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"There is no darkness so great, that a greater light cannot dispel it."
- Henry David Thoreau Riaan Swiegelaar was a co-founder and the lead spokesman of the Satanic Church of South Africa. In 2022, while preparing to take part in a ritual to increase the worldwide reach and power of Satan, he had - suddenly - an overwhelming, face to face experience of Jesus Christ. Here is a very short glimpse of that experience - a longer account of what's happened since, and some thoughts on the meaning of these events follow.
I saw this video yesterday on the Facebook page of a friend. There's something sensational about it because it concerns Satanism, and something important about it, because as the second video below shows, it led to things being revealed about Satanism that are usually very much kept secret. Experiences like the initial one of Riaan Swiegelaar, however, are not completely isolated in the world. I was never a Satanist, but I had this experience of meeting Christ too, when I was 23 (I'm 74 now), after the extremely painful breakup of my first marriage. In my case, I saw Christ on the cross, crucified. It was very sudden, vivid, a moment outside time, as if I was there, witnessing it personally. Christ was the most beautiful man, covered in wounds, but the most beautiful human being I could imagine. No words were said, but the love that emanated from him to me was overwhelming ; yet gentle, and I felt loved without reservation, unconditionally. I thought and felt, there is nothing in him that deserves this - and nothing I could ever do that would deserve to be loved like this. I fell to the floor, overwhelmed, grateful and weeping. The friend who shared this video has had this experience too, and his wife as well, when she was at a complete bottom with Lyme's disease. George Ritchie described this same kind of experience in his book "Return From Tomorrow", which I hope everyone will one day read ; and when I read the experince of Paul on his way to Damascus, it resonates completely. The exact details in any of these cases are different, but the core of them seems fully the same. Watching this on my friend's page reminded me of my own experience - and interestingly, now again in the present, came at a moment when I actually needed it. It brought to mind that my way of reaching Christ, and his way of reaching me, have a continuity - that there is a thread in my life, a theme and a stream of life that I still live in. It reminded me that glimpses, reminders of that event also still come to me regularly through other people ; new episodes of this being loved and "seen" are still in my life, in ways great and small every day. I lose track of this relationship sometimes, but that it's always there to return to - and it evolves. The realization is that I'm loved more than I could ever deserve. It puts my shortcomings right in front of my eyes - but also leaves me free to find my own way out of the error and dross, so each step can still be organic, real and my own. I find myself loved unconditionally, but still responsible for what I do, how I think, subject to consequences, responsible to "pay my bills" in the world. I'm still in need of healing - but also receive healing in new ways large and small all the time. It's hard work, work of attention and mindfulness, even of trust and letting go ; but in Christ, with a chance I could never have otherwise. Continuation This morning, searching for an embed code for the video above, I found this further chapter in the life of Riann Swiegelaar. It brought to mind again for me how these profound meetings, though they have core features in common, are still unique and individual for every person. They happen in the context of a whole life lived thus far - but also change intimately how it unfolds in the future. Beyond the imagination or expectations of the person him/herself, something new can enter. Paul, Saul as he was known before Damascus, persecuted the Christians, believing it the best, the most right and important thing to do. His mind, gifts and whole life experience, however, had also prepared him for something else - something greater than he would ever have thought of himself, but for which he was needed. With this as a picture, consider the life of Riann Swiegelaar as it's unfolded since :
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 Use Your Available Resources ! Today I sent this message to my Oregon Governor, state Senator and state Representative, and I'm glad I did. It's my growing sense that however much we may protest things we're concerned about among ourselves, no real or lasting change will come until we take up the tools actually available to us, and use them - skillfully and vigorously. I found contact information for my representatives with a tool in an old article of mine Activism 101 : An Activists Toolbox If you're a U.S. citizen, you can find contact information for your elected representatives there too. Maybe you already do this with issues you're concerned about, but if cynicism or apathy have crept in for you, I hope you'll join a process begun by our Founders, that's actually brought a great deal of the progress these past few hundred years. It's empowering to state your thoughts and needs clearly, and stand up for them. On occasion in my life, I've seen this bear quite amazing fruits. Here's my letter : Vaccine Safety and Informed Consent "I'm a retired RN, and besides what I was taught about vaccines in my nursing training and through hospital staff education my whole career, I've also followed vaccine safety and choice issues since 1982, including the ongoing history of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. There have been three life threatening events in my family in close proximity to a vaccine dose, and I also had a frightening systemic reaction myself, immediately following the TDap vaccine, the full body effects of which lasted several weeks. I've witnessed blatant ridicule and censorship of dissenting medical and scientific evidence for decades, including the concerns of leading virologists, epidemiologists, immunologists, vaccine researchers, public health and preventive medicine experts. For at least the last ten years, I've also seen my own posts of articles like the one below deleted, more or less instantly and systematically on social