Most of you are familiar with intuitive readings, palmistry readings, astrological readings, etc. Like all readings, a good one is remarkable and a bad reading is a joke. For some reason, I have had a series of remarkably accurate readings in my life.
About Palm Leaf Readings
In 1996 I had a Palm Leaf reading from an Indian man whose family had done palm leaf readings for over 20 generations. So what’s a Palm Leaf reading?
Shri Sukra, the embodiment of Venus, cognized 5000 life patterns and wrote them down on palm leaves in antiquity. These palm leaf patterns have been handed down from father to son for thousands of years, always carefully guarded and kept in the family. Depending on when you meet the palm leaf reader, he pulls out the right pattern for you and tells the future pattern of your life.
They always ask test questions to confirm they have the right Palm Leaf, the right life pattern for you.
At my reading, he first told me my past in very accurate detail. No vague cold reading here. Then he looked at me skeptically and said “It says here you are a priest.” I confirmed that and he said “Well then I will give you the rest of this reading.”
A world class pianist?
The very next words out of his mouth were “You could have been a world class pianist but your parents did not support you in this.” Where does that kind of a statement come from? I don’t know, but there it was.
Here’s the background for that statement: It was a family joke that I was very upset starting in my teenage years that my parents didn’t make me take piano lessons. I grew up incorrectly thinking I was tone deaf. Meanwhile my older brother who did take piano lessons has become a world class pianist. He isn’t famous, but he plays at the very highest levels of piano completion around the world. Strangely accurate, isn’t it?
Predictions about my enlightenment – millions of followers and miracles
He said I was to have two awakenings, one about 1999 or 2000 and the full awakening 8 or 9 years later. The dates were a little loose. (These 2 awakenings absolutely happened in Dec. 2000 and 2009.)
Sometime after that (no date given) all sorts of miracles would start to happen around me and overnight I would have millions of followers. I wouldn’t have to do anything – it would just happen.
I was stunned to say the least, in complete disbelief. But when he mentioned miracles I had flashed to my Sunday school class when I was 8 years old. I learned that the Apostles did miracles, and not just Jesus. They healed the sick and even raised the dead back to life. My immediate reaction in that Sunday school class: if they could do those things, then I could too. When that thought had come to me at 8 years old, I was very surprised. It was like a different quality of thought had entered my mind, so I always remembered it.
Muktendanda and Rajaneesh
I didn’t know what to say to this pundit. My wife was at this reading and asked the intelligent question: “Who else have you given this reading to?” I was the only person in America he had given this reading to, but he had given it 3 times in India.
First he gave it to Muktenanda when he was a wandering sadhu. Muktenanda had just laughed.
Then he gave it to Rajaneesh when he was still an unknown college professor. Rajaneesh said “I know this!”
Then he gave it to Shri Gajanan Maharaj, the teacher who started the obscure Agnihotra tradition that has quietly spread worldwide. Shri Gajanan just said “I am only a simple disciple.”
Not so happy with this reading
You might think that is the dream reading of all readings for someone on the spiritual path. Who wouldn’t want to be a great Master, helping thousands of people to grow spiritually while helping to shift the world to a new level of consciousness? It sounds amazing, doesn’t it?
Instead, I got really worried. I was not ready for this; I was not qualified for this role. Plus Muktenanda had a sex scandal the last few years of his life, and Rajaneesh was the king of scandals – guns, drugs, sex, money, 100’s of Rolls Royces, etc. A huge fear came up that I would be a false teacher. I told myself if any of this was true I was going to pick the obscure route of the 3rd teacher.
Meher Baba on miracles
Part of the fear came up due to Meher Baba’s teachings. Meher Baba was a silent master who died in 1969 and had a huge impact on my life. He was a truly great master and I’ll write about him more in another blog. He described in great detail seven planes of consciousness, from gross to transcendental consciousness. This always reminded me of the Seven Heavens the apostle Paul referred to.
Meher Baba taught that the 4th plane – where I knew I was eventually headed – was the only plane where the dead could be raised back to life. The 4th plane is the intersection of the planes of energy with the mental planes. The big, obvious miracles happen on the 4th plane.
