Miracles caused by the filming of The Passion of the Christ

Jim Caviezel who played Jesus in the Passion of the Christ, suffered severe hypothermia, itching and shoulder separation whilst filming his scenes on the Cross. The Cross was hovering on a thousand foot cliff and severely swaying in the wind. Caviezel was then hit by lightning whilst filming the Sermon on the Mount. and "lit up like a Christmas tree" as he told reporters. The crew saw fire coming out the right and left side of his head and Illumination around the whole body. Jon Mikalini, an assistant, walks over to ask Caviezel if he was ok and Mikalini was also hit by lightning. Both men should have died, but didn't. A lighing technician was carrying a box of cables on the set, was hit by a bolt of lightning and dropped the box. Men ran over to him to see if he was ok and he told them he had dropped the box and never felt the lightning hit him. He was perfectly fine....except for a cross etched in his back from lightning. In the same location, six months later, director Jan Michelini was struck again and survived. Others were also struck on both occasions.  Another person on the set was playing one of the guards who beat Jesus and in real life, was Muslim. The beatings were so vicious that the man broke down and converted to Christianity immediately.  A young man (Dan Leach) confessed to his girlfriend’s murder as a result of seeing “The Passion of the Christ” because he had felt an enormous guilt for what he had done to another human being. His girlfriend's death had been ruled as a suicide so he would never had been caught if he had not confessed. He had avidly watched Jesus say to the thief that despite all of the sins he had committed, because he believed, he would soon be with Jesus in paradise. Dan Leach wanted to be in Paradise with God. On August 13, 2004, Leach was sentenced to 75 years in prison. However, the almighty power of God, using “The Passion of the Christ”, has changed his life forever.  Several very cold hearted women, who were murderers and robbers in a Florida penitentiary who saw “The Passion of the Christ” during the Easter weekend had their lives completely changed for the better afterwards. They saw that they were just like the women God loved, helped, forgave and had mercy on.  The miracles moved Award winning producer and documentary filmmaker Jody Eldred so much that Eldred has written a book, “Changed Lives: Miracles of 'The Passion'” (Harvest House) who collected more than 70,000 stories of miracles that came from “The Passion”.  Satanists and Wiccans who walked into the movie theatre laughing at the torture and persecution Jesus would go through, came out sobbing and converted to Christianity.  The actor who portrays Jesus in the film, James Caviezel (whose initials, coincidentally are J.C.), experienced some strange signs regarding the role. Six months before he ever auditioned for the film, a total stranger walked up to him and said, "You'll be playing Jesus."  His identification with the character of Jesus was so strong that fans felt compelled to bow down to him when they saw him.  Mel Gibson said he received similar signs that he believes suggested that he should make this film that he had only been considering. A French woman, who he had never met, approached him out of nowhere and said, "Jesus loves you."  Caviezel was actually struck by lightning during the filming of the movie. "About four seconds before it happened it was quiet, and then it was like someone slapped my ears," Caviezel told Newsweek. "I had seven or eight seconds of, like, a pink, fuzzy color, and people started screaming. They said I had fire on the left side of my head and light around my body. All I can tell you is that I looked like I went to Don King's hairstylist."  The assistant director was also struck by lightning. This time, no person was hit, but the bolt struck the cross on which Caviezel was later to be "hung."  John Debney, who composed the music for the movie, says he battled with Satan as he was working. "I was stretched every which way but loose," Debney said in an interview with Dan Wooding for WorldNetDaily. "I was stretched by Mel Gibson. I was stretched by the Guy Upstairs and also I was stretched by the guy downstairs. What it did was completely strengthen my faith and I have realized something very interesting. I had never before subscribed to the idea that maybe Satan is a real person, but I can attest that he was in my room a lot and I know that he hit everyone on this production. I had all these computers and synthesizers in my studio and the hard drives would go down and the digital picture that lives on the computer with the music would just freeze on his [Satan's] face. Then the volume would go to ten and it would happen all the time."  Debney believes that it was a miracle that he got to work on the film in the first place. As the composer for such film comedies as Liar, Liar and Bruce Almighty, Debney would not have been the first choice for a film like The Passion of the Christ. But he knew Stephen McEveety, one of the producers, from childhood. At first he was asked just to write some special music for the film, but when Mel Gibson heard it, he hired Debney to score the entire film. "It is a complete miracle that I became involved with the project," he said. Debney found the process equally miraculous. "I didn't have a lot to do with the writing of this music. I have done a lot of music, but literally things would just come out." Strange things still continue to happen in association with the film:  The film has been called intense, which may have contributed to a fatal heart attack of a 57-year-old woman in Wichita, Kansas while she watched the film.  