Golden Lining a 36″ X 48″ oil painting by Leslie M. Taylor
The Essenes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Old Testament
The Essenes were a Judaic religious group that flourished from the second century B.C.E. to the first century C.E. They have gained fame in modern times due to the discovery of the extensive religious library of religious literature discovered at Qumran known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, 2,500 year old texts. The scrolls were discovered in a series of 12 caves around the site near the Dead Sea in the West Bank (then controlled by Jordan) between 1946 and 1956, some by Bedouin shepherds and others by a team of archaeologists.
Image of a few of the caves where Dead Sea Scrolls were found
The Qumran community is widely believed to have been a major Essene compound, where the group lived an ascetic life and trained priests to purify the Temple of Jerusalem in preparation for the coming of the Messianic kingdom. The community preserved multiple copies of the Old Testament, untouched until their discovery in 1946. They also produced their own unique religious literature found nowhere else. In recent years, some scholars have questioned whether the Qumran community was indeed an Essene group and have challenged the idea that the Dead Sea Scrolls were even produced by this community.
A portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls from the Book of Isaiah
Whether or not they lived at Qumran, the Essenes also lived elsewhere in ancient Israel. Their tradition was characterized by asceticism, strict adherence to the Jewish law, concern for the purity of the priesthood and a belief in the imminent coming of the Messiah or Messiahs who would usher in the Day of the Lord in which heathen or pagan rule would be vanquished through a cataclysmic conflict between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness.
The copper Dead Sea Scroll
The Copper Scroll above was discovered in the cave explorations by a team headed by French archaeologist Henri de Contenson in a cave about 1 mile north of the site of Qumran, in the northwestern region of the Dead Sea. Known as 3Q (the third cave found with manuscripts in it, close to the site of Qumran [Q]), this cave as well contained fragments of parchment and papyrus manuscripts, textiles, more than 30 broken cylindrical jars, more than 20 lids, two jugs, and a lamp.
Source: Biblical Archeological Society article by Joan E. Taylor.
Paintings Aligning with Prophecies, Poetry and Prayers
I had just completed my painting The Triumph of the Human Spirit – Christ Consciousness following the completion of the painting Manitou – Native American for the Life Force In All Things. Prior to those works I had completed the painting Reading In My Backyard. The figure in that painting is the artist, me, in my late 30s painted from a photo taken in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in the 1980s. It is perhaps not clear that the woman is intended to appear surreally imposed on the river landscape as she’s reading about such a place while comfortably reclining on the lawn in her backyard.
With all three completed and beautifully framed I hung them in the study upstairs. It is a well lit, sunny room perfect for meditation, reading and contemplation as one looks at the artworks or out the large window to the landscape and vast sky beyond and that which I photographed for reference material in the painting of Christ. I had no model for that painting and I struggled considerably with realistically depicting the figure. I may paint it again, but with a model next time.
Manitou – Native American for the Life Force In All Things a 30″ X 40″ oil painting by Leslie M. Taylor
Close up of Manitou and more accurate coloring
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The Triumph Of The Human Spirit – Christ Consciousness a 30″ X 40″ oil painting by Leslie M. Taylor
The actual painting is sharper in detail and not so overly brilliant in color. It is often quite difficult, and frustrating, for the artist to show accurate representations of their work online or in print.
Reading In My Backyard a 30″ X 30″ oil painting by Leslie M. Taylor
Close up and more accurate coloring
Once hung, I had difficulty seeing Manitou and Christ, two holy men, as brothers. Instead I felt an internal conflict given what occurred from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the end of the 19th century. When one considers the history of Native Americans and the early western European settlers, their two very different cultures and spiritual or religious beliefs and the tragic outcome, it is not surprising that I was a bit uneasy hanging them side-by-side.
On the wall directly across from them is Reading In My Backyard and below that work is a wooden chest with a photograph of my mother on it and to the left of her picture is a globe of the Earth perfectly aligned with the painting’s flowing water toward it and in the sky above, the heavenly heart radiating love onto the planet. The white butterfly symbolizes metamorphosis and the Great Blue Heron symbolizes a graceful transition with both directly above the photo of my 95 year old mother in Hospice care as I now write. Currently, I live within a short walking distance from the Boise River in Idaho, a very similar landscape, and these magnificent birds are a common sighting here.
