Acknowledgments

I want to thank Joya Birns for her support and help with pre-editing;
Daniel Reynolds for his encouragement; Linda Smith, Carol Wolfley,
Sheila Saunders, Paul and Alex Jackson for reviewing sections of the
manuscript and offering comments and insights.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
p. 1
CHAPTER 1: GLOBALIZATION, WILLING OR NOT
p. 7
Economic Globalization
p. 8
The Birth of Civil Society
p. 17
CHAPTER 2: OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH
p. 20
Our Birth is But a Sleep and a Forgetting
p. 24
Children Who Return
p. 29
Trauma and Liberation
p. 39
United Through the Centuries
p. 47
CHAPTER 3: THE SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE
p. 60
Edgar Cayces Revelations About Karma
p. 61
Rudolf Steiner, Herald of a New Science of Karma
p. 73
The Souls Journey After Death
p. 78
Meeting Our Shadow With Compassion
p. 95

CHAPTER 4: OF LIFE AFTER DEATH

p. 111
After Death Communications
p. 112
Meeting With the Light
p. 126
Is it Always the Light?
p. 138
CHAPTER 5: A PARADIGM SHIFT FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
p. 149
Another World Immediately Beyond the Physical?
p. 150
The Spiritual Experience of the New Millennium
p. 155
The Emergence of the Divine Feminine
p. 159
CHAPTER 6: THE EXPERIENTIAL PERSPECTIVE
p. 185
Bill W. and the Story of AA
p. 186
Bert Hellinger and Family Constellations
p. 201
The Revolution of Hospice: Saunders and Kbler-Ross
p. 214
Communicating With Honesty and Empathy: Nonviolent
Communication
p. 232
Prayer and Spiritual Healing
p. 246
The Emerging Field of Experiential Spirituality
p. 263

CONCLUSION: ANOTHER GLOBALIZATION IS POSSIBLE

p. 273
New Initiatives
p. 274
Global Alternatives
p. 280
Civil Society and Experiential Spirituality
p. 289
Argentinas Horizon of Hope
p. 292
Horizons for a New Culture
p. 310

1)
2)

APPENDICES
p. 315
Pre-birth Memories: An Account
p. 317
A Biography of Rufus Moseley
p. 320
NOTES
p. 331
BIBLIOGRAPHY

p. 351

INTRODUCTION
Ive tied the ends of the earth together,
Lift now the lid of the jar of heaven.
Close those eyes that see only faults,
Open those that contemplate the invisible
So no mosques or temples or idols remain,
So this or that is drowned in His Fire.
Rumi
Do our individual meditations or prayers have repercussions upon our
social life? Do our spiritual experiences affect our immediate circles
and beyond? Can we really find a link between our personal sphere of
action and the social arena? Arent these two areasthe personal/spiritual and the social/politicaltraditionally separated from
each other, like faith and science, in a way that justifies perceiving the
spiritual person as someone who is remote from daily cares, or at least
socially uninvolved?
In calling this book A Revolution of Hope, I challenge these assumptions. In so doing, I join a growing group of leaders, entrepreneurs, social activists, and visionaries who inform their daily choices
from a wellspring of spiritual/religious commitment to their inner self.
For them, the spirit is the indispensable springboard of their work and
their lives, not a separate realm of existence.
Before moving into the exploration at the heart of this book, I
will offer a preamble on the state of the world from the perspective of
the globalization of economics that parallels, and makes manifest, the
global consciousness shift happening at present. This will be a brief
survey of the major trends in world affairs and their implications on
the political, ecological, social, and hence spiritual dimensions of life.
The bulk of this work is divided in two parts. First, we will examine how the spirit seeks to be acknowledged in our lives, and look
at the realm of spiritual experience. A peak spiritual experience can
stimulate the complete reshaping of our being, serve as a milestone
that puzzles us, or go almost unnoticed and remain buried for years. It
can be the door to an entirely new perception of reality. The conundrum of such an experience is that it belongs to a world that our everyday language and faculties of understanding entirely fail to grasp, let
alone convey to others. And yet this is only an apparent dilemma, as
we shall see.

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

The second part of the book will look at practical applicationsthe many ways social renewal is already happening before our
eyes, in small, almost imperceptible doses, apparently too little to
make an impact. And yet there are already many of these practical approaches that together form a whole, with certain identifiable characteristics. Recognizing the strength of the parts and their link to the
whole is what gives hope a tangible dimension.
The bridge between the two parts of the book is formed by an
acceptance of the reality of the spiritparticularly the journey of the
soul after death and that part of our soul that C. G. Jung called the
shadowas it is possible to understand in a phenomenological/scientific way, deprived of dogma. Through this lens, the variety
of spiritual experiences now surfacing on the horizon of consciousness
can coalesce and reveal their ultimate direction and meaning.
Finally, we will return to the larger picture to explore what
both spiritual and experiential perspectives can contribute in terms of a
modern alternative to the present model of globalization.
Beyond the Veil of Our Daily World
The contribution I want to offer the reader is the realization that spiritual experience is the basis for renewing ourselves and injecting new
culturein fact, new concrete spiritual realityinto a dying materialistic culture. We invite the reader to realize the strength that can come
from an understanding of a spiritual reality of hope emerging in our
time, together with the life-changing practices that can lead us toward
the creation of a new culture. Understanding and practice together can
create an unshakable inner reality of hope; knowledge and discipline
can mutually support and strengthen each other in a synergistic fashion.
The reality of spiritual experience, whether it concerns the time
before birth or after death, is slowly gaining leverage. Bestsellers, such
as Return from Tomorrow, Saved by the Light, and Embraced by the
Light, portray biographies of individuals who have acquired unshakable certainty about the existence of the light beyond and of the source
of an unconditional love. Recent movies, such as Groundhog Day, Run
Lola Run, Next Stop Wonderland, and Sliding Doors portray multiple
alternative scenariosa first layer in the understanding of the theme
of destiny or karma. Others portray experiences at the intersection of

INTRODUCTION

the physical and the other world, such as Fearless, Resurrection, The
Boy Who Could Fly, and What Dreams May Come.
We are also surrounded by growing numbers of claims of all
kinds of supernatural experiences that obviously challenge credibility.
How can we find our way between the genuine and the sensational?
How can we remain scientific and discriminative in a field that obviously goes beyond the classical definition of science? Is there a way to
follow an Ariadnes thread that allows us to detect the reality of life
before birth and after death in our own life? It is my claim that we can,
at least to a great extent.
We will proceed in stages to build an understanding of the experiences beyond the veil of our daily world. We will look first at what
has been done from a scientific perspective. Although the classic scientific approach soon finds obvious limits in the spiritual field, it will
help us in our preliminary steps. Many people have reviewed their
ideas and enlarged their horizons from the weight of this evidence
alone.
The inner world of reincarnation has become a reality for
those individuals who have been able to remember in great detail dramatic events from their previous lives; so has the outer spiritual
world for those who have had a near-death experience. More and
more books are published every year on these topics. By looking at the
most precise biographical and descriptive sources, we will further see
that threshold experiences do not happen randomly. They are subjected
to their own laws and inner logic.
Our approach will be phenomenological. According to this
view, there is no need to look beyond phenomena. While a single phenomenon may seem unique and isolated, others may present another
facet of the same motif and offer a clue to a solution of the mystery.
From the sum of secondary complex phenomena we will try to move
towards primaryprimordialphenomena. Secondary phenomena
are, in this respect, like variations on the main theme of the primary
phenomena. Although primary invokes the idea of something simpler, in this instance we are moving into the sphere of what, in a
Jungian fashion, we may call archetypal phenomena. Thus, primary
may be simpler, but in no way simplistic. In fact, this next level can be
reached only with the help of a combined spiritual and scientific approach to spiritual phenomena. What lies beyond our immediate level
of perception is the level of concrete reality of other individuals who

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

have gained access into spiritual realms. This is similar to what happens when what a child cannot understand eventually becomes a part
of everyday knowledge later in life. Thus, experience from the higher
ground of primary spiritual phenomena is the only way to shed light on
secondary phenomena.
In so doing, two results should be achieved. First, the mass of
information we present in this discussion should begin to order itself
around certain sets of themesthe primary phenomena. But also, what
seems the exclusive domain of spiritual knowledge alone
information without immediate apparent reference to the realm of experienceshould start to acquire relevance in our daily life. From the
experience of primary phenomena, all secondary phenomena will become more understandable and acquire more meaning.
This book is an invitation to travel into the expanding territory
of consciousness that is evolving before our eyes in the new millennium. It is a field in motion, and what arises from this discussion seeks
no conclusion. Rather, the goal is to show some signposts along the
way and indicate relations between spiritual experiences available now
and the kind of practical soul and social work that more and more of us
can only now engage in. We are likely to realize that we are collectively stepping into a new consciousness and moving into a more perceptible grasp of the spiritual reality that exists all around us and
within the physical world. Our sense of wonder will be as valued as
our skepticism; our desire to embrace new ideas, as essential as our
earnestness to test them.
Interested and immersed in social and ecological work ever
since my youth, I have known the depth of inner despair that the perception of global reality can bring to those who seek to look at the
world without the solace of utopias or pat consolations. My spiritual
journey began in earnest soon after I engaged in social and ecological
activism. Spirituality and engagement did not walk hand in hand all
the time. At times it was barely possible to see how spirituality could
have any concrete effect upon my social engagement, or how I could
keep the two alive on a parallel course. Often I was tempted to completely forgo the dimension of social involvement.

INTRODUCTION

It was then that I confined my social activism to my professional life and stepped into the areas of spiritual and destiny work, realizing that inner healing was needed before I could initiate the change
I wanted privately to embody. It was this path that led me to explore
most of the tools of personal change in the second part of this book.
But the same happened in reverse as well. My spiritual practice and
knowledge were put to the test. Their ultimate effectiveness seemed
marginal if they could not have an effect on the larger dimensions of
social change. Gradually a realization dawnedthat my journey
through personal darkness was the way to understand and acquire inner resources that I could not otherwise have gained. At this point
hope returned and, to this day, continues to lay a path for a new way of
looking at the world.
A Brief Overview
Chapter 1 looks at the impact of economic globalization on the
life of the planet and on our personal lives. It forms the backdrop
against which all the rest of the information offered in the following
chapters acquires relevance.
Chapter 2 begins the exploration of modern spiritual experiences from a phenomenological perspective. It explores all those experiences that point to life before birth: repeated earthly lives and prebirth experiences.
Chapter 3 takes a look at the spiritual perspectives of Cayce
and Steiner, which offer us hypotheses for the integration of the material from the previous chapter, and also serve as a link to the following
chapter.
Chapter 4 discusses the experiences that point to life after
death. This culminates in an in-depth exploration of near-death experiences that lead us in Chapter 5 to explore the central elements of the
spiritual revolution of our times, and the emergence of the divine
feminine in the consciousness of the planet. At this level we can detect how what occurs at a spiritual level can have a determining influence over culture and social renewal.
Chapter 6 refers to techniques of experiential spirituality that
emerged in the twentieth century to help us support inner changes that
can eventually have an impact at the cultural and social levels. In fact,
many of these have already had important but little-acknowledged impacts at the social level.

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

The Conclusion returns to the larger picture of globalization

and expands the view on factors that contribute to an alternative model
embodying spiritual renewal, social change, and global sustainable development.

Chapter 1

GLOBALIZATION,
WILLING OR NOT
In the history of the collective as in the history of the
individual everything depends on the development of
consciousness.
Carl G. Jung
The magnitude of social, economic, and ecological challenges in the
world today provides a backdrop for a perception of hopelessness that
grips individuals, groups, and whole countries. The hope that exists
speaks another language than the one we are accustomed to or the one
most media routinely use. It is as if a large cloud were hanging over
our planet and rays of light, often undetected, struggle to emerge at
particular places to lend strength to groups and individuals in their endeavors. We can reach the dimensions of this picture only in degrees.
At the moment it will suffice to look at the more immediate aspects
and the main entities and forces at work behind the turmoil of the
emerging new millennium. After investigating the spiritual revelations
of the new millennium in the chapters to come, we will return to the
larger dimension of the sociopolitical picture from an enriched perspective.
The twentieth century has been the century of social experimentation. All social change has been deemed justifiable to attain the
goals preset by utopian thinking. Millions have died in the massive
experiment called fascism and millions have died in the name of the
communism developed primarily in Eastern Europe and Asia. Human
life itself lost value and meaning in the pursuit of noble societal
goals. The human being, the object of the experiment, lost its status as
an individual to be considered only as part of a group, nation, or social
class, sacrificed to the old god of the motherland or the new mystique
of a classless society. Violence was justified, if not glorified, in a
march toward a better future. This judgment is not meant as a self-

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

righteous criticism, but rather as a reflection of the loss of meaning

that materialistic thinking has instilled in each and every human heart,
at least potentially. For the first time, on a planetary scale, a large part
of humanity became capable of considering human loss acceptable if
the outcome were desirable. This was no longer done primarily in the
name of tribe, race, nation, or religion as in preceding centuries, but in
the name of social ideology. Mussolini, Hitler, Mao, Stalin and their
cohorts have filled the history books with tragic human loss that was
either deliberately planned or the consequence of unfortunate mistakes. An estimated 61 million died in Russia at the hand of the soviet
government; the Chinese communist are responsible for 35 million; 21
million died in Europe through the Nazi regime. In Cambodia 30% of
the population died in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge upheaval.
What is this detached, rational mindset that in its extreme can coldly
contemplate obtaining its goals, no matter the cost?
Economic Globalization
After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, capitalism and socialism have learned to cohabit in a strange marriage of sorts. The hallmark of the times lies no longer in the utopias of political thinking, but
on the dictates of a much more impersonal world economy. After
World War II, with the accords of Bretton Woods, the stage was set
for international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the International Trade Organization,
whose importance has been slowly growing to the point of progressively relegating the nation-state to a de facto subordinate role. This is
the present stage of the much-debated globalization. Let us review
some of its milestones at the end of the century.
Globalization found its ideological justification in the expression market democracy or democratic markets used by Presidents
George H. W. Bush, Reagan, and Clinton to denote the assumption
that democracy automatically follows the establishment of free markets and unregulated liberal capitalism. At this point, and without a
counterweight, it is a one-sided form of development placed beyond
the sovereignty of governments and operating according to the dictates
of the market alone. It is facilitatedbut most often imposedby organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary

GLOBALIZATION: WILLING OR NOT

Fund in the name of economic liberalization. Its end result is the increasing chasm between industrialized nations and the marginalized
economies of a rapidly sinking developing world. The response to this
one-sided type of development encourages the growth of religious
fundamentalism in both worlds.
Liberalization most often corresponds to policies that emancipate the pursuit of profit from any direct scrutiny of the political body
and an accelerated erosion of social services that would alleviate the
problem. The only visible net result of these policies lies in the drive to
compete at whatever hidden cost the environment, labor, and local cultures can bear. However, behind the veneer of legitimacy and acceptance, the mantra linking free markets to competition, better services
and goods, and therefore to wealth and happiness is increasingly
tested. In effect, the continuous trend of destruction of all spiritual and
basic human values benefits only the economic criteria of a growth
completely divorced from the deeper aspects of what it means to be
human.
The General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) was finalized in 1993 in Uruguay and signed in Morocco. Through this
agreement emerged the creation of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) as the body that ensures implementation of and compliance
with all GATT agreements. In 1994, the WTO was given authority by
about 130 world leaders to strike down any countrys laws or even
constitutional provisions if they presented an obstacle to its mandates.
This endorsement further committed the signing countries not to pass
future legislation contrary to the provisions of the agreements sanctioned by the WTO.
In most countries, as in the US, these agreements were secured
with the fast-track approach, leaving the nations lawmakers and citizens hardly any time to get acquainted with such epochal provisions,
much less scrutinize and debate them. This gave the WTO the status of
a global unelected government.
The provisions on investments were found in the Trade Related
Investment Measures (TRIMS) agreement, which freed international
investors from the legislation set in place through local state regulations. Local governments sovereignty in matters of consumers rights
was bypassed by making labeling a barrier to trade and bringing stan-

10

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

dards down to the least demanding ones through TBT, the Agreement
on Technical Barriers to Trade. For example, the South Koreans discovered that grain they imported from the US was contaminated by
pesticides more than one hundred times over levels acceptable to them.
South Korea was practically forced to accept these imports to avoid a
WTO showdown.1
As another example of the consequences of the liberalization of
the circulation of capital, consider the effect of hot money. By
1998, an estimated $2 trillion moving through the worlds stock exchanges was labeled hot because the money generated high returns
in the very short term, and because the funds move quickly and disruptively in an unpredictable fashion. These movements lay at the root of
Britains devaluation in 1992 and Mexicos devaluation in 1995. In the
1970s and 1980s the Asia-Pacific region (Japan, Taiwan, Thailand,
Korea, Indonesia, etc.) had experienced unprecedented economic
growth following a model of regulated cooperation between government and business, which could be qualified as corporatist capitalism to differentiate it from an unregulated liberal economy. In the
1990s these countries liberalized their financial markets following the
dictates imposed by the World Bank. This led to an invasion of shortterm capital investing, for example, in a lucrative real estate boom at
the expense of long-term productive investments. The crisis hit East
Asia in 1997/98, causing the collapse of currencies and stock markets
with subsequent profound economic dislocations that these countries
carry to the present day. By 1998 the crisis had spread to Russia. At
present, foreign investments in countries such as the Philippines draw
from hot money at a rate of about 80%, with the result that the countries have little or no control over the allegiance of this financial capital to the welfare of the country.
Globalization has been dubbed an elite globalization, because the only protected rights are those of transnational corporations
(TNCs) and of capital. Little, if any of the WTO provisions address the
protection of the environment or of labor, and none of them have teeth.
GATT is the only United Nations agreement that is actually enforced.
Agreements taken at the Earth Summit, the Social Summit, and the
Womens Summit are all voluntary. This indicates how clearly all matters not financial or economic fall off the radar of elite globalization.

