211: Plot Twist: The Gunshot that NEARLY Killed Arjuna O'Neal and Led To His Spiritual Awakening

In this first-ever Plot Twist episode of The Light Watkins Show, host Light Watkins revisits the conversation with Arjuna O’Neal, whose life story is as dramatic as it is transformative. Arjuna takes us on a journey from his troubled youth in Detroit to a near-death experience that redefined his existence.

Arjuna recounts his childhood in the Hare Krishna community of Detroit, under the shadow of his father, one of the city's biggest drug dealers. Despite his academic success, Arjuna was drawn into the dangerous world of drugs and crime to earn his father’s approval. He describes how his father manipulated him into the drug trade, using their relationship as leverage. This toxic dynamic led Arjuna to perform increasingly dangerous tasks, including a near-fatal drive-by shooting.

Ambitious to surpass his father, Arjuna took bold steps that ultimately resulted in his father placing a hit on him. This betrayal ignited a deadly cat-and-mouse game that lasted years, deeply affecting Arjuna's psyche. 

The turning point came when Arjuna’s girlfriend, in a moment of rage and fear, accidentally shot him. As he lay bleeding, Arjuna experienced a profound spiritual encounter that shifted his entire outlook on life.

This near-death experience became the catalyst for Arjuna’s spiritual transformation. He shares how this moment of intense vulnerability and pain led to a deep inner awakening and a renewed connection with God. 

Join us for an intense and moving episode as Arjuna O’Neal shares his journey from the brink of death to spiritual rebirth. His story is a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit and the possibility of profound change.

This episode marks the debut of the new "Plot Twist" series, where Light Watkins highlights pivotal moments that radically alter life's trajectory.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

So she went in the other room, grabbed a gun that I had in the drawer, pointed it at me. She looked me in my eyes, and when she realized that I was what we would say heartless or cold-hearted, it scared her, because she's got a gun pointed at me and I showed no reaction. And so, once she realized that that's what happened, she tried to uncock the gun, but didn't know how, and so, when she was lowering the gun, it went off, hit me in the lower abdomen and the bullet exploded inside of me and ripped through my femoral artery, and that's when life shifted for me completely. I had an experience that changed my life forever.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Hey friend, welcome back to the Light Watkins show. I'm Light Watkins and I have conversations with ordinary folks just like you and me, who've taken extraordinary leaps of faith in the direction of their path, their purpose or what they've identified as their mission in life. And, starting with this episode, the Light Watkins Show is now going to be published twice a week. I'm putting out the longer episode on Wednesdays, as usual, and then I'm putting out a bite-sized plot twist episode every Friday where the guest shares the story of the pivotal moment in their life trajectory, which is usually that moment when the plot of their life shifted away from the conventional thing that they were doing and it either helped them learn something profound about life or it helped them live with a greater sense of purpose. And the idea behind sharing the stories of these plot twists is, number one, to share some of the incredible stories that have been told on this show in the past, but number two, to inspire you to lean into those plot twist moments when they happen in your life, because usually, when you get blocked in what you thought was your life path, what actually is happening is you're being detoured towards the actual path for this season of your life and sometimes that looks like getting fired or could be losing a large sum of money.

Speaker 2: 2:16

It could look like getting divorced or having someone sabotage you and in the case of this week's plot twist with Arjuna O'Neill, it's getting shot like literally shot, by the girl that he was dating at the time. And to set the scene, just before Arjuna got shot, he was a teenager growing up in the Hare Krishna community of Detroit and his dad happened to be one of the biggest drug dealers in the city who groomed Arjuna to enter into the family business, which was drug dealing. And the whole thing culminates in Arjuna getting a hit put out on him by his dad and then ultimately getting shot and having a near-death experience where he engaged in a life-changing conversation with God. Let's listen in.

Speaker 1: 3:16

I was always a smart kid. I was always advanced than most kids in my age group, and so what my dad wanted was me to be more like him, and how he did it was he made me feel like the only way that I could actually have time with him, spend time with him, was that I had to show him how to use my education or my smarts to advance in the streets. And so I remember graduating, getting ready to go into high school, and I had a 3.8 GPA and I'm like yo pops. You know, I just want a car. You know you help me get a car. And I'll never forget this day.