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My mother’s Rogers Hall High School graduation picture
The Isaiah Effect – Decoding the Lost Science of Prayer and Prophecy by Gregg Braden.
Author Gregg Braden writes, “Isaiah, whose name means “Yahweh is salvation,” is best known for writing the book that bears his name in the Old Testament. His writings are especially significant for the prophecies he made about the coming Messiah, hundreds of years before Jesus was born.”
I admit to not knowing who Isaiah was. I grew up in an entirely secular household and can count on two hands the number of times I have been inside a church for the purpose of worship and listening to a sermon. There has never been a copy of the Bible in any home that I’ve lived in. However, during my youth I had two spontaneous mystical experiences, the first at 16 years of age and the second in my early 30s, that convinced me of the existence of God. In my 20s I read the then popular book The Way, a carefully edited version of the Bible where some of the early English words, thee and thy, for example, were replaced with the words you or your. Following having read The Way, I read a second book of just The New Testament similarly edited and published by the Protestant Church. I was not particularly moved by these books nor remembered much of the information in them, but I continued reading spiritual literature and to this day.
I do not have a TV nor stream television programs online, therefore I read quite a bit. Being what is generally referred to as spiritual and a student of metaphysics (being literate in five scientific fields) I am familiar with many contemporary spiritual and metaphysics thought leaders and their written works. The author and speaker, Greg Braden, is one whom I was aware of but knew little more about him or his books than that. Then, just after the completion of and hanging the paintings, I came upon and watched an interview with him online and was quite impressed, so I purchased three of his books. He is described as a “five times New York Times best-selling author internationally renowned as a pioneer in bridging science, spirituality, and the real world together.”
I took the first of the three books The Isaiah Effect – Decoding the Lost Science of Prayer and Prophecy (pub. 2000) upstairs into the study, or my sacred space as I now think of it, to begin reading. I knew it was about the decoding of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient prophetic writings and that was all I knew about it. As so often happens with the books I read, my immediate circumstances and the book’s contents become synchronistically attuned and sometimes quite astonishingly so. With The Isaiah Effect It was no different. It was as though I painted the works to illustrate some of the book’s contents though, again, I knew nothing of the book while painting. Some of the words and ideas expressed in The Isaiah Effect book fit perfectly with my paintings and soon resolved my internal conflict between Christ and Manitou.
Synchronistic correlations associated with that which I am reading (and no doubt many others have these same experiences) and how this happens may be related or similar to renown examples of fictional books being remarkably predictive of actual future events. For example, and there are others, the novel The Wreck of the Titan published in 1912 is famous for its similarities to the passenger ship RMS Titanic and its sinking 14 years later. Personal or widely known prophetic, predictive or synchronistic correlations with books (or in other ways written down, like in the ancient scrolls, movies, thus scripts, etc.) and actual events are well worth pondering.
Also in the book he addresses the Mayan calendar suggesting that the world ends in 2012. The Mayans were architects of massive temples, celestial observatories and precise calculators of time. He also mentions their sudden appearance in the remote areas of the Yucatan peninsula and suddenly vanishing around A.D. 830, roughly 1,500 years ago. He includes several other prophecies and prophets such as, among others, the physician Nostradamus (b. 1503) and his predictive capabilities and the ancient Sumerian glyphs’ cuneiform script in Mesopotamia dating back to around 3500 BCE.
An example of cuneiform script
As I was seated in my study, or sacred space as I now think of it, facing the large window and reading The Isaiah Effect with my three paintings hung on either side of me, I soon read these words on page 19 about predictions and this is important to note. “Many scholars, modern-day prophets and lay people believe that such powerful examples of natural and social extremes are in fact events fulfilling long-standing prophecies of war and destruction. The same prophecies considered in their entirety, however, offer a message of a very different kind. Far from terrifying, ancient predictions viewed through the eyes of new research offer empowering perspectives of hope and possibility.” On page 24 the author suggests that “Rather than creating our reality, it may be more accurate to say that we create the conditions into which we attract future outcomes, already established, into the focus of the present. Predictions offer possibilities only.”