GLOBALIZATION: WILLING OR NOT

11

Workers rights, womens rights, cultural and religious values, and environmental preservation are not part of any long-term consideration
of the economic elites that drive globalization forward. In short, elite
globalization stands at in opposition to anything that can be defined as
sustainable, life-giving, and affirming development.
In the pursuit of the American model of growth, Indias imports of coal have surged by more than 101,000% from 1973 to 1993.
Indias annual CO2 emissions had reached 1.93 metric tons per person
in 1998. Not surprisingly, by 1996 Asia became the largest contributor
to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.2 And how many more of these
imports would be needed in order to attain imagined goals of prosperity! From 1950 to 2001, the global use of oil increased 7.5 times, that
of gas by nearly 13 times according to the Worldwatch Institute. According to this organization, ever since the early 1980s humanity as a
whole has been withdrawing resources at a faster rate than the Earth
can renew itself. In other words, we are drawing from the nonrenewable capital itself, no longer from the natural dividend.3
Another effect of the present kind of globalization is the destruction of ecosystems. Thailand has destroyed 87% of its mangroves,
one of the worlds most productive ecosystems, in the attempt to convert most of them into fishponds. In 1998 the corresponding rates of
loss were 85% for India, 61% for Vietnam, and 61% for the Philippines. Furthermore, the Asia-Pacific region as a whole lost 4.4 million
acres of forests from 1975 to 1986, and in the following four years
reached 11.6 million acres.4 The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF),
publishing the Living Planet Report, estimates that we are drawing at a
rate of 1.2 Earth-equivalent planets. The WWF also devises a Living
Planet Index in order to determine the condition of the global forests
and freshwater, ocean, and coastal ecosystems. According to their estimates, from 1970 to 2000 this index has decreased by 37%.5 The
above are only a few indicative numbers illustrating the ecological
devastation that affects the globe, in the illusory pursuit of the American way of life for all.
Globalization carries other destructive consequences for the
social bodychief of all, the fact that it displaces farmers to cities.
While the rationale is that they will be absorbed by industries that need

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

12

their help, the reality is that they join the growing ranks of unemployed in rapidly proliferating cities. Rural depopulation of developing
countries ranged between 20 to 45% in most severe cases in 1995,
against an average of 7% in industrialized countries.6
Not surprisingly, wealth disparity accompanied this global
trend. In 1965 the poorest 20% had 2.3% of the global income, and the
richest 20% grabbed a whopping 70%. But that was then. By 1995, the
share of the richest climbed to 85%.7 The 1999 United Nations Human
Development Report found among other things that:
-

the income disparity continuum encompasses the 1.3

billion people who live on less than a $1 per day, to the
worlds richest 200 who have doubled their net worth to
more than $1 trillion between 1994 and 1998.
the income of the 2.4 billion of the worlds poorest is
equivalent to that of 358 billionaires.
in comparative terms the income gap between the top
richest fifth (in terms of countries) and the poorest fifth
was 30 to 1 in 1960, 60 to 1 in 1990, and 74 to 1 in
1997.

The general trend we have described is not a matter of industrialized countries versus the developing world. Much the same can be
said within the US itself. In 1998 roughly 50% of all after-tax income
was equally divided between the top 20% and the lower 80%. The top
1% of families netted more income than the lower 38%. These data,
extreme as they appear, mask further layers of economic reality in net
wealth capable of generating income. Here, a small 10% of Americas
wealthiest families own between 70% to more than 90% of financial
assets ranging from stocks, bonds and other financial obligations to
real estate and productive business assets. According to a 1995 survey
done by the Federal Reserve, the wealthiest 1% of the country held
42.2% of stocks; an equal amount was shared by the following 9% and
little more than 15% was spread among the remaining lower 90%. In
contrast, the very same lower 90% holds 70.9% of total debt and liabilities.8 Another index of this disparity is reflected in the fact that

GLOBALIZATION: WILLING OR NOT

13

between 1990 and 2000, the average CEO salary rose by 571%, and
the average workers pay by 37%.
The emancipation of capital from the economy is such that
wealth is no longer necessarily linked to economic output and growth.
In the same year in which Enron collapsed, former CEO Kenneth Lay
collected a bonus of more than $100 million at the same time that employees lost their jobs and a total of $800 million from their pension
funds. That this was no isolated incident is confirmed by other wellknown cases and the fact that between 1999 and 2001, the CEOs of
twenty-three large companies investigated by the Security & Exchange
Commission earned 70% more than the average CEO.9 This quick survey gives us an idea of how globalization is driven from tiny elites
within the US and other Western industrialized countries without even
accruing a benefit to the general populations of these countries.
All of the above unwanted or unfortunate consequences of
globalization are summarized in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Reports that have been released since 1996. They have qualified this growth through the policies of globalization in these terms:
Ruthless growththat keeps close to 2.4 billion people in poverty. Social inequality soars to such extremes
that, in 1999, Bill Gates and two of the top owners of
Microsofts net worth equaled the assets of 43 countries
with a combined population of 600 million people.
Jobless growthconcurrent and constant high levels
of unemployment and underemployment are possible
although economies themselves can show growth. It is
expected that this rate will reach up to 80% in the most
affected countries.
Futureless growththat creates the continuous erosion of renewable resources, destruction of ecosystems,
environmental catastrophes, and long-term consequences such as global warming.

14

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

Rootless growthreferring to the weakening, if not

destruction, of cultures, the majority of them indigenous, whose spirituality and values cannot compete
with the constraints of liberalization that undermine
their livelihood and resources.
Voiceless growththat has emancipated itself from all
processes of democratic determination while disregarding all human rights.
But let us look more closely at the ideological underpinnings of
neoliberal capitalism that drive globalization forward. Market democracy has expanded at the social level what Darwinism has proposed at
the natural level. In the realm of nature Darwin, or rather those who
followed in his wake, postulated that evolution of plant and animal
species is driven by the survival of the fittest. In contrast to this,
many new developments in biology stress the role that cooperation
plays in the attainment of mature, stable ecosystems and in the evolution of species. While some of Darwinisms tenets hold true in relation
to the realms of nature, they fail to address the human condition in any
other realm beyond the animalistic instinctual level of the struggle for
survival.
The thoroughly materialistic view that reigns in Darwinism and
in much of orthodox science has given us the legacy of the picture of
the human being as a complex machine. Like a machine, it is to be
taken apart and reassembled; hence the idea that it can be altered, patented, and recreated is only a logical outcome of these initial premises.
To counter this mechanistic view, we have to find our way not only to
what is material in creationwhich Darwinism at least partly addressesbut also to what is of spiritual origin.
Paralleling Darwinism, neoliberalism promotes the constructive role of unrestrained freedom of the economic forces of the market.
Thus, the refrain goes, the thousands of daily economic decisions
driven by selfishly motivated, independent economic agentswill obtain the greatest good for the whole through the infallible guiding wisdom of the invisible hand of the market. In this view of things, all
parts in the equation try to extract benefits at the expense of another.

GLOBALIZATION: WILLING OR NOT

15

The producers want to sell at the highest price, the intermediates want
to buy at the lowest and sell at the highest, and consumers want to buy
at the lowest. In the reality of the concentration of power attained by
monopolies, oligopolies, and cartels, the small competitors, intermediaries, and consumers lose the unrestrained access to the market that
would establish a fair price for goods.
Many of the neoliberal tenets driving globalization are an insidious part of a commonly accepted mythology of our timestake the
Gross National Product (GNP) and other economic indicators, for example. The idea of GNP used to propel this worldview masks many
aspects of social and environmental decline under the heading of
growth, since it simply measures the financial flow of goods, regardless of their destination. An environmental cleanup shows up on the
positive side of the ledger for the man-hours, resources, and materials
used to fight the accident that disrupted the environment. The ecological impact simply appears as a positive factorit actually generates
growth. A TNC may benefit from plundering local nonrenewable resources as in the clear-cutting of forests, and exporting both the timber
and its own profits. While the local economy is devastated, all of this
is presented as a gain for the corporation. Likewise, family breakdowns and the associated added costs of housing, childcare, litigation,
and lawyers are claimed to contribute to the economy. So do gambling, lewd entertainment and the commodification of sex. In brief,
decay and destruction are seen as positive in the balance of the economy if they imply additional economic costs, and become invisible if
they dont.
The analysis of the phenomenon of globalization can be pushed
to its final spiritual aspects, as Nicanor Perlas invites us to do.10
Among the provisions of the Trade Related Intellectual Property
Agreements (TRIPS) of GATT is the interesting Article 27, addressing
the patenting of living organisms. Previous to TRIPS, a microbe had
been patented in 1980, and soon after came the patenting of plants and
animals. These provisions virtually criminalize the Third Worlds
farmers traditional activities of seed propagation. Philippine farmers
have seen their invaluable species of lagundi, banaba, and nata de
coco patented. The same occurred to Indias cherished neem tree. Corporations have not only patented animal specimens, but, continuing the

16

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

trend, a patent was obtained on human embryos in the early 1990s.

The extension of the fragmentation of the human being into its parts
allows the patenting of genetic fragments under the provisions of Article 27, as has been done in the US. Article 27 allows, among other
things, the patenting of microorganisms; its provisions can be made to
extend to human cell cultures and hence to the human genome.
Emblematic steps like gene patenting, ushered in by globalization, tend to pass unnoticed, compared with the magnitude of the ecological, social, and cultural crises to which public media draw much
attention. However, something of untold significance makes its way
into culture when the idea of the human machine finds its ultimate
consecration at the cellular and atomic level, and the last drop of spirit
is squeezed out of human experience. And yet, this is the really frightful horizon that humanity embraces with elite globalization. This is
actually the premise from which all other steps naturally follow.
Elite globalization ultimately represents the triumph of a
mechanistic view of the human being. The denial of the dimension of
soul or spirit logically opens the door for the commodification of all
aspects of life, be they plants, animals, or the human genome, or at
larger levels, labor, local cultures, local environments, or the whole
biosphere. We are called to consider that only the economic value
rules their existence and measures our enjoyment of them.
On another level, the picture painted by elite globalization is
one of fear and scarcity. While the implicit goal of globalization is to
bring the whole world to the levels of consumption of America, it must
be clear to any economically savvy analyst that this is simply not possible, even if the ecological devastation of the model were desirable at
a planetary level. Another complementary aspect of the present trend
of globalization, at odds with its veneer of universal concern, is the
reality of growing competition for key limited resources, chief among
them fossil fuels, whose supply industrialized countries struggle to
control for their primary benefit. In view of these constraints and of
their costly side effects, globalization can preserve only a certain level
of credibility through the rhetoric of the clash of civilizationsat present the supposedly Judeo-Christian worldview placing itself more and
more in opposition to Islamic fundamentalism, the pseudo-cultural
confrontation that Benjamin Barber aptly names in the title of his book

GLOBALIZATION: WILLING OR NOT

17

Jihad vs. McWorld. It is clear, however, that any living understanding

of what is spiritual and alive is simply squeezed out of globalizations
equation of scarcity. The Western culture it wants to preserve is the
ultimate empty spoil of worn-out tradition. Ultimately, the present
model of globalization, left to itself, spells out the reality of the death
of culture that philosophers and thinkers have been foreseeing and
fearing since the nineteenth century.
The Birth of Civil Society
That another outcome is possible we owe to an important new global
force, one that has grown from worldwide grassroots movements:
Civil Society. Its presence on the world scene has been felt in stages.
At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, while official meetings
were going on under tents on a stretch of beachfront, 18,000 citizens of
every race, nationality, social class, and religion gathered for the Non
Government Organizations (NGO) Global Forum to establish a protocol for voluntary concerted action. The result of this energetic encounter was the drafting of The Peoples Earth Declaration: A Proactive
Agenda for the Future. Two years later, at the International Conference on Population and Development, the Womens Movement likewise played an important role in the content of the official conference
document.
From 1996 to 1998 worldwide NGOs played a crucial role in
derailing the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which was
promoted secretly by TNCs in concert with leading global financial
institutions. The alarm was initially sounded when an NGO posted a
draft of the highly secret MAI on the Internet. At the previously mentioned November 1999 WTO Summit in Seattle, 50,000 demonstrators
effectively compromised the blueprint of globalization that had proceeded mostly unhindered. These actions marked the emergence of a
third force in addition to governments and the private sector primarily
represented by multinational corporations. This third force, Civil Society, questioned the prevailing predicament of growth and its exclusive
reliance on economic indicators and the financial bottom line. The present model of development has entered a phase of decline, noticeable
because it is eroding the finite resources on which it depends and ulti-

18

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

mately undermining the purchasing power that supports its growth. It

has aptly been compared to a cancerous growth.
In Seattle, the general consciousness of the globe awakened to
the realization of how economic concerns were swallowing and eliminating all other social, political, and spiritual concerns. During the ongoing UN Social Development Summits, thousands of NGOs are now
invitedan important first step in the recognition of the increasing
global role of Civil Society. The year 2001 saw the birth of the World
Social Forum, first held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, with the theme Another World is Possible. It was attended by 20,000 participants. Two
years later, attendance climbed to more than 100,000. The fourth forum was held in Mumbai, India, attracting 80,000 people from 132
countries. The fifth forum, held again in Porto Alegre, was crowned
with a record participation of 150,000.
The power of Civil Society has been felt in other ways, at the
national level, even before the end of the century. Nonviolent movements have led to Indias independence in 1949, desegregation and
civil rights in the United States and South Africa, democracy in Poland, and the removal of dictatorships in the Philippines, Chile, and
other countries.
In East Germany civil rights, environmentalist, and womens
rights groups emerged from under the umbrella of the Lutheran
Church to stage massive rallies that contributed to the fall of the regime in 1989. The South African rule of apartheid was brought down
by boycotts, strikes, and demonstrationscivil disobedience, not only
in the country but all over the world. Most of this was done nonviolently.
Throughout the 1990s, democratization advanced in African
states where dictators were ousted through popular grassroots movementsin Benin, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Ivory
Coast street protests drove General Guei from power in 2000, ousting
him after only one year. Similar tides of popular discontent drove rulers from power in Bolivia (in this case, with attendant violent actions),
Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Peru. In the last few years, political tyrants have been swept out of power in countries such as Ukraine,
Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. Lebanons pro-Syrian government was top-

GLOBALIZATION: WILLING OR NOT

19

pled after demonstrations by almost one million protesters in April of

2005.
We have entered a fertile time of potential revolution, spurred
by countless individuals actively redefining their relationships with the
paradigm of materialism and adopting new relationships with the
spirit. Dubbed the Ecological Revolution by some, its goal is to finally
bridge the gap between science and faith that first entered modern consciousness at the advent of the Copernican scientific revolution in the
sixteenth century. In the next chapter, we will turn to a characterization of this emerging culture, based upon a new, tentative understanding of what defines the human experience.

