By Lisa Cedrone
It was a busy afternoon, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Lost in thought, sitting in the passenger seat of the Jeep, I suddenly felt “The Presence” hovering over my shoulder. It communicated telepathically: “Look up, but don’t panic.”
At that moment my whole world transitioned into slow motion. I saw the speedometer jump to 50 and then almost 60 mph as we crossed several lanes of traffic, ran up onto the grass median—and headed directly into the path of oncoming traffic at a major intersection.
Jess was having a grand mal seizure! Convulsions, a foot smashing down on the gas pedal, cars veering everywhere, and the blur of restaurants and stores flashing by in my peripheral vision.
Somehow “The Presence” kept me focused. I knew who he was. I had faith in him, and his instructions were clear in my mind: Hold Jess in the seat with your left arm as you use your left hand to steer. Use your right hand to shift into neutral. Pull the wheel to the right and aim for the tree between the two buildings; don’t worry you won’t hit it…Prepare for impact; the Jeep is going to flip end over end.
Less than a minute later—suspended from the seatbelt, the Jeep now on its side with the two upturned wheels spinning—I was surprisingly calm. The driver’s side was flush on the ground, Jess was still there, and he appeared uninjured. How was this possible? The top was off, and he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. How did I drive back over the median and then navigate over four lanes of traffic without hitting any other cars? How did I manage to crash the Jeep into the only patch of grass in miles of suburban strip mall sprawl?
“The Presence” was still there, but my questions went unanswered. Instead, He gave me a deep impression—a knowing—that I was ready to move into the next phase of my life journey. Then, suddenly, as if a protective bubble had popped, I was overwhelmed by the sound of approaching sirens, people screaming, and the rush of nearby traffic. It was all over: the accident, my long-awaited second encounter with “The Presence,” and my season of personal apocalypse.
Our Introduction
I first met “The Presence” five years before the accident—at an even more precarious juncture in my life—during a near death experience (NDE) that proved to be my “dark night of the soul.” At the time, I was getting ready to attend an important business conference in Chicago. I was also depressed, apathetic, disillusioned with life, and drinking to console my emotional pain. Full of anxiety and unable to sleep the night before the trip, I took an entire jumbo bottle of over-the-counter sleep medicine with the attitude, “Sleep or die—either option is just fine with me.” But I never did fall asleep that night, and I made the almost-fatal decision to board a plane the next day.
My body started shutting down about 12 hours into the trip. When I finally reached my hotel room, exhausted and sick, “The Presence” showed up and introduced himself. Then some incredible things happened: I crossed the threshold of death and was given the choice to “come back and finish what I came to earth to learn” or “do it all over again” in my next life; I received an incredible “energy” healing throughout my entire body; I experienced true unconditional love; I was taught that “everything is energy” vibrating at different density levels; and the list goes on and on. Finally—almost 48 hours later—I was instructed to leave the room, find the front desk, and ask for an ambulance.
Maybe you think I’m crazy. Everybody else did—including the psychiatrists and doctors at the hospital, who couldn’t seem to explain why I wasn’t dead or didn’t have massive organ failure. My Divine energy healing explanation didn’t fly with them, but initially I didn’t care what they thought because the experience was just so incredibly profound.
The universe had opened up wide to show me many of its secrets! Then society quickly slammed the door shut in my face.
In the months that followed people were not open to my experience, and as time marched on I couldn’t reconcile my new perspectives with my old world. My life began to fall apart. I left my marriage. I lost my 15-year-old dog and my 18-year-old cat. I suffered from terrible depression. I went through a string of psychiatrists who overmedicated me. I took a “mandatory” leave of absence from my job, and I spiraled out of control. Finally, I moved to Florida for a yearlong sabbatical, and as that time drew to a close I found myself on that highway facing death once again.
This time, however, when “The Presence” stepped in to guide my fate I knew that the door to my Higher Guidance and the nonphysical universe and would remain open, and I was going to walk straight through it.
My Confirmation
When our belief system is shattered, we tend to doubt our direct experience with Higher Guidance, especially when it cannot be accepted by our friends, family, and peers or easily explained by mainstream science. At times like this we must remember that every apocalypse ends with rebirth, and that our traumas and challenges serve as catalysts for spiritual growth.
I truly suffered through those five long years between the NDE and the accident, always looking for confirmation from “The Presence,” sometimes praying for more insight about the encounter in Chicago and its legitimacy, and other times doubting myself and feeling devastated by loss. In the end, the accident (as horrible as it was) turned out to be a true blessing—a crash course in Higher Guidance that renewed my faith.
So who or what is “The Presence?” A guide? An angel? An aspect of my Higher Self? I once had the opportunity to pose this question to THEO, a group of angelic mentors channeled by Shelia Gillette, and the consensus was: “All of the above.” I was disappointed by this answer at first, but over time it slowly started to make sense.
Our Higher Guidance is co-created through our ability to have faith in its existence. How we label and perceive it is a personal exercise in shaping and expanding our own reality.
Lisa Cedrone is the editor of Transformation Magazine and a freelance editor, writer, and graphic designer working primarily in the spiritual and alternative healing communities. Prior to establishing her Sarasota, FL-based freelance business in 2008, Lisa spent 20 years as an editor/editor-in-chief for two of the Top 10 business-to-business publishers in the United States, serving the apparel manufacturing and residential construction/building markets. Her company, DragonFly Nation, offers a wide range of creative services, with an emphasis on cost-effective, turnkey editorial and design projects for both print and web. Contact her at lisa@suncoasttransformation.com or visit DragonFlyNation.com.
This article is a chapter from the book Transform Your Life! written by 60 real-life heroes and experts and available at Amazon.com, BN.com, www.Transformation-Publishing.com and all ebook formats.