are going to write some religious songs, and some that aren’t religious! And with these songs you are going to turn many people to Me!”

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I always wanted to get into the recording industry. It was my dream for many years! I even moved to San Francisco many years earlier, to attend a unique school dedicated to rock-n-roll (see the chapter, “One Flew INTO The Cuckoo’s Nest: Do You Believe In Magic?”).

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As I continued northward, I kept after him to tell me about all my former lives. And so I found out that for nearly two thousand years, I had been repeatedly re-incarnated. And in each former life, I had performed some great thing in the religious world. But He was very vague, however, as to any details. But I did manage to get out of Him that I had been a pope, a number of times. (LOL!) And also, I’d been a cardinal, and a bishop sometimes. And each time I did some necessary deed: some great accomplishment!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Pope Urban – wikipedia – public domain

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“YOU KNOW THE PREACHER LIKE THE COLD (cold snow, that is!)…”

(word-play on lyrics from the 1965 mega-hit, “California Dreamin”, by the “Mamas & Pappas”)

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After a while, the spirit directed me to return to Klamath Falls. And at some point southward, he urged me to pull over. He told me to get out of the car. “Now run up that hill, you S&%$ B#@%&!” I ran up the small embankment. “Now fall down, you $%^&#$@!” I fell down into the snow. “Now eat snow! You ^%$#@!” I hate you—but I love you (sobbing) I love you…Jesus…Christ! Eat snow!!” So I ate snow. But inside I was feeling very good. I’d take this over the “mental ward games” any ol’ day!

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Even if I had to eat snow…on such a winter’s day!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Snow Angel Man wikimedia the GNU Free Documentation License

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CONCLUSION…

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At this point, the spirit began to speak of eternal life as though it was re-incarnation. No Heaven! No Hell! Just one lie after another…uh…I mean one LIFE after another!

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A ‘CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ DREAM?…

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According to John Phillips (of Mamas & Papas) in a Bravo documentary, and Michelle Phillips in an NPR piece, the song, “California Dreamin”, was written in 1963 while they were living in New York.

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Phillips dreamed about the song and woke Michelle up to help him write it down. (This information provided by Wikipedia, but has since been removed from Wikipedia, or so it seems. Wikipedia’s info often gets changed, you know)

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The Mamas and the Papas Ed Sullivan Show 1968 WIKIPEDIA PUBLIC DOMAIN

Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

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To go to Chapter 15,  just click here,

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Ch. 19 “I AM Music”…

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This spirit proves himself to be a pretty good song-writer!

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Click on credit links below each photo, for licensing names/details/tags/etc.. Most images cropped/reduced in size

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“WE ARE NOT ALONE!”

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If we would, ever-so-carefully, watch, look, and listen, there are clues to be discovered, which only confirm that we humans are not alone in this so-called “atheistic, accidental, cosmic explosion called, ‘The Universe’“.

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And this true account of my own personal introduction to the unseen and invisible spiritual Armageddon which rages all around us has various proofs to this fact! 

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Yes, these proofs can be seen, if the truth-seeker would just set aside his or her skepticism and unbelief long enough to consider these affirmations which are often hidden “between the lines”.

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And even nature itself has its own various proofs, that we’re not here by some accidental explosion, chaos-to-cosmos, but rather, by the design and forethought of an infinite and loving Creator Being.

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Just listen to the ancient Book of Job (Job pronounced with a long “o”)…

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But ask now the beasts,

and they shall teach thee;

and the fowls of the air,

and they shall tell thee: 

Or speak to the earth,

and it shall teach thee:

and the fishes of the sea

shall declare unto thee. 

Who knoweth not in all these

that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this? 

In whose hand

is the soul of every living thing,

and the breath of all mankind.

Job 12:7-10 

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Yes, all of nature has been masterfully engineered to give us hints and clues as to just Who created all this awesome and beautiful and marvelous universe!

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So read on, and maybe you will likewise agree (or not agree) with my observations of just a few of the so-called “coincidences” which occurred through the first 50 days of this my encounter with the unseen spirit-realm (which “coincidences are found towards the end of this chapter).