Chapter 2

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

I have pressd through in my own right,
I have sung the body and the soul, war and peace have
I sung,
And the songs of life and death,
And the songs of birth, and shown that there are many
births.
Walt Whitman
We have seen that the main trend of globalization defines the realm of
the living from a merely economic perspective, from the price tag that
can be placed on it. However, things acquire a new complexity when
we look at the same issues from political or cultural perspectives. Let
us place in this context the debates that take place around the modification, extension, abridgment, or termination of the moments of birth
and death.
Prior to the Copernican revolution, there was a tacit recognition
of values concerning birth and death. They were simply the domain of
a religious outlook that still enjoyed a very high level of acceptance.
These issues have been more and more redefined and questioned, in
order to encompass larger sets of values and expanding needs of the
individual emancipated from the dictates of social structures, institutions, or tradition. Birth and death are presently redefined in relation to
our ability to shape our own destinies; to deny, question, or transcend
tradition; and, ultimately, our desire to form new, individual relationships with the spirit.
Since the nineteenth century, and even more from the twentieth
century onward, modern humanity has acquired power over parts of
the human biological cycle that were considered sacred or beyond the
reach of human knowledge and intervention. Let us look in a dispassionate manner at some of the milestones that brought us to the present.
It may come as a surprise that the first successful attempt at
human artificial insemination occurred in 1776. It was performed by
the Scottish surgeon, John Hunter. Toward the end of that century
Malthus published the famous Essay on the Principles of Population

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

21

as It Affects the Future Improvement of Society. In 1832, Charles

Knowlton wrote the first treatise on birth control: Fruits of Philosophy; or, The Private Companion to Married Couples. It was followed
by the introduction of rubber condoms on the American market by
mid-century. In England the advocates of birth control created the
Malthusian League in 1877, at which time Annie Besant went on trial
for having published Knowltons booklet. Probably the first clinic performing abortions opened in Amsterdam in 1882, under the auspices
of a female physician, Aletta Jacobs. The century ended with the
timely discovery of Thomas Trahernes poetry. The poet had an uninterrupted memory going back to birth and the time between lives,
much of which is depicted in his poems.
The movement towards birth control truly accelerated towards
the time of the First World War. In 1912, London saw the First International Eugenics Congress, which developed the idea that controlling
birth could be used to attain racial goals. Abortion was legalized in
1917 in Russia, and a Mothers Clinic for that purpose opened in London shortly after. Around this time M. Sangers Family Limitation was
published and the Birth Control League of America was founded.
An interesting cluster of events occurred in the early 1930s.
The Pope countered the trend of the century with the Encyclical Casti
Connubi, which condemned the use of birth control as a crime against
nature and God. The Nazis rise to power was accompanied by the law
against hereditarily ill progeny, accompanied by a mandate for 56,000
sterilizations of unfit individuals. Another law prohibited the marriage between healthy and mentally retarded people. On the other side
of the Channel the British Euthanasia Society was founded with such
luminaries among its members as George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand
Russell, and H. G. Wells. Another milestone, in 1934 Bill Wilson had
his famous spiritual experience and in 1939 Alcoholics Anonymous
was founded. Perhaps more could be mentioned here how this fact
about AA relates to birth and death? Shortly after, George Ritchie had
one of the earliest, famous near-death experiences (published much
later in the book Return from Tomorrow).
A new impetus emerged towards the sixties. In 1956, China
decreed the first campaign for birth control. In the US, the Food and
Drug Administration approved the first oral contraceptive in 1960. The
end of the decade was accompanied by the publication of On Death

22

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

and Dying by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, and a little-known book promoting euthanasia of defective children was a success in Holland (Medical
Power and Medical Ethics by Dr. J. H. Van den Berg).
From the stage of thought and trial, we moved into a period of
full realization after the 1970s. The practice of CPR brought a dramatic change in emergency wards and prolonged the life expectancy of
those suffering from heart failure. Two significant events followed
each other closely: Humphrey Derek performed the assisted suicide of
Jean Crane in 1975 and followed it with the publication of Jeans Way
in 1978, also the year of the birth of the first test-tube baby, named
Elizabeth Brown. China established the one child policy the following year. Jack Kevorkian designed the suicide machine in 1989 and
used it the following year on Janet Adkins. Other modern developments brought us to cloning and the famous sheep Dolly in the late
1990s.
What appears from this overview is the expanded power of
humanity to modify the cycles of birth and death in a dramatic fashion
and on a large scale. We are in effect moving now in the direction of
genetically modified organisms. All of these steps can be seen as necessary or unavoidable developments. If the old moralistic approach
were enough to stem the tide, we could argue that things would not
have come to this pass. What is humanity gaining and what does humanity have to learn? All of the propositions on the modification and
altering of the natural life cycleits extension, abridgement, and artificial recreationhave logical, plausible arguments both in favor and
against them. On that level we cannot reach a deeper understanding,
one that would guide us in the context of each personal situation.
This book does not address these matters from a moral perspective; rather it tries to dispassionately present the other side of the equationthe quiet, unseen revolution that surrounds us and offers us the
tools and the way to address these concerns from an individually informed perspective, equidistant from the slogans of progress or the
injunctions of outworn moral imperatives. The thresholds of birth and
death can be reconsecrated through renewed wonder derived from
fresh knowledge and new experiences presenting themselves to those
who dwell in the new millennium.

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

23

The above has been offered as background to the information

that will be provided in this book. It is clear that modification of the
human cycle affects us on all levels. When we talk about abortion or
euthanasia, we are touching on ethical matters as well as pushing political hot buttons. When we speak of genetically modified foods,
powerful economic interests are added to the equation.
While the sacredness of birth and death may diminish, they do
not cease to offer us new revelations. It is this renewed awe that we
want to place at the center of the discussion about the moral choices
that face every individual. While most of us have become familiar with
euthanasia or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, we may also have acquired glimpses of a growing host of spiritual experiences that concern
both death and birth. Most of them come with catchy three-letter acronyms. Most inclusive of all and oldest in origin is the term OBE for
out of body experience. Very popular and hotly debated is the term
NDE for near-death experience. Other terms we will find in the present exploration are ADC for after-death communication, and, of
more recent origin, PBE for pre-birth experience. These and other
experiences will form the object of our exploration.
The above-mentioned phenomena are part of the evolution of
the individual as much as they represent the birth pangs of a larger
revolution affecting the planet itself. Individual and Earth evolution
are intimately united in a mutual path of transformation that can cause
confusion and painful readjustmentboth personal and societal. It is
not mere coincidence that this shift occurs at the time of a serious ecological crisis that threatens the global ecosystem, indicating the urgency of personal and collective change.
To address this shift, we will move from the individual level of
consciousness to the larger level of reality. To attain this goal it is convenient to proceed from an exploration of the experiences that point to
life before birth and then move to those that point to life after death.
We will primarily address the ways that past-life experiences break the
surface of consciousness and make reincarnation a more and more
plausible working hypothesis. We will then look at how this experience has been translated into a modern key to understanding. Then, we
will turn to experiences that give human beings a growing certainty of
a life after death. We have proceeded this way because, at the end of
this exploration, we will be better able to offer an explanation of the

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

second aspect of our investigationthe planetary shift of consciousness.

Karma and reincarnation have long been the doctrine of the ancient East. There these beliefs survive mostly in Hinduism and Buddhism. In the West, these concepts have long been forgotten. It may
come as a surprise to learn that in the earliest centuries of Christianity,
many religious authoritieschief among them Origenstill held on to
a belief in previous lives. In modern times, the earliest ideas from the
East live side by side with emerging formulations of the West, of
which more will be said later.
Before going into previous-life memories, we will look at an
experience that is also becoming more common at present, one that has
been called PBE or pre-birth experience. More and more people
(mothers especially) receive clear indications of the soul that is to be
born.
OUR BIRTH IS BUT A SLEEP AND A FORGETTING
And from a cliff-top is proclaimed
The gathering of the souls for birth,
The trial by existence named,
The obscuration upon earth.
And the slant spirits trooping by
In streams and cross- and counter-streams
Can but give ear to that sweet cry
For its suggestion of what dreams!
Robert Frost
Remembrances of previous lives are not the only experience of the
realm before birth. A growing field of awareness concerns the ability
to sense and feel the individuality of the coming newbornchiefly,
but not only, among mothers. In the above lines, Robert Frost portrays
in beautiful images what only poetic language can apprehend in its
fullnessnamely, the souls desire to incarnate from the realms of the
spiritual into the material. Is this just poetic license and flight of fancy,
or is there a deeper truth to the words of the poet?
This reality is what Sarah Hinze seems to confirm in her re-

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

25

search into a little-investigated realm that more and more people are
beginning to experience. What prompted her to research the matter
was the wealth of her own experiences as a mother of nine children,
particularly in relation to her fifth pregnancy, which followed a miscarriage. The result of this research appeared in the book, Coming
from the Light. The following story, referring to a daytime experience
and entitled My Name Is James, offers us a typical example.
My experience with the unborn is quite simple. We had
five children, plus one miscarriage, and were trying, at
this point, not to have another baby. But in quiet moments, I would hear a small, almost audible voice say,
My name is James, and Im ready to be born. This
happened a few times, so I shared it with my husband.
I was a little excited, but my last baby was only
two, and I was still thinking I was not ready to have another child. In addition, we were planning to leave for
India to work as missionaries.
On my birthday, April 5, my husband took me out
for dinner and afterward we were intimate. But I had no
inkling that I was pregnant until we were on the plane
heading for India, April 17. It was quiet, and I was
praying. I felt the Lord speak to my heart, Blessed is
the fruit of the womb. I knew then that I was pregnant.
Nine months later, James was born in Pune, India.
(Detrah H.)1
The experiences collected by S. Hinze received the ad hoc
name of pre-birth experiencesPBEs. These are very specific experiences received most often by parents and close relatives (especially siblings) of a future child. More rarely, they can fall upon adoptive parents, midwives, and close friends. PBEs occur in almost equal
proportion before conception or between conception and birth.
A Sense of Special Mission
Communications from unborn souls are either visual or auditory, and
may be waking or dream visions. These are some of the criteria that in
different degrees and combinations accompany all PBEs. The experi-

26

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

ence of the pre-born soul is accompanied by light that shines from

them or around them, together with a radiation of warmth and love.
Souls on their way to Earth communicate an eagerness to incarnate, as
well as a sense of loss of their heavenly home. They impart to recipients that it is time for them to embody in the womb and that they come
to Earth with a sense of special mission. The incarnating souls are accompanied toward their new earthly mission by escorts, who are
generally, but not exclusively, deceased relatives.
Bauer, Hoffmeister, and Georg have studied many similar phenomena and have enumerated some of the main traits of these pre-birth
experiences.2 Whether in a dream or in day consciousness, the visions
refer to a realm other than that of our daily experience. Through the
image of the individual that appears in the dream, the gaze, the quality
of the eyes, the stature, size of head, expression, posture, gait, or way
of speaking, the recipient gets to know something about the character
and personality of the coming child.
The experience need not always be a blissful one, although
most of them are. The following is an example provided by the abovementioned authors. It refers to a twenty-year-old woman who experiences ambivalence about a coming birth:
I knew I would conceive a childit was as though a
great dark space was coming towards me. However, I
did not want to avoid it but get to meet it. And then, after the conception I experienced ease of mind and the
feeling that I could bear all the misery and hard times
with a strength that came from the child and not from
myself.3
Descending entities may retain memories of their condition before birth, in the realms between lives. In some warning PBEs, the
souls try to communicate with living souls who are receptive in order
to prevent suicide, rape, abortion, or other disruptions to their imminent destiny. According to Bauer et al., in those dreams or visions the
children express these obstacles in terms of wanting to come but finding doors and windows closed, and having to go through keyholes and
other entryways.4 They may also provide messages as to how to help
the process of incarnation of the coming soul. It has been observed that

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

27

children are very receptive to the messages of incarnating souls. Indeed they may be communicating with these souls when they are engaging with their so-called imaginary friends.
Even more interesting to the emergence of a new consciousness is the still rare phenomenon of those who retain an uninterrupted
consciousness pointing back to their life before birth. This allows us to
look directly at the experience of the messengers themselves, rather
than that of the recipients. Such was the case of the poet Traherne, four
centuries ago, who portrayed these experiences in his poems The Perspective, The Salutation, and Wonder. The following is a sample from
his poem Wonder:
How like an angel came I down!
How bright are all things here!
When first among his Works I did appear,
O how their glory me did Crown?
The world resembled his Eternitie,
In which my Soul did Walk;
And every Thing that I did see,
Did with me talk.
Another example of day consciousness of the realms of existence before birth is mentioned in the story I Spoke Another Language,
from the cases collected by Sarah Hinze.5 The conversation is presented in the form of a dialogue between the individual, Gwenevere
Hulse, and (presumably) an angel. It portrays an episode that returned
to the womans memory at the time of writing her lifes story. In the
time preceding birth, her soul was apprehensive about the change of
environment upon leaving the spirit world. The angelic being offered
her reassurance. Then came the experience of birth, physical sunlight,
and contact with all the relatives who held her. This was accompanied
by feelings of loneliness, an inability to understand what was said and
a need to cry. The memory also recovers a language that the soul understood in the spirit, and the lingering ability to communicate in that
language for a few years after birth. Then forgetfulness set in.

