Tom’s Mystical Stories
~ By Tom Hildebrand
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"All healing - body, mind, soul - must come from Him. All applications - as we have indicated, of a mechanical nature, of a medicinal or of a suggestive nature - are only to stimulate any portion of the body, mind or soul activities to coordinate and collaborate with the spiritual force of the body - soul itself." (1467-13) Edgar Cayce
Hi, My name is Samuel Thomas Hildebrand. Most of the time I go by Tom Hildebrand. This site is to provide you with a little information about me and my personal path of spiritual development.
I have lived, by choice, out in nature almost my entire life. As a small boy, I could not stay away from the woods by the river. As an adult, I have continued to live outside of towns in the woods. I have been teased about having to have sunshine pumped in. A lot of folks in Chatham County live the same way. Perhaps that is what drew me to this area.
I have worked primarily in the construction industry, first as a carpenter and then as a welder. But due to severe and painful arthritis in my right hip, I returned to college at the age of 45 and completed my college degree and then found work as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor. Later, intrigued by the Radial Active Appliance which Cayce said could greatly enhance spiritual development, I started building and selling both the Radial Active Appliance and the Wet Cell Appliance by mail order.
At this point in my life, I am sincerely trying to follow spiritual guidance as to what to do next. I have been told for over 20 years by numerous psychics that I am a healer. I have seen many indications of this over the years but have been in denial of it. After an experience of conscious union with God in late 2007, I am going to offer myself as a spiritual healer. If this is not what the Source has in mind for me, It will show me the next step. I could not even begin to predict what I will be doing in the next months, years, or decades. I am making a sincere effort to give up my will and be a willing channel for Spirit to use me as It will. As many of you know, this is not always easy to do. The only thing that I am certain of, is that I am sincere in this effort. I can not stop my spiritual study. There is something in me that keeps me seeking to find and understand the truth.
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I have been a spiritual seeker for many, many years. It’s amazing how we are led on and on in our search. I could not tell you how many times I was in an Used Book Store and reached up and pulled a book off the shelf to look at it and have a nearby one fall and hit me on my foot. When I reached down to pick it up and put it back, I realized this is the book I need to read. Each book led me farther and farther on my spiritual search. I didn’t recognize it at the time. Early on it was Carlos Castaneda’s “The Teachings of Don Juan”. When I was in my early 20’s, I used to try to apply some of his instructions in my own life. Later, in my late 20’s, I was introduced to the work of Edgar Cayce through the gift of a book a friend thought I would like, “Edgar Cayce, The Sleeping Prophet” by Jess Stern. She was right. Ever since the late 70’s I have been an avid supporter of the work of Edgar Cayce. I have grown to trust the information that came through him while he gave trance readings. I used to say I should have been from Missouri because I wanted it proven to me. Well, Cayce did just that.
Even though I was a member of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, (A.R.E.) which is the association focused around the work of Edgar Cayce, since the late 70’s, I did not become actively involved with their programs and volunteer work until the late 80’s. I attended my first A.R.E. related program on the advice of a psychic. During the course of this reading she said that I needed to get out and be around people who thought like I did; that I wasn’t around anyone who thought like I did; that I should attend an A.R.E. Search for God Study Group, or a Course in Miracles Study group, or attend some of her channeling sessions, or whatever felt right to me. But do something, so that I could be around people who thought like I did.
I took her advice. I attended my first A.R.E. related conference and it felt wonderful. I can only imagine that it was like a gay person finally coming out of the closet and no longer needed to hide who they were. I could talk to people who were interested in some of the same things I was without hearing “Oh crap, there goes weird Tom again.”
Of course, at first, the attraction was the magic of it. The mystery that a man could lay down on a couch in Virginia Beach and tell you everything that was going on with a man out in California, including what the trees were just outside his window. I thought that was amazing. Later, it was the deep spirituality in the Cayce readings that I focused on.
I have always been seeking the light. Many years ago in a period of despair and desperation, I was seeking to understand why I had to live with such hardship and trials. I thought I must have been really a jerk in some previous life and now my “Karma” was coming back to bite me. I heard very clearly a voice tell me that I was a “beautiful being of light”. At the time, I had not a clue what that meant. Since then, I have gained a better understanding.
In addition to the Cayce material, I delved into Rudolf Steiner’s work and attended some Anthroposophical study groups for a while, as well as a short stint going to Course in Miracles groups. But I had found a home in the Edgar Cayce Search for God study groups, which I attended for many years. From about 1992 until about a year ago (2007), I was the contact for Search for God Study groups in NC. If you wanted to find a Search for God study group near you in NC, or help in starting one, you called me. In addition to attending Search for God study groups, I hosted one in my home for a number of years.
