November 4, 2025 • 19 mins
Ever wondered what it’s like to live a dozen lives—and remember them all? Dive into the extraordinary journey of Walter P. Benesch, whose memoir unfolds raw letters to his daughter, blending trauma, mysticism, and resilience. From past-life memories and UFO encounters to civil rights marches and family secrets, this episode is a rollercoaster of wisdom and wonder. Don’t miss the untold stories and the never-before-seen photo of Muhammad Ali!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey is Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated talk show People of Distinction.
The talk gives you an in depth view of some
of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises dot com for more info.
Email me through Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com if
you'd like to get involved with what we have going,
(00:30):
and as always, please continue to like and follow our broadcasts.
People of Distinction is internationally syndicated solely due to the
love and support that you all continue to give. We're
available across all major distributors and as long as you
keep following, we're going to continue to put out the content.
Now sit back and strap in because on the line
with us today we have the impressive Walter P. Benish
(00:53):
and we're gonna be discussing is amazing memoir. It's Me
the Early Years Letters to My Daughter. It's available through Amazon,
through Barnes and Noble, in a whole host of other places. Man,
but check out his personal website to gather it all.
That's Walterpbenish dot com. And just to make sure there's
no misunderstandings, Yeah, we got the traditional spelling of Walter.
(01:17):
We got the letter P in there Benish b E
N E S cch dot com. There gather more information
on him on his book hyperlink set up to take
it to the purchasing pages. You're also going to find
another book that Walter has written. That one is called
It's Me from the Big Apple to Beantown. Both of
(01:40):
these books are fantastic additions to your shelf. But check
back in frequently, man, because yeah, Walter is in the
process of writing for others and so much more. Man
Like we bare these scratch the surface, but you're gonna
want to check it out one more time. That's Walterpbenish
dot com And listen, Walter has lived a dozen lives. Okay,
(02:01):
at least he has captured them all in a series
of raw, intimate letters to his daughter. Trust me when
I tell you this isn't your average memoir, Okay it is.
It's an emotional excavation to a certain degree of a
life lived between trauma and mysticism, even right, and he
(02:24):
is here to share how our most fractured moments can
actually build the most resilient souls. And I love that
notion because it is something that I have mentioned in
the past, Like people listen, we all understand that our experiences,
whether we enjoy them or not, they ultimately equate to wisdom.
(02:45):
But the most beautiful thing about and I guess the
most poignant thing is all of this, is it doesn't
always have to be our own experiences that wisdom is
derived from. Now oftentimes it is. But in this instance,
and as a father myself to a very beautiful princess,
this is something that resonates, man, because I hope that
I have the opportunity. Maybe not in letter form this way,
(03:09):
because God didn't gift me with the power of writing,
but yeah, I'm a public speaker, I'm an orator, right,
So hopefully the things that I've been able to learn
can be passed down to her, not only for entertainment,
but for guidance, right, for wisdom, and you listening in
today are going to be able to benefit from it.
Sit back and strap in, man, this is gonna be
(03:30):
one you're gonna enjoy reading first and foremost, Walter, Welcome
to the network, man, and thank you for being a guest.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
How you doing, sir, I'm fine, thank you, and I
think this should be rather fun you're saying I've already
loved multiple lives being a reincarnationist. I actually have five
past life memories.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
You go, What a way to start an interview, man,
we gotta go into that. Okay, so five previous lives.
You added it in for levity Walter, But I'm gonna
take that dait, brother, I'm walking down that line. I'm
curious to know. Can you tell us about one of
your previous lives.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
The book actually begins with my being killed in the
Battle of the Bulge. Ooh, I was killed I think
on December twenty fourth or twenty fifth in the middle
in the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge, and
shall we say and Buddhism they say, when you go
to the upper world, you're supposed to drink from the
patma forgetfulness. I forgot to drink. So in my early
years I had a complete memory of what actually happened
(04:25):
at the battle. And it's described in vivid detail in
the book. And it is not pleasant. But can you
imagine a six year old child having that kind of memory.