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

A Light in the Distance

Let us finalize this study of pre-birth experience with the unusually
clear experience of a person identified as Mrs. B. and her resolve to
incarnate, going far beyond the example just quoted.6 (See full text in
Appendix 1.)
Mrs. B. grew up in a dysfunctional family. Her mother was not
married and her mothers partner was an alcoholic. Apart from the
daughter in the story, her mother had both an earlier miscarriage and a
later one following the birth of Mrs. B. The birth of Mrs. B. was rendered possible due to a doctors intervention after the child, in utero,
had given signs of dying. After the rescue, the child was born but was
physically malformed and sickly. Although the mother was ashamed to
show her in public, the child projected a certain inner happiness and
delighted in playing with her two imaginary brothers.
Mrs. B. related her pre-birth experiences as an adult: The experiences I want to narrate have not been forgotten or concealed beneath the passing years. It is more as though, closing my eyes, I were
remembering something that had recently happened or, to be more exact, as though it existed right now, filling the whole of time, outside of
me, above me (italics added).
On the occasion of a great inner fear resulting from hearing
adults talking about the end of the world, the childs memory awakened, knowing that she had something to do in the world. This gave
rise to a succession of feelings; first, a recognition of the love that
emanated from all of creation towards her, and a feeling of personal
responsibility. Later, a sense of loneliness gave way to crying.
In her second experience she recognized the presence of what
is outwardly described as a white-clad, winged angel. The being accompanied the child during her early years, then one day announced
that he was withdrawing. Just before doing so, he conveyed the central
experience to Mrs. B.: The angel pulled away something like a curtain which appeared to have been just inside the forehead. What the
child saw afterwards was like a dream but also a long forgotten memory. At the beginning she was surrounded by darkness and could see
a light in the distance. In moving towards it, she received the following
message, clothed in images. She was first warned about her parents
and especially her mother, but this was not enough to lessen her desire
to incarnate. She also realized that she could choose between two life

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

29

scenarios, the first externally beautiful but inwardly impoverished,

and the second, rich and beautiful within. She chose the second, and
sensed both the love around her and a feeling of sadness. In leaving
she started to experience time and the oblivion of what lay behind her.
She sensed the company of the being at her side and heard a voice reminding her that she had a task to accomplish. In moving forward the
consciousness of the task faded away.
We will now move further back in the life before birth and
break ground in matters of reincarnation, within the parameters of
spontaneous recall. Therefore, we will not bring to bear any of the results obtained under hypnosis in past-life regressions. Ultimately this
work addresses only ways of working with destiny and the laws of
karma from a fully conscious perspective.
CHILDREN WHO RETURN
Wert Thou that just maid who once before
Forsook the hated earth, O tell me sooth
And camst again to visit us once more?
John Milton
Ian Stevenson7 and Carol Bowman8 have worked with children from
complementary perspectives. Stevenson, a psychiatry professor and
researcher, was interested in the scientific and phenomenological aspect of reincarnation. He came across puzzling claims from children
who asserted with conviction that they had been someone else before,
and, in general, indeed quite recently. After collecting and reviewing
cases of supposed reincarnations, he would verify the information
given with relatives of the person claiming to know his or her previous
incarnation. He would then verify the information about the person the
child claimed to have been, what the child knew of the person, and any
facts concerning the first possible incarnation.
What helps this research is that in most cases the children presumably reincarnated near the time and geographical milieu of their
previous life. Stevenson uses all the scientific procedures available in
his field and adds an interdisciplinary approach. He usually investi-

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

gates cases with the help of local scientists. With them, he sometimes
questions up to fifty or more people in order to verify the validity of
the claims. He has collected more than 2,500 reports of reincarnation
cases.
Carol Bowmans point of departure has been a more existential
question: her sons and daughters unusual behaviors and phobias.
With very little prompting, her children were able to retrieve past-life
memories that lay dormant just beneath the veil of consciousness. Retrieving these memories helped bring prompt healing to phobias that
had no root or possible explanation in present life. This was the perspective that motivated her to inquire about how common this experience is in children and what therapeutic value the retrieval of past-life
memories may have. In both Stevensons and Bowmans studies, the
discussion concerns only the apparently immediately previous incarnation, as opposed to one that may have occurred long ago.
Inspiring as all of the conclusions drawn by the two authors
may be, we remind the reader that what traditional science is able to
investigate is simply epiphenomena, cases of short lives interrupted by
sudden circumstances and resumed relatively quickly. These are limited cases of reincarnation where, given the circumstances, few of the
larger laws of reincarnation manifest themselves, and we actually have
a psychological continuity between livestherefore, many elements of
predictability, which is hardly characteristic of a full reincarnation, as
we shall see later.
We will take an example from Ian Stevensons studies, one that
the scientist had the unusual fortune of being able to follow at a very
early age.9 Samuel Helander, a Finnish boy, was born on April 15,
1976, in Helsinki. Stevenson inquired into this case in person in 1978
and 1981. When his mother was pregnant with Samuel, she was contemplating abortion. In the tenth week of her pregnancy, her deceased
brother, Pertti, appeared in a dream, saying: Keep that child. Pertti
was Marjas younger brother, born on June 8, 1957, deceased on June
10, 1975. The cause of his death was an undetected, severe case of
diabetes, causing a coma from which he did not recover.
As soon as he could speak, Samuel started talking about the life
of his maternal uncle, Pertti Haikio, and referring to himself as Pelti,
having difficulty pronouncing the letter r. He persisted with the name
until the age of six. He also addressed his parents by their respective

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

31

names of Pentti and Marja, rather than Mom and Dad. To Marja he
explicitly said, You are not my mother. Instead he called his maternal grandmother, Anneli Lagerqvist, mother, and he was about two
when he attempted to nurse at her breast. Samuels strong attachment
to the grandmother ended by age five, when he stopped referring to her
as his mother.
Attempts to explain his identity to Samuel failed. Upon looking
at Perttis photograph, he would recognize himself. He also had specific memories of what had happened to Pertti, such as an episode at
age three when a dog bit his leg, about which Samuel had never been
given previous knowledge. Upon looking at photographs he recognized as father Perttis father, who had been absent from the family
since the time the grandmother had remarried.
While other incidental remarks might be mentioned, suffice it
to say that the child also recognized Perttis grave as his own. Like his
uncle, Samuel had a strong fear of water; Pertti had nearly drowned
after falling from a quay through a thin cover of ice, and after this
event his water phobia kept him from swimming. Samuels grandmother said that giving him a bath was a true nightmare. The family
remarked that certain of Samuels gesturessuch as standing with one
foot forward and one hand on a hipwere the same that Pertti used to
assume; no one else in the family used these gestures.
In this condensed example, many of the features of childrens
spontaneous memories of previous lives are present, while some are
missing. Those symptoms that Stevenson lists include:
-

prediction of rebirth made by the person who will reincarnate (very rare)
dreams before conception or rebirth by family relatives,
indicating reincarnation
birthmarks or birth defects
statements about the previous life by the child
unusual behavior or phobias manifested by the child

Prediction of Rebirth
The first symptom is so rare that we will discard it from the analysis. It
seems to occur primarily among indigenous people: Stevenson quotes
the Alaskan Tlingits and the Tibetans.

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

Dreams Before Conception

The second symptom confirms the studies of Sarah Hinzes PBEs. It
appears in our example of the dream of Marja. Premonition dreams
most often occur to a mother, but may also come to a spouse, relative,
or friend. The dreams are usually experienced before the birth, and
sometimes before conception. Here again, traditional cultures have
higher incidences. Stevenson indicates that among these are the Burmese, the Alevis of Turkey, and the tribes of Northwestern America;
but these dreams occur throughout the world. Usually a known person
or stranger introduces him- or herself to the pregnant mother, asking
for permission to be borne by her, or simply announcing his or her
coming birth as a matter of fact.
Birthmarks and Birth Defects
Birthmarks or birth defects seem to appear in places where a previous
life personality contracted wounds or suffered internal diseases. Stevenson checked these cases by taking photographs of the birth defects.
He also corroborated previous life wounds and diseases with medical
records or autopsies of the deceased person.
An example is the case of the presumably reincarnated Turkish
bandit known by the name Cemil Hayik.10 The advantage of this example is that his life was documented and his autopsy was available to
Stevenson. He was, in fact, one of the most wanted bandits in the
southeastern province of Turkey of Hatay. In 1935 he committed suicide when he realized that he could not escape the French police, who
had burned the house where he and his brothers were staying. He shot
himself under the left side of the jaw. The corpses were seen by thousands. In this case there was what Stevenson calls an annunciatory
dream experienced by a distant relative of the husband of a woman
expecting a child, a day before delivery. The newborn in question had
a birthmark under the left side of the jaw and another on the top of the
head, the places where the bullet had entered and exited Cemils body.
His father soon remembered the relatives dream about Cemil. The
child demonstrated symptoms and behaviors similar to the ones we
have seen in Samuel Helanderin his case, nightmares of fighting the
French that continued until he reached age seven. His anger with the
police had survived and was now associated with a phobia of blood. At

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

33

birth the birthmark under the jaw had bled abundantly and become larger later. He also frequently experienced pain in his teeth.
A different but striking example is the case of Gillian and Jennifer Pollock.11 The identical twins were born at Hexham, England, on
October 4, 1958. Their older sisters, Joanna and Jacqueline, had been
killed in an automobile accident at ages eleven and six, respectively.
Mr. Pollock, who believed in reincarnation, announced to his pregnant
wife that the sisters would be reborn as twins. Jennifer and Gillian had
memories of their supposed lives as Joanna and Jacqueline between
ages two and four. However, what is remarkable in this instance were
the birthmarks: Jennifer, the younger twin, had two birthmarks that
corresponded in location and size to the two marks on Jacquelines
body. A mark on Jennifers forehead, near the root of the nose,
matched a scar that had persisted on Jacquelines forehead after she
had fallen and cut herself there; and a brown mark (nevus) on the left
side of Jennifers waist matched a similar congenital one on Jacqueline.
Birth defects seem to appear in place of a wound from a previous life, e.g., a more extensive injury with possible loss of limbs. Stevenson documents the case of a young child who was born in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.12 At age four he died as a result of an incident with a fodder-cutting machine in which he lost three fingers and
the tip of his thumb. His mother had greatly mourned the loss, and had
seen him in a vision, announcing that he would soon be reborn. Thirteen months later and three miles away, a child by the name of Lekh
Pal Jatav was born to a farmer and his wife. Their son had a normal
left hand, but all fingertips on the right hand were one-third shorter
than usual. What was unusual is the fact that his condition did not resemble the rare congenital anomaly called brachydactily that occurs in
one of 40,000 births, but almost always involves both hands. In the
case of brachydactily, the fingers are normal but shorter; in the boys
case, the tips of the fingers had no bones. The child was frail and
sickly, and soon started talking about his previous village and previous
parents, brothers, and sisters, adding that the current place in which
they lived was not his home, and that he did not want to live in the village. At age eight, a fortuitous circumstance allowed the child to go to
the previous-life village. He recognized someone who had been one of

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

his brothers and, when submitted to a test, he could single out his previous mother, as well as his brothers and sisters, and offer details about
his previous life. It is of added interest to this case that the reincarnated
Lekh had no phobia of fodder-cutting machines.
This last point underlines the significance of individual reaction. The manifestation of birthmarks, birth defects, and/or phobias
seems to follow similar patterns. It may appear at first a mystery as to
why some people are reborn with pronounced birthmarks, birth defects, or phobias stemming from previous wounds, while others, having undergone similar deaths, have only slight defects or behaviors or
none at all. The tie between stimulus and response is a key factor.
Children who die are most often unable to offer anything but an automatic response. Adults can respond to stimuli with growing degrees of
self knowledge or through raw emotion. Cemil Hayik carried into the
next life not only his emotions, but also the marks of the scars that led
to his death. He had little desire to transform his feelings and explore
new kinds of responses to his plight.
Talk of Previous Life
Statements about previous livesaccording to both Stevenson and
Bowmanoccur in a spontaneous manner, most often between ages
two and five, and tend to begin around age three. Stevenson noticed
that memories fade between ages five and eight. In fact, induced relaxation, as practiced by Bowman, does not work as well with four- to
six-year-olds. It is more successful with eight- to eleven-year-olds.
This seems to indicate that what is immediately available to consciousness in younger children is veiled only when they reach prepuberty, and then is buried more deeply over time. Apart from rare exceptions of individuals who maintain their memories through their
adult lives, most children forget theirs before or around school age.
School marks an obvious change in childrens lives, since they forego
their family milieu and life of play and enter the world of abstract
thinking. Memories disappear regardless of whether parents support or
negate childrens claims. Up to this time, children have been living in
a world of visual imagery, which they now must lay aside to make way
for the experience of schooling.
Memories from a previous life tend to cluster around the final
years, months, and days before death. The event of death plays a cen-

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

35

tral role and is remembered clearly, especially if the individual has undergone a violent or sudden transition. Stevenson concludes that facts
and people remembered are more connected with the proximity to
death than with the length of association within previous lives. In exceptional cases, events may be recalled of the life between death and
new birth. Stevenson met three people who could recall events immediately following death, such as the funeral or details about burial. Although an unusual occurrence, it still reinforces the central importance
of the event of death.13 Memories of life between death and rebirth
may touch on other realms immediately adjacent to life on earth.
Bowman confirms an event that Stevenson recorded only once: children who remember events before their birth, their descent to earth,
and/or choosing their parents.14
There are quite a few indicators that children are remembering
previous life events. A child remembering a tragic death speaks of it in
a serious way, accompanied by a sense of grief. He sounds older than
his age, speaks with intensity, and may use concepts beyond the grasp
of his age group. His focus turns inward, a very precocious step for a
young child. He may be surprised by an adults lack of understanding
when he speaks of a previous life as a matter of fact, or wonders why
adults do not remember their previous lives. The child may use present-tense sentences such as: I have a wife and two sons, or My
house is much bigger than this one. Otherwise, he may emphasize the
difference between the two lives with sentences such as When I was
big. Bowman observes that the child recalling a previous life may
be immediately part of its reality. A child who had drowned in a
swimming pool was asked whether she was wearing a bathing suit at
the time. In order to respond, the child looked down at her body and
confirmed.15
Previous-life memories appear in yet another state of consciousness: dreaming. Past-life memories appear in vivid, coherent,
and recurrent dreams. Unlike other dreams, the scenario is realistic. It
has a beginning, development, and end. It will tend to return, unaltered, in time or undergo slow, progressive modifications. These
dreams may continue well into adulthood. According to the level of
trauma, the dreams can turn into nightmares. The difference from
regular dreams is that the child will rarely remember them, unless
asked and given a chance to talk about them soon after.

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

At a deeper level are what have been called night terrors. The
child is absolutely terrified, screams, walks or runs, and acts violently
while appearing awake. Afterwards, she will have absolutely no memory of the event. Night terrors occur during the deepest cycle of sleep.
They manifest themselves starting at age three or four, and fade by age
five or six. This is the span of time when a child is most likely to have
spontaneous previous-life memories.
A final, much rarer but strong indication of the possibility of
reincarnation memories is a phenomenon called xenoglossy. This occurs in cases of children who are able to speak a languageeither in
waking life or while asleepthat is different from any they have been
taught in their environment. Manifestations of xenoglossy range from
a completely different language to one spoken in a neighboring region,
or a different dialect from the one spoken in the childs place of origin,16
Unusual Behaviors or Phobias
Previous-life memories may exist at a more unconscious level but
manifest in behavior. Ian Stevenson found that phobias related to a
previous lifes mode of death affected 50% of people who recalled dying a violent death. The phobia may in fact appear before the child
learns to speak and, therefore, explain what is troubling him. Stevenson mentions the example of Ravi Shankar Gupta, who had a barber
phobia connected to his memory of having been killed by a barber in a
previous life. He retained it later in life, even though he understood the
origin of his fears. A child with a strong water phobia retrieved pastlife memories of having died from drowning. Another, who had been a
political insurgent in previous lives, developed a phobia related to police officers, which motivated him to hide when he saw them.
Child play and likes and dislikes are other areas where previous-life memories can appear. Some behaviors cluster around the difference in social class between one life and the next. Children who
have memories of having belonged to a wealthy milieu may be contemptuous and disparaging of their present family, refuse to do housework, or look down on the clothes they wear. In the reverse situation, a
child of a rich family may behave in ways that the family finds coarse;
he may ask for food that his family doesnt eat and only lower-class
people are known to eat. An Indian child, reborn as a Brahmin, who

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

37

remembered having belonged to a lower caste, asked her vegetarian

family for pork. She had had little emphasis on hygiene and was willing to take on chores that the rest of the family found repulsive (for
example, cleaning toilets).
Sense of an Unfinished Life
Childrens memories live just beyond the veil of consciousness. Any
sensory experiencea sight, smell, or taste, an object or picturecan
trigger past-life memories. Music has a strong evocative power. The
sight of blood, ropes, or knives may bring back the memory of a violent death. In these instances, however, the child may simply express a
phobia and not be able to articulate a memory. A childs first traumas,
i.e., the first day of school, can trigger memories of past-life abandonment or separation. Finally, other strong triggers are landscapes or persons known in previous lives.
Some children have recognized a landscape they had never
seen before in their present life, and have led adults around and
through it on the basis of their memory. Then, they have shown their
parents the place where they lived. Ian Stevenson describes many such
examples of children who have reincarnated very close to the place of
their previous existence. Life circumstances led them to pass by these
places, where previous life recollections were triggered. A child may
walk up to a perfect stranger and ask, Dont you remember me? and
then explain, It was a long time ago. Ian Stevenson gives the example of a Thai child who recognized and called by name a previous-life
aunt, whom no one in his present-life family had known. A Turkish
child was able to recognize two ice cream vendors selling ice cream on
his street.
We have seen the phenomenology of past-life memories in
children, but are all children equally affected? The studies of Ian Stevenson and Carol Bowman show that we are dealing with a very specific group of children. A large part of Stevensons recorded past-life
memories come from children who died a violent death (61%), a sudden or unexpected death, or died young (under the age of twelve) of
natural causes. In other words, we are dealing with people who carry a
sense of an unfinished life. Stevenson has found intervals between reincarnations that last from a few months to a maximum of 25 years.
The average (median) interval between lives, for 616 cases, was 15

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

months. He also detected a statistically significant shorter interval for

children who had suffered a violent death than for those who had died
naturally.
In the present, people who recall a former life often have a
good memory, and may have had the same in the just-previous life.
The shock of a strong difference between the lives is what may induce
the memories. We saw the examples of Indian children born in very
different social milieus. On the other hand, too much shock could induce a phobia and no conscious memory. In most case studies, the
children have been reborn in the same country or culture.
The childs environment also plays an important role. Open
mindedness to the idea of reincarnation helps the family identify the
possible nature of the memories. Stevenson lists other supporting factors: honoring and remembering the dead, strong family ties, a less
materialistic outlook, the ability to listen to dreams, preservation of
visual imagery (more storytelling, less media), more time for reflection
versus busy-ness, and a slower pace of life.
From a psychological perspective, a few elements will emerge
from this first preliminary inquiry into these peripheral aspects of
reincarnation. The studies of Bowman and Stevenson touch on borderline cases of reincarnation. We could say that they involve lives
that have been interrupted, and two quick, successive incarnations.
This becomes manifest in the fact that children return to an environment similar to the one they left. The interval between reincarnations
has been so short that feelings have survived unchanged, just as they
would have been in this lifetime. Overall, Stevenson concludes, traumatic memories form the majority of previous-life memories. It is, in
fact, the moment of death that plays a central role in past-life memories. Major traumas and phobias are for the most part related to the
moment of death.
How we view death and how we face it sets the tone for the
subsequent life. This may seem unfair in the case of children facing
violent deaths. In their instance, being able to achieve an understanding they could not reach on their own seems to offer a release from the
trauma of a previous life. This makes Carol Bowmans findings all the
more important, since her focus is the healing of past-life traumas.
Ian Stevenson attains the important, still tentative conclusion
that, while heredity plays a certain role, the possibility of the idea of

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

39

reincarnation shows that individuality plays an equally important role.