Another interest of mine for the last 14 years or so has been the mystical teachings of Joel S. Goldsmith. There is something about his message that just speaks to me. I had never heard of him prior to a reading I had with Sherrie Dillard. During the course of this reading she said she thought I might like to read Joel Goldsmith. Boy was that an understatement. She had offered to loan me her copy of “The Art of Spiritual Healing”, but we forgot it when the reading ended. I have learned that I can usually trust the information that comes through Sherrie, so I was very interested in seeing what Joel Goldsmith had to say. I called the library at the A.R.E. headquarters and asked them if they had it, and of course they did and sent it to me. After reading about two paragraphs, I was hooked; I had found my path. I have been reading books by and listening to tapes of, Joel Goldsmith lectures ever since. I even read and dictate his books on tape so that I can listen to them as I travel. There is just something within me that keeps me reading and studying his material.
In December of 2007, I had an experience of conscious union with God. I had been sincerely praying that I could understand God’s will and do what God wished me to do. For months I had been sincerely seeking His will and trying to apply what “felt right” in my day to day life. And I had felt for quite some time that something wonderful was going to happen. But I thought it was that I was going to win the lottery or something like that. The thought that I would actually merge with God and be conscious of it was not on my radar. During the experience, I felt absolute peace and love and just seemed to “know” things. I realized that God was actually consciousness and I was a part of that consciousness. I understood that my mind was creating what I seemed to be experiencing. I “understood” that out of consciousness universes were created, planets formed, and experiences in dimensions programmed. The only thing that prevented us from attaining the same heights of spiritual understanding that Jesus had was the limitations placed upon us by our own minds.
For a couple of months following this experience, I just beamed love at everyone I met. I don’t think I mentioned my experience to but one friend and even then was reluctant to talk about it. Then in late March and early April I crashed. I went from the heights of spiritual illumination to the depths of depression and illness. I had a flu like illness where I had no appetite and if I did manage to eat I was throwing it up shortly. I could not stop coughing. And I was really annoyed that during the nicest weather we had had, I was inside in bed feeling miserable. I was also totally stressed out about my financial affairs. I found it hard to sleep at night because of the worry and stress. At one point, I promised God that if he would just take the fear away I would do anything he asked.
When I finally remembered to use my Radial Active Appliance with Gold Chloride in the solution jar, it was almost as if a switch had been thrown in my head, I knew I was going to get better.
A few days later a friend, Maryphyllis Horn, called to see if I could help her with a problem with her email. I told her about the oneness experience and then how I had crashed into a debilitating depression. Her comment was that she thought it was an initiation experience. Since that conversation, I have come to believe that she might be right. Following my recovery from the depression I have noticed two very interesting things, one, I no longer have any interest in drinking alcohol and two, I now find my self more willing to share the mystical side of my life; something that I have always been a little reluctant to do. For over 20 years, numerous psychics have indicated that I am a healer. I have always refused to acknowledge it. After my recent experiences, I am now willing to offer my self as a Spiritual Healer. If this is not what Spirit wants of me, I’m sure I’ll find out. But at this point, it “feels right”, so I will go forward with this “feeling” and see where I am next led.
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One morning, as I entered the living room of my old house to continue working on the remodeling I was doing, a hummingbird flew in with me. I opened two doors wide open so that he might fly back out. He did not. He kept flying between two dropped girders that I had installed underneath the upstairs bedroom. From the living room they appeared as two beams. I was intending to install an electrical wire running inside these beams in case I ever needed it. I had previously run the wire up from the crawl space below into the walls where the posts were that supported the beams. I had not yet installed it inside the beams, though I had allowed space for it. I had driven a couple 16 penny nails into the side of the beams and the wire was hanging along side the beams secured to the nails. The hummingbird flew back and forth between these two beams. I tried to herd him toward the door but he just kept flying back and forth between these two beams. He finally perched on the wire hanging alongside the northernmost beam.
The thought occurred to me that he might be sick. Maybe this bird needed something from me. I remembered all the different psychics over the years who had said that I was a healer. I thought what the heck, I’ll see if I can help him. I raised my two hands to surround him as he sat on the wire, expecting at any minute he would fly away. He did not. He just sat right there on the wire and let me hold my hands on either side of him as I said a prayer that if there was anything that could come through me to help him please allow it. He just sat there. I was amazed. I didn’t believe it. Then suddenly the thought occurred to me to pet him. I reached up with my left hand and with my forefinger stroked him gently on the top of his head. He just sat there and let me pet him, making this little high pitched squeaking or chirping sound. I lowered my hand in amazement.
