My name is Paul Newman and my personal experiences over the last 74 years have taught me that there is a loving presence who heals, we are more than a human body, all lives matter, collective prayer is very powerful and that love is the fundamental energy from which everything originates. To help you understand why I am making such a claim, I shall describe five specific events that happened at various stages in my human life, which were not just isolated and interesting incidents but each one meant that I had to revise the way I understood life and evidence from human senses.
I am very conscious that my life could have worked out very differently if I had not had these experiences. I suffered four episodes of very serious illness during my school days, which, added together, caused me to miss the equivalent of two years of education. Even my parents did not expect me to achieve much and were not prepared to support me when I first had the chance to study for a degree. I was regularly made to feel that I was a liability for whom the family had been forced to make sacrifices, which affected my confidence until middle age. Nonetheless, I did eventually graduate and then acquire post-graduate and professional qualifications, all by studying part-time whilst in paid employment. I have also held positions of responsibility both at work and as a volunteer.
Before I start my account of events, I must make an important general observation about trying to describe a spiritual experience, which is that words cannot do justice to what you feel and understand at a very deep level. The necessary language does not exist. It becomes even more difficult when you are describing events that happened decades ago and (especially thinking of the first of my stories) when very young. However, that circumstance made me more open and accepting of what happened at the time and influenced how I viewed life thereafter. Therefore, I hope that anyone who reads this material will find something to inspire their own thoughts and personal investigation.
I have given each one of these experiences its own page on this web site. If you would like to read them in chronological order they are entitled: 1. A loving, healing Presence; 2. More than a human body; 3. Love is the power of creation; 4. All lives matter; 5. Collective prayer is very powerful. The first and last involve what are often known as ‘near-death experiences’, which were separated by 58 years.
As I have written and edited this account of spiritual experiences, ideas arose that may help readers develop their own understanding and are offered to you in an additional page ‘Reflections on science and consciousness‘, which forms part of a collection of Spiritual Reflections.
Conclusion
When people describe such experiences as ‘miraculous healing’, ‘a sense of connection with all creation’, ‘the peace that passes all understanding’ or ‘feeling unconditional love’, it indicates that they have become aware of a greater consciousness through a personal spiritual experience. However, it is not limited to a lucky or specially selected few. It is available to everything in creation and beyond.
Paul Newman
November 2019