Abstract

Romy was in a car, with her family, when their car went off the road and rolled down a mountain. Flipping over multiple times, the passengers were traveling at rapid speed down a ravine as if they were in a barrel. Then a voice spoke to Romy.

This account is taken from the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, NDERF.org, the complete report is on the site, here. It is a good idea to read my interpretation, then go back and read the full account. You may see the broader context and hopefully, spot other areas of interest to you.

The Reassuring Voice

As the car went over the edge and repeatedly flipped end to end, Romy heard a man’s voice telling her that everything was going to be fine. While the car crashed into boulders and outcroppings on the side of the mountain, the voice told her to roll with the movement of the car. Romy describes what he felt next;

“Feeling absolute peace, I let myself roll. The voice came as if from inside of my head but at the same time It wasn’t “me”. It was very comforting, stable and strong. I did not recognize the voice but I connected to it very deeply, and knew I could trust it with all my heart. As I was “rolling” with every tumble I suddenly wasn’t in the car anymore.

I experienced complete trust.“[1]

Pictures began to appear in Romy’s mind, as if she was seeing a movie frame by frame. Although, the film wasn’t in perfect succession, some parts skipped ahead to different times of her life, with a narrow silver thread connecting one episode to another.

When she mentally inquired about a specific scene, the answer came to her immediately. She began to feel as if she was part of the spirit world.

“This unfolding of pictures and gaps developed and progressed continuously, presenting a constant delicate consequential line in perfect order, a chain of events, yet somehow they were all happening at once. The past the present and the future were all happening at once. It was inspiring to witness the order and sense that all these little pictures seemed to have in “the big picture”. I felt a lot of compassion. I was all forgiven. In fact there was nothing to forgive.” [2]

Without her explicit knowledge, Romy was in a space between physical and spiritual life, she began to do what high spirits are capable of, accessing whatever memory they desire.

The Memory Bank

Unbeknownst to us, we are delicate recording instruments. While we constantly struggle with our poor memories, forgetting tasks that we gave ourselves to do just moments ago. Car keys lost in a place where we just put them. Distractions cause us to completely blank out when and where we were supposed to meet a friend. All part of our normal routine. While we complain of being forgetful, in no fantasy universe do we expect perfect recall.

Except, there is another dimension and it’s not a fantasy. It is actually the real world. This world we live in a dense shell. Our spirit is attached to our earthly spacesuit so it may be modified by our experiences during our classwork among the living. While our bodies’ plays out the scenarios presented to us, our spirit records all.

These recordings can be used to investigate not only our actions, but the thoughts behind our deeds. Swedenborg, a famous Swedish medium in the 1700’s wrote about what he witnessed during his time in the spirit world, one instance is about people who have passed away were being judged. As usual with unrepentant criminals, they refused to confess to the slightest infraction. Swedenborg tells how the high spirits presented evidence to the contrary.

“To prevent them from believing they were blameless, everything was disclosed and drawn out of their own memory in sequence from the beginning of their life to the end.” [3]

Swedenborg goes on to say, “I have also heard that angels have seen and displayed from the memory of one individual everything he had thought one day after another over the course of a month, with never an error, recalled as though he himself were back in those very days.”[4]

Three hundred years later, Romy speaks about, “a constant delicate consequential line in perfect order, a chain of events”, which implies a detailed record. Romy goes on to describe the finite detail and the method to fully explore his past experiences.

“As I was watching this linear unfolding of pictures, I realized that just by looking and focusing on a specific picture, “zooming in” on it, I could also ”enter” that scene and then come back out of it, “zoom out” and return to my place of observation. I looked back at my childhood. I could enter pictures there.

From each picture, moment or thought, there was always the possibility to access that light that separated between it and the next picture.

I could also see all the thoughts I had all my life. Their “pictures” were as strong as the pictures that depicted action or words. I was amazed to see that our thoughts are that strong, so real. It looks like they were also threaded on a string of light.” [5]

Swedenborg, an upper class and educated person, who lived in Sweden, but wrote in Latin and traveled extensively in Europe, at a time when questioning the tenets of Christianity was a dangerous business, saw the same phenomena as Romy in our postmodern world. A world where to believe is thought of as a handicap to rational thinking.

Her near death experience caused Romy to think about what this flawless memory means.

