I don’t consciously recall much from the ceremony itself except that it was very hot and emotionally intense for me. At the end, I exited and lay face-down on the ground sobbing. I felt the Earth as a living being and I was pleading for forgiveness. I remember feeling an overpowering loving response which triggered even more emotions of gratitude and relief. Suddenly I jumped up and dove into the lake that we were camped by. I was charged with enormous physical energy and I swam vigorously, ecstatically enjoying the cool wetness of the water and my own unbelievable physical prowess. People on the shore were calling to me, “Come back! Come back!” which I did reluctantly.

As I write this fifteen years later I am realizing that when I climbed out of the lake the people that were calling out to me were nowhere to be seen. Climbing out of the lake, I again lay face-down on the Earth, and my heart was racing and pounding so hard and loud that I felt that I was bouncing like a big rubber ball. It occurred to me that I might be risking a heart attack, but it didn’t matter because I was so happy and I couldn’t think of a better time to die than in that moment. When I finally calmed down I looked around and saw things that I now know were spiritual visions but at the time was so real that it took a while for me to acknowledge that what I saw could not have happened in this flesh and blood realm.

There were men and women standing, watching me from the ridge above who I recognized, and who, I found out later, were actually involved in a farewell ceremony on the other side of the property at least half a kilometer away. A voice from the now empty lodge was urging me, “Find your own people. Find your ancestors.” A doubled over Algonquin Grandmother holding a corn-cob pipe was extolling me, “You are good, you are a good son.” The Grandmother was real enough, the matriarch of the Wawatie family from Rapid Lake, but how could it be that I understood everything she was whispering into my ear when I knew that she spoke neither English nor French?

Through grace of All-That-Is, this experience completely altered my life. I had been on a spiritual path going into this experience but now I had incontrovertible evidence of a spiritual world that exists beyond the physical realities of our day-to-day lives. Now that I had this knowledge, there was no turning back. I had forever lost the ability to see my life as I had in the past. Thankfully, I did not descend to the unwitting Hell of feeling like a ‘Chosen One’. Instead I felt a peer-ship with all things, and an overwhelming responsibility to live my life with integrity. This has led me to a life that is incomprehensibly rich and joyful, and I have never been happier. Every day, even the most mundane, is now an ecstatic peak experience, whether I realize it or not.

I don’t consciously recall much from the ceremony itself except that it was very hot and emotionally intense for me. At the end, I exited and lay face-down on the ground sobbing. I felt the Earth as a living being and I was pleading for forgiveness. I remember feeling an overpowering loving response which triggered even more emotions of gratitude and relief. Suddenly I jumped up and dove into the lake that we were camped by. I was charged with enormous physical energy and I swam vigorously, ecstatically enjoying the cool wetness of the water and my own unbelievable physical prowess. People on the shore were calling to me, “Come back! Come back!” which I did reluctantly.

As I write this fifteen years later I am realizing that when I climbed out of the lake the people that were calling out to me were nowhere to be seen. Climbing out of the lake, I again lay face-down on the Earth, and my heart was racing and pounding so hard and loud that I felt that I was bouncing like a big rubber ball. It occurred to me that I might be risking a heart attack, but it didn’t matter because I was so happy and I couldn’t think of a better time to die than in that moment. When I finally calmed down I looked around and saw things that I now know were spiritual visions but at the time was so real that it took a while for me to acknowledge that what I saw could not have happened in this flesh and blood realm.

There were men and women standing, watching me from the ridge above who I recognized, and who, I found out later, were actually involved in a farewell ceremony on the other side of the property at least half a kilometer away. A voice from the now empty lodge was urging me, “Find your own people. Find your ancestors.” A doubled over Algonquin Grandmother holding a corn-cob pipe was extolling me, “You are good, you are a good son.” The Grandmother was real enough, the matriarch of the Wawatie family from Rapid Lake, but how could it be that I understood everything she was whispering into my ear when I knew that she spoke neither English nor French?

Through grace of All-That-Is, this experience completely altered my life. I had been on a spiritual path going into this experience but now I had incontrovertible evidence of a spiritual world that exists beyond the physical realities of our day-to-day lives. Now that I had this knowledge, there was no turning back. I had forever lost the ability to see my life as I had in the past. Thankfully, I did not descend to the unwitting Hell of feeling like a ‘Chosen One’. Instead I felt a peer-ship with all things, and an overwhelming responsibility to live my life with integrity. This has led me to a life that is incomprehensibly rich and joyful, and I have never been happier. Every day, even the most mundane, is now an ecstatic peak experience, whether I realize it or not.