Later the author goes on to describe quantum physics and in particular, quantum superpositions. Here’s a description of quantum superpositions: More than one equally probabilistic outcome concurrently existing, or as Braden puts it “already established,” thus transcending spacetime sequential causality in any currently experienced 3D material state. Here I’ll add (given that the choice includes feelings) the choice of outcome can either be rooted in fear, which contracts and usually will result in harmful thoughts or actions against that which it fears and the fearful, or love which infinitely extends. Love is perfect unity, one with, thus whole knowing inclusive of feelings, from a vaster, a transcendent view, and potentially to an extent including past, present and future events (thus precognition). Love, unity and whole knowing are one and the same. In the extreme it is experienced as an enveloping, inclusive of the experiencer, brilliant light, as in enlightenment. Near death experiencers often describe having been in such a state, or as one with a being of light, God no less, once freed from the confines of their body and local 3D spacetime perceptions.
Yet, these profoundly informative and transformative experiences are not limited to those who suffered a severe trauma or disease and experienced the early stages of dying or being in a mind altering drug induced state or during a profound mystical experience. Nor need an otherwise healthy and alert individual be consciously aware of their source of a profound or saving knowledge and sometimes an associated peaceful, confident or joyful feeling (that everything is alright for example) received from a transcendent source or perspective. For this information is often conveyed as an intuition, during sleep, vocally or non vocally or in written or other creative works from a spirit guide, a guardian angel, or a deceased relative.
Someone’s Looking Out For You an oil painting by Leslie M. Taylor (close ups below)
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Back to Braden’s book and the synchronicities associated with my paintings. On page 22 he writes, “Fourth century documents preserved in the private Vatican libraries, for example, offer details of this relationship reminding us that “The spirit of the Son of Man was created from the Heavenly Father, and his body from the Earthly Mother, and from her did the Son of Man receive his whole body. You are one with the earthly mother, she is in you and you in her …” This applies to all three paintings and the photograph of my mother next to the globe on a wooden chest beneath the painting of me reading a book . My inner conflict between the two paintings, Manitou – Native American for The Life Force In All Things and The Triumph of the Human Spirit – Christ Consciousness immediately disappeared. For I then knew that they are one: Christ, the spirit of the Son of Man from the heavenly father and Manitou, the Son of Man from the earthly mother. The further association with the third painting Reading In My Backyard and my mother’s photograph beneath it, “you are one with the earthly mother, she is in you and you in her,” was heartwarming and given how these items are placed, this statement is in reference to both, our birth mothers and Mother Earth, as Native Americans thought of her.
On page 71 the author refers to the western Bible having gone through many changes from the highly symbolic Egyptian language following its origins in the Aramaic and Hebrew languages. He cites the first words of the Lord’s Prayer, which in English reads as “Our Father which art in heaven,” that in the original Aramaic the same phrase reads simply as two words, Abwoon d’bwashmaya. He informs the reader that there are no exact words in English for these words leaving skilled translators to put together collections of English words that approximate the original meaning. Examples of such translations are, “Oh Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos,” Oh Thou! The breathing life of all!,” “Our small identity unravels within you,” and “Radiant One, You shine within us!” By-the-way, I painted light in the area of Manitou’s heart depicting just that, the light of God within him. I would like to point out that, of course, many works of art depict similar themes. But the timing of my coming into awareness of Gregg Braden’s books, acquiring and reading first this particular one, The Isaiah Effect about prayer and prophecy which I’m experiencing personally following the completion and hanging of the paintings as I am now writing about. Do read the entire article here and you’ll understand what I mean.
Throughout the book, the words and themes are synchronistically aligned with the three paintings. Within just a few pages of reading my uncomfortable feelings about the two holy men being placed together were resolved along with the same words meaningfully incorporating the third painting hanging above the photograph of my mother and the globe of Earth. Because of this and the timing of the book, the room where they hang is now undoubtedly my sacred space.