“I could see my life was a perfect manifestation of just what it was, who I was. There was complete acceptance, even of those moments that I remembered as less pleasant. My life, all our lives were threaded with this light that filled the gap between each picture. In the moments that we are open to it, we connect with it. It is that simple. It is there always. “ [6]

Seeing the entire arc of her life, she saw the beauty of her assignments. She perceived the step by step progression of her spiritual awakening. She could feel the magnificence of the plan laid out for her. A plan in which, when she progresses from this life, she could look back and analyze each moment.

Swedenborg takes the same information and applies it to what Jesus told us;

“We may gather from these instances that we take our whole memory with us, and that nothing is so concealed in this world that it will not be made known after death, made known in public, according to the Lord’s word, “Nothing is hidden that will not be uncovered, and nothing concealed that will not be known. So what you have said in darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear will be proclaimed from the rooftops” (Luke 12:2-3).” [7]

Hence, the spirit world has presented us with a consistent message. From the New Testament, to Swedenborg in the 1700’s, to Allan Kardec’s The Spirits Book, in the 1800’s, to Romy. Everything is archived, we are never unwatched, including our thoughts; all data is collected and stored for use at some later time.

The conclusion is clear; we can’t just adjust our outer life and expect welcoming open arms upon our passing over. We must strive to adjust our thoughts and emotions. We don’t bring actions with us, we only carry our memories and our current character. Our moral fiber is the litmus test, not what we have done wrong previously, that we can pay off in time, it’s our true self, our capacity to love and understand which is the ruler on what we are measured.

An Application of a Recording

The spirit world has at its fingertips every detail, every microsecond of our life. This mountain of information is used to help some spirits understand their past lives and how to improve themselves.

In the book, Memoirs of a Suicide, a group of recovering suicides are being brought forward in the lecture area to travel through their past lives to determine how they arrived at the life where they committed suicide. Each person, one by one, is seated in a contraption at the front of the class. There is a type of screen, but it is more like a hologram, where the memories of the person in the chair become real to the entire audience.

The first person to experience the interrogation is Amadeu Ferrari. He had cancer, and to pay for his treatments he embezzled money from the bank where he worked. His cancer was attacking his tongue and throat. His previous life appeared on the screen;

“Amadeu appeared to us, depicted by his own mind, in the year 1840 as a trafficker of black slaves from Angola to Brazil… He was from Portugal, which explained our affinity for him. By means of a series of voyages, he enriched himself with the abominable trade, not sparing any efforts in his vile ambition of returning to Portugal as a millionaire. He inflicted indescribable torment on the wretches as he rounded them up in their free homeland to make slaves of them and handed them over to other ignoble accomplices sharing the same deranged ambitions! In the truculence of inhumane conduct, he excelled in the mistreatment of his captives, ordering them to be flogged for the most insignificant wrong, or even for no wrong at all…. Once, on one of his plantations, he raped a black slave who was little more than a child. Her poor father was an elderly slave sixty-years of age. In a moment of supreme suffering before the body of his child, who had chosen death to hide her shame, he had condemned Amadeu’s vile act, accusing him of his daughter’s suicide. In retaliation, Amadeu ordered cruel farm hands to burn the old slave’s tongue with a red-hot iron until he collapsed in convulsions of agony.” [8]

Fast forward, to Portugal, where Amadeu dies a rich man. He finds himself in the jungle surrounded by his old mistreated slaves. He spends years there tormented by all around him. Until one night, the old slave, Felicio, whom he had burned out his tongue, came up to him and said, “Come, master, get up… let’s leave this place.” [9] Felicio had forgiven him and came to free him from those who had not learned how to let go of the desire for revenge.

The instructor explains to the audience, that many of the slaves came from past lives as oppressors. Felicio, in his capacity working for the Roman Emperor Hadrian, committed many crimes and therefore paid his penance as a slave.

At the end of the interrogation, the instructor revealed a surprise for Amadeu;

“At a signal from Epaminodas (the instructor), a side door had silently opened and Felicio appeared, serene and grave, and walked towards his former master… Now in possession of his entire past, Amadeu looked at him in terror… Slowly and imperceptibly, Felicio transformed himself using the power of his will – which easily changes the configuration of the astral body – and let himself be seen in his role as Romulo Ferrari, Amadeu’s father!” [10]

The machinations of the spirit world are a wonder to behold. When you read about the relationships that have been set up in the spirit world for us incarnates, it makes you think, who exactly is my mother and father, brothers and sisters, and other relations. We are all intertwined in the business of forgiveness, learning and salvation, we should look around and try to determine, who we are having trouble with right now, and what extra effort should we make to be at peace with that person.