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Father & Son – Wikimedia – Public Domain

South American Butterfly – cropped image – Wikipedia – Share-Alike License

Family Portrait – cropped image – Wikimedia – Share-alike License

ABOVE PICTURE – Starry Night at La Silla – cropped – Wikimedia – Share-Alike license

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CHAPTER 17:

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“SILENT NIGHT”…

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About December 23rd, 1979

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A TIME OF REST…

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I had been in the hospital since about the middle of November. It was now almost Christmas. And as far as the mental-ward staff was concerned, I was greatly improved. The “medicine” which they injected in me, seemingly had done its assigned task: bringing me back into normalcy.

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And I desperately wanted to get out of the hospital! My family was planning to spend Christmas at my Aunt’s and Uncle’s cabin at the Oregon coast.

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Finally at the last moment, I was released!

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The Scream of Nature – by E. Munch – Wikipedia – public domain by edvard munch c.1893

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FREEDOM! FREEDOM!

(1969 improvised song by Richie Havens, based on an old spiritual, “Motherless Child”)

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Oh you can’t imagine just how absolutely great it felt to walk out of that hospital, free at last! And to hop into my several-month’s-new RX-7, and zoom off! Well, it was like the first time I drove it, all over again! Not to mention that being outside in the fresh air, once again, was like being born all over again!

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Oh yeah, I was still pretty shaken up over what I had been through for the last two months! And yes, no one needed to tell me that I’d never be the same, ever again!

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But, the torment had stopped!

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For now, at least, it stopped!

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Mazda Rx-7 dash – cropped image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

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AT THE COAST

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On a high, wind-swept, tree-lined cliff, overlooking the blue Pacific (sometimes green, or gray, etc., not far from this photo, as I recall), were two houses next to each other. My parents stayed with my aunt and uncle in their large two-story cabin. The next-door house, where my brother and I stayed in, was a smaller, two-story, octagon-shaped cabin.

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Both cabins were just 20 or 30 feet from the edge of a very high cliff overlooking the beautiful Pacific.

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My brother was probably the only one who could have handled me at that point in time. Not that I was hard to manage. I was just extremely sullen, melancholy, and quiet. Too depressing for most others, no doubt. 

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But gimme a break! After all, I was still rocking and reeling from the past 50 or so, days! But my brother didn’t usually let adverse circumstances get the best of him. Plus we had been best buddies since the days we first came into this world! So this little octagon-shaped cabin worked well for my brother and I…and for every one else, I suppose. 

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Oregon Coast at Lincoln City – Photo above by Scott Catron – Wikimedia – share-alike. Click here for link.

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“HEY 98.6, IT’S GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK AGAIN!”

(Lyrics from the 1966 hit tune, “Hey, 98.6!”)

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Now, during this Christmas time at the coast, I was returned to my former condition prior to my supposed, “insanity”. It seemed like the spirit had left for good. And while I was in a very quiet and melancholy state, it just seemed that all that spiritual battle was now behind me.

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Those 50, or so, days had been like a spiritual Armageddon! It was like being picked up in a giant cyclone for 7 weeks. And now I was let back down to the ground once again.

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This spiritual holocaust was presently behind me. And if ever there’s space for the human spirit to heal, there’s no better place than the Oregon coast. The awesome grandeur of the ever-restless Pacific Ocean! The solitary beaches. The timeless roaring of the waves. The sounds of gulls as they sweep back and forth above the shoreline, hoping for some new morsel of food to show up. It really seemed weird to not feel the presence of this spirit (or spirits).

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I clearly remember standing at the cabin’s cliff’s edge, at one moment during this December, gazing over the steep and abrupt edge at the powerful ocean below. And yet, a very strange feeling came over me. It was so peaceful, except something was missing. The spiritual battle and the spirits themselves seemed so far away now. It was like Heaven and Hell, and the battle of Armageddon had just packed up and moved on!

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Picture of Lincoln City area courtesy Wikipedia. Share-alike license. Click here for link. 

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“HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN?”

