Awakening

Joel Seiden’s office was ten years and ten blocks from my summer internship at Korey Kay. Another one of my father’s real estate business associates turned family friend, he was always somebody I had looked up to. Joel is that successful, good lookin’, not to mention pretty cool guy, who seemed to always have his finger on the pulse of the next big thing. If that pulse was strong enough, he was all in. It was on March fifth (1992) when he brought me in to be the designer of a brochure for his new venture – a motivational and empowering conference group called The Global Education Network. Joel felt very strongly that the only way I could successfully capture what it was he was trying to communicate with this new company, would be to attend one of the sponsored seminars myself. The first one would be “Money & You,” here in New York, for two and a half days in May, and he insisted I attend as his guest. While going over the details, Joel’s assistant buzzed the office to let him know that there was a call – for me. Gary’s mother had tracked me down, through my office, to tell me... “Mikel dear, if you want to say goodbye...” She couldn’t continue, so Gary's brother Vinnie got on the phone, “Mike, this is it. If you want to say goodbye to Gary, you’ll need to get here right away. Try to come quick.” ‘There’, was easily an hour away, even if I could quickly wrap up my meeting with Joel, which I just couldn’t do. By the time I returned to my office in Clifton, there was a message from Vinnie - Gary was gone. From that moment on, my life was forever changed. 

For the next eighteen months I was consumed with finding answers to the most profound questions any and every human has ever pondered. What began with a death and led to a rebirth, from the afterlife to an awakening, from wondering to wandering, in search of an understanding of what had happened and why it happened - to me. At a time when there was no internet to Google “spontaneous rebirth,” I met with a Rabbi, a Priest, a Buddhist, and an insurance salesman I knew who used to be a Rabbi. They all, more or less, said the same thing to me, “You seem to have found what we’re searching for, but please, do be careful.” Their mutual concern was that this seminar I attended might have been secretly organized by some sort of cult, which to me, was quite ironic coming from these ordained holy men. Ultimately, the consensus was in fact that I had had a full-fledged religious experience.

In actuality, it was what's known as a Kundalini awakening, which is in itself a form of spiritual transformation. Apparently I had some latent cosmic energy at the base of my spine that was activated during our team's demonstration of RESPONSIBILITY. When that energy was 'awakened' it traveled up my spine and opened up those seven, spinning vortex of energy known as my chakras, which were obviously invisible to the others on my team, or to the Receivers, but I no doubt could see, feel, and sense each one during our communication, and, unbeknownst to me at the time, marked the very beginning of my process of enlightenment. The Kundalini causes the most sensation when it enters an area of the body that is the most "blocked," and as the Kundalini began to rise in me, it started to cause my central nervous system to throw off those blocks. As each block was removed, one by one, my cosmic energy began to flow freely upward until it completed its trajectory to the top of my head, to my crown chakra - the seventh, purple block - the center of spirit, enlightenment, wisdom, universal consciousness, and a connection to higher guidance.