Mystical Experience: The Bookstore

It was the holiday season, and I was at Cottonwood Mall shopping for gifts. This was in the mid 90s, and I had yet to own a computer. My favorite store in the mall was, of course, the bookstore.

I walked into the bookstore and began to browse. To my right, as I entered the store, there was a display of best-selling books. The display was set up with small shelves attached to the wall, each shelf displaying one book only. The wall was covered with books.

When I looked at this wall, all the books on it were out of focus and blurry. I could see colors, and vague shapes. I knew they were books, but I couldn't see them clearly.

Except one.

There was one book that was centered in the display, and it was the one book whose title and cover design were clear in my vision. I unhesitatingly walked toward that book, picked it up, and opened it. The page I opened to proclaimed, "There are no coincidences."

At the time, I was agnostic and quite convinced that science was the best path to truth available to humans. Mystical things had a logical explanation, and cognitive psychology was the closest thing to spirituality in my awareness.

This experience dramatically shifted my paradigm. Something messing with my eyesight, something compelling me to pick up one specific book, to look at one specific page, with one specific message spelled out in black and white. Wow. Still makes me shiver a bit to remember.

I would, in the future, have many experiences with messages getting through to my consciousness in the form of printed words.

Makes perfect sense these days, knowing more about non-duality and how Spirit operates in the world. Spirit will communicate with you according to your degree of willingness and will utilize media that you value. Being intellectual, I've always valued words, both spoken and printed. Thus, Spirit has often gotten to my awareness with word usage.

The experiences were startling at first. But as I came to understand them, they ceased being so awe-inspiring and shocking, and became more affirming and comforting.