Adi Da and Adidam: Blessings, Miracles, and Extraordinary Evidence

Introduction

It almost goes without saying that, in the world of the 21st century, when the extraordinary suggestion is made that a real human being of our time and place (not a mythical "long ago and far away") could be an Incarnation of the Divine, it provokes incredible skepticism and reactivity. We well understand that, in our time, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", as Carl Sagan has put it. We don't blame anyone for harboring doubt, or raising questions about how such a thing could be. It is extraordinary! But to those of us with firsthand experience, it is no longer unbelievable. This entire website is a labor of love purposed toward providing the evidence — in the form of many personal, firsthand accounts — that supports a most extraordinary communication, and a most extraordinary opportunity for a world and a time that could certainly use one: Adi Da's Offering of the Divine State of Perfect and Eternal Happiness.

In this section, we focus on extraordinary evidence of the "stand-out" miraculous kind. As Adi Da puts it, instructing His devotees:

It is important to speak about the supernormal characteristics of My Divine Avataric Lifetime from Birth, to tell the stories of your being in the Company of One Who Functions on a supernormal basis.

You should speak about the prevention of huge storms [ed: one example here] and various other kinds of miraculous happenings, which you all have witnessed repeatedly for over thirty-five years. You must tell the Story of the Lifetime of One Whose Presence here makes a difference, and proves things that are otherwise commonly dismissed.

You must tell the Story of My Blessing-Transmission-Work — how I Awakened people to every possible kind of phenomenal "experience" associated with the first six stages of life, and proved, by miraculous Transcendental Spiritual Demonstration, that none of that was "It". That is a necessary Story — because It Communicates fundamental Truth to human beings.

This whole "trash world without a miracle in it" needs to be told about the Divine Avataric Intervention here. The world must hear from you about it. Tell the story and present the evidence, as people who understand.

You must set Me apart, based [on your confession of your recognition of Me as the Divine, and therefore] on your confession that I am what your lives are all about.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, February, 2008

This site also includes extraordinary evidence of a less obvious, but more profound kind, demonstrating Adi Da's uniqueness, and what can be Realized because of Adi Da's unique Revelation and Way. See our Spiritual Transmission and Spiritual Recognition sections.

In this time — often called the "late-time" by Adi Da — when the world is dominated by the materialistic viewpoint, in some sense the greatest and most difficult (but perhaps least appreciated) miracle is for a Spiritual Master to take ordinary human beings whose life destiny is one of "sub-human", self-centered, materialistic self-fulfillment and grow them up first into fully human, loving beings, and then (on that necessary foundation) into genuine Spiritual practitioners. Our Crazy Wisdom section presents "extraordinary evidence" of this very human kind.

Stories from Devotees

Blessing is simply My Nature, My State, My Intrinsic Condition of Self-Radiance.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Aletheon

In this section, we provide some of the most obvious forms of "extraordinary evidence": events that illustrate Adi Da's comprehensive awareness of the greater-than-material dimensions of Reality, as well as the minds and hearts of His devotees; and His power to miraculously, gracefully influence life and death, natural and supernatural phenomena, and the lives of His devotees and many others. The stories included in this section are just the tip of the iceberg, and stand as representatives for literally thousands of other stories, which are all are part of the single spontaneous demonstration that is Adi Da Samraj's Life and Work.

ADI DA'S INFLUENCE ON
BIRTH, LIFE, AND DEATH

Adi Da's power to influence the great transitional moments of birth, life, and death has been demonstrated time and time again.

The True Source of Security — In these two stories, Terry's brushes with death (and the extraordinary Grace that saved him both times) would reveal Adi Da to be the True Source of Humor, Security and Eternal Life.

ADI DA AND AWARENESS

As the Consciousness in which the universe and all beings are arising, Adi Da has demonstrated His awareness of the minds and hearts of His devotees — and much more — countless times.

The Peach — Adi Da reads the mind and heart of one young devotee who has a strong desire.

The Mad Talking Dance — A story from Leroy Stilwell about Adi Da spontaneously speaking the thoughts of devotees around Him.

A Dream Encounter— An amazing "time travel" story that illustrates how the devotee's relationship with Adi Da is literally prior to time and space.

Suffering the Pain of Mankind — A story of devotee Stanley Hastings touching Avatar Adi Da Samraj's body and being given a vision of His vulnerable non-separation from the world of universal human suffering.