It was not good. And thank god I chose the
mother that I did, because she was able to She
always say exercise those memories and my companions who kept
(04:45):
on wanting to come visit me from the other side
while I was only very young. So that was one
of my very early challenges.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Wow, okay, see Walter Man, listen, you're doing it to
me already. Brother, I'm diving down the rabbit hole. I'm
drinking from the cooler. Your aligns perfectly right because your
book the description mentions being raised in a household shadowed
by both trauma and mysticism, And listen, I believe we're
starting to go into that mysticism side and even possibly
(05:15):
a bit of the trauma, depending on how you're looking
at it. I'm curious to know, man, having these powerful,
seemingly opposite forces rooted within you, how did you experience
the interplay between them growing up?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It was, one, of course, one of my favorite major challenges.
I think the key was that this book is not
only about me, but it's also a biography of my mother.
My mother had an interesting experience in herself that she
had to marry somebody at the age of sixteen who
was over fifty over fifty, oh, divorced him after she
(05:50):
allowed him or should we say manipulated a situation where
he became a owner of oil wells that were coming
in at the times is back in the late twenties.
Then she dated actually John Charity, the Great Actor, which
turned out to be another disaster. Then she learned advanced
and meditation became a whack during World War Two. And
the point for those who do know whack is Women's
(06:12):
Army Corps. But the key is in the process she
learned a great deal about meditation and esoteric studies and philosophy,
and that enabled her to understand what I was going
through at an early age and to help overcome it
so that I could mature and grow from there.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, listen, Walter, I'm gonna pull it back here, man, Listen.
I love what you're talking about. What I find fascinating
oftentimes is when it comes to memoirs, specifically, listen, the
writing process, depending on how you're looking at it, can
be therapeutic, can be cathartic, but there is no denying
that it almost forces you to relive certain experiences. Now
(06:54):
you're talking about your mother's experience and how she of
course was a pivotal figure in this book and obviously
a pivotal force in your life. Talk to us a
little bit more about your experience writing this book.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I think the easiest thing is that it started with
my daughter. My daughter when she started college and she
was going to Washington University. Saint Louis said, Papa, I've
heard so many strange stories about your early life. Rather
than send me the usual blah blah blah letters which
contain nothing, give me the letters explaining what you experienced
and what you went through. And I feel in my
(07:28):
mother's experiences as she related them to me as well.
And this was a series of letters that was almost monthly,
sometimes twice a month, and then once she started graduate work,
not as often. And she, by the way, currently she
is an emergency ward doctor in California, so she's rather successful.
But the key was that she wanted to know about
(07:49):
my early experiences and her grandmother because her grandmother died
when she was only three. Now, thank goodness, she was
taught shamanistic meditation so that she can still visit her
grandmother even today. But that's not on this plane of existence.
The last four years of my mother's life, she actually
lived in an in law apartment so that I was
able to go down and visit her and the key
(08:10):
was that we often went through many of the early
incidences of my life, so that bits and pieces I
had forgotten she was able to fill in. So that's
what helped make this a rather complete and detailed experience
from my early years on people.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I'm telling listen, man, you already see we are already
embedded in this roller coaster of a ride. If you
want to continue it, remember it's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble,
it's Walterpbenish dot com. Head on over there, pick up
copies of this amazing book the other that he has available,
but check out the four that are still on the horizon.
(08:47):
Telling you this is an eventful ride that you're not
going to be able to put down. Walter, I want
to continue now focusing on your title. Now, listen very
straightforward in a sense, now that we've heard you talk
about what is included where it initially started, I can
see that. But I want to go and further with it. Man,
(09:08):
tell us a little bit more about the title. Why
you chose it to be the representation.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Simply because it describes exactly what was happening. In other words,
I simply kept all the letters, of course written on
a computer, but I kept all the letters fairly in order,
and so it was easy transitioning them the letters into
a book format because these were letters written over many years.
