My 50th Baha’i Anniversary, and a Powerful Dream

I recently came across this old 1974 photo of me, aged 22, holding my new baby son Will. Sometime late that month, 50 years ago, I made the most momentous decision of my life – to become a Baha’i.

In a sense, I had no choice.

I first heard the word Baha’i from a friend in high school. I went to the school library and looked it up in the World Book Encyclopedia. I liked what I saw, but somehow got the impression that this was an Iranian religion. Little did I know that there was a thriving Baha’i community in Regina, Saskatchewan, where I lived.

Maybe five years later an acquaintance knocked on my door, and without saying much handed me the book Baha’i World Faith, and left.

I started reading, but found the book hard to penetrate. Still, something compelled me to keep at it and the words started to resonate within me, even though I didn’t fully understand them.

After studying the Baha’i teachings for a few years, I realized that they now made complete sense to me. I particularly appreciated the idea that all religions, from the Christian faith I grew up in, to the Eastern religions I was attracted to as a youth coming of age in the sixties, as well as Indigenous spiritual wisdom from around the world, were all part of a gradual unfoldment of the divine teachings delivered by a series of messengers, such as Christ, Buddha, Deganawida, and many others. I realized, too, that Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, was the most recent of these spiritual messengers.

Baha’u’llah wrote that his sole desire was “the regeneration of the whole world and the establishment of the unity of its peoples.” As someone involved in the environmental movement, I related strongly to that message. I understood that the Baha’is had a comprehensive plan to make Baha’u’llah’s revelation a reality – a plan now gradually unfolding around the globe. I hoped that I could contribute to it in some way, and that my little son would grow up to live in a peaceful world.

This passage from a particular text by Baha’u’llah had a profound effect on my decision: “… he who turneth away from this Beauty hath also turned away from the Messengers of the past and showeth pride towards God from all eternity to all eternity.”

I had a strong feeling that this was true, and I could not turn away, which is why I say I had no choice.

Shortly after becoming a Baha’i, I had a powerful dream. In the dream I was at the Baha’i Institute, a facility just outside Fort Qu’appelle, the town I lived in at the time. In the dream it was November, the time of year in Saskatchewan before the first snow when everything seems hard, frozen, dead. I was asked to go out and get a pail of water from the well. I walked out, feeling the cold, but as I came closer to the well it became warm. The trees had leafed out, but these trees and the other plants were of a different kind; there are no words to describe them, but I’ll just say they were multi-dimensional. The colors and fragrances were tactile, I could feel them. In that dream world I could smell colors and see fragrances.

I found myself in the most beautiful garden; everything was hyper-real, like the normal world but transcendent. I lowered the pail into the well and drew out what I can only describe as living water, water with multiple dimensions, water that could satisfy all thirsts. As I carried the water back to the building everything turned back into a normal cold November day in Saskatchewan.

For me, that dream was a powerful confirmation of my decision, which has stayed with me for more than 50 years. Now I am 72. If there is anything I have learned from life that is worth passing on, it is simply to invite everyone to seriously investigate Baha’u’llah’s stupendous revelation.