April 4, 2024 • 41 mins
In this suspense-filled episode taken from the Touching the Afterlife Podcast, Anthony takes on the role as becoming the guest Anthony, revealing his chilling experiences with paranormal entities including a hallucinogenic experience in Amsterdam. Highlighting the potential dangers of psychedelics, this story underscores a spiritual battle that will leave listeners questioning reality. Through childhood-filled disturbing encounters with the unknown, to a physical showdown with Satan - resulting in an unexpected encounter with Christ, Anthony offers a harrowing reminder of both the dangerous world beyond the veil and the power of divine faith.
Join us for the true story of Anthony. From dread-filled nights and inexplicable events to a life-altering spiritual awakening, his story will captivate you. The turning point in his journey happens with a simple phrase: 'Jesus, I trust in you'. This leads to a peace that transforms his world, and soon he embarks on a thorough exploration of Christian faith. Anthony's experience proves that in the darkness, the light of faith offers a powerful beacon.
This episode was hosted by Julie on the Touching the Afterlife Podcast.
Music provided by Akira the Don.
Also on YouTube.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(01:12):
Being in Amsterdam for two days, we never do drugs, but we said,
look, we'll do the Amsterdam experience and we'll go down to the cafes and whatever.
So this led us to go into a corner shop and getting these five star strength mushrooms.
And, you know, when I would see these apparitions, it was like I didn't know
how to explain it, but like a valve in my head would move.
(01:34):
And I guess it's what people call the penal gland, although I didn't know what that phrase was.
Was we took them mushrooms he told us to take half of them and to wait in the
hotel room and if you felt anything then don't take any more but if you didn't
feel anything you could take the rest of them so that's what we did we took
the whole lot of them and went out and we went down for a drink and everything
was fine and i couldn't recover then i got pulled in and pulled into a black,
(01:57):
abyss a pitch black room i am somewhere down
beneath in another realm um and there
was two two entities that were behind my back i was
facing one way and they're facing behind me and they
had whips and the two of them started whipping and went
on further down into a different realm where i was inside what looked like a
(02:20):
cave volcano it was like a mountain volcano and a maze and the walls were fire
and these two entities were behind me my hands were were cuffed invisibly There
was nothing to show, no chains,
but just cuffed in front of me. And I was being pushed along this maze.
My feet weren't moving. I couldn't stop moving. I was just being pushed.
(02:40):
And in the middle of this maze was Satan himself.
To touching the afterlife, we have with us today, Anthony.
Anthony lives in Ireland and he has an experience to share of what happened
when he took drugs and how he entered into a demonic realm and why this is more
than just a bad trip. Welcome, Anthony.
(03:03):
Thank you very much for having me on. Thank you for being with us.
So, Anthony, I just want to start here with, you know, I've heard it time and
time again, how Christians and future Christians, when they take drugs,
they enter this demonic realm.
Can you share with us what happened with you and how it started with you?
Sure, of course. I suppose for as long back as I can remember,
(03:26):
I would have been at night seeing anomalies or figures on the wall.
I wouldn't have known what it was but I
knew it was it came with a terrifying feeling or and
it was a horrible experience we moved around a lot
when I was younger but wherever we went
whatever home we stayed in this seemed this experience seemed to follow me we
(03:48):
really I guess it was the age of the internet when I was a teenager where everybody
has pcs in their home and access to the internet and that's when i discovered
that these these experiences.
Were on a much wider scale than i could imagine millions of
people worldwide were writing into blogs questioning what
(04:09):
this was they were seeing the exact same thing down to a t and
that really frightened me i grew up in catholic ireland and we
know about heaven and hell and the sacraments
but it's a different thing when you're three or
four years old and you haven't you can't even understand them concepts
to encounter it so i would
say that this let me question i leave me to question a lot of things around
(04:35):
that time when i was 17 18 years old i decided to tell some friends um about
my experience maybe 15 16 years old and because these are such,
frequent occurrences the friends i were staying over my house would eventually
end up seeing these same things and getting very upset about it so i knew that
(04:59):
this wasn't something going on in my head rather it was something external but
why it was coming to me i didn't know.
My mother got into a bit of she got
interested in fortune telling she didn't fortune
tell herself but she kept going to different people and i suppose
she was at a crossroads in her life but she noticed herself that things were
(05:20):
happening in the house after she had gone to these fortune tellers strange things
cups moving her not being able to move in the bed and things going on and off
and i was in the house at this time and i knew um i was aware of these things happening,
come about 17 18 years old i decided to go
to a fortune teller myself to see if any answers lay there
(05:41):
and the fortune
teller at the end of the session he told
me that he knew that i had seen shadows and
that these were visitors and there was no harm in them and
to say say lord i trust in you
but the next
day after that these shadows seem to take it accelerated the experience um it
(06:07):
made things a lot worse and i remember going to my nana my nana would have been
very close to us growing up she's passed away now but she had said well lord
forgive me for going to see a fortune teller i never really got why she said it at the time.
But you know it was it
was later in in life these things kept going on
(06:27):
into my 20s and about seven
years ago i suppose it was we
my my partner for my
birthday gifted me with a trip to amsterdam and we
went to this trip and we met a couple of
guys youtubers on the plane on the way over and these
(06:48):
guys had messages saying that they took mushrooms the first night they were
there and that they were hallucinating and it was hilarious and this and that
so anyway we met up with them and being in amsterdam for two days we never do
drugs but we said look we'll do the amsterdam experience and we'll go down to
the cafes and whatever and my partner couldn't,
(07:09):
couldn't feel anything she was seemed somewhat resilient to any high that anyone
could get so this led us to go into a corner shop and getting these five star strength mushrooms and.
This is when things really kind of kicked off in that realm i did have a feeling that,
there was a strange feeling over
(07:30):
me that this could open up
my mind somewhere to somewhere
i wouldn't want to go you know when i would
see these apparitions it was like i didn't
know how explain it but like a valve in my head would would move and i guess
it's what people call the penal gland although i didn't know what that phrase
was at the time but so anyway we took we took their mushrooms he told us to
(07:56):
take half of them and to wait in the hotel room and if he felt anything.
Then don't take any more but if you didn't feel anything you could take the rest of them so
that's what we did we took the whole lot of them and went out we went down
for a drink and everything was fine and she said look
we'll get a smoke and we'll walk home and that's the end of
amsterdam and that's the end of the experience for us but at the end of that
we were in a cafe and all of a sudden i lost the time stopped and warped and
(08:24):
went back and forward and i remember looking up and there There was a waitress
walking and she was stopping them backwards and the music had stopped and was skipping.
And I looked down at the floor and the floor was gone. It was just a black hole.
But I was sober enough to say that we need to get back to the hotel room because
if she was to get the same way I got, we'd never get home.
So we got in a taxi and we went back up to the room.
(08:47):
The mushrooms obviously start kicking in there at this stage.
And for an hour or two, all was okay, although a little bit eerie.
It was as if there was someone in the room in a
seated position but getting closer and closer to me and i was in my mind's eye
it's very hard to distinguish between the hallucination and reality because
(09:09):
you're sober minded it's not as if you're drunk but your mind is seeing something else.
And there was somewhat of a whirlpool and i
was swimming out of it i knew if i got caught in it it was going
down and i swam as hard as i could and i was getting out of it and something
stopped me i hesitated me for a slight second and i couldn't recover then i
(09:32):
got pulled in and pulled into a black abyss a pitch black room i had somewhere
down beneath in another realm let's say,
and there was two entities that were behind my back i was facing one way and
they were facing They were facing me from behind, but I couldn't turn.