In fact, it is as if two forces meet: the individual who comes from a
previous incarnation, who unites with the body that is subject to the
laws of heredity and genetics.
TRAUMA AND LIBERATION
I seem to remember former states and feel that in them I
have learned some of the lessons that have never since
been mine here, and in my next step I hope to leave behind many of the trials I have struggled to bear here
and begin to feel lightened as I go on.
Louisa May Alcott
It is far more difficult to document an encounter with individuals
known in a previous life in the case of adults than it is with children.
The disappearance of memories with age is the first factor; the longer
lapse of time between incarnations is the second. Only one such instance to our knowledge has led to a reunion. Consider the case of
Jenny Cockell, as documented in her book, Across Time and Death: A
Mothers Search for Past-Life Children, which she wrote in 1993.17
In this life, Jenny grew up in England with a lot of tension between her parents. However, she could always count on the love of her
mother. Later, her parents separated, and Jenny and her brothers stayed
with their mother. These were hard times for them, hard pressed by
survival issues. Throughout her college years Jenny had difficulties
with men, ending in what she calls a catastrophic relationship, which
led her to live in fear. She finally married into what appeared a much
happier relationship.

Events That Precede a Traumatic Death

According to Jenny, what preserved her previous-life memories was an
unhappy childhood that caused her to seek refuge in her inner world.
Jennys memories faded a little once she married, but experiences
could be triggered by a sound or a smell. Obsession with the past, after

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

subsiding, was re-enlivened near the same age at which Mary

Jennys previous incarnationhad met her death. This was, she says,
the beginning of one of the most stressful phases of my life.
As a child, Jenny had the recurrent dream of a womans death.
The woman was in a large, white room, where she lay ill in a bed. She
had difficulty breathing, ran a fever, and perceived her thoughts in a
confused way. She was resisting the thought of death, consumed by
the regret of leaving her children behind. Grief, accompanied by guilt,
played a much more important part than the fear. This persistent dream
was further accompanied by other conscious memories. She knew her
previous name had been Mary, and believed she had had seven or
eight children. She could describe Marys personality, her clothes but
not her face, and she felt that she had lived from around 1898 until the
1930s in Ireland. Her memories of Marys husband were vague. What
she could remember in great detail was her physical environment. She
had a detailed memory of a cottage, and a village with streets and
shops that she identified as Malahide, in Ireland. She could draw quite
detailed maps of it.
The first statements about her memories came in Sunday
school, when she was almost four. It was then that she realized that
this, as well as her faculty for premonition, was not a common experience. As an introverted child, she remembers that, because of family
tension, she liked to spend time on her own to brood over her memories. She also played with two imaginary friends, those who had been
Marys brothers. Her doll she called Elizabeth, the name of Marys
youngest daughter. Two other experiences in her present life may have
been an echo of her previous one: Hearing Irish music gave her a feeling of homecoming. Dressmaking, which she knew had been Marys
occupation, was an instinctively acquired skill.
When, as an adult, she became consumed by the desire to find
out about her previous life and her children, she underwent hypnosis.
The results were mixed, and no significant knowledge was added. She
decided to pursue her quest, only on the basis of her conscious memories. The first corroboration came in stages. Comparing a map drawn
from memory with a modern map of Malahide, she saw a good degree
of similarity. Going to Ireland for the first time in 1989, she experienced familiarity with the landscape. In Malahide she recognized
many of the places, despite changes that had occurred over fifty years.

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

41

Doing genealogical research, she found data about her family. Her
name had been recorded as Mary Sutton, married to John Sutton; they
had six children born between 1923 and 1932. Mary herself was born
in 1895 and died in 1932. There were 21 years between her death and
Jennys birth in 1953. Mary had died from toxemia, following pregnancy. Fever and difficulty breathing may have been the result of
pneumonia.
Jenny later found out that there were two more children who
had not been listed on the baptismal lists. In 1990 she met with her
previous-life son, Sonny, then age 71. She shared memories of the
minutest details of the cottage and the way they used to live, which
Sonny confirmed. Only minor details differed: a friend she thought of
as Molly was actually called Mary. She found five more of her children in the three following years, all except her daughter Bridget, who
had had died.
Marys husband had been an alcoholic, physically abusive to
his wife and children, and, maybe for that reason, Jenny had hardly
any recollection of him. Her later problems in life echoed this imprint
from a previous life. After the reunions and the writing of the book,
Jennys depressions did not resurface.
A similar experience to that of Jenny Cockell has been narrated
first-hand by Betty Riley, a native of Philadelphia then living in the
South, in a book called A Veil Too Thin: Reincarnation Out of Control.18 The patterns that emerge in this second narrative are all similar
to those of the first. As in the first case, most of the memories cluster
around a time preceding a traumatic death. However, the events relate
to the early seventeenth century, and the memories of them were
awakened only gradually. The chief interest in Betty Rileys account
lies in the modality of awakening of these memories. The first time
they occurred, Betty was forty and recovering from illness.19 At that
point, Betty had a lucid dream of a scene that had occurred in old London to an old woman in rags. She witnessed many scenes while, at
the same time, physically smelling and hearing everything with a sense
of familiarity. Upon awakening, she felt physically drained. When
asked about the dreams by a third party, she could add details such as
the names of streets, the name of the ruling king, the money used, and
slang terms. She did this from a slightly altered but wide-awake state,
speaking with a British accent. In a second stage, close in time to the

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

first, she relived the circumstances of her death while meditating, this
time identifying with the old woman in rags she had previously seen.
These visions would flash back to her mind any time she attempted to
meditate.
At this point, unwanted memories started erupting into her
daily life. These experiences would also surface abruptly upon her falling asleep, causing moments of panic. Betty felt that the exploratory
hypnosisaimed solely at determining the veracity of her testimony
most likely played a part in this.
It was Dr. Stevenson who suggested she go to England. Soon
after arriving, she felt at home in London, where she could indicate
how buildings had appeared four centuries before. She could also relive, in more depth, the feelings and emotions that had accompanied
the end of that life. The experience awakened new symptoms upon her
return to America, which were accompanied by a certain sadness. At
this stage Betty was so identified with the old woman in rags that she
started taking on habits, feelings, and emotions of her previous self.
This was further accompanied by physical symptoms, such as threeday migraine headaches.
Through a guided meditation, an epilogue was stimulatedbut
not without final turmoil. New scenes of the previous life erupted in
her consciousness, to the point that Betty felt her own sanity threatened, being temporarily unable to separate her two personalities. Writing ushered in the return to normal life. Finally, all the memories wove
themselves into a coherent whole and, through her writing, Betty felt
that she reached a peace that surpasses all understanding.
All of the above illustrates that a natural psychic ability is a
two-sided weapon and no guarantee for balance in confronting memories from beyond the threshold of consciousness. There is a reason for
living our lives with little spontaneous knowledge of our previous incarnations!
A Sense of Estrangement
If quick reincarnation occurs after a traumatic death, what happens
when whole groups of people meet a premature death? What happened
to the victims of the Holocaust? This is a question with which Rabbi
Yonassan Gershom has struggled. The rabbi was drawn to examine the
claims of more than 250 people who believed they died in the Holo-

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

43

caustnot all of them Jews in their current lives.20 Most of them were
born between 1946 and 1953, the generation of Baby Boomers who
played a great part in the civil rights and peace movements. Gershom
finds some exceptions in people born as early as 1939, or as late as
1970.
The most striking characteristic of this group were the nonJews who felt an immediate connection with Judaism from the moment they entered a synagogue. They believed they were embracing
their old faith. Finding the Jewish faith brought them an experience of
intense joy and the desire to convert immediately. They often showed
an astonishing grasp of the finer aspects of Jewish mysticism. For all
of these people, the possibility of the idea of reincarnation offered
great relief; fear and pain often subsided shortly thereafter.
Among the symptoms, we find nightmares and phobias with
Holocaust themes. The individuals may be hyper-reactive to any of the
following: sirens, black boots, uniforms, police officers, heat from a
furnace, or barbed wire. The Swedish writer, Barbro Karlen (pen
name), has claimed to be the reincarnated Anne Frank. As a child this
was her recurring nightmare: The darkness closes tighter and tighter
around her, she is weeping and afraid. Her little body is shaking and
she is drenched in sweat. She can hear them running up the stairs, the
shouted orders pierce her body like knives. Dogs are barking and with
a crash the door is kicked in.21
As an adult, she experiences the nightmare retaining many
common themes and evolving further: She (Anne) sees her mother
and father, whom she recognizes well, and other people sitting around
them. They are all sitting as still as mice; their fear is so manifest that
you can almost touch it. She hears the tramp of boots and doors being
slammed. Mens voices are shouting and she huddles up in her fathers
lap. She is weeping silently. She knows that the least rustle will mean
death and she is shaking all over. She is once again a child seeking
comfort and security in her fathers arms.22
As a child, Barbro was hyper-reactive to people in uniform.
She could not play hide and seek without panicking and beginning to
cry. Taking a shower also felt uncomfortable, and she could not bring
herself to eat certain foods, for example, brown beans. The only way
to overcome her fear of uniforms was to wear one herself by joining
Swedens mounted police. Here is the climax of her experience:

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

The panic which hit Sara (the authors real name) in

that moment was indescribable. She turned away from
the mirror image with some excuse to her well-meaning
friend. Stinging tears were forming behind her eyelids
and she broke into a cold sweat. When she saw the image of herself in uniform it was as if someone had
poured a whole bucket of live spiders over her. They
crawled over her body, under her hair, into her mouth,
nose and ears. Everywhere there were big black hairy
spiders crawling over her.23
Barbro Karlen visited Amsterdam when she was ten years old.
As a child she was surprised that other people knew about Anne Frank,
not having read the diaries herself. Once in Amsterdam, she led her
parents to Anne Franks house without hesitation. Suddenly, memories
overwhelmed her and she had to feel the reassuring presence of her
mother in order to press on with the visit. The feelings intensified
when they entered the hiding place, and Barbro started to relive her
nightmares. She had difficulty breathing and went into a state of panic.
She felt cold, in contrast to the summer heat. After a while she started
to cry and saw the image of a man in uniform above her, then saw him
raise an arm to hit her. While still a child Barbro had also experienced
a particular recollection that put her into a state of shock. At school a
child had thrown a stone that hit her on the temple. She was taken, unconscious, to a hospital. In this state she saw herself in the company of
her previous-life father, sitting and talking with him. She saw the
scene as if from above, but somehow knew she was looking at herself.
Gershom relates other reincarnation memories that emerge
upon visiting the place of death in a previous life. He narrates the experience of a young American exchange student, Judy, visiting Dachau. During the visit she knew exactly where everything was and
would move around with familiarity. She could also describe the
building where she had died, although it did not stand there anymore.
During the tour she continuously had the feeling of walking in mud,
although it was summer and the path was covered with gravel. Mud,
however, was constantly present during the years that Dachau was in
operation. Upon arrival in Germany, Judy contracted menstrual cramps
that she had never had before. In Dachau she saw her own death at age

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

45

sixteen or seventeen, when she was pregnant. Her menstrual cramps

left her soon after the visit.
Another characteristic of the people Rabbi Gershom studied is
a recurring sense of estrangement. They may express it by saying that
they did not want to come back into an incarnated body (or not so
quickly) or by expressing a feeling of not belonging to their presentday family. Like the children in Stevensons examples, they wanted to
be called by their previous-life name. Gershom notices that associated
illnesses, such as asthma or bronchitis as well as eating disorders, are
common.
Finally, there is the example of Marilyn Sunderman, who could
recall three tragic deaths in previous incarnations.24 In the first chronological life, she remembered having been a male artist traveling from
court to court during the Middle Ages. He had been the lover of a
queen whose portrait he had painted. When he decided to abandon
such a risky situation, she had him killed.
In the next life she recalled, she was a woman traveling
through Spain, France, and Italy, disguised as a monk, preaching and
healing. She died at the hands of the Inquisition, and experienced departing the Earth and carrying hatred from that life. The inquisitor was
the reincarnated queen.
In the most recent previous life, Marilyn was a young Nazi
man. While women and children were being forced toward the woods,
he reached out to help a young child whose eyes had hypnotically attracted him. He died trying to protect the childthe reincarnated
queen and the inquisitor.
In Marilyns story, two individuals have followed each other in
three successive incarnations. Her story continues into the present with
a further meeting with the reincarnated queen, now named Tanya, who
brought back the memories of their previous lives together in ways not
significantly different from any of those we have enumerated so far. In
the life she lived as a Nazi, Marilyn was hit on the lower left side of
the back with a rifle butt. At that place a blue-black mark mysteriously
reappeared shortly after meeting Tanya. Upon overcoming her fear of
Tanya, the pain associated with the mark soon faded away.
Both Barbro Karlen and Marilyn Sunderman underwent similar
experiences in their present lives. Enemies of previous lives appeared
in present time with an antagonism or hatred hardly attributable to ran-

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

dom life encounters. Sunderman concludes: I also knew there was

another thing I needed to do. I needed to forgive everyone along my
path who had ever done me harm and, even more importantly, I
needed to forgive myself for my part in it all.
Karlen mentions suffering repeated threats, harassment, and
slander before she manages to close the chapter of continued reverberations from one or more previous lives. This is how Barbro Karlen
describes, near the conclusion of her book, the revisited dream, which
we have already seen twice. She is in the annex, before the house is
raided by the Nazis. She sees herself as Anne, and as Sara. The picture changes the whole time. She is sitting at a table writing. It is the
same little room that she has seen before in her dreams. But now the
helplessness and the fear are no longer surrounding her.25 With a feeling of indescribable harmony, Sara returns each night to the annex and
writes the story of her life. Of her persecutors she knows that if she
gets the whole truth written down, they will never be able to hurt her
anymore. Only by stripping them down to their naked evil can she free
herself from their spirits and their curses, once and for all. She concludes: But first she must be able to forgive them too and feel sorry
for them, in spite of all the ill they have done her. When she could forgive them they would themselves be called to account before the Law.
She could do nothing about that. She could only free herself from
them, and by forgiving them pave the way to a better future for herself
as well.
The experiences we will explore next could hardly be called
common. They are, in fact, unique and concern individuals who bring
forth distinctive qualities. The interest of their reports lies in what their
experiences offer us about the aspects of the reality of reincarnation
that rarely break into consciousness in a way that can be analyzed. Ultimately, however, these testimonies point only to what can be gleaned
from the perspective of a larger picture that we will approach in the
next chapter.