And I might add one of the books that I'm
working on now as I do a weekly message who's
(09:35):
been going out to hundreds of people every week for
over seven years, and that's going to be another book
sometime in the future, but it's focused primarily on Freemasonry,
because I've been involved in the Freemasons for over fifty years.
And I also say I've been a student of the
Kabbala Christian Kabala particularly for over thirty years, and I
still consider myself a beginner and that so I have
(09:55):
a lot of interesting background to say nothing of my
shall we say, three plus years of living with nim Chimpsky,
the chimpanzee, learning sign language at Columbia University, and I
was living in his house because he had a better
house than I did.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Imagine that. Listen, you hit on something I think is
really key and it's a crucial component here to the next.
You have such an eclectic background, wonderfully impressive. But you've lived,
as I mentioned in the opening, so many different lives.
I'm curious because when it comes to being an author,
maybe I missed it, but I didn't see that as
one of them. So who inspired you to become one?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Obviously my daughter, she was the one who asking for
these letters. So it started basically obviously from my memory
of being killed in the Battle of the Boat through
my early years. I was born prematurely and the doctors
only gave me a fifty to fifty chance of living
because the year before I had a brother that died
because he was also premature. The reasons were because my
(10:51):
mother's first husband forced her into illegal abortions back in
the twenty thirties or twenties I should say late twenties,
so she had a hard time carrying a child to birth.
And then of course my own personal experiences of professional experiences.
I started out as actually a cab driver in Manhattan
for a while, but I was also a youth worker
(11:12):
in Porta Pache, South Bronx during the actual worst years,
and then later a social worker for the welfare department
and the District of Columbia. But I ended up getting
involved in a business process re engineering unit. So my
then wife said, hey, there's a job from here, doded
apply for that, and I said, well, I have no
military background, You'd be crazy, I'd never get it. I
(11:34):
got it, So I ended up dependingon for almost eighteen years.
Then I hit a glass ceiling, so I got my
final raise and went on over to the Apartment of
Homeland Security and I retired from there. You're right, I
have had a very varied life even within those agencies.
The different kinds of responsibilities that I took on was
really phenomenal and hopefully some time in the future that
(11:57):
they may be written about two. I also do have
a couple of interviews on YouTube, and there are multiple
presentations I've done for a group called Semporary Audi, a
Masonic study group, that they have posted on their various
websites as well. So if you're really interested in all
the things like near death experiences, which by the way,
came from because I was also assisting a teacher teaching
(12:20):
fantatology in a nursing graduate school at Bolshon University where
I did one of my graduate degrees, and then I
have a lot of other experiences. I have a degree
in archaeology anthropology, so I bring those into my weekly messages.
So very diverse background, and considering how poor I was
to begin with, this is rather remarkable because it was
(12:42):
basically two years where my mother was begging friends to
take me in because we did not have a home.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Wow, Listen, I knew that this was going to be
an entertaining ride. I knew this was going to be
filled with a lot of wisdom to be gained. I
wasn't prepared for the inspiration behind it. This isn't inspirational
story here, people, amongst a plethora of other things, this
is a go amabe, you know what I'm interested in? Next?
Is really the message behind it all? Because listen, as
(13:12):
a father myself, like there is, there's definitely a message
there that I'm connecting with and that I'm resonating with.
But I know that this is a book that has
a lot of things to offer, whether the reader is
a parent or not, So talk to us about that.
I guess a two part question here, but both aligned
very similarly. One, who is your intended reader and what
(13:34):
are the messages that you want them to take?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Basically, those people who are curious about remarkable lives of
two people who had unusual experiences, and what the reader
would take from the book. First off, that there are
many more lives that you can imagine if you just
ask people what is their background. So this is my
presenting that before I'm asked the question. And the key
(13:59):
is too, is that there's things like reincarnation and past
live memories which are not rare. It's they're rarely talked
about in this country. There's the Division of Perceptual Studies
at the University of Maryland, as our University of Virginia
Medical School been studying reincarnation, past and near death experiences
for years. And it's also a reminder that there are
(14:21):
UFOs and that the UFOs had been around a long time.