I couldn't move, and they had whips, and the two of them started whipping.
(09:57):
In the hotel room, I started lifting off my seat as if I was reacting to getting whipped.
It was a very scary, frightening experience. I went on to further down into
a different realm where I was inside what looked like a caved volcano.
So it was a volcano, but it was roofed and there was walls all around.
(10:19):
And all the walls of this volcano were like a maze. It was like a mountain volcano
and a maze and the walls were fire.
And these two entities were behind me. my hands were cuffed invisibly.
There was nothing to show, no chains, but just cuffed in front of me.
And I was being pushed along this maze.
My feet weren't moving. I couldn't stop moving. I was just being pushed.
(10:39):
And in the middle of this maze was Satan himself.
But before I got to the center, I ended up going down again.
And it was like a corner of hell. It's the only way I can describe it.
It was dark. It was cold. It was cave-like.
And I was trapped. There was no doors out. There was no way out.
(11:02):
But what I began to do, at the same time, I am conscious that I'm in the room,
in the hotel room, and I was trying my best, but I couldn't concentrate on being
in the room. It was getting too vivid, this experience.
But after an hour or two of this, I looked up to my left, and in the shadows
of a cave was a man standing.
(11:24):
And as i approached this
man he began to see that it was
the figure of christ and as i
got close to this figure i got thrown into the
air way way up above hell to almost
like a crucifix um position standing
(11:44):
in the air levitating with my arms out right and on
my left side was a heavenly meadow and on my right
side was hell and this portion of
my body my right side it wasn't
even half it was a third of my body my right arm
and my right leg were in hell still and i
was suspended there for what seemed like hours and which probably was hours
(12:06):
because this went on for a long time this experience and my leg was like it
was on fire i felt it burn and clearly in the room there There was nothing,
you know, there was no fire.
And the only way I could physically pull out of this eventually was a freezing
cold shower for a long, long time.
(12:27):
And it eventually must have sobered me up to pull me out of this experience.
But that's where the experience ended. And it really shook me.
And it made me think that it was a sign.
There was something telling me that I wasn't quite saved, maybe that a portion
of me wasn't saved, maybe.
Maybe I was almost there or is missing something. And like I said,
(12:51):
I wasn't very religious going into this experience.
I didn't go to mass or church. I didn't pray a lot.
I had a totally different mindset than I do now.
I was much more materialistic and things like that.
Following this experience when I got home, this seemed to awaken these experiences,
(13:15):
experiences these visitations at night i could
hear someone shouting in my ear and granted i had seen a lot more
things than just shadows over the years i had seen people
walking through the house i had seen you know apparitions a
lot of things too much even so to go into you know
hearing lions and dogs go off and just
a lot of things were following me over
(13:37):
the years but i remember I
couldn't still get rid of this idea or
this this shadow entity experience and
I stumbled across a documentary which for the
life of me I cannot find now it seems to have
disappeared off the face of the earth but it was a man from
somewhere in South America who was being taken over
(13:59):
at night during the day he was a perfect gentleman
but at night he'd change and he'd
go on all fours he'd be chasing his family he'd be snarling and then
come morning time he'd go back and they had doctors in monitor his sleep and
they had people checking on his heart rate and they could see it switching over
and the doctors didn't know what to do with him and this priest came in and
said this is happening because you're fighting for your faith there's a war
(14:22):
for your soul and you're losing and the priest told him to say jesus i trust in you three times.
I have heard, people had handed me mantras before, Indian mantras and different
things to say at night to try and help me. Nothing ever worked.
Even Lord helped me. Lord, I trust you, it didn't work.
So after seeing this documentary, when the next time this experience happened,
(14:46):
I sat beside my bed and I said, Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus,
I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you.
And like that, it was as if something entered the room, which I couldn't explain
at the time, but the air was lifted. It was like there was a light encompassing the room.
Even though it wasn't the physical light and it was just pure peace.
And I was so tired from night in, night out, these things happened.
(15:09):
I just collapsed on the bed and fell asleep for the first time for seven or eight hours in years.
And I remember I rang my Nana the next day. I knew something had happened,
something big had happened.
And I rang my Nana the next day and I would regularly ring her.
This is about seven years ago now. and I told her what happened and she had
(15:30):
told me that she had been praying the night before,
that she was getting older she was after getting a sickness and that someone
in the family will come to their faith and she didn't say too much to me but
I said I wanted two things I needed her help in getting a bible and getting
an image that stuck out my head was the Jesus I trust in you new picture.
(15:54):
And I said, I wanted to get two of these things. I wanted one for the house
and I wanted to start studying the Bible.
So she said, please let me get these two things for you. I believe she rang
my father then in tears saying, you won't believe what happened to Anthony.
He knew I was going through certain experiences or he knew,
Well, he'd be atheist or agnostic anyway, but he would have known that I was
(16:16):
saying I was going through something that was affecting me.
And so he was just happy that I was through it.
So I got my two things, but a different sense came over me ever since that night.
The same thing happened the next night, and I said them words again,
and it was gone. And these experiences started to weaken. The shadows started to fade.
(16:38):
And while your week was gone, And by the week, they were gone completely, never to come back.
And I've seen pages on Facebook about shadow people, thousands and thousands
of people in it saying the same thing.
They seem to go with the name of Jesus.
That was the only word that I swapped around and put in there and worked.
(16:59):
That got me down the line of, I realized telling people my story,
I was so filled with the Holy Spirit, or this this
passion about this story that i was
telling everybody and i realized that people some people weren't happy
about hearing this story and there was something that i
would say spiritually going on with them and anger that maybe they couldn't
(17:20):
even justify in their own head logically that they were getting physically upset
about hearing this and angry and i said you know i need to find out about this
jesus character if this is a man a myth if this story evolved from,
egyptian gods what was this who is this figure that seems to have all the power,
(17:42):
which led me down to going to jerusalem which led
me down to studying hours and hours of
debates reading books and books on this and realizing how researched and historical
this person was who caused the first century and was still appearing to people
today so i was driving back and forth to work and these things were still happening
to me i was getting senses they They were bringing me places in my mind's eye,
(18:04):
but I knew there was something I needed to do.
And going back and forth in the car, my commute to work, I realized I needed to do something.
There was a calling to do something for them, for mankind in that regard.
And that was how my own podcast was born. And it was a mix in the beginning
(18:27):
of bringing in fitness people and people who wrote books,
but it always ended the conversation with their faith
and if they had faith and i was trying to reach an
audience and pull them in for that end of it but as the podcast evolved i began
to have much more freedom on just doing podcasts about that subject and realizing
that putting forth good evidences and helping people in in that regard who might
(18:55):
be still stuck going through through these experiences as well.
In them seven years, I've never sat here on my podcast and told my story like I am now.
I might have touched on it I don't know if anyone knows it in the detail I've gone through it there,
and obviously I was very excited to speak to my nana
and go through that kind of thing and unfortunately she passed away within three
(19:16):
months of this happening to me which I always felt you know was very tough because
I felt initially I was robbed of that experience with her to enjoy that end
of it because our relationship would have been good but it really was was going to a different stage,
but I think she was happy that she could see someone in the family.
(19:37):
Come to their faith. Wow. I have so many thoughts here, Anthony.
So let me just get right into it. First, that stood out to me about your grandma.
So you were saying that she was praying for you the night that you,
the first time that you said, Jesus, I trust in you and the room got bright and And it was lifted.
That was the night your grandma was interceding or praying for you. Is that right?