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47

UNITED THROUGH THE CENTURIES

I lived in Judea eighteen hundred years ago, but I never
knew that there was such a one as Christ among my
contemporaries.
And Hawthorne, too, I remember as one with
whom I sauntered in old heroic times along the banks of
the Scamander amid the ruins of chariots and heroes.
As the stars looked to me when I was a shepherd
in Assyria, they look to me now a New Englander.
D. H. Thoreau
We have already moved into the field of group reincarnation, although
only in a general way. The story that follows moves us into a further
dimension of the reality of karma and reincarnation. When we look at
karma from the perspective of various individuals and a few millennia,
we cannot resort to proof in the conventional understanding of the
word. What will help us is the phenomenological approach, together
with indications offered by historical information.
Historical consciousness was, in fact, the initial dimension that
propelled doctor-turned-author Guirdham Guirdham toward the adventure through space, time, and consciousness that he portrays in three
successive books: The Cathars and Reincarnation,26 We Are One Another: Astounding Evidence of Group Reincarnation,27 and The Lake
and the Castle.28
Guirdham was the scribe of a process he initially could not
fathom. His profession as a doctor and psychiatrist gave him the basis
for exploring the subject matter in a scientific and analytical fashion.
His philosophical and historical interests made further exploration possible. Becoming open to the idea of reincarnation during the process of
exploration, he first attempted to test it on historical grounds. It is due
to exceptional circumstances that this was possible. In stages he
moved from being a spectator to finding himself as an actor in a drama
that developed across many centuries. Progressively more people were
drawn to him and to the initial actors in the drama. Their lives continued in everyday physical reality as well as in a world where they retrieved memories of their earlier associations on their Earth journey.

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

Of Dreams and Inquisitors

The story began in 1944, almost twenty years before the first encounter between a patient, Ms. Smith, and Dr. Guirdham. At age eleven,
Ms. Smith had been saved from an attack of peritonitis. As we have
seen, illnesses or states of stress can be gateways to memories of previous lives that then erupt into consciousness or half-consciousness.
During her illness Ms. Smith had dreams in which she would call out
loudly to someone named Roger. (This was also the name of a dog she
had owned ever since she was four or five years old.) In a delirious
state she talked about having another baby, and when the Catholic
priest approached her with the Last Sacrament, she screamed in terror.
During her illness she kept notebooks in which she recorded experiences one would surmise that she otherwise would have at least partly
forgotten. It is not surprising to learn that Ms. Smith also had faculties
of precognition. Once, she revealed to a friend the content of a letter
she had not opened. She had also sensed the deaths of her father and
other people beforehand. These unusual gifts frightened her and often
made her feel lost in time, not always able to tell whether something
had already or was about to happen.
Before meeting with the psychiatrist, Ms. Smith had written a
novel about a young woman becoming pregnant and losing a child.
The woman had lost her lover and decided to commit suicide by fasting. After various intermediate episodes she was brought to a cathedrala place that she dreadedand managed to escape by bribing her
captors.
The first meeting between patient and doctor occurred in 1962,
and the visits continued until 1966. At that time Ms. Smith was suffering from a recurring nightmare, during which she would shriek loudly.
In the dream she saw herself lying on a floor and being approached by
a man who filled her with terror. This dream had started in her early
teens. At the initial onset of the cycle of nightmares, Ms. Smith had
fallen unconscious a few times.
Initially the dream occurred once a month. In her early thirties
the frequency increased, and by the time she decided to be treated it
was recurring two to three times a week. What was curious from the
beginning of the professional relationship was the fact that Guirdham
had a similar dream. He had nightmares where he saw himself sleeping
while a tall man approached him from the back, and he would awake

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

49

screaming loudly. This nightmare used to recur three or four times a

year during his forties, and more often in his fifties. When he was finally able to confront the visitor, the nightmare disappeared. This was
about the time he began meeting with Ms. Smith.
Ms. Smiths nightmare also disappeared, right after the first
meeting. She was finally able to shake off her fear of being left alone
in the dark. However, another nightmare appeared in which she saw
herself dragged out of a cathedral. During the dream she would shout
the word Tolosa, the old Occitan name for Toulouse. Upon awakening she would remember St. Etienne, the actual name of the cathedral.
The therapeutic relationship evolved further through the disclosure of old records that Ms. Smith kept in her notebooks and other
dreams. The first dream was one that Ms. Smith had experienced upon
traveling close to Toulouse. There, she saw herself trying to escape
from someone who was forcing her into the cathedral. In a later recurring dream, she saw someone tying knots into her hair, telling her that
he would never let her go. She knew this memory was also associated
with Toulouse.
The process of healing took a dramatic turn in 1965. Ms. Smith
confessed to Guirdham what she knew ever since their first meeting
that they had been connected in a previous life. She revealed to him
that they had been lovers, he a Cathar by the name of Roger, she a
Catholic who soon renounced her faith and was excommunicated. She
also knew that the man who haunted her dreams before meeting
Guirdham was a certain Pierre de Mazerolles.
With the revelation of names and places, the setting was narrowing down to thirteenth-century southern France at the time of the
Inquisition. At another turning point, Ms. Smith relived in a dream her
death at the stake, at the hands of the Inquisition. Later she also dreamt
of how Roger had undergone torture. At this point, Guirdham could
continue what Ms. Smith had begun, through historical research. This
was possible, even though the characters in this plot are not major historical figures, because the Inquisition kept records of those who had
been interrogated and condemned.
Although he could not find records for Ms. Smith herself, he
could identify himself, his family, and other actors in the drama, such
as Pierre de Mazerolles. The latter was involved in Cathar circles, al-

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

though somewhat remotely, and had been part of the massacre of inquisitors at Avignonet. This was the figure who had haunted both Ms.
Smith and Guirdhams dreams.
What we have seen so far follows the pattern of previous-life
recalls with which we have become familiar. The memories that surface belong to a psychologically undigested life sequence, for the most
part details of tragic deaths and separations. The episodes that Ms.
Smith recalled are related to the interrogators of the Inquisition, as
well as her and her lovers deaths. In her childhood these memories
resurfaced during a critical illness. The nightmares and phobias of the
dark are also themes familiar to those who recall previous lives.
Guirdham gave little thought to reincarnation before meeting
with Ms. Smith. Moreover, he had had no recollections stirred up even
upon visiting the places of the supposed Cathar incarnation. However,
towards the end of the journey, he experienced day visions while walking down the street. He would see a man singing hymns and praying
inside a building. He knew that this was in France and that the people
he saw were victims of persecution. After the vision, he would fall
down. This whole sequence of events repeated itself three times. By
the end of Ms. Smiths treatment, other significant, though minor, experiences awakened Guirdham to the reality of repeated earthly lives.
A Stream of Connected Souls
In the second book, the movement that was begun by Ms. Smith continues. We receive more information about the Cathar incarnation from
a second actor in the same Cathar scene: Miss Mills. The nature of the
communications and the mode of recall are initially very similar. New
developments follow and a window in time opens via a stream of connected souls who appear on the scene, closely connected to Miss Mills.
In 1968, when Guirdham was recovering from a heart condition that led him to retire from his work, he was introduced to Miss
Mills by his wife, who thought she would be good company for him.
The acquaintance progressed and in time Miss Mills disclosed to
Guirdham the specific content of some dreams.
Miss Mills biography bears many similarities to that of Ms.
Smith. At age five she had nearly died of diphtheria. At that time she
was suffering from two recurring dreams. In the first, she was running
away from a medieval castle that stood on the summit of a hill. She

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

51

knew she was escaping something horrible. In the second dream, while
she was walking barefoot with others towards a stake, someone hit her
with a burning torch. Two years later, on the occasion of a building
burning down, she displayed a deep fear of fire. She also had a phobia
of trumpets, even hiding when the boys brigade would play. Like Ms.
Smith, Miss Mills had psychic gifts. When she was thirteen, she had
sensed the imminent death of her uncle.
The first question that Miss Mills asked Guirdham referred to
names she had heard in dreams: Raymond and Albigensian. In the
months following their acquaintance, Miss Mills recorded more names
of people and places from her dreams. These corresponded to historical individuals recorded by the Inquisition, and closely associated with
the characters previously identified. She also started picking up biblical quotations; images of crosses that she drew; and quotations in
French, Latin, and English. The crosses were recognizable as Cathar
crosses.
Toward the end of 1971, Miss Mills became aware of communicating with departed souls that were visible to her. These souls gave
clues about their identities and were eventually recognizable from historical records as Brada de Laurac, a Cathar; Guilhabert de Castres, a
Parfait (celibate priest) and Cathar bishop; and Bertrand Marty, the
head of the Cathar Church at the time of the events and until the famous fall of the castle of Montsegur. It is interesting to note that both
de Laurac and Marty had been at Montsegur (de Castres died before
the capitulation of the castle), preparing Miss Mills to relive the horrors of the siege of the fortress.
With Miss Mills new elements arose in Guirdhams research.
She could consciously communicate with departed souls, although this
communication happened in stages. Before any contact was established with the first soul, she suffered an attack of tinnitus, which
causes a persistent ringing in the ear. Later, she heard one and then
various voices. It was de Laurac who first became visible and introduced the two other figures.
The newest element that Miss Mills made possible was the appearance of other actors in this reincarnation drama. These were all
people who mostly had had connections with each other in early childhood and had been disconnected ever since. The first person to make
contact was Betty, calling at the time when her husband had died un-

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

expectedly from a heart attack. Betty, too, had suffered from diphtheria at age seven, and had patterns very similar to those of Ms. Smith
during her illness. She also kept a record of the communications she
had received during her illness. The recurring names mentioned were
mostly of those who had a part in the Avignonet massacre of the inquisitors. They were soldiers called sergeants at arms. Betty died
after having an opportunity to visit Cathar country in southern France
and particularly Montsegur. The visit to the castle transformed her and
allowed her to overcome her grief and die serenely. After her death,
she continued to communicate with the circle of related souls, providing important pieces of the puzzle.
Jane was Bettys mother. She first appeared to Miss Mills in
order to share the content of the notebooks that her daughter had written during her illness. She, too, later felt the need to go to the Languedoc in southern France. Two experiences reawakened her previous-life
memories. In a dream, she was in a castle on a hill and recognized soldiers attired in the typical garb of sergeants-at-arms. Two days later,
she was reliving her death at the stake after the fall of Montsegur,
which actually happened on the anniversary of the historical event.
She awoke with physical symptomsburns up to her knees. The lesions disappeared quickly, even though the pain persisted for a time.
Betty and Janes presence in Miss Mills life was soon followed by
that of another school-days friend, Kathleen, and of an ex-business associate, Penelope. The latter died soon after reestablishing contact, and
her husband Jack communicated her experiences as well as his own.
All of the actors in the drama relate variations on memories of
two or three common events. The first was the massacre of Avignonet,
just as had been the case with Ms. Smith. The second was the death at
the stake at Montsegur. The second episode had been preceded by
many precise memories of a Cathar sacrament called the Consolamentum, an equivalent of the Last Rites. The individuals could recall the
words, gestures, and sequence of events. All the people in this small
group, except Guirdham, had had relationships with the sergeants-atarms who had Cathar sympathies and had been present at the Avignonet massacre. They were later part of the fall of the castle of Montsegur and were burned at the stake as heretics. The tragic deaths left
scars for obvious reasons. In addition, some of the souls were young,
and therefore even more unprepared to die. For the sergeants-at-arms,

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

53

death at the stake was not necessarily an idealistic choice. Their part in
the Avignonet massacre, so they believed, left them no choice in the
matter.
All the souls who had been together in southern France in the
thirteenth century were now reincarnated within close proximity in the
same area of England, and some of them had close ties during their
school years. Their recalls often happened at a time of great stress or
illness. A visit to a place of their previous life was another powerful
trigger, as was the anniversary of a tragic date (e.g., the fall of Montsegur, or the massacre of Avignonet).
For those who have been so close in different incarnations,
Guirdham describes a phenomenon that he calls psychic fusion.
Some of the individuals, particularly Miss Mills, could take on the
pain associated with the illness of a loved one without the symptoms
associated with it. In other instances, the other person would have the
symptoms without the pain.
Ascent and Descent: Formation of Affinities
In the first and second book, disjointed references to other places and
epochs appear in very few instances. In 1965 Miss Mills had the same
dream five times, in which she had been pursued by a mob in France
in the eighteenth century. The dream ended in the thirteenth century.
Guirdham, too, had a recollection of having been a sailor in France in
the eighteenth century. It is as if these separate events cast their
shadow ahead of time, announcing the future of the groups odyssey.
Later, at the time of the second book, Miss Mills made one very short
reference to the Mythras mysteries. It is clear that the climax of the
events of the third book had already been laid out during the two previous phases. At this point we will follow the phenomena that accompany the story rather than the story itself.
Miss Mills continued to be the central character of the story.
Many strands converged towards her in different incarnations. At first
the events led to what seems to be confusing information, difficult to
place in a single incarnation. The individuals involved in the drama
sought to understand the connection between experiences aroused by
the English landscape and the Cathar incarnation, but without success.
Instead, it appeared that another incarnation was coming to the fore: an
incarnation in the seventh century AD, in England, at the time of the

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spread of Celtic Christianity. That incarnations fulcrum was the period of persecution of the Celtic Church by the Catholic Church. After
reliving at length the Celtic incarnation, the individuals memories
were directed towards a French incarnation during the eighteenth century and the time of their imprisonment in England.
Finally, Guirdhams connection with Betty formed the background that opened the view to a Roman incarnation in the fourth century AD. Not surprisingly, this incarnation occurred during a tumultuous period. The scenario takes place during the last days of the
Mythras cult. The individuals who were its members experienced persecution by Christianity in the form of the Roman State.
As we can see, the reincarnations do not emerge in a chronological fashion. We move back and forth in time, depending on the
constellation of the individuals present at the moment, and the prevalent incarnation that connects them. In effect, even though the same
individuals keep reappearing, certain links acquire more strength in
one incarnation and less in others. There is, in fact, no such thing as a
soul mate in the whole of the five incarnations.
Not all of the individuals reappear at all times, nor are all of
their names known in every given incarnation. Nine of them follow
each other in every incarnation. These are Guirdham; Miss Mills,
called Clare in the third book; and Betty and Kathleen, whom we have
met before. Added to them are Jocelyn, Annette, Mrs. Butler, Graham,
and Marion.
In the earliest incarnation, the group is part of the surviving
esoteric mysteries of Mythras. These are mysteries that do not stand
necessarily in contrast with Christianity itself, but rather with the official Christianity of the Roman State. The proof is that the individuals
reappeared in a following life imbued with the intention of preserving
the old cosmological knowledge of the Celts in a Christian form.
However, the times no longer allowed for that possibility, because of
the perceived threat that an independent Irish Church represented to
the authority of the Pope. The Celtic Church did nevertheless leave
tangible traces and influences all over the European continent. In a following incarnation, the groups commitment to esoteric Christianity
deepened, while on the historical level, what already happened in the
seventh century was all the more real in the thirteenth century.

OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

55

The Pope formed a temporal alliance with the state in the figure of the French king, which allowed the persecution of Cathar Christianity to take the form of a crusade. What is interesting for historical
record is the fact that Catharism was present in many of the places that
Celtic Christianity had prepared many centuries before. Catharism, a
form of Manichaeism, held (among other things) the desire to cultivate
new forms of social life, to restore vitality to the offices of religious
representatives (parfaits, bishops), and finally to adopt a different view
of evil through the belief in its transformation through good.
In the following incarnation, the zeal to make Christianity a social reality took the specific form of French Freemasonry, a generous
ideal that finds itself bound to, and probably manipulated by the contradictory political strivings of the French empire. Masonry shared
with Manichaeism the desire to build new social forms and the cultivation of a spirituality independent of religious authorityhence the traditional enmity of the Catholic Church. Historically, most of the affiliates of this branch of Freemasonry were Protestant and fervently antiCatholic. We are not told specifically how things stood for these individuals in particular. They found themselves (at least some of them) to
be sincere idealists in a situation that could not allow for any ideal to
be concretely realized. The ideals of Freemasonry could hardly survive
intact when mixed with the political ambitions of the French emperor.
A certain pattern emerges: the sequence of incarnations follows
a movement of ascent and descent. In the first three incarnations, the
souls strive to bring together old esoteric traditions and the tenets of
Christianity. Until their thirteenth-century incarnation, they carry some
memories of their previous lives. A veil comes over their consciousness during modern times (as with all of humanity), and it becomes a
test of the faith of the companions. It becomes clearly visible in the
souls Napoleonic incarnation. In the three previous incarnations, the
group had been witness to the end of certain movements and the
knowledge that they spread. They had taken a last courageous stand.
The same happened in the Napoleonic incarnation, only this time the
individuals seemed to be idealists in a time when ideals could not
really survive. Napoleons determination was purely personal, and
stood mostly in sharp contrast to other genuine ideals, Freemasonry
included.