Speaker 1: 3:52

He looked at the report card. He's ripped it in half, ripped it a few times, laughed him through it. He's like man. No, he said this is how you get what you want. And I'll never forget he came in with a half a brick or half a kilo or whatever you guys want to call it cocaine and handed me my first pistol. And he said so, if you want the car, you go out and you earn it. I'll never forget I was like, wow, who does that? Who says that? To the six-year-old it didn't seem abnormal to the extent that that's what all my brothers, that's what everybody was doing. But again, that internal, that inner, was like man nah, this ain't it. Where did he?

Speaker 2: 4:29

go to get the brick of cocaine. Where was it exactly? Did he go to unlock a safe somewhere, or was it in a closet?

Speaker 1: 4:36

I was in my room so we had that conversation in the evening and then the next morning that's how he woke me up. He threw it at me, threw it in the bed. I remember because he threw it it hit me in the rib in the pain, like I thought he broke something, tossed it across the room, he's like, and he threw the half a kilo and he threw the gun. But then there was a part of me that was excited, because I'm like for the first time I was like shit, I get now to actually build this relationship with my dad.

Speaker 2: 5:03

So it wasn't even about selling drugs. It was about just getting closer to your dad. That was the way to get close to your role model.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Yeah, because in the midst of all that hanging out with him and him showing me the streets, ice cream trucks, all this stuff you know I'm a kid so you know he wads of money like whatever we want to do street fairs. So he pacified me with all of the little low hanging fruits, you know, anything that I could want and that felt good. So I didn't really make a big deal about going on the rides and the ride alongs and all the different things, even though I saw things that didn't feel good. They, you know I seen things that would scare the average person, but I also was like I get to be with my dad and then all the little things that come with it. I just tune that stuff out, did you feel?

Speaker 2: 5:46

competent in flipping that brick of cocaine, like how to do that and how to stay safe in doing so and all of those things.

Speaker 1: 5:56

It's like that relationship, like that girl or that guy you always wanted. And there's a part of you where you'll tell yourself I'll do whatever it takes to get that person, that relationship that I wanted with my dad. I knew that I had enough drive, enough charisma to figure it out. I knew that I had enough in me to impress him. Now I didn't know exactly what that entailed until I had those real experiences. Now you can have an idea about something, you can have an idea of how you want to approach something, but then when you hit that real experience, so you can have an idea about something, you can have an idea of how you want to approach something, but then when you hit that real experience, what it opens you up to, that's where the real shift happened. I had to become something that I actually wasn't. So what was your first step in? He took me on a ride along. He stopped by his spots, he picked up his money along the trail of who he sold to. We went to a guy's house and the guy owed him some money and I remember my dad being upset and in the back of my mind I'm like this is my moment. I'm going to collect for my dad. He doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to show him that I can do this. And so later on that night I remember putting on a wig and a house coat and I got on a bike. I had a 10 speed at the time.

Speaker 1: 7:10

Whose wig that you put on your mom's, my grandmother's? I was staying with my dad, so I'm now, I'm staying with my dad. You know my stories are fun. You can laugh, because I laugh through, even when I hear myself think about this stuff. You to uh, sorry, no, it's all good.

Speaker 1: 7:25

So I'm living with, I'm living with his mom, because nobody knew where he laid his head. I'm staying with his mom, which is my grandmother. I put on her wig because I just, you know, I, I knew I wanted to look different. I just knew that it from you know, watching movies and reading stories about how to just camouflage yourself or disguise yourself. So I I put on the disguise and I remember I rolled up to the house and I had a .357 and I could see the shadows in the house. I seen people and I remember I just pulled the trigger and let off a few shots In the air. No, in the house, into the house. I hit the house. I was trying to hit the

Speaker 1: 8:04

shadow. Why were you trying to shoot the guy? Because you had a conversation with him already? No, I had just heard my dad's conversation with the guy. I was there, I was standing there, he saw me and I was in the room while they were having the conversation. But again, I'm doing it the way I think the streets work right. I don't really know how this works. This is my first, remember. You asked me how to get there, so this is my. This is me seeing if this was me introducing myself to this life scene, if I really had what it took and you already knew how to shoot a gun, or was that your first time shooting a gun?

