“Lighthouse Unto the World”
Even though I was born on the southeastern shore of North Carolina, I had never been to the mountains of North Carolina. That state being as wide as it is from east to west, it was like the mountains were in another country as far as I was concerned. After living in Connecticut for eight years, I was able to take my first vacation, so I wanted more than anything else to go back to my home state and visit the mountains. I decided to take a friend with me, and we drove to Washington, D.C. Then we took Route 50 due west to Front Royal, Virginia, and we got on Skyline Drive, staying the first night in a place called Roanoke, Virginia. The next morning, going up on Skyline Drive again, heading south to Asheville, North Carolina.
I am not yet sure exactly where it was, but it was at one of those overlooks with breathtaking scenery. We were in North Carolina, probably in the northwestern part. I do know we had left Virginia. As I pulled over to the right and parked in the overlook, there were no cars around. It was July 3, 1954.
I was admiring this beautiful view because it was a perfect day, with just a few white, puffy clouds against a real blue sky. When I turned around and looked across the road, I noticed a path going up a steep hill to another plateau, still higher than where I was. While my friend was busy taking pictures, down where the car was, I crossed the road and went up the path. There were no cars at all coming either way, and there were no other cars in the overlook. We were in the only car around. Not too many local people took that trip because it took too long to get anywhere.
I went up to the top of the mountain, and from up there I could see both east and west. It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. There at the top was the trunk of an ancient tree. God knows how old this tree was, but it was lying there for a long time. I could tell from the wear and tear on the tree, the bark from people using it as a bench to sit and admire the gorgeous view. I stood up on this log, looking in both directions — east and west. I was admiring the beauty of the scenery; I felt so high that it was beyond anything I could even describe. How good I felt because it was such a gorgeous day.
I said these very words out loud: “I only wish that everybody on the planet could see God’s world as I am seeing it right now.” And all of a sudden, a person was standing there. To this very day, I don’t know why I wasn’t curious about his clothing. He was wearing a white robe! He was a beautiful person. I would say he stood about 6 feet 2 inches tall. He spoke to me and said, “Build a church to be a lighthouse unto the world.”
As he spoke, I saw a vision of a church. However, for some reason, I thought I was to build the church at that location. In my mind, I thought, “Where would the people come from? Why a church in such a remote area?”
We chatted a little while longer, and I kept seeing this vision. All this time, I never questioned how this stranger looked. I don’t know why; it still puzzles me today.
This was something you just don’t see. A man wearing a white robe, especially in a rural area like that. And there were no other cars around. Where did he come from?
Little did I know that he was controlling my mind. I found this out a few years later when I went for a reading with a trance medium, who told me about a person I met on the mountaintop who controlled my mind so that I would not feel that he was out of the ordinary.
When I continued to look and admire this beautiful scenery, I turned around to say something else to this man, but he was gone. Vanished into thin air! Perplexed, I went to the edge of the clearing to see if he had gone down the path. He wasn’t there. Then I went over to the edge of the hill and looked down where the car was parked. There were still no other cars parked in the parking lot. I did see my friend standing in front of the car, looking towards the west. I went down the hill and returned to the car.
When my friend saw me coming across the road, he said, “What is the matter?”
I said, “What do you mean? What is the matter?”
He said, “You look funny.”
I said, “What do you mean, I look funny?”
He said, “You just look funny. What did you see up there?”
And for some reason or other, I could not tell him that I had seen a man in a white robe and had spoken with him. I just said to him, “I was looking at the scenery.”
He said, “I am going to drive.”
We got into the car and continued on our travels. However, every minute or so, he would glance over at me, sitting in the passenger seat, with a puzzled look on his face.
“Why do you keep looking at me that way? Why are you staring at me?” I said to him.
He said, “You just look funny.”
I said, “Would you just describe to me what funny looks like?”
Well, he said, you look like you experienced something or saw something. I suppose it would be as if someone said, “You look like you have seen a ghost!!”
Then nothing more was said about that. That was in 1954.
Footnotes
[1] Schwartz, Sidney. A Medium's Diary: Psychic Events in the Life of Rev. Carl R. Hewitt. Place of publication not identified: KDP/Amazon Publishing, 2018. p. 51-52.