Jesus Encounters

I was sitting on the couch at my friend's parents house, where I was house sitting for the weekend, deep into reading passages from the Bible. I was in Paul reading about the crucifixion. Suddenly, I was there. One moment, I was mid line reading. Then I was standing on a cobblestone bridge, looking at Jesus, and other hanging men on a hill over a crowd of loud people. How did I get here?

You've entered into the world of alternate realities. Here, paradigms are shifted, minds are blown, and veils are lifted. Actual supernatural experiences are brought to life through storytelling by the people who experienced that. Welcome to Adventures in Mysticism with Leah Grant, where the esoteric is explored and consciousness is expanded. Visit adventuresinmysticism.com to further your spiritual development through layers, latest offerings. And now we continue with this episode's mystical adventure.

Being raised Catholic, I wasn't encouraged to have a relationship with Jesus directly. And the way the Catholic church services are organized, you end up reading the same Bible stories year after year. So even my knowledge of the Bible was limited. It wasn't until I got into high school that I started looking at the Bible and Jesus in a different way. I attended an all girls Catholic High School located in an upper middle class area of town where many Jewish families lived. Because of the proximity and the reputation of my high school for being a successful college prep school. Many of my fellow students were Jewish. To accommodate the girls who weren't Catholic at a school that still required all students to take four years of Religious Studies courses. The non Catholic alternative classes were offered, including world religions, and philosophy. The alternative religion courses were some of my favorite classes in high school. My delving deeper into Jesus began in the world religions course, where I could see the correlations between Jesus and the figureheads of other religions, some religions many years older than Catholicism. It was also during this time period, when I realized there was pretty much no way Jesus was white, as he was portrayed in all the pictures of the churches I'd attended. I learned though that while what we were learning contradicted what I previously been taught, it was not wise to point this out. Especially since my teachers assumed I was in the alternate courses because I was Jewish. With the first name of Leah, Leah, some assumptions were made that I didn't bother to correct. The course that really spun me up though, was one that covered how books got into the Bible, as well as how books had been removed, and how different Christian religions actually have different numbers of books in their Bibles. For example, Catholic Bibles have 73 books, while most Protestant Bibles have only 66. Choosing or rejecting the ones that didn't align with their beliefs. There's also reason to believe that back in the three hundreds, books written by women, such as Mary Magdalene, were not only excluded from the Bible, but destroyed altogether. Then there's how many times the Bible has been translated over the years, and we really cannot be sure what we're reading is what was originally written. This entire course opened my eyes to how religion was more man created than God created. And I didn't need to go through a priests to converse with the Spirit of Jesus, or the omnipotent God. Being a teenager and then college students distracted me from my religious education. And so it wasn't until over a decade later that I'd start a relationship with the Bible again, a spiritual teacher who is not Christian actually, or associated with any particular denomination. For that matter, would give us a Bible verse to say, three times before going into an hour long meditation. I could feel the energy of some of these verses and asked him why he chosen them. He explained to me that the Bible, especially certain Bible verses, held sacred energy, he encouraged me to fast and read the Bible. On my fasting days. I complied. Nothing happened for quite a while, not that I was actually expecting something to happen. But one weekend, I was alone house sitting for a friend's parents, and had no other plans. So I decided it would be a perfect weekend to fast and Bible read. That weekend, my fasting would be a day of green juice, a day of water fasting, and then a day of green juices. For me, this is a relatively mild fast since I'd done 21 days of water fasting before my way of reading the Bible would be to close my eyes and then just allow it to open wherever wished and read from there. On this day,