ADI DA AND ELEMENTAL FORCES

Adi Da has demonstrated many times over the years a miraculous relationship with elemental forces like rain, wind, and fire. We even have a phrase, "Grace rain", for the gentle, light drizzle that so often descends when Adi Da appears in our midst. Here are some amazing stories of Adi Da's interactions with the elements, and with the elemental forces associated with growing things.

Fire near the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary

Look the Fire in the Eye — On September 17, 1979, a hot and dry day, fire threatened The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary. Ben Fugitt, a devotee caretaker of the Sanctuary, noticed the initial tuft of smoke, and sprang into action. He soon discovered that the fire was out of control, and heading on a direct line for the Sanctuary. He never anticipated the adventure Adi Da would involve him in that day.

Hurricane Iwa — Adi Da's unusual Work (in November 1982) with changing the force of a major hurricane in Hawaii.

The Miracle in the Garden: Adi Da's Empowerment of the First Holy Site — During her first weeks of coming to Avatar Adi Da in 1974, Ruchiradama Nadikanta broke many things, including a plaster statue of the Virgin Mary that belonged to Avatar Adi Da. At the same time, she was also in charge of the vegetable garden being planted at The Mountain Of Attention, and this too was problematic. Nothing would grow! For this reason, Avatar Adi Da decided (as He later put it) "to show her something".

"This Isn't Alaska. Why Can't You Grow a Watermelon?" — Eileen Haight tells this humorous and miraculous story about Adi Da and growing watermelons.

Under Clear Blue Skies — While residing at Da Love-Ananda Mahal, Adi Da talks with devotees about the esoteric significance of the Sanctuary, and how His Divine Presence is associated with the element of water, and how the weather responds accordingly.

ADI DA'S PHYSICAL TOUCH

On occasion, Adi Da Graced devotees with His physical touch (through a hug, an intentional gesture on His part, etc.), or gave them the extraordinary Gift of being able to touch His body. Often the stories of the Spiritual Transmission that occurred in that circumstance were remarkable. Here are just a few.

Surrender at the Master's Feet — In this compilation, Wes Vaught, Antonina Randazzo, and Chris Tong describe the extraordinary Grace of touching (or being physically close to) Adi Da's Feet, traditionally held to be the most sacred "part" of the Spiritual Transmission Master's body.

Guru Enters Devotee — Aniello Panico describes an experience where Adi Da placed His hand on the Aniello's forehead: "I felt the Divine Force — literally, tremendous Light and Force — Coming Down and Filling my entire body, Consuming me, as if it was turning every part of me inside out."

ADI DA AND HEALING

Adi Da has directly healed many people: devotees, their family and friends, and many others. Devotees invoking His Blessing-Power have been responsible for many more healings. Still other spontaneous healings have happened through participation in a sacred occasion or being in a Temple Empowered by Adi Da on one of His Sanctuaries. Here is just the smallest sample of the stories that can be told of Adi Da as miraculous healer.

A Touch of the Divine: A Miraculous Healing at Ordeal Bath Lodge — Ann Walsh tells the story of a miraculous healing that occurred spontaneously during a sacramental event at Ordeal Bath Lodge, a Holy Site/Healing Temple at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary.

A Gift of Healing — Jack Schmitt describes a sudden and dramatic healing that took place through Adi Da's Blessing-Power in one of the temples at The Mountain Of Attention.

Divine Healing — Pamela Bennett describes a sudden and dramatic healing that took place through Adi Da's Blessing-Power while she was sitting with Adi Da in meditation, in one of the temples at The Mountain Of Attention.

ADI DA AND
INSTANTANEOUS LIBERATION
FROM KARMA

Adi Da's Disposition and Blessing always serves the complete and instant liberation of every being — if they could make fullest use of It.

Many devotees report how they suffered certain egoic patterns for decades (and perhaps even lifetimes), and were relieved of those patterns in an instant through Adi Da's Grace.

Everything Looked Like Love — Anne Henderson describes how, one night in January, 2013, Adi Da was suddenly in the room, transforming it and her with His Love — and she was instantly, Gracefully relieved of a reactive pattern that she had suffered for decades.