(1971 hit song by Creedence Clearwater Revival)

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So, have you? Have you ever seen the rain?

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Well, if you’ve ever spent any length of time at the Oregon coast, you, no doubt, have seen LOTS AND LOTS OF RAIN!

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But to my thinking, there’s no greater natural beauty to be found anywhere in the world! The entire Oregon coast is an amazing drive! As long as you don’t mind the slow-driving/much-winding/quite-narrow/constantly-repaired, Highway 101, plus lots and lots of mist, rain, and/or fog!

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Sunny days at the Oregon coast are at a premium, to say the least!

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Now, Lincoln City is not such a big town. At least it wasn’t, back at this time (1979). But it was long. It lay smack-dab on Highway 101 in Northern Oregon. And Lincoln City is a conglomerate of several smaller towns, Nelscott, Taft, Delake (short for “Devil’s Lake”), Oceanlake, Cutler City, which all got swallowed up together over the years. So it is now five or more miles long! And much of it consists of sharp cliffs above the awesomely beautiful Pacific Ocean.

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There are many rustic and weathered old cabins throughout Lincoln City. And there are many old and quaint little tourist shops along Highway 101, and even some tiny salt-water taffy factories/shops along that five-mile stretch. And there’s a lot of nice beaches, just right for agate-hunters, and clam-diggers, crabbers, and those who take long walks along the beach. And it’s a great old fishing mecca! But I haven’t been there for some years, so it’s probably changed now (I hear there’s now a big new casino).

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Jukebox – Wikimedia – cropped image – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Global license

Beach View of Yaquina Head Lighthouse – Fog Starting to Clear – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Sunrise along the Oregon Coast – Wikimedia – by Jim Helvey for Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

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OREGON COAST…

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Yeah, But in spite of the weather, I still maintain that the Oregon coast is a fantastic place to visit!

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It’s my favorite place to be!

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I learned to appreciate the coast as a young boy. My parents or sometimes my grandparents would drive the 50 miles from our hometown of Salem, to stay in a rented cabin at Newport or Lincoln City. We kids would play on the beach for hours, and jump into the surf.

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Lincoln City Oregon – wikimedia – public domain

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THE SUMMER OF ’61’

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I still vividly recall one week-long summer vacation back in our early years, when my brother and I were down on the beach, trying to make a fort out of a few of the countless logs which had washed up on shore. 

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Well, all was going according to plan, until one heavy log we were carrying dropped, having a large rusty nail, which went right through my brother’s foot just above his toes! Of course, he let out a loud “Owww!!!”.

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He then yelled to me to “put it down!” Unfortunately, instead of setting my end down carefully, I simply (and stupidly) just dropped it in obedience to my older brother’s command, causing the log and nail to further agonize him!

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But, for some reason, he started to laugh. And so, thinking he was okay, I began laughing along with him. But then, he suddenly yelled, “WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING!?” I realized that he was probably laughing out of shock, and sheer agony!

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Well, after hobbling off the beach, and up several hundred VERY steep old wooden stairs he got back to our rented cabin. And after a trip to a nearby doctor’s office, a tetanus shot, and some stitches, he was well enough to resume our vacation.

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Lincoln City – Sep 63 – the two kids far in the background not us, but this old photo shows lady in foreground wearing  typical apparel for that era – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

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ITSY-BITSY-TEENIE-LITTLE-BRAINS GET ADULT EDUCATION!

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Well, my 11 year-old brother was probably not able to return back down to the sandy beach in his now-wounded condition.

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But about that same time, the weather got bad. So we spent the last few remaining rainy days indoors at “Gakkie’s Cabin” there in Lincoln City (also high on a cliff, overlooking the ocean).

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Actually, this rustic old cabin belonged to Dr. Gatky (Gakkie was how I mispronounced his name when I was 4 or 5).

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Yes, Doctor Gatky lived across from my grandma on 23rd Street, just one of Salem’s many beautiful old tree-lined and flowered streets. He rented that cabin to our family for the “exorbitant” sum of about $5 per day (And that was cheap even for the early 1960’s!)

