Nanette Doroski, “In the early days so many spiritual experiences happened”

I remember Becky Salonen telling us about her many spiritual experiences as a child. Many songs in our songbook were received spiritually. Hilly Edwards heard angels sing the song "He has come, his face is like the sun and like the moon." Sandra Singleton and Dan Fefferman, as well as many others, were inspired to write so many songs. Glenda Moody had many, many spiritual experiences where God came to speak to her in a room. God came in the form of a burning ball in the room and directed her to this movement. This reminded me of Moses and the burning bush. In the early days so many spiritual experiences happened. The spirit world really testified to bring the first members. Today the truth of the Principle can stand on its own. And yet, at the first Blessing in 1969, Miss Young Oom Kim cried tears, saying, "Where are the thousands who heard and are not here today?"

From 40 Years in America, p. 52.

Tomoko Duggan, “Tongues of fire surrounded me”

In the last summer of my high-school time, when I was praying through the night with others, tongues of fire appeared and surrounded me. I was scared yet opened my eyes, and I did not see any more fire. I started praying again and fire appeared again and surrounded me. This time, I was not afraid and continued to pray. And then, all the fire started coming into my arms and legs and exploded into my body as if a volcano had erupted inside of me. The explosion continued for a while and eventually disappeared from my body as if by an ebb tide. Then I had an unforgettable experience in which I communicated with God. I was lifted into a very calm meadow and heard a voice telling me "Do you really dedicate yourself?" I said to Heavenly Father "Yes, Father." He asked me again and again, three times. I promised to Father "Yes, I will"three times.

In the early days we members collected used newspapers and magazines with a trolley, visiting house to house to make money for rent and missionary activities. We were always hungry. My first assigned church was Hakodate church in Hokkaido in the summer of 1966, a northern island. Hakodate is a lonely harbor and the port of entry to Hokkaido Island when people come by ship (at that time and now through a tunnel) from Honshu, the main island. We were able to eat only five pieces of bread (only the edge of a loaf of bread) a day with hot water. Hakodate was cold, so we needed to drink hot water; there was no coffee, no tea, and no hot miso soup. In Hakodate, it was so cold that we even needed a stove at night in the summer.

We ate two pieces of bread for breakfast, two pieces for lunch and one piece of bread at night. Our life continued like this for a while. My facial skin started breaking up from a lack of oil and malnutrition. I was so skinny. I longed to eat a bowl of hot white rice and miso soup. This reminded me of the Israelites who complained and longed to have cucumbers in the wilderness. Eventually, my spirit went down, and I could no longer go out to collect used newspapers and magazines. In those days, we never thought that we would ever go to a restaurant to have a meal.

I decided to go to the holy ground in Hakodate. The holy ground was on the hill where you can see the entire city under you. At night, the city was illuminated in the shape of a letter "H." I cried at the holy ground. I told God "I am not forgetting about you or losing faith in you; but, let me go home for a while to have white rice and nice hot miso soup, then I will be back." It was so quiet I heard only the gentle wind blowing and the felt the sun warm on my back. I heard God's voice speaking to me, "I am in you, I am in you." I was surrounded and embraced by God's heart and felt sadness in God's voice.

From this moment on, I understood what total dedication meant to me. I looked down on the city of Hakodate. After my prayer, the city looked different from before I prayed. God was with me all the time whenever I was persecuted and mocked by people. I felt that there was no one in this city except me who understood God's heart, and I was with God.

From Tribute, pp. 89-91.

Theodore Shimmyo, “An invisible yet spiritually tangible fireball came into my body”

Right after the workshop, whenever I prayed, light with bright golden color would spiritually arise from above and around to come into my body to sustain me as a new member. Around that time, my physical father got mad at me for joining the Unification Church, because he had expected me to become a man with a high rank in society after graduating from the University of Tokyo. He came to the Church headquarters in order to take me back home.

As a well-educated person, he had a heated debate with a couple of Church leaders, constantly blaming the Church and scolding me in front of the leaders for about three hours. But, my commitment to God and True Parents was unbent. So, my father gave up and left there with a curse word.