I found myself reading parts of the Bible I've never seen or even heard about. As I was reading both Old and New Testament. I must say that some of the Old Testament stories were pretty gruesome. And I wasn't so sure about a God that would do or allow some of those things. I was still fairly naive back then and didn't have a full understanding of the balance of energies. And how light and dark are all part of everything. So on day two, I was sitting on the couch at my friend's parents house deep into reading passages from the Bible. I was reading from Paul, about the crucifixion. Suddenly, I was there. One moment, I was on the couch. I was midline reading. Then, I was standing on a cobblestone bridge, looking at Jesus and the other hanging men on the hill, over a crowd of loud people. Jesus's disciples, Paul was standing next to me. And Mary, Jesus's mother was as well. I knew who they were, and I knew I was close to them friends. I could feel the scratchiness of the clothing I wore, and the dust between my toes. I could smell the crowd. It made me nauseous. I could also hear the soft sobs of Mary. But I was too far away to see too many details of Jesus. But there was no denying I was experiencing what I had been reading about firsthand. Paul leaned over to me and told me we should go myself and Mary did not want to leave. Paul wrapped his hand around my upper arm to pull me with him. And when I wrenched out of his grasp, I also jerked myself back into the present. I was on the couch, Bible in my lap, hands shaking. I had no idea what had just happened. It felt so real, almost more real than sitting on the couch did at that moment. The light was waning in the room. I lay down, close my eyes and try to project myself back there. But all I could come up with was the visual of the interaction I just had. It played out like any other memory being recalled in my head. I didn't read the Bible anymore. That weekend. I was afraid I might be sucked into that world again, and may not be able to escape. Even though I didn't even know if that was possible. The experience felt too crazy to say anything to anyone about it. And at the time, I didn't know the term lucid dreaming or astral travel or anything like that. Which thinking back now, one of those may have been what it was. Fast forward to several months later. My spiritual teacher had an event where he read a passage from the Bible. And then we all went out refer to one of the other students houses for food and to hang out. I was in the bathroom at her house washing my hands when it happened again, only this time. In the alternate reality. It was nighttime. I was lying down with a man holding me. We were on a lumpy mattress that was hard and uncomfortable. Again, my clothing felt very scratchy like overly starched linen. There was a very distinct smell. I had never smelled anything like it before. It was a mix of musty, musky, faintly fishy salty air. The man pulled me closer and started to pull up the dress I wore. I felt my body respond positively. And I opened my eyes to look into his face, which was barely visible in the darkness. He had dark skin and a beard, deep, gentle brown eyes. The eyes were mesmerizing.

He's slightly smiled at me. And my heart rate increased. I was me and this woman simultaneously. I could feel what she was feeling. Smell what she was smelling. Know her thoughts. yet. I also had my own. And that's when I started asking questions. And the answers were just there. Whose bed was I in? Jesus? Where was I? Capernaum. Where is that? Near Galilee? Was Jesus initiating relations with me? Yes. Who am Hi, Mary. Then Jesus slid his hand up my dress and was heading up my inner thigh, and I jumped. The jump brought me back into the bathroom, where I stood in front of the mirror with damp, shaky hands, just staring at myself. Even though I was among spiritual friends, and my spiritual teacher, I still didn't dare share what I had experienced. Not only did it feel crazy, I would have felt like some kind of a heretic to say that I was in bed with Jesus. And it would have felt egotistical to say that I was beaming into Mary Magdalene somehow, or whatever it was that was happening. That night, right before falling asleep. I again found myself on this other timeline or on that other plane or thrown back into the past. I really do not know what was happening. I felt like I was the same woman I had been before. It was daylight. And I sensed I was in the same village. I was wearing the same clothing and noticed again how scratchy it felt. I could smell the same smell but this time it wasn't as strong. I'm guessing because I was outdoors. I had on weirdly made sandals and could feel little pebbles and dust rubbing my feet as I walked hand in hand with Jesus on a rough path. We talked easily as we walked though, I do not recall what about we came to a fork in the road where one path led down to water where women were doing wash. Jesus squeezed my hand before releasing it. So I could continue on the path down to the water. And it seemed the other path led to town. Jesus continued on that path. I started down the hill to the water and I felt my sandals slipped on the pebbles and the act of catching myself brought me back into my bedroom. I laid there wide awake in shock again and wondered what was happening to me. Since that night, I haven't ventured back into those times. I've had some other Jesus experiences, but they are really different than these So we'll save those for another time. Thank you for tuning in. Next episode all share my adventures of doing a 21 day silent meditation retreat in Costa Rica. Until then, remember that your spiritual journey is a supernatural adventure in and of itself. Enjoy the unfolding and embrace the unknown.