Photography by Rosie Hardy
By C. Norman Shealy M.D; ph. D
My conscious awareness of the mystical nature of life was revealed to me suddenly in Virginia Beach in 1972. My journey since then has been one of virtually continuous reminders of the ineffable. Prior to that I thought of myself primarily as a research scientist. Now I consider my research to be in the understanding of the divine dance.
Repeatedly I experience “knowing’s” of previous lives, out of body experiences, dematerializations, meeting reincarnations of old friends or enemies from previous lives, possession, demons, guides, instant scientific discoveries, and, above all, a feeling of peace most of the time, just aware that all is in keeping with the divine. No matter what evil appears, I know that ultimately divine love is all that matters. In the darkest of moments, Light will triumph.
There are numerous reports of individuals having instantaneous experiences of the spiritual nature of life after a Near Death Experience. On the other hand, as perhaps best discussed at length in COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, by Richard Maurice Bucke, M.D. in 1900, many of the great mystics throughout history came to their awakening spontaneously, some after years of inward seeking and others in an Instant. The Cosmic Sense according to Bucke includes:
• A sudden light
• Moral elevation
• Intellectual illumination
• A sense of Immortality
• Loss of the fear of death
• Sudden, instantaneous awakening
• The previous intellectual, moral and physical character
• The age of illumination (usually by age 40)
• Increased charm of the personality which attracts others
• A sense of transfiguration, which literally means an exalting glorifying or spiritual change
The two-hour illumination period after my first past life session and the evening out of body experience certainly produced the most remarkable change in my life. I was 39 at the time. Of course, I have never feared death and always had a sense of immortality. My sudden intellectual knowing increased exponentially after the Virginia Beach experience. And my daily awareness of the divine dance has never ceased. Of course, the kundalini experience which came over 20 years later was perhaps my graduation beyond the foothills of mysticism. That will be described later.
One of the most charismatic individuals I had met at Stanford was Olga Worrall, the most studied spiritual healer in history. In the fall of 1972, I visited her healing service at Mount Washington Memorial Methodist Church in Baltimore. Three hundred people packed into the tiny church for the laying on of hands. After the service one of the attendees approached Olga who invited me to join her and the patient who, downstairs in privacy, showed us the most awful cancer of the breast.
I have seen—black, necrotic, pushing through the skin. A month later the patient, a Professor of English at a major university, wrote that she was healed. Although she sent no photograph, I was intrigued enough to want to prove spiritual healing, truly one of the great outcomes of mysticism.
Olga sent me over the next few years 100 letters from patients who reported such cures. I wrote the patients and got permission to write for their medical records. Interestingly, only 11 of the 100 physicians responded to my requests! Certainly, eleven major healings are miraculous, but it was not enough for a book. But Olga and I became lifelong friends and there will be more about her to share.
Before leaving Virginia Beach I asked my new friends, Dr. Genevieve Haller and her husband Jeffrey Furst, for recommendation of a good psychic. They enthusiastically recommended Henry Rucker of Chicago. The earliest I could get there was December 19, 1972. I arrived for an hour appointment and spent 3 hours with one of the most charismatic, inspiring friends of this life. As I walked in he said “I’ve been waiting 10 years to meet you. My teacher told me you would come.” Henry knew more about me than I did! In addition to telling me about my wife and children, he understood my intuitive curiosity and interest in parapsychology. By the time I left, I knew that he was the key to my new interest—how accurate can such a psychic be in
making a medical diagnosis? I invited Henry to come to LaCrosse to be tested.
A month later Henry arrived in La Crosse with 7 of his psychic friends, doubling the number of blacks in that town of 50,000. I had told my 25 patients in the hospital that a group of psychics were visiting, and they unanimously were enthusiastic about the opportunity. One by one each patient came to my office and the psychics were told only the name of the patient. Questions were not allowed. After the patient left, each person wrote his or her diagnosis. When all 8 agreed, they were 98% accurate. Henry was at least 70% accurate. In fact, there were 3 paraplegic patients and he correctly diagnosed the cause of the paralysis in each case.
I took Henry on rounds where he made one of his most profound assessments. I had operated earlier in the week on a man in whom I inserted a DCS. The patient’s white count had jumped to 43,000! A hematologist had seen the patient on Friday because we suspected a possible exacerbation of an underlying leukemia. Henry said “He just has a liver irritation. He will be well and out of here within a week”. On Monday, we learned that the patient had a leukemoid reaction to the anesthetic. The patient indeed recovered rapidly and went home within the week. Talking with Henry, I was impressed that he was one of the best counselors I had ever met. I wanted his insights in working with my seriously emotionally damaged patients.
The problem was that Henry had only a two-year community college education. He had started a metaphysical church called something like The Essence of the Holy Wisdom of the Essenes and ran the Psychic Research Foundation. To have him be a pastoral counselor at a Catholic Hospital seemed a bit far out. I had recently become acquainted with both Unity Church and Religious Science. Philosophically I was in tune with both. Ernest Holmes had founded Religious Science, the foundation of which was his SCIENCE OF MIND.
I searched carefully and found that Science of Mind churches existed in many cities, but the name was not trademarked. I also had begun to be aware that much of my philosophy and increasing practice was outside mainstream medicine. So, Henry and I founded the Science of Mind Church of Chicago and we were both ordained in it.
As a Science of Mind minister Henry was well received. Indeed, many of the nuns and even some physicians sought his counseling. Even more interesting, our current Congregational minister asked for a session with Henry. One Sunday, during that session, it was revealed that their 16-yearold son had had severe drug problems and was at the time in a reform school in Florida. Henry said, “Don’t worry; he will be home soon.” The following day the son phoned from Chicago; he had escaped from the Florida school and wanted permission to come home. As soon as possible, the parents took their son down to Chicago for an appointment with Henry. At the end of the session, the son said to his parents “Why didn’t anyone else talk to me like that?” He never went back to drugs and became a successful musician.
Henry was also a remarkable spiritual healer. Perhaps the most unusual case was a young boy who had had a skull fracture a year earlier. As occasionally happens in a child whose skull is growing with the expansion of the brain, a year later the fracture had not healed. One brief session with Henry and the fracture healed within weeks. Henry remained for many years a counselor at my clinic and a close family friend for me and my children.