My heart ached very much, because I could not make my beloved father happy, when working to make Heavenly Father happy. With my heart aching thus, I desperately walked to the Headquarters holy ground to pray. No sooner did I say "Heavenly Father" than an invisible yet spiritually tangible fireball with the diameter of about one and a half feet came into my body directly from above, dramatically shaking my whole body with the overwhelming wave of God's love. I think it was literally the Holy Spirit. I felt that the suffering God of love was telling me how happy he was about my small victory over a difficulty. Tears of gratitude came down from my eyes like the Niagara Falls, while my body was trembling. But, those tears were also tears of determination because I was also telling God about my unbreakable pledge and determination to work in order to liberate God and True Parents from their agony and suffering.

From Tribute, pp. 314-15.

Ron Pine, “You are riding on a fence”

When I was at the Calaveras County Frog Jump in the summer of 1968, I was invited to camp out with the Hells' Angels, who were there for the weekend festival. As I remember, there were about 300 Hells Angels at the frog jump. Because I owned a chopper motorcycle, and I was riding by myself, I was invited to join the Hell's Angels in their camping area. After three days of parties with the Hells Angels I witnessed a group of Hells Angels beating somebody very badly (a few years later I learned that the man was an undercover FBI agent and that he was beaten to death).

After the brawl a couple of Hells Angels asked me if I wanted to go to another party higher up in the mountains, and I said "yes." Three of us started out riding on only two motorcycles. One man was riding on his motorcycle and another man asked to ride on the back of my motorcycle with me. Shortly after we left the frog jump campgrounds, the Hell's Angel riding in front of me was hit head on by a camper truck. The accident happed because the Hell's Angel veered into the other lane. The two of us were only about 20 yards behind when the accident happened. The camper truck rolled over this guy crushing him to death. I quickly pulled over and walked to the other side of the road and looked at him. He was completely crushed with the front wheel sitting on his chest. After looking at this gruesome scene, I decided to leave. I then got on my motorcycle and left the other Hell's Angels guy standing there.

While riding my motorcycle home to Stockton, I was near the town of Angels' Camp when the engine stalled, and I had to pull over. I was trying to repair my motorcycle, when a person pulled over and asked me if needed any help. The man was riding a Norton motorcycle. He was dean-cut (not an outlaw biker), and he was very friendly. After I finished the repair, we began riding together. When we got into Angels' Camp, my motorcycle stalled again. So, we stopped at a gas station, and this friendly man, named Charles, paid for the repairs. This surprised me that someone would befriend me and pay his own money to help me. As we continued riding together, we stop a few times during our journey to sit and talk. At one point during our conversation Charles said; "Ron, I have been listening to you for a while, and I can tell you, in this life you are riding on a fence. If you continue to ride your motorcycle and associate with the Hell's Angels, you will fall off that fence into eternal darkness and never get out"! Needless to say, this was a very shocking statement, and I never forgot his words.

When we reached Charles' home in Stockton, he said good-bye and then told me to come back and visit with him in three days. I then drove to the corner and wrote down his address and the street name. Three days later when I attempted to return to his house, the street where his house was located did not exist! Not only did the street not exist, neither did his house, although I had a street name and an address. I even went door-to-door asking neighbors if anyone knew a man named "Charles" who owned a Norton motorcycle. No one knew him. Several people said to me that no one even had a motorcycle in this neighborhood! I was completely beside myself, because this experience was completely inexplicable. I sat on the street corner for hours trying to understand what had happened.

In the following months, I began reading the Bible and going to Christian churches seeking an explanation. However, it was only when I began studying the Divine Principle and listening to Reverend Moon's speeches that these events began to make sense. I have reached two conclusions: First, if that Hell's Angels guy had not been hit head-on by a camper truck and died, I would have been with those two Hells Angels. Second, meeting Charles changed my life because he said to me; "Ron I have been listing to you for a while. I can tell you, in this life you are riding on a fence; if you continue to ride your motorcycle and associate with the Hell's Angeles then you will fall off that fence into eternal darkness and never get out"! After studying the Divine Principle, I finally theorized that Charles was probably an angel sent by God to save me.

From Tribute, pp. 260-62.

Monique Derflinger, “In a vision, I saw Reverend Moon praying for me”

In 1975, while working with the church in the USA, I was invited to go on a Korean tour with the New Hope Singers International and the first Global (evangelical) Team. We would be traveling throughout Korea, singing and accompanying Reverend Moon on his speaking tour. Just before a huge public rally that we held at Yoido Island, however, I became so ill that I was sent to the hospital.

