by Sam Harley
December 9, 2017
A day or two after the 1275 Couple Blessing ceremony, Jenny Tanabe arranged a bus to Heung Jin Nim’s won jeun. On the way there, Marilyn Kerins stood up in front of the bus of seminary students, and asked if anyone felt moved to be a channel for Heung Jin Nim. Immediately I felt a presence urging me to step up, so I raised up my hand. Marilyn said “Ok, thank you. Sam Harley will channel. Is there anything he wants to say right now?”
Wham, immediately I felt “Brothers and sisters! Please pray! Pray harder!”
I don’t remember much of arriving there or going up to his won jeun. Many times in my life I have felt spiritual influences, and gotten messages that I have or haven’t followed. This was the first time my influence had a name attached to it, and was being spoken publicly.
We got up there, I stopped at the edge of the grass and took my shoes off. Standing in my socks on the damp, partly frozen turf. People’s breath puffing in the air. There was no wondering what to say. The heart, the words were right there. Using my voice, my vocabulary, my self and my knowledge as a radio, the message came through.
The full text of what was spoken through me is in the Cornerstone. You can read it here:http://hdhstudy.com/…/The_Cornerst…/1989-The-Cornerstone.pdf
The text of the speech in Cornerstone was edited. I distinctly remember yelling “The future leadership of the world is looking for cheap socks in Itaewon!”
. What I remember was asking people what they were willing to give for heaven. When people said ‘My life’ “My heart” the answer was “Not concrete enough.” What do you have with you that you would give up?
People began to come up, with money, pictures, or things they had. Heung Jin asked them what these things meant to them, then received the offering and placed it on the ground in front of the won jeun.
When everyone who wanted had offered something, he said “Properly speaking, we should burn all these right now. But God doesn’t need these things, what he wants is your heart, your love. Loving Him more than these things you have. What He cares about is what your offering means to you.”
Eventually, it was over. We ended by joining hands all together. He said “You should always go like this, hand in hand. Could you go to breakfast like this, not letting go?”
We made our way to the caretaker’s house, where the family there had prepared hot noodles for us.
It was weird, sitting there eating hot Korean noodles. I felt Korean. One person asked Marilyn “Is that Heung Jin Nim or is it Sam?” I think they were trying to figure out if they should serve me first and treat me as if I were the honored guest. I don’t remember her answer.
The entire time in Korea was a huge spiritual experience. Since the channeling, I was more open than I usually was. I had been very spiritually sensitive when I joined, but learned how to close down and just operate on earth when necessary. But what with the Blessing, True Parents, and the atmosphere of prayer in Korea, plus Heung Jin Nim, I was floating.
Far as I was concerned, I was just me. But the whole channeling thing was big at the time, and people were quick to flock to the latest manifestation. When we got back to the States and to the seminary, word had gone on before.
My first lunch back, I was sitting eating my soup, and one brother was staring intently at me as if fire were going to sprout out of my ears at any moment, or the answer to all his big questions was about to come out of my mouth. I kept eating my soup.
Another brother walked up to me in the hallway and asked “Does Heung Jin Nim have any messages for me?” as if he was checking in with some spiritual secretary on the way to his office.
I wasn’t all that sure myself, to be honest. I felt a lingering presence, but it wasn’t as if Heung Jin Nim was speaking to me all the time. That moment had come and gone.
That night, I woke up around 3:30 am feeling urgent that I had to deliver a message at morning service. Didn’t sleep much. In the morning, I went to see President Kim. Said some spiritual person was waking me up, urgently, telling me to give a message at morning service.
“ High spirit don’t do that! Don’t follow order! This some junk spirit! Not Heung Jin Nim. You close down, ok, close shop. No more spiritual senses. Don’t need.”
I could feel myself closing down spiritually as he spoke. I felt relieved. Went and told a few people, “I’m just me. Just Sam, ok. Spread the word.”
And at morning service the next day a wonderful older brother, one of our early members, was pacing up and down as we sang holy songs. I could hear his breath huffing and puffing. I could just about tell what was….
“Sing louder! Open your hearts!” he barked. The words were all right, but the feeling was impatient, judgemental. He then went up to the front and began to deliver a message. The only part I remember of it was “God wants to roll around in Ernie, and God wants to roll around in you too. Are you going to let Him?”
Some brothers and sisters were impressed. I wasn’t. Too much channeling ends up like this, words that seem nice but the spirit behind them is wrong.
The other thing I learned is that after a wonderful spiritual experience, you need to close your spiritual senses down. Otherwise, you leave your door wide open, and anyone wandering by can come in. Not the one you opened up for in the first place. And that gets weird fast.
Did you have any experience of channeling? Do you remember any experiences during this unique time?