BOISE, Idaho — Mel Gibson's, The Passion of the Christ, is continuing to throw up miracles. The latest miracle reported comes from Boise, Idaho, after William "Bud" Tugley and his wife, Mildred, went to see the movie. "We were just leaving the theater when the demons that have been in Bud for years were cast out of his body," reported his wife." Bud has been a bastard for as long as I've known him and now he is a caring loving husband. Thank the Lord for Mel Gibson!" she said. The miracle caused quite a stir as the demons erupted from Mr. Tugley mouth and slithered all over the theater. "They seemed to be searching for another soul to infest, but folks were giving us a pretty wide berth," Mrs. Tugley said."If you knew Bud before this happened, you probably got the sh*t beat out of you at one time or another," she went on. " He ran the local militia around here and I don't know anyone that wasn't scared sh*tless of him. Now he wants to go to church services and even plans to vote Republican!" Miracles on the Set of the Passion Mel Gibson's The Passion (Mel Gibson talks about what happened) What's particularly interesting is the way God seems to be working in incredible ways through miraculous situations on the set. "There is an interesting power in the script," Gibson notes. "There have been a lot of unusual things happening on this set, good things like people being healed of diseases, a couple of people have had sight and hearing restored, another guy was struck by lightning while we were filming the crucifixion scene and he just got up and walked away. There was even a little six-year-old girl (the daughter of a person connected with the crew) who had epilepsy since she was born and had up to 50 epileptic fits a day. She's doesn't have them anymore for over a month now." He marvels at how this movie has effected or touched most of the cast in some deep and personal way. "And they really give you a lot of hope. It's like wow! I mean, we're not kidding around about this. It's really happening." On an average day Caviezel (actor who played Jesus) goes through an arduous makeup session that lasts anywhere from 4 to 7 hours, miraculously transforming his clean-shaven face and partly shaved head into a believable image of Jesus. Even Gibson was amazed one day when he saw him on camera, "He looks like the Shroud of Turin!" Caviezel's says his performance is inspired. "Truthfully, it was never up to me." He humbly continues, "My answer was always that I'm interested in letting God work through me to play this role. I believe the Holy Spirit has been leading me in the right direction and to get away from my own physical flesh and allow the character of Jesus to be played out the way God wants it -- that's all Ican do." Is Aramaic an intimidating language to learn? "Sure it is. ButI asked God to help me and I was able to learn it in a quick amount of time, more than I normally am able to learn things." The devoutly Catholic Caviezel takes his role seriously, often praying and softly quoting scripture while in character. But there's a lighter, funny side to him (he can sing a dead-on imitation of Bing Crosby) as well as a very patient one. He laments about the trials and tribulations of playing the "Son of God." "I endured freezing winds that almost blew my cross off the cliff while I was on it! Seriously! I felt it sway back and forth, and I knew it was going to blow over." He can now chuckle about his experience, but it went on for a couple of weeks, "To make matters worse, they had me up there, and it was freezing cold the first day. And we were there without a heater and of course, I don't have many clothes on the cross, so my body was going numb. It was freezing." Were there any other horror stories or was that the worst of his ordeal? "I was spit on, beaten, and I carried my cross for days over and over the same road; it was brutal." When asked about the makeup and special effects for his crucifixion scenes he winces, "I have a 2:00 a.m. call time to get skin and makeup put on for the flagellation and crucifixion scenes, so I'm here long before the rest of the cast and crew. But you know what? I consider all of it worth it to play this role; it's that important to me." In addition to spending 15 days filming on the cross, Caviezel was scourged and whipped in chains and ropes. "Mel likes to put violence in his movies. But the fact is, they represent truth. That's all Mel cares about is making it look true to the text. No time has a film of our Lord ever been shown like this one. Believe me when I say this to you, when people get to the crucifixion scene, by that time I believe there will be many who can't take it and will have to walk out. I guarantee it. And I believe there will be many who will stay and be drawn to the truth." Although Gibson feels apologetic for what Caviezel had to go through, ("I know Jim suffered, he separated his left shoulder and was in a lot of pain and discomfort, but he was very patient during the whole thing"), he maintains that giving a graphic depiction of what Jesus went through before and during the time he hung on the cross is what makes his portrayal realistic. "This is an event that actually happened. It occurred. I'm exploring it this way, I think, to show the extent of the sacrifice willingly taken by Jesus -- the price he paid that is as much a part of what Jesus went through as the resurrection." "My hope is that this movie has a tremendous message of faith, hope,love, forgiveness and a message of tremendous courage and sacrifice. My hope is that it will effect people on a very profound level and somehow change them and that message is a pretty good message to be pushing right now. There's so much turmoil in the world today, on the brink of everybody at each others throats. I think usually when the world is tried in this way people usually start going back to something higher to fill a void in their souls, particularly if the earth is crying out in pain from all the suffering and fear that's inflicted by war and hatred. For me, I don't think there's a better message you could put out there, than what's in this movie." That message is truly Mel Gibson's heart and passion.