Speaker 1: 8:36

No, I knew how to shoot a gun. So you shoot into the house, shoot into the house, the shadow moves, it hits, it just drops Right. I see it standing up and then I see the shadow go and hit the ground. Well, the next day my dad gets a phone call from the guy and he says man, come get all your money. I got it. We go. You know, I'm excited because I know what happened. Right, I know why the guy's calling. I didn't kill him, thank God. But when I get there, what happens is, tells my dad, hey, man, I'm sorry, I got your money. And then he's like he didn't blame my dad, but he's like I don't know, somebody came and they shot him. To my house, he says and just so happened.

Speaker 1: 9:09

I happened to bend over to pick my daughter up and the bullet missed me. I remember trembling in my shoes like how could I kill this guy? Or I could have killed his daughter, and I was like, okay, rule number one, no drive-bys. One thing I won't do is just shoot randomly. I said if it's ever going to be the instance where I have to use a gun, it's got to be face-to-face. What I realized was there was two versions of this street life. There's that pretend Hollywood version where you see the things in the movies, and then there's that mobster life when you watch Narcos or stuff like that, where you hear how they really make moves happen. And so I had to ask myself, how serious do you want to be, arjuna, like how deep do you want to go down this rabbit hole in order to have this relationship with your father?

Speaker 2: 9:56

Did you ever tell him that you were the one that shot into the window?

Speaker 1: 9:59

He knew it, he knew it. It was like this proud father moment. He looked over at me and he had this smirk on his face. We never had a full conversation about it, but it was like this nod he gave me like okay, I see, you're ready. And then he sent me on my first real big assignment.

Speaker 2: 10:15

Okay, which was why you got everybody sitting on the edge of their seats no-transcript.

Speaker 1: 10:21

I had enough drugs to probably get three natural life sentences. So he started me out with just I was a driver, new license, no tickets, nothing. So I would drive and move massive amounts and I so remember. I have brothers. I have like seven or eight brothers that are older than me. I was the youngest and all I can remember was like how I want to advance, I want to get past it, I need to do things in a to get past it. I need to do things in a way that it's cutting edge, smart, and so now what's interesting is my spiritual practice started to. Somehow I integrated it in this lifestyle. So then I came up with my own rules.

Speaker 1: 11:00

I didn't hurt people, right, but at the same time I'm hurting people right, but I didn't consciously go out and hurt people for no reason. I had compassion. You know I took care, hurt people, right, but at the same time I'm hurting people Right, but I didn't consciously go out and hurt people for no reason. I had compassion. You know I took care of kids.

Speaker 1: 11:10

I took care of single moms that were on drugs, like I remember being told one day, because I didn't, on Sundays I would be at the temple and one day I was at one of my locations, speaking to some of the people where I would distribute my drugs, and they made a joke like you're the only drug dealer I know who goes to church on Sunday. You know, at the time when the woman first said it, I was like wait, damn, that's a hell of a contradiction, right? Like how am I a drug dealer? But I'm known for being in church and I'm known in the streets for being in church on Sunday, and a part of me was like whoa, I felt it. I was like at some point that's going to catch up with you, arjun. And so I thought, well, okay, well then, you need to advance, you need to get this moving, you need to get to the top as fast as you can.

Speaker 2: 11:54

What does the top look like from that scene in Detroit? Like what do you imagine the top?

Speaker 1: 12:00

What are you aspiring to At that time when you say the top? There were individuals that you would see, that the way they would move through the streets, it was as if they had a cape on Right. They could go anywhere and they got respect. And I used to marvel, like, how can one man control a whole neighborhood or a whole side of a town where this person is evil, corrupt, but somehow they have so much power on the streets that no one ever would challenge them? This person could be outnumbered and taken down, and I was like man, how do I reach that? How do I get to a point where, as a solo being, you would question yourself if you decided to do anything or approach me in any way? And so that's what I considered to be the top, and so the term that we use is I just kept putting in the work. And then I got to a place where what I learned was that my dad never really cared, in a sense, because when you step back and you look at it, you're like well, how could you say you love your kids, how could you say you loved your son, if this is what you're teaching them? This is where you're putting them? And so that reality became real.

