Knowledge of Angels - Biker Angels

When your working life includes a wide range of TV and radio presentations, you never know what an imaginative director will come up with next. The phone went one afternoon and a producer from a media company we work for from time to time asked: "Do you know anything about angels?"

As investigators of the paranormal for over forty years, we had come across some unsolved mysteries involving angels, so our answers included a reference to the case of Janie Schamo. She was taking photographs in the Grand Canyon in the 1970s, slipped and fell – but was miraculously saved by what she firmly believed was the intervention of an angel.

Guardian Angel

Another strange and interesting report came from Riverside in California in the 1990s. Estela Vera was out walking with her son and daughter when they saw an ice-cream wagon being robbed. The driver was fighting the thief and Estela’s son raced to help the driver while her daughter ran to fetch the police. Estela herself then waded in to help her son. The thief scrambled into the truck and drove it at her. She was seriously injured but made a miraculous recovery. Later she said that at the crucial moment, just before the impact, a mysterious smiling man – definitely not an ordinary human being – stepped from nowhere and interposed himself between Estela and the truck. She was convinced that he was a guardian angel and that he had intervened to save her life.

The Battle of Mons

The Battle of Mons was fought between the British Expeditionary Force and a much bigger German force on August 22nd and 23rd 1914. Historians regard it as a major engagement of the First World War. After the Battle of Mons, strange rumours began to circulate to the effect that angelic beings had appeared and helped the British. There was a huge controversy about these stories of psychic intervention on the British side because an author named Machen had written a short story called “The Bowmen” – pure fiction – about a similar event in which spiritual warriors intervened in an earthly battle. In Machen’s story, it was archers from Agincourt who came to help the British.

Air-raid Angels

Other reports that we have come across over the years also referred to war-time experiences of angels. In most of these cases the witnesses had been children during World War Two and had been sheltering as the bombs rained down. In all the reports, an angel – either in human form, like the mysterious being who saved Estela’s life in California, or a glowing winged entity in traditional white robes -- had promised to protect them.

Healing Angels

The angel known as Raphael is generally regarded as the angel of healing and he’s described as one of the seven angels who stand constantly before God. In some religions he is referred to as Saint Raphael the Archangel. A full account of him is found in the Book of Tobit. Here he protects Tobit’s son during their long adventurous journey. He is a powerful fighting angel. As well as a healer; he shows when he deals with a dangerous demon in the Egyptian desert. When they get safely back again, he heals Tobit’s blindness.

Biker Angels

Our producer friend had an idea that if there were Hell’s Angels on bikes. Why not have Heaven’s Angels on bikes as well? He duly turned up in Gloucester. Here he wanted us to meet him to do the filming. Complete with his camera crew and a carload of diaphanous angelic costumes! But there was no sign of an actress to play the angel. “I hoped Patricia wouldn’t mind being the angel,” he explained. She’s as adventurous as I am, so she didn’t mind at all. There we were on the Harley, zooming around Gloucester accompanied by the camera crew.

I wondered whether Webuyanybike had ever had an emergency call for an immediate replacement. Because an angel’s robes had got entangled in the back wheel of a Harley while filming! If the bike had been asked for its opinion. I think it might have said something like: “Nuns last week and angels this week – what comes next?”. On the subject of biker angels, there are a great many bikers who do wonderful things for worthwhile charities. That makes them angels as far as the friends they help are concerned. Have a look at one example called Jumbo GB. They look after children – and adults – with special needs, and I have the great honour to be their President; full details are here.