Warrior to Spiritual Warrior

Jess & Joyce Weiss © Joe DiMaggio

To All the Ships at Sea

Anyone that follows my blogs knows I’ve only done two blogs since August 5th. One blog was on the birthday of my son Joseph and the second a tribute to a great photographer Bill Eppridge, one of my heroes and a friend. I’ve taken a hiatus for my blogs for a very specific reason which I will announce at the end of next month.
I just received a phone call from my friend’s daughter, Susan. When I saw the name on my phone my heart stopped. She said “Joe,”, ” I said please don’t tell me ,” and “she said yes.” I know Blogs are not meant to be about the dead. They should be about the living and in my case they should be about photography and filmmaking. If it wasn’t for my son Joseph and photographers like Bill Eppridge and visionaries like Jess Weiss my ability to make a photograph or do a film would be hindered to say the least. These are people in my life that have inspired, motivated and helped me understand the meaning of being on this blue marble for a short period of time. Fifteen years ago my phone rang and it was Jess Weiss. He asked me to write his eulogy. I was surprised, horrified, and frightened. Like Jess would always do, he put my mind at ease. He wasn’t sick he just wanted to make sure I’d be prepared for this day. First a short history – Jess was 97 years old the last book he wrote was –

Warrior to Spiritual Warrior the autobiography of Jess E. Weiss, one of the few living combat soldiers who survived the D-day landing on Omaha Beach. His experiences in Europe’s most famous battles were only the beginning of Weiss’ amazing story. He returned home from war to find himself facing a new battle, with the trauma that is known today as PTSD. A debilitating condition unrecognized in WW II, that led him to the most profound and transcendent spiritual journey imaginable.

Warrior to Spiritual Warrior is the post war memoir story of the journey Jess took as he rebuilt and reshaped his life. From the battlefields of WW II to his attempts to build a new spiritual foundation, Jess Weiss’ story is an unvarnished and stark portrait that will horrify, shock, illuminate, and ultimately liberate your faith in the strength of the human heart to heal and transcend the past..
If you follow my blogs you know I use the same expression over and over – you know I’m the luckiest man in the world. I’ve always had people to go to – a go to person for sports, for photography, for filmmaking, for writing and so on. Jess was my Go to Person for spiritual advisement and support. He guided me through some of the darkest days in my life. In a seven year period I lost my mother, father, brother, my son and nine close friends. His guidance, words, and beliefs helped me deal. I was honored to have him use one of my photos at the end of the remake of one of his books “The Vestibule” The photo below was an original tribute to my father’s memory. I think that Jess would be fine with it being repurposed in his memory. He is still with us and will continue to be with me and in my heart forever. Thank you my friend, you are a true American Hero.

Jess and Joyce Weiss © Joe DiMaggio

: David Lynch & Jess Weiss Transcendental Meditation Conference

Jess Weiss with Russell Brand at Operation Warrior Wellness

I guess no one would be surprised to say you only have one mother and father but you can have numerous heroes and mentors. I’ve had a few over the years, including John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther Kind Jr.. The question for me is how many true heroes have you met? Author, Jess Weiss is a combination of my brother, father, Rabbi, Priest, and close friend. He is also a true hero. When my dad and mom passed away I went to Jess, when my brother passed away I went to Jess, and lastly when my son passed away who did I go to – Jess of course. To say jess, is a visionary or a prophet is an understatement. Jess is a man with so much love, warmth, and passion in his heart and soul and he shares it with everybody on a no charge basis. His latest book “Warrior to Spiritual Warrior: The Soldier’s Journey” is an absolute must read for everyone.

http://www.warriortospiritualwarrior.com

The 25th Anniversary Edition of the Original Groundbreaking Chronicle of Near-Death Experiences.

THE VESTIBULE

Jess E. Weiss

In 1972, three years before Raymond Moody’s Life after Life and twenty years before Betty J. Eadie’s Embraced by the Light, Jess E. Weiss edited and wrote the groundbreaking book that answered the age-old question, “What happens when we die?” Now Pocket Books will publish the 25th Anniversary Edition of Weiss’s THE VESTIBULE (a Pocket Books Trade Paperback).

THE VESTIBULE was one of the first books to broach the subject of life after death and record experiences of those who died and then returned. It is a collection of remarkable stories told by men and women who were pronounced dead, only to return to their bodies and resume living. Their reports of journeying to death are so vivid, so full of joy and peace, and so startlingly alike that they give overwhelming evidence for the survival of the spirit after life. “The purpose and motive of THE VESTIBULE is to establish with more certainty that there is an afterlife,” wrote Jess Weiss, “thereby alleviating fully or to a degree the sting of death.”

Since publication, THE VESTIBULE has been used extensively in hospices for the terminally ill for its comforting and healing message. Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, The prominent physician and bestselling author of On Death and Dying, used Weiss’s book in her workshops to reassure dying patients and their families, and thousands of people around the world found solace in the accounts in Weiss’s book. “I cannot express on paper the feelings I felt while reading your book,” wrote one grateful reader. “Your book showed me that death is not frightening for the ill person. He welcomes it, after all that he has been through. For me, the subject of death no longer makes me tremble.”

Forever timely, THE VESTIBULE has been, is, and will continue to be a Spiritual guidepost for every person, leading to a greater understanding of life and Death … and the afterlife.

POCKET BOOKS-A division of Simon & Schuster Inc-1972, 1997

Liz Hartman, Director of Publicity,

Joe DiMaggio

Category Archives: Warrior to Spiritual Warrior

Jess Weiss A Hero Forever

Author and Friend – Jess E. Weiss