I couldn’t believe what had just happened. The hummingbird again began flying back and forth between the two dropped girders I had added. It occurred to me that this bird must be trying to tell me something. I went upstairs and searched all around to see if there were any wires or anything that might be overheating or anything at all amiss that I could find that might warrant this birds warning. I never could figure out just what that bird was trying to tell me. I know it was important, because it’s not everyday that a wild bird will sit still and let you pet it. I found the entire episode amazing and confusing. In fact, I still do to this day.
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In 1994 I was struggling financially. I had returned to college in 1991 and completed my degree in psychology. I thought that with my varied experience and a college degree, employers would be eager to hire me. I was wrong.
I kept trying to find a job in the human service area but no one was interested. I wanted to be in a job that I helped people. At one point, in order to broaden my options, I did an informational interview with a sheltered workshop manager in a small town. At the end of the interview after I had told him the type of employment that I was seeking, he indicated a few places that I might try. As a parting comment, he mentioned that he might have something come up in a few months that paid about $13,000. a year if I thought I might be interested. I thanked him and asked him to let me know when it was available but I knew that I would not take a job paying that little. I had just given up a job paying $45,000. a year in order to return to school.
Well, I ended up taking that job and did quite well with it as far as the job duties were concerned, but I continued to go deeper and deeper in debt. The pay was just not enough to make it each month so I kept charging stuff on my credit cards and my credit card bills got higher and higher until I was a really stressed each month trying to pay my bills. In the personnel folder that came with the job, it stated that after a certain period of time you could ask for a raise. I knew that I was doing a great job at work so I thought I would probably get the raise. When the time came that I could ask for the raise, I one day pointed out what the personnel manual said to the manager and he said yes, it says you can ask but you won’t get it. It was at that point that I knew I had to try and find another job, one that would allow me to be able to pay my bills.
Long story short, I started looking for another job and after many, many applications, I did in fact find what I thought was a suitable job, working as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for the state of NC. It immediately increased my salary by over $10,000.00 a year. But I was still struggling to pay my bills each month because of the credit card bills. So I decided to refinance my house. I went to my bank and applied for a loan so that I might pay off my credit cards. I used my new job as an income stream and my house as collateral. All of the paper work was completed but for some reason, my banker did not go ahead and process the loan. I would call for him at the bank and be informed that he was busy. Or I would call and discover that he was on vacation. Meanwhile, my stress levels continued to mount each day. I was at a loss at what to do to get him to go ahead and loan me the money.
One night, I was up in my loft, trying to sleep but unable to, because I could not stop worrying. I just kept going over and over in my mind the fact that I was probably going to be unable to make my minimum payment one day on one of my credit cards and my interest rate was going to soar and I didn’t know what I was going to do and I’d probably lose my house and have to go bankrupt and on and on and on. Worry worry worry. Suddenly, I felt a bounce on my bed like someone had sat down on it. I opened my eyes, and there, to my astonishment, sat a lady. She was sitting on the left side of the bed in a yoga position, with her legs crossed and her hands resting on her thighs, facing away from me. Her back was to my hip as I lay in bed on my back. At the time, the way my bed was positioned, you could not get around to the left side of the bed because it was pushed up against the wall. If anyone was to occupy that side of the bed you had to crawl across from my side or come in from the foot of the bed. Well, my mouth was open in astonishment and she just looked at me and smiled and reached over with her left hand and placed it on my forehead. When she did, all of the worry was wiped out of my mind. I knew I had been thinking hard about something but I couldn’t for the life of me, remember what it was. After unsuccessfully trying to recall what I had been thinking about, it suddenly occurred to me (being a guy and after all that is our job) that her presence in my bed might lead to other pleasant benefits, at which point she smiled at me, bent down and kissed me lightly on the lips, and disappeared. I know a lot of people will think I was dreaming, but to me it was as real as any other experience I have had in this dimension.
My loan did finally go through and I was able to pay off my credit cards and start living without so much stress.
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Some time back, one of the new members of a Search for God group that I was attending was beginning to develop some channeling ability and she wanted permission to do a reading on me. I said ok and she wrote down what she got and a few days later gave it to me.
