Chiel Liezenberg: Wakeup call
Chiel collaborated with AI to generate this image…the closest rendering of his experience.
Wakeup call.
I consider myself a highly intelligent, smart person. Always have. Even when I was very young, I considered myself blessed with this particular trait. Besides being terribly good-looking, of course.
As the oldest son of Dutch expat parents, I was born in Surinam and had a wonderfully carefree youth, literally playing in the jungle, close and connected to nature. Already early on, I started wondering about our place in the universe, the meaning of life, life after death, how it all connects, and how it all works. You know, the typical questions one asks oneself in primary school.
As my education progressed and we moved from South America, to Europe, to Asia, to the Middle East and visited many other countries along the way as a family, my amazement and awe only grew. Being exposed to different cultures, religions, philosophies, systems, I saw many others struggling with life’s big questions. And finding different answers deeply entrenched in their life views.
Eyes wide open.
Through high school and university, I started to develop my own views and theories. My parents were worldly, open-minded spirits, with their own quirks for sure, but always stimulating me, my brother, and sister to develop our own views and opinions. My father was raised with Catholic values, and my mother was more humanist than Protestant, but religion was not a thing in my upbringing.
I was more of a naturalist. I considered humans as just another species within the natural world, a mammal. Yet one with a unique evolutionary capability that set us apart from all other species: intelligence. Nothing special so far, as many people share this view.
Where my theory became my own, was that I deemed our intelligence responsible for us humans asking all the life questions. Perhaps we were just wasting our limited time on this beautiful planet with this endless quest for answers. After all, being able to ask a question does not imply there has to be an answer. Not at all. So instead, we should just accept that we are mammals ‘handicapped with intelligence’, and we would eventually die just like all life does as part of the natural cycle. We should just do our very best to make the most of it while we are here, using our intelligence to the benefit of others and oneself. And that would be it. Simple.
Occam’s razor, pur sang: the simplest explanation is usually the best.
My theory gave me confidence, balance, and served as my personal compass, without any drive to convince others of it and openly sharing it when asked. It was so obvious to me, and I was so convinced, that I explained all other views away as a result of our handicap. It made it easy to accept them, really.
Even the strong connection Melissa, my girlfriend then, wife later, soulmate now, experienced with the spiritual and mystical dimensions of life, I treated this way. I respected her view and then reasoned it away just as another example of the inevitable consequence of our intelligence formulating questions and dreaming up immaterial answers.
Mind wide shut.
Until one morning.
Living together with Melissa in her apartment in Leiden, I woke up one morning. She had already gone to work. And as I lay there, marvelling at the light shimmering through the curtains in the room, fully aware that I was awake, I turned sideways to get up.
I froze. There was an angel right next to the bed. A foot away. A lightbeing, just like you would imagine. White. Translucent. Hovering slightly above the floor. Long hair. Wearing a gown. A woman, in my eyes. Serene and beautiful. Lovingly yet intently looking down at me… and I just looked back up at her in awe.
In me there was the acute realisation that this was absolutely impossible in my world view, yet there was no denying she was there. I should be in shock and panicking as my theory was being blown to pieces by her visit, yet I felt completely calm and at peace. I consciously registered this schizophrenic state, as she continued looking at me with loving intent while I was dealing with a storm of calm within me. All was shattered yet all felt whole. I would say it lasted a minute, but it was more likely a few seconds at most. And then she was gone.
I got out of bed, literally out of balance, completely blown away by what I had just experienced. I was wide awake, conscious of the event, and totally at peace with the lightworld that had just been revealed to me. One that in my mind could not exist.
That evening I shared this experience with Melissa. To my own surprise I was able and comfortable putting words to it and could easily articulate my feelings and inner dealings. And after the inevitable ‘I told you so’, we talked about it all night.
And what did I do with this mind-blowing revelation?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I just waived it off and ignored it. All was simple again.
Fast forward two years.
Melissa and I had moved house and now lived in an apartment in Haarlem. Our bedroom was in the nook of the house, with a tiny window just above our headrest. No curtain. And every morning when I woke up, I looked up backwards to see what the weather was like. One of those simple routines that you think nothing of.
Until one day.
I woke up and looked up. And there she was, sitting on the windowsill. Instant recognition. The same lightbeing, the same beautiful woman. No doubt about it. Calling on me again. Looking down at me with clear and pure intent. Insistently.
This time my inner response was entirely different. No freezing. No inner storm of calm, no shattering of world views while at peace. None of that. Instead, it felt like the warm welcome of old friends who meet again. And a single question welled up inside me:
Why would an angel take the trouble of visiting me twice?
And the answer was instant. Her presence was a wakeup call; my spiritual awakening her mission.
My consciousness expanded on the spot. No more ‘intelligence as our handicap’. But (self)consciousness as our superpower. Without question. A given. The interconnectedness of all things clear as day.
Mind wide open.
I was filled with gratitude for her being persistent in bringing me to my senses. If only everyone could see this love, light, and joy… A great sense of responsibility came over me after this profound experience. To help others reach a next level of human consciousness. To connect our inner and outer worlds, and beyond. And transcend our current spacetime limitations to unlock our fullest potential as awakened multidimensional beings.
Heart wide open.
I have never seen her again.
—
