This is the story of the second, of the set of three, astral projection “Spirit Walks”, which I made manifest during the winter of 1987. See here for the backstory.
Unlike the third one which only took 20 years to fully reveal itself, this second one took exactly 30 years to come to fruition!
The wait has been well worth it.
February, 1987. Mercersburg Academy. Main Hall Dormitory. 3rd Floor.
As was the inspirational agent for each of the three astral projections, I had gone down the hall to get prepped… with the smoke of Shiva’s Holy Sacrament.
Once I returned to my room and got into bed, I promptly began my Chakra Meditation routine.
Suddenly, I was again floating in the stratosphere, looking down on the Earth. Unlike the previous time, when I hurried myself into the decision to fly around the world like Superman, this time I was in no particular rush.
However, the decision as to how events would transpire, was instead made for me.
From my right side, a transparent grey cloud came to surround me. This cloud then thickened and darkened, becoming like stone. Finally, I was in a dimly lit, hollowed out chamber, perhaps 5 meters wide by 10 meters long.
When all the movement stopped, there before me, sitting lotus-style with his back against one of the “walls”, was a yogi.
He appeared to be around 30 years old, was of slender body, with long, straight, dark hair, and was wearing only a pair of tan-colored short Dhoti pants.
Flanking him on either side were two white ghost-like apparitions, like stationary floating balls of mist.
Off to the right of me, there seemed to be another being, retreated into the shadows.
The yogi then began to speak.
HE PROCEEDED TO NARRATE THE PATH MY LIFE WAS GOING TO TAKE!
Curiously, in spite of seeing his mouth moving, I remember none of the words that he spoke, because they created such fast-moving imagery, which was completely captivating in and of itself.
The life he was outlining for me was a truly exciting adventure!
However, he then threw in a major plot twist, which felt like a kick in the gut. Dissatisfied as I was with this potential eventuality, I condensed it all down into this plucky response:
“So you want me to go from Indian… to Indian?!?”
By the way he bounced in his lotus pose, he seemed to appreciate the sarcasm mixed with irony in my humor.
His tone then became more passionate, raising his right hand and index finger, with a “YES! And…“, as he indicated that I would know the moment of this shift, when I would see the image of his disciple.
At that moment, the figure to my right approached me from out of the shadow, to just a bit more than an arms length away.
He looked to be in his 30’s, with long wavy hair, and a barrel shaped body. Though he mostly showed me his left side, the flawless face was graced with a supremely attractive smile, and a blissful infinity gaze. His beauty was intensified by the deep golden glow of his wide aura.
By this point, the overall experience had impressed me so much, that when I turned back to my new Guru, I gave my consent to the future he was proposing.
Our meeting soon came to a close.
The enclosed space departed in the reverse order to how it had initially formed around me.
After floating there in the stratosphere for a few moments more, I then returned to my body.
The next day I reflected upon the experience. First, to be sought out by a Guru, and then to have him foretell my future, left me feeling tremendously honored. The extremely rare nature of this experience was not lost on me.
For sure, I did take it as a compliment, as clear evidence of the high level that my Chakra Meditation practice had reached.
But quite honestly, I was not so surprised by the visit. Who else, I easily rationalized, but a 5th dimensional yogi, could understand the degree of my personal achievement? Not that I was taking this event for granted, but I figured this was simply the natural outcome of such successful practice.
For the next thirty years, this Spirit Walk would rarely cross my mind. At times it even felt like it was being hidden from me. Occasionally, I would contemplate the concept of “from Indian to Indian”, but I still had little context, so it was easily forgotten.
Besides, during these decades, it was typically the first, and occasionally the third Spirit Walks which would garner the most recall.
Winter of 2017.
This was the season when I was processing the impact which the book, Black Elk Speaks, was having on me. Finally I had some context by which I could go in deep exploration of a past-life vision, experienced in a Regression Hypnosis session twenty years prior. The vision was first shared in my post, Would-be-Heyokah. The relevant excerpt:
While I don’t remember the imagery path, I do recall arriving to a room which had multiple doors to choose from. Then I was directed to open one and walk through. Suddenly I was standing on a high mount, overlooking a vast expanse of green rolling hills, and haze filled valleys. The most fascinating sensation was that I could feel the warm wind on my exposed body. Quickly I surmised that I was an American Indian. Due to the power I felt within that body, it was clear that I had been a Medicine Man of some sort. Looking to my left, I saw a wife and our two children. We were happy together.
During this period, the first impactful recollection of my ‘going from Indian to Indian’ response had finally occurred.
But I still had no idea who was this guru of mine.
As fate would have it, in the middle of that process, I read this article by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, in the January|February|March edition of Venture Inward.
The idea that Tara Mata was a close friend of Edgar Cayce, was an A.R.E. Member, received two personal readings, AND was the dearest disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, all continues to impress me almost to envy.
After finishing this article, I was compelled to go to the local Barnes & Noble to get my own copy of Autobiography of a Yogi.
At some point it occurred to me that the Indian to Indian transition had indeed commenced. This created an anxiety, which grew quickly the more I thought of how I had not yet reconciled the first Indian.