It was only recently that the book Eminent came out
warning that they present a eminent danger, and I disagree
with that. And the key was that my mother decided
to mow an interesting pattern behind our barn in our
home in northwestern Connecticut. It was a landing pattern for
a UFO, and when he landed, my mother wasn't there,
(14:44):
but I ran out and my poor six year old
knees wouldn't go down to greet them like I was
supposed to, And so they realized that I was fearful
of them, and so they took off, and I guarantee
you they took off at a speed that is impossible
even today. So I went running into the house and
I said, Daddy, did you see the UFO? And I
didn't hear them, And then all of a sudden, I
heard a noise from my bedroom. My bedroom was the
(15:06):
only bedroom that had a window overlooking where the UFO was,
and I heard the noise running on upstairs. There's my
father crawling out from under my bed. Daddy, what are
you doing under my bed? I dropped a screwdriver? What
was the cruse screwdriver? Don't under my bed? I lost
it there, Daddy? Did you see the I didn't see anything, Daddy,
did you It was right there a UFOL landed. I
didn't say anything. For the rest of his life, all
I could get out of him was I didn't see anything.
(15:28):
But nevertheless, in a perfect equilateral triangle, there were three
rounded depressions in the hard ground where obviously the pods
landed when the UFO landed. So yes, there was actual
physical evidence that it was there. And by the way,
my mother got a message a few days later, don't
(15:48):
put that landing pattern out again. Is less. It's a
true emergency.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
People, listen, man, Okay, I have a lot of other
questions that I want to have. I'd love to go
through that has it, just wanted to have that experience,
Like we all think about it, right, billions of planets
and galaxies. We can't be the only one with intelligent life, right.
That is so remarkably compelling is what you know? What
(16:14):
you gotta do? Man, I mentioned it before. Check out
the website Walterpbenis dot com because remember, there's another book
that's available right now, and four others still on the horizon.
And really, what stays with me from our talk here
Walter is I think it's a beautiful idea, right that
our personal history is actually the very ground we build
(16:35):
our future on, and so often I don't think we
examine it from that way or let me just throw
myself under the bus and speak from my perspective, because
I know that there's often size where I have to
go back and understand, especially now as a parent, learning
to appreciate the journey, learning to analyze where we have
come versus where we are going, while at the same
(16:56):
time trying to remain present in your book, I think
is going to offer a mountain of benefit amongst just
a very entertaining read solicit that if this conversation resonated
with you carry that feeling forward.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Plus the fact that I haven't gotten into my civil
rights demonstrations that I was involved in, and the point
was I was on I was at the original march
on Washington.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, And in college I was I've been in college.
I was dating a black, beautiful black gal, she's and
her pictures in the book, at a time when it
was not very acceptable interracial dating, especially in northern Illinois.
And I think it might have been a little contributing
factor to me being thrown out of that college. Of course,
(17:45):
then that led to a whole different future as well.
But how many people can say that they were thrown
out of a college for the charge of officially charge
of arrogance? That was me.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Okay, So Walter, this is what we're gonna have to do. Man,
We're gonna have to invite you back onto the network.
There's just not enough time to go through all of
it in one interview. That's primarily why you all need
to pick up copies. But we're gonna re We're gonna
revisit this at a later point because Walter, my goodness, man,
you have stories for days. This is what I'm gonna
(18:15):
be thinking about long after our discussion here today. This
has been absolutely riveting and I truly mean it.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Man.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Thank you for comprising the book, because obviously it started
off as something so personal for you that you then
churned and made public. And I'm very glad that you
did because now we get to benefit because of it.