media, on the stated basis of "community standards" and "misinformation". https://x.com/AaronSiriSG/status/1811186363791966542 I request that you read this article, review the linked references at least for an overview, and assign staffers to review them more deeply and summarize them for you. Given what you'll discover, I request that you work to establish ironclad guarantees of informed consent law, to include - explicitly - information gathered by patients and their families themselves. Please respond that you have received this request, and take every action within your means to ensure informed consent for patients or their legal gaurdians, without strings or exceptions. It's my conviction that, under cover of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, vaccine makers have taken enormous and irresponsible liberties with vaccine safety ; that, even beyond reported vaccine injuries, this has caused enormous harm to public health ; and that full, public and bipartisan investigation is urgently needed. I include this in my requests to you, ask your response, and request to be kept informed what is done going forward. Thank you, Jeff Smith Jacksonville OR" To fight for freedom is not just a matter of emotions or what we want, I'm coming to believe, but one of endurance, courage and skill. I think it's time to raise our game ! Next post : my first response.  San Miguel de Allende, June 2024 Dear Friends, I'm writing from Mexico - this is our fourth visit since 2020, and these are two friends who've taken us under their wing here. This photo is from an outing on my 74th birthday ! So, to our message and update - this has three parts : First I write - and actually have been writing since I was about seven years old. I started with poetry, and got wonderful encouragement to keep it up, both then and in my teen years. I still write poetry, and try to bring at least something artistic into everything I write. As my life has turned out, I worked in the medical field for 40 years, and my writing took this direction too, first of all with patient education sheets in my time as a psych nurse. I still write in retirement, now on a very wide range of wellness related themes. You can find more than 20 years worth of what I do on my holistic wellness website Living Waters Wellness Why I Write I'm grateful that at key moments in my life I was encouraged to explore, and never told not to have questions about life and my world, or follow them where they led. Because of this I've received many real treasures. At this time in my life, I want to give back as much as I can. Some themes you'll find on my website you really won't hear much about elsewhere. I hope you'll visit these pages, explore them, and that if you like something, you'll share it further. In fact, if you really like something, I hope you'll get in touch personally. Important ideas, thoughts and insights thrive on being explored deeply, and actually need that kind of treatment - so please, come ahead !  Two We need your help. This has a slightly political element to it, but I'll make it quick - please don't worry ! Our news and headlines, as you know, and even our personal conversations today are full of the themes of left versus right, Republican versus Democrat. I feel this is a complete misunderstanding of the situation, and a dangerous one. More of a problem and danger, to my understanding, is a domination of government by economic interests of the largest and most powerful kind, their influence, subtle or direct over our elected representatives and their setting us against each other for their own ends. People on both "left" and "right" have noticed these influences at different times, and protested them sharply. You can decide from your own experience of me whether I'm a wild eyed, radical guy, but my speaking up on social media has gotten me into a lot of trouble. The low point was in October 2019, while we were in Croatia, when I woke to find six Facebook pages - including the one for our business - taken down permanently overnight. Unfortuntely, this hasn't been at all unusual these past five years. I know of dozens of cases where such things have happened, just among people I know.  Seventy feet above the ground, on the wall that goes all the way around the city of Dubrovnik. Roswitha was terrified of the height at first, but we walked the whole thing !  This is the end of my tale of cyber surveillance and censorship, which have become so common, even for ordinary people who dissent these days. I've gotten smarter about dealing with it, but if it's not cat videos or photos of my dinner in a restaurant, my reach on Facebook remains badly limited. My request is simple : please visit My Facebook Profile My Page Rights Life Today and Our business Page Living Waters Wellness Products on Facebook, and Like, Share and/or Comment on my Pages and posts as you feel moved to. Thank you - it will be a real service to us !  Three
This has to do with businesses of ours, with products we market, and that you could potentially market too. You're under no obligation to do anything - again I'll be brief, and again please don't worry ! As you may know, we're both retired health professionals, and even before our careers, closely interested in health in the holistic sense. Over time, we've also vetted and used various wellness related products, both to protect and strengthen our own health. We use all products we market ourselves, and as you can imagine, are only interested in the best. The page linked below introduces these products, with links to learn more, either to use them yourself, or to partner with us, and build an income of your own. We've createded some great presentation tools we can share, and at this point in our lives, also really enjoy helping others succeed. For more on what we do, visit Living Waters Wellness : Partner With Us Thanks, be well and be in touch ! Jeff and Roswitha Smith |
AuthorJeff Smith RN, born 1950. A registered nurse since 1984 - but holistic in my outlook to health since probably around 1968. Living Waters Wellness considers not just the health of the physical body, but our soul and spirit, our social forms, our environment - and as a matter of fact, our whole earth. It's a new website, and a work in progress - but by all means, have a look around ! Archives
December 2024
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