(19:59):
That's correct. Yeah. I had gone to her about my experiences only very shortly before these, these,
before my conversion, I guess you'd say. And I had told her that,
look, these things that happened to me, they've been happening for years.
And I don't know how to, I don't know what to do about it because it's affecting my work.
(20:21):
It's affecting my day-to-day life. I'm not sleeping well.
I was waking up, I felt like I was being choked. That was one of the experiences
I had that I woke up being choked.
And I think people call it sleep paralysis or the old hag syndrome.
But i do think you know the further you let
these things go on what started as shadows
you know just grew and grew with the
(20:43):
fear of it i think they feed on fear but i
i do have something to say about that kind of experience the old hag experience
as they say something was very interesting when
i had that experience first was my brother
who'd be agnostic as well was in the room next
door and he said he
woke to what felt like a hand hitting his bed and this
(21:05):
was about three in the morning the witching hours they supposed to call
it and he walked out to the hallway and i
was about 18 at this time 19 maybe and he.
Heard me choking and he was almost afraid to
open the door to come in i had opened my eyes and there
was hands around my neck and i i was trying to peel them off and
when i eventually got i heard i
(21:27):
heard my brother saying is everything okay or and
i had cursed this thing off me and
it jumped against the wall and i remember a burning cross specifically in
my mind on that wall as this apparition disappeared
and i always thought it was such a strange thing because i
was never really focused on the person of christ or
the a cross and it really stood out to
(21:48):
me you know so yeah my nana has she had
been praying that someone would come to their faith in the
family and i know she prays in general
she had prayed then general prayers before but
she had told me in particular that night she had extensively
prayed that before she passed away that
someone would come to their faith and you know
(22:11):
that was the the night that I had my
experience and going back to
the experience the original because it
sounds like you've had various throughout your life of these shadow figures
or entities but the particular night when you took these mushrooms now would
you say that oh it's you know some people might say oh it's just a bad trip
(22:33):
but this wasn't was this hazy was this dreamlike was it it vivid?
I mean, did you really feel like you were taken to this place, hell?
It was very vivid. You know, I was, I was still in the room and I knew I was
in the room clearly, but there was something, my conscious mind went somewhere else.
(22:55):
How do i explain it i couldn't focus on being in the room it was you couldn't
pull out of it there was something pulling me into this experience and it was
like a projector in front of my eyes
that i could see i was in the room but i was going through this it was
as if a part of me was gone there and i
studied a lot on people have a lot
(23:16):
of near-death experiences that sound very similar people also
i know that john hopkins college in university in
america do studies on psilocybin and they
do i think it's one in ten people have this
type of a trip a hell-like experience and they
come out with saying that you know these experiences are beyond
(23:37):
profound that they change their whole view on
the world some people have of different trips
and different psychedelic experiences i i
think you know and some people have said maybe you're in
that frame of mind going in there but you know i was
out on my holidays i was enjoying myself and i was having a couple of beers
and you know i wasn't particularly in
(23:58):
a dark place bar going through this experience but that wasn't anything new
for me and they hadn't ramped up at the time but certainly i think if there
was a veil of slight protection that i had that was shattered when i took these
mushrooms it it seemed as though,
yeah, it was very much like what you'd hear of a near-death experience nowadays,
(24:21):
that I was there and I couldn't get out, and I didn't know how to get out.
And it took about 10 hours to come out of that experience altogether.
And I think, looking back on it, seeing the figure of Christ in that cave was
a strange thing to see, but,
it made me, all these experiences have made me realize that it's really that
(24:44):
figure, That central figure that is so important.
Like, you know, I remember having a podcast with a guy, a Hindu guy,
and he asked me, you know, why the Trinity? Why this figure of Christ? Why not just God?
And I said, it seems like it's the stepping stone, the human stepping.
Relatable version of god it's it's
(25:06):
we're told that on our day of judgment he's our
barrister he's our solicitor he's who stands for you
in front of god and whether you
know him or you don't know him that will be the big question at
the time have we done well have we done much for our fellow man did did you
know me you always hear this in near-death experiences i didn't know you you
(25:28):
didn't know me he wants a personal relationship with us there's just something
about that figure that you can hear they talk about in exorcisms the name of
christ the blood of christ it's all.
So significant it's the only word that worked
that worked for me the only word that worked for me in my 27
years i was 27 at the time that experience and it had been going on since definitely
three years old anyway as long back as my memory can go and it's that phrase
(25:54):
jesus i trust in you that i think is probably the most powerful sentence in
the english language that anyone can say I agree.
And it talks about that in the Bible. There is no other name above the name
of Jesus. And you invoked his name, and it cleared.
And I just think that is the key here. So with that, Anthony,
(26:14):
how did this experience then change you?
Did you start developing a relationship with Christ?
Did you stop hanging around things that would, drugs and things of that nature?
Sure yeah well i i was never i was
never into taking drugs it it just
happened to be on that on that was something that
(26:37):
happened on that particular weekend and maybe by the influence of the people we
were there with but my mind changed very rapidly after that i i've heard it
said before and i i it was like the grass was greener you know it was like scales
have been falling from the eyes kind of thing you know it was like the sky was
(26:57):
blue or everything was brighter.
Everything was crisper. Brands and money didn't matter to me anymore. I had a young son.
I was going leaving early in the morning, getting home late at night and trying
to get up that ladder. And that seemed to not matter anymore.
Being at home and being a good influence and doing things that were meaningful
(27:21):
instead of expedient seems to be more the matter. I know we have a divided brain, two hemispheres.
And I often say, you know, sometimes I think we can live too much in the left
hemisphere, the logical math and the expedient things and just doing our daily
job and going home. And that's the end of it.
And some people are too much in the right hemisphere and they're lost.
(27:41):
They're gone completely too far.
But I think you told that line, you realized that maybe work is a means to an
end, but we have another mission.
We have another calling. calling, and this helped me hear that calling, I would say.
What entered that room that night wasn't Jesus, it wasn't God,
it was the Holy Spirit, and it took me a while to figure that out.
(28:03):
That stayed with me. And I know from reading the Bible after,
because my nana did get me a New Testament, you know, when Jesus says,
I have to depart this world.
But I will leave the helper. And this is what he says about the spirit.
And this is what guided me. I remember coming home one day from work and I kept
seeing this church in my head in my local town. And there's plenty of churches in my local town.
(28:23):
I'd never been to this one, but it was coming on so strong that I had to turn
the radio off. And I didn't even know why it was coming on this strong.
And I pulled up to my house and this car, a couple,
an elderly couple pulled up beside me and they're on the
road and they said can you direct us to
this church and it took me a lot a lot
not to even drive there to begin with because it was coming up so so
(28:46):
strong my mind and i said yeah i said it's just
over the bridge one kilometer up on the left hand side and they
didn't even say thank you they just kind of roll off looking at me it was
the strangest experience um and my mind said
will i go down to this church and i still said no
and i went upstairs and i start cooking cooking up food and i
had to my mind was still pulsating with
(29:07):
this church in my head and i looked up what the church was called i
didn't even know the name of it and there's a webcam a live feed which i'd
never seen before a lot of the churches in ireland look pretty old but
the webcam the minute i turned it on to
live the priest the place was full and the
priest said if anyone is at home they're just
in from work and they think they need to be here tonight tonight night is the night you
(29:28):
need to be here i was the first sentence i was mouth and with
that i turned the hob off and i said right that's enough's enough and
i drove to the church again not knowing kind
of in a daze being pulled along not knowing what i'm doing what am
i going to do when i get there you could see people couldn't even get into the
church they're all spilled outside it and the cars are lined up down the path
(29:49):
as far as i could see and there was one space right outside the church and how
i don't know i pulled up and i crossed the road and i went over to the church.