Keep up the fantastic work, and once again, thank you
for being a guest through People of Distinction.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Absolutely thank you for calling me. And by the way,
there's a bonus in the book. There's a picture of
Muhammad Ali that's never been seen before that I took
Hey is Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated talk show People of Distinction.
The talk gives you an in depth view of some
of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises dot com for more info.
Email me through Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com if
you'd like to get involved with what we have going,
(00:30):
and as always, please continue to like and follow our broadcasts.
People of Distinction is internationally syndicated solely due to the
love and support that you all continue to give. We're
available across all major distributors and as long as you
keep following, we're going to continue to put out the content.
Now sit back and strap in because on the line
with us today we have the impressive Walter P. Benish
(00:53):
and we're gonna be discussing is amazing memoir. It's Me
the Early Years Letters to My Daughter. It's available through Amazon,
through Barnes and Noble, in a whole host of other places. Man,
but check out his personal website to gather it all.
That's Walterpbenish dot com. And just to make sure there's
no misunderstandings, Yeah, we got the traditional spelling of Walter.
(01:17):
We got the letter P in there Benish b E
N E S cch dot com. There gather more information
on him on his book hyperlink set up to take
it to the purchasing pages. You're also going to find
another book that Walter has written. That one is called
It's Me from the Big Apple to Beantown. Both of
(01:40):
these books are fantastic additions to your shelf. But check
back in frequently, man, because yeah, Walter is in the
process of writing for others and so much more. Man
Like we bare these scratch the surface, but you're gonna
want to check it out one more time. That's Walterpbenish
dot com And listen, Walter has lived a dozen lives. Okay,
(02:01):
at least he has captured them all in a series
of raw, intimate letters to his daughter. Trust me when
I tell you this isn't your average memoir, Okay it is.
It's an emotional excavation to a certain degree of a
life lived between trauma and mysticism, even right, and he
(02:24):
is here to share how our most fractured moments can
actually build the most resilient souls. And I love that
notion because it is something that I have mentioned in
the past, Like people listen, we all understand that our experiences,
whether we enjoy them or not, they ultimately equate to wisdom.
(02:45):
But the most beautiful thing about and I guess the
most poignant thing is all of this, is it doesn't
always have to be our own experiences that wisdom is
derived from. Now oftentimes it is. But in this instance,
and as a father myself to a very beautiful princess,
this is something that resonates, man, because I hope that
I have the opportunity. Maybe not in letter form this way,
(03:09):
because God didn't gift me with the power of writing,
but yeah, I'm a public speaker, I'm an orator, right,
So hopefully the things that I've been able to learn
can be passed down to her, not only for entertainment,
but for guidance, right, for wisdom, and you listening in
today are going to be able to benefit from it.
Sit back and strap in, man, this is gonna be
(03:30):
one you're gonna enjoy reading first and foremost, Walter, Welcome
to the network, man, and thank you for being a guest.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
How you doing, sir, I'm fine, thank you, and I
think this should be rather fun you're saying I've already
loved multiple lives being a reincarnationist. I actually have five
past life memories.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
You go, What a way to start an interview, man,
we gotta go into that. Okay, so five previous lives.
You added it in for levity Walter, But I'm gonna
take that dait, brother, I'm walking down that line. I'm
curious to know. Can you tell us about one of
your previous lives.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
The book actually begins with my being killed in the
Battle of the Bulge. Ooh, I was killed I think
on December twenty fourth or twenty fifth in the middle
in the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge, and
shall we say and Buddhism they say, when you go
to the upper world, you're supposed to drink from the
patma forgetfulness. I forgot to drink. So in my early
years I had a complete memory of what actually happened
(04:25):
at the battle. And it's described in vivid detail in
the book. And it is not pleasant. But can you
imagine a six year old child having that kind of memory.