Speaker 1: 13:07

One day, me and my dad decided to have a conversation about growing. I was like, hey, dad, I've reached this level, I'm ready to create my own entourage my own. And he was like no, it don't work like that. You only do what you do through me. And I'm like you know, I know the numbers. Now I see how this system works and I built this courage up in myself. I built this level of mindset. So I'm like pops don't work like that. You're making all the money. So I did the ultimate, which you don't do. You see it in all the movies. I went directly to the connect. How old were you? Somewhere between 18 and 20. Were you in?

Speaker 2: 13:43

school, high school Did you drop out of school? Like you were a 3.8 grade point average student.

Speaker 1: 13:50

What happened to that? Never dropped out of school, kept going. I had a way about myself. I carried myself in such a debonair way, in such a very suave you know. I took on some of my dad's characters very, very smooth but manipulative and what I did was I would just go into class. The teachers understood that someone was different about me, but I had a way of using my words and I would just get my work in advance. I would tell a story. Hey, teacher, this is what's going on in my life get the work in advance, turn it all in at the end of the week. And that's how I did it. I never stopped going to school.

Speaker 2: 14:27

I never stopped educating myself either, so you were doing the schoolwork during the day and the street work During the day. I mixed it all up During the day. Okay, so you went to the Connect and what?

Speaker 1: 14:35

happened. Then Money talks. This guy was my dad's childhood friend, so he broke it down. He says look, technically I should kill you, but I've been watching you and I've always had this about me, where people were fond of my personality. That was different. And now I realize what it was. It was the spiritual practices that were in, rooted in, but I didn't know it at the time. And so he's like, hey, I'm gonna do this, but you know what this means. You know where this is going to change your relationship. He says but if you're willing to go there, put your money on the table.

Speaker 2: 15:07

Now wasn't he risking retaliation from your dad by cutting that deal with you?

Speaker 1: 15:13

Not necessarily, because see in the streets, you understand there's a part where money take that and that's what we hear about all the time. You know how money corrupts, how money changes the way we do things, how we allow money to influence, and so from that perspective it was like well, the money was there. So from a street perspective, he had his money, his money was together and as far as he was concerned, that conflicts between you and your dad.

Speaker 2: 15:35

He didn't really care where the money came from.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Yeah, and that's how it works. He's like hey, this is between you and your people. As long as you're good here, we're good. I have nothing to do with what happens once you walk out of this door. And sure enough, I got the phone call. I'm sure he called your dad right away. Oh man, I got the phone call. What happened from there?

Speaker 1: 15:52

Man, my dad put a hit out on me. What does that mean Exactly? I defied all orders. He put a hit out on me like, hey, bring him to me dead or alive. I had a bounty on my head by my own dad.

Speaker 1: 16:03

And so this played out for about two or three years we would see each other in the streets, at lights He'd pull out a gun, I'd pull out mine or at the temple he'd see my mom. And it got real when he told my mom one Sunday he saw her in front of the temple. They both went on a Sunday and he told her he says hey, when I see your son, I'm killing him. And she cried and she didn't know how to tell me that. He told her those words and I wasn't even mad that he said he was going to kill me. The fact that she shed a tear. From that point forward, my relationship with my dad it was war, all out war, because one thing that I did know through my whole journey is that my mom never left me hanging, even though my dad said things about her and even though I was living with him for a time. My mom has always been, to this date, a spiritually loving, compassionate, kind person. You know she had her challenges, her drama, her stories, always practiced what she preached.

Speaker 2: 16:58

Had you developed that trust in your mom at that point.