And as i walked up to the church this man took me by the shoulder and he said come on inside my son.
And granted, there was just normal people standing outside this church,
(30:11):
just listening in the speakers. And I walked through the door and another man took me by the shoulder.
And inside the church, there's people standing all around the sides because there's no seats.
And he said, there's one seat left for you here, my son, tonight.
And he brought me over to a pew. And with that, there was one seat there.
And a man got up from Northern Ireland, told a story which really resonated
(30:33):
with me. He was a blind man who was shot in the Troubles in Northern Ireland years ago.
And i got to speak with him before i left i couldn't go without speaking to
him something again was pulling me towards him and we developed a relationship
and i got him on my podcast it was really a big deal to me but i got involved
in this charity and i was fasting for it and,
just things like that were so strange there was
(30:56):
images that came up in my head it was words that were coming into my
mouth and there was things that became very important to me
and in some way
way or form I'm still going through that I'm still being guided I feel
it when I do a podcast let's say I feel it when
I do certain things when I go to church there's that
sense that you are where you're supposed to be and yeah
(31:18):
I think you know a lot of my friends and family will be still skeptical and
maybe a lot of them are going to hear this episode for the first time tonight
or this testimony but I think it's you know all we have really is to speak the
truth and I say that know, with a capital T.
This is, I haven't said this is my truth, but this is the truth,
(31:39):
you know, and I really realized that this was the way we're supposed to be living.
People are missing this. They're passing by by doing their work and going home
and watching Netflix and putting their headphones on and going out drinking
their PlayStation or whatever they're doing, but they're missing the actual calling in life.
I love how you talk about that, Anthony, with the Holy Spirit,
which is the spirit of truth.
(31:59):
It's the comforter, it's the counselor, it's your advocate it's everything you
need and that's what you're being led by every day and
i just love your story and i would love to hear a little bit
more about your podcast and how
the lord is directing your path yeah well
like i said with that man i seen you know he would eventually
come on my podcast and it was very important thing to me what i
(32:22):
have found you know i i'm
determined in my podcast to speak the truth and a lot of people
have warned me about that and even this
week alone and even about sitting here tonight people have said to me you know
be careful what you say make sure you protect yourself i feel as though it's
the only place where i can be truthful and the flow it flows from me in that
(32:46):
way it's it's the only place where you can have a heart-to-heart conversation.
A concentrated conversation, it kind of opens the barriers. Everyone knows what
it is. You know, there's a cross on my podcast symbol. It's a Celtic cross.
I guess it kind of symbolizes my culture and my faith.
And I have been told even from a work perspective that, you know,
(33:10):
people don't look too favorably upon that.
But I could care less, really, what people think think about these things.
I think it's a shame that the separation of God from society has happened lately.
And I think what we need to do is start looking at God at a more,
faith at a more critical level.
Why is it important? I think there's some speakers in recent times who've done
(33:32):
that. Jordan Peterson has done that recently with his biblical lectures.
And, you know, you have William Lane Craig and John Lennox and people who are
scientists who who are saying that this is true.
And I do think there's a propaganda of atheism out there and it's set to seep into our society.
And I do think it's a propaganda. And it took me a while to realize that when
(33:57):
we get down to the science of the Big Bang or evolution or, you know,
our near-death experiences, our souls, our conscious minds, how we think,
what happens when we pray.
Even on the quantum standpoint, there seems to be so much evidence in our DNA,
a or fine-tune universe these are the things i want to talk to people about i want to not,
(34:19):
win an argument but to open the argument again in
an intellectual way i'm not standing on the
corner preaching although i don't you know condemn
that i think people get get a great ways by doing that in their own right that's
not something i'm good at but what i might be good at is trying to open the
conversation to my peers to my age group and the next one down that that we
(34:41):
should not leave God for the once a year we attend church,
that we need this to be part of our lives, regardless of how distracted society has us these days.
One thing I love, Anthony, is that the Holy Spirit speaks to each of us,
and the Holy Spirit uses anyone, anything, however, that individual.
(35:04):
And so I think it's important, don't you believe, that as a body of Christ,
we all have our different giftings and talents and how the Lord wants to use us.
And he speaks to each individual and the way that he knows that will speak to them.
Yeah, absolutely. I agree. And I think, like you just mentioned there,
people do have their own separate talents.
And I think sometimes I wonder, like, are we given these individual talents
(35:27):
because that is our gift from God to use it for that purpose?
And I've always been into editing and it's come in handy music and it's all
come in handy for editing my podcast and putting it out there and advertising it.
And, you know, I do think even though I'm not, I feel as though I could sharpen
up on my speech and my flow. And I think it's a worthwhile exercise to do that.
(35:50):
But yeah, I do think that that's also part of that right hemisphere of the brain,
that we have them talents and we need to, there's more depth to life than we see.
You know, we're all, and to really look at people and have much more forgiveness
for people, that they're all just going through their own struggle.
They're all souls just trying to find their way.
(36:11):
And some of us find it a bit sooner than others, and we can help others find their way,
or we can at least open that up but to put the stigmas and
the i guess the you know coming
to the conversation with an open mind i guess is
the real thing so i hope if anything my story might reach people who maybe go
through their own bit of spiritual oppression yeah maybe spiritual persecution
(36:35):
for their beliefs yes i agree with you and we are all in different areas of
in our our walk with the Lord and where somebody,
one person might be somebody else isn't.
And so we have to show the love of Christ with grace and truth.
And so, yeah, I just want to say that I just really loved having you here talking
(36:58):
to me and sharing your heart, your testimony.
And is there anything else, Anthony, that you want to say before we close?
No but like i thank you for having me on i hope um i i hope that people.
You know i have the courage to tell their testimony i recently put up a playlist
(37:18):
on my youtube of irish testimonies and i wanted to invite people to come and
tell us tell their testimony and and we could lay it out kind of similar to
what you're doing in in the us,
and i feel there's a lot of people worried about doing that so i
said really you know i'm asking people to do something that i haven't done myself and
so i think it was important it's actually
(37:40):
quite timely because it's only a couple of weeks ago that i decided to do
that that i sit here and tell my story and
let it be you know
whatever the judgment comes it is what it is and i'm i'm happy to do it i'm
delighted to do it here i've watched a lot of your own youtube videos of people
other courageous people coming out and telling their story it's not an easy
(38:00):
thing to do it shouldn't be understated it's personal it's it's you can feel
vulnerable speaking it but i think that is is the message we were given.
Our personal testimonies are geared that we should speak them and speak them
outwards and let the world know.
I totally agree. And I really just want to say too, how courageous it is.
I agree with you and I thank you for your courage.
(38:23):
Everybody's testimony is unique. The Lord speaks through each testimony and
that's how we overcome through our testimony and through the blood of the lamb
and our faith in Jesus Christ.
And so I'm proud of of you for standing strong and standing firm in your faith.
And I believe there's going to be a breakthrough and a release as there often
is with so many of our guests as they release their testimony.
(38:44):
So Anthony, thank you so much again for being with me.
Julie, thanks very much for having me on. I appreciate it very much.
Wonderful. And I just want to close with the scripture that your testimony reminds
me of is that in Acts 4.12, it says, Salvation is found in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by by which we must be saved.
(39:05):
And Anthony, you are a testament of being saved and being brought out of the
darkness and into the light. Would you close with us in prayer?
Absolutely, yeah. So there's three prayers I say every night after I say my
peace to God, when I appreciate my kids, my health, where I am now.
