How I Experienced Divine Grace During Meditation

For me, visualization meditation has become an essential spiritual practice.

Recently in such a meditation, I found myself standing on a hillside. Thousands of other souls stood there with me.

We were waiting, quietly, blissfully, in anticipation.

All of us were looking across a valley to the rolling hills beyond. We were watching what appeared to be a sunrise.

As I watched the sunrise, I began to hear the melodious sound of a heavenly choir, faintly at first and then louder. But I saw no choir. At once I realized this sound was, in fact, emanating from within the light bodies of the multitude of souls standing there on the hillside. What a joyous sound!

“So this is what joy sounds like!” I remember thinking to myself in amazement.

I then began to wonder what was going on. Why had we gathered here? What were we witnessing? Was this some sort of Biblical rapture? Was this the ascension? Would we be lifted up into the heavens?

I could see the “sunlight” glowing on the faces of those souls standing near me. I could feel its warmth on my own face. I had never before felt such deep humility and happiness as I did in that moment.

Then I realized it could not be a sunrise I was watching, because in Heaven there is no sun. Nor is there darkness of night. I continued to wait.

No one was speaking, but like the others, I began to experience a gentle “knowing.” Thoughts were coming into my head. I couldn’t be sure where these thoughts were coming from.

All at once, I knew we were observing the divine energy of God. I could feel this energy flowing into me in wave after joyous wave. It wasn’t blasting me -- it was just flowing into me like gentle waves on a beach. I could feel the heavy crust of my negative emotions -- fear, judgmentalism, and greed -- breaking apart and falling away. I was experiencing the grace of God. I was experiencing salvation from the false belief in separation from God. Freely and unconditionally, God was removing the illusions of physicality I had always believed were real.

“Thank you. Thank you, God,” I murmured.

My joy must have been greater than I imagined. Someone standing nearby glanced at me. I could hear his thoughts. “This is it!” he was thinking. “This is what we’ve been waiting such a long time for. Isn’t it wonderful?!”

I knew in that moment that a new Earth was coming. Heaven and Earth would soon be merging. Earth would be beautiful again, as pristine as it had once been. And to dwell in this new Earth, my physical body was being transformed into a light body. How I welcomed this event!

I could hear someone else thinking, “We’re home at last!”

I smiled in quiet gratitude.

And then I knew I could not remain in this beautiful place much longer. I had to return to the physical world. I still had work to do in the physical world. I still had a mission to complete.

As the scene on the hillside gradually faded, I struggled to remember what I had learned there. Ordinary thoughts of things I had to do throughout the day were seeping into my meditative state, pulling me back into the physical world. I could hear the intrusive sound of my meditation timer. 

Now back in the physical world, I had many things to think about -- among them the energy and grace of God and how these were transforming me. I was glad to have spiritual friends here in the physical world to help me understand these things. I knew I would soon experience God’s grace again.

An Encounter With Two New Spirit Friends On "The Other Side"

Lately I’ve been wondering why Spirit would wish to speak to me.

So I decided to go to “the other side” to ask about this in a recent meditation.

As I sank into a meditative state, I found myself deep in a forest. The leaves sparkled on on the trees that formed a canopy high above me. I was struck by the luminescence of the green vegetation surrounding me.

I waited, alone, wondering what might happen. I could hear only the sounds of birds and rustling leaves. The air smelled faintly of lilac, like a sweet mix of roses and vanilla, reminding me of my childhood during springtime in Pennsylvania. After a while, I began to think no one would show up.

Suddenly, two spirit beings appeared in my presence. One, seemingly male, stood to my left, the other, female, to my right.

“You thought you were all alone, didn’t you?” the male asked, smiling.

I could only nod, awestruck by the radiant beauty of these two translucent beings.

“That’s what you’ve always thought,” the female commented. “But you’re never alone.”

They emitted a love and gentleness like none I had ever before felt.

“Where’s Max?” I asked, somewhat dumbfounded and not knowing what else to say. I had grown accustomed to encountering Max, my primary spirit guide, during my journeys to “the other side.”

“He will join us later,” the male assured me. “He’s finishing up some other duties. He delegated this time to us. You see, Roy, we’re learning, too, just like you are. That’s why Max asked us to meet you.”

Hmm, I thought to myself, don’t spirit entities already know everything? They knew my thoughts and laughed. “We’re eternally evolving, just like you,” the female informed me. “Now, then,” she continued, “we know you have a question you’d like to ask.”

“Well, yes,” I said. “It’s simply this: Why does Spirit wish to communicate with me?”

The male placed a hand gently on my shoulder. “You have forgotten what you really are,” he said. “You believe you are separate from us. We want to help you remember what you have forgotten. We want to work with you. It’s our job.”

In my spiritual studies, I had heard words like these before. I had packed my head full of knowledge. But I wanted to know what Oneness felt like in my heart. Now I could feel their energy reaching out to me, enveloping me. I felt energized, exhilarated. I felt like I was glowing, just like my two new friends.

For a while, none of us spoke. Suddenly, I realized I didn’t know the names of these two glorious beings. Just as suddenly, I knew their names weren’t important. I knew that, in Spirit, we identify each other by vibration, not by names.

