Peace Pilgrim is a woman that not a lot of people have heard of, however, in my personal opinion she was one of the most extraordinary women of the 20th Century. Many of the chapters in this book deal with great spiritual and Ascended Masters who are able to do miraculous things.
I have purposely added this chapter about a woman who was not a person with miraculous powers other than total love and faith in God. In truth, this is the most miraculous power of all, as her life clearly demon-strated.
Peace Pilgrim, at the approximate age of 27 years old, set out on January 1st, 1953 on a pilgrimage to walk across the United States and the world indefinitely, until mankind had learned the way of peace. She had no money, and no organizational backing.
Her only belongings were a navy blue shirt and slacks, and a short tunic with pockets all around the bottom, in which she carried her only worldly possessions. These possessions included a comb, a folding toothbrush, a ball point pen, copies of her message and her current correspondence. Her only true possession was an abiding faith in God and love for God and people.
By 1964, eleven years later, she had walked 25,000 miles. It was only at this time that she stopped counting the miles. She continued her pilgrimage for peace for 17 more years after this, until her death in 1981. It is my great, great pleasure to bring to you a little bit of her life and teachings.
Here is a woman who truly walked her talk in every sense of the word. By the time she died she had walked across the United States seven times, and had visited all fifty states, ten provinces in Canada, and parts of Mexico.
In her last newspaper interview before her death (car accident) she spoke of being in radiant health. In this last interview, the interviewer remarked to her that she seemed to be a most happy woman. She replied, "I certainly am a happy person. How could one know God and not be joyous?"
In the years of preparation before she set out on her journey, Peace pilgrim outlined a number of preparations she had to go through to become ready. These were;
- The development of a right attitude towards life.
- A simplification of her life on all levels. A purification of the physical body, in terms of her diet.
- A purification of her thinking.
- A purification of her desires.
- A purification of her motives.
- An attitude each day of totally dedicating her consciousness and activities to how she could be of service to others, and not forgetting the importance of a pleasant word and cheery smile.
- The relinquishment of self-will. For she became aware of the lower and Higher Self, or self-centered nature and the God centered nature. She dedicated her life to dying to the self centered nature and fully living and demonstrating her God centered nature.
- The relinquishment of the feeling of separateness.
- The relinquishment of all attachment.
- The relinquishment of all negative feelings.
It was at the age of twelve that she surrendered and devoted her life to God. She spent the next fifteen years establishing these preparations in her consciousness and being before setting out on her walking pilgrimage for world peace. Her pilgrimage was to walk for peace among nations, peace among groups, peace within the environment, peace among individuals, and most importantly inner peace, within self. Peace Pilgrim believed that this last one was the most important and the building block for all other forms of peace. She would walk until given shelter, and fast until given food. She once fasted for forty seven days so she knew she could skip meals and be okay. The longest she ever went without food, she said, was three days. She had no money, and would never ask for food! She would only accept food if it was given to her. She had total trust in the inherent goodness and Godliness in all human beings. On her teach shirt it read, "Peace Pilgrim, 25,000 miles on foot for Peace". This shirt served to help her make contact with people very often. One of her main messages was to "overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love." She also believed very much in the golden rule. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Her life was dedicated to demonstrating these ideals, not just talking about them. One of her goals for the government was for the establishment of a "Peace Department", and a Secretary of Peace who accepts these principles. As her pilgrimage began to develop, on the spur of the moment, people and groups would invite her to speak to their groups and share her philosophy and mission. She never accepted a penny for doing this. Peace Pilgrim tells how she was severely tested at times, especially in the beginning. However, by looking at everything that happened as tests of her faith, and opportunities to practice her spiritual beliefs, she was able to pass them and grew stronger because of it. One such test was in the middle of the night in the California desert. A driver stopped his car and called her to get in and get warm. They talked for a while and then he suggested that she get some sleep. She said yes, and proceeded to curl up and go right to sleep. When she awoke later, the man looked very puzzled. They began to talk and the man admitted he was up to no good. However, when she went to sleep so trustingly, somehow he just couldn’t touch her. Her innocent faith and trust in God had protected her. Once she went hiking with a disturbed teenage boy who had a history of becoming physically violent at times. No one would walk with him alone because of this. Peace Pilgrim offered to. Everything was fine until a thunderstorm all of a sudden hit. He went crazy and started physically attacking her. She didn’t fight back, but just felt the deepest and most profound compassion for the poor disturbed soul that would attack a defenseless old woman. All of a sudden he stopped and said, "You didn’t hit back! Mother always hits back." Peace Pilgrim later found out that he never became violent again and became a useful person in society. Another time a very large man, for some unknown reason, chased an eight year old girl into a barn and was going to beat her. Peace Pilgrim ran into the barn and stepped between the man and the girl. She looked at this poor sick man with loving compassion. He came close. He stopped! He looked at her for quite a while and then walked away. Not a word was spoken! Another time in Arizona she was booked by a plainclothes policeman as a vagrant. She was booked and taken to jail. She said to herself, "Peace Pilgrim, you have dedicated your life to service, behold your wonderful new field of service!" As she was imprisoned with some other women, one of them said, "Gee, you’re a funny one. You’re the only one that came in smiling. Most of them come in cursing." She got all the women singing after a while and transformed, in essence, the whole jail, even the people that worked there. Her case was dismissed. When she got her personal effects back there was a letter with them. The letter said, "The bearer of this note has identified