Interactions with God #2

Interaction #2 was actually a short event but things leading up to it began 8 months earlier.   I will tell the tale first and then explain what happened following.  

Yes, this did actually happen. 

In the summer of my junior year of high school (1980), living in Wexford, PA, I hung out with a small group of friends.  

We had started playing softball in the rather large parking lot of a local Catholic Church.  Since we originally did not have enough people for a full game, I began to call around to some school friends who I did not know as well.  One of these was John St.Clair.  

John and some of his friends would join a game every now and again.  Odd things began happening with John.  At first, it was just over the phone.  To begin with, John began answering the phone before it rang on my end.  He just happened to pick up the phone to call me at the exact moment I was calling him.  Now, everyone has done stuff like this before, but this began to happen almost every time I called and visa versa.  This started a rather strange conversation and a more strange series of events. 

Since we both noticed that this seemed odd, we began to talk about it a bit and come up with really goofy explanations.  Ranging from aliens to ESP, we somewhat settled on the idea that God was trying to communicate something to us.   I don’t remember how we came up with that concept, but I think deep down it was something I wanted to believe.  

It all came to a head when I was having a phone conversation with a mutual friend of John and I, Tracy Kozlowski.  While talking to Tracy, the phone made a funny click sound and the call with Tracy was dropped and replaced by a call with John!  Now, this was long before call waiting, three-way calling, or any of the now normal things we can do with a phone.  John had picked up the phone to call me, and it seemed to him that I had picked it up before it rang like we had been both doing consistently now for weeks.  But since I was on a call already, what happened was not even possible at that time.  John’s call superseded my call with Tracy.  

Yes, we then both fully acknowledged that something outside the realm of normal was definitely going on.  This is where we focused on the idea that God wanted something. 

I was not a Christian at the time.  I went to Catholic Church with my family, but did not believe in Jesus Christ yet.  We only went to Church every once and a while and it meant nothing to me.  My knowledge of God was very limited, so it is understandable that I would take my current experiences and come up with such a wrong viewpoint. 

I was a 17 year old at the time.  I wanted to be more important than I was, just like most kids at that age.  The idea that John and I had a higher purpose was very attractive to me.  

So, we began to experiment with ESP, thinking since we had no idea where else to go with it.  We did have quite a bit of success with it too.  Generally, I could pick a number, almost any number and John could simply pull it out of my head and say it.  Yes, we did this in front of others to prove it.  One time, I held a hand of maybe 7 cards; John picked the number and suit of the card I was focused on, and two cards down and two cards up.   All this did was to spur us on to greater efforts to figure out what was happening and why.

Somewhere along the way, we came up with the idea that I should be hypnotized and through that, maybe I could get into a spiritual state and meet with God, or whoever seemed to be guiding us.  

There definitely was outside influence… a spiritual being of some sort.  That had become clear to us over the first few months of my Senior year of High School.  I had been hoping it was God, but well, I was wrong.  

There had begun to be a tension of sorts.  An odd pressure, which grew within me to press forward in order to understand what was going on.  It became rather uncomfortable, so early in the year of 1981, John and I decided to attempt the hypnosis idea.  Neither of us had a clue how to do this, so what John came up with was not discussed but rather just played out as he was making it up. 

A mutual friend, Dave Spence, had a party at his parent’s house.  Quite a large number of people were invited and yes, it was the early 80’s in high school, lots of beer was involved.  John and I along with another friend, Gregg Dille, were helping Dave with some of the party particulars so we were planning to stay the night after everyone left.  The party went well as usual, with no police raids (we were underage for PA at the time).  After everyone had gone home, John and I made our attempt at hypnosis.  Dave and Gregg, who knew nothing of what John and I were planning, were down in the basement of the house playing pool.  It was about 2am.  The beer buzz was long gone by now.  John and I went to an upstairs bedroom and I lied on one of the beds while John sat on the floor at the foot of the bed. 