One of the most interesting things indicated in the material she gave me was that I was surrounded by angels. She said that they kept trying to let me know that they were there by sending hummingbirds around me. I had noticed quite a few hummingbirds zooming around me as I worked on the roof of my old house. She indicated that they loved being around me as I worked on restoring my old house and that that they would be willing to help, but I had to ask for their help. I thought what she said was interesting but didn’t really pay much attention to it. I was kind of skeptical I guess.
One day I was having an especially difficult time trying to get a piece of tin roofing into place where it needed to be. This piece of tin was on the outside of the roof over the bathroom addition right at the corner of the upper story. Most of it was up on the top portion of the roof and needed to go underneath the south siding on the second story of the house. But some of it needed to overhang the first story roof, which meant that it had to be bent to go up underneath the siding on the west side of the upper story corner as well as cut out and bent to go under the south side of the second story. It also had to line up and fit correctly into the v groves of the adjoining tin. I had very carefully measured and cut out what needed to be removed and used blocks to help me make the correct bends so that it could slide up underneath the siding and protect from rain intrusion. I had very carefully loosened the siding and removed any nails that might have been in the way so that the roofing would easily slide under the siding. I tried and I tried and I tried to get this piece of tin into place where it needed to be, but could not get it installed correctly. If I managed to get it under the siding on the south side of the house, it wouldn’t go underneath the west side siding and vice versa. Finally, I remembered what I had been told about asking the angels for help and in utter frustration hollered out “all right angels if you are here, I could sure use some help.” That piece of tin slid into place exactly where it was supposed to be. I was astonished, because quite frankly, when I hollered out for help, I was venting my frustration and being a smart ass. I did not do anything consciously different this time from all my other attempts to get the tin installed correctly other than call out for angelic help. But this time my efforts were rewarded with the tin aligning perfectly into place almost as if by magic. What I really can’t understand is why I still don’t ask for help when I need it. It’s almost as if I am in denial about it. Go figure.
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Several years ago, I had a dream which really got my attention. It was very vivid and lifelike as dreams are. In this dream, I was reaching out to touch God’s fingers. It was very similar to Michelangelo’s painting showing Adam reaching out to God. In my dream, I was reaching out with my left hand to touch God’s fingers. At the very moment that I touched God’s fingers, I realized I was touching my own hand in a mirror. I love a dream like that. It doesn’t take a lot of interpretation to get the meaning of that dream. Quit looking outside for God and realize that God is incorporated into our own consciousness.
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Back in the 70’s, I was living out on a peninsula that wound out into a lake and then opened to a large expanded area with a house perched on the far end with one of its porches suspended over the lake. I used to keep my canoe floating in the water underneath my porch, protected from the rain, ready for me to jump in and go at a moments notice.
During this time period, I was reading a lot of the Carlos Castaneda books and absorbing the teachings of Don Juan. In one of these books, Don Juan had instructed Carlos to watch a waterfall backwards. To see the water flowing up, rather than falling down.
One day, I decided to try this. I took my canoe down to the dam on the lake. I got out and climbed onto the top of the dam and lay down on the emergency spillway on my stomach where I could watch the water coming over the top of the dam. From out of the cascading water, I fixed one spot of water almost midway of the waterfall and just watched it. I intently stared at just that one spot. I did not follow the water on down, but just stared at that one spot. And stared at that one spot. And stared at that one spot. And stared at that one spot. After a while, I was aware that I was seeing the water for that spot before it got there. It appeared that the waterfall was flowing up. I also became aware that I was hearing the most wonderful celestial music. It was absolutely fantastic. I had never been so relaxed and at peace in my life.
I don’t remember how long I stayed on the spillway for the dam but I do remember that later, some friends from over on the mainland side of the lake paddled over and called me out to my dock. I was still so relaxed and spacey from watching the waterfall backwards, that they thought I must be under the influence of some really good drugs, and they were hoping I would share with them. But I was not; it was just from staring intently at that one spot of water in the waterfall until it appeared that I could see it moving backwards.
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Epiphany: 3. a. A sudden manifestation of the meaning or essence of something. b. A sudden intuitive realization or perception of reality. (Webster’s 2 new college dictionary ISBN 0-395-70869-9)
One day, while I was working on framing up the roof of the new addition on my old house, I had an epiphany. I was working off the old side porch roof, using it as a platform. I had my tape player in the existing upstairs window and was listening to Joel Goldsmith tapes concerning the Infinite Way. Suddenly, it dawned on me. The secret of life. It all became so clear. I wondered why I could never see it before, it was so simple. I realized that from now on life was going to be so much easier. I continued to work on until late, doing the normal things I would usually do. I cooked and ate my meal, read or perhaps watched television, basking in my new insight that was going to make life so simple from now on. The next day when I awoke, I could not for the life of me remember what it was that I had been so excited about. I knew something marvelous had occurred, but I just couldn’t remember what it was. Try as I might, I could not get it back.
