As I read Dr. John Jay Harper's new article for UFO Digest entitled The Art of WWIII: The Unifying Archetypes of Apocalypse, 8/22/08, I felt a sense of déjà vu all over again. I looked into his synchronistic, Jungian, collective unconscious eyes and saw myself thirty years younger looking back wild eyed yet startlingly perplexed like a deer caught in the headlights. As I have written about many times before including my article My Early Descent into the Spirit World of Darkness and My Later Ascent into the Godly World of Light, UFO Digest, 2/1/08, I come from an intellectual and spiritual background very similar to many of UFO Digest readers and contributors. I began studying UFOs fifty years ago and reading books by Major Donald Keyhoe and about Project Bluebook. I affiliated with early UFO organizations like NICAP and APRO. As a young man, I read the works of Charles Fort and Brad Steiger. My Masters Thesis was a tribute to the Gnostic philosopher Rudolf Steiner. As a young Professor, I had the students in my graduate class, "Alternate Conceptions of Reality" read the same writers that Dr. Harper cited in his article including Jung, Huxley, Campbell, Capra and Zukav. I experimented with lucid dreaming and channeling images from the yenne velt (other world). I wrote an article for a feminist journal, Anima, in 1980 entitled "Adam: Male, Female or Both?" where I spoke of the androgynous nature of Adam and therefore of God. I read the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas which Harper cited and used its Taoist unity mantra in reconciling good and evil, male and female and other supposed opposites to write a novel, "The Other World" thirty years ago where I glorified the Hebrew feminist archetype Lilith.

I was probably versed in this stuff well before even Dr.Harper was. I was so called New Age before it was even called New Age. I was forever searching for the truth but I kept coming up empty handed.

"Always learning and never able to come to knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7).

That is why I can relate to people on this site and other UFO and paranormal sites. As I stated previously, I have befriended not only UFO Digest Publisher Dirk Vander Ploeg and Editor Robert Morningstar, but also noted Brazilian Ufologist A. J. Gevaerd, Don Allis, Publisher of Alien Seeker News, Chris Montgomery of UFO Research Center, Derrick Fulton of UFO Alley, Rob McConnell of X-Zone Radio, Jerry Pippin of UFO Radio fame as well as noted paranormal author Brad Steiger among many. Although we don't always agree on all conclusions, we do respect one another and do speak the same language of UFOs and the paranormal. As I just stated, I cannot discount such interests out of hand as many have done and continue to do because I have always been a part of these pursuits. I know them to be real. The devil is in the details. Dr.Harper's efforts to "demilitarize the planet for peace" and his notion that "we are fruit of an intelligent earth" reminded me not only of my antiwar youth but also of an article that I wrote 30 years ago entitled "Apocatastasis ", Greek for restitution, where I had an embattled earth become upset with nuclear missiles buried in her bosom and cause them to be set off in the dreams of the nuclear disarmament negotiators as a warning. Once again, been there done that, many years ago.

Dr.Harper's statement that "organized religion falls short of critical thinking" and his remarks that "hell, fire, and brimstone preached from the pulpits of the three major religions only serves to further this move towards destruction", is also familiar to me. I lectured at the University of Arizona for years on anti Semitism and the role of the Church in the Crusades, Inquisition and the Holocaust. I too sought solace in the apparently peaceful Eastern Religions like Taoism, Buddhism and in the I-Ching. I mediated and contemplated my navel and flew in my times of lucid dreaming.

It all came to a crashing halt, however, one evening when a grad student of mine killed himself because of his own character flaws. His wife was nine months pregnant and he had a girlfriend. I found this all out later, but what really upset me was when everyone connected with him told me at his funeral how much he had liked my class on "Alternate Conceptions of Reality" where I lectured on reincarnation among other things. He might have thought that he would get another chance which I now know to not be the case. "Once to die and then the judgment" says the word of God, (Hebrews 9:27). I felt then that I might have contributed to his suicidal decision.

After leaving the world of academia (I was denied tenure due to funding issues and not replaced), I became a Jewish Community Professional in Phoenix for several years. I continued my Gnostic pursuits and began channeling images from the spirit world; see Azazel: the Extraterrestrial, UFO Digest, 1/03/07.

My antipathy for Christians only grew as I worked on committees dealing with Christian proselytizing in the Jewish community.

I was involved with an Edgar Cayce study group and had my own psychic and astrologer. I was told that I was an avatar, an old, wise, ascended master type soul. I was asked to teach Jewish mysticism at a new metaphysical university in Phoenix.

I am giving you all of this background one more time to set the stage for what happened next. It seemed to come out of nowhere but eventually showed that God had his plan for my life all along. He found me, I did not find Him.

"You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit" (John 15:16).

Look, it happened to me against my will and it can happen to you also. I was not in church or reading the Bible or leading a moral life. I was living with a woman and seeing my astrologer and psychic. I was preaching a godless gospel and thumbing my nose at the Lord. I was running away from Him as fast as I could.

"But while we all were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). He came and died for all of us sinners not for the righteous.

My marriage had fallen apart, my father had died and my health had failed as I was diagnosed with MS in the spring of 1987. My then current boss fired me when she learned that I had MS after telling me the day before that she would kill herself if she had received such a diagnosis. I found myself working for a Christian telemarketing precious metals company- me, the Professor, Jewish community worker (Pharisee) and avatar to boot. My sister warned me that they would get me but I told her no way. Like Dr.Harper, I knew that these religious nuts had no critical thinking skills and I would chew them up and spit them out! But God had a plan.

