Chapter 3 – First Major Extra-Sensory Wake Up Call –
Summer 1988
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Background information to the Summer 1988 Wake Up Call
During the Summer of 1987, I was working at the New Age Center in upstate NY audio taping workshops and lectures.
One of the workshops I audio taped was led by Paul Deveraux, an Earth Energies Researcher from the British Isles and founder of ‘The Dragon Project’, an ongoing attempt to scientifically measure ‘Earth energies’ at various ‘Sacred Sites’ like Stonehenge and other ancient stone monuments throughout the British Isles and elsewhere.
During this workshop I made friends with a guy who had, the summer before, embarked on a ‘Dragon Project’ scientific research effort at a stone circle in Scotland called the ‘Easter Aquhorthies’ stone circle (exact location: 3 miles West of Inverurie, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland).
He was very excited about what he had scientifically measured at this stone circle using a Geiger Counter and some other scientific instruments, and his enthusiasm was contagious.
By the end of that workshop, I ‘knew’ I had to eventually make a pilgrimage to this stone circle..
At the time, I was beginning to formulate my Masters Degree thesis in the Philosophy of Environmental Education, a degree I would complete in 1989 (M.A. Education).
I envisioned that I could write my Masters Degree thesis about the environmentally-sensitive relationship to the Earth of the ancient peoples of the British Isles, through their relationships to these Sacred Sites like Stonehenge and other stone monuments across Britain.
I decided that I would spend my summer of 1988 backpacking alone through the British Isles, going to a host of ancient ‘Sacred Sites’, beginning with Stonehenge and ending with the Easter Aquhorthies stone circle in Scotland.
Before the summer of 1988 however, I was still fundamentally a ‘scientist’, not really giving much credence to ‘psychic phenomenon’, ‘spiritual realms’, or even the existence of God. I was teaching High School Physics at the time, and I was still very much committed to trying to find a ‘rational’ explanation for these types of mystical phenomenon.
I felt that the mysticism at these ancient Sacred Sites could be explained ‘scientifically’ through specially designed scientific instruments capable of measuring ‘Earth Energies’. like Paul Deveraux was trying to do with his ‘Dragon Project’.
I embarked on my summer of 1988 backpacking expedition thinking I had all the answers to these ancient mysteries.
After my summer of 1988 expedition, I realized that I had NO ANSWERS to these ancient mysteries, having had an experience at the Easter Aquhorthies stone circle that defied, and STILL defies to this day, all my attempts at any sort of ‘scientific’ explanation !
Indeed, I had my mind completely blown at this stone circle, and since then I have never been the same!
Below is a description of my mind-blowing experience….
First Major Extra-Sensory Wake Up Call
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Easter Aquhorthies Stone Circle, Scotland—Summer 1988
I had arrived at the Easter Aquhorthies Stone Circle feeling skeptical about experiencing ANYTHING at all, let alone some massive extra-sensory mystical awakening.
This was the end of my summer backpacking expedition, and so far, I hadn’t experienced ANYTHING unusual energetically at Stonehenge, which was the first stop on my backpacking journey. I also hadn’t experienced ANYTHING unusual energetically at Avebury, a massive Stone Circle complex not far from Stonehenge.
What was I expecting to ‘feel’ at these ancient stone circles ?
I didn’t know, but I had experienced energy vibrations in my body prior to this trip, largely through doing massive amounts of yoga, and I felt that if there were obvious and extraordinary energetic phenomenon at these ancient stone circles, I should be able to ‘feel’ it.
In preparation for this trip, I got into a very heavy routine of doing over 2 hours of yoga a day, over many months, and also eating a very pure vegetarian diet. So I felt I had made my body as pure as I could make it so I would be able to ‘feel’ any energy vibrations that were emanating from these stone circles.