herself as a peace pilgrim walking coast to coast to direct the attention of our citizens to her desire for peace in the world. We do not know her personally, as she is just passing through our state, but since undoubtedly, it will be a long, hard trip for her, we wish her safe passage." It was signed by the governor of the state, Howard Pyle. Another time she was picked up by the FBI. They intensely cross examined her, probably trying to find out if she was a communist. At one point she was asked; if she had a choice between killing or being killed, which would she choose. Peace Pilgrim said that as long as her life was in harmony with God she knew that she would never have to be confronted with such a decision. The FBI agents kept badgering her and Peace Pilgrim finally said that she would prefer to be killed. The FBI agents went into a fit and couldn’t understand how she would say such a thing. Peace Pilgrim went on to explain to them that she was not the physical body. That she was just wearing this physical body. That she was the being and consciousness that activated the body. She said, "If I am killed, it destroys merely the clay garment, the body. But if I kill, it injures the reality, the soul." Another time she was asked to speak at a church service a couple days in the future. The local newspaper advertised it and showed her picture. A man who belonged to the church was horrified, and complained bitterly to the preacher and all his friends. Peace Pilgrim had obviously done nothing to cause such a reaction. Somehow she heard about the situation and she decided to call this man and this is what she said. "This is Peace Pilgrim calling,." She could hear him gasp. He thought that she had called to bawl him out. "I have called to apologize to you because, evidently I must have done something to offend you, since, without even knowing me, you have apprehension about my speaking at your church. Therefore I feel I must somehow owe you an apology and I have called to apologize!" The man was in tears before the conversation was over. They became good friends after this, and corresponded by mail. Another time she was invited to stay at a woman’s house for a couple days, who had been seriously ill. The only problem was that the woman had a sister who was very domineering and judgmental. When they arrived at the house late in the evening, the domineering sister took one look at Peace Pilgrim and her tunic, and said, "You can stay tonight since it is so late, however, first think in the morning I want you out of here." She then proceeded to stomp upstairs. Any communication with her from that point on was impossible. When everyone went to bed Peace Pilgrim wondered how she would be of service in this situation without being able to talk and communicate. She noticed a mountain of dirty dishes, with no dishwasher, so she proceeded to wash them all, and then cleaned the kitchen. In the morning the older sister was in tears and asked her to stay. Another time she was invited into a tavern or bar for some food. Many people were in the bar drinking heavily. As she was leaving, a man with a drink in his hand smiled slightly. Peace Pilgrim smiled back greeting him warmly. The man said, "You smiled at me. I would think you wouldn’t even speak to me, but you smiled at me." Peace Pilgrim smiled again and said, "I’m not here to judge my fellow human beings, I am here to love and serve." Suddenly the man was kneeling at her feet and said, "Everyone else judges me, so I defended myself. You didn’t judge me, so now I judge myself. I’m a no-good worthless sinner! I’ve been squandering my money on liquor, I’ve been mistreating my family. I’ve been going from bad to worse!" Peace Pilgrim put her hand on his shoulder and said, "You are God’s child, and you could act that way." The man looked in disgust at the drink in his hand, and then hurled it against the bar, shattering the glass. He looked Peace Pilgrim in the eye and said, "I swear to you, I’ll never touch that stuff again, never." And there was a new light in his eyes. About a year and a half late she got a letter from someone in the town who told her that the man had kept his promise. Another time a man stopped his car and said, "In this day and age with all the wonderful opportunities the world has to offer, what under the sun, made you get out and walk a pilgrimage for peace?" Peace Pilgrim said, "In this day and age when humanity totters on the brink of nuclear war and annihilation, it is not surprising that one life is dedicated to the cause of peace -- but rather it is surprising that many lives are not similarly dedicated." Peace Pilgrim’s philosophy was to see everyone as a spark of God. She was not concerned with racial or ethnic background or the color of one’s skin. All people, she said, are like shining lights. She also saw all problems as nothing more than pushing people to become obedient to God’s laws. Peace Pilgrim’s prayer was not to get rid of her problems, but was rather to have the inner strength to solve them in the way God would have them solved. This is the way we grow spiritually. Problems, hence, became opportunities, not really problems at all. In this regard she was thankful for everything that happened. Peace Pilgrim’s philosophy about anger was not to express it and not to suppress it, but rather to transform it and utilize the tremendous power inherent in it to complete all one’s various talks. Edgar Cayce called this positive anger rather than negative anger. Anger is transformed into personal power. Her simple message was that "The way of peace is the way of love. Love is the greatest power on earth. It conquers all things." Her philosophy was to remain in inner peace despite anything that might be going on outside of herself. she never concerned herself with the results of her pilgrimage, for she left this in God’s hands. Her belief in pacifism and non-violence applied on the psycho-logical level as well as physical level. She would never allow herself to say angry words, or think angry thoughts. If someone did an unkind thing, she would feel only compassion and unconditional love and compassion, knowing the harvest of sorrow they were bringing upon themselves because of the law of karma. Her pacifism and non-violence also applied to the animal kingdom. Perfect love to her was the willingness to give without a thought of receiving anything in return. When asked one time if she was a Christian she said, "I am not, and have never been a part of any particular faith. I am a deeply religions woman who has taken the inner way to a religions life, not the scholarly way or the way of early training. I will never say this is the only way. It is, of course, an excellent way. And people are free to choose and develop in their own way.." When asked if she ever got frustrated she said, "The self centered nature feels frustration when it can’t have its way. The higher nature is patient, knowing that with a proper attitude all problems can be solved."
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