"God made foolish the wisdom of the world. and God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise" (1 Corinthians 1:20, 27).

A couple of men, Philip and Chuck, faithfully witnessed to me every day at work but I just belittled them. One day, Philip, a Texan, former Marine, former numbers runner for a Bar, got so frustrated with my insolence that he yelled at me. "Jewboy (that is what he called me) I feel like throwing you off of the balcony here on the third floor". I responded. "Oh that's Christian, Philip. Convert me or kill me!"

This went on for a year. About 10 months into my ordeal, we all went to Dallas for a seminar. The boss offered to bump me up to First Class but I had refused knowing all too well that he would just preach at me. When I sat down in coach, the woman next to me saw that I was reading some book about Jews and had asked me if I was a Jew. When I had said yes that I was, she had taken out her Bible from her purse and started reading it to me just as my boss had walked own the aisle in front of me. "You people are everywhere!" I had yelled.

Shortly afterwards, I was at Philips for dinner one night. Heck, it was free and I was a Jew and besides my life-in girlfriend was always at work. Sue me! After dinner, Philip wanted to pray so I begrudgingly agreed still savoring the catfish that he had caught and prepared for me. As we stood in a circle holding hands with our eyes closed, I saw something with my mind's eye. I must have moved or grimaced because afterwards Philip wanted too know what I had seen. I kept telling him nothing but he had threatened to beat it out of me. Since we Jews would rather fight with our mouths than our fists, I had acquiesced. I told him that I had seen a man in a suit of armor wielding a long sword against a being in a monks robe and no eyes. It was stupid I knew but he had asked. Philip nearly fainted and ran and got his Bible. He showed me that I had seen.

"Put on the full amour of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11). I had said "Yeah right, Philip!

A few short months later, I finally told Philip and Chuck to leave me alone. I had told them that all their citing Bible passages and telling me that I was going to hell was not working. I was a Jewish, professorial, old soul avatar and would not believe unless God showed me a burning bush like he did to Moses. They questioned me as to who I thought that I was, wanting God to reveal himself to my pitiful self. I had shrugged and had said something to the effect of, "Oh well, too bad."

Soon after this, I was sitting in my cubicle and suddenly a vision appeared in front and above me. I looked but apparently neither Philip nor Chuck had seen it because they were not looking up as I had been. It was an image of Christ on the cross at night with lightning all over the sky. His head was down. This was not the image that a nice Jewish boy, even a New Age one, would usually see. I struggled with it and it disappeared. I had told no one. The next day it was back but it was daytime and Jesus had lifted His head and light had beamed from His eyes. He broke the fetters binding Him and had walked all over the Earth with that light still beaming from His eyes. I had not known that Jesus had said that "He was the light of the world" (John 8:12) but my eyes were also being opened and the blinders were coming off.

That night I had dreamed that I had to to die (be crucified) for all my friends to live. I did not want to be flogged and be nailed to a cross but I knew I had to be for them to live. I woke up looking at my hands (Galatians 6:17) since I now bore the brand marks of Jesus. My eyes were opened (Isaiah 35:5) and I knew the truth about what Christ did for me. I suddenly knew and understood for the first time what Philip and Chuck had been trying to tell me for a year. I underwent a radical paradigm shift and was a new man in Christ.

"The Gospel which is preached by me isn't according to man for I neither received it from men nor was I taught it but I received it in a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:10-12).

Remember, I never went to Seminary let alone to Church nor had I read the New Testament. All of my knowledge had come from this paranormal experience. It was a personal revelation of Jesus Christ through these visions and dream. One day I was a Dr.Harper clone and the next day I was the Jewish apostle Saul (Paul) experiencing a blinding revelation of Christ which went against everything we both had been brought up to believe. Only God could have done that.

From that day on nearly 20 years ago, I turned my life over to Jesus Christ. It was a bumpy road at first foiled with a lot of dirty diapers but what do you expect from a new born Christian? Philip baptized me in his swimming pool and held me under for what seemed like an eternity. When I questioned him as to why he had done that, he had laughed that I had a lot of sin to wash off. I then lost everything including most of my Jewish family and friends. I soon lost my ability to provide for my family and my self esteem.

But as Paul rightly wrote:

"Everything is a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I might gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8).

I am not here to judge any of you. That is way above my pay grade. This is between you and God. All that I am trying to do is show you how someone thoroughly steeped in the paranormal and so called New Age consciousness came to the simple truth that Dr. Harper and many others still fail to grasp in its simplicity.

Jesus did say that "I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through me" (John 14:6) but that is not a statement as Dr.Harper intimated about our consciousness or Taoism but simply means what it says. As Ockham's razor states, the simplest explanation is usually the best. Take this statement at face value. Jesus is the only way to heaven. He is open to all. No one is too bad to be forgiven and nobody is too good not to need forgiveness. Jesus is the Savior of all mankind sent by the Father to redeem a fallen world.

"There is salvation in no one else for there is no other name (but Jesus Christ) under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

One day I was a paranormal Gnostic Jew and the next I was a born again spirit filled Christian. Who would have ever guessed?

"For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God not as a result of works that no one should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

"For if is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace" (Romans 11:6).

Thank you Jesus for coming to seek and save the lost. I am forever grateful.