If your approach to me is wonderful and full of love and sacrifice, as it should be, then all the karma that must be seen, that must become your responsibility, can be shown to you easily. I am willing to it to be shown to you in a dream or in just a brief moment, some little circumstance that come and goes. I am perfectly willing for you to understand that dimension that you must understand in yourself on just such an occasion. I am willing for these karmas to pass in easy ways, in dreams and simple circumstances. But if you approach is not whole, not direct, not one of service, consciously lived all the time, to the degree that you do not live such sadhana in my Company, you must suffer your karmas as they stand. They will still be awakened in you by the force of this Company that you keep with me, but they will be awakened in gross ways, as they tend to appear outwardly in your life, outwardly in the waking state. Then the process has to be very dramatic and heavy.

But the drama is unnecessary. If you are a little intelligent, a little happy, a little free in my Company, then you can grasp it as a little lesson. But some people have to be beaten half to death to stop chewing their fingernails! The little lesson they have to get requires incredible circumstances! This life is just such a lesson, a lesson that would not be necessary if you were straight. Nevertheless, it has happened, and by taking on the form of sadhana in this life, you can make all of the necessary lessons much easier, much more simple.

This is one of the effects of this Prasad, to make it possible for the entire affair of your appearance in this world to become a matter of responsibility in this lifetime. Independent of that sadhana, that Satsang, that Prasad, that Grace, it is absolutely impossible for most human beings to complete the cycle of realization in a single lifetime. There are a few who appear at random in the human plane for whom it all seems to happen very easily, very quickly. But for the usual man, independent of the real process of Satsang, the transformation and liberation of manifest life is a matter of billions and billions of lifetimes, of numberless lifetimes. This is true!

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Lay It At My Feet"
The Dawn Horse Magazine, November 15, 1975

Narcissus is simply the turning within, turning toward yourself, turning to the knot of your own consciousness. To be released into Satsang is to be turned out of the ritual of Narcissus, and also then to be liberated from the karmic implications of future events. The more there is the life of the devotee, the more the karmas are dissolved. The more intense the life of the devotee, the more the lifting or purification of the karmas becomes a very off-hand matter. So life in Satsang is a perfectly purifying process, which depends of the response of the devotee, not on the assumption of any kind of status or path.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, 1974

See also: Spiritual Transmission as Purification

SUBTLE EXPERIENCES OF ADI DA

It is not uncommon for people to have experiences of Him in the subtle (non-material) dimensions before (or after) they contact Him in waking life or become His devotee. Some have dreams, others visions, some experience a curious synchronicity of events and circumstances that eventually draw them to their Guru. And, of course, many simply pick up one of Adi Da's books or see His photograph or are taken to a lecture about Adi Da and Adidam by a friend. In reality, all such contacts are equally extraordinary, equally momentous — the meeting of Guru and devotee is always a miracle, a moment that changes one's life — and destiny — forever.

Many people who are not (currently) Adi Da's devotees also have subtle experiences of Him; we provide some examples below.

The Devotee Feeds the Guru, and the Guru Feeds the Devotee — Chris Tong tells a story in which Adi Da appears in his life (both physically and non-physically) several times, before Chris finally comes into Adi Da's physical Company as His formal devotee.

He Is Alive — Lyn Hart, an administrator and businesswoman, tells of being contacted and Instructed by Avatar Adi Da over a period of several years before she had any idea of Who He is or that He is alive in this world.

The Book of Light — Trish Mitchell, an Australian radio journalist, bought The Dawn Horse Testament one day, simply because she was "attracted" to the cover. She had no idea what was waiting "inside" that book.

The "Bright" in the Darkness: How Adi Da Found Me — In 1967, Frank (Cheech) Marrero was imprisoned at Rikers Island Penitentiary, awaiting trial for a crime he had not committed. At a plea bargaining session, he was told that if he pled guilty, he would receive "only" 20 or 30 years, instead of life without parole. Cheech was at the lowest point of his life. He decided to end it all. Just as he was about to do it, a miracle occurred.

A Laser-Like “Beam” of Energy Shot Out of My Heart — Anne Henderson describes an amazing event that occurred when she was giving a public presentation about Adi Da.

Beauty, Magnitude, and Serenity — Vinod Karki is a devotee originally from Uttar Pradesh in northern India. He describes some extraordinary visions he had of Adi Da, around the time of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi.

