When I was a boy of five or six years of age I had flying dreams most nights. I have written another post describing them so I’ll refer you to that article for details about them. Although I mentioned them to parents and other relatives, no one responded or tried to explain them. I don’t think they could offer an explanation. They wouldn’t know what to say. My family was focused on the physical world, making a living, and running a household, etc. They did not show interest in “spiritual” things.

Questioning life’s meaning

I knew there was more to life than the physical world, but I did not know what to do with the information. What was the purpose of school and work only to die and leave it all behind? Why raise children to do it all over again? I must have had a thousand other questions about the meaning of life. Nevertheless, this was the beginning of my spiritual life in this incarnation.

One question I had was about world events. Even at a young age, I wondered why neighboring countries wasted their resources fighting with each other. I didn’t know, and the people in those countries probably didn’t know either. I didn’t know how karma, psychic energy, religions, greed, power and fear, among other things, played a role in this.

Faith and identity within the Jewish context

My family was Jewish and I was raised in the Jewish faith. My parents believed in God, but were not particularly religious. They were more like secular Jews. In my view, Judaism is an ethnicity as well as a religion. We attended synagogue only on the High Holidays or if the family had a special event to attend, like a bar mitzvah, wedding or funeral. However, we did identify strongly with being Jewish, lived in a Jewish neighborhood, and supported Israel.

I attended Hebrew School for three years for religious training and in preparation for my own bar mitzvah when I would turn 13 years old. Hebrew School was twice a week after regular school. One session, we studied the Hebrew language. The other session we studied the Hebrew Bible. We collected money to plant trees in Israel. The Bible stories included spiritual experiences of the people in ancient times, but did not explain how that happened to them. Why couldn’t people today have those experiences, or did they have them, I wondered. I also attended weekly service every Saturday morning. They lasted four hours, and were mostly Hebrew prayers and singing by the cantor. Most people enjoyed it, but I felt something was missing for me.

My bar mitzvah was a big event for my parents. They invited 300 people to the synagogue and catered reception afterwards. I read from the Torah and the Five Books of Moses. During the ceremony, the rabbi gave me a special blessing. I expected to have a spiritual experience at that time, like the meaning of life would pour through me. But nothing happened. I was very disappointed. Maybe I wasn’t ready for it at 13 years old or maybe I expected too much. I hope I don’t sound critical of Judaism because I don’t feel that I know enough about the intricacies of it. Some people get a lot of comfort from the prayers and rituals. In any event, after my bar mitzvah my parents no longer required me to attend Saturday services or Hebrew school and I stopped going.

Nature’s embrace and past life connection

My real experiences happened when I walked in the woods behind our house. I felt very comfortable there, never afraid. I knew the trails and the streams, the animals, the birds and the trees. I believe that I have had many prior lives in these woods. On several occasions I heard a high-pitched sound in my left ear. It was so compelling that I froze in my tracks to hear it for as long as I could. However, each time it lasted less than a minute and faded away. Although I did not know what it was or where it came from, I did know that it was not an earthly sound.

Because I focused so much attention on spiritual matters, I wasn’t as interested in the physical world as my friends. I became somewhat introverted. In retrospect, there were a lot of things I could have done in school that I didn’t bother with. I was a good athlete and my friends wanted me to be the pitcher on the school baseball team, but I declined. Now I wish I had tried out for the position; I could have helped the team.

An unexpected journey within the astral realms

When I was 19 years old, I was home from college for the summer at my parents’ house. One hot New England July night I was sound asleep in my bedroom. This started out as a routine night, but it did not stay that way. I wasn’t looking to have anything unusual happen when I went to bed, but I will always remember 2:00 am.

I woke up abruptly with a buzzing in my forehead. The next thing I knew I was in what was probably my astral body hovering in the kitchen ceiling of a neighbor’s house. I had known the family for years because their son was a friend, and I had been in that house many times.

Looking down from the ceiling, I saw my friend’s mother talking on the kitchen phone. Of course, she could not see me. I could not hear what she said, but I knew she was calling for emergency medical help for her husband. I should mention that I had no concerns about my physical body nor was I afraid. However, that was about to change.

In an instant, I was back in my physical body wide-awake in my bed. I was confused about what was going on when suddenly the spirit of the husband came into my room through the wall. The room grew cold and the spirit expanded to fill it up wall- to-wall and floor to ceiling. He had followed me back to my room and must have been as confused as I was. His physical death must have been a shock to him as he was a middle age man with no obvious health issues. Now I was scared, really scared, too scared to look. I begged him to leave, but he couldn’t because he had no idea what was happening either. He was probably wondering what was he doing in Mike’s room! He knew me well from being a friend of his son.

But help was on the way. I sensed a light being descending into the backyard like a bolt of lightening. The man’s spirit went through the back wall like it was being sucked out by a vacuum, and the two of them vanished. The room got hot again. In the distance I heard the siren from an ambulance going to his house, but it was too late. I used the word “spirit” because I don’t know what else to call it. It might have been his astral body or something else. I went to his funeral a few days later, but his body was an empty shell. The life had gone somewhere else.

Joining a spiritual group

My spiritual search continued, enhanced by that experience. Several years later, I was introduced to a worldwide group of spiritual seekers. I joined soon afterwards.

This group was the first one I knew that recognized reincarnation as a fact of life. It had a spiritual leader who wrote books and discourses. The problem was the information seemed to be written in riddles. I couldn’t grasp the point of the books or the lesson in the discourses. The group had other teachings that I believed at the time but now realize they were destructive.

For example, one teaching was that the Earth was the ashcan of the universe. With thousands of spiritually minded people putting that thought into the ethers, does it contribute to global warming and pollution? Another teaching was that the Earth is a warring universe. Does this teaching contribute to wars? A woman could not be the spiritual leader of the group for some silly, made-up reason. Does this contribute to misogyny? Another teaching was not to help anyone because you might take on their karma. I followed this rule until I heard a respected person say that he wasn’t afraid of karma. Hearing him say that broke the spell and I realized it was a cult.

Finding Jen Ward

The one helpful thing I did get from this group was their God World Poster that displayed the physical, astral, causal, mental and etheric planes. I saw the poster the first day I was there, and it made sense to me. I should have left then, but I stayed until I learned of Jen Ward from my wife, Therese, and had a session with Jen. Everything is energy and Jen has the ability to see in energy. At a session, she can rip off layers of karma from past lives as well as from this life that are affecting a client. She explains what she is doing in plain English. Her Spiritual Freedom Taps (SFT) give the client the opportunity to continue the journey after the session. She has also written many books.

It is important to point out that Jen is not interested in starting a group or being the head of a group. No one sits at her feet. Everyone is their own person with their own experiences. We are all learning. Jen says that in a past life, she was Mme. Helena Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy. Jen has stated that the teachings in that lifetime were misused by unscrupulous people. She does not want that to happen again.

Here are some examples of Spiritual Freedom Taps that are relevant to this article for you to try for your self. Say each tap three times while continuously tapping on the top of your head, a fourth time while continuously tapping on your chest, and a fifth time while continuously tapping on your abdomen.

We dissipate all psychic energy interfering with world peace; in all moments.

We remove all blockages to world peace; in all moments.

We dissipate all psychic energy that denigrates female empowerment; in all moment.

We remove all blockages to the empowerment of female energy; in all moments.

We dissipate all psychic energy that desecrates the sanctity and beauty of the earth; in all moments.