I guess it was similar to trying to recall a dream that just moments before you knew was so clear. The only thing I could seem to recall about the experience of the day before was that it seemed to be a letting go of doing and just being. I do remember how excited I had been and so amazed that I had not been able to comprehend this before. I guess while I was working on the house and listening to the Joel goldsmith tape, I had slipped into another dimension where everything was much clearer. When I came back into this dimension, like a wonderful dream experienced during the night, it was gone. At this point, I don’t even remember which Joel Goldsmith tape it was.
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While I was living in Fayetteville, NC, out on a peninsula that opened into sort of an island, I had an unusual experience one day while taking a shower. I was in the shower, just enjoying the water pelting down on the top of my head. I just kept standing under the water and letting it just continue to hit me on the top of my head and relaxing and enjoying it when suddenly I sailed out of my body. One minute I was in the shower, the next, I was looking down on my rapidly receding roof. From my viewpoint, it seemed as if I was a rocket ship sailing away from the ground. I was not moving sideways but straight up. I was looking down on my house out on the end of the peninsula and it and the peninsula were getting smaller and smaller. I was surprised and confused. Then I went into a cloud. It was like being in a dense fog. I could feel the coolness and the dampness on my arms. Suddenly I popped out of the top of the cloud into the bright sunlight. When I did, I realized what was happening; I was having an out of body experience. I gave a whoop of joy waiting to see where I was going next. And then, bam, I was right back in the shower again with the water pounding me on the top of my head. Many times over the years since, I have tried to repeat the experience while standing under the shower with no success. I don’t know what made that particular occasion in the shower so unique. Maybe it was to show me that, like Shakespeare said, “there is more to heaven and hell than dreamt of in your philosophy, brave Horatio.”
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Back in the 80’s, I had attended a video presentation of Bill Moyer interviewing Joseph Campbell on the Power of Myth. In this presentation, Mr. Campbell said that Tibetan monks were able to express love even as they were being murdered. I could not imagine myself capable of that kind of love. I thought that in the moment of being attacked I would in all probability fight back. You know, the old “sugar for sugar and salt for salt”. I did however, think it might be possible for me to muster up some forgiveness sometime after the event, but most assuredly, not during. During this period, I was meditating every day and reading the spiritual books that I was drawn to. I was also continuing to work as a carpenter on a large timber frame house that I was helping to build. I would meditate each morning before leaving the house. This was a common practice of mine at the time. I would sit in my favorite easy chair and try to just be. One morning, prior to leaving for work, while I was meditating, I was suddenly engulfed in love. When I say engulfed in love, I mean I was just all love. I had a vision that I was a monk and that I was being murdered by a soldier who was intent on making me suffer first. In this vision, he cut off my left hand at the wrist. But yet, nothing but love for this man poured out of me. He then cut off more of my arm with the same result; I just absolutely loved this man and everything about him. I have never before or since experienced such overpowering love. If Jesus was in this state I could see how he could instantly heal someone. Following this meditation, I left for work and stopped at a store on the way for my usual breakfast at the time, a pack of Toms Peanuts poured into a Pepsi Cola. When I spoke to the clerks they seemed to have a sort of surprised awe about them. I realized that I must still be carrying some of the powerful love energy with me. My presence affected them. One thing I am certain about this experience, it was not the Tom that I am most familiar with that expressed this love. It was something within me that for some reason had been released, even though only momentarily. It has been frustrating in the intervening years not to again have that experience. I have meditated and meditated but have never had quite that expression of love again. I know it is in there, but I do not know how to let it out at will.
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Many years ago I lived in Fayetteville, NC. The majority of the time I was there I lived out on a lake called McFadden’s Pond. First in a rental house next to the waters edge that was accessed off Cliffdale Road, and then, out in the middle of the lake on what appeared to be a small island. It was not really an island, but a peninsula with a one lane drive that snaked out into the lake and then opened out into an island. If you looked at it on a map it looked a diagram of a male sperm, long narrow tail with a large head. This drive was accessed off of Morganton road and was about a mile long through the sandy soil from pavement to house. Going in, I passed two houses on my left along the way and then about a hundred feet past the last house, just before the drive dropped down hill toward the lake, there was a locking gate. This gate was about a quarter of a mile from the house. You would wind through the trees downhill and then start out into the lake on the azalea lined driveway. The drive curved in such a way that once you reached the yard of the house, you could stand there and look around you and see water in every direction that you looked. The house was at the very end of the yard with its back porch hanging out over the lake. I used to keep my canoe floating in the water underneath my porch, ready for quick access.