This paragraph below, on page 78 of The Isaiah Effect (recall that the book was published in the year 2000) is also meaningful involving a hopeful, and I believe a prophetic, dream I had.
Braden states, “Viewing any prediction tool as a lens into possibilities sheds new light on the role of prophecy in our lives. Coinciding with many biblical, Native American, and other prophecies for our future, the Bible Code alerts us to a series of apocalyptic scenarios. Beginning in our near future, such occurrences as a third world war originating in the Middle East, catastrophic earthquakes, and the devastation of major population centers all appear as possibilities.” On pg. 79 he adds “… Similar to the theme of other prophecies (e.g. the Mayan Calendar and the Bible Code 5772, the Hebrew year for 2012) appears to be saying to us that the year 2012 brings an end to life as we know it, while at the same time, in another location [in the Bible] the threat to the Earth is destroyed. How can both outcomes be possible at the same time?” he asks. This is quite possibly explained earlier in this essay with the description of quantum superposition (beneath the image of the cuneiform script) suggestive of many co-existing yet different outcomes concurrent with the present circumstance.
Here is my hopeful, and I believe a prophetic, dream as previously published on my Miracles For All website.
July 2019 – Boise, Idaho
A DREAM FORETELLING OF A RADIANTLY BEAUTIFUL BRAND NEW EARTH!
Very early on a Sunday morning I woke up following what was perhaps a prophetic, or providential dream of global (not personal) significance. The dream was uniquely brilliant in color and detail which can suggest that something more than just an ordinary dream occured. It was nighttime and I was standing outdoors looking up at a brightly lit full moon. Then, from further out in space, a slightly smaller asteroid, or moon-like object, appeared rapidly travelling in the direction of the moon then crashed into it shooting debris out in every direction, but also seeming to be merging with the moon. I was terrified, for I knew that this disaster would very soon impact the Earth and all life on the planet would then be completely annihilated. Then suddenly, in the sky above, where the celestial objects collided, appeared a perfect and radiantly beautiful brand new Earth. Immediately, I awoke and sat up in my bed and said out loud, “Thank you God for this dream! Thank you!” I’ve never done that or anything like that before.
The movie poster below perfectly illustrates the dream. I had not seen the movie nor the poster before the dream, though I’ve watched a couple of trailers since. Curiously, the woman in the poster plays the part of an astrophysicist and the leading theory regarding planet formation is known as the “protoplanet hypothesis” which claims that very small objects orbiting the sun crashed and merged together accumulating more and more objects growing large enough to form planets.
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On page 209 the author writes, “The key to our oneness is the leverage to transform our world. The power of our oneness allows for a relatively few individuals to affect the quality of life for an entire population.”
Here’s a similar well-known quote from Margaret Mead (1901 – 1978) who was an American cultural anthropologist and a renowned author and speaker during the 1960s and the 1970s.“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” These quotes bring to mind Christ’s teaching, “If you knew who you are, you could move mountains.”
Reclaim Your Power!
While working on Manitou I thought of Jerome, a black male (although the model in the painting is Native American) who was a neighbor of mine in San Francisco several decades ago. Jerome once said to me, “I’m not a water buffalo, I’m a jaguar,” Manitou reminded me of Jerome, a great dark cat as he referred to himself.
I have a deck of 68 cards that on each one is a colorful illustration of a particular animal. The cards, which are called the Spirit Animal Oracle Cards, came in a lovely box along with a small booklet. The intent is for the user to blindly and randomly select a card, note the animal and words on it then, based on the card’s number, look it up in the, booklet and read the further meaningful or prophetic information and its significance to the user. I hadn’t done that nor read any of the pages in the little booklet for I’m not much interested in Tarot, I Ching or anything else of that sort. Although, it is not inconceivable that such practices, given the tools such as tarot cards symbolic and artistic qualities, could spark intuitive thoughts to a truly psychic individual (and they do exist) who could then impart meaningful information to an inquiring individual. However, I got the cards specifically and only for rote memory exercises not inclined to play memory games online knowing that the results are likely tracked to the user’s computer and recorded.