Speaker 1: 17:09

Because earlier you say you did not trust your mom. No, at that time I had developed it, but I didn't trust her because she had to turn me in, where I was admitted to the mental hospital when I was 16 for an incident that happened between my dad and I, and I told the therapist and the therapist asked me well, would you ever hurt your dad? And I said, yeah, I'm angry enough to hurt him. She says, well, how I said, with this Glock that I have on my hip and with this Glock that I have on my hip, and at that time I just I'm thinking that I'm just being able, I'm like this is my cousin, you be honest, right, and I didn't know. So she, you know, as soon as I left out, she hit the button and so my mom gets a phone call.

Speaker 1: 17:33

It's like, hey, your son is armed and dangerous. You got less than 24 hours to turn, put in a padded robe and being a straitjacket, and through all this whole story and everything we're talking about, the only thing that I can tell you that was really wrong with me was just that I was hurt, deeply hurt, and abandoned, like I didn't feel, like I had anybody. That was it, but just from those two feelings I was able to fuel myself in a way that made me dangerous. I was a different kind of dangerous.

Speaker 2: 18:19

Between you and your dad was one of you bluffing Like why didn't, why did it take so long, like you said, two or three years? You guys were chasing each other around like Pacino and De Niro and Heat.

Speaker 1: 19:43

Yeah, what happened was I realized I was the first person that was able to get behind my dad's card. Like I was the first one that actually got to see him see him Right. No one else could get close enough to he. Never let anybody get close enough to him to really read his true demeanor. I figured it out going to therapists being locked up in an institution.

Speaker 1: 20:03

I learned a different psychology and so I was able to get inside. And once I was able to get inside his head, I was like, oh, you're a normal human being like everybody else. You just have a damn good mask. And once I figured that out, for me it was now. It was joy, because I'm like all those years what I watched you do to my mom, so I actually let it carry on thrived off of letting my brothers and sisters see how I would put my dad in this state of fear because he told my older brother like I think I created a monster and he didn't know how to turn me off. But then you know it gets good to you, right, the intention was to do this, but then there's that power that comes with it. Then there's this the voids of the hurt and the suffering. I started feeding that through our interactions, through the fear that I saw in him.

Speaker 2: 20:53

So all that is happening in the background?

Speaker 1: 20:55

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:56

You're 19 years old and you're in your apartment with your girlfriend or some woman you were dating, or what was that? How do you explain that relationship again, because it's very complicated.

Speaker 1: 21:08

Yeah, me and this young lady. As you fast forward to this moment that you're getting ready, we're getting ready to drop into. I had a team this young lady was as you fast forward to this moment that you're getting ready, we're getting ready to drop into. I had a team. This young lady was part of that team and I compromised, I broke one of the protocols, I became intimate with her and then we shared that space From a perspective, you usually don't mix that, because it can turn into something where either you compromise or you find yourself in a situation where you let your emotions get in the way of that lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 21:38

So that's what happened and my dad. At this time we didn't really resolve our issue, but we understood that if we work together, we could do far more greater things than fight. And so somehow, naturally, we ended up getting back in flow and we joined forces and he called me to go pick up something, to see something. And I remember telling him like look, but I always had this thing, like man, I shouldn't mess with him. And I did. And so my dad called and he asked me to come, and I told him. I said, hey, look, the time that you're asking me to come doesn't look good, you know. I let him know that where I was, the situation I was in, I'm like this don't look good for me to be getting up and leaving at three o'clock in the morning. I'm like, can we do this at a different time? He's like, no, do it now.

Speaker 1: 22:24

And so at this time you know my relationship with the young lady intelligence was so low that I wasn't even able to read signs that I was hurting this woman or that she was upset. And she told me she says well, you leave, stay at that woman's house, don't come back. And I'm like I couldn't tell her because at the level of the game I was playing, you never disclosed when you picked up or dropped, because that's how people get hit, robbed, killed. And so I had to make up a story and I was trying to tell my dad. I said, hey, I got to get back.

Speaker 1: 23:05

Well, he didn't honor what I asked and so I ended up staying out all night. Stuff wasn't ready until the next day and so I came back. In her mind, I was out with a female and I remember coming back and I was so excited because I was like I got what I needed. But she was pissed. And again I told you I was so disconnected from my own body, my own emotions, my own feelings that I didn't even register. Hers were completely irate, she was hurt.

