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Thomas E. Sciolino On April 27th, my cousin Tom Sciolino passed away after a terrible fight with brain cancer that lasted well over three years. He was a wonderful, loving and devoted husband, father and friend. Tom was an inspiration to all that knew him and it always brought out the best in them. He was also a man of intense faith. |
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Before his first brain surgery (one of many operations and procedures to come), he had what he described as a “Divine Intervention”. Before his death he shared this experience to his family and friends. So with the blessing of his wife Leslie, I would like to offer these words from Tom who shared his love of God and the experience he had, to all of you. Thank you Tom, we miss you very much. |
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I have been thinking about posting something that may seem unbelievable. I have only shared this life – changing event with those who are my immediate family, which includes only a select few. I have thought about sending this message for a long time but my fear of changing your thoughts about me kept these words at bay. I can sense that I am closer to the end now and have been urged to share this sooner than later with you.
I understand that many of you will read this and file it in your ‘He has lost it’ folder, your ‘I really think I don’t believe you’ folder, or my favorite, ‘It must have been from the meds he was on’ folder. It’s ok, I accept that what you are about to read is hard to believe. I can only imagine what my thoughts would be if I was the one reading this.
I would probably defer this story to Dream Works. It would make a pretty good B movie at the Little Theater. In the twelfth night of my hospital stay, one month before brain surgery, I had something happen to me that I can only describe as divine intervention. Though I have always thought of myself as someone who kind of believes in God, religion and spirituality where never at the top of my ‘to do’ list. Months before my seizure, shoulder replacement, brain tumor, and crushed L5, I began getting signals or signs of ‘divine intervention’. I ignored the first three signs. I did notice that these ‘signs’ seemed very connected to my very personal life. Coincidence I thought.
It was the fourth ‘sign’ that really got me thinking. This ‘sign’ came immediately after a halfhearted attempt at asking God a question. I thought what I asked was in form of prayer, although for me, praying was nothing more than speaking out loud so God could hear. He heard me and responded. I was stunned. I didn’t expect such an immediate response! The messages (signs) are real? I could not believe what just happened. I saw what I saw, and even though it was very real, I wasn’t totally convinced that God was on the phone, so to speak. I should have listened to message four.
Faith and true belief was all I needed, but was I totally convinced? Almost is my answer because the fifth message came twelve days after I was nearly dead for four days. I’m listening now. Exactly twelve days after my arrival to the hospital I received another message. A very clear, “I hope you really hear Me this time”, message.
That night in my bed, not quite asleep, feeling good about just making it through the most excruciating pain a person could know, I felt uncovered. Suddenly an understanding of what Jesus did for us is crystal clear to me. I felt all the layers of my life removed and a sense of complete and pure mind and soul poured into me. I was cleansed of all of the junk life dropped on me. I was at the beginning as Adam was with Eve. My sins had been completely removed and I was naked before the Lord as we all are at birth. Nothing was between my thoughts and truth. I knew the true meaning of pain, our pain, and what it means.
Pain gives us opportunity. Pain allows us a chance to experience and appreciate love and quality of life. Pain brought me very close to death and pain gave me a chance to understand value of life and its fruits. The layers of age were wiped away and I could see life for what it really is. Pain told me and then showed me the importance of what I have often taken for granted. I now know the importance of what Jesus did for us and why. Layers of doubt, clouded clarity that fell on me like forty-six years of dust, have now been removed. Through pain, I understand happiness, how to recognize it, and what it means to me.
The next words you’ll read are an attempt to share what I’m willing to share about a very hard to believe event in my life. My guess is that many who read what happens next will be harder to accept than the first piece of this sharing. I (‘I’ meaning self-soul) was taken to a place where there was sand and sun with no horizon. An entity, maybe an angel, maybe God was with me. He/She sensed every question I have about life, God, heaven, good, evil, time, place, space, my children, my future, their future, the future as I see it, and anything else I wondered about. The angel, who I was never able to see in form, answered every question, every detail that I could possibly want to know. I experienced visions and answers about truth and about being. There was no time or space. Each and every question was answered by what I can only describe as spiritual teleportation.
I moved through seamless time and space for answers to questions. I was shown the answer to every question I had, existing in the places of answer and truth. I never spoke words. Time and place were one. Clarity was stunning, vision was crisp and without limit. I was allowed to have a glimpse of my future and my family’s future. Time and space did not exist. A thought, a place, and truth were immediate. I was delivered to it. I was allowed travel to any place, any time any age, and to any person that was necessary to provide answers and truth.
I’ll try to explain what all of this was like. It was like I was a boat traveling faster than the speed of light on water that never so much as rippled. I moved to destinations faster than the speed of light through space with zero drag coefficients. Air didn’t exist. I moved through time in a nanosecond, faster than the worlds fastest computer can compute. I saw and went to places quicker than a picture forms on a digital camera.
Is God with us? I should say so. What does He look like? I don’t know. What did my angel look like? I could not see His/Her body, but I could see soul. He/She could not only see my soul, He/She knew every inch of it. I saw silhouettes of my family in the desert, sun in front of them, me far behind. I saw them. They were moving through time. I wasn’t. There was no time in my place, only theirs. I wasn’t able to speak to them. I see completely the meaning of what I saw of them, and it was good. They were before me and they will live here after. They are aware of my short time here. They will mourn, and they will talk to God and know that I will always be with them.
There is more, things I’m not willing to share. I have written what I thought I never could or would. When I “die”, it will not really be death. It is life at an extraordinary place. It is truth, mind and soul. A thought will deliver me anywhere with no time connected to it. I will always be with my family. They are me and I am them. My life is awesome and I have truly been blessed. I have irreversible stage four-brain cancer and I thank God for what it has taught me. I thank God for my new life.
I would say that when God gives you a message or two, He will and likely already has, don’t wait for brain cancer to get it. I’m full of love and I thank God for my family, my friends, and my life. I am the same person you all know. The only one who can recognize a difference in me is myself. God is good.
Tom