It was not good. And thank god I chose the
mother that I did, because she was able to She
always say exercise those memories and my companions who kept
(04:45):
on wanting to come visit me from the other side
while I was only very young. So that was one
of my very early challenges.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Wow, okay, see Walter Man, listen, you're doing it to
me already. Brother, I'm diving down the rabbit hole. I'm
drinking from the cooler. Your aligns perfectly right because your
book the description mentions being raised in a household shadowed
by both trauma and mysticism, And listen, I believe we're
starting to go into that mysticism side and even possibly
(05:15):
a bit of the trauma, depending on how you're looking
at it. I'm curious to know, man, having these powerful,
seemingly opposite forces rooted within you, how did you experience
the interplay between them growing up?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It was, one, of course, one of my favorite major challenges.
I think the key was that this book is not
only about me, but it's also a biography of my mother.
My mother had an interesting experience in herself that she
had to marry somebody at the age of sixteen who
was over fifty over fifty, oh, divorced him after she
(05:50):
allowed him or should we say manipulated a situation where
he became a owner of oil wells that were coming
in at the times is back in the late twenties.
Then she dated actually John Charity, the Great Actor, which
turned out to be another disaster. Then she learned advanced
and meditation became a whack during World War Two. And
the point for those who do know whack is Women's
(06:12):
Army Corps. But the key is in the process she
learned a great deal about meditation and esoteric studies and philosophy,
and that enabled her to understand what I was going
through at an early age and to help overcome it
so that I could mature and grow from there.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, listen, Walter, I'm gonna pull it back here, man, Listen.
I love what you're talking about. What I find fascinating
oftentimes is when it comes to memoirs, specifically, listen, the
writing process, depending on how you're looking at it, can
be therapeutic, can be cathartic, but there is no denying
that it almost forces you to relive certain experiences. Now
(06:54):
you're talking about your mother's experience and how she of
course was a pivotal figure in this book and obviously
a pivotal force in your life. Talk to us a
little bit more about your experience writing this book.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I think the easiest thing is that it started with
my daughter. My daughter when she started college and she
was going to Washington University. Saint Louis said, Papa, I've
heard so many strange stories about your early life. Rather
than send me the usual blah blah blah letters which
contain nothing, give me the letters explaining what you experienced
and what you went through. And I feel in my
(07:28):
mother's experiences as she related them to me as well.
And this was a series of letters that was almost monthly,
sometimes twice a month, and then once she started graduate work,
not as often. And she, by the way, currently she
is an emergency ward doctor in California, so she's rather successful.
But the key was that she wanted to know about
(07:49):
my early experiences and her grandmother because her grandmother died
when she was only three. Now, thank goodness, she was
taught shamanistic meditation so that she can still visit her
grandmother even today. But that's not on this plane of existence.
The last four years of my mother's life, she actually
lived in an in law apartment so that I was
able to go down and visit her and the key
(08:10):
was that we often went through many of the early
incidences of my life, so that bits and pieces I
had forgotten she was able to fill in. So that's
what helped make this a rather complete and detailed experience
from my early years on people.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I'm telling listen, man, you already see we are already
embedded in this roller coaster of a ride. If you
want to continue it, remember it's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble,
it's Walterpbenish dot com. Head on over there, pick up
copies of this amazing book the other that he has available,
but check out the four that are still on the horizon.
(08:47):
Telling you this is an eventful ride that you're not
going to be able to put down. Walter, I want
to continue now focusing on your title. Now, listen very
straightforward in a sense, now that we've heard you talk
about what is included where it initially started, I can
see that. But I want to go and further with it. Man,
(09:08):
tell us a little bit more about the title. Why
you chose it to be the representation.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Simply because it describes exactly what was happening. In other words,
I simply kept all the letters, of course written on
a computer, but I kept all the letters fairly in order,
and so it was easy transitioning them the letters into
a book format because these were letters written over many years.