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But in spite of the pouring rain outside the large ocean-view windows, we young kids (and everybody else too) had lots of fun playing games, peeling off our sunburn blisters, and listening to the thin-sounding music on a small radio (little or no TV reception back in those days, in Lincoln City. But they did have a radio station there).

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One other unforgettable aspect to this vacation was when that almost toneless old radio began playing two songs for the very first time, which were big new “hit songs”. One hit tune was called, “She Wore An Itsy-Bitsy-Teenie-Weenie-Yellow-Polka-Dot-Bikini”. 

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Yes, bikinis had become the newest rage across America at that time by young girls who hadn’t yet lost their teenage figures. And that song glorified the new craze.

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And if that new “Itsy-Bitsy-Teenie-Bikini” song wasn’t enough to send a youngster’s mind for a spin around the block, the next hit tune was sure to catapult a kid’s brain clear up to the Moon! This second little number was titled, “Never On A Sunday, Cause That’s My Day of Rest!” And although fresh out of the 4th grade, the not-so-quaint gist of that little ditty didn’t escape my tiny 9 year-old mind!

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Well, those two songs got a lot of airplay that week, often mixed in between the other, mostly relatively benign, tunes. We heard them over and over again…until their dicey lyrics no longer caused us to go “saucer-eyed”. 

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Nevertheless, these naughty-but-nice little songs must have made a deep impression on me, cause I still vividly recall hearing them! (Now I’m fully aware that, in 2020, those two songs, with their light-hearted melody/lyrics might even be considered kid-friendly, compared to much of today’s sexual/violent/scuzzy/graphic music and videos. But even though the “Sexual Revolution” was already well underway back in 1961 U.S.A., these two world-wide mega-hits were just another “bold new step forward” in the further sexualization of America and of the world!)

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But in spite of these few glitches, our summer vacation was otherwise filled with lots of innocent fun (as I’ve already stated), laughing, snacking, playing games, etc., during those rainy days at Gakkie’s Cabin. 

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Polka dots.svg – Wikimedia – Public Domain

Salem Oregon Path by the River – wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Front view of an Arvin radio, – 1940s. – wikimedia – No known copyright restrictions

prostitute taking her shift – Wikimedia – Public Domain in country of origin

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THE SUMMER OF “56 (or 58)”, IN “GAKKIE’S” GARDEN

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Now Doctor Gakkie was kind enough to allow us (about 9 guests or more, including relatives) to rent his old beach cabin (and it still stands there today). 

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But truth-be-told, I was kinda scared of the old gent, ever since the day (back in ’56’, or so) when he chased us kids out of his prize-winning, half-acre flower/rose/shrub garden (at least it seemed to us like a half-acre or more). Man, that vast garden had so many flowers, shrubs, etc., it was like walking through the winding pathways of a thick jungle! And we, most likely, were sizing it up as a potential new battle-field, for the next time all us kids would play, “Army”!

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And so, our curiosity got the best of us, and we couldn’t resist the temptation to check it out. But no sooner did we make our way through the first leg of our search/quest, we heard a loud and very angry voice, “You kids stay out of my garden!” (Well, my brother’s recollection was that I had plucked one of Gakkie’s prize roses which provoked the old gent’s angst. Imagine that! How intolerant! LOL!)

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And so we hightailed it back to the safety of Grandma’s big old front porch (Grandma pictured here, and my Grandma’s incredible flowered/shrubbed yard was perhaps the neighborhood’s showcase as well, back in those days. Not-so-much these days…new owner)!

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And that was the first and the last time we would ever explore that “mysterious jungle” of Doctor Gakkie’s garden!

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‘Ready to Engage the Enemy’ – wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

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“NO, NOT THAT KIND OF DOCTOR!”

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Now just whatever kind of doctor Gakkie actually was, to this day, I’ve never found out. But I do remember when very young, I saw two ladies walking down the old Salem sidewalk in the direction of his house, and one of them was laughing hysterically.

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And so I turned to my grandma and asked, “Grandma, is that lady going to see Doctor Gakkie?” Well, my grandma laughed and laughed, and said, “No, Chuckie”, still laughing.