Having taken a break from my painting, I sat on my couch and did a memory exercise with the cards on the coffee table before me after which I decided to try using them as they are designed to be used. So I shuffled the cards, spread them out face down and with eyes closed I selected the one below. Note the words at the bottom of the card, and that the panther looks a bit like Manitou (scroll up and see for yourself).
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Black panthers, as they are referred to, are a rare variant of the jaguar species with about 11% of jaguars having this dark coloration. “Reclaim your power” is not only an important message for Black or Native Americans, but for us all, is it not?
The Power of Our Thoughts and Feelings
Gregg Braden also addresses man’s inhumanity to man which there is plenty of and perhaps now more than ever before as we face the self-proclaimed elite’s Nazi-like aggression, power grabbing and killing (both our spirits and bodies) and states, “Each time we hurt others through our words or actions, in effect we have hurt ourselves. Each time we take the life of another, we have taken a part of our own lives. The very thoughts that allow us to hurt another limit our ability to express the will of creation through ourselves.” I emphasize these words for I will return to this subject later, toward the end of this article.
Here’s a simple personal example, yet I feel it demonstrates the power of our thoughts and feelings as co-creators or co-destroyers, of ourselves even:
Not long ago for three mornings in a row I foolishly engaged in a fantasy repeatedly while sitting on the couch drinking my morning coffee. I would imagine, visualize and feel, myself being hit by a car while riding my bike. I felt my body being thrown in the air in slow motion following the impact. The parts that I did not fantasize about were the impact itself and the pain and bloodiness of a broken body slammed into the air then hitting the ground – just the feeling of slowly being lifted up and floating through the air. Not at all an unpleasant daydream. Then, not surprisingly, just following the daydreams and within a week, I twice missed by inches being broadsided by a car while bike riding. Never before have I experienced such close calls while biking.
One was due to my not seeing an oncoming speeding car, although I was responsible for the near hit, it was understandable that I did not see the car as it was blocked from my view. Yet, I should have proceeded more cautiously. The other near hit was in a nearly vacant university stadium parking lot on a Sunday afternoon. As I was riding through the lot a car, off at a distance on the northwest side of me a car curved around in my direction then came driving directly at me for no logical reason that I can think of other than to hit me. The lot was wide open with few cars parked there. The driver slammed on her brakes at the last minute, the tires may have even screeched, I don’t exactly recall, and she stopped within inches from broadsiding me as I rode past her. I often think what if I had included in my fantasies the experience of pain and a broken and bloodied body? As well, the police, an ambulance and so on?
Peace
One thing that the author also repeatedly mentions is the feeling of peace when in thought or prayer willing for a particular outcome. I have been in more than one dangerous situation yet I never felt anything but calm, or peace, during the danger as though I knew I would be fine and, as it turned out, I was. These situations involved men with ill intent toward me like in one recent situation while trapped in a car headed towards the mountains. The driver, a kindly, supposedly married man with two daughters, offered me a ride home as it grew dark and cold outside over the period of time we were talking to each other in a restaurant/bar setting. While in the car, heading the wrong way, I found that the passenger’s side window and door were locked and inoperable which I did not react to. Instead, I calmly reached for my backpack at my feet. There was no weapon in the backpack but he didn’t know that and he immediately pulled over and told me to get out having then unlocked the door from his side.
Toward the end of the book Braden mentions having witnessed the sudden healing of an injured person’s body due to a bystander’s, a healer, response with her hands over the injury along with her observable quality of feelings as she gazed upwards – a miraculous healing. This link (thought with feeling) has been demonstrated though the implications are beyond the framework of modern science. He adds that our choice to recognize the relationship between our thoughts and feelings with the world around us is a deeply personal one, inviting us “to think the thoughts of angels and do as the angels do.” I would suggest that in doing so we subliminally cohere with and are then more receptive to communications from loving, guiding, non-physical beings sometimes referred to as guardian angels.
Braden also tells us that the cells of our bodies are tiny antennas of feelings and emotions in an individual who then carry these properties with them thus affecting the world [hologram-like according to many] around them. Within the brackets are my words. It helps to know how a hologram is made but beyond the scope of this article. However, here I’ll include a diagram showing how holograms are made.
