{"id":3566,"date":"2012-09-27T12:59:30","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T16:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/?p=3566"},"modified":"2012-09-27T12:59:30","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T16:59:30","slug":"life-lessons-from-jd-messinger-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/09\/life-lessons-from-jd-messinger-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Life Lessons from JD Messinger, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While I\u2019ve met all kinds of <a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/91\/2012\/09\/JD-Messinger.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-3567\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/91\/2012\/09\/JD-Messinger.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"242\" height=\"242\" \/><\/a>people who adhere to a spiritual mindset, I\u2019d never have expected someone who was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy by the U.S. Secretary of the Navy and was one of 37 Distinguished Graduates, a fireman, nuclear engineer and qualified submarine officer in the United States Navy submarine fleet, AND a former CEO of Ernst &amp; Young Consulting (Singapore), to write a book with wisdom from a higher source gotten from automatic writing. Usually those types of men tend to apply too much logic to things that can\u2019t be quite explained, and therefore dispute or dismiss them. That\u2019s why I was so surprised when I read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1933754931\/daylledeannaschw\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>11 Days in May<\/strong><\/a> and then met its author, <a href=\"http:\/\/jdmessinger.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>JD Messinger<\/strong><\/a>, who walked in all the shoes I just mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>During his time on a submarine, JD broke his neck and was lucky to recover. But years later, while he worked at Ernst &amp; Young, he broke it again! While recovering, JD went through many changes that people would find weird or impossible. He experienced prophetic visions and a sixth sense that he kept to himself, not wanting to risk losing his position and his financial picture But when I met him, I got chills as he told me how he also had to come to terms with what happened to him. This was not common in his world of the military, science and business.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2012, JD began writing his book. He didn\u2019t know where the insights came from but he kept writing for eleven days. During the eleven days he wrote and wrote, JD had a conversation of sorts with a mysterious person that investigated thirty-six of life\u2019s most important questions. He says he let go of his thoughts and wrote what came to him. When he finished and his wife asked what his book was about, JD said he didn\u2019t know, since he hadn\u2019t read it yet!<\/p>\n<p>11 Days in May is the story of one man&#8217;s spiritual transformation as he asked for answers to the great questions: who am I, why am I here and where did I come from? The book contains 36 parables\u2014stories that answer questions and discuss the nature of life and reality. The lessons are profound and make a lot of sense. The illogical creation of this book is filled with logical reason about what is and isn\u2019t in life. It helps readers explore their beliefs, fears, doubts and leads us to find our own truth about how we want to perceive our world. It offers hope and inspiration. Here\u2019s what JD Messinger had to say about it. Tomorrow I\u2019ll have part 2 of this interview and some more valuable info.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What inspired you to write this book?<\/strong> I was working on my memoir and after attending a spiritual workshop I began to automatically write. I had no idea what I was writing and after eleven days in May I finished this book. My wife asked me what it was about, to which I replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know, I haven\u2019t read it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>What initiated your spiritual quest?<\/strong> I was the CEO of E&amp;Y in Singapore at the time and I broke my neck for the second time. During my recuperation, over a three day period I said three silent prayers to God and each day my son, who of course never heard the prayer, answered my questions with profound answers. As silly as it sounds, as an advanced math major I calculated the probability of this happening and it was one in a billion. Then I started having metaphysical experiences that shattered my old life\u2014visions of future events and inventions. I had to know who I was and what was happening to me and why. <a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/91\/2012\/09\/11-Days-in-May.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-3568\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/91\/2012\/09\/11-Days-in-May.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"297\" height=\"432\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What kind of near death experiences did you have? <\/strong>I have had several. The first time was when I nineteen and I nearly drowned trying to retrieve a watch my deceased father gave me for my eighteenth birthday. The second time was when I broke my neck in January 2000. During both these times I left my body and traveled through a tunnel. Two other times I nearly died, both in fires, and I was miraculously saved. Over a period of ten years, no less than eight total strangers told me that Arch Angel Michael saved me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why did you choose to write the book in this manner, like a conversation?<\/strong> Your question implies that this was a conscious decision, that I willfully did this. It was nothing of the sort. I had no conscious awareness of what I was writing. As I wrote one line, I didn\u2019t know what the next line was going to be. I was merely taking dictation on a conversation that was taking place between my mind and a higher source and I was an observer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is this book fiction or nonfiction?