My Divine Command
The Path of the Heart is the path of Energy. I am here to merge the Path of the Heart with the Path of Consciousness. This is what Meher Baba had said Jesus did – first Jesus mastered the Transcendent, and then consciously stationed himself on the 4th Plane so he could fulfill his mission to help humanity. When I first read this message from Meher Baba in 1975, that unique silent voice came to me and said “This is what you have to do.” I took it as a Divine Command.
However, this 4th plane is also fraught with danger: misuse of these powers would lead to severe karmic damage and a complete stopping of one’s spiritual progress, to describe it mildly. I really, really didn’t want to misuse any power I was given.
My roller coaster
So I went through many months of wild swings emotionally – swinging from huge ego trips of grandly saving the world to moments of absolute fear and terror that I would be a false teacher. I certainly knew who I was back then was NOT someone capable of teaching. Eventually I realized: “Either this was going to happen or it wasn’t”, and gave up the roller coaster.
Other Readings for confirmation
But I did seek other Oracle traditions to see if they could confirm or deny this reading.
I’d heard of a Druid who had a great reputation. He threw the runes for a Life Pattern reading for me. The best 5 runes came up. They were all gloriously positive. These readings normally cover both good and bad, he told me. He had never seen anybody get the 5 best runes in a Life reading. He concluded I did not have a “shadow side” and the Palm Leaf reading was true.
I went to a numerologist who said I have many, many “double” numbers. When he saw a 33 for my heart number he said “I’d expect to see this for a Jesus Christ.” You would think I would have been delighted with such a reading, and there was some of that. But more than that was dread – that I was being given something I wouldn’t be able to handle.
Finally I had already gone to a Vedic astrologer called a jyotishi. This was Pat Hayward, an American who had done thousands of Jyotish readings for people. Jyotish means light, and in India Jyotish was considered the “Queen of the Sciences” in antiquity. His prediction: in 1999 I would be freed from all my karma.
“Freed from all my karma” – what does that mean? I didn’t know, but on Dec 18 2000 at about 4:20 pm an Ocean of Silence descended and stayed until it morphed into my second awakening in 2009. That was my awakening into Cosmic Consciousness. [See Post #2]
Asking Amma, the Hugging Saint
Eventually we went to see Amma, aka the Hugging Saint. Amma has given over 33 millions hugs all over the world and created numerous world wide charities to help feed, house, and provide medical care to millions of impoverished people.
If Jesus Christ came back to earth, I would expect him to live a life like Amma. She is the most Christ-like person I have ever seen.
Somehow my wife got us a private interview with Amma. This is almost impossible to get because Amma is always mobbed by thousands of people wanting her time and attention. I asked my question about these reading, and told the translator I did NOT want a life that looked like Ammas. The translator almost doubled over laughing.
Amma smiled sweetly and said “Either this was going to happen or it wasn’t” – using exactly the same words that brought me to peace before.
She then proceeded to tell me that there were huge ships that crossed the Ocean of Ignorance, and there were also tiny canoes that crossed that ocean. The implication was that she was a huge ship and that I was a tiny canoe. I was very happy with this answer.
Let’s do a reality check here
The fact that this Palm Leaf reader’s predictions have been true so far doesn’t mean they will continue to be accurate. Some of his readings for other people have not been perfect.
And who knows what any of this really means. The Vedic culture is notorious for poetic descriptions and grandiose statements. Miracles? Maybe, maybe not. The New Delhi pundit, the most accurate of them all, didn’t mention anything about miracles. Did Muktenanda and Rajaneesh have miracles happen around them? Maybe, but I’m not aware of them.
Millions of followers? A good blog post or video that goes viral can have millions of viewers. That’s the story I like – touching millions of people with a good blog or a good book.
I’m very clear I am not a guru. I don’t want to be responsible for people. One Western palm reader looked at my hands and said to me “You’re not going to be a spiritual teacher – you’re going to be a Wise Elder.” That works perfectly for me.
I’ll finish with one last pundit, an Indian Jyotishi named Gandhi. Gandhi was reputed to be enlightened and had been Maharishi’s joytishi in the 1960s. I got my very first reading from him in 1975. I didn’t know how important birth time was so I just estimated mine. I was way off.
He proceeded to cognize my correct birth time and gave me a perfect reading of my life history up to that point. He made some accurate short term predictions and then finished by making 3 general predictions:
- I would have a Cadillac of a life (true).
- I would be not just happily married but very happily married (true).
- I could be famous but I would probably choose not to be.
I’m hanging on to that last prediction. May it be true.
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