The incident that I want to tell you about happened at night. I was sitting in my favorite chair and reading when it finally dawned on me that the dogs on the opposite sides of the lake were barking like crazy. I don’t think I have ever heard such frantic barking from so many different dogs at once. I got up from my chair and went to the door leading out onto my porch over the lake and opened it. I stepped out onto the porch and then very quickly stepped back inside and closed the door. When I had stepped out onto the porch it was like I was stepping into an electric field. My hair had stood on ends, both head and arms. I rationalized that it was goose bumps because I must have been cold. I put on a very heavy over shirt and stepped back outside. It happened again. My hair was waving around like magnetic filings following a magnet. I quickly stepped back inside and closed the door. Now I had a problem. I admitted to myself that I did not know what was going on and I was in fact, somewhat afraid to open my door and go back out. I have pretty much always lived alone out in the woods or out in nature. I realized that I would not be able to continue living alone out in nature if I was going to be afraid to open my door and go outside. I kept trying to figure out what to do. And then I thought of Jimmy Durante, who used to walk around the completely dark stage with just a spotlight following him wherever he went. I decided to imagine a spotlight surrounding me. Completely engulfing me and following me wherever I went. My spotlight, however, in my mind, was from God.
With my shield of light, I opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. My hair immediately stood on end again and felt like it was moving. As I stood on the porch, I realized that my hair standing on end and the dogs barking like crazy everywhere was not the only unusual things going on. The entire surface of the lake seemed to be churning. I realized it sounded like the sound fish make when they dash away when you walk up to the shore and startle them. The entire surface of the lake was being agitated by fish. There was also a very heavy fog. With my spotlight from God surrounding me and following me in my imagination, I descended the steps to the narrow concrete walkway connecting the steps to the side yard of the house and the dock. If you turned right, with a step up, you went around the side of the house up into the yard. If you turned left and stepped up, you were on my dock leading out into the lake.
When I had moved in, this dock was in major disrepair. It was not safe to walk on it with all its rotten and missing boards. I had rebuilt it, and in doing so, I had left one post sticking way above the treads. Its top was at about shoulder level. Due to the heavy fog covering the lake, and the fact that it was very dark out, I could not really see the floor planks on the dock. In order to safely walk out onto the dock, I aligned myself just to the right of this protruding post and shuffled out onto the dock, sliding my feet along the boards to make certain that I did not step off into the lake. The entire time I was doing this, my hair was still waving around like it was in a magnetic field, the fish were crazily churning the surface of the water and the dogs were barking their heads off. When I reached the end of the dock, I stood there with my spotlight from God in my imagination surrounding me and a hand on my tall post and looking up and around trying to discover the source of all the commotion. I saw nothing.
I must confess that what I really expected to see was a UFO. Several days prior to this event, the paper had reported that a deputy sheriff who had been born and raised in Spring Lake, where Pope Air Force base is located, had reported seeing an unidentified flying object. The authorities claimed that he had mistaken training flights from Pope Air Base as the UFO. It was my opinion that a man who had been seeing training flights from Pope Air Force Base since his childhood and was responsible enough to be in law enforcement would be able to tell the difference between training flights and something he had never seen before.I stood out on the dock for quite a while waiting to see something. To try and understand what was causing all these unusual effects. After awhile, my hair began to settle down, the fish calmed and the water quieted, the fog dissipated, and the dogs stopped barking. I was just standing alone out on the end of my dock over the water on a quiet night. I never saw anything to which I could attribute all the unusual occurrences. I watched the paper and listened to the news closely for the next several days and never saw anything about any UFOs being reported. I felt like there had been a UFO somewhere close that night, and that was what was causing all the disturbances, but I never saw one. In all the time that I continued to live there on the lake in the island house I never experienced any thing like it again.
