THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604060052
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
SHE WAS 3 years old when she fell into the well. Mickey Lin remembers plummeting down the abandoned shaft on her family's Taiwanese estate, landing unharmed on a ledge, waiting for rescue.
Most clearly, she recalls a wondrous circle of light that floated toward her in the well's dark bottom. It infused her with energy and confidence. It stole away her fear.
``It's something that I could never forget, that blue-hued orb,'' Lin said. ``I've seen it many times since.''
Lin, now living in Virginia Beach, has no doubt about what it was she met that day: Mary, the Virgin, Christianity's Blessed Mother.
On Friday, she and 80 others at the Association for Research and Enlightenment's Oceanfront headquarters heard what some said they already knew firsthand - that such experiences are not uncommon.
Mary has reportedly visited the faithful in visions and dreams through the centuries, therapist and author Gregory Scott Sparrow told the group. And while a handful of apparitions have gained renown, far more have been intensely private episodes.
``Mary has elected to depend on ordinary people, much as we might depend on a friend,'' Sparrow said. ``She's depended on children.
``She has been in our lives.''
Sparrow spoke at the A.R.E.'s Easter Conference, a four-day battery of seminars and meditation sessions revolving around the theme ``Visions of Mary: Mother For Our Time.''
The meetings, which have drawn about 160 people from as far away as Great Britain, conclude this morning.
Sparrow, 44, is the author of ``I Am With You Always,'' a book chronicling personal encounters with Jesus, and the upcoming ``Blessed Among Women,'' which details the experiences of 50 people who claim to have met Mary.
The Virginia Beach counselor said he has had such experiences himself, complete with a phenomenon that seems to accompany Mary visits: a strong rose fragrance.
Asked whether they had smelled roses where there were none, half a dozen members of his audience raised their hands.
``There are several people in the area who see her quite regularly,'' he said before Friday's 2 1/2-hour session. ``It's not some sort of figment. It's more real than anything these people have ever had happen to them.
``There's an incredible stability to their description of her appearance. They all say she's incredibly beautiful, just unbelievably beautiful. The color of the light that accompanies her - there's usually a blue, or blue-violet, an indigo light.
``The quality of the encounter is the same whether it's a dream or a vision,'' he said, ``and that is: `I love you. I love you, and I'm here for you.'
``In other words, `I'm not here to solve your problems.' She came not so much to change them but to embolden them, empower them. Mary comes to establish a relationship and to instill a new birth in the individual.''
Lin, who is Sparrow's fiancee, has reported both waking and sleeping visions of Mary.
Sometimes Mary appears as a light, sometimes as an actual figure. Once she appeared to Lin as a piece of blue cloth. Sparrow reported that he had a corresponding vision the same night.
To other avowed witnesses, Mary has appeared to be solid, full-sized, lifelike. Still others have described her as floating, or miniature, or said that they could see only her face.
Sparrow's subjects have agreed, however, that their encounters differed from such famous apparitions as those reportedly witnessed by St. Bernadette in Lourdes, France, in 1858, and those described by three children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917.
In those much-publicized visits, Mary is said to have urged mankind to pray and to abide by the commandments. She also is said to have hinted at dire consequences if her entreaties were ignored.
``Apparitions tend to be messages to the masses,'' said Sparrow, whose home is busy with Mary statuettes and images, including several on his refrigerator door. ``The personal encounters are much more up-close and individual.
``In some ways they tend to be more valuable than the apparitions, because they really show that people can have a personal relationship with Mary. It makes religion a direct, personal relationship to which anyone can have access.''
There is one downside to Mary visions, Sparrow said: The Virgin seems to visit those who are about to experience an ordeal, or are embroiled in crisis.
``That's the bad news,'' he told Friday's meeting. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Author Gregory Scott Sparrow addressed the ARE conference.
by CNB