By Vedic Astro-Palmist Ghanshyam Singh Birla
Dannion Brinkley had to die to become fully alive.
Without a doubt, Dannion remains one of the most fascinating clients I’ve ever had. I will never forget our first meeting, when this big bear of man appeared in my office and loomed over me. I didn’t know whether to get up to shake his hand or run for the door. I decided to shake his hand, but he wasn’t interested in so formal a greeting. Instead, he wrapped his brawny arms around me, lifted me off my feet and gave be a big hug that radiated with genuine warmth and affection. “It’s great to meet you darlin’,“ he boomed in a lilting, South Carolina drawl. We sat down and I began to examine his palms, but before I could say a word, he took my hands in his and said, “Before we get started, let me tell you my story.”
I soon discovered that Dannion had not always been so warm and affectionate. “As a kid, I was mean and vicious,” he told me. “I was a big guy and loved to throw my weight around. I was king of the bullies. What I loved doing most was beating up people as badly as possible, and I beat up hundreds. I’d rather punch someone in the face than say hello to them . . . I was filled with hatred and rage, I had a massive ego and a violent streak a mile wide, and I was proud of it.”
After high school Dannion found a perfect outlet for his aggressive nature—he joined the Marines, where, as he put it, he was trained to be a cold and calculating killing machine. He excelled at his training and was recruited into an elite squad assigned to assassinate enemy politicians and military leaders. “That line of work suited me perfectly,” he said. “It was my dream job, I thought I’d found what I was born to do.”
But killing wasn’t what Dannion was born to do, which he learned after receiving a dramatic wakeup call from the Cosmos.
Dannion’s life changed forever in 1975, when, at age 25, he was chatting with a friend on the telephone during a thunder storm. Lightening hit the outside phone line, travelled to the receiver Dannion had pressed against his ear, zapped him in the head and then shot through his body with such force and energy it melted the metal nails of his army boots. The jolt threw him across the room. The next thing he knew he was floating below the ceiling, looking down at his wife as she frantically pounded on his lifeless chest trying to get him to breathe. A paramedic appeared beside her and pronounced Dannion dead. He was rushed to the hospital, but the doctors could not revive him.
In his bestselling New York Times book, Saved by the Light, (and the movie based on the book) Dannion describes what happened next. After leaving his physical body he entered into a spiritual realm, travelling upward through the “tunnel of light” that has been described by so many who have undergone near-death experiences (NDEs).
“The further I travelled toward the light, the more I felt I was being embraced by a being of all-encompassing love. It was more than the love we get from a wife or parent—it was like a granddaddy’s love . . . no demands or expectations, just pure, unequivocal and unconditional love.”
Dannion described incredible encounters with beings of light, and the psychic visions he received. But for me, the most poignant part of his story was about his life flashing before his eyes. “It was horrifying and excruciating. I encountered every person I had ever hurt—I felt the agony and humiliation I inflicted on them. And I experienced the suffering and confusion of the people I killed, and the pain and grief their relatives were forced to live with for years. The being of light that engulfed me was all love; there was no recrimination or judgement of my actions—but seeing what I had done, I was forced to judge myself. I realized what a selfish, self-centered, cruel and destructive man I had been, how I had squandered my opportunity to do good and bring joy into the world . . . how I had wasted my life. It was not a pretty picture—the shame and guilt was mentally and physically unbearable, like being set on fire and drinking battery acid simultaneously. “
When the review of his life ended, the loving being that was embracing Dannion wordlessly conveyed this message to him: Who you are is the difference that God makes, and that difference is love. As the being moved away, Dannion’s pain faded; he felt the burden of his guilt being removed. And he knew he had been given a second chance. Moments later he awoke in his cold, dead body, which was laying on a gurney beneath a hospital sheet, about to be transported to the morgue. A hospital orderly noticed the sheet move and quickly wheeled Dannion into the emergency room where he was fully resuscitated. He had been clinically dead for 28 minutes. Although he was totally paralyzed for days, and spent months recuperating, he eventually made a complete recovery—both physically and spiritually.
To say I was stunned by Dannion’s incredible story would be a massive understatement. But what struck me most (and will remain with me always) was what he said next. “I learned during that 28 minutes that, while there is physical death, there is no such thing as spiritual death. The spiritual aspect of us lives on as love . . . love is divine and lasting. All of us—each and every human being—are connected to each other in loving spirit. When we hurt others, we are only hurting ourselves. When we love others, that love spreads across the planet and enriches every life.”
