Listening to Journey to the Veil Chapter 51 John Pontius talks about evil. He makes the statement about evil screaming vile things in our faces. This is a great chapter.
This phrase caused me to reflect on an experience I had in my youth. This was after my redemption. I had started hanging out with Ben Thomas who was equally engaged in trying to do that which was good. We were great friends and a great support to one another. We were hanging out with Kevin (I forgot his last name) who we were trying to encourage to leave his vices behind.
One evening we decided to go hike up Provo’s Rock Canyon above the Provo temple. I knew this canyon very well. I myself had frequented it often to party. I knew dark things happened up there.
This particular day it was early evening as we started to hike up the canyon. There was still some sunlight, but it would be dark within a short while. They had blocked off the canyon road and were making people hike up from the lower parking lot which made the hike up a bit longer.
As we hiked up the road, I started to hear voices. They seemed to be coming from up on the hills through the trees in different directions. The further we hiked up, the voices became closer and louder. The number of voices increased.
I started to get a bad feeling. But I held my tongue and kept hiking. I guess it could be compared to a few things. Not wanting to be embarrassed expressing something that seemed insane. And, my tongue feeling bound by what I was experiencing.
Within a short time, I felt more and more people I could not see all around me. Yelling at me. I could sense their presence, I could sense their hatred for me, I could sense that they desired the rocks on the cliffs to be cast down upon me.
As we continued to walk, I was filled with a pit of complete despair so much so that I felt I could not walk up any further. I stopped. I turned to Ben and Kevin. I said, I can’t go any further, I feel something evil up here. Ben told me he agreed. He had felt something evil as well.
We turned around and briskly hiked down. We decided to go sit on the temple lawn for a bit. After doing so, I could no longer feel the presence of the evil spirits. I could no longer feel the hate, the despair, and the power that they possess.
We sat there for a time. A feeling of peace enveloped me.
Within that brief time, I felt both the powers of hell and the joy of the spirit. Two drastically contradicting spirits.
I was looking through some old photos and found a photo from that night. What can I say, I took a lot of photos back then. From left to right; Michael [me], Ben, Kevin.
In the photo above, you can see Rock Canyon in the background. After leaving the canyon, we sat on the lawn behind he temple.
Funny coincidence, I hit a car and broke my pelvis at the intersection on the back left side of the temple. There is a story.
We decided to ride from the Squaw Peak Overlook, [top left side of the image] back home to our house in Provo. We rode down an awesome single track on the back side of the mountain to the bottom of the Rock Canyon Campground at the top of the canyon. The shale trail was awesome, allowing you to slide and fishtail down the trail.
As I exited the canyon, the steep road allowed me to accelerate. As I approached the intersection at the top of the temple, there was a car approaching the intersection. Then it proceeded turn in front of me. I could hear the passenger scream as she saw me approaching fast.
The driver slammed on the breaks blocking my path and right of way. I locked my breaks up, but my speed was too great. At the same time, I hit a patch of loose gravel and my bike slide sideways.
I hit the passenger side between the door and windshield, and it launched me into the air. I like to say I did a double flip with a twist and didn’t stick the landing. I remember my vision swooshing to black and floating through the air. As I flew, I thought to myself, this is really going to suck.
Then I hit the ground. I could hear bones breaking. I lay there not moving, realizing I was hurt pretty bad.
Ryan, a friend who was riding with me, rode to call my family for help.
When the paramedics arrived, they put me on a board. I remember they propped my legs up, then let go and walked away, my left leg fell hard to the ground, and I let out a blood curling scream. I couldn’t hold my leg up. It was as though I had lost all strength in it. Then they did it again.
A short time later, I arrived at the hospital. Things were crazy. I remember having exams run on me; my parents showed up and my father gave me a blessing. If I remember right, my oxygen was very low; after the blessing it went up to normal.
I was later transferred to the University of Utah hospital where I was operated on and had a plate and screws put in my pelvis to hold it together. This experience lasted about 3 months.
This was almost 30 years ago, and now I need a hip replacement.
It was while I was lying in bed that I started to play the guitar and developed a love for making up music. I was never very good at it, but I passionately loved it.
I learned something from this experience. Many of the people who I hung out with; all the people I partied with; very few knew I was gone. I showed up one day and the unfortunate events that had befallen me had meant nothing. They were getting their fix, I really meant very little.
I remember this good, sweet neighbor, sister Mary Warner coming over and playing games with me as I sat there. She didn’t need to do that, but she has a good heart. She has always had a good heart. I wasn’t exactly the best neighbor or best influence in the neighborhood, and she was still kind enough to come spend that time with me. I would drive home late at night with my stereo up too loud, I’m sure waking them up at night sometimes. I also remember as a kid pulling a bunch of flowers out of their garden. Yeah, I had not been that good of a kid. Very self-absorbed. Anyhow, she is a very good person.