I can’t resist, I have to elaborate: Holographic plates, or films, are made with a laser beam (a beam of coherent, in-phase, light waves) split in two directions by a semi-silver coated mirror called a beam splitter – half goes through the glass and the other half reflects off of the silvered parts of the mirror. Next, the two beams are diffused, or spread out, by two lenses. Then the beams are reflected off of another mirror, one in the direction of the object, the object beam, which reflects information about the object in the direction of the holographic film, or plate. The other beam, the reference beam, is reflected from the other mirror in the direction of the plate (not reflecting off of the object) and the two beams combined produce a wave interference region. This produces a dark and light pattern recorded on the holographic plate. The thickness of the plate, at micron levels, capturing the light waves contributes to the 3-D hologram effect.
The image on the plate bears no resemblance to the object recorded (whereas on a typical photographic film the image is perceptible) but contains all the information about the object in an optic code. Each and every part of the holographic record, the film or plate, receives whole information about the various parts of the illuminated object (yet not the unexposed portion of the object – the back of it for example). Thus, should the film be broken up, all the parts of it contain the whole of the image of the recorded object – the smaller the piece the less detailed the mage.
Image above from Newcastle Systems
Transmission holograms are a type of hologram in which the reconstructed image is viewed through the holographic film, or plate, itself using the same laser beam that exposed it. The processed plate, (see above right) is repositioned at the same location and orientation that it was during exposure. The laser light then illuminates the processed plate. Looking from behind and through the holographic plate, or film, toward the location where the object was placed, the image should appear exactly the same as the object. This is called the apparent, or virtual, image. It is on the 2-D holographic plate, yet it appears 3-D and at the same location where the object was when photographed.
Back to the book: The author adds that with a specific mode of prayer incorporating loving thoughts and feelings by even a fraction of the world’s population, we get a sense of the power inherent in our collective will. It is in the language that we think, speak, read and listen to, in songs even, inclusive of our emotions that allow us to choose life over disease and create peace in situations where we believe that peace does not exist (such as within our minds and bodies). It is the language of thought coupled with feeling that moves mountains. When we read of healing miracles in times past, no longer are we left wishing that the same miracles could occur today. The miraculous outcomes are already here; we are simply asked to choose them.
Gregg Braden’s book, The Isaiah Effect – Decoding the Lost Science of Prayer and Prophecy is well worth reading.
*Note* I encourage the reader once finished reading this article to go to my Miracles For All website to the page titled: Part I – New Information, Videos and Book Reviews (most recent) and scroll down to the post dated July 13, 2021 titled Miracles of Mind by Russell Targ and Jane Katra Ph.D. [link at the bottom of this page] where I describe something quite unexplainable that occurred to my paint brush as I was painting Manitou – Native American for the Life Force in All Things and during which time I was reading Miracles of Mind. Included is a photograph for verification of the incident which also involves what I had previously learned about the renowned Israeli psychic, Uri Geller, from reports by physicists Dr. Russell Targ and Dr. Harold Puthoff who had studied Uri Geller’s extraordinary abilities at the Stanford Research Institute at Stanford University.
After finishing reading The Isaiah Effect, I began reading Gregg Braden’s book The Spontaneous Healing Of Belief. In this book the author theorizes on topics such as what the universe is and how it came into being. He speculates that it is a conscious computer and a massive simulation produced by a creator whom he refers to as the Great Programmer. This is not surprising given that Braden’s background is working as a computer geologist for Phillips Petroleum in the 1970s and in the 1980s he worked in the defense industry for Martin Marietta Aerospace as a computer systems designer, then later for Cisco Systems in a global internet (functional reliability) support team.
