Story Behind Smuggling With Jesus

Hank is writing a book called Smuggling With Jesus which is about him traveling with a strange but unique character named Bernie Shull. Having been born on Christmas Day, December 25th and died on Easter of his 30th year like Jesus. His mother's name being Mary who was a dealer in very old and rare antiques. His father never being seen, even when Bernie died, leaving me to bring his body back thousands of miles to be buried in Canada, I am not saying that I was traveling and smuggling with the real Jesus but the similarities were so striking from the start and 40 years later, they still are, and even more so. Bernie had no fear whatsoever, and lived his life as if he could never die no matter what he did. Almost as if he knew he would only die once and it would never involve other people. In all my years of meeting people, rich and poor, as well as seeing many Kings, Princes, Presidents and other special peoples of the world, none could hold anything to the presence of Bernard Abraham Shull. He looked and acted like a real royal and special human, and because I still have these feelings after all the years since 1980, I decided to write the book of our exploits for anyone wishing to read about them and they can decide for themselves.

When the Beatles began to be played on the radio, I became obsessed with them. I was 13 years old but had to see them badly. My parents, of course could not afford it and I didn't even think to ask them. There was a radio contest on the local station CKEY 590 in Toronto and they were giving out two tickets every hour for a week at night. I entered but lost each time. Then after the last announcement, which was not me, they said they would extend the contest for one more week. I entered more ballets and listened for each announcement. It wasn't me, over and over again, and finally they came to the last name on the last night and announced Hank Cooper. I couldn't believe my ears, but wondered, even then why was I put through all that when they could have just announced my name first, instead of making me so nervous.

Anyway that was the start of my change of life, and puberty usually causes a change but combined with the onset of the hippie era and the Beatles coming to town, that sent me into a direction I never would have gone to. Forty years later I wish my father got his way and sent me to military academy instead. Regardless I was never the same after going to the Maple Leaf Gardens and watching all the teenage girls screaming in the subway station and all over the streets. Inside, once I had my seat I could see well enough but the sound system could not match the level of screaming from the females. Seemed to be just as many boys as girls but the screams were definitely coming from the girls. After the show I made my way back home to the suburbs a task that would never be carried out alone at only 13 in this day and age. that was the end of an era for me, I was a mild mannered little boy before that and after I was ready for excitement. I am pretty sure that if that hippie era ushered in by The Beatles, as far as I was concerned, did not happen in my generation, I would undoubtedly have become a different person and never take part in the journeys I did. Excerpts from my book explaining many of the predicaments and situations I would get myself in can be seen on this website.

I was raised on science. My favorite shows from the time of childhood on were space/science-based programs. I watched the first man "walk on the moon" as a child. I devoured documentaries, held National Geographic up as a pillar of truth and knowledge. I know and can recite scientific principles better than most people I meet including those who "went to school" and proudly hold impressive-sounding degrees. I pride myself in knowing what I am talking about, so I do not go around poking my nose in things I don't understand. Before I go spouting off my ideas on subjects, I research them thoroughly, not merely relying on one person's viewpoint. Thanks to this thorough approach to knowledge that I have used my entire life, I am now able to look even closer at many of the things I was indoctrinated with, no BRAINWASHED with and see them for the lies they are. These "scientific principles" we are given from the time of grade school are NOT open to debate, thought or rationalization. They are expected to be learned, memorized and repeated. Never once are we asked or even allowed to explore other possibilities to the spinning ball earth, gravity, relativity, the structure of space, what NASA is doing or to ever question whether or not a scientific method is valid or maybe even fraudulent. “TRUST US! IT'S SCIENCE!” was a motto I recently saw in an advertisement for a Kids Museum. Trust Science? An oxymoron if I ever heard one!