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When I first started college, I went to a small college in Wilson, NC. I had not fully recovered from the injuries I had received in an automobile accident when I was 18 years old. I needed a campus that was compact and not spread out all over the place. I had a large brace on my leg and used crutches and a cane. During the course of my attendance there, I met a good friend. We used to hunt together, fish together and scuba dive together (it was under his tutelage that I learned to scuba dive). The first time I ever went deer hunting it was with him and some friends of his who were also students at the same college but were from the same local area he was. On that first deer hunt, they were all telling me what to do and I kept questioning it. They finally got frustrated with me and told me to sit any where I pleased but not to move out of the area that I was in so that they would know where I was and didn’t have to worry about accidentally shooting me. They told me to stay where I was until they came back to get me. I looked around and found a place that seemed to suit me. Because of the injuries to my leg and hip I was unable to climb a tree so had to sit on the ground. The type of hunting we were doing was called still hunting. You find a likely spot where the deer might be traveling and position yourself where you think you can get a good shot and then stay absolutely motionless so that the deer do not see you. We always wore camouflage and had our faces blacked out with burnt cork. A preferred spot is above the ground in a tree or deer stand. Deer do not look up all that much and you might get away with a little movement. We’ll, because of my hip, I had to stay on the ground and not move a muscle. If a mosquito lit on my nose to fill up, I let him. I did not move. I always tried to find a spot that I could lean my back up against a tree and be as comfortable as possible but yet ready to quickly raise the gun and fire. I normally sat with my bad right leg stretched out straight on the ground and my left leg bent up so I could rest the gun on my knee. Well on that very first deer hunt they were trying to tell me where to set up. I could see that if I did what they were suggesting, I was not going to be comfortable. Yes, the spot they suggested was very good for spotting deer. But it was not good for sitting on the ground for a long period of time. I found a spot that suited me and sat down to wait. I made a lot of rookie errors. I was deep in the woods but when I sat down, I was facing the field instead of deeper into the woods. This is a mistake. The deer come from out of the woods to the fields to eat. I was in effect sitting with my back to the deer. And I realized this because after sitting absolutely still for a while, I heard deer moving behind me as they made their way to the field. I could not see them because I was looking the wrong way. But I must have had the guardian angel of first time deer hunters with me that day because one finally walked past me to my left. That was the direction that my gun was pointed. He was about 25 yards away from where I was sitting and I was afraid that he would hear my beating heart. I was caught up in the excitement of buck fever. My heart was pounding in my chest. No matter how much I tried to talk to my heart and myself to relax, settle down, it didn’t do any good. I was sure that deer was going to hear my pounding heart and spook. I continued to watch the deer without moving. Finally he stepped behind a large tree where I was out of his line of sight. I quickly raised the gun to my shoulder and when he stepped back into sight from behind the tree, I shot him and he dropped right there. My friends had told me to be very careful approaching a downed deer. That many a hunter had been hurt badly by a wildly kicking wounded deer that they had approached carelessly. With this caution in mind, I got up and very carefully approached the fallen deer making sure that I kept the large tree that had shielded my movement between us. Standing safely behind this tree, I hollered out to the deer. Hey! Hey! Watching carefully for any sign of movement. When after several noisy attempts to spook the deer I decided that it was safe to approach him, I sat down with my back against the tree and reached out my hand and patted the deer. I was excited. My first deer hunt and I had bagged a deer. YEE HAH! Later, when my friends came out of the woods, they were basically disgusted that a first time deer hunter got a deer.