In a vision, I saw Reverend Moon praying for me. He told me that everything would be fine and to keep a strong faith in God. He added that one day I would be blessed in marriage, and that he was “keeping” the ring for me until that day. The next day when I awoke, my fever was gone, and I was healed! From that day, I felt truly reborn and I could never forget. God had touched my heart.

From I Am in This Place, p. 36.

Mike Leone, “I’m lonely”

I want to share with you an experience that kept me from ever leaving God, True Parents or this sometimes crazy church. This happened within a few years of my moving to D.C., around 1972-1973. I decided that I wanted to know and understand more about the concept of a lonely and broken-hearted God. I went on a three-day fast and read as much and thought as much as I could about that for a number of weeks. Nothing happened for two to three months - I didn't have any deep realizations about the heart of God nothing!

In my life before the Unification Church and after joining the Unification Church, I have had many spiritual experiences - seeing auras, spirits, being able to know things before they actually happened, asking for and receiving shooting stars in the sky, etc. I had more spiritual experiences than I deserved or needed, but I had never heard God speak. I had heard the voices of spirits, but never the voice of God. (I'm always amazed when people say, "God just told me this or that." I remember one center director who each morning would say: "God spoke to me last night and said .... "

Well, back to my story. After hearing nothing from God for a few months about His heart, I almost forgot I had ever asked. Then one day I was walking down 16th Street in D.C., near our Upshur house and - bingo! God actually spoke to little old me. I knew it was Him, because the voice encompassed my whole being spirit, body, all of me. He only said two words and has never spoken to me again since. It was -'Tm Lonely." After that, I started bawling like a baby and said," that can't be right you are God Almighty- how can you be lonely?" Well, those two words changed my life and kept me around for almost 42 years. I came to understand a little about the heart of God and the heart of True Father and True Mother - I couldn't easily do things that might break their hearts even more.

From Tribute, 205-206.

Levy M. Daugherty, “Asleep at the wheel”

In 1976. I was living in a small beach community named College Park near Norfolk, Virginia. At that time, we received an appeal from the church leadership in Washington, D.C., asking if we could move to Washington, D.C., and then go on to help prepare for the very important “God Bless America” rally that Reverend Moon planned to hold at Yankee Stadium.

They asked us to move in less than one week, which meant that I had to take drastic action in order for this to take place. After the furniture was removed and the items cleared out, I began cleaning the house. I had to do all of this work by myself.  With no sleep, I began to work as if there were no tomorrow.

By then, I had been going more than twenty-four hours with no sleep. I packed up my van and got on the road headed towards Washington, not considering that I might need a few minutes of sleep. Altogether, the trip from Norfolk would take approximately four hours.

But after the first hour, I cannot remember anything. Apparently, I was asleep at the wheel for at least three hours! Somehow the car stayed on the road the whole time, and when I woke up and came to my senses, I was crossing the 14th Street Bridge, entering Washington, D.C. I was so startled and afraid that I screamed at the top of my voice. It seemed as if my spirit had left my body, and something else had taken over the whole time!

When I settled down, it came to me that it was an angel that had taken over the controls and had been driving the van. I began to cry and thank God, and I knew that God wanted me to work in the “God Bless America Campaign” with Reverend Moon. This lost three hours convinced me. The only thing that I regret is that I was absent from the body while that great experience was taking place.

This is just one of many incredible spiritual experiences that I have had since I’ve been in the Unification movement.

From I Am in This Place, pp. 56-57.

Bret Moss, “Educating us spiritually through dreams”

Father Moon is famous among his followers for educating us by appearing spiritually through dreams. Here is an example of how Reverend Moon taught me a valuable spiritual lesson in an area very close to his heart. As a fulltime missionary in Northern California I once had a dream that Father Moon visited me at an office where, in my dream, I was working. When I arrived at my workplace and my co-workers realized that I was accompanied by Reverend Moon, they began to ask me all about him and why he was visiting our office. As I became enthralled in explaining all about Reverend Moon to them, he turned to me and said, “I am going up to your office; I’ll meet you there.”

About fifteen minutes later, I arrived at my office only to discover that Father Moon had already left. As I approached my desk, I noticed that he had taken the fresh fruit which was on my desk and fed it through the fax machine.

Of course, I thought that it was very odd that he would do such a thing. I picked up the fax paper on which appeared an image of the fruit. Below the image he had written the following: “Having your nation overtaken by Communism is like having this beautiful fresh fruit reduced to a flat one-dimensional grey image such as you see on this paper.”

From I Am in This Place, p. 76.