I grew up in Washington, D.C., with an awareness of my unusual spiritual sensitivities. In 1966 I read the book, In Search of Truth, by Ruth Montgomery, who had the gift of "automatic handwriting.” I heard a voice saying, "You can do this also." I received many messages, such as one telling me who the next President of the United States would be; where to find a friend's lost cat, and about all the personal problems of my friends. I believed that I got these messages from spirit guides who wanted to inspire me to help my friends and to practice being what Unificationists call being a "spiritual mother." In between, they mentioned that "Christ would be returning." But I shelved this to the back of my mind.
I studied all religions, but I held on to my Catholicism. Then, one day I was praying and I was taken up into the spiritual world through dark realms and then through white realms, then through white electric realms. There I saw an oriental man in a western business suit sitting behind a desk, and he was gesturing and gesturing to me but I could not hear what he was saying.
In 1968 I was studying painting and new media at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., and I felt like my career in the art world was ready to take off. I went to parties with Andy Warhol. I had my own shows at the Corcoran Gallery. But I valued my virginity, and I kept searching for truth by visiting churches. In August, I visited a church in Washington near Upshur Street where some of the Unified-Family members also were visiting and singing at the service. Afterwards, I bought a lunch, and I sat down in the church's dining hall. Suddenly, I felt like invisible hands were trying to pick me up and move me to sit down by a girl on the other side of the room. This girl was talking to a young man, Neil Salonen, who kept talking about the year 1960, when supposedly something momentous had happened.
Neil was asking her to come have lunch at the church center and hear a lecture. He asked her three times, but she refused. So, I said, "I am doing nothing. I can come and have lunch with you." Neil looked at my lunch in front of me, and looked how I was dressed. I was wearing an Op-Art design mini-dress, art makeup on my eyes, and black-and-white striped stockings. Later, I found out that the members took one look at me as I walked in the door and they said, "Neil really doesn't know how to pick them!"
After I heard the first lecture on chapter one of Divine Principle, I came back and heard it twice more. Neil said, ''Are you going to sit on chapter one all of your life?" The next time I came, I stayed until 2 a.m. and heard all the lectures. I then was shown a picture of Rev. Moon: It was the same man I had seen in the spirit world. The members asked me what I thought had happened in 1960. Understanding dearly the four-position foundation, I said: "Rev. Moon had a baby." They said, "OK, but you have jumped a step." On August 25, 1968, I signed the membership application.
From Tribute, 82-84.