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The Call - Fifteen Flowers, Ted could see how he had been instrumental in car- rying out a benevolent desire on her part to help her godson complete his education. It all seemed quite wonderful from Ted’s new awareness of the loving spirit world. He saw how the spirits had prepared Marie for his arrival in Atlanta long before he decided to go there, and how they’d arranged for him to work with Harriett so that he and Marie would meet. For him, it was still more proof that he was indeed chosen for psychic work, and his life through the next several years was Joyous and satisfying. Still, sometimes an event occurred that really didn’t fit in his new philosophy. There was nothing in his metaphysical studies to explain these odd episodes and strange contacts with forces unlike anything else he’d experienced. The first unusual even came in the middle of the night, a few years after he and Marie started the Atlanta congrega- tion. He phoned her the next morning, anxious and depressed, to give her a full description, hoping she could help him understand what had happened. “This wasn’t like any experience I’ve ever had,” he began. “T was asleep, and then suddenly I awoke without knowing why. I tried to raise my head and look around, but I couldn’t move. I was absolutely, totally paralyzed. And when I realized I couldn’t move, my heart began racing and I knew that something was wrong. “T struggled, Marie, I really struggled,” he told her, “and finally I could move just enough to look around the room. The whole place was filling up with fog, like the fog rolling in across San Francisco Bay. It just kept rolling in around me until the entire room was engulfed and I couldn’t see any- thing else. I was really scared, I thought maybe the place was on fire.” “What happened then?” Marie asked in concern. “T kept struggling to get loose from whatever was holding me down,” he said. “I wanted to get up and see what the hell was going on. By this time, my heart was beating so fast that I thought it was going to burst out of my chest. And it was painful! I wanted to scream out, I tried to scream, but nothing came out of my mouth. The fog was everywhere. Masquerade of Angels 144 The Call - Fifteen ”And then I saw a tiny light in the distance. It came closer and closer through the fog until it was right in front of my face. It looked sort of like a pencil, with the part where an eraser would be just glowing, like a little light bulb. I can’t remember what color it was, white, I think, or amber. And as it got up close to my face, I saw there was a hand holding this thing. I’ve tried and tried to remember what the hand actu- ally looked like, but I can’t. Then the hand moved this light stick even closer to me,” he continued, “and just before it touched my forehead I saw a face.” “Whose face was it?” Marie interrupted. “T don’t know,” he said, “I can’t remember that, either. But I was terrified, Marie, scared to death. And then the light thing touched my forehead, right up in the third-eye area, and when that happened I suddenly became completely relaxed. I wasn’t afraid any more. In fact, everything felt wonderful, like a surge of electricity, or of heavenly bliss and love, went through my body. I can’t recall ever feeling any- thing like that before. It was really wonderful.” He paused, remembering the vivid sensation. ‘Thank God for that,’ Marie said. “So then what did the spirit do, once you were calm? Did you get a message or an explanation?” “Nothing,” Ted told her. “Everything went blank after that. This morning, though, I can still remember the feeling of fright. Just thinking about how it all started, I can feel that terror. And then it just fades into that blissful feeling. I’m confused, I don’t know what to think about it. What on earth was that all about, Marie? What happened to me?” “T wish I knew for certain,” she replied. “But it can’t be anything negative, so don’t worry about it. Maybe the spirits were trying to awaken some new power within you, I don’t know. Maybe you were being brought to some new level of consciousness. That might explain the electric shock.” ve it’s broke me for a loop,” Ted said. “I feel like e Marie reassured him and told him to have faith in the workings of the spirit world. Ted wanted to trust, but his Physical condition left him depressed and ill, without any Masquerade of Angels 145