As I said, I had experienced NOTHING extraordinary at Stonehenge where I spent many hours over 2 days walking around and around this highly protected tourist attraction. At night, I camped out on a mound a few hundred meters away. It was spooky being all alone in my dome tent my first night in a foreign country with the Royal Air Force flying overhead all night. I had visions of being interrogated, arrested and imprisoned by the British authorities. Nice calm first night in Britain !
After leaving Stonehenge, I took a bus to another nearby stone circle complex near Bath, England, named Avebury.
Avebury, according to Wikipedia, is described as “one of the finest and largest Neolithic monuments in Europe dating to around 5,000 years ago. It is older than the megalithic stages of Stonehenge, which is located about 32 kilometres (20 mi) to the south, although the two monuments are broadly contemporary overall.”
Click HERE to view photos and drawings of Avebury
My original stone circle ‘research’ plan was to visit many of the dozens of ancient stone circles scattered throughout the remote fields of the British Isles. I planned to use the Aerial Survey Maps I had purchased which mapped out the locations all the stone circles . But when I got to Avebury, I knew I would have to stay longer than I had anticipated because the complex was so large and fascinating.
So I scrapped my plans to visit these many dozens of stone circles, and stayed at Avebury, before eventually getting on a train to Scotland and ending up at the Easter Aquhorthies stone circle in Scotland to end my summer expedition.
I ended up spending 2 weeks at Avebury, camping out on some local farmers field, deciding to stick around not because I was experiencing anything extraordinary energetically, but because I was mesmerized by the sheer size and structure of Avebury’s two stone circles encased inside a larger massive stone circle, as well as the two, one mile-long serpentine stone entrance ways leading into the central stone circles.
I was also fascinated by the 5000 year old man-made structure nearby called Silbury Hill, which Wikipedia describes as “a 40-metre (130-ft. high) man-made chalk mound…Silbury Hill is the largest man-made earthen mound in Europe, and dates from the Neolithic period. Its purpose however, is still highly debated.”
So I left Avebury after two weeks with my head filled to the brim with lots of fascinating knowledge about Neolithic England, but still no out-of-the-ordinary energetic experiences to speak of. I was skeptical about anything extraordinary happening to me at any of the so-called sacred sites in the British Isles, but I was still committed to completing my expedition at the Easter Aquhorthies circle in Scotland.
So it was with a huge grain of salt that I boarded a train for Scotland and headed first to a spiritual community called Findhorn in Inverness, Scotland, for a couple of days of rest and renewal before being driven to the Easter Aquhorthies stone circle by 3 woman friends of the guy who had originally told me about his Easter Aquhorthies Dragon Project research the summer before.
On this fateful day, the three women and I drove about 2 hours in the pouring rain until we got to Easter Aquhorthies.
We parked about 300 feet away from the stone circle.
As soon as I opened the car door, I was completely knocked out of my socks !
Immediately, I felt incredibly powerful energy vibrations overtake every cell in my body.
The power of these energy vibrations would be equivalent to the intensity of going down a very fast moving white water rapids in a tire tube.
And I was 300 feet away from the circle !
Entrance to Easter Aquhorthies with 300 foot approach ©2004 Scott Haefner
The intensity of the energy ‘rapids’ just got more and more powerful as we approached the perimeter of the circle.
The women told me that I should follow the ancient custom of circling the perimeter of the stone circle 3 times clockwise (or was it counter clockwise, I really don’t remember) and ASK the stone circle’s PERMISSION to enter !
Asking the stone circle’s PERMISSION to enter ?
This experience was getting stranger and stranger by the minute !
But with the ‘white water rapids-like’ intensity of the energy vibrations I was feeling in every cell of my body, I wasn’t about to start using my rational mind to try and comprehend ‘WHY’ I had to ask the stone circle’s PERMISSION to enter !
At this point, I was stuck inside the energy ‘tire tube’ and I was virtually helpless to stop the energy ocean that was sweeping me to the entrance of the circle.
As I surrendered to the current of this powerful energy sea, I knew that my world view and indeed my whole life had just changed forever !
But the best was yet to come !
