If you’ve never heard of Derald Cochran before reading this article about him, don’t feel bad. He isn’t famous. But if Derald Cochran’s story is true, his life was literally saved by an angel.
Derald had been racing full speed down the path to his own destruction, abusing both alcohol and drugs after his younger brother Mike was murdered and set on fire in a drug deal gone bad. He was raging out of control. “I had a lot of hate,” Derald says. “I reeked in hate. It radiated from me. My eyes were black, from what I’ve been told by people who knew me.” After a five day non-stop binge of partying, Derald found himself “on my hands and knees on the floor puking up blood. Then all of a sudden I felt a warmth, an incredible warmth all over me.”
From an incredibly bright light, Derald claimed that he saw the figure of an ethereal being emerge. Then he heard a voice say, “You have been chosen to be a light unto others.”
Derald’s reaction was fairly typical for a nonbeliever of the supernatural or spiritual phenomena. “I knew then I’d finally flipped,” he said. “I’d lost it. Gone right over the edge. The next thing I remember was this incredible feeling of peace.” Once upon a time, Derald Cochran had lost his own biological children to children’s services. After his transformative experience, he became a foster parent and even adopted a child. Once an alcoholic and drug addict, Derald Cochran eventually served on the board of directors for BARN, the Bangor Area Recovery Network.
Police officer James Owen, who knew Derald before his life changed, said, “He was a hell-raiser. He was constantly in trouble, slowly working his way either to prison or to be dead. Whatever it was, it must have been some sort of miracle.” Some kind of miracle? Indeed.
But what kind of miracle, exactly?
I’m guessing whatever your beliefs might be will heavily influence your opinion. Was Derald hallucinating, or did he actually see something?
The most cynical among us might choose to believe that Derald is simply making up a fantastic story because he was bored and seeking attention, but the problem with that theory is the evidence and the eyewitnesses. What evidence, and what witnesses? While no one else claimed to see Derald’s alleged angel, plenty of people have witnessed the dramatic and remarkable change that turned a man who seemed determined to destroy himself into a man who has contributed to society. James Owen was a witness–not to the miracle itself, but to the dramatic impact that miracle had on Derald’s life.
At the opposite extreme of the atheist/cynic, the fervently religious will insist that literally an angel from Heaven descended to Earth in order to stop Derald Cochran from killing himself or someone else and caused him to completely turn his life around. I think that’s a viable possibility.
The cynic might argue that he or she has never experienced a similar miracle. So what? I’ve never walked on the moon. Does that mean Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin couldn’t have walked on the moon, either? Of course not. Experience is typically unique to the individual. The extremely religious will probably argue that Derald experienced an angel from heaven because a demon would have encouraged the self-destructive behavior, not tried to end it.
Personally, I believe that the spirit of his dead brother appeared to save Derald from himself, because I’ve had personal experience with phenomena I could only attribute to the supernatural upon examination and further reflection. I believe ghosts exist because all other possible alternate explanations ultimately fail. I’m not insane. Many of my experiences were witnessed and/or experienced by other people.
You don’t have to believe me (and you really shouldn’t take anybody’s word on face value), but I believe Derald Cochran’s experience was real precisely because I’ve had similar experiences. Not exactly the same, but similar. My response to skeptics is to paraphrase Carl Jung: you can tell me that you’ve never had an experience quite like mine, but what you cannot do is claim that my experience wasn’t real because you haven’t had one like it.
Derald explains why the experience has affected him to this day. “This silhouette in this brilliance of light that was like a being just outlined and glowing that said to me, “You have been chosen.” Me! A drunk! A drug addict! I’ve been chosen!”
Even more strange, his story isn’t as unique as you might think. Books are filled with countless stories very similar to Derald‘s. Events that are at least partially documented that would defy all logic and reason if ever proved true. Stories of actual miracles. Stories of people like Derald whose lives were changed forever by a single alleged supernatural encounter.
Though I’ve never met with or spoken to Derald Cochran, it was easy to confirm he is a real person with a troubled history. It was equally easy to verify that his brother Michael was murdered in February of 1981. The only unverified claim is about what happened to Derald Cochran that changed his life. It would be just as foolish to assume Cochran’s story is true because I am inclined to believe supernatural phenomena is real as it would be to believe it is false because one has never experienced supernatural phenomena of any sort.
Something happened after Michael Cochran’s murder that changed the trajectory of his brother’s life. Derald claims his guardian angel appeared and told him that he had a purpose. The dramatic change for the better has been well documented. Those of us inclined to believe such fantastic tales rejoice that a lost person has found his way, and those who don’t should ask themselves if Derald was better off believing a hallucination was real or slowly killing himself via substance abuse.
It isn’t a trick question.
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