Welcome to MyStory: True Stories That Changed My Life

Welcome to MyStory!
True Stories
That Changed My Life
By John of AllFaith
© 1997-Present

Part One: To 1969...

From time to time, people write in asking questions about me: How did I come to believe as I do? What did I learn from the various religions I have studied? Why did I decide that Judaism is the Path for me? And so on. Here at MyStory, I reply to such questions by sharing personal experiences. This sharing is a giving of thanks to One God! Without Whom, I would not have made it through. In its present form, this site remains incomplete. After all, how can one present a life in a few paragraphs or web pages? As I read this, I think, "But what about..." For now, however, this will do.

This section like all of AllFaith.com is an unending work in process. I have tried to describe my life experiences accurately, but it is not so easy. From one perspective, this is because I was not keeping notes or records, and 'my memory ain't what it never was,' as the saying goes. However, as strange as this doubtless sounds, it is also because there were periods when time did not seem to follow its normal patterns. I do not know how else to explain this, but it's my experience. Also, I would sometimes return to previous paths for reconsiderations or further growth, and sharing the lessons seems more coherent when I am not too rigid about the timeline. My chronology is correct regarding the overall series of events, yet when contrasted with other equally certain events, the two timelines do not always harmonize; odd but true. Nevertheless, I do my best here and ask you not to be too critical in this regard. If you were involved in some of these events and can shed light or see something you believe is inaccurate, your feedback and photos are welcome! The chronology is less important to me than the experiences and what I learned through them.

I was born in North Georgia, USA, in the 1950s (exact dates are not included here due to modern security concerns). I have traveled much of the world and lived in diverse locations. Several years ago, I returned to my birth state from the Northern California buttes and settled down. As of January 2025, I live in far north Georgia.

I grew up in the "Old South." My dad was a non-observant closeted Jew (which even I did not know until years later); my mom was a Baptist (which everyone knew!). I became a Christian in a small North Georgia Missionary Baptist church when I was twelve. As I knelt at the altar, I committed my life to God. I did so with the full if uninformed, conviction that I would walk whatever Path God presented me, no matter where it might lead. My "Sinner's Prayer" included my uncertainty concerning the details of religion and my commitment to seek to understand who God is and what He wants for me and my life. While this religious commitment has led me along very different paths than most people in my situation and my family, I can honestly say I have been faithful to this promise I made to the God of my understanding in 1969.

As I knelt there, I truly met the One God at Harrell Grove Missionary Baptist Church! That spiritual experience was real, along with many subsequent divine appointments. This experience has guided me for all these years. Now that I have grown old, that commitment remains strong. I will not, and indeed can not, accept as truth something I do not believe is accurate. As a Seeker of God, this principle has often caused difficulties with my fellow religionists, as you might imagine.

To be clear from the outset, I make no claims to special knowledge nor enlightenment, and I certainly make no pretext of representing anyone but myself. I am convinced, however, that religion, including Judaism, should enable us to transcend external religion and achieve devekut or direct communion with the Beloved. No religion has the market on this! The One Creator is our Parent, the Lover of our souls, our faithful Friend and confidant, our Savior, the Bestower of all Blessings, the Source and Destination of us all. God is the Beloved. I freely acknowledge that I am but one of the billions of travelers on this endless Path we call life. Each of us focuses our precious time on earth on different things. For medical needs, I seek one skilled in healing. When my car breaks down, I trust a qualified mechanic. My focus has always been religion and spirituality; I have some expertise in this field. If you are interested in my humble opinions, I am happy to share some of my experiences and insights. If you have questions, comments, or corrections, I encourage you to contact me.

The civil rights struggles of the 1960s and 70s played a role in my early development and subsequent beliefs. My philosophical and religious beliefs have always been more inclusive partly because of the lessons learned through these struggles. I have always desired to find and promote spiritual and social peace with God and each other. Seeing how the Globalists have usurped these noble goals to divide people and destroy our once-great civilization breaks my heart.

In this linked piece, I discuss the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement as they influenced my life. How well I remember the day he was shot! Atlanta, of course, was the home base of Dr. King and his Ebenezer Baptist church. While my family and church were on the wrong side of the Racial Equality Struggle, His assassination (as well as that of the Kennedy brothers) had profound implications for us all. It is interesting to speak of those days and to discover that almost no one then present says they were prejudiced. Have you noticed that? Everyone thought Doctor King was a good man doing a good and much-needed service - to hear them tell it! Hindsight is 20/20, they say. I know better. We had come a long way towards establishing racial harmony before Obama and the Globalists rekindled the fires of racism. So sad.

In 1969 I began my spiritual quest and personal awakening. While I have found my home in Judaism, my search for truth has not ended. This quest has led me through all religions, countless denominations, cults, philosophies, and spiritual traditions. It has taken me to different countries and immersed me in diverse cultures and sometimes dangers I should not have objectively survived. My quest challenged many of my Southern Bible Belt assumptions and knocked me out of my 'comfort zone.' These experiences have shown me how utterly insignificant and yet how absolutely remarkable each of us truly is. Both are true. I have learned that opposites can both be true and that absolutes seldom are.

What a year 1969 was! In my life, to be sure, but it seems that everything was shaken during that remarkable year! These experiences determined how the remainder of my life would go. Delete the events of 1969 from my experience, and I would be a very different person.