I was still (believe it or not !) trying to be somewhat rational, and saying to myself “OK, so earth energies are most definitely real and can potentially be as powerful as wild white water rapids”.
I thought to myself that my having this incredible energy experience just approaching the perimeter of this stone circle would be enough inspiration for me to begin writing my Masters Thesis. So I was content for the moment.
Approaching this stone circle, I concluded that, yes , it was absolutely plausible that a whole ancient religion could easily have been centered around worshiping this immense energetic vibrational power that emerged from the earth at this special ‘sacred site’.
But the next series of events left my scientific, logical mind in tatters !
As I rounded my 3rd circling of this stone circle and approached the entrance stones to enter inside the circle, I had no idea that a few seconds later I would have to abandon all of my scientific theories of how the mystical realms work.
The first mind-blowing event that occurred as I stood before the entrance stones, was that I truly felt that the stones were living beings and collectively had decided to allow me to enter the circle ‘and receive their teachings’ !
Believe it or not, I somehow ‘understood’ what was happening and incredibly, I wasn’t overly frightened.
It must have been some ancient past life knowledge that I was accessing, that let me know that everything that was occurring was ‘perfectly normal’ !
Perfectly normal for someone who lived over 5000 years ago, that is !
So, being swept inside the circle by a force that was much more powerful than myself, I was pulled to stand before different stones in the circle and ‘receive the teachings’ of the stone !
Easter Aquhorthies ©2008 by Otter
Easter Aquhorthies ©2008 by Jay Fitzsummons
I just intuitively ‘knew’ that these stones were completely intelligent beings with enormous wisdom and immense spiritual powers, as they forcibly pulled me in front of them.
The method of communication that the stones used to ‘teach’ was very similar to the language of human dreams. Through symbolism and images, the stones seemed to be focused on teaching me how I was out of alignment with my true nature.
I’m sure I would have remembered each and every teaching that the different stones imparted to me, except that when I was finally pulled in front of the main Altar Stones (see image below), the flat, horizontal stone in the middle, being referred to by my 3 female guides as ‘The Mother Stone’ , my mind got so completely blown that all the other messages from all the other stones seemed like tiny pebbles in a pond compared with the thunderous ocean of out-of-this-world spiritual power that ‘The Mother Stone’ had waiting for me !
Easter Aquhothies Altar Stones (‘The Mother Stone’ is the horizonal stone in the middle) © 2008 by Otter
Being pulled to stand in front of ‘The Mother Stone’, I was suddenly overcome from below my feet by an energy ‘geyser’ the size of a whale. This energy geyser took over my energy or ‘spirit’ body and hoisted me hundreds of feet in the air.
I am sure my physical body was still touching the actual ground, but it felt like I was many times higher than the tops of the trees that surrounded the Easter Aquhorthies.
I couldn’t think. I couldn’t take a breath. I had no controls over my body’s limbs at all. I was basically a rag doll in the hands of ‘The Mother Stone’.
Higher and higher I was hoisted by this whale-sized energy geyser.
It was when ‘The Mother Stone’ took me to the very top of my vertical trajectory, a few hundred feet in the air, that I got the most life-changing ‘teaching’ that I’ve ever had to date.
‘The Mother Stone’ filled me with a sense of LOVE that is way beyond description. Imagine 100,000 Mother Teresa hearts filling you to the brim with COSMIC UNCONDITIONAL UNIVERSAL LOVE, and you’ll begin to comprehend what I was feeling, hoisted hundreds of feet in the air, in the arms of these completely purposeful and amazingly powerful STONES !!!!!
To this day, I am still completely baffled by this experience…AND INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL to have had this spiritual ‘Wake Up Call’ !
I have no more words for this experience…….It was really way beyond words, although I’ve tried very hard to convey this experience using them. Occasionally though, I must admit, I ponder the thought that, through ‘The Mother Stone’, I was being Divinely Blessed by The Great Earth Mother Goddess Herself……GAIA !
Whew !….What a thought to ponder !