<\/strong> Everything written in the book is a real conversation; the events described are real events but there was no other person present and there was no physical conversation\u2014no spoken words. Although I must say, sometimes I did verbally argue back with my invisible friend. You can tell where this is in the book because I was getting very agitated about what was being said or written. For example, in the question \u201cWhat is Intention\u201d, Source\u2014my name for my friend\u2014was saying that I intentionally broke my neck. I didn\u2019t take that too well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you think are the most important messages?<\/strong> There are three and they are all related. First, we are always being guided and protected; secondly our thoughts and intentions affect our physical reality; and finally, what we perceive of our existence, our reality is an illusion\u2014we are living in a box of form that actually exists within a World of Light\u2014this is just as much science as it is faith. I believe that there is a religion called science and a science called religion and they are two sides of the same coin. The bottom line is that if we want to live a happier, healthier and more prosperous life, all we need to do is \u201cshift\u201d our intentions, \u201cask\u201d for help, and \u201cpay attention to the answer\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned for more tomorrow, along with info on the interactive Kindle version.<br \/>\n***************<\/p>\n<p>Take the <a href=\"http:\/\/howdoiloveme.com\/the-pledge\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>31 Days of Self-Love Challenge<\/strong><\/a> and get my book, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/howdoiloveme.com\/the-book\" target=\"_blank\">How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways<\/a><\/strong> for free at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/howdoiloveme.com\/\">http:\/\/howdoiloveme.com<\/a><\/strong>. And you can post your loving acts <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/howdoiloveme.com\/post-self-love-actions\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a><\/strong> to reinforce your intention to love yourself. Read my 31 Days of Self-Love Posts <strong><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/02\/31-days-of-self-love-2012.html\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Please leave comments under my posts so we can stay connected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While I\u2019ve met all kinds of people who adhere to a spiritual mindset, I\u2019d never have expected someone who was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy by the U.S. Secretary of the Navy and was one of 37 Distinguished Graduates, a fireman, nuclear engineer and qualified submarine officer in the United States Navy submarine fleet,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14,2,15],"tags":[502,501,503],"class_list":["post-3566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happiness","category-positive-mental-attitude","category-self-empowerment-confidence","category-self-love-acceptance","tag-11-days-in-may","tag-jd-messinger","tag-spiritual-insight"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/09\/life-lessons-from-jd-messinger-part-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Life Lessons from JD Messinger, Part 1 - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","og_description":"While I\u2019ve met all kinds of people who adhere to a spiritual mindset, I\u2019d never have expected someone who was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy by the U.S. Secretary of the Navy and was one of 37 Distinguished Graduates, a fireman, nuclear engineer and qualified submarine officer in the United States Navy submarine fleet,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/09\/life-lessons-from-jd-messinger-part-1.html","og_site_name":"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","article_published_time":"2012-09-27T16:59:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/files\/2012\/09\/JD-Messinger.jpg"}],"author":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/09\/life-lessons-from-jd-messinger-part-1.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2012\/09\/life-lessons-from-jd-messinger-part-1.html","name":"Life Lessons from JD Messinger, Part 1 - 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Let Me Count the Ways, a She's appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, including Oprah, Howard Stern, and Good Morning America and has been quoted in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Marie Claire, and Men\u00b9s Health. After being a consummate People Pleaser who felt unworthy of getting her own needs met for many years, Daylle found a path of self-love that enabled her to build her self-esteem and reinvent herself into a dual career. She learned to get taken seriously without being overtly assertive when she became one of the first women to start an independent record label (on a dare!) and learned to play ball nicely and successfully in an industry dominated by men. To help independent musicians empower themselves, Daylle writes music business books for Billboard\/Random House, including the very popular Start &amp; Run Your Own Record Labe and I Don't Need a Record Deal! Daylle's books have been translated into over 10 languages and are popular around the world. She speaks for colleges, organizations and corporations. Through her company, Project Self-Empowerment, Daylle creates programs and materials to help people empower themselves. One goal is to raise the money to self-publish her book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways and give it away for free in colleges and through organizations, to give thanks for all her blessings. Daylle uses her writing and speaking to help others find the kind of contentment and empowerment that she has.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/author\/dschwartz"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3566"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3572,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions\/3572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}