How could I justify moving on to the next one?
This was the impulse which pushed me to go Looking For the Ghost Dance. If the shift had really begun, then I had better find him ASAP.
And so, almost immediately after finishing Autobiography of a Yogi, I became a member of the Self-Realization Fellowship.
But I still had no idea who was this guru of mine.
A year passes… and then enter Sean Tolan.
Sean had been a student at The Solebury School, during the time when I was a member of the faculty there.
Out of the blue, he contacted me. and we exchanged a series of emails.
In one of his emails, he said that Babaji had brought us together.
Upon reading those words, suddenly I was spoken to by the familiar voice:
It was me, Babaji.
And then in a Quickening… SUDDENLY IT ALL MADE SENSE!
My Guru was the venerated Mahavatar Babaji!!!
His golden glowing disciple was Paramahansa Yogananda!
The apparitions flanking Babaji were without a doubt Lahiri Mahasaya and Sri Yukteswar!
The grey cloud which turned into a chamber was Babaji’s Cave!
For the uninitiated, the question that should be answered first is, “Who is Mahavatar Babaji?” .
The Northern Himalayan crags near Badrinarayan are still blessed by the living presence of Babaji, guru of Lahiri Mahasaya. The secluded master has retained his physical form for centuries, perhaps for millenniums. The deathless Babaji is an avatara. This Sanskrit word means “descent”; its roots are ava, “down,” and tri, “to pass.” In the Hindu scriptures, avatara signifies the descent of Divinity into flesh.
“Babaji’s spiritual state is beyond human comprehension,” Sri Yukteswar explained to me. “The dwarfed vision of men cannot pierce to his transcendental star. One attempts in vain even to picture the avatar’s attainment. It is inconceivable.”
The Upanishads have minutely classified every stage of spiritual advancement. A siddha (“perfected being”) has progressed from the state of a jivanmukta (“freed while living”) to that of a paramukta (“supremely free” — full power over death); the latter has completely escaped from the mayic thralldom and its reincarnational round. The paramukta therefore seldom returns to a physical body; if he does return, he is an avatar, a divinely appointed medium of supernal blessings on the world. An avatar is unsubject to the universal economy; his pure body, visible as a light image, is free from any debt to Nature.
In 1861, Babaji revealed himself to Lahiri Mahasaya, to whom he revealed the lost knowledge of Kriya Yoga. One of the disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya was Sri Yukteswar, who then was the guru of Paramahansa Yogananda.
The title, Mahavatar, means “Great Avatar”.
For more in depth details on Babaji, do read this!
To say that my mind was blown by this realization would be an understatement.
How honored I truly am that Babaji would believe the sixteen-year-old me worthy of such an amazing encounter!!!
His kindness, his humility, and his sincerity are the character impressions which I can now most clearly recall.
A notable detail is that this 5th dimensional cave was about 15-20 times larger than the actual grotto in the Himalayas.
And then there is the presence of Paramahansa Yogananda.
It is clear to me now why I was only shown the left side of his face. When the time came, I would be sure to recognize his ubiquitous portrait image.
But he was so much more handsome, even beautifully so, with such amazing radiance, that I have yet to find an earthly image that does him justice.
This appearance certainly has much to do with his practice of how to be a Smile Millionaire.
What I interpret to be the partial presence of Lahiri Mahasaya and Sri Yukteswar is explained by how the two of them are inhabiting higher dimensional realms, with only minimal connections to the Earth plane at the moment. This aspect of their reality is discussed in fascinating detail in Chapter 43 of AoaY: The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar.
So the question remains: what is the current standing of my interior journey from Indian to Indian?
The good news is that, by means of wonderful synchronicites, I did indeed find the location from the vision of the Native American Indian lifetime. This spot was not where I would ever have expected it to be, and the ramifications turned out to be even more significant than I ever could have imagined. That will indeed be a post worth reading!
The bad news is that my status as a Kriya-seeking sadhu faces a major challenge. As it turns out, the aspect that felt like the kick in the gut was not simply that I would have to shift my focus from the pursuit of being the Heyokah, to then become a Sadhu, but rather that I would be struck by a serious health issue. It now appears to me that, how and where Babaji ended the narration of my life path, signified how I am now facing my mortal end to this incarnation.
So with the time that I have left, I am focusing as much attention as I can on advancing with Paramahansaji’s teachings. Perhaps Babaji was offering this Kriya path as a means for me to overcome my current situation.
Despite my petitions, he has yet to make a return appearance.
To be sure, I look forward to reading Sean’s account of how Babaji entered his life, and then brought us back together. When a published version becomes available to me, I will certainly provide the link here.
It needs to be mentioned how cosmically fitting it is that the signpost of the shift would have come via an article in Venture Inward. It would be almost a year later when the account of my first Spirit Walk (the very first link provided in this post) was published in the magazine. During this period, the magazine was being edited by Sydney and Nancy Kirkpatrick. Sydney, of course, being the one who wrote the article about Tara Mata. The intertwined nature of Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. and the SRF, both historically, and in my own experience, is just perfect.