And it's three basic prayers. And usually I say, and our father,
(39:27):
because, and that's the beginning prayer I always say.
So that's the prayer I'll say, say because I think it's one of the most powerful you can say.
I love it. I just want to say too, there's power in our declarations and I say
daily declarations myself.
So I love that you have a prayer that you'd like to say. So would you share
that prayer with us as we close?
Yeah. And I'll close with Jesus, I trust in you then because it's the three
(39:49):
words I lastly finished with. So our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
with those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Music.
(41:23):
Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you.
Music.
Music.
(01:12):
Being in Amsterdam for two days, we never do drugs, but we said,
look, we'll do the Amsterdam experience and we'll go down to the cafes and whatever.
So this led us to go into a corner shop and getting these five star strength mushrooms.
And, you know, when I would see these apparitions, it was like I didn't know
how to explain it, but like a valve in my head would move.
(01:34):
And I guess it's what people call the penal gland, although I didn't know what that phrase was.
Was we took them mushrooms he told us to take half of them and to wait in the
hotel room and if you felt anything then don't take any more but if you didn't
feel anything you could take the rest of them so that's what we did we took
the whole lot of them and went out and we went down for a drink and everything
was fine and i couldn't recover then i got pulled in and pulled into a black,
(01:57):
abyss a pitch black room i am somewhere down
beneath in another realm um and there
was two two entities that were behind my back i was
facing one way and they're facing behind me and they
had whips and the two of them started whipping and went
on further down into a different realm where i was inside what looked like a
(02:20):
cave volcano it was like a mountain volcano and a maze and the walls were fire
and these two entities were behind me my hands were were cuffed invisibly There
was nothing to show, no chains,
but just cuffed in front of me. And I was being pushed along this maze.
My feet weren't moving. I couldn't stop moving. I was just being pushed.
(02:40):
And in the middle of this maze was Satan himself.
To touching the afterlife, we have with us today, Anthony.
Anthony lives in Ireland and he has an experience to share of what happened
when he took drugs and how he entered into a demonic realm and why this is more
than just a bad trip. Welcome, Anthony.
(03:03):
Thank you very much for having me on. Thank you for being with us.
So, Anthony, I just want to start here with, you know, I've heard it time and
time again, how Christians and future Christians, when they take drugs,
they enter this demonic realm.
Can you share with us what happened with you and how it started with you?
Sure, of course. I suppose for as long back as I can remember,
(03:26):
I would have been at night seeing anomalies or figures on the wall.
I wouldn't have known what it was but I
knew it was it came with a terrifying feeling or and
it was a horrible experience we moved around a lot
when I was younger but wherever we went
whatever home we stayed in this seemed this experience seemed to follow me we
(03:48):
really I guess it was the age of the internet when I was a teenager where everybody
has pcs in their home and access to the internet and that's when i discovered
that these these experiences.
Were on a much wider scale than i could imagine millions of
people worldwide were writing into blogs questioning what
(04:09):
this was they were seeing the exact same thing down to a t and
that really frightened me i grew up in catholic ireland and we
know about heaven and hell and the sacraments
but it's a different thing when you're three or
four years old and you haven't you can't even understand them concepts
to encounter it so i would
say that this let me question i leave me to question a lot of things around
(04:35):
that time when i was 17 18 years old i decided to tell some friends um about
my experience maybe 15 16 years old and because these are such,
frequent occurrences the friends i were staying over my house would eventually
end up seeing these same things and getting very upset about it so i knew that
(04:59):
this wasn't something going on in my head rather it was something external but
why it was coming to me i didn't know.
My mother got into a bit of she got
interested in fortune telling she didn't fortune
tell herself but she kept going to different people and i suppose
she was at a crossroads in her life but she noticed herself that things were
(05:20):
happening in the house after she had gone to these fortune tellers strange things
cups moving her not being able to move in the bed and things going on and off
and i was in the house at this time and i knew um i was aware of these things happening,
come about 17 18 years old i decided to go
to a fortune teller myself to see if any answers lay there
(05:41):
and the fortune
teller at the end of the session he told
me that he knew that i had seen shadows and
that these were visitors and there was no harm in them and
to say say lord i trust in you
but the next
day after that these shadows seem to take it accelerated the experience um it
(06:07):
made things a lot worse and i remember going to my nana my nana would have been
very close to us growing up she's passed away now but she had said well lord
forgive me for going to see a fortune teller i never really got why she said it at the time.
But you know it was it
was later in in life these things kept going on
(06:27):
into my 20s and about seven
years ago i suppose it was we
my my partner for my
birthday gifted me with a trip to amsterdam and we
went to this trip and we met a couple of
guys youtubers on the plane on the way over and these
(06:48):
guys had messages saying that they took mushrooms the first night they were
there and that they were hallucinating and it was hilarious and this and that
so anyway we met up with them and being in amsterdam for two days we never do
drugs but we said look we'll do the amsterdam experience and we'll go down to
the cafes and whatever and my partner couldn't,
(07:09):
couldn't feel anything she was seemed somewhat resilient to any high that anyone
could get so this led us to go into a corner shop and getting these five star strength mushrooms and.
This is when things really kind of kicked off in that realm i did have a feeling that,
there was a strange feeling over
(07:30):
me that this could open up
my mind somewhere to somewhere
i wouldn't want to go you know when i would
see these apparitions it was like i didn't
know how explain it but like a valve in my head would would move and i guess
it's what people call the penal gland although i didn't know what that phrase
was at the time but so anyway we took we took their mushrooms he told us to
(07:56):
take half of them and to wait in the hotel room and if he felt anything.
Then don't take any more but if you didn't feel anything you could take the rest of them so
that's what we did we took the whole lot of them and went out we went down
for a drink and everything was fine and she said look
we'll get a smoke and we'll walk home and that's the end of
amsterdam and that's the end of the experience for us but at the end of that
we were in a cafe and all of a sudden i lost the time stopped and warped and
(08:24):
went back and forward and i remember looking up and there There was a waitress
walking and she was stopping them backwards and the music had stopped and was skipping.
And I looked down at the floor and the floor was gone. It was just a black hole.
But I was sober enough to say that we need to get back to the hotel room because
if she was to get the same way I got, we'd never get home.
So we got in a taxi and we went back up to the room.
(08:47):
The mushrooms obviously start kicking in there at this stage.
And for an hour or two, all was okay, although a little bit eerie.
It was as if there was someone in the room in a
seated position but getting closer and closer to me and i was in my mind's eye
it's very hard to distinguish between the hallucination and reality because
(09:09):
you're sober minded it's not as if you're drunk but your mind is seeing something else.
And there was somewhat of a whirlpool and i
was swimming out of it i knew if i got caught in it it was going
down and i swam as hard as i could and i was getting out of it and something
stopped me i hesitated me for a slight second and i couldn't recover then i
(09:32):
got pulled in and pulled into a black abyss a pitch black room i had somewhere
down beneath in another realm let's say,
and there was two entities that were behind my back i was facing one way and
they were facing They were facing me from behind, but I couldn't turn.
I couldn't move, and they had whips, and the two of them started whipping.
(09:57):
In the hotel room, I started lifting off my seat as if I was reacting to getting whipped.
It was a very scary, frightening experience. I went on to further down into
a different realm where I was inside what looked like a caved volcano.
So it was a volcano, but it was roofed and there was walls all around.
(10:19):
And all the walls of this volcano were like a maze. It was like a mountain volcano
and a maze and the walls were fire.
And these two entities were behind me. my hands were cuffed invisibly.
