First, let me tell you about my best friend on the island. He was a boy with Down Syndrome who was about six or seven years older than me. His name was John. The other kids made fun of him. We played everywhere together, especially on the beach. I never thought of him as retarded or slow and didn't treat him that way. I just knew that he was good and happy.
John was big and strong, but he didn't realize the power of his own strength. One afternoon we were playing and wrestling in the water at the beach. Suddenly, he grabbed me in a choke-hold, placing his arms around my neck while he held my head under the water. It was so sudden that I was not even able to take a breath before I went underwater. I started to panic. Almost immediately the panic was interrupted by the intense lightning-like electric charge I had first experienced at the hospital. A shield came over me. I remember feeling peaceful; a familiar, deep, deep peace.
I don't know how long I was underwater for. All I remember was the voice in my head, “I am protected.” “I am protected.” I knew I was safe and I was not going to die.
A man on the shore saw what was happening and yelled out. The yelling made John let go of me. The man ran from the shore, got in the water and dragged me back to the shore again. When I came out of my shield, the man told me what happened and what he had done to resuscitate me.
What an experience! I felt so much more than what I can even put into words.
John's actions towards me on that day only made me stronger. I knew now that my shield was strong. I knew that it had protected me. Whether it had been John or anyone else, I knew that I would not have died.
I never blamed John for anything and we remained friends. I understood John's innocence. He didn't know about life and death. I became John's teacher. I taught him how to read and how to be more aware of the things that he was not aware of. I would go and meet him at the carpentry shop where he worked, which was near the store I worked in after school. He had made weights out of concrete blocks, and we took turns lifting them, training together.
But John looked strong and different, and some people on the island were afraid of him. I don't know what happened, but one day he was found dead with his weights across his neck. The rumors spread that it was an accident. Whether it was an accident or a murder, I will never know for sure.
I continued my training, and my life continued to change like when I had my first love experience. Remember the island of Pico, right next to Fayal? As part of a government program, I worked on Pico as a delivery boy. As I went from office to office, I was determined to make the best of it.
Pico has the tallest mountain in the Azores. It is nearly 8,000 feet high. I had seen this mountain from Fayal all of my life. Now that I was right there, underneath it, it seemed even higher. I would stare at the mountain top which was sometimes white with snow, and imagine how much of the world you could see from up there.
an excerpt from the book 'My Spiritual Bodyguard'...
The making of your body begins in the mind! So is the life you desire. I have learned this from being a bodybuilder, personal trainer and bodyguard to stars and celebrities. You must already have decided upon it in your mind, so that it can take form through your actions. As a picture film exists in print first, it then gets projected on the screen for all to see, so it is also with our lives. 
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