Copyright ©2007 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted:
December 2, 2007.
"Don't shoot the
messenger," says legendary former Philadelphia Phillies' catcher Darren
Daulton, responding to his many, many critics of late. Daulton, being the
messenger in question, has only recently begun to share his newfound
knowledge of spirituality and metaphysics, of aspiring to and traveling
between various planes of consciousness.
In fact,
he has written it all down on paper, in a newly released primer of his
knowledge, called If Only They Knew.
Though
raised as an Episcopalian in God's country (Kansas), his transformation happened in an unlikely spot: Wrigley's Field in
Chicago. By this time, he was with the Florida Marlins, and they were on
their way to winning a World Series.
The
media eventually termed it an "out of body experience." Daulton was sure
that it was divine intervention, which started him on his path.
"I
really didn't share it other than with my wife at the time," he says of his
revelation, from his home in Florida. "I didn't share it with the public
until just a few years ago. The reaction was 'Daulton's off his rocker.'
That's what lead me to write this book and share many aspects of
spirituality and many other gifts and powers that we obtain. It all stems
from the Bible. I was born Episcopalian so I always tried to find my answers
in the Bible and they're all in there."
In 1997,
Daulton retired from baseball after the Marlins' World Series win.
"I was
ready to get out after I won the championship," he says, "which, thank God, we
did, or I'd still be playing, trying to get one, probably. I was ready. I
felt that there was something else. I fulfilled what I needed to fulfill
there, and now there's something else. I always felt that there was
something else that I was supposed to do, and obviously this was it."
Despite
Daulton's enthusiasm for what he has discovered within, and his need to
share, his legions of fans and the sports press have cried, "say, it ain't
so, Joe," and even "where have you (and your mind) gone, Joe DiMaggio?"
Daulton,
however, remains as stoic and unflappable as he was during his fourteen-year
career behind home plate.
He says,
"Coming up playing eighteen years professionally, and fourteen in the big
leagues, obviously in Philadelphia, you get to grow a thick skin. [The media
and public's reaction] was just one more hurdle to get over, one more
obstacle."
The
response to Daulton's pitch has ranged from the truly baffled to the
genuinely interested.
"The
reaction is really very much like playing baseball for fourteen
years in Philadelphia," he says. "You're the scapegoat some nights and the
hero some other nights. But I always felt that this has been my calling.
When something of this magnitude takes over you, there is no stopping it,
and you have a job to do. And that's my job."
This
job's major requirement is to spread the word and encourage people to open
their minds to larger-than-everyday-life possibilities.
"It's
not my job to convert people," he says. "And it's not a belief. I know
it."
A huge
engine to this philosophy is not to judge others (although he is judged
harshly, constantly), and that everything and everyone are connected to an
original, higher source.
Ultimately, it's about how to score an out-of-the-park home run,
metaphorically speaking.
"Regardless of who I reach," he says, "I know there are going to be a lot of
non-believers, and that's fine. We all came from the same source, and we're
all going to go back to the same source. Jesus had the ability to go from
one plane of existence to another. He ascended into heaven. Many people
believe that, but they also just don't know how it's done. The book is a
starter kit. As I grow daily, I can only tell you what I know and what I'm
given. And they'll be much more as we go through time."
Like
many of our great sports heroes of late, Daulton has experienced some tough
times in his personal life that many feel have put a damper on his legacy.
Two marriages, drunken driving arrests – and now this – have given Daulton a
harder road to travel when sharing his knowledge, and a
less easily attained
comfort level among the people he meets in his path.
"I can
stand the ridicule," he says, "but what is definitely disheartening is
ignorance. I've done some stupid things in my life, that were just plain
ignorant. I think I've shied away from that. If someone has something to
share that I'm not aware of, I don't come out and say, 'you're wrong and
I'm right.' That's ignorance. If you don't believe in something, or have
never experienced it, that doesn't mean that it's wrong. What is wrong is
when you make an ignorant comment about something you don't know anything
about. That's my job – to try to get the point across. We all have these
gifts. They're wonderful."
What is
it, exactly, that Daulton wants from this knowledge he carries within him?
"I want
it all," he says. "I want peace on earth, number one. I want heaven on
earth. I want everybody to realize that we don't have to live on a monetary
system. This Garden of Eden that was given to us was turned into a
commercialized market. That's the disheartening part, and that's the part
that needs to change."
His
knowledge goes just beyond how the common believer interprets the Bible.
"[Most
Christians believe that] if they just believe in Jesus Christ, then
they're saved," he says. "Well, they've been saying that for thousands of
years. There is more to it than just that. Jesus says that we can do the
things that He did and much more.
"There
is a difference between religion and spirituality. I am on the spirituality
path. I believe we are all spiritual beings. We all fell. And we are all
trying to find our way back home. And we're all on our own timing and this
happens to be my time and my time to share.
"My
faith has taken me this far and I know I will be taken care
of. Do the sparrows
worry about their next meal? When you get to that point, you get tested on
that as well. I've gone through it. I'm still going through it. There are
many things in my personal life that I wish were different but they are not.
A lot of times, you have to remember that the things you go through might
not be just for you; they might be for people around you. We are all trying
to get back to the same place. We are all brothers and sisters."
Although
he admits that this ascension is not an easy process, it is attainable.
"You
will reach a point where you will experience the powers of light and the
powers of darkness," he says. "That will be the tell-tale sign of how
further along you are going to get. You have to break these barriers to get
back up Jacob's ladder. We fell a long way; our job is to figure out how to
get back up."
Daulton
believes that his book is a good first step on the rung.
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Copyright ©2007 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted:
December 2, 2007.
