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| comment | | "parent_author":"",<br>"parent_permlink":"life",<br>"author":"rok-sivante",<br>"permlink":"how-an-angelic-schizophrenic-tattooed-up-ex-mma-fighter-calling-himself-jesus-christ-touched-my-life",<br>"title":"How An Angelic Schizophrenic,<br> Tattooed-Up ex-MMA Fighter Calling Himself Jesus Christ Touched My Life",<br>"body":"Sometimes life puts characters on the stage of our life whose words,<br> deeds,<br> and mere presence *change* us - even if there appearance may be for only a brief moment...\n\n<p><center>\n![ (https:\/\/s31.postimg.org\/4744v7ht7\/image.jpg)\n<p><\/center>\n<p>\n\n<h4>\"Peace be in your soul.<\/h4>\n\nThe words took me by surprise. Coming in a deep,<br> almost super-human,<br> rasta-ish accent from a larger-than-life Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. \"The Rock\") lookalike,<br> the statement caught me off guard.\n\nI was standing at the grocery store counter paying the clerk when the man looked over at me at said this. A bit stunned - not at all feeling as though there *was* peace in my soul at the moment,<br> I stuttered out the first response that came to mind. \"Really??\"\n\n<h4>\"Peace be in your soul,<br> or it's a massacre out there,<br>\"<\/h4>\nhe expanded,<br> the timbre \"massacre\" taking on a dramatic effect with the accent in which he spoke.\n\nThe message has snapped me so far out of the state of mind I was in,<br> I didn't know what to say. Thinking about it for a moment,<br> I reached for the only words I knew to express my honour and gratitude for this man I didn't know saying such a thing to me so randomly,<br> \"Uh,<br> thank you.\"\n\nImmediately,<br> as I grabbed my things and was ready to walk out of the store,<br> he turned his head to face the cashier and said to her in a *completely* different tone of voice without *any* accent at all,<br> \"hello,<br>\" with a Pollyanna-ish smile and prim,<br> proper politeness.\n\n<p>\nI'd walked out and began putting my groceries on my motorbike,<br> not quite able to grasp the unusualness of the encounter,<br> when he followed and walked past,<br> again speaking to me in the oddest of dialogue - this time,<br> in a high-pitched,<br> almost robotic-like tone: \"We've been watching you,<br> but we don't say anything because we love you.\" And then proceeded to get into his red SUV and drove off.\n\n<p>\nNow Bali attracts some interesting characters,<br> but this was on another level.\n\nBali - the Island Of The Gods - is also known as a very spiritual place. Though I hadn't really believed in angels,<br> or had much direct experience with anyone doing what's called \"channeling,<br>\" this was way too out of the norm to doubt that this guy had indeed been delivering some sort of angelic message. I'm not sure what state I was in that day,<br> but his message,<br> \"peace be in your soul,<br>\" had come at a time and had some impact that perhaps I did need at that point in my life.\n\n<p><center>\n![ (https:\/\/s31.postimg.org\/5qy483rej\/image.jpg)\n<\/center>\n<p>\nThat hadn't been the first time I'd seen Amokrane Sabet. (Though I didn't discover what his name was until after his death).\n\nMy first encounter with him,<br> I'd been DJing at Metis,<br> a high-end French restaurant\/lounge,<br> a year or two earlier. He had come in alone,<br> sat in front of me,<br> and radiated a genuine friendliness. Though his size was somewhat intimidating,<br> he seemed like a nice guy - almost like a big teddy-bear. We had struck up some small conversation,<br> as he expressed appreciation for the music was playing - and I'd give him a mix CD I had on hand,<br> as a gesture of appreciation for his appreciation.\n\nWhile I don't think I saw him between then and the incident at the Canggu Deli,<br> I did see him from then on occasionally on the roads,<br> either in his jeep or on bike.\n\nOne day,<br> I was in a phase of spotting \"angel numbers\" on license plates - sequences of repeating numbers that according to some,<br> carry meaning of significance in the moments they're recognized. (Sounds very \"woo,<br>\" I know - but there's a lot of people who do buy into the concept. And there happen to be ALOT of \"angel number\" license plates here on the Island Of The Gods\"). Crossing through a major intersection,<br> I spotted a [555 (http:\/\/sacredscribesangelnumbers.blogspot.co.id\/2011\/09\/angel-number-555.html) on a red jeep - and out of the corner of my eye,<br> caught that it was the same guy driving the same jeep I'd saw him get into at Canggu Deli.\n\nNow,<br> I could be crazy... But the whole angel numbers thing... And then the guy that is channeling what seem to be angelic messages is driving in a jeep marked by a [555 (http:\/\/sacredscribesangelnumbers.blogspot.co.id\/2011\/09\/angel-number-555.html)...???\n<p>\n*Anyways...*\n\nThe more I saw him on the roads,<br> there seemed to be an odd transformation under way.\n\nMost of the time,<br> you could hear the guy coming a block away,<br> *blaring* Tupac from his jeep. Very odd,<br> this guy \"channeling\" angelic messages,<br> blasting hardcore gangsta rap.