In the spring of 1969, I walked to the altar of Harrell Grove Missionary Baptist Church and gave my life and heart to the God of my understanding. While I would not have worded it this way at the time, I understood even then that God, by definition, utterly transcends my conscious understandings and the dogmas of any religious creed. God is always more! Within His transcendental complexity is the absolute simplicity of Be-ing. I knew that I did not know. And so, as I knelt and asked for God's mercy as instructed by the pastor, I promised this Being of Pure Love and Life that I would invest my life seeking attachment to Him, and I meant it. The intervening years have convinced me that God heard and accepted that childhood request and promise, as He will hear yours when you pray with sincerity.

A few weeks after dedicating my life to God, I was visiting my grandmother in the foothills of the Great Smokies. Early one morning, around three AM, I awoke to the strangest sound I had ever heard. A loud whirring sound seemed to suck the air out of the room and draw me towards her old barn. Walking into her living room, I found my grandmother, then in her mid-eighties, peering out the window as if hiding, yet straining to see something in the distance with absolute fascination. A faint pulsing light, clear to yellowish-blue-red, illuminated the curtains and thickly paneled living room walls. Her front door was standing open, beckoning me to pass through it.

"Maw-Maw?" I squeaked in a mouse-like voice. "What -?"

My maternal grandmother lived on a small, non-worked farmstead with no neighbors in sight (other than my aunt's house an acre away and dark at the time). There were no streetlights or any other source for this radiance, yet it illuminated the living room walls. Hearing me, she glanced back, her face a mixture of awe and love, and she said, "Their back." I almost jumped out of my skin when this line was used later in a famous horror movie! LOL.

I walked through the open door and onto her rectangular front slat porch for a better view, hardly believing my eyes. My grandmother tried to drag me back inside, not, it seemed, due to fear but concern that I might disturb them and her visitors might leave. I discuss this experience elsewhere. This was my first remembered UFO experience. It would not be my last. What these visitors want remains a matter of conjecture; that they are real is a matter of fact, as far as I am concerned. Such experiences convince me that in addition to religion and spirituality being important, as the Bard penned, "There are more things in heaven and Earth Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy [sciences]" (from Hamlet, by William Shakespeare).

Around this time, in the Summer of 1969, I also began having a recurring dream that has remained with me my entire life. As memory serves, it began a few months after Maw-Maw and I watched the UFO 'paint' her barn with light, as she later described it to me. She had seen this many times. This recurring dream or memory has long haunted me with nightmares of the European Shoah (Holocaust). I am convinced that the dream is a genuine memory of my previous life.

In the dream, I am a Jewish boy of thirteen or so. I have concluded from my memories that I was originally from Bulgaria. However, for most of the dream or memory, I seem to be in Poland, in what today is Lower Saxony, in northern Germany. As the memory begins, my city had recently come under the control of the greater German Reich. As a Jew, that was problematic. Although it is not possible to present the full sense of a dream, I attempt to do so here. The reality of this experience has given me a sense of peace and courage throughout my life that I will survive no matter what comes, one way or another. When I encountered the teaching of reincarnation, something not acceptable to the Baptists I had grown up among, I immediately accepted it because I knew in my heart that this experience was true. As I later learned of the Jewish belief gilgul neshamot or rolling of souls, my lifelong fascination with Judaism increased.

In 1969, I also had a vision of my future that I attempt to describe in this section. This vision and my other odd experiences in 1969 are somehow related. This vision showed me seven teachers who would enter my life and teach me specific critical lessons. I have now met all of them but one.

While I assume my family, teachers, and others questioned my sanity in 1969, it was as if I was waking up. I was becoming aware of a reality beyond the mundane existence of my upbringing.

On the other hand, my life was becoming ever more uncomfortable during this period. The other kids my age despised me for being weird. I felt neither love nor acceptance from my parents or siblings. I begged God to allow me to die on more than one occasion. I felt cursed to live among people I neither knew nor understood. Finally, God replied through this vision. He answered that if I wanted out, He would "take me home" then and there. However, after seeing some of the future, I chose to remain. Portions of this vision are recounted here. This vision has been amazingly accurate thus far, although it is unfolding slower than expected. Now, in 2023, things seem to be wrapping up.

Also in 1969, I had another significant experience when three men whom I believed to be 'angels in disguise,' visited our north Georgia church and taught me a most important life lesson as discussed elsewhere in this section.

These 1969 experiences marked the beginning of my life's experience and mission. I say "mission" for lack of a better word. I believe we all have a reason or purpose for our existence in this reality, whether we understand it or not. God is always in control. He leads and guides us without infringing on our free will as individuals. By sharing these experiences with you, I am not claiming to be anything special. I am just a guy who has tried to peer beyond the veil with limited success.

The experiences I share here, as well as others not included, forever altered the course of my life and have given me hope in the future and faith or emunah in the Beloved. I believe that through such experiences, God has always led me. The Christian singer Rich Mullins made a demo version of a song called Hard to Get ten days before he died in a car accident. He did not have the chance to bring the studio version to market. In it, he says, "I can't see how you're leading me unless You've led me here..." In the same way, if I believe God is leading me now, I must accept that He has been leading me all along. And I do. For this reason, in part, I honor all people of faith and love regardless of the Path they tread. There is nothing but God.

What a short, strange trip it has been!

Please note: This section of AllFaith.com suffered greatly from the Rabbinic censorship I was subjected to while earning my smicha (Jewish ordination) and the attempt by NetSol to 'cancel' me and steal the domain (which they unjustly took offline for nearly a year). As with the rest of this domain, it is time for a significant update. As you read the linked studies, please be patient during this update process. AllFaith.com is Back! Before reposting these pages, I am reviewing them, looking for typos and other errors. The links that do not work indicate that the page still needs to be updated. Thanks for your patience.