There was nothing to show, no chains, but just cuffed in front of me.
And I was being pushed along this maze.
My feet weren't moving. I couldn't stop moving. I was just being pushed.
(10:39):
And in the middle of this maze was Satan himself.
But before I got to the center, I ended up going down again.
And it was like a corner of hell. It's the only way I can describe it.
It was dark. It was cold. It was cave-like.
And I was trapped. There was no doors out. There was no way out.
(11:02):
But what I began to do, at the same time, I am conscious that I'm in the room,
in the hotel room, and I was trying my best, but I couldn't concentrate on being
in the room. It was getting too vivid, this experience.
But after an hour or two of this, I looked up to my left, and in the shadows
of a cave was a man standing.
(11:24):
And as i approached this
man he began to see that it was
the figure of christ and as i
got close to this figure i got thrown into the
air way way up above hell to almost
like a crucifix um position standing
(11:44):
in the air levitating with my arms out right and on
my left side was a heavenly meadow and on my right
side was hell and this portion of
my body my right side it wasn't
even half it was a third of my body my right arm
and my right leg were in hell still and i
was suspended there for what seemed like hours and which probably was hours
(12:06):
because this went on for a long time this experience and my leg was like it
was on fire i felt it burn and clearly in the room there There was nothing,
you know, there was no fire.
And the only way I could physically pull out of this eventually was a freezing
cold shower for a long, long time.
(12:27):
And it eventually must have sobered me up to pull me out of this experience.
But that's where the experience ended. And it really shook me.
And it made me think that it was a sign.
There was something telling me that I wasn't quite saved, maybe that a portion
of me wasn't saved, maybe.
Maybe I was almost there or is missing something. And like I said,
(12:51):
I wasn't very religious going into this experience.
I didn't go to mass or church. I didn't pray a lot.
I had a totally different mindset than I do now.
I was much more materialistic and things like that.
Following this experience when I got home, this seemed to awaken these experiences,
(13:15):
experiences these visitations at night i could
hear someone shouting in my ear and granted i had seen a lot more
things than just shadows over the years i had seen people
walking through the house i had seen you know apparitions a
lot of things too much even so to go into you know
hearing lions and dogs go off and just
a lot of things were following me over
(13:37):
the years but i remember I
couldn't still get rid of this idea or
this this shadow entity experience and
I stumbled across a documentary which for the
life of me I cannot find now it seems to have
disappeared off the face of the earth but it was a man from
somewhere in South America who was being taken over
(13:59):
at night during the day he was a perfect gentleman
but at night he'd change and he'd
go on all fours he'd be chasing his family he'd be snarling and then
come morning time he'd go back and they had doctors in monitor his sleep and
they had people checking on his heart rate and they could see it switching over
and the doctors didn't know what to do with him and this priest came in and
said this is happening because you're fighting for your faith there's a war
(14:22):
for your soul and you're losing and the priest told him to say jesus i trust in you three times.
I have heard, people had handed me mantras before, Indian mantras and different
things to say at night to try and help me. Nothing ever worked.
Even Lord helped me. Lord, I trust you, it didn't work.
So after seeing this documentary, when the next time this experience happened,
(14:46):
I sat beside my bed and I said, Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus,
I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you.
And like that, it was as if something entered the room, which I couldn't explain
at the time, but the air was lifted. It was like there was a light encompassing the room.
Even though it wasn't the physical light and it was just pure peace.
And I was so tired from night in, night out, these things happened.
(15:09):
I just collapsed on the bed and fell asleep for the first time for seven or eight hours in years.
And I remember I rang my Nana the next day. I knew something had happened,
something big had happened.
And I rang my Nana the next day and I would regularly ring her.
This is about seven years ago now. and I told her what happened and she had
(15:30):
told me that she had been praying the night before,
that she was getting older she was after getting a sickness and that someone
in the family will come to their faith and she didn't say too much to me but
I said I wanted two things I needed her help in getting a bible and getting
an image that stuck out my head was the Jesus I trust in you new picture.
(15:54):
And I said, I wanted to get two of these things. I wanted one for the house
and I wanted to start studying the Bible.
So she said, please let me get these two things for you. I believe she rang
my father then in tears saying, you won't believe what happened to Anthony.
He knew I was going through certain experiences or he knew,
Well, he'd be atheist or agnostic anyway, but he would have known that I was
(16:16):
saying I was going through something that was affecting me.
And so he was just happy that I was through it.
So I got my two things, but a different sense came over me ever since that night.
The same thing happened the next night, and I said them words again,
and it was gone. And these experiences started to weaken. The shadows started to fade.
(16:38):
And while your week was gone, And by the week, they were gone completely, never to come back.
And I've seen pages on Facebook about shadow people, thousands and thousands
of people in it saying the same thing.
They seem to go with the name of Jesus.
That was the only word that I swapped around and put in there and worked.
(16:59):
That got me down the line of, I realized telling people my story,
I was so filled with the Holy Spirit, or this this
passion about this story that i was
telling everybody and i realized that people some people weren't happy
about hearing this story and there was something that i
would say spiritually going on with them and anger that maybe they couldn't
(17:20):
even justify in their own head logically that they were getting physically upset
about hearing this and angry and i said you know i need to find out about this
jesus character if this is a man a myth if this story evolved from,
egyptian gods what was this who is this figure that seems to have all the power,
(17:42):
which led me down to going to jerusalem which led
me down to studying hours and hours of
debates reading books and books on this and realizing how researched and historical
this person was who caused the first century and was still appearing to people
today so i was driving back and forth to work and these things were still happening
to me i was getting senses they They were bringing me places in my mind's eye,
(18:04):
but I knew there was something I needed to do.
And going back and forth in the car, my commute to work, I realized I needed to do something.
There was a calling to do something for them, for mankind in that regard.
And that was how my own podcast was born. And it was a mix in the beginning
(18:27):
of bringing in fitness people and people who wrote books,
but it always ended the conversation with their faith
and if they had faith and i was trying to reach an
audience and pull them in for that end of it but as the podcast evolved i began
to have much more freedom on just doing podcasts about that subject and realizing
that putting forth good evidences and helping people in in that regard who might
(18:55):
be still stuck going through through these experiences as well.
In them seven years, I've never sat here on my podcast and told my story like I am now.
I might have touched on it I don't know if anyone knows it in the detail I've gone through it there,
and obviously I was very excited to speak to my nana
and go through that kind of thing and unfortunately she passed away within three
(19:16):
months of this happening to me which I always felt you know was very tough because
I felt initially I was robbed of that experience with her to enjoy that end
of it because our relationship would have been good but it really was was going to a different stage,
but I think she was happy that she could see someone in the family.
(19:37):
Come to their faith. Wow. I have so many thoughts here, Anthony.
So let me just get right into it. First, that stood out to me about your grandma.
So you were saying that she was praying for you the night that you,
the first time that you said, Jesus, I trust in you and the room got bright and And it was lifted.
That was the night your grandma was interceding or praying for you. Is that right?
(19:59):
That's correct. Yeah. I had gone to her about my experiences only very shortly before these, these,
before my conversion, I guess you'd say. And I had told her that,
look, these things that happened to me, they've been happening for years.
And I don't know how to, I don't know what to do about it because it's affecting my work.
(20:21):
It's affecting my day-to-day life. I'm not sleeping well.
I was waking up, I felt like I was being choked. That was one of the experiences
I had that I woke up being choked.
And I think people call it sleep paralysis or the old hag syndrome.