\n\nAnd then came the tattoos.\n\nThe first couple times I saw him,<br> no visible tattoos. Then,<br> more & more. The guy started to look *really* fucking scary when he got the lightning bolt over the eye. But hey... To each their own.\n\n<center>\n![ (https:\/\/s31.postimg.org\/y0c26pwnv\/image.jpg)\n<\/center>\n<p>\n\nA while later,<br> my fianc\u00e9 had mentioned that her friend was talking about [a news story and some gossip circulating on Facebook (http:\/\/bali.coconuts.co\/2016\/04\/26\/local-bali-newspaper-goes-depth-about-controversial-canggu-expat) about a big,<br> scary tattooed guy causing a ruckus on the island. I was certain it was about him and very curious to see it,<br> but couldn't find the story.\n\nThen a few days later,<br> I came across the news.\n\nI saw something in the Facebook feed from the owner of one of the hottest bars in Seminyak,<br> him saying locals were looking at him with fear because of his tattoos and what had happened the previous day to \"A.S.\" The bells went off,<br> and I dug to find out what had happened:\n\n[The man had been shot and killed by police. (http:\/\/bali.coconuts.co\/2016\/05\/02\/controversial-canggu-expat-ex-mma-fighter-killed)\n\n<p>\nApparently,<br> he had been making waves - intimidating locals,<br> refusing to pay bills,<br> getting banned from numerous establishments in the area. The police had summoned him in for questioning multiple times,<br> and he never showed. And when 40 cops showed up to take him in for questioning,<br> he resisted,<br> brandishing a knife - ended up stabbing a cop to death,<br> before his own.\n\n<p>\nThere were a lot of mixed feelings and opinions. \n\nSome felt his murder was unjustified,<br> some felt it was all fair game,<br> given he stabbed the cop 8 times. Some seemed happy he was done with,<br> while others shared stories of him being a nice guy that helped old ladies across the road and had a fondness for animals.\n\nWhat this guy's deal was,<br> perhaps nobody really knows.\n\nSome say he had slipped deeper and deeper into schizophrenia. Perhaps he had taken a few too many blows to the head in his earlier days as an MMA fighter. Maybe he had gone through a phase of steroid use that loosened some screws. No one knows.\n\nApparently,<br> he had been calling himself \"Jesus Christ.\" And scanning through his Facebook account,<br> one would only be left in confusion at a mix of biblical quotes and religious statements,<br> Illuminati conspiracy theorist rhetoric,<br> gangsta rap quotes,<br> and more contrasting perspectives that leave many questions as to who & what this being was and what all roles he played in the lives of those he made an appearance in.\n<p>\n\n\n<center>\n![ (https:\/\/s31.postimg.org\/sh8ltm6cr\/image.jpg)\n<\/center>\n\n\n<p>\nWhen I saw the news,<br> I was nearly moved to tears.\n\nFor years,<br> that message of his,<br> *\"peace be in your soul,<br> or it's a massacre out there,<br>\"* rang through my consciousness at random. For a week I was going through a dengue fever x mild concussion x jetlag\/insomnia-induced psychosis - just after I'd seen him last,<br> a couple months before his death - I contemplated that message on so many different levels,<br> that it shook me to my core and made me question not only what he meant by it,<br> but the depth of the Truth there was in it.\n\nI guess,<br> being so intensely into the gangsta rap life,<br> he went out in his own blaze of glory,<br> not going down easily. Yet,<br> there's an ironic tragedy in his ending that the absence of peace in his own soul resulted in a massacre - that he had passed me on a message he was unable to live out in his own life.\n\n<p>\n\nI'll never forget my encounters with Amokrane Sabet. I may not have known him - nor had countless others whom were impacted by his life and death. \n\nIn a way,<br> I wish I did become friends with him and come to understand more about this man whose message to me had such a stirring effect on my soul. But in honesty,<br> I was scared of him.\n\nHad I gotten over my fear and befriended him,<br> there's no way to know whether that would have altered the course of events. But I do wonder what the outcome of this story would have been,<br> had I not submitted to my fears and let my curiosity grow into a relationship with such an interesting person.\n\nAnd ironically,<br> that did seem to be a common theme in his Facebook posts the months before his death - choosing the power of love over that of fear...\n\n<p>\n<center>\n![ (https:\/\/s31.postimg.org\/76dr33t0r\/image.jpg)",<br>"json_metadata":" \"tags\":[\"life\" ,<br>\"image\":[\"https:\/\/s31.postimg.org\/4744v7ht7\/image.jpg\" ,<br>\"links\":[\"http:\/\/sacredscribesangelnumbers.blogspot.co.id\/2011\/09\/angel-number-555.html\",<br>\"http:\/\/bali.coconuts.co\/2016\/04\/26\/local-bali-newspaper-goes-depth-about-controversial-canggu-expat\",<br>\"http:\/\/bali.coconuts.co\/2016\/05\/02\/controversial-canggu-expat-ex-mma-fighter-killed\" " |
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