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

Finally, the movement took a step forward in the last incarnation, where the newly reincarnated English souls stood as pioneers in a
movement of awakening toward the future. This group of souls has in
fact been a group of pioneers of the spirit. At first they witnessed the
death of ideas that had come at the end of a cycle or too soon for the
times. This, in turn, allowed them finally to announce truths and ideas,
particularly karma and reincarnation, that humanity can gradually rediscover. From this perspective, the lives of these individuals acquire a
meaning that unites them with much of Europes historical evolution.
We can now look at the major phenomena portrayed, mainly
by observing three characters. What becomes clear is why Clare (Miss
Mills in the previous book) forms a central link to all the other people
involved. She is in effect one of the individuals who strives to embody
the ideals that she represents in every incarnation. In three of her previous lives she had suffered persecution by the Church, and finally endured her fate in an English prison. She bore her burdens with remarkable equanimity, offering help to others in the last incarnation as she
had in the preceding ones.
Clares recollections form the central element that allows for
the rebuilding of the chain of events. Many of these recollections are
accompanied by physical pain. In her first recall of the Celtic incarnation, Clare faints at the place where, in that incarnation, she had fallen
ill in her flight from Lindisfarne, which had just come under the control of the Catholic clergy. During many of these experiences of recollection, Clare lives in an altered state apparently caused by the pain:
her eyes close, her expression turns blank, her body sags. The same
process happens when she relives other peoples memories, as for example in the stoning of Betty in her Celtic incarnation. Reliving her
own Napoleonic life, she also physically manifests symptoms that
were inflicted upon her in that lifefor example, an inflammation at
the same place where she had been struck on the ear by an English
sailor. The same happens again when she recalls her Roman incarnation, in which she had been beaten on several occasions for helping
other practitioners of the Mythras cult to hide. In fact, Clares memory
evolves from purely remembering to completely reliving. In the first
stages, she is helped by her spirit guides. Later, she can bear the
weight of the memories on her own.

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57

The Weaving of Higher Aims

Different people come to the fore according to the importance of the
link in each incarnation. Ms. Smith was the first link to Guirdhams
Cathar life, because they had been lovers separated in tragic circumstances. In the Napoleonic incarnation, Guirdham is most connected to
Clare and Marion. Although part of the same group, Guirdham and
Marion had acted unscrupulously toward Clare in that incarnation. Finally, in the Roman incarnation, Guirdham was closest of all to Betty.
She was Camillia, the Roman mistress; Guirdham, the superficial and
vain slave Berenice, who had an opportunity to expand her range of
interests thanks to Camillias involvement in the Mythras cult. This
manifested itself most of all in the possessive love the slave revealed
for his mistress. According to the incarnation that plays the most important role for the group at the moment, links are formed through affinities built at the time. People appearing in dreams or visions have
the characteristics of that incarnation that are most readily recognizable to the dreamer.
Links of destiny acquire all the more importance when a group
needs help and depends upon an individual who must atone for trespasses against him- or herself and others. Such is the case of Annette,
the person who must undergo the trial of fire in this life. In her Celtic
incarnation, Annette demonstrated a stubborn trait that undermined
her: she practiced healing on her own, without belonging to the Celtic
clergy. She was a very uncompromising person. She harangued the
crowds against Catholic authorities and labeled a certain priest as the
incarnation of evil. In her Cathar incarnation, she had pursued the
status of Parfaite with little consistency and failed at it. Later, in her
Napoleonic imprisonment, she became addicted to gambling with dice.
In her Roman incarnation, she was a rich young man interested in the
use of herbswithout, however, practicing medicine. In that incarnation, the young man was deeply enamored of Berenice (Guirdham)
who did not return his love. After overcoming his infatuation, he protected Clare and Guirdham from persecution by the authorities.
In their present incarnation, Guirdham and Annette could not
meet each other, no matter how much he attempted to make it happen.
A last-minute accident or illness always prevented it. Guirdham sees
his misfortune as a just return for his behavior toward Annette in the

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Roman incarnation. Annette had a chance in her current lifetime to become a healer. However, she had to develop the compassion that had
not emerged from a rash temperament in previous incarnations. Fate
brought this element in the form of repeated illnesses and accidents.
She first suffered a comatose state after going through critical peritonitis. This was followed by a fall resulting in a concussion, with a resulting swelling on the left temple and a badly bruised left foot. A little
later she was involved in a car accident from which she suffered another severe concussion. The last was the hardest ordeal because, apart
from being in critical condition, she also spiraled down into a period of
self-negativity, becoming hypercritical of others. This last episode
which was partially the fruit of complete exhaustioneventually led
her to a breakthrough, but was accompanied by depression. All these
trials were the price Annette had to pay in order to learn compassion
and to experience other peoples pain, necessary for all those who desire to practice healing.
Annette was not alone in her trials. The strength of the group
was lent to her by different individuals. When ill with peritonitis,
Guirdhams wife took on some of her burden by carrying part of her
pain. She had been Annettes mother in her Celtic incarnation, an incarnation that obviously played an important role in the present. Clare,
too, took on some of the suffering when Annette was going through
her last two accidents. She carried pain without symptoms at exactly
the same time that Annette was suffering from the accidents. The doctor who cured her was sympathetic to the input that the group of
friends had offered. He himself was connected to the group in the
Celtic incarnation, where he had been a scribe who recorded the demise of Celtic Christianity during a synod. The strength lent by others
allowed Annette to more easily bear the trials of fate.
Although the above revelations open up far more dimensions
of karma, it is remarkable that the way they reach us does not differ
much from anything we have seen so far. The central events most apt
to be recalled are still those that cause the most trauma, and much of
the knowledge concerns the modality of death or other very critical
events.
The whole of the weaving of destiny between these individuals
reveals how a group that has harmonized much of its previous karmic
entanglements can turn its goals towards higher aims. Guirdham is ac-

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59

knowledged for having written the book; however, Clare plays a much
more pivotal role, and all the other individuals play parts of variable
import in this revelation about how karma and reincarnation work, and
reach the public ear at a time when this information is sorely needed. It
appears that the group itself has a biography unfolding over various
incarnations. Revealing the reality of karma and reincarnation is the
most obvious of its present aims.
With this story, we have now completed our overview of the
phenomena that cover the whole realm of experiences pointing to the
preexistence of the human spirit. We have many parts of the puzzle,
but many more are yet missing. Therefore, we need to turn to a knowledge of the higher worlds from the perspective of modern spiritual
perception, as offered to us by Edgar Cayce and Rudolf Steiner. We
will offer a perspective from which all the scattered pieces of this puzzle will find their place in a larger view of the integration of our life on
Earth with our life in the spirit.

Chapter 3

THE SPIRITUAL
PERSPECTIVE
The soul of man is like to water;
From heaven it cometh,
O heaven it riseth,
And then returneth to Earth,
Forever alternating.
J.W. Goethe
Karma and reincarnation have been the subject of spiritual teachings
since ancient times. Knowledge of these laws has been preserved from
tradition primarily in India and various other parts of Asia. It is only in
the early twentieth century that teachings concerning past lives have
re-emerged in human consciousness and have been expressed in a way
that suits the modern scientific outlook.
This re-emergence is due in great part to Edgar Cayce, and
even more so to Rudolf Steiner. What these two men have in common
is that they spoke about karma and reincarnation based on the results
of their own spiritual investigations. We will look at the life of these
two innovators in relation to what they have offered us via their biographies and revelations.
It is significant that Steiner and Cayce started delivering the
core of their teachings at about the same time, between the years 1923
and 1925. At that time, both were able to speak of previous livesnot
in general terms, but in relation to particular individuals. Cayce referred to the lives of individuals who came to see him for guidance,
and he often commented that they had been connected to him in previous incarnations. Steiner traced the karmic biography of well-known
individuals after their deaths. In addition, it should be noted that by
this time Steiner had already made public many of the laws of karma
for twenty years, albeit from a general perspective.
This chapter will allow us to deepen our comprehension of the
experiences that point to the realms of life before birth, primarily those
experiences involving conscious recall of previous lives. The two last

THE SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE

61

sections in this chapterthe souls journey after death and the meeting
with the shadowwill also serve as an introduction to and transition
into the next chapter of experiences that point to life after death.
EDGAR CAYCES REVELATIONS ABOUT KARMA
See, I fly like a bird,
And floating in the air I descend to Earth
Stepping forth I follow the tracks
Of my previous deeds; for I am
A child of Yesterday,
My becoming is in the keeping of the gods of Akeru.
Egyptian Book of the Dead
Edgar Cayce was born near Beverly, Kentucky, in 1877 into a family
of farmers. His unique individuality manifested in singular ways beginning in childhood. As a baby he demonstrated an abundance of joy
and a sunny, cheerful disposition, accompanied by good health and
vigor. At ease within his world, the newborn cried little and called little attention to his needs. Growing up, he found himself comfortable
being alone. He could get very absorbed in his own questions that he
would pursue to their end, with little distraction from his environment.
Although not the sportsman type, he liked the outdoors. Others found
themselves fond of the child and later Cayce became a natural leader.
His father recognized that the child seemed to know and have an interest in engaging with everyone.
From early childhood, the child was surrounded by imaginary
playmatesdeparted souls he could converse with. Cayce continued
his relationship with his grandfather, whom he had witnessed drown at
age four. Fortunately for the young soul, these experiences were acceptedat least by his mother, who could also see and talk to Edgars
invisible friends. As Cayce remembered it, his grandfather Thomas
Jefferson also had extrasensory gifts. He could converse with departed
souls and was able to move objects at a distance without any apparent
physical contact.
Cayces interest in spiritual matters was obvious from early on.
As a child, hearing the expression as strong as Samson from a

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woodcutter, he felt compelled to find out who Samson was.1 This was
the beginning of his lifelong exploration of the Bible. He asked his
parents to read him the whole book, and by age fourteen he had read it
several times. A little earlier he had joined the Christian Church of the
Disciples of Christ, whose ministers were fond of him and began to
trust his opinion in biblical matters.
These precedents naturally paved the way for Cayces first
spiritual experiences. At age thirteen, after reading about the vision of
Manoahan episode connected with the life of Samsonhe retired to
his favorite tree. That night he prayed to God, asking for a gift that
would be of use to his fellow men. Instantly he felt borne upwards. At
the foot of the bed stood a figure; around him, filling the whole room,
was a radiant light. The figure said, Thy prayers are heard. You will
have your wish. Remain faithful. Be true to yourself. Help the sick, the
afflicted. Immediately after, Cayce rushed out of the room to experience the moonlit landscape, which was imbued with a new radiance.2
Cayce left school after the eighth grade because his family was
financially unable to offer him higher education. He tried a succession
of jobs before finding and confirming his spiritual vocation. His life
can be conveniently divided according to the places he lived.
Between 1877 and 1920 Cayce lived in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Here he deepened his interest in Christianity and became a
member of the Disciples of Christ, where he taught Sunday school and
was very respected for his opinions. For much of his life he agonized
in the struggle between his earnest faith and the psychic abilities he
had ever since his childhood, not knowing how to reconcile them. The
tension caused him to doubt the source of information in his readings
and the legitimacy of his way of working. After many years, the results
he obtained opened the way to the possibility of harmonizing Christian
teachings with a wealth of esoteric knowledge not usually considered
in association with it. Cayce strove hard to find this integration
witness his rigorous and scrupulous effort to recognize the few but
clear hints that the Bible gives about reincarnation.
In light of the experiences mentioned above, it was not surprising that Cayce proved to be a great hypnotic subject at age twentythree. A symptomatic event occurred at this stage. Cayce developed a
mysterious aphonia, or loss of voice. For almost a year he could speak
only in a whisper, his health deteriorated and he lost sixty pounds. He

THE SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE

63

could be cured under hypnosis, although the results were not stable,
and he became increasingly dependent on a certain Dr. Layne. The
aphonia returned three years later. On that occasion he was visited by
another physician. In that doctors office Cayce lost consciousness,
and when he returned to his senses he was able to speak again. It was
at this point in his life that Cayce started to offer readings about peoples health while lying unconscious, communicating to them indications he received from the spirit.
As is evident from Cayces dependence upon Dr. Layne, part
of the seers inner struggles revolved around freeing himself from
those who wanted to use his knowledge for their own gain. He was
often unable to resist their influence and their entreaties. Cayce relates
in great detail the struggles he encountered in the use of his gifts. In
one instance, he had agreed to give a reading about the evolution of
stock market securities in order to repay a debt of $300. In another instance he could not refuse a favor to his father. He concluded then:
This whole transaction brought troublesome conditions mentally and
physically for me, as well as for my father. I was forced to discontinue
giving the information, and operations were necessarily suspended.3
Something similar occurred to the seer when he predicted the outcome
of horse races for a friend. For a year after that episode he was unable
to give readings. Cayces conclusions about the misuse of his gifts are
worth quoting in full: Those looking for material things, sensational
things, get thembut the effect is not good for them. The effect upon
me is even worse. Only when the desire crept in to make money or to
put on the sensational did the work fail. When that was attempted, my
health failed, my conscience was rent, and I could no longer even attempt the work.4
Cayces life path came to a significant turn in 1923, after he
had moved to Texas three years before. At this point it had been thirteen years since he had discovered his ability to provide readings to
individuals who visited or simply asked him questions from a distance.
These queries were initially geared towards health issues. In 1923
Cayce decided to make his readings a professional priority, and at that
date he inaugurated life readings, which provided people with information about their previous lives. In 1926 Cayce moved to Virginia
Beach, where two years later his hospital was inaugurated, using alter-

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native therapies that Cayce derived from information provided by the

readings. The hospital was short lived and closed its doors in 1931.
Soon after, the Association for Research and Enlightenment was
founded, whose task was the preservation and classification of Cayces
readings. At the seers death there was a legacy of more than 14,000
sessions he had given.
Cayce himself told us what was at work during his readings.
The information, he said, is not the object itself but what is reflected.
The source of it was the knowledge received from other souls, incarnated or excarnated.5 Conscious experiences towards the end of the
seers life reveal the nature of his trance state. In an initial experience
on April 12, 1938, Cayce simply witnessed the nature of his out-ofbody experiences by becoming conscious outside his body and beholding his inert physical body as something foreign. He was conscious of
reentering and reanimating it progressively.
Two weeks later he revealed that before going into the realm of
the unconscious, he had to wait for the Lightusually it is a shaft of
light-blue white light, or streaks of light. These two are very likely
the first steps that accompanied his revelationssteps for which he did
not retain consciousness most of the time. That Cayce was outside his
body was obvious. While in a trance he would not feel the pain of needles that unscrupulous scientists stuck into his body. When someone
stuck the blade of a knife under his fingernail, there was no blood or
pain until Cayce returned to normal consciousness.
Other fragments of Cayces recollections allow us to deepen
our understanding of the trance state. From a particular recurring
dream and from impressions lingering after the readings, Cayce could
complete the picture of his unconscious experience.6 It all started, it
seems, out of his body, in a place that was surrounded by darkness. At
that point he felt the need to follow a light that came towards him in
order not to be lost in this darkness that oppressed him. He then moved
through so-called lower astral realms at first, witnessing grotesque
forms and shapes of souls tied to their earthly desires. Further up, the
soul-spiritual landscape acquired progressively more light, motion, and
sound. Finally, he reached a place where only a tapestry and weaving
of light and sound existed. It is here that he reached the hall of records and was given information about the individual for whom he
was giving the reading. Much of this experience resembles, in a muted

