Mary’s Vision: The Archangel Gabriel
During times of crisis, especially when serious health related issues are at stake, the occurrence of visions or other paranormal phenomenon is not as unusual as one might expect. Many people have been led to believe that seeing a vision either indicates saintliness or insanity—not a comfortable point of view to hold when an angel drops by! As a result, people tend to be very cautious about sharing their experience of visions. However, I found that quite a number of average people have visions. In my classes, many students recounted seeing visits by supernatural beings like Jesus or angels or the presence of a comforting divine light. For the most part, these experiences come at traumatic or life changing times in someone’s life.
These phenomena can be thought of as expressions of pure intuition, healing energy that breaks through when the veil between this world and other realities is made thin by the magnitude of a mind-bending reality a person is facing. The reality to be encountered can be traumatic such as life threatening surgery, a sexual assault, or death of a loved one. However, it may not necessarily be negative. It could be something profoundly wonderful such as the gifting of a special and life changing calling as Mary experienced with the visit of the Archangel Gabriel who heralded her role to be the mother of Jesus.
At these times, visions come to tell the distraught person that the overwhelming reality encountered is not all there is and will not have to be born alone—that something more abides giving comfort, love and insight. In Mary’s case, she was told she had found favor with God and that the power of the Most High would overshadow her.
Visions vs. Hallucinations
Some people may be confused by the difference between visions and hallucinations. According to Morton Kelsey, in Dreams: A Way to Listen to God, Paulist Press, 1978, visions and hallucinations are very different and easy to distinguish. He says the vision is “attributed to the inner world” by the beholder while a hallucination is “attributed to the physical world.” Visions can be very practical and helpful, tending to bring gifts like guidance and comfort. Hallucinations, on the other hand, are taken to be actually there in the physical world when they aren’t perceived by others, and tend to instill fear and other negative feelings into the beholder. Hallucinations can come as a side effect of certain drugs or medications.
The Transfiguration by Raphael
Luke 9 is about bringing the disciples to the mountain top, literally and figuratively, and then sending them into the world while letting them know what the cost of discipleship is all about. In the process, a growth of intuitive insight occurs among the disciples to the point where they can see the full revealing of Jesus as He is, beyond the carpenter from Nazareth. They can see his essential energy field in all its glory and wonder, as well as those of Moses and Elijah who set in motion the forces of spiritual tradition that led to Jesus.
A Call to Let Go
After having chosen his disciples, Jesus sends them out with little in the way of backup support to proclaim the Good News and to heal. In a sense, it is the pulling away of the usual supports we are accustomed to for a greater good. The call to grow one’s intuition often involves a call to let go of the things we previously relied on for support.
A Discovery of Miraculous Abundance
Early on in the call to open the third eye of understanding, the seeker becomes aware that highly developed spiritual persons can summon and bring abundance of resources and good health, defying our common perspective that the pie is only so large. The disciples witness this so many times they begin to believe it themselves. They begin to see that life can be lived on different terms. There will always be enough with the grace of God.
The Recognition of God’s Presence among Us
Jesus constantly asks His disciples who they think He is, testing their depth of spiritual awareness. When Peter answers that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus knows Peter’s eyes have been opened. In a sense, all of us are constantly being asked the same thing. Can we see the presence of God in our lives? If Jesus is the God for us, can we recognize Him here among us now? As with Peter, when we can see God even in the lowliest person, we have reached a significant point of spiritual development.
Before the disciples recognized Jesus’ true nature, the demons inside possessed people were the only ones who recognized Him. It is much the same within ourselves, our demons torment us, and make us aware until we can recognize the divine and be healed. Their coming to the fore is almost necessary to precede the healing call of the divine.
The Mountain Top Experience
Like Peter and the apostles, we are usually relaxed, half asleep or in a state of meditation when suddenly there is a shift of consciousness and we can see auras and energy fields. In this state the disciples witness Jesus in splendor, along with the great spiritual leaders who preceded him. Like us, the disciples want to capture this precious moment and make order out of it by constructing something to make it permanent. They want to build booths to contain the wonder they have just seen just as we want to write about, paint, sing, memorialize or “churchify” our spiritual experiences.
The Need to Go Out Into the World
Jesus knows it is not only about the mountain top experience. It is also about acting as His disciples at a time when he won’t be around, spreading the news of what they have just witnessed and doing the miraculous things He has done. He explains what this entails: the profound insight demands an equally profound and unconditional call to action. It is the basis for the call to action.
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