But i do think you know the further you let
these things go on what started as shadows
you know just grew and grew with the
(20:43):
fear of it i think they feed on fear but i
i do have something to say about that kind of experience the old hag experience
as they say something was very interesting when
i had that experience first was my brother
who'd be agnostic as well was in the room next
door and he said he
woke to what felt like a hand hitting his bed and this
(21:05):
was about three in the morning the witching hours they supposed to call
it and he walked out to the hallway and i
was about 18 at this time 19 maybe and he.
Heard me choking and he was almost afraid to
open the door to come in i had opened my eyes and there
was hands around my neck and i i was trying to peel them off and
when i eventually got i heard i
(21:27):
heard my brother saying is everything okay or and
i had cursed this thing off me and
it jumped against the wall and i remember a burning cross specifically in
my mind on that wall as this apparition disappeared
and i always thought it was such a strange thing because i
was never really focused on the person of christ or
the a cross and it really stood out to
(21:48):
me you know so yeah my nana has she had
been praying that someone would come to their faith in the
family and i know she prays in general
she had prayed then general prayers before but
she had told me in particular that night she had extensively
prayed that before she passed away that
someone would come to their faith and you know
(22:11):
that was the the night that I had my
experience and going back to
the experience the original because it
sounds like you've had various throughout your life of these shadow figures
or entities but the particular night when you took these mushrooms now would
you say that oh it's you know some people might say oh it's just a bad trip
(22:33):
but this wasn't was this hazy was this dreamlike was it it vivid?
I mean, did you really feel like you were taken to this place, hell?
It was very vivid. You know, I was, I was still in the room and I knew I was
in the room clearly, but there was something, my conscious mind went somewhere else.
(22:55):
How do i explain it i couldn't focus on being in the room it was you couldn't
pull out of it there was something pulling me into this experience and it was
like a projector in front of my eyes
that i could see i was in the room but i was going through this it was
as if a part of me was gone there and i
studied a lot on people have a lot
(23:16):
of near-death experiences that sound very similar people also
i know that john hopkins college in university in
america do studies on psilocybin and they
do i think it's one in ten people have this
type of a trip a hell-like experience and they
come out with saying that you know these experiences are beyond
(23:37):
profound that they change their whole view on
the world some people have of different trips
and different psychedelic experiences i i
think you know and some people have said maybe you're in
that frame of mind going in there but you know i was
out on my holidays i was enjoying myself and i was having a couple of beers
and you know i wasn't particularly in
(23:58):
a dark place bar going through this experience but that wasn't anything new
for me and they hadn't ramped up at the time but certainly i think if there
was a veil of slight protection that i had that was shattered when i took these
mushrooms it it seemed as though,
yeah, it was very much like what you'd hear of a near-death experience nowadays,
(24:21):
that I was there and I couldn't get out, and I didn't know how to get out.
And it took about 10 hours to come out of that experience altogether.
And I think, looking back on it, seeing the figure of Christ in that cave was
a strange thing to see, but,
it made me, all these experiences have made me realize that it's really that
(24:44):
figure, That central figure that is so important.
Like, you know, I remember having a podcast with a guy, a Hindu guy,
and he asked me, you know, why the Trinity? Why this figure of Christ? Why not just God?
And I said, it seems like it's the stepping stone, the human stepping.
Relatable version of god it's it's
(25:06):
we're told that on our day of judgment he's our
barrister he's our solicitor he's who stands for you
in front of god and whether you
know him or you don't know him that will be the big question at
the time have we done well have we done much for our fellow man did did you
know me you always hear this in near-death experiences i didn't know you you
(25:28):
didn't know me he wants a personal relationship with us there's just something
about that figure that you can hear they talk about in exorcisms the name of
christ the blood of christ it's all.
So significant it's the only word that worked
that worked for me the only word that worked for me in my 27
years i was 27 at the time that experience and it had been going on since definitely
three years old anyway as long back as my memory can go and it's that phrase
(25:54):
jesus i trust in you that i think is probably the most powerful sentence in
the english language that anyone can say I agree.
And it talks about that in the Bible. There is no other name above the name
of Jesus. And you invoked his name, and it cleared.
And I just think that is the key here. So with that, Anthony,
(26:14):
how did this experience then change you?
Did you start developing a relationship with Christ?
Did you stop hanging around things that would, drugs and things of that nature?
Sure yeah well i i was never i was
never into taking drugs it it just
happened to be on that on that was something that
(26:37):
happened on that particular weekend and maybe by the influence of the people we
were there with but my mind changed very rapidly after that i i've heard it
said before and i i it was like the grass was greener you know it was like scales
have been falling from the eyes kind of thing you know it was like the sky was
(26:57):
blue or everything was brighter.
Everything was crisper. Brands and money didn't matter to me anymore. I had a young son.
I was going leaving early in the morning, getting home late at night and trying
to get up that ladder. And that seemed to not matter anymore.
Being at home and being a good influence and doing things that were meaningful
(27:21):
instead of expedient seems to be more the matter. I know we have a divided brain, two hemispheres.
And I often say, you know, sometimes I think we can live too much in the left
hemisphere, the logical math and the expedient things and just doing our daily
job and going home. And that's the end of it.
And some people are too much in the right hemisphere and they're lost.
(27:41):
They're gone completely too far.
But I think you told that line, you realized that maybe work is a means to an
end, but we have another mission.
We have another calling. calling, and this helped me hear that calling, I would say.
What entered that room that night wasn't Jesus, it wasn't God,
it was the Holy Spirit, and it took me a while to figure that out.
(28:03):
That stayed with me. And I know from reading the Bible after,
because my nana did get me a New Testament, you know, when Jesus says,
I have to depart this world.
But I will leave the helper. And this is what he says about the spirit.
And this is what guided me. I remember coming home one day from work and I kept
seeing this church in my head in my local town. And there's plenty of churches in my local town.
(28:23):
I'd never been to this one, but it was coming on so strong that I had to turn
the radio off. And I didn't even know why it was coming on this strong.
And I pulled up to my house and this car, a couple,
an elderly couple pulled up beside me and they're on the
road and they said can you direct us to
this church and it took me a lot a lot
not to even drive there to begin with because it was coming up so so
(28:46):
strong my mind and i said yeah i said it's just
over the bridge one kilometer up on the left hand side and they
didn't even say thank you they just kind of roll off looking at me it was
the strangest experience um and my mind said
will i go down to this church and i still said no
and i went upstairs and i start cooking cooking up food and i
had to my mind was still pulsating with
(29:07):
this church in my head and i looked up what the church was called i
didn't even know the name of it and there's a webcam a live feed which i'd
never seen before a lot of the churches in ireland look pretty old but
the webcam the minute i turned it on to
live the priest the place was full and the
priest said if anyone is at home they're just
in from work and they think they need to be here tonight tonight night is the night you
(29:28):
need to be here i was the first sentence i was mouth and with
that i turned the hob off and i said right that's enough's enough and
i drove to the church again not knowing kind
of in a daze being pulled along not knowing what i'm doing what am
i going to do when i get there you could see people couldn't even get into the
church they're all spilled outside it and the cars are lined up down the path
(29:49):
as far as i could see and there was one space right outside the church and how
i don't know i pulled up and i crossed the road and i went over to the church.
And as i walked up to the church this man took me by the shoulder and he said come on inside my son.
And granted, there was just normal people standing outside this church,
(30:11):
just listening in the speakers. And I walked through the door and another man took me by the shoulder.
And inside the church, there's people standing all around the sides because there's no seats.
And he said, there's one seat left for you here, my son, tonight.
And he brought me over to a pew. And with that, there was one seat there.