Similarly and also not surprisingly, I tend to think of God, or The Creator as a master artist in all fields, including literature. I theorize that the Master’s works are projected from the singularities – incredibly dense, brilliant and immeasurably small living sparks of light residing within the core, or heart, in all living things great and small alike. All singularities in one and all are a part of and extended from, thus one with, the Creator, or God, from the two trillion (based on NASA’s latest estimate) massive galaxies throughout the universe down to the smallest, unicellular, organisms such as algae, and smaller perhaps such as in atomic structures. This dynamic living light at the center of and the very source of each and every individual life form and likely the universe itself, is surrounded by and projects its brilliant living light through an instrumentally undetectable holographic-like film or blueprint or event horizon membrane (an event horizon is a cosmology term). This theory also falls neatly in line with fractals demonstrating that things are similar at all scales, from the micro to the cosmic. “As above, so below,” a maxim that Braden often repeats in his works.
One thing that the author, many spiritualists and I would all agree on is the importance of the heart’s contributions (the feeling, the knowing by accessing God’s loving guidance in our hearts that all is well) in any and all endeavors including the production of a miracle. Miracles are not a product of the intellect. For the intellectual, rational mind will claim that miracles cannot and do not happen and that believers of or witnesses to miracles are superstitious, mentally defective or fooled somehow. When in fact, all of life is a miracle.
Miraculous Manifestations or a Teleportation of Objects?
Braden briefly mentioned the book The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran in both of his books that I’ve read thus far. In both he quoted Gibran’s statement that “Work is love made visible.” After having read that quote the second time, I paused and reflected on The Prophet. I’m familiar with the title of the famous book, yet I knew little else about it let alone having read it. Therefore, I decided to purchase online The Prophet (hard copy) the next day. I almost always read hardcopy books (although I read and write plenty of articles online) for, if in particular of a spiritual, metaphysics, philosophical or alternative healing content they routinely produce synchronicities and other parapsychological phenomena.
On a very different subject, also at this time due to an article I read about the pop star singer Justin Beiber’s adverse reaction to the covid injections, facial paralysis, I decided to learn more about him. I’m of an age where I would not be interested in his stardom or music being that it’s clearly geared toward a much younger following. I wouldn’t recognize Justin Bieber if he was standing next to me. Yet, given how famous and successful he is as a singer and performer I thought I’ll look into his biographical information and listen to some of his music the next day as well. Those two things and purchasing The Prophet I planned on doing the next day, May 31, 2024.
That Friday morning, prior to doing either, I headed out for a 14 mile bike ride through neighborhoods and along a river path I frequent. Next to the sidewalks in two of the neighborhoods that I ride through there are these Little Libraries, as they are called. They are small cabinets, each just enough for around 15 books, depending on size, situated on top of a post that is roughly the height of a mailbox. The used books inside are free. I had always rode past them until two weeks ago when I stopped in front of one, looked inside and found a book I was interested in. I put it in my bike bag and brought it home with me. Later, upon further examination of the book, I decided not to read it. So on this Friday morning, I put it in the bike bag to place it back in same the Little Library cabinet over the course of my ride.
At the start of my ride I told myself I would like a miracle. I added that I want to come across a treasure and I imagined all sorts of treasures. Then I chuckled to myself recalling that I live in an area called Treasure Valley in Boise, Idaho. So I restated my request to simply experience a miracle with no specifications leaving the matter wide open for whatever miracle occurs.
When I arrived at the first Little Library cabinet and as I placed the returned book inside I saw a large, thin book, a picture and autobiography of Justin Bieber! The book was designed for adolescent readers but I flipped through the pages looking at the pictures and reading some of the text – enough to fulfil my intention to familiarize myself a bit with the young celebrity. I then put it back in the cabinet and continued riding toward my destination, Lucky Peak Park, where I turned around for the ride back home. On the ride back I stopped off at the second Little Library cabinet to see what books were inside it that I might be interested in, and lo and behold there was, among a dozen or so other used books, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran! So, the following day, Saturday, June 1, 2024. I spent most of the day reading, immersed in, The Prophet’s living prose.
Photo of my treasure
Here’s the actual book, a treasure no less that, like the book on Justin Bieber, was miraculously provided for me.
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Prior to receiving and reading the book I knew nothing about Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931) but then discovered that he was a Lebanese born author, philosopher, poet and visual artist. This small book includes not just 28 brilliant, absorbing, spiritual essays but also some of his artworks featuring the human figure which demonstrate considerable talent. Gibran considered himself to be mainly a painter. He lived most of his life in the United States, and though fluent in both Arabic and English, he wrote his best known works in English.
