On approach into Los Angeles on a flight from Denver, the wings of  Boeing 757 tilted low on the right, then to the left before the plane leveled out.

I was doing my final safety checks and I lost my balance for a moment by the plane’s attempt to do an aerial somersault.

I made it back to my jumpseat just before the plane banked again. This time I was scared.  I turned to my flying partner, Sebastian and asked, “What is really going on?” – and he answered in his polish accent.

“When the captain switches from autopilot to manual flying, sometimes she has to compete against the forces of nature and it’s harder for her to control the plane than when the computer is flying it”.

I had an “AH HA moment in that instance. During take offs and landings the captain can’t count on the computer’s “programming” to do the work,  I thought. She literally has to do the heavy lifting to get that plane in the air or land it gently on the ground.

Interestingly enough (well to me anyway) my favorite part of air travel is the take offs and the landings. Until that moment, however, I never thought about my fascination with those times other than the danger and excitement associated with that part of flying.

Then it hit me, it was more than just a thrill but the fact that the captain has to be fully engaged in the process.

Auto-Pilot is no longer an option but  in play is the use of hands, mental acuity, skill, gut instinct and experience to maneuver the more than 220,000 pounds of metal tubing through the sometimes violent air space.

The captain is literally defying gravity and/or gliding to earth without a safety net.

And that is hot, hot, hot experience.

But then I thought about us, humans.  I find most of us are on auto-pilot especially after being successfully programmed by the media, corporations, government, and educational institutions – i.e., the principalities of darkness.

And we rather stay on auto-pilot even though we know we are spiritually dead.  Because to deprogram means to get knocked around, it means flying through turbulence without a harness or a seat belt.

For many of us  if we don’t check our “flying instruments” we won’t know which end is right side up, possibly be deceived and end up in a watery grave… (May you rest in peace, John-John 1960-1999)

Very rarely do we switch to manual-mode because I believe some of us have forgotten where the switch is located.  We’ve forgotten because we don’t want to be fully engaged in life or do the heavy lifting associated with “seeing” and “hearing”.

Many of us have our manual mode switch on lock down – protecting it at all cost. Unfortunately, locking something up not only keeps that thing in but also keeps everything out including blessings.

So if you really want to fly you will have to flip the switch from auto-pilot (programming) to manual mode.  Not only will you be able to soar with the eagles you’ll land safely every time.

If you haven’t already, when you are ready to flip the switch, remember, everything you need is within.