“Our evolution is closely tied to yours,” the male said. “When you make progress, so do we. We have a vested interest in your progress.”

“You thought we’ve been ignoring you,” the female interjected. “The fact is: we couldn’t get through to you. Now, at long last, you’re making it possible for us to communicate with you.”

The male continued, “We have much to tell you. But because of your self-imposed limitations, we have to do it little by little. You couldn’t absorb it all at once.”

This exasperated me. I wanted to know everything -- right now! I always do.

“Just walk. And listen,” the male said.

As we walked, I could hear birds singing in the tree tops. But it seemed as if all of naturing was singing, like a celestial choir. What a joyous sound! Within me, I could feel the stirrings of “divine knowing.”  

At last, the female spoke. “We have been communicating with you for a long time -- in what you have been reading, in what others have been saying to you. We have put others in your path. You call them friends, but you could also call them teachers.”

In that moment, I knew that the physical world and spirit realms are not really separate, as I had always believed. I knew that there has always been a constant flow of communication between us in the physical world and those in the spirit realms, even though we have not been able to hear it. I knew that, like my two new spirit friends, I was a spiritual being, too.

It was difficult to tell from which of them this knowledge was coming, because neither one of them was speaking aloud. Instead, their thoughts were flowing into me. But it didn’t matter. Perhaps they had only taken on their two forms so that I could relate to them during our encounter in the forest.

Suddenly and to my surprise, Max appeared before me “out of nowhere” there in the forest. He chuckled at my surprise. “Have these two been answering your questions?” he asked me.

I assured him that they had.

“Well, don’t keep this wisdom to yourself,” he instructed. “It’s meant to be shared with others.”

I could sense at that moment that it was nearly time for me to go, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to stay with Max and my two new friends. We lingered there a while longer. I felt as if I was absorbing knowledge from them.

At last, I felt myself slipping away. I tried to stop the inevitable return to my physical body, but I could not. 

“We are always here, waiting for you,” one of them said. Then they were gone. And I was back in my physical body.

Why in Heaven's Name Would Spirit Want to Talk to Us?

Why, you may wonder, would Spirit have any reason or desire to talk to us? After all, we are mere mortals, aren’t we?

Recently, I have been wondering about this. So I have discussed it with my spirit guides in my journeys to “the other side” during meditation. Here is what I have learned...

Before we incarnate, each of us draws up “contracts” with our spirit guides who will accompany us when we come to the physical world. These guides agree to assist us throughout our stay here. Normally, we are not aware of their presence, despite the important role they play in our lives.

We also make contracts with souls who will incarnate at about the same time as we do and who will meet up with us here in the physical world. Perhaps they will become our loved ones, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, or even enemies. In making these contracts, we decide what we will do together when we meet up here.

Upon incarnating, we forget all about these contracts. But our friends remaining behind in Spirit do not forget. They continue to work with us, whether we know it or not. They even try to communicate with us.

Our spirit guides want to advise and encourage us during our sojourns in the physical world. That’s their job. They try to arrange the kinds of experiences we need for personal and spiritual growth while we are here. They help us find the materials we need, such as A Course in Miracles and other great spiritual teachings. They often work through gifted channelers to help us. They know how difficult life can be for us here. They know how difficult it is for us to believe this physical world is just an illusion. They want to help us remember that we are really spiritual beings, just like them.

At the same time, loved ones who have already returned to the spirit realms may want to contact us. They want to assure us that they are all right, and they want us to stop grieving for them. They may want to apologize for their behavior when they were here in the physical world. They may want to help us in some way. Not wishing to frighten or alarm us, they may appear to us only in dreams.

One of the most astounding discoveries I’ve made so far in my travels to “the other side” is that spirit entities may wish to contact us in order to facilitate their own evolution. We are impelled by a never-ending desire to evolve, whether we are here or in the spirit realms. For that reason, we reincarnate again and again. Many souls fail to achieve the kind of growth they had hoped for in their last incarnation. Now they are back in the spirit realms, but perhaps in partnership with us, they can work on their unfinished lessons.

Others who are about to incarnate for the first time may wish to know what to expect of life here in the physical world once they arrive. During my trips to “the other side” in meditation, I have learned that one of my functions there is to help such young souls prepare for incarnation by giving them a better understanding of what life is like here, based on my own experience.

Still others who have not incarnated in a long “time” may have forgotten what life is really like in the physical world -- especially its intensity and difficulty -- and they may wish to be reminded of what it’s like before returning again. Each time we incarnate, we draw the “veil of forgetfulness” over us. We deliberately cut off contact with Spirit in order to enhance the realism and spontaneity of our experiences here. These souls who are about to reincarnate after a long hiatus know they will draw “the veil of forgetfulness” over themselves once again and they may wish to prepare for this.

When trying to communicate with us, Spirit frequently has trouble getting our attention because of our disbelief, skepticism, and fear. They may have to push and cajole us, create synchronicities in our lives, or even let life deliver us a few hard knocks before we become willing to wake up. Sometimes they may need to communicate with us urgently, such as when we face imminent danger. They may want to help us awaken before we self-destruct in alcoholism and drug abuse, depression, or suicide.

Spirit can communicate with anyone -- including you. But Spirit will never violate your free will. Your willingness is required before they can open a channel of communication with you.