And I might add one of the books that I'm
working on now as I do a weekly message who's
(09:35):
been going out to hundreds of people every week for
over seven years, and that's going to be another book
sometime in the future, but it's focused primarily on Freemasonry,
because I've been involved in the Freemasons for over fifty years.
And I also say I've been a student of the
Kabbala Christian Kabala particularly for over thirty years, and I
still consider myself a beginner and that so I have
(09:55):
a lot of interesting background to say nothing of my
shall we say, three plus years of living with nim Chimpsky,
the chimpanzee, learning sign language at Columbia University, and I
was living in his house because he had a better
house than I did.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Imagine that. Listen, you hit on something I think is
really key and it's a crucial component here to the next.
You have such an eclectic background, wonderfully impressive. But you've lived,
as I mentioned in the opening, so many different lives.
I'm curious because when it comes to being an author,
maybe I missed it, but I didn't see that as
one of them. So who inspired you to become one?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Obviously my daughter, she was the one who asking for
these letters. So it started basically obviously from my memory
of being killed in the Battle of the Boat through
my early years. I was born prematurely and the doctors
only gave me a fifty to fifty chance of living
because the year before I had a brother that died
because he was also premature. The reasons were because my
(10:51):
mother's first husband forced her into illegal abortions back in
the twenty thirties or twenties I should say late twenties,
so she had a hard time carrying a child to birth.
And then of course my own personal experiences of professional experiences.
I started out as actually a cab driver in Manhattan
for a while, but I was also a youth worker
(11:12):
in Porta Pache, South Bronx during the actual worst years,
and then later a social worker for the welfare department
and the District of Columbia. But I ended up getting
involved in a business process re engineering unit. So my
then wife said, hey, there's a job from here, doded
apply for that, and I said, well, I have no
military background, You'd be crazy, I'd never get it. I
(11:34):
got it, So I ended up dependingon for almost eighteen years.
Then I hit a glass ceiling, so I got my
final raise and went on over to the Apartment of
Homeland Security and I retired from there. You're right, I
have had a very varied life even within those agencies.
The different kinds of responsibilities that I took on was
really phenomenal and hopefully some time in the future that
(11:57):
they may be written about two. I also do have
a couple of interviews on YouTube, and there are multiple
presentations I've done for a group called Semporary Audi, a
Masonic study group, that they have posted on their various
websites as well. So if you're really interested in all
the things like near death experiences, which by the way,
came from because I was also assisting a teacher teaching
(12:20):
fantatology in a nursing graduate school at Bolshon University where
I did one of my graduate degrees, and then I
have a lot of other experiences. I have a degree
in archaeology anthropology, so I bring those into my weekly messages.
So very diverse background, and considering how poor I was
to begin with, this is rather remarkable because it was
(12:42):
basically two years where my mother was begging friends to
take me in because we did not have a home.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Wow, Listen, I knew that this was going to be
an entertaining ride. I knew this was going to be
filled with a lot of wisdom to be gained. I
wasn't prepared for the inspiration behind it. This isn't inspirational
story here, people, amongst a plethora of other things, this
is a go amabe, you know what I'm interested in? Next?
Is really the message behind it all? Because listen, as
(13:12):
a father myself, like there is, there's definitely a message
there that I'm connecting with and that I'm resonating with.
But I know that this is a book that has
a lot of things to offer, whether the reader is
a parent or not, So talk to us about that.
I guess a two part question here, but both aligned
very similarly. One, who is your intended reader and what
(13:34):
are the messages that you want them to take?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Basically, those people who are curious about remarkable lives of
two people who had unusual experiences, and what the reader
would take from the book. First off, that there are
many more lives that you can imagine if you just
ask people what is their background. So this is my
presenting that before I'm asked the question. And the key
(13:59):
is too, is that there's things like reincarnation and past
live memories which are not rare. It's they're rarely talked
about in this country. There's the Division of Perceptual Studies
at the University of Maryland, as our University of Virginia
Medical School been studying reincarnation, past and near death experiences
for years. And it's also a reminder that there are
(14:21):
UFOs and that the UFOs had been around a long time.