Over many lifetimes we all shall become pure spirits. There is a plan for each one of us. To fully comprehend the process and planning of your reincarnations, read my book, The Case for Reincarnation – Your Path to Perfection.

What Romy Learned

As Romy was examining her life’s record, she felt herself being drawn out of the blackness and traveling toward the mountain where the wrecked car and her body was laying still, almost lifeless. She realized she was between life and death, nearly ready to pass over.

Romy was able, for a finite instance, to feel what spirits feel, a sense of the love and joy that permeates the higher spheres

“I recognized the light from meditation experiences I had, moments of insight, spiritual experiences, strong experiences of unconditional love, actually I realized this light was threaded inside every moment of my life and I have always, always known it and had access to it. I felt deep intimacy and powerful love, a great surrender, relief and joy. . From what I have seen our lives were threaded with this light, that fills the gap between each moment. At each moment, every situation, every thought, the light is always available to us. If we’re aware that it’s there we can remind ourselves to call on it. To connect to it.

I was now sitting near this light, near the source of it. I had never felt it so strongly. It was everything. Everything I have ever needed, everything I need or everything I might ever need in the future. Everything was in this light. It was warm. It had an immense healing and nourishing quality to it. It was pure, immense, powerful unconditional Love. I knew I could trust this light.” [11]

The white Divine Light is what we are seeking. Romy instinctively knew she had a choice to make. Either stay on earth and complete her assignments or remain where she desired. Romy was wise enough to understand she still had more to learn. Lives are not to be wasted. They are meant to be used for the maximum gain. There is no limit on how much we can learn to be true spiritual beings.

The sight and warmth of the Divine Light changed Romy;

“I realized my purpose is to connect to this light I saw and share it with others. I felt a great urge to “put my hands on people” and transmit some of the light, especially in the first year after the experience. Whenever I want, I can close my eyes and connect to this experience, which immediately brings me to a place of trust and love.” [12]

This is why the effort to allow our love to grow is worth the sacrifice. To feel an eternity of affinity with all that you love, outweighs the temporary material pleasures one could ever attain on earth.

To understand more about Spiritism and what it means to you please read my book, Explore Your Destiny – Since Your Life’s Path is (mostly) Predetermined.

If you would like to read more near death and other experiences and what the spirit world is trying to tell us, read What Really Happens During Near Death Experiences – According to Spiritism.

Author:

Brian Foster has a BSCS degree and a MBA. He has worked in R&D for medical device corporations and in IT for large financial institutions. Brian Foster has a blog at http://www.nwspiritism.com.

Works Cited

NDERF.org. (2015, Feb. 7). Romy NDE. Retrieved from NDERF.org: http://www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Experiences/romy_nde.htm

Pereira, Y. A. (2012). Memoirs of a Suicide. Brasilia (DF), Brasil: International Spiritist Council (EDICEI).

Swedenborg, E. (2011). A Swedenborg Sampler. West Chester, PA: Swedenborg Foundation Press.

[1] Near Death Experience Research Foundation, “Romy Near Death Experience”, n.d http://www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Experiences/romy_nde.htm, (accessed Feb. 7, 2015)

[2] Near Death Experience Research Foundation, “Romy Near Death Experience”, n.d http://www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Experiences/romy_nde.htm, (accessed Feb. 7, 2015)

[3] Swedenborg, E. A Swedenborg Sampler, Swedenborg Foundation Press, p 34

[4] Swedenborg, E. A Swedenborg Sampler, Swedenborg Foundation Press, p 36

[5] Near Death Experience Research Foundation, “Romy Near Death Experience”, n.d http://www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Experiences/romy_nde.htm, (accessed Feb. 7, 2015)

[6] Near Death Experience Research Foundation, “Romy Near Death Experience”, n.d http://www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Experiences/romy_nde.htm, (accessed Feb. 7, 2015)

[7]Swedenborg, E. A Swedenborg Sampler, Swedenborg Foundation Press, p 36

[8] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 506

[9] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 509

[10] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, pp. 512-513

[11] Near Death Experience Research Foundation, “Romy Near Death Experience”, n.d http://www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Experiences/romy_nde.htm, (accessed Feb. 7, 2015)

[12] Near Death Experience Research Foundation, “Romy Near Death Experience”, n.d http://www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Experiences/romy_nde.htm, (accessed Feb. 7, 2015)