With that awareness, Dannion chose to dedicate his “second life” to bringing love and happiness into the world by providing comfort and solace to the suffering. His wonderful organization, Compassion in Action (CIA), recruits, trains and supports hospice volunteers all across America. He has personally spent thousands of hours at the bedside of hundreds of dying strangers, many of whom were fellow war veterans. Holding their hands, Dannion helps them pass peacefully from this life to the next. In his second book, At Peace in the Light, he recounts the beauty of witnessing the divine reflection of love in the appreciative eyes of those who he cares for. When he is not working in a hospice, he helps others overcome life challenges, making good use of the psychic abilities he returned to his body with.
“We get this precious gift of life, and we must make the most of it,” he told me. Being alive gives you the chance to be everything that God is (and that God wants us to be)—kind, loving, protective, wise, and to create life. These are the skills of God—we must practice them while we still walk this earth.”
When I finally got around to looking at Dannion’s hands and astrological chart, it was a real joy to see the amazing life journey this incredible man, born under the sign of Cancer, has been following.
The Moon and Our Perception
Now, some of you may be wondering how a Cancer, a gentle-natured sign ruled by nurturing Moon (or Luna), could have become a vicious bully and deadly assassin in the first place. Well, let me explain: In our hand, the Mount of Moon pertains to the qualities of perception—our creativity, imagination and sensory awareness. All the information we receive about the world around us is filtered through the lens of Luna. And because our perception influences every area of our hand (and our life), Luna is the cornerstone of our personal and spiritual evolution. Moon directly impacts the balance of our three main energies of body, mind and heart—reflected respectively in the life line (how we behave), head line (how we think) and heart line (how we love).
So, when our Moon is balanced, we are happy, optimistic and the world is a beautiful place and we tend to be kind, empathic and compassionate people.
But our perception is a very difficult aspect of ourselves to control. This makes the Mount of Luna (along with the Mount Mars) the most difficult feature of our hand to balance. And when our Luna is out of balance so is our perception—we can perceive a kind word or friendly gesture as an insult or a threat. A severely unbalanced Luna can easily push us to the brink of, well, lunacy. And an off-kilter Moon can create a negative domino effect across the entire hand. For example, misperceiving a friendly conversation can make us irrationally paranoid, which will in turn ignite our Mars negative energy (remember Mars is the Warrior God), automatically putting us on the defensive, or worse, on the attack. Physiological, this can be seen in an unwarranted activation of our body’s fight-flight response, which will cause us to abruptly walk away from that perfectly pleasant conversation, or to begin spewing angry insults and sarcasm, or even to throw a punch.
In Dannion’s case, we can see that the Mount of Moon in his non-dominant right hand is very shrunken—it is extremely unbalanced. (Our dominant hand represents our conscious awareness; our non-dominant hand represents our unconscious.) This means that while growing up, Dannion’s subconscious perception of the world around him was completely distorted. He misperceived everything and everybody as being a threat, so fight-or-flight response was continually set to “fight” mode. Lashing out and inflicting harm made him feel safe, and that made him feel good. Even though his Moon is balanced in his dominant left hand, and his head line travels toward Luna in a gentle “philosopher curve”, he was unable to access the sensitive, nurturing and philosophical aspects of his nature due to his distorted subconscious perceptions
Vedic palmistry teaches us that we can change our lines (and the mounts of our hand), by changing our thoughts and attitudes. It took a Cosmic wakeup call in the form of a bolt of lightning for Dannion to realize he was completely misperceiving the world. However, once he did, he was able to examine his thinking and his actions, and gain the awareness, desire and courage to change his ways. He could then make the most of the balanced Moon energy in his dominant hand, awakening his dormant compassion. And that allowed him to use his Mars Warrior energy to protect and care for others, rather than to attack and harm them. As a result, Dannion became a better, more peaceful and loving human being, one who is now making the world a better, more peaceful and loving place.
We don’t have to be struck by lightning to access the vast positive potential of Mount of Moon, we just have to be aware of what our hands are telling us about ourselves and use that information to become the best we can be. Dannion did it, and so can you.
How Important Is Our Perception?
During these turbulent times of global pandemic, runaway inflation, political strife and international conflict, it has never been more important to be able to clearly see and hear what is happening around us. Mastering your Luna will transform your life.
Do you want to learn to:
- Overcome stress and anxiety?
- Use your imagination creatively, not as a source of worry, fear and confusion?
- Maintain your peace of mind, even when the rest of the world seems to being going insane?
This fall, master the power of perception with astro-palmist Guylaine Vallée
as she guides you on an incredible journey of empowerment that will transform your world and the way you live.
You want to know about this exciting new program? Click here!