In 1999, I was rapidly spiraling out of control when all meaning and purpose had vanished. While riding a bike one evening, I was swept out to sea by a surging twenty-foot freak wave and had a close brush with death. My body began to shut down and the excruciating pain subsided. I suddenly became acutely aware of a loving presence close by.

What followed was an enlightening conversation with this higher presence. Caught some place between this world and the next, I relived many pivotal moments from the past and had every question ever asked about life answered with absolute clarity.

Close to death and practically unconscious for several hours, I was somehow spotted in the dark by a man with a telescope. The man had borrowed the telescope from a neighbor only several hours prior to the incident.