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And so I instantly deduced that he was not, “that kind of doctor”.

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But to tell you the truth, in all those years of countless visits to Grandma’s house, I don’t think I ever actually saw the old man!

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Just heard his angry voice that one time.

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Oh well. (And for all I know, under different circumstances, he might have been a really nice old guy! And really! Who would want a bunch of irresponsible little neighborhood rapscallions-on-the-loose, traipsing through your prize-winning flower garden, not to mention that I might have plucked one of his prize roses, as my brother insists!?)

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And if time permitted, I’d tell about the day when our neighborhood Army-Club members decided to embark on a search-and-rescue operation (a fruit/vegetable scavenger-hunt in another neighbor’s vegetable/fruit garden!)

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Taiwan 2009 Tainan City Organic Farm Watermelon FRD – wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

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YES, “THAT KIND OF DOCTOR!”

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But it was now the Christmas of 1979, and those old days in the 50’s were just a few, distant and faded old memories.

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But now, BUT NOW…I WAS THE ONE WHO NEEDED, “THAT KIND OF DOCTOR”! And yet, I can fully assure you, that I was not laughing hysterically at this moment, like that lady was laughing her way down the sidewalk, some 25+ years earlier!

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No, I wasn’t laughing at all, right now!

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BACK TO MY OLD SELF…ALMOST

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But in spite of my somber demeanor, all that remained in the former spiritual battlefield of my mind, was peaceful silence! Yeah, this battlefield now lay desolate, except for the dead bodies strewn from one end to the other (the dead bodies of all my former atheistic ideas and philosophies, and other misguided notions about life, which I had accumulated over the years!)

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And now, before me was just the timeless and soothing roaring of the waves, and the sound of the gulls as they swept back and forth above the shoreline.

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But even though, to a certain degree, I felt like my old self again, yet I didn’t feel quite right for some reason.

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Something was missing!

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Northern Oregon Coast wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Sea Gypsies, Lincoln City, Oregon – cropped image –  wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

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THE GULL

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Another foggy day in Oregon. The rain had stopped—for a while. But the air was heavy with the cold, wet mist. The gulls were now making their endless sweeps back-and-forth along the shore-line. The tide had receded, leaving a table of food for the ever-hungry, never-satisfied scavengers.

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Down below, a solitary form lay atop a mound of a rock, close to the incoming surf. A few of the gulls, seeing, swept down for a closer inspection of the wounded bird. They couldn’t understand why their fellow gull just sat down there instead of flying with them like usual.

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The gull lifted up his head as if to remember his former friends/rivals, who were still winging back-and-forth, making their daily coastline inspection. 

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But just then, another great wave swept over the wounded bird, causing the bird to hurt once again with its open wounds. Besides being caught in a large piece of fish net, the bird had a fish-hook caught in his flesh. The pain made each moment seem like an hour! (“…in an evil net, as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.” Ecclesiastes 9:12)  

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The bird vainly struggled to get itself free. But he was totally helpless! And now the tide was once again coming back in, sweeping over the bird. Wave after wave swept over the bird. (“Thy {God’s} wrath lies hard upon me, and Thou {God} hast afflicted me with all Thy waves. Selah.” Psalm 88:7) 

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Finally came the night. The Moon, fully illuminated, stood watch high above the dark blueness of the sea.

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The exhausted bird just lay there throughout the long night. And before the morning, even the Moon turned away his face from the gull; turning toward the East, as if eagerly awaiting the arrival of the morning Sun, as He (the Moon) resumed His appointed place once again.

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But in the early morning hours, just as the Sun shone His bright rays through the heavy mist, a dark silhouette blocked the Sun’s rays, casting his great shadow over the wounded gull.

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The bird was tired. Too tired to struggle. Too weak to flee from this dark enemy! And as he lay there, knowing he had arrived at the end, a large, wrinkled hand reached down and lifted up the bird. But before the bird knew what happened, the Fisherman was out of sight. The gull was surprised that this strange form was now gone, but hadn’t killed the gull! No, the bird realized he was free at last from both the hook, as well as from the net. Hobbling over the rocks until he finally came to one great rock by a large drift log. “A quiet place to sit. To heal. To think”, the bird decided. To rest until he was healed enough to fly once again.