My friend and I hunted on this farm over in Gates County many times. It belonged to some friends of his father. On one occasion, I do not remember the date; I decided to go down into a different part of the woods that I had never hunted. My friend knew where I might be going and was not going to be anywhere near this location. I walked into the woods and looked around trying to find a likely spot to set up. I found a tree that looked like it would be comfortable to lean against and was close by two intersecting deer trails. I was very relaxed as I sat there and very optimistic that I might get a deer. This spot was in a perfect location for deer. I was using my friends fathers Browning 12 gauge automatic shotgun. I had this gun loaded with 5 rounds of number one buckshot. I was ready. After sitting there for a while, I was suddenly terrified. And I do mean terrified. I have never been as frightened before or since. And of nothing. Nothing visible that is. I got to my feet as rapidly as I could and was looking all around trying to determine if there was anything there. I could not see anything that might be the source of my fear. But I knew I wasn’t going to stay down in those woods by myself. If I was by myself. I started walking out of the woods toward the field. The entire time I was walking out of the woods I kept looking all around me and clicking the safety on the gun on and off, on and off, on and off. I have never been so terrified in my life. If someone had jumped out from behind a tree and said boo! I would have blown them in half, I was that frightened. When I left the darkness of the woods and reached the edge of the field, I began to settle down a little bit. It was still quite early with quite a bit of time left to hunt that evening so I just waited until my friend finally left his spot and came out into the field and whistled. When we met up he asked me if I had seen any deer I answered truthfully no, I had not seen any deer. And I did not tell him how frightened I had been while I was down in the woods. When you are in your 20’s, hunting with a fully loaded automatic shotgun, you do not tell people that you got scared when you were down in the woods. Particularly not other college aged guy people. Or you are likely to be reminded of it at particularly embarrassing times. So I just let the matter drop, not knowing what else to do about it. Months and months later, it could even have been years later, I was with my friend and some others in a tavern off campus. We were drinking beer and talking and somehow the subject of ghost stories came up. In this atmosphere, I decided to tell about the incident when I became so frightened back in the woods in Gates County. I had only just begun to tell the story when my friend stopped me and told me exactly where in the woods I had been. The same thing had happened to him at the same spot, except that he was up in the tree not leaning against it. He said he almost fell out of the tree because he was so frightened and had to get out of there quickly. Neither one of us had an explanation for why we were so frightened. Neither one of us had seen or heard anything. We decided that perhaps in some past time something very frightening and horrifying had happened to someone at that spot. Perhaps there was a lynching or someone tortured to death of something horrible that had happened to someone there and it had left a very negative imprint in the energy around that tree. Whatever it was, it still had a very powerful influence years later. Many years later, I was again hunting in the woods near where this had happened to me. I tried to find the same spot but the timber had been logged off and everything was changed and I could not determine the exact spot with any degree of certainty. Perhaps the same thing is still happening to anyone unlucky enough to stumble upon this spot in the woods. If so, they have my sympathy, it was not pleasant.
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While I was living out on the little island down in Fayetteville, NC, I had a friend who was part owner of a small cabin on the other side of the lake. He and I often got together to cut firewood. On one occasion, we had scheduled to meet early in the morning at a certain spot to cut firewood. For some reason, something came up and I was not going to be able to meet him at the scheduled time. I did not want him standing around waiting for me not knowing that I wasn’t going to show up. I needed to call him and let him know that I was not going to be able to make it. The problem was, he lived with his mother and one of his sisters, and if I called at this late hour, there was no question but that I would wake them up.
I struggled with what to do. I did not want to wake his mother or his sister but I also didn’t want him standing around waiting for me to show up. I finally decided that I had to call him even if it disturbed his mother and sister. I dialed his number and at the very moment that his sister answered the phone, the saw blades that I had hanging over my fireplace fell to the floor with a crash that reverberated throughout the house.
Let me back up a little bit. I had previously dismantled an old creosote plant for my friend and his family that had belonged to their father. These saw blades were part of my agreed upon salvage for dismantling the plant. One was a two man crosscut saw which had been used to cut off the timbers and the other was a large round circular saw blade about 24” in diameter with replaceable carbide teeth that was used to rip the timbers. Sitting in a jar on top of the fireplace mantle was a brand new replacement set of carbide teeth for this saw blade.
This was a concrete block house with a brick fireplace and a brick mantle. To hang these blades on the wall I had driven concrete nails into the mortar joints and suspended the blades from these. The two man crosscut saw was hung at an angle with the nails wedged in the teeth and the circular saw was suspended from a nail supporting it in the center hole. Everything was quite stable and secure. At least it was until I called and woke up the wife and daughter of the man who had owned them. At the very moment his daughter answered the phone, both of these blades fell from the wall down onto the brick mantle and knocked the jar of replacement blades to the hearth below, where the jar shattered and the teeth scattered everywhere. The blades also hit the hearth with a loud crash that left a metallic ringing in the house as I held the phone to my ear and listened to his daughter say hello.
It took a moment before I could say who I was and ask for my friend. Later, when I investigated the nails that had supported the saw blades on the wall, I discovered that they were still securely embedded in the mortar joints, nothing was loose. It appeared that the crosscut saw had sort of sprung off its nails and hit the circular saw blade causing it to fall to the floor as well, taking the jar of replacement teeth with it. Those saw blades had been above that fireplace for a long time before they fell.
There might be a reasonable explanation why they fell off that wall. I just don’t know what it is. I just think it is a might suspicious that they happened to fall at the very moment I woke up the former owners wife and daughter. I think maybe he was not happy that I had disturbed their sleep and wanted to make me aware of it. Trust me, he did.
Of course, it could also have been a manifestation of the power of my own guilt for waking up my friends family. Got me by the sneakers.