When I first learned the Jesus Prayer, it felt natural for me to apply it to my personal understanding of faith and to try it with the names 'True Parents,' 'True Father,' or 'True Mother.'
My first mantra was 'True Father.
In the first few weeks of practicing the Prayer of the Heart with this name, something unusual happened.
Toward the end of the meditation, I briefly lost consciousness. In that moment, a face appeared before my inner eye. Shortly afterward, I was wide awake again. The face was so close that I could only see the eyes and the nose.
At first, I didn’t recognize who it was, even though the image remained clearly in my memory. But suddenly, I realized: it was the face of Sun Myung Moon at the age of 16.
This experience surprised me, as I had never had a vision before.
I interpreted it as an encouragement to continue on my path. Later, I also had a few significant dreams involving him, some of which I have described in this book.
I see these signs along my path as expressions of heavenly guidance.
The mantra "True Mother"
My relationship with True Mother was not always easy in real life. I only experienced her as a public figure who bears great responsibility for the providence, and not personally as a loving mother.
Yet in the moments when I penetrated to the consciousness of the True Mother in prayer, I suddenly felt a radiant, pure spiritual love.
This experience has transformed my inner relationship with her.
The mantra "True Parents"
The term “True Parents” feels more neutral to me and less shaped by my personal experiences with specific individuals.
“True Parents of humankind” is a universal concept that refers to the incarnation of God as the Heavenly Parents – Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. In my view, it is so broadly applicable that it can be used across religious traditions.
A prayer using these words, which brings me into the awareness of the presence of the True Parents, opens me in a very direct and accessible way to the love of God.
Scientific perspective
I am more of a scientifically minded person than a believer. Belief in Jesus and the True Parents has always been a challenge for me.
Today, it is comparatively easy to identify with an idealized portrayal of Jesus. But during his lifetime, it was a much greater challenge to believe in him. Society stood united against him. It required enormous courage to break away from the majority opinion and to stand in solidarity with him - despite the foreseeable negative consequences.
It was and is similar with the True Parents in their time.
Motivated by my doubts and scientific interest, I treated the mystical experience with the name of the True Parents as a touchstone to examine its spiritual significance.
Out of my own doubts and scientific interest, I made the mystical experience with the name of the True Parents into a kind of test.
The central question was:
“Does connecting with the True Parents actually bring us closer to God - faster or more easily - than without them?”
For myself, I have found an answer to that question.
Through consciously focusing my mind on the True Parents, I experienced rapid inner transformation.
Within just four years, I came to the mystical experiences described earlier - a grace granted to only a few in such a short time. Even more, a deeper understanding of the inner path to God opened up to me.
I can attribute this special grace only to my connection with the True Parents. Anyone who knows me will confirm that it cannot be due to extraordinary faith, a particularly intense religious life, asceticism, or personal purity.
Now the question arises whether this result can be reproduced for other people when they practice this prayer.
While that would not constitute scientific proof, it might encourage more people to try this practice for themselves - and to find out whether it helps them noticeably progress on their path to God.