I danced with Christ in Bali

He was not in good shape. It was around 2006. My husband had died and I was running his theater and pub. I was very tired and very sad. Death is the ultimate ‘F you’. Some of my daughter’s friends invited us to a weekend yoga workshop. The facilitator was a really cool guy who had been a trendy rock and roll guy until one day she gave it all up to go into a Burmese monastery. In a very short time, he reached all the levels up to just before Nirvana. He was an excellent teacher and a charismatic person of depth and wisdom. He said that he had built a retreat on the east side of Bali, a country that I love. I knew he had to go there. So I did it.

The retreat was beautiful and the buildings elegantly simple. I was blessed with a lovely space and a balcony. There were very few people there. Burgs, the Buddhist teacher, his partner in running the retreat: a petite Indonesian lady, her scruffy assistant George, a young man receiving treatment for some kind of serious illness, and the handful of people who ran the place were the unique there.

We were right on the water and the water stretched endlessly to the edge of the earth, populated only by the fishermen in their dainty red boats that danced like water spiders on the surface.

The gardener was also the masseur and could intensely affect the nerve maneuvers with his fingertips which made me feel a little ping, but evidently, it’s good to have your nerves strummed like a guitar. I had lovely discussions and debates with Burgs and George under the starry sky and there was a lovely little pool you could lie in right on the edge of the grounds.

It felt really good taking this break and I think it made all the difference for me in getting through this intense period of my life, even as the responsibilities were piling up in London. I tried to trust and gradually switched to the beautiful Balinese energy. We were on the non-touristy side of Bali so it was quiet and empty. I’ve been twice before and always have strong reactions. All electronic equipment stops to start. Watches, computers, whatever. It is a beautiful culture where blessings for life are said throughout the day and the veil between dimensions is very thin.

Burgs returned to England and the schedule ran away. I walked on the beach at night and went up to the huge Buddha statue. I was overwhelmed with an all-encompassing feeling of love for the Buddha and climbed onto his lap and called him Daddy Daddy Daddy and told him I loved him over and over again as the dark sea kissed the sand under the moon.

One night, on the balcony of my beautiful apartment, my jaw would drop a little. I have TMJ, which is a temporomandibular joint disorder, due to my birth forceps and my jaw would build up tension and then break. Weird huh? Then and something strange happened. In a really casual way, I asked my I AM Presence (or Oversoul, Higher Self, etc.) to fix my jaw. I included the North Star in this application, just intentionally looking at it, but not really thinking.

Suddenly, my bones on their own began to adjust.

My jaw slowly moved forward beyond any manipulation I alone could have managed and without any direction from ‘me’. My tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth with the force of an elephant, spreading my skull. This went on for an hour. Naughty person that I am, I saw dinner being served downstairs and asked if I could come downstairs. I felt that the inner guide gave me permission to go down but to avoid talking too much.

Walking downstairs, I passed the mirror and watched in fascination as the bones of my face continued to move on their own. This was really happening. I went to dinner and for the most part, it stopped. I went back to my room and it started again. This continued after my return to London and for several months, though less and less. It would often happen when I was in the dark, suddenly kicking in when the lights went out on a plane for example. I still have the plugin, though significantly less so. My chin is further forward and my face seems a bit wider. But that’s not what this story is about.

One day I was doing Qigong with George on deck. The deck was wide and open to the sky and the sea. There was a feeling of floating, blue above, blue below. George had put on some really wonderful music. He had led me through some exercises and now we were moving with the energy inside and out. George was immersed in his practice. There was a stillness. Beautiful music, soft Balinese air, infinite blue, synchronous flow. He was in the zone and quite happy. I formed a large ball of energy and with both hands I pressed it to my heart.

At that moment Christ, Kwan Yin and Buddha appeared before me. Christ was in front, Kwan Yin and Buddha a step behind. I was not seeing with my internal vision but with my three-dimensional eyes. They were right in front of me, surrounded by the brightest, most intense green light. Tears began to well up in my eyes. George, probably thinking he was having some sort of cathartic emotional release, went and sat on the edge of the deck, but I didn’t notice him until later when I saw him sitting there swinging his legs.

Christ stepped forward and bowed his head. He took my hand. I bowed low and took his hand. It was as if he had danced in this almost medieval courtly manner 1000 times before. I was fully present to the experience, there was no witness or internal judgement, therefore it was not remarkable or unremarkable, as we must have a witness to categorize. I was fully present and immersed, but there was a deeply ecstatic and transcendent edge to it. My heart had swallowed me whole. He took my hands and we danced. And then it was all over and there was the blue sky and the sea, tears still welling in my eyes and George swinging his legs trying to look nonchalant.

Later I wrote a song about it. I have been led to sing the song about this experience so many times, as a bridge to the timeless world, but I am so disobedient to my guidance. As Alice in Wonderland says… ‘I often give myself very good advice, but very rarely do I follow it…’

I found it difficult to write the music with the lyrics, my melody was like a folk song but too simplistic and I gave it to a classical guitarist who wrote a medieval repertoire for it. It would be wonderful to have a group or choir sing and it includes two other similar experiences I’ve had, but this one is unique because I saw clearly in the human realm, not just heard, felt, or saw with my inner eye.

It has been said that these experiences should not be shared, perhaps it dispels them, perhaps because they are sacred. However, I felt the need to share how close the other worlds are and how accessible if we really want to. I told my dear friend Anie about this experience and she was overwhelmed that we could dance with Christ. Well, He is called the Lord of the Dance! She wants to help me make a music video for the song with the dancer playing many different women and Christ many different men, because we are all One with Christ. Yeshua came to remind us of that. By sharing, I hope to help people tune their radios to a higher bandwidth. The veil between the worlds is very thin and only a subtle change is needed for the ‘doors of perception’ to be flung open to other worlds, vast and full of treasures.

With love, Stephanie

the metaphysical muse