Speaker 2: 23:31

And this is before cell phones. You couldn't text. No one was texting anybody, right? It's just you had pagers or something, I'm assuming.

Speaker 1: 23:37

No, no Cell phones were there. This is right around that era when StarTech, we just got into the digital phone. It was the basic digital phone. What happened was it didn't even matter, it didn't matter. She told me, if I left and didn't come back, that's what she was going to believe. And so I remember coming back into the house and she was pissed and she started telling me how she felt. And I just looked at her and I was like, well, look, you can think what you want to think. This is where I'm at. This is what I did.

Speaker 1: 24:08

And the conversation it just shifted. And I remember her telling me you know, I'd kill you. Part of me was like shit, go ahead. Like really, like I really was like it's cool.

Speaker 1: 24:18

But then another part of me was like I didn't want to die, but I wanted to challenge it. I was so angry inside and so hurt that I would challenge any situation that could have taken me out. And so I told her do what you got to do. So she went in the other room, grabbed a gun that I had in the drawer, pointed it at me, and when she realized she looked me in my eyes, and when she realized that I was what we would say oh heartless or cold hearted. It scared her because she's got a gun pointed at me and I showed no reaction, and so, once she realized that that's what happened, she tried to uncock the gun, but didn't know how, and so, when she was lowering the gun, it went off, hit me in the lower abdomen and the bullet exploded inside of me and ripped through my femoral artery, and that's when life shifted for me completely. I had an experience that changed my life forever.

Speaker 2: 25:08

When she had the gun pointing at you. What was your mindset in that moment?

Speaker 1: 25:12

Well, when I looked down the barrel of the gun, I was like this could be quick. In my mind I'm like if she does this, it's going to be quick because she's pointing right at me. Right, I'm just like how fast will it happen? And then I'm like part of me is like, like I said, I was so empty. I'd been carrying so much heaviness that I didn't think that she had the guts to do it. But I also was open. I was just open to the experience. I didn't run from it and I found that to be very interesting in that moment.

Speaker 2: 25:38

What does it feel like to get shot?

Speaker 1: 25:41

What does it feel like to get shot? Well, I got shot with a .38 caliber, long-grained. So it would be the Saturday Night Special edition. That's the one that you usually see the police officers have in their bootstrap in all the movies that backup. And if you wonder why they always use that as a backup, because it's a powerful caliber pistol, the long grain. And when it hit me it felt like a semi truck hit my body, like I was up against a wall, and in that moment I remember thinking wow, we definitely could have had a conversation about this.

Speaker 1: 26:15

thinking wow, we definitely could have had a conversation about this. I was like, shit, we could have talked about this. That was the first thought, like when it hit me. I was just like, damn, we could have talked about this, we definitely could have worked this one out. And then I don't know why, like, but I saw the look and hurt in her face for the first time and I instantly had compassion. I was like, damn, oh, a part of my hurt. I saw it in her. So now I'm like, wait, it's starting to make sense what's happening here, because I can register now where I'm at through the look in her eye and she was horrified that she did what she did and so she decides to turn the gun on herself. I'm like, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait. I said hey, hey, hey. In my mind I'm like wait, you can't kill yourself, because if I make it and I can't explain why you're dead, I'm not going to prison like this, not in this condition. I'm not going to prison at all. This is what I'm telling myself.

Speaker 2: 27:10

Are you on the floor? Are you on the couch? Did you get knocked back? Like well, what's?

Speaker 1: 27:15

your. I'm twisted up in the middle of the floor laying in about two inches of just hot blood and I'm bleeding. And I knew in that moment I said, damn, this isn't like the movies. I said this is it From going to school and understanding a little bit about anatomy and going to class and studying the body. And then I used to watch a lot of war movies and I remember Private Ryan when he got hit in that artery, and so I instantly I started thinking. I said I can't panic and I knew that if my panic the heart rate goes up, I'll bleed faster. I'm in the inner city, there's no telling when the ambulance would be here. So I got to go to work on myself and so I remember putting my finger in the hole and to put my own finger in my own body. Shit just got real. I connected. It was a connection with myself now and I'm like man, here it is. And then I just started thinking I don't have time to cry, I don't have time to think about all this shit that could have, would have, and I was like, all right, I need to connect.

