Terry at home at Mt. Shasta.
One day in San Diego, California, I stood in our front yard and called out to the Great Spirit: "I want this to stop and I want it now."
I had privacy as our yard faced a canyon, and from my cry, you might surmise that my life was in turmoil.
The following Sunday, I went to Terry Cole-Whittiker's church, and I've been on a spiritual roll ever since.
Yesterday, July 27, I mentioned Terry on my blog, and after that, I checked to see if she had posted anything recently. She hadn't. And then, I found that she had passed away peacefully in her sleep on October 22, 2024.
At first, I didn't believe it, for when you look up people on the internet, many times they will say they have died. But I kept searching, and I guess it's true.
I had spoken with her, I thought, within the year. I had emailed her and thanked her once again for the workshop I took with her at Mt Shasta in 2023. She said she would call, and we could catch up. We spoke on the phone, and I found that she was living in a Tiny House in Washington State, I think in Olympia.
This powerhouse of a woman once began a ministry for Science of the Mind in La Jolla, CA. She moved to San Diego and started Terry Cole-Whittiker's ministry, where she grew her congregation from 50 in La Jolla to over 5,000 in a Sunday service in San Diego. She also spread her message further through a television program.
I was a Sunday regular. That was home, and from that I branched out into other teachings.
During one of Terry's classes, she asked all of us to stand up, grasp the back of the chair in front of us, and grip it. Hold on. Hold on," she kept telling us.
Finally, some of us let go.
"Why did you let go?' she asked.
A voice piped up, "Because we were tired of holding on."
"That's the reason we let go of things," she said.
One day, I volunteered at their offices to take telephone calls, listen to questions, and say a prayer for the person.
When I walked into the room, I told the person in charge that I didn't know what I was doing."
"You'll learn it by doing," she said, pointed to the phone, and turned me loose with no monitoring.
I was impressed with her attitude and happy that I didn't have someone looking over my shoulder. I took the calls and had a blast.
Finally, Terry said that the ministry was running her, not the other way around, so she stopped. She moved on, being her own person, writing books, setting up workshops in Hawaii, traveling to India, and ultimately moving into nature.
She settled in Mt. Shasta, Oregon.
A few years ago, I decided to drive from our town outside Eugene, Oregon, to Mt. Shasta for a weekend retreat with Terry. It was over a July 4 weekend, and the workshop consisted of one other person besides me.
Terry cooked Vegetarian for us, and on the second day, drove us to an alpine Meadow on Mt Shasta. I had never visited an Alpine meadow, and I was awe stricken. Water prickled through the meadow, flowers were in blossom, it was open and green, and astoundingly beautiful. We walked into the forest and followed a trail to a lake where we could dip our feet in mountain water, and throughout the walk and the day, Terry taught the principles for which she has become known.
And I have never felt more loved.
After we closed for the weekend, Hanna, my fellow participant, had taken this retreat before and was thus relatively quiet during the discussions, wanting me to have the experience, escorted me to the town of Mt. Shasta to see the "Headwaters" of Mt. Shasta.
At the City Park, there is a pond where 50-year-old, hand-numbingly cold-water rushes from the ground through moss-covered rocks into a clear pool called "Big Springs."
Every day, people come with jugs to collect the water. According to a 2009 study commissioned by California Trout, water bubbling from Big Springs – from an aquifer of the same name – fell high on the slopes of Mt. Shasta more than 50 years ago.
This is the same aquifer that Crystal Geyser taps for its water from a manufacturing facility on Ski Village Drive. The company has private wells and water rights to water from Mt. Shasta.
Terry’s home was a farm house in an open countryside in a beautiful setting, surrounded by lush green pastures, and no houses close by. She ran around ran around barefoot, connected to the ground she adores, and took people on spiritual excursions.
From high stakes in San Diego, a darling of Hollywood, and once wearing designer suits and high heels, she bought clothing from the local Thrift store, walked barefoot through a mountain meadow, preaching as she had always done.
Terry was home.
"Thank you for Loving Me," a video of Terry Cole-Whittiker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20VJdlMKG6g/
Love you girl.
Blessings on your journey.
Terry in her meadow.