Ice Cream and Divine Distraction — Pamela Bennett: "I turned my gaze away from the frozen yoghurt toward a most unusual image: a Supremely Attractive Being whose photograph graced the book's jacket. . . in an instant, a shift occurred. There was no granite topped counter and wooden stool with music in the background. There was not a shred of bodily awareness whatsoever. There was only a Bright, Radiant Field of Whitest Light, a tiny point of witness, and the most extraordinary, limitless, astonishing feeling of extravagant and limitless Joy."

Strange and Powerful Dreams — Jenna receives a mysterious communication: "A man was walking in the opposite direction, towards me, but on the other side of the hallway. . . I recognized him as Adi Da, whom I had never met before. . . . He looked me in the eyes and said, 'Ten more years.' "

To God Knows Where — Reading an article in an Israeli newspaper revealed to Kiam the identity of the face that had been appearing to him.

A Dream about Adi Da's Mahasamadhi — Through a dream, a devotee is led to be with Bhagavan at the time of His Divine Mahasamadhi and to feel the miracle that He has not left at all.

He Came To Me In a Dream — Rex tells how Adi Da came to him in a dream in 1983.

OTHER ENTITIES AND OTHER REALMS

Adi Da has demonstrated His ability to be aware of, appear in, and move in, other dimensions of Reality, sometimes even taking devotees with Him. Adi Da has also provided extensive wisdom and guidance about His devotees' experiences in and with these other dimensions.

You are perfectly free to experience everything from ghosts and spirit forces to the most sublime visions and absorptions in the Great Light that shines above. And you are obliged to transcend all experience through heartfelt understanding and the feeling sacrifice of the whole body-mind into the All-Pervading and Radiant Transcendental Consciousness.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj
The Old Religions, the New Scientism,
and the Awakening of the Psyche

Other Entities and Other Realms: Introduction — Leroy Stilwell's introductory article. Also includes links to articles on specific topics: good and evil, demons, and demonic spirits; the benign subtle realms; the death transition; and ghosts.

A Cosmic Journey — Adi Da takes devotee Connie Mantas on a guided tour through the various dimensions of the Greater-Than-Material Reality.

It Is All the Same Distraction: Ghosts, Goddesses, and Gratitude — L. H.: "I became aware of a figure approaching the site. It was a blue woman who was obviously endowed with great power. I felt this woman was Kali, and I became afraid. She then began to show me her power: the sun changed position in the sky and changes were happening everywhere in nature. She was rearranging the universe. This is actually what I saw. I felt how I could be snuffed out by the power of nature, her power, at any moment." But then L.H. understood something even greater: "I saw that with all her power, she, the energy and force of nature itself, was submitted to Supreme Consciousness Itself, and that she was there to serve the Divine Purposes of Avatar Adi Da at His Holy Sanctuary, and indeed in the world altogether."

Saving a Life in Future Time — Adi Da teaches devotee Hellie Kalogeros the Heimlich maneuver so that she can save the life of her child a few days later.

Visits to Other Worlds — Avatar Adi Da shows Anne Rogers other worlds — both higher and lower than this Earth plane.

The Fierce Woman — Frans Bakker, M.D., tells the story of Avatar Adi Da’s Instruction to him and the lessons he learned from a visitation by the Goddess Kali.

Shaktipat and Possession by a Leopard — Clinical psychologist Dellanna Adams-Bain was being possessed by a leopard in meditation. This is her story and Adi Da’s Instruction to her.

On Goblins and a Cosmic Horse — Simon Pritchard tells a story about a goblin, Irina Tweedie, Adi Da, and the Ashvamedha.

"What Difference Does It Make How I Choose to Respond?" — Leroy Stilwell recounts a conversation with Adi Da about potential possession by a demon.

Initiation in Another Realm — Alicia Aguilar describes her first encounter with Avatar Adi Da. It takes place in her distant home village in the Philippines — in another dimension.

A Devotee's Journey into Death and Back — In December 1983, two months after Adi Da's arrival at Adi Da Samrajashram (on the island of Naitauba in Fiji), an accident occurred that would have been fatal without Avatar Adi Da's Intervention. The story of that incident is told by two people: Frans Bakker, one of the doctors involved; and Tom Closser, the devotee to whom the accident occurred, who describes his near-death experience, and a profound lesson about how "guilt" can become a self-destructive impediment to growth.