Speaker 1: 28:07

And I remember meditation. My mom would meditate, my dad would meditate In the Hare Krishna movement, meditation was part of the practice. So I had my first real meditation by default, because I was trying to just calm down so I could prolong this bleed out situation that was happening. And in that moment I remember telling her I said, please just give me a minute, step back, I'm going to close my eyes, but I'm not dead. She didn't understand that because meditation wasn't something that you heard in the streets. So when I closed my eyes she thought I was dying.

Speaker 1: 28:36

And so I remember I kept smacking me like wake up. And I'm like. I was like, hey, step back, like give me a minute. I got to connect with God. I was like I got to make some transitions here. If I'm going to go, I didn't want to go out, right, if I in my mind was I can't die in this space of fear, panic or remorse, like feeling bad about myself. I said, if I'm going to go out, I need to go out in a state, in a higher consciousness of all the stuff that I was taught through the Bhagavad Gita. I need to raise my vibration. I at least need to die in a God consciousness.

Speaker 2: 29:09

You probably sounded like you were hallucinating to her and you closing your eyes and talking about God. That probably made her think you were about to die.

Speaker 1: 29:17

I couldn't understand that Because she knew about the temple life, you know, because I was gone every Sunday. That's when I went into that deep state and I had the conversation.

Speaker 2: 29:26

Was there pain at that time during that conversation, or had you transcended the pain I?

Speaker 1: 29:30

transcended everything from the physical, material plane. The feeling, the space that I was in. It was that place I always wanted to be. It was that feeling that I always wanted to have from my mother, from my father. It was that love and that comfort that I always wanted to have. And I had it in that moment. And I knew, but I didn't know, if I was dead or not. I just knew that nothing hurt. Everything felt amazing, amazing. It was the most beautiful feeling I ever had and I went from literally burning alive to the most beautiful love, felt, harmonious space. And I remember talking to god. I said, hey, god, well, this is it, you know. I apologized and I was like, as good as this may be, I said what, what about my mom? I remember I just kept thinking about my mother. I said what about my mom? I've never seen her waver in her faith and her belief in her teachings this whole time. And I said, so you can spare me for my mom's sake, please. But if you can't, I understand.

Speaker 2: 30:29

That was Arjuna O'Neill describing the plot twist in his life story. To listen to the rest of the story, go to episode 111 in the archive. We'll link to it in the show notes as well. This was one of the richest storytelling episodes that I've had on this podcast, so it's well worth going back and listening from the beginning and also to see what happens to Arjuna after he got shot. And if you want to see where Arjuna is today and what he's been up to, you can find him on the socials at Arjuna, underscore O'Neal, which is A-R-J-U-N-A underscore O-N-E-A-L. And if you know anyone who's making the world a better place and they also had an incredible plot twist in their life email me your guest suggestions at light at light Watkins dot com.

Speaker 2: 31:23

My other ask is that you take a few seconds to leave a rating or review for the show. You hear podcast hosts like me ask listeners like you for ratings all the time, because that's how a lot of the bigger guests determine if they're going to come on to the podcast. So it does make a huge difference. And all you do is you look at your device, you click on the name of the show, you scroll down past the first five episodes, you'll see a space with five blank stars. Just tap the star all the way on the right to leave a five star rating and, if you're feeling a bit generous, leave a quick review about the show and that will go a long way as well.

Speaker 2: 31:59

Also, don't forget, you can watch these plot twist episodes on my YouTube channel if you prefer to see what Arjuna looks like as he's sharing his story, and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube as well. All right, I'll see you on Wednesday with the next long form conversation about an ordinary person doing extraordinary things to leave the world a better place. And until then, keep trusting your intuition, keep following your heart and keep leaning in to those plot twists in your life. And if no one's told you recently that they believe in you, I believe in you. Thank you so much and have a fantastic weekend.