"Radiant Light, Boundless Love"
by Dennis Shipman
A brilliant light suddenly illuminated the darkness in my mind.
It was as if a huge searchlight blazed through the center of my vision,
like an extraoridinary brilliant full moon suddenly bursting forth into
the night sky. I gasped and physically felt the breath rush out of my
lungs. A wave of energy rushed up my spine. I immediately went on
alert, ready to spring into action at any sign of danger, but I was not
in control any more. The Light was. As I observed the vision, fear
dissipated into astonishment, astonishment into childlike wonder.
Where there was darkness, there was inner light. White light.
I couldn't understand it. I couldn't deny it.
Once the acknowledgment had taken place, I enjoyed an experience
of endless pure pleasure. A full range of indescribable bliss and joy
swept over me like waves on a beach. No sense of striving or
competition remained. There was no lack of anything. The yearning
for greener pastures was gone. I felt like everything had been
accomplished; nothing more was to be done. I had come home.
Fear ceased. In fact, all negative qualities were gone, annihilated.
This caused an overwhelming sense of relief. Into the void came
perfect contentment, profound peace, an overpowering sense of
infinity, eternity, immortality; oneness, unity, liberty, freedom.
It felt as if the whole of creation was contained within the Light,
and I belonged to the Presence of it.
I witnessed a splendor I had never seen before, a vision of awesome
power and magnitude. It was an opalescent white
light, perfectly circular, like a communion host at Catholic Mass,
surrounded by a deep blue background.
It was not a harsh light like the noonday sun. It was like soft lightning,
up close, like a fluorescent light. It filled my entire inner horizon,
and displayed three distinct qualities:
Supreme Power, Ineffable Love, Radiant Intelligence.
There within my head, my mind, beamed an outrageously bold brilliance,
hauntingly familiar to me. I felt we knew each other, like we had been
introduced and become great friends a long time ago, yet become
separated somehow. This was our reunion. For the first time in my life
I knew what it felt like to be utterly free, to feel ineffable joy, and to be
in the presence of unconditional Love.
Chapter Five
The Roman Catholic Church and other fear-based Christian
religions have set themselves up as the "authority" on the
word of God, when in fact Christianity is no such thing.
Its 2,000 year history has brainwashed us into believing
things that just don’t exist. It has built a big industry
on fear, half-truths, illusion, shame, and guilt, and it has
done a great sales job. It has told us that if we go along
with the Church, support them in what they think is the
word of God, then it would reserve a space in heaven for us.
Conversely, if we go against the Church, it would reserve
a space in hell. Yet, God has not given Christianity the
power to do either: to act as our wholesaler-retailer for everlasting
life, or to withhold heavenly hotel reservations from us.
The abusive dynamics of this ‘authority-follower’ cult over
the past two millenniums has given rise to the present state
of religious totalitarianism.
Christianity has completely distorted the relationship that
exists between the Creator, Jesus, and ourselves. Yet, although
the problem is with the authorities, it is also with the followers.
We have given away our power because we have not resolutely
exercised our personal responsibility to discover the mystery
of Life (God the Creator), which is the mystery of ourselves.
The source of all spiritual knowledge or revelation is the
Creator within the individual. All Christian mystics, saints,
and sages of the world who have realized the Inner Light
know this to be true. The Creator exists within us as a loving
Inner Light, in our Lifeforce Energy system, and we live in
the Creator’s universal cosmic-conscious energies twenty-four
hours a day. We have direct access to the Creator in our hearts.
The great heresy of Christianity
is they have not taught us that
salvation is based on the knowledge
and experience of mystical
union with the Creator (Oneness).
The Creator’s message to us is that the kingdom of Heaven
is not found by means of a fear-based belief system.
It is discovered by exercising our love and free choice,
and can be experienced in our lifetime as mystical union
through one’s own efforts. Fear and belief do not exist
in the Inner Light of Oneness--the supreme freedom of the Soul.
The One Who Ensouls Us Is Within Us,
And Has Never Left Us