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His self-portrait and featured in The Prophet
Gibran Khalil Gibran was born on January 6, 1883, to a Maronite Christian family in Bsharri, Lebanon. As a young boy, he displayed an early artistic aptitude which became evident in later years. His early education was sporadic, yet he did receive informal lessons from a local doctor. Gibran’s father worked as a tax collector, but was charged with embezzlement and his property was seized. Seeking a better life, in 1895 Gibran’s mother moved the family to Boston, Massachusetts, where they settled in the immigrant South End neighborhood and there he was exposed to Boston’s artistic community. Initially showing promise as an artist, he also began writing newspaper columns and books in Arabic and drawing attention to his prose poems.
After moving to New York City, Gibran began writing books including his most famous work, The Prophet [pub. 1923]. He became an officer of the New Orient Society in New York featuring in its quarterly journal writers such as Bertrand Russell and H. G. Wells. The popularity of The Prophet continued well after the author’s death in 1931, making him the third best-selling poet of all time behind William Shakespeare and the Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu.
Centered on the character of Almustafa, a holy man set to return home by ship after 12 years in exile, the book masterfully expounds on matters of love, work, religion, buying and selling, crime and punishment, freedom, death and more over 26 essays. Curiously, I found that many of the [legitimate] contemporary reports from near death experiencers apply to the rich, poetic wisdom imparted by Almustafa. Being familiar with many of these reports further enabled me to deeply comprehend and fully appreciate the book.
In 1928, he delivered another of his acclaimed books, Jesus, the Son of Man, a collection of reflections on Christ from both historic and imaginary people. Here is a portrait of Jesus by Gibran which is featured on the cover of some of the printings of the book.
.Jesus, the Son of Man a pencil drawing by Kahlil Gibran
As mentioned earlier about Gregg Braden’s thoughts on hurting and killing others, similarly on page 42 of The Prophet in the essay on Crime and Punishment, Gibran writes:
“It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind,
That you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.
And for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed.”
Though not at all alone and unguarded, not even now, Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, comes to mind. Mao’s policies were responsible for a vast number of deaths, with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims due to starvation, persecution, prison labor and mass executions. His rule has been described as totalitarian. Mao’s body has been on display in a mausoleum in Beijing, China, since his death in 1976. His body was embalmed and placed in a glass coffin, where it remains as millions by now have looked at it, or him, as the center of everyone’s attention and reverence just as he so demanded in life. Before his death, Mao did request to be cremated, but his officials, including his wife Jiang Qing, decided to embalm and display his body instead.
And there he waits.
On page 71 Gibran’s holy man, Almustafa, speaks of prayer [emphasis is mine for I think it is quite worthy of thought]:
“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.“
“When you pray you rise to meet in the air those with whom you are praying at that very hour and whom, save in prayer, you may not meet.”
“Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.”
Here Comes The Light a 30″ X 30″ oil painting by Leslie M. Taylor
Article by Leslie M. Taylor, Boise, Idaho – June 2024
As a continuation of the extraordinary synchronistic events following the two described above involving Justin Bieber’s autobiographical book and The Prophet go to the next page here Inspiring Books, Lovely Creative Works and Wow, Miracles Happen!
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As mentioned earlier in this essay, to learn of an unexplainable, parapsychological, event involving my painting Manitou – The Life Force In All Things go to:
Part I – New Information, Videos and Book Reviews (most recent) and scroll down to the post dated July 13, 2021 titled Miracles of Mind by Russell Targ and Jane Katra Ph.D.
Link: https://miraclesforall.com/t-part-i-new-information-videos-and-book-reviews-most-recent/
I also have another website titled Miracles For All and on it is a Healing and Oneness guided meditation recording. At the top of each page is the menu to all of the other pages:
Website home page: www.miraclesforall.com
Recording: https://miraclesforall.com/healing-and-oneness-recording/
The view my artwork portfolio and other articles see menu above and below (as above, so below :).
You can email me at: leslietaylorartwork@protonmail.com