It was only recently that the book Eminent came out
warning that they present a eminent danger, and I disagree
with that. And the key was that my mother decided
to mow an interesting pattern behind our barn in our
home in northwestern Connecticut. It was a landing pattern for
a UFO, and when he landed, my mother wasn't there,
(14:44):
but I ran out and my poor six year old
knees wouldn't go down to greet them like I was
supposed to, And so they realized that I was fearful
of them, and so they took off, and I guarantee
you they took off at a speed that is impossible
even today. So I went running into the house and
I said, Daddy, did you see the UFO? And I
didn't hear them, And then all of a sudden, I
heard a noise from my bedroom. My bedroom was the
(15:06):
only bedroom that had a window overlooking where the UFO was,
and I heard the noise running on upstairs. There's my
father crawling out from under my bed. Daddy, what are
you doing under my bed? I dropped a screwdriver? What
was the cruse screwdriver? Don't under my bed? I lost
it there, Daddy? Did you see the I didn't see anything, Daddy,
did you It was right there a UFOL landed. I
didn't say anything. For the rest of his life, all
I could get out of him was I didn't see anything.
(15:28):
But nevertheless, in a perfect equilateral triangle, there were three
rounded depressions in the hard ground where obviously the pods
landed when the UFO landed. So yes, there was actual
physical evidence that it was there. And by the way,
my mother got a message a few days later, don't
(15:48):
put that landing pattern out again. Is less. It's a
true emergency.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
People, listen, man, Okay, I have a lot of other
questions that I want to have. I'd love to go
through that has it, just wanted to have that experience,
Like we all think about it, right, billions of planets
and galaxies. We can't be the only one with intelligent life, right.
That is so remarkably compelling is what you know? What
(16:14):
you gotta do? Man, I mentioned it before. Check out
the website Walterpbenis dot com because remember, there's another book
that's available right now, and four others still on the horizon.
And really, what stays with me from our talk here
Walter is I think it's a beautiful idea, right that
our personal history is actually the very ground we build
(16:35):
our future on, and so often I don't think we
examine it from that way or let me just throw
myself under the bus and speak from my perspective, because
I know that there's often size where I have to
go back and understand, especially now as a parent, learning
to appreciate the journey, learning to analyze where we have
come versus where we are going, while at the same
(16:56):
time trying to remain present in your book, I think
is going to offer a mountain of benefit amongst just
a very entertaining read solicit that if this conversation resonated
with you carry that feeling forward.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Plus the fact that I haven't gotten into my civil
rights demonstrations that I was involved in, and the point
was I was on I was at the original march
on Washington.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, And in college I was I've been in college.
I was dating a black, beautiful black gal, she's and
her pictures in the book, at a time when it
was not very acceptable interracial dating, especially in northern Illinois.
And I think it might have been a little contributing
factor to me being thrown out of that college. Of course,
(17:45):
then that led to a whole different future as well.
But how many people can say that they were thrown
out of a college for the charge of officially charge
of arrogance? That was me.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Okay, So Walter, this is what we're gonna have to do. Man,
We're gonna have to invite you back onto the network.
There's just not enough time to go through all of
it in one interview. That's primarily why you all need
to pick up copies. But we're gonna re We're gonna
revisit this at a later point because Walter, my goodness, man,
you have stories for days. This is what I'm gonna
(18:15):
be thinking about long after our discussion here today. This
has been absolutely riveting and I truly mean it.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Man.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Thank you for comprising the book, because obviously it started
off as something so personal for you that you then
churned and made public. And I'm very glad that you
did because now we get to benefit because of it.
Keep up the fantastic work, and once again, thank you
for being a guest through People of Distinction.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Absolutely thank you for calling me. And by the way,
there's a bonus in the book. There's a picture of
Muhammad Ali that's never been seen before that I took
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