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The cool breezes seemed to sooth and restore this bird. The old fisherman had mercifully given it a second chance.

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The gull would soon again be flying, once again making his endless sweeps back-and-forth along the sand of the sea. Seeking.

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USA Oregon Newport Yaquina Head Light Seagull – cropped image – wikipedia GNU Free Documentation License

wikimedia:Moon Over Mombasa.

Kelp Gull South Africa – wikipedia – Share-Alike-3.0.jpg

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CONCLUSION…

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Reflecting back on those “mental ward games”, as I earlier said, they seemed to be a weird sort of analogy to the Gospel story of Lucifer’s rebellion and Christ’s redemption of the world, represented by the Ayatollah and the Shah.

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Fortunately, the fate of the world didn’t actually rest on my shoulders, as I was led to believe by the spirits. And thankfully, Christ, the Son of God has already won back the world by His own sinless life here on Earth, and by His own sacrificial/redemptive death on the Cross.

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The problem is, I just didn’t know any of this at that time! So I was a real “push-over”, an “easy mark” for the spirits, who had, no doubt, gleefully orchestrated that whole business back in Unit 3600!  

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chess – checkmate by Friedriech Moritz August Retzsch wikigallery.org

Public beach entrance at Lincoln City, next to chowder house. Photo courtesy Wikipedia. Share-alike license. Click here for link. 

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“HMM…KIND OF INTERESTING”…

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And just a side-note. I was much later surprised that some months later, while listening to the news, to hear that the American hostages were finally released from Iranian captivity on the 444 day of their captivity. A spirit reminded me that 444 is two-thirds of 666. Maybe that’s just a coincidence. But it’s an interesting coincidence.

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No big deal, I guess.

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Iran hostages – wikipedia – public domain

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“HMM…VERY, VERY, INTERESTING”…

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And as long as we’re talking about interesting coincidences, here’s another one for ya! Remember how I told you that our restaurant had the address, 3600, South 6th? And of course, if you’ve followed along with this story, you know that the mental ward I was in, was Unit 3600. And remember how shocked I was that our restaurant address and the mental ward I was tormented in, both had the same number, 3600?

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Now do you also recall that I mentioned that it seemed as if I was much like that rich man in that parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus, who was tormented in Hell (painting to left)? And I was being tormented by fire and brimstone (“spiritual fire & brimstone”, not literal)?

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Well, the other day (Fall, 2013), I was doing a word search in my “Strong’s Concordance”. And I just so-happened to look into the Greek for the word, “Torment”. And I discovered that there are several Greek words for “Torment”. 

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But to my amazement, it just so happens that the very Bible passage this particular Greek word #3600 (in Strong’s Concordance) is used in, is none other than that very parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus!

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Listen… “And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented (Greek word #3600) in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that you, in  your lifetime received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and you are tormented (Greek word #3600).” Luke 16:24, 25.

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Coincidence? Not a coincidence? Well, whichever way you decide, I certainly won’t argue with you!

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But you have to admit, it is a very, very, interesting co-incident, if that’s all it is!

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Brooklyn Museum – The Rich Man in Hell – James Tissot – wikimedia – public domain

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COINCIDENCE? MENTAL ILLNESS? SATAN?

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But please indulge me in one last, yet extremely interesting “coincidence”, in my hospital stay!

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Remember how the sun shining on the window mesh-screen in the high-security lock-down room flashed an incredible cross-like light-beam, as I was praying?

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Well just look at this 300-plus-year-old graphic plate showing almost the exact same “coincidence” occurring to an “insane” individual praying back in those times, and thinking the sun shining on his cross was a sign from Heaven!

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Coincidence?

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Insanity?

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Same old Devilish Deceiver today as in olden times?

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You be the judge!

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To go to the next chapter, just click here…

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Ch. 18: “On Such A Winter’s Day”…

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The spirit returns. Big-time!

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