And a man got up from Northern Ireland, told a story which really resonated
(30:33):
with me. He was a blind man who was shot in the Troubles in Northern Ireland years ago.
And i got to speak with him before i left i couldn't go without speaking to
him something again was pulling me towards him and we developed a relationship
and i got him on my podcast it was really a big deal to me but i got involved
in this charity and i was fasting for it and,
just things like that were so strange there was
(30:56):
images that came up in my head it was words that were coming into my
mouth and there was things that became very important to me
and in some way
way or form I'm still going through that I'm still being guided I feel
it when I do a podcast let's say I feel it when
I do certain things when I go to church there's that
sense that you are where you're supposed to be and yeah
(31:18):
I think you know a lot of my friends and family will be still skeptical and
maybe a lot of them are going to hear this episode for the first time tonight
or this testimony but I think it's you know all we have really is to speak the
truth and I say that know, with a capital T.
This is, I haven't said this is my truth, but this is the truth,
(31:39):
you know, and I really realized that this was the way we're supposed to be living.
People are missing this. They're passing by by doing their work and going home
and watching Netflix and putting their headphones on and going out drinking
their PlayStation or whatever they're doing, but they're missing the actual calling in life.
I love how you talk about that, Anthony, with the Holy Spirit,
which is the spirit of truth.
(31:59):
It's the comforter, it's the counselor, it's your advocate it's everything you
need and that's what you're being led by every day and
i just love your story and i would love to hear a little bit
more about your podcast and how
the lord is directing your path yeah well
like i said with that man i seen you know he would eventually
come on my podcast and it was very important thing to me what i
(32:22):
have found you know i i'm
determined in my podcast to speak the truth and a lot of people
have warned me about that and even this
week alone and even about sitting here tonight people have said to me you know
be careful what you say make sure you protect yourself i feel as though it's
the only place where i can be truthful and the flow it flows from me in that
(32:46):
way it's it's the only place where you can have a heart-to-heart conversation.
A concentrated conversation, it kind of opens the barriers. Everyone knows what
it is. You know, there's a cross on my podcast symbol. It's a Celtic cross.
I guess it kind of symbolizes my culture and my faith.
And I have been told even from a work perspective that, you know,
(33:10):
people don't look too favorably upon that.
But I could care less, really, what people think think about these things.
I think it's a shame that the separation of God from society has happened lately.
And I think what we need to do is start looking at God at a more,
faith at a more critical level.
Why is it important? I think there's some speakers in recent times who've done
(33:32):
that. Jordan Peterson has done that recently with his biblical lectures.
And, you know, you have William Lane Craig and John Lennox and people who are
scientists who who are saying that this is true.
And I do think there's a propaganda of atheism out there and it's set to seep into our society.
And I do think it's a propaganda. And it took me a while to realize that when
(33:57):
we get down to the science of the Big Bang or evolution or, you know,
our near-death experiences, our souls, our conscious minds, how we think,
what happens when we pray.
Even on the quantum standpoint, there seems to be so much evidence in our DNA,
a or fine-tune universe these are the things i want to talk to people about i want to not,
(34:19):
win an argument but to open the argument again in
an intellectual way i'm not standing on the
corner preaching although i don't you know condemn
that i think people get get a great ways by doing that in their own right that's
not something i'm good at but what i might be good at is trying to open the
conversation to my peers to my age group and the next one down that that we
(34:41):
should not leave God for the once a year we attend church,
that we need this to be part of our lives, regardless of how distracted society has us these days.
One thing I love, Anthony, is that the Holy Spirit speaks to each of us,
and the Holy Spirit uses anyone, anything, however, that individual.
(35:04):
And so I think it's important, don't you believe, that as a body of Christ,
we all have our different giftings and talents and how the Lord wants to use us.
And he speaks to each individual and the way that he knows that will speak to them.
Yeah, absolutely. I agree. And I think, like you just mentioned there,
people do have their own separate talents.
And I think sometimes I wonder, like, are we given these individual talents
(35:27):
because that is our gift from God to use it for that purpose?
And I've always been into editing and it's come in handy music and it's all
come in handy for editing my podcast and putting it out there and advertising it.
And, you know, I do think even though I'm not, I feel as though I could sharpen
up on my speech and my flow. And I think it's a worthwhile exercise to do that.
(35:50):
But yeah, I do think that that's also part of that right hemisphere of the brain,
that we have them talents and we need to, there's more depth to life than we see.
You know, we're all, and to really look at people and have much more forgiveness
for people, that they're all just going through their own struggle.
They're all souls just trying to find their way.
(36:11):
And some of us find it a bit sooner than others, and we can help others find their way,
or we can at least open that up but to put the stigmas and
the i guess the you know coming
to the conversation with an open mind i guess is
the real thing so i hope if anything my story might reach people who maybe go
through their own bit of spiritual oppression yeah maybe spiritual persecution
(36:35):
for their beliefs yes i agree with you and we are all in different areas of
in our our walk with the Lord and where somebody,
one person might be somebody else isn't.
And so we have to show the love of Christ with grace and truth.
And so, yeah, I just want to say that I just really loved having you here talking
(36:58):
to me and sharing your heart, your testimony.
And is there anything else, Anthony, that you want to say before we close?
No but like i thank you for having me on i hope um i i hope that people.
You know i have the courage to tell their testimony i recently put up a playlist
(37:18):
on my youtube of irish testimonies and i wanted to invite people to come and
tell us tell their testimony and and we could lay it out kind of similar to
what you're doing in in the us,
and i feel there's a lot of people worried about doing that so i
said really you know i'm asking people to do something that i haven't done myself and
so i think it was important it's actually
(37:40):
quite timely because it's only a couple of weeks ago that i decided to do
that that i sit here and tell my story and
let it be you know
whatever the judgment comes it is what it is and i'm i'm happy to do it i'm
delighted to do it here i've watched a lot of your own youtube videos of people
other courageous people coming out and telling their story it's not an easy
(38:00):
thing to do it shouldn't be understated it's personal it's it's you can feel
vulnerable speaking it but i think that is is the message we were given.
Our personal testimonies are geared that we should speak them and speak them
outwards and let the world know.
I totally agree. And I really just want to say too, how courageous it is.
I agree with you and I thank you for your courage.
(38:23):
Everybody's testimony is unique. The Lord speaks through each testimony and
that's how we overcome through our testimony and through the blood of the lamb
and our faith in Jesus Christ.
And so I'm proud of of you for standing strong and standing firm in your faith.
And I believe there's going to be a breakthrough and a release as there often
is with so many of our guests as they release their testimony.
(38:44):
So Anthony, thank you so much again for being with me.
Julie, thanks very much for having me on. I appreciate it very much.
Wonderful. And I just want to close with the scripture that your testimony reminds
me of is that in Acts 4.12, it says, Salvation is found in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by by which we must be saved.
(39:05):
And Anthony, you are a testament of being saved and being brought out of the
darkness and into the light. Would you close with us in prayer?
Absolutely, yeah. So there's three prayers I say every night after I say my
peace to God, when I appreciate my kids, my health, where I am now.
And it's three basic prayers. And usually I say, and our father,
(39:27):
because, and that's the beginning prayer I always say.
So that's the prayer I'll say, say because I think it's one of the most powerful you can say.
I love it. I just want to say too, there's power in our declarations and I say
daily declarations myself.
So I love that you have a prayer that you'd like to say. So would you share
that prayer with us as we close?
Yeah. And I'll close with Jesus, I trust in you then because it's the three
(39:49):
words I lastly finished with. So our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
with those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Music.
(41:23):
Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you.
Music.
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