Why We Want Miracles

Part of why we desire to read stories of miracles and extraordinary events is to confirm to ourselves the existence of a greater-than-material Reality. And certainly part of why we desire to read stories of miracles and extraordinary events about Adi Da is as a means for confirming that He is Who He says He is. Adi Da's life does provide that body of evidence, filled as it is with miraculous occurences, a few of which we have recounted here. But what is actually needed, in order for someone to become Adi Da's devotee, is a very specific kind of miracle: the direct Revelation of Who He is, to your heart. That, rather than some kind of extraordinary miracle for the senses.

In a passionate, serious, and humorous conversation with a group of His devotees in His early years of Teaching, Avatar Adi Da explored the conventional idea of miracles — why human beings feel they need to see a miracle in order to be convinced of and respond to the Greater Reality, and why miracles, in and of themselves, are never sufficient to cause a human being to devotionally surrender his or her life to the Divine:

You haven't received enough Revelation yet? Do you need to see a really big, miraculous vision or something? What is it you need? What would be really impressive?

Perhaps I should be present just in a body of light that looks substantial but which you can put your hand right through, so that no matter where I go, everybody will always be saying, "Hey, look, my hand goes right through it!" People swatting at My Body no matter where I go, just to test it out and go, "Wow!"

What do you need? What miracle would you like to see performed? It would have to satisfy you, you see. It would have to prove something to you. What do you need?

If I were standing here in My twenty-five-foot flaming fire-body, you would be falling on your knees, you know what I mean? You wouldn't have any problem about surrendering. You would surrender yourself completely if you were confronting such a vision directly.

What do you have to see? What will you worship? What is the Revelation that makes you surrender spontaneously? You can imagine some manifestation or other of a Spiritual nature that would oblige you to surrender spontaneously.

Other phenomena of experience allow you still to maintain some quality of ego-possession, a lack of surrender. So, what do you have to see in order to surrender?

Is surrender the result of something that makes you comfortable? Can anything create surrender, or does everything delay it — everything, including wonders and miracles?

Each of these is just another distraction, an experience in itself. You might work yourself up to a little release in the face of it, but that confrontation cannot create the release.

What you need is a big miracle — if only so that you will realize that miracles are not sufficient, and that you are going to have to surrender in the face of things just as they are.

That kind of surrender cannot be caused, but perhaps you need to see the big miracle to find that out.

You think true surrender is caused by some dramatic confrontation — a "miracle". You hold on to this popular idea of salvation — that you would be a perfect saint if only you had the perfect vision.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Love and Blessings

Adi Da makes a similar point when He describes the challenge involved in writing His autobiography, The Knee Of Listening:

In this book, I have had to confront a most difficult means of instruction. I have had to fully illustrate my course of life, even in order to demonstrate the factuality of the extraordinary phenomena that mankind is presently in the habit of denying. But, in the end, in order to speak the Truth, I have had to argue against the ultimacy of many of the very things I have proven in my life. . . .

Both the search for ego-based Spiritual effects and the ego-based exploitation of life on a sensual and mental level are traps. The search for experience and the search for liberation from the bondage to experience are the same activity — born out of the absence of "radical" self-understanding, the un-"creative" movement that is not Reality. Reality Itself is the only unique matter in the entire adventure of life, and It stands prior to all egoic efforts and all less-than-most-perfect discoveries.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Knee Of Listening

In other words: it is essential to acknowledge the factuality of the greater-than-material dimensions of Reality. To the extent that reading about (or having) such experiences helps open one's mind and heart to the greater-than-material Reality, it serves the Greater Purpose. But one must not get sidetracked by (or lose oneself in) all the potential greater-than-material experiences one can have (which are endless, and always temporary and limited, like the experiences in this material dimension), when one is given the opportunity (via the Way of Adidam) to realize the Very Divine — the Realization that infinitely exceeds all lesser experiences and lesser Realizations and is Eternal.

Related Books

Love and Blessings: The Divine Compassionate Miracles of Avatar Adi Da Samraj

compiled and edited by Bill Gottlieb

March 2006 edition
order here

In Love and Blessings, twenty-five of Adi Da's devotees tell heart-breaking stories of human need and Divine Response. A soldier in Iraq, a woman going blind in Holland, a son with his dying father in Australia, a woman with cancer in America — these and others tell how they asked Adi Da Samraj for His Blessing-Regard and the miraculous process that ensued. These stories are also about Adi Da's Liberating Blessing-Grace, which He offers as a Gift for the sake of Awakening all beings beyond any suffering of the body and mind to the Prior Condition of Eternal Freedom and Happiness.