South Africa Arizona
Cole Son
It all started with Elvis Presley. I was a paratrooper in the South African Army, and on August 16, 1977, we were sleeping in trenches on a night operation when the news came over the radio that Elvis Presley was dead. My platoonmates were shocked. I was like, "Who is Elvis Presley?" So I went and bought a record, and when I listened to Elvis — well, it's something I can't explain, but it felt like lightning. All this energy came into me. I started writing songs, writing stories, writing scripts — it was like a floodgate. I even started singing to my platoonmates and they said I sounded like Elvis. I drove my buddies crazy with my singing. I played air guitar with my rifle, you know?
I've been driving an Uber in LA for five months, and I've been attracting people who need healing. That's why people get in. I've driven so many girls to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. I look at them, I see their problems, and I give them some guidance. Yesterday I was with an 80-year-old Persian man, and he said, "Thank you, you taught me some things today." I said, "No, we learned from each other." I've healed people. I had a woman in my car kiss my hand. She was in tears. She said, "Who are you?" And I said, "I'm nobody, I'm you." I've sold about 100 copies of my book in my car — my book is called The Power of the Thinking Mind and it is about my philosophy. I've given many copies away too.
I try to avoid the drunk people. I don't drive at night. I've never had anyone puke in my car. If somebody screams at me or honks at me, I know it has nothing to do with me. I just focus on being calm. I'm at peace when I drive. Everyone says "Wow, it's so peaceful in here." Well, it's the healing energy in my car. There are no crazies and no worries.
This Mexican man, he was on his phone before he even got in, and he was talking, talking about how his mother hates him and his wife hates him. He was just full of hatred. We were at a pumpkin patch outside New York City. When he hung up the phone, I just slowly started talking with him. He said he just got out of jail. "You cannot change them," I said. "But when you change your inner world, the outer world will automatically change. Then your mother will change and your wife will change. You are a being of love. Hatred is not real; hatred is energy on the planet, and hatred cannot exist where love stays. The light is always brighter than the dark." He was in tears. He was crying. He said, "Can I call you?" I gave him my card.
I started working in the movies, as an extra, as a stand-in in Los Angeles. I did a commercial for Taco Bell. I was writing screenplays, but I couldn't break through. I got married to a girl from Texas, got divorced. Then I put my whole life in my car and drove to Nashville. I had a nervous breakdown. So here I was in America, trying to survive. I read The Secret. I listened to audio recordings of [the story of] Abraham from the Bible, then I read the story of Seth. I kept on searching. I kept on wanting. I couldn't figure it out. I realized I couldn't fit into the world. I was always walking in a different world.
I started meditating more. I said, I believe in me and I can make things happen and I don't need Hollywood to come to me. I had no money, but I put a crew together and I made a feature film for less than $5,000. I starred in it, I directed it, I wrote it. It was kind of like Fifty Shades of Gray, a dark psychological thriller. A really bizarre and weird movie. I wrote all these books and songs by candlelight on a farm in Africa, and now they are on Amazon — can you believe it? But, you know, everyone has this talent. We just don't tap into that power because it's hidden and locked away.
I went down to my farm in South Africa for a visit and wrote hundreds of songs. I walked deep into nature. I learned that to understand humanity you need to go away for at least one year to connect with Mother Earth and the cosmos. I almost drowned. I was one breath away from death in a deep lake where I swam every day. My dog was drowning and I swam to save him. The dog was on top of me. He scratched me and pulled my legs down. I had to let the dog go to save myself. I was floating back to shore, and the dog was following me. It was almost like I was having an out-of-body experience. Then I collapsed and blacked out. I realized I was every blade of grass, every leaf on the tree. It was me, everything was me. This is the message I want to bring to humanity.
People say to me, are you Buddhist? No, I'm walking my path. Imagine sitting in Africa, on a farm in a developing country, with no money. You're not going to make it. But if you forgive yourself of all your mistakes of your past, you can also forgive everyone else. So I forgave myself. I just focused on the moment, grateful that I could swim in the lake during rainstorms with the crocodiles.