A few months ago I had an unexpected session with the world re-known therapist, Gregg Unterberger, M.Ed, LPC.
The logical question to that statement would be, “How could a therapy session be unexpected”?
Well… my wife read Mr. Unterberger’s book, The Quickening, Leaping Ahead On Your Spiritual Journey, and liked it very much. The day after she finished it, a flyer arrived in the mail, advertising a one-day conference in Pittsburgh, featuring that very same world-famous therapist and author. She insisted that I sign her up.
Yes, dear.
So in the lead up to the day of the conference, I read The Quickening, as well.
And I, too, liked it very much.
The book weaves together his path to the cutting-edge techniques which he uses, and the stories of his patients who have experienced profound healing as a result.The range of options which Gregg can choose from, or the tools in his skill set, was impressive. But this should be expected from somebody who has studied Hypnotic Regression Therapy from Brian Weiss, MD, Induced After-Death Communication from Dr. Allan Botkin, Brainspotting from Dr. David Grand, and Transpersonal Training from Dr. Stanislav Grof.
However, what separates Gregg from the rest, is in how he has used these powerful techniques in a spiritually focused application. It goes as such: the patient is directed to focus on the most spiritual, or mystical, moment or experience of one’s life, which he then guides the patient through that memory, with the goal to enhancing and deepening the scope and understanding of the experience. In essence, Gregg has the patient relive the moment, but in greater detail.
So when Gregg informed the conference participants that he would be staying in the area for a few days more, to offer personal therapy sessions, my loving and thoughtful wife signed me up.
That then posed, for me, a difficult decision. Do I use this precious time to confront a personal stumbling-block, or do I relive a profound spiritual experience?
Ultimately the practical and pragmatic choice won out. This life challenge just had to be overcome. It was time to get back on the wagon.
Since the moment I finished Gregg’s book, I had been debating over which spiritual experience I would choose to relive. My wife and I even had various discussions on the matter.
After reviewing my list, I decided that it would have to be the time that an Angel descended from Heaven to grace me with a visit.
In July of 2015, I attended a three-day training course, to be a volunteer for The Twilight Brigade. This noble organization serves as a Hospice within the Veterans Administration hospitals. For the uninitiated, Hospice is the organization which assists people during the final days of life.
The course lessons were constructed to prepare one for many potential scenarios which can, and do, arise when dealing with end of life situations. We participated in exercises designed to foment such high concepts as compassion and love, as well as how to confront more difficult issues, such as intimacy, fear, and anger.
Our final step was a guided meditation, in which we were directed to have a meeting with Death! During this meeting, we were supposed to ask Death if Death had anything tell us. Well, I have participated in many guided meditations in my life, but quite honestly, I had never even contemplated the idea of a pow-wow parlay with the Grim Reaper! Well… aside from this:
Beginning as any correct hypnosis session should, we were guided into a deep state of relaxation through focused breathing. Next, we were told to visit our happy place. For me, that means the beach at 113th St., in the town of Stone Harbor, New Jersey. However, the moment I arrived there, I was immediately teleported to a beach on the Hatteras Island National Seashore, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Suddenly I was standing alone on the beach, facing the Atlantic Ocean. The cloud ceiling overhead was low enough, that to throw a ball into the air might reach it. Then, out of the clouds there began to materialize, maybe 25 meters out over the water in front of me, what I immediately recognized to be an Angel!
During the materialization, I noticed that the particles had a digital characteristic to them, with my closest approximation being the construction of a CGI animation. Once in complete form, the Angel floated down to stand on the beach in front of me.
My final memory from the experience was that he repeated his name five times, yelling it quite loud in fact, to help wake me out of my sleep within the hypnotic state. The next sound I heard was the voice guiding the group session back to consciousness.
Immediately, my focus was on what the angelic visit could mean. It took only moments for that knowing to arrive: I had been taken to Hatteras Island because there had been a life, of which I aided in its conception, but was prevented from being brought into this world. What’s more, I had not been informed of this creation of life until months after its termination.
During the first year after that experience, there was much contemplation and reflection, and a seemingly one-way dialogue with him was established. The fact that I could not remember the rest of his name felt like an embarrassment, or even an insult. Yet, the course of the dialogues turned into lighthearted joking around, with me calling him by a variety of permutations of what the name could be. He seemed to laugh with me.
On our drive home from Pittsburgh, a small voice told me to do some Googling on angels… especially those whose name begins with “Ba”!
CHAPTER VI.
1. And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. 2. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’ 3. And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ 4. And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’ 5. Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. 6. And they were in all two hundred; who descended ⌈in the days⌉ of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. 7. And these are the names of their leaders: Sêmîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl. 8. These are their chiefs of tens.
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