He said to me, “OK, picture yourself climbing a ladder”, so I did.  I imagined a white ladder and myself climbing it in darkness.  He said after a minute or so, “OK, you reach the top and are now in a hallway”.  In my imagined hallway, there were four doors on each side, eight total.  There was a red carpet lined on the floor for the length of the hallway.  Each door had a number on it.  1-4 on the left, 5-8 on the right.  

The hallway details were not discussed by either of us at this point, but oddly enough as we talked later that night, John saw in his mind the same thing. 

Without discussing the details at all, John said “Go to door number four”.  I did so in my imagination.  Now keep in mind, I was fully aware of where I actually was, lying on the bed upstairs in Dave’s house.  Yet, somehow, I felt myself in this imagined hallway.  

I went to the door and opened it.  The room was roughly 10 by 10. It was empty except for a light on the ceiling which seemed to have a 40 watt bulb in it.  A strong feeling of being alone and sadness swept through me.  I said to John “Let’s leave”.   He then said, “OK, go to door number six”.   

I went down the hallway and reached out to open the door numbered six.  As I started to turn the imaginary knob in my mind, a cold pain shot up my arm and then down my spine.  This pain was definitely not imaginary!  

In my mind, I fell backwards into a strange blackness.  This blackness engulfed me completely.  Still aware of my surroundings I began to thrash around on the bed, losing any control of my body.  John remained silent still sitting on the floor, while I was flung or thrown to the floor several feet from the bed. 

What took place next is hard to explain.  And at the time, I had absolutely no idea what was going on.  I didn’t realize until years later what actually happened, and how God really stepped in to save my butt. 

I ended up on all fours on the floor.  Still aware of my surroundings, I began to uncontrollably slam my head into the floor.  In my mind, my thoughts changed.  They were no longer words that I heard, but instead became printed words that I saw, and they were floating away from me.  The last thought I watched float away was “I am losing”. 

The door to the bedroom opened suddenly, and standing in the doorway was Gregg Dille.  Dave was just behind him with a very confused look on his face.  When the door opened, the darkness left me immediately, like a heavy blanket was pulled off.  I was myself again, though the confusion and fear as to what happened was overwhelming.   

Still on all fours, with a growing lump on my forehead and the imprinted pattern of shag carpeting, I looked up at Gregg who then said plainly, “Don’t go into door number six!”  

He then proceeded to walk to a corner of the bedroom and sit down Indian style and cry.  John was in a trance-like state still at the foot of the bed.  Dave, since Gregg and John were not responsive, looked at me with the same look I probably gave him.  A few moments later John came out of whatever state he was in, and joined us in the same confused look, and then we watched Gregg for a good half hour, or so, until he stopped crying and repeating “Don’t go into door number six”.  

Once Gregg seemed normal, we asked him and Dave what happened.  Dave said that he and Gregg were in the basement playing pool, when suddenly, Gregg stopped and went all weird-like saying “Don’t go into door number six” and then quickly left the room and went all the way up several flights of stairs to the bedroom.   

The rest you know. 

I didn’t sleep well that night, and probably a few nights after.  Like I said earlier, I had no clue what happened until I became a Christian and grew in some basic biblical knowledge… several years later.  

I tell you the bible is true, every bit of it.  There are evil spirits, and I encountered at least one that night.  I have encountered several since, but definitely not on those same terms.  There is not much information on these things, as they are not something we should be terribly afraid of, or know much about.  However, what is clear is that they want, or need to find a host.  I was the planned host. 

Gregg, fortunately, had become a Christian a year or so earlier.  Once a person gets “saved” or accepts Jesus, they are changed inside.  God puts His Spirit in them.  How this works, or what it is like really, won’t make sense unless you have experienced it.  Either way, what happened was God’s presence overwhelmed Gregg since He was already residing in him, and then walked him upstairs and into the room.  As it is written, light dispels darkness, and so that is what happened.  Gregg, because he was not walking with God in a pleasing way, was also overwhelmed with guilt and shame.  This is a consequence of sin when we are in the presence of God.  It should drive us to repentance, but we are a stubborn lot.

I had foolishly opened myself up to something spiritual and predatory.  Something I was not equipped or able to deal with.  God, for reasons I still don’t know, stepped in and said “No, This one is mine”.