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65

form, a near-death experience, of which much more will be said in the

next chapter.
From all we know from other facets of Cayces personality,
unconsciousness during the readings achieved an important result. In
the way Cayce presented knowledge of the spiritual world, he was protected against his lower nature. His recurrent dream shows that he
needed the light in order not to get lost in the lower realms of life after
death.
We will now turn to some general guidelines from Cayces investigations into the realm of karma and reincarnation, which opened a
new interest in the American continent. We will remain in the larger
and outer reaches of this investigation, knowing that, at closer range,
problems surge in the interpretation of the details in Cayces readings.
The seer himself was conscious of these.
The chief difficulty in translating information from its supersensible source is one of interpretation. This is a problem known to all
who want to convey supersensible knowledge through the limitations
of earthly means, unless a consistent methodology is developed. Dates
and names are vulnerable to the problem of interpretation. An example
will appear in Cayces Persian incarnation, most often dated at about
6000 BC, but in a couple of readings at around 600 BC. In most of the
readings Cayces incarnation at the time of Christ is given as Lucius of
Cyrene, identified as the nephew of Lukethe physician and gospel
writerwhereas in Reading 15982, the two are said to be one and the
same. The former is the one to which biographers refer.
Cayces physical and mental well-being played an important
part in the clarity of the communication and quality of the readings.
On bad days, W. H. Church mentions that the phrasing could be
exasperatingly indistinct and ambiguous and even self-contradictory
here and there.7
The accuracy of the information also depended on the quality
of the interaction between the seer and the seeker of information. Simple curiosity, self-centered interest, or careless questions yielded very
literal responses, leading to confusion or misunderstandings; clear
spiritual purposes produced readings whose quality was clearly above
average.
Part of the errors might also have been mistakes on the part of
those who took down information from the sleeping Cayce. In addi-

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tion, there is also the difficulty of clearly understanding some expressions in the readings, unless one carefully checks the context and
avails oneself of additional knowledge. Thus, when the reading says
this period, it could either refer to the time in question or to the present; eighteen could be misunderstood for eighty, and so on.
Finally, some mistakes are only apparently such, for lack of
better earthly knowledge. One reading speaks of a Gamaliel who
lived at the time of Christ, whereas the Gamaliel known to history
lived before our era. It took a certain amount of historical research in
order to find information about a second Gamaliel, son of the known
Gamaliel. Cayce gave readings concerning both individuals, but without knowing the facts, much confusion could ensue from a cursory
study of the readings that did not distinguish between the two. The
same is true of names that were handed down through lines of initiates.
Thus, history only knows one Zoroaster, the last of a line of initiates.
Tradition or spiritual research, however, speaks of various initiates
with the same name.
For all the above reasons, integrating the results of the readings
requires a thorough double-checking of sources, complementing one
reading with supplementary ones, and sound historical researchin
short, all the elements of thorough scholarship.
However, in what follows we will not look at the details of the
readings, but rather at the larger picture of the conclusions reached by
Cayce in regard to the nature of reincarnation and what we can learn
from them for our life on Earth.
A Seers Understanding of Karma
From 1925 to 1944 Cayce gave about 4,500 readings about karma,
which are called life readings. The readings confirm the findings of
Stevenson and Bowman in cases of unfinished lives. In the case of a
childs violent death, Cayce says that the entity reincarnated in nine
months.8 The four-year-old child presented symptoms of hysteria due
to nightmares. The terror, Cayce says, was very real. The child could
not distinguish between one life and the other. The noise of New York
City was mixed up in his mind with the loud behavior of Nazi hooligans. In this case, Cayce recommended that the child avoid anything
frightening (for example, witch stories) and that his caretakers provide
patience and love. He added that souls undergoing tragic death may

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67

wander in bewilderment in the afterlife, and come back to Earth prematurely for the sake of the temporary sanctuary of a womb.9
Cayce paints a philosophy of reincarnation that shares similarities with the older Eastern view, but also demonstrates radical departures. Karma, he believed, was generated after humanity became separate from the womb of the Godhead in the famous episode of the Fall.
What was an unconscious union in the bosom of God had to evolve in
such a way that humanity would return to the realm of the divinebut,
this time, freely and consciously. Free will is the cosmic grain of sand
and the cause of all karma. Human beings can refuse to learn and bring
upon themselves the consequences of their actsthe necessary adjustments from one lifetime to the otherto overcome the limitations
they have set for themselves on their path.
Conquest of self is the ultimate goal of karma and reincarnation. In a reading, Cayce says: He that conquers self is more than he
that taketh a city.10 In another reading he expresses the sovereignty of
the individual over and above his environment:
There is no urge in the astrological, or in the environmental which surpasses the will or determination of the
entity. For the entity finds it is true, there is nothing that
can separate the entity from the knowledge, or from the
love of Creative Force called God, but self. And that the
entity should determine in self to apply, rather than
mere knowledge and surmise, but apply and listen to
the still, small voice within, and the entity will find that
the promises are true which have been made (Reading 50232).
Incarnation on Earth introduces elements in human life that
cannot be experienced in the spiritual world. Will and emotions have
their place only on Earth. By taking hold of and transforming them, we
wrest from Earth the experiences we cannot undergo in the spiritual
world. The reality of Earth requires, in effect, that we hold the balance
between getting too absorbed in its pleasures and being held aloof in
the realm of spirit. Neither of these excesses will constructively further
our evolution.

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Karma is a long path of evolution. A quality developed in one

life may be the obstacle to overcome in a following life, in order to
gain a complementary perspective. A sense of justice gained in one
lifetime may need to yield to the souls experience of mercy in a following life. Boldness may need to be tempered with prudence, wisdom
with compassion, and so on. Perfection cannot be achieved in one lifetime. Just as there is no way out of karma, so there is no standing still.
Karma and the process of incarnation require that we move forward;
by refusing to do so, we fall backwards. Thus, the cycle of incarnations becomes a constant education.
Karma, Cayce stressed, should not be seen as a retributive and
punitive idea. The limits imposed by karma are the tools that temper
human beings and lead them to see further aspects of reality that they
could not grasp in their earlier stages of evolution. Even an illness or a
debilitating situation can be a way for the soul to gain more focus on
experiences it has neglected, and so restore balance where previous
lifetimes brought excesses or one-sidedness. The ultimate goal of
karma and reincarnation is love. Cayce never tired of saying: Love is
Law as Law is Love. Overcoming karma is equivalent to attaining a
state of Christ consciousness, which enables us to make His will our
own will.
Cayces readings had an eminently practical aspect. Understanding ideas about karma is only a first step, which must be followed
by action. Action, undertaken with earnestness, is more helpful than
simple avoidance of evil. Only when we actively engage do we receive
help from the spirit. Although the imperative Judge not, that ye be not
judged often returns in his readings, refraining from judging is not the
equivalent of inaction. Rather, it is a call to take responsibility for our
own actions rather than blaming others for our own predicament. Furthermore, non-judgment is not the equivalent of resignation or fatalism. Cayces recurring, complementary call to change the environs
is the idea that we need to realize when it is time to move out of degrading, counterproductive or destructive personal entanglements. Action is the way to transform ourselves. Our weaknesses can become
our greatest strengths if our will is rightly engaged. Anger and aggressiveness can be transformed gradually into courage and boldness. Our
pride in knowledge can give way to compassionate understanding.

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69

Start with what you have and the next step will be given was a fitting conclusion for many readings.
Edgar Cayce was not specifically bent on trying to understand
the laws of karma. Nevertheless, over many years, together with people around him, he came to develop an understanding of the tendencies
at work, amid the data collected from more than 4,000 readings.
Karma is a path of schooling. The individuals we associate
with in any given lifetime provide us the means for coming to know
ourselves and to continue evolving. Situations where we have created
imbalance or generated debt keep presenting themselves. However, the
hidden architecture of karma does not present us with schemes we can
apprehend with our intellect. Some manifestations of karma in this
present life may be the result of deeds done many incarnations ago. In
Cayces Reading 27519, we see an example of an individual who had
laughed at a young Christian woman being persecuted and injured in
the Roman arena. In this life she developed an incurable form of disease on her hip bone. Cayce explained that the atonement could not
have been brought on earlier, although the individual had incarnated
twice before.
Reading 36331 illustrates the complexity of interactions of
successive lives. In this reading, Cayce outlines alternatives the young
man in question can achieve. He indicates that unless he cultivates a
correct assessment of his abilities, he is in danger of losing his sanity.
Otherwise, his genius can lead him to great heights in the realm of music and poetry. Later in life, the young man was the cause of a series of
tragic events and consequently developed schizophrenia. Not having
heeded Cayces call, he brought upon himself the consequences of an
earlier life in which he had been using spiritual forces to gratify earthly
desires.
In the working of karma we can observe general tendencies.
We have seen one example of disease resulting from past karma. Many
other examples are present in the ARE files. In these, one kind of disease does not necessarily result from similar kinds of past causes.
Karma is eminently individual. Although it can be apprehended gradually, it forces us to look at the whole individual. Even accidents may
have karmic origins, according to Cayces readings. Such is the case of
a young girl who had fallen from a horse at age fourteen and sustained
a spinal cord injury. Cayces reading says: There are rather serious

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disturbances here. Portions of these, if the body will accept it, are karmic (Reading 51911).
Many of the modern catchphrases of reincarnation can find sobering explanations in Cayces readings. What about old souls? What
about soul mates? Cayce did refer to old souls, or individuals who
had been incarnating on Earth for a long time. In Reading 2762, he
makes a fine distinction: for in the experiences in the Earth plane,
though few in number, old indeed in Earths experience is the entity or
soul (Reading 2762). This refers to the time of the first incarnation
rather than the frequency of incarnation. In another reading about a
three-year-old he called an old soul, he had this comment: It will be
found that very few people will be found as strangers to the entity, yet
some will remain strangers ever, no matter how often or in what manner they are thrown together.
There are indeed souls who have known each other and have
been close through many incarnations. We all instinctively know of
one such area where karma is often very concentratedthe family
unit. Those who have been husband and wife in other lives or in the
present often have had other very close relationshipsperhaps as lovers, but also as parent and child, as siblings, or as teacher and pupil in
other incarnations. The idea of a soul mate, as Cayce communicates it,
takes on a different dimension than we know from a certain vein of
spiritual romance. Soul mates are those who have repeatedly embraced an ideal in their following incarnations. And such as have in
an experience found an ideal may be said to be soul mates, and no
marriages made in heaven nor by the Father save as each do His biddings (Reading 452). In fact, such soul mates can be whole groups of
people who come to Earth with the intent of furthering a task: bringing
a new educational method, developing scientific research, or building
communities.
It should be kept in mind that karma cannot explain or condition everything. There are other distinctions to be made. In two readings, when asked about a certain relationship, Cayce would say that
two individuals had no previous karmic association (Readings 20301
and 52411). Individuals often will face problems in life due to a
wholly new situation that has no counterpart in previous lives. Another
important distinction appears in the readings between karmic retribu-

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71

tion and prenatal resolve. In one reading the differences appear in regard to one soul: The emotions come from sojourns on Earth. The
innate influences come from sojourns in the environs about the
Earththe interims between incarnations (Reading 15234). The
soul does not cease its own evolution once it leaves the Earth. Some
dispositions may be brought to work on Earth by the influences received in the life on the spiritual plane, between incarnations. In a
reading about a three-year-old, who had been spastic since birth,
Cayce specified that this was not a karmic condition (Reading 5151
1). The three-year-old freely took on the physical condition as a means
to work favorably on her environment.
The implications of Cayces views on karma alter many accepted paradigms of common thinking. What Stevenson intuited about
inheritance and individuality Cayce affirms without hesitation. To the
question From which side of my family do I inherit most? he answers, You inherit most from yourself, not from family! The family is
only a river through which it (the entity soul) flows (Reading 1233
1). We can now begin to fathom the truly far-reaching implications
that understanding of the laws of karma holds in store.
Individuality is what puts the human being at the level of cocreator with God, through the use of free will. The Creator intended
man to be a companion with Him. Whether in heaven or in the Earth
or in whatever consciousness, a companion with the Creator (Reading
41618). This naturally touches on the matter of good and evil. That
spiritual is not synonymous with good is clear to Cayce: And getting
outside of the realm of the material does not mean necessarily angelic,
or angelic influence (Reading 3141). Recognizing good and evil
does not mean adopting a dualistic view of the world. Cayces view of
things was much more dynamic. For anything good can also be dangerous. I could mention nothing good that does not also have its misapplications, its misuse.11 He further elaborates the point: When we
use the forces within to serve the Creative Forces and God, then we are
using them correctly. If we use them for our own selfish interests, they
are being abused.12 What, then, can help us draw the difference between positive and negative choices? In this realm it is our thinking
that gives us the power of mind over matter. Cayce expresses this notion in a variety of ways. Knowledge, as the correct interpretation of
our experiences from a larger perspective than the materialis-

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tic/scientific, is the ladder that leads us to true individual freedom.

Much of this knowledge can be gained only on Earth. Passing by the
experience of knowledge on Earth may deprive us of further experiences on the spiritual plane. The insistence on the importance of
knowledge is a return to the source, for knowledge is the primal
cause in Cayces terminology, a reminder of the Biblical: In the beginning was the Word.
Knowledge, as expressed above, does not reach us via the
printed word. It can only be gained from higher sourcesthe Bible
was a recurrent theme for Cayceand experience. In setting the basis
of ARE and the handling of his readings, the psychic says something
in this direction: Hence the preparation and handling, then, must be
from the material angle, and presented from the material as well as the
spiritual angleand that the organization is an ecclesiastical research,
as well as a scientific organization, not a sect or a set, but as the Law
of One (Reading 25489).
In order to be true, knowledge needs to become selfless. It
needs to be allied with our will in a selfless way. The sleeping prophet
differentiated between the purely intellectual, resulting in ideas, and
the selfless will, giving rise to ideals. To accomplish this last step he
exhorted us to relinquish the results of our actions. And his final exhortation could be summed up in his own words: I am my brothers
keeper! That should be the cry in the heart of every member, every
individual. I am my brothers keeper! (Reading 25491).

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73

RUDOLF STEINER, HERALD OF A NEW

SCIENCE OF KARMA
Thus the seer, with vision clear,
Sees forms appear and disappear
In the perpetual round of strange
Mysterious change,
From birth to death, from death to birth,
From Earth to heaven, from heaven to Earth.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Rudolf Steiner has contributed an understanding of the spiritual world
and of the ideas of karma and reincarnation that fits the scientific spirit
of modern times. These ideas are no longer considered solely the domain of religious or spiritual tradition. If such is the case, Steiners
own life should place this claim in its proper perspective.
All the stages of Steiners life indicate that he was deeply
steeped in the spirit of Middle Europe. This seems clear from looking
at the evolution of his thinking and career. The course of his life itself
shows a geographical progression of great interest. His early days exposed him to the racial diversity of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, introducing him primarily to German, Croatian, and Hungarian nationalities. In the first stage of his life, he moved from the periphery of the
empire to its capital, Vienna. In the second stage, he arrived in the old
cultural capital of Germany, Weimar. From there his destiny took him
to Berlin, the German political capital. When World War I broke out,
Steiner was directing a growing international movement from a neutral
country, Switzerland, a land of many people. Dornach became the center of a movement that looked beyond race, religion, and dogma to the
universally human.
Let us walk these steps in succession. Kraljevak (or Krajlevec)
is the name of a Croat village on the eastern border of the AustroHungarian Empire, now Croatia. Here, Steiner was born in 1861, to an
Austrian family of peasant origin. His parents life had taken a new
turn when their mutual landlord did not authorize them to marry, forcing them to experience homelessness. Steiners father worked for the
railways and his career required frequent moves.

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In his early youth, Steiner lived close to nature, near the Alps
and forests. In contrast, during this time the latest technological innovations, such as the telegraph and railway, were rapidly coming to the
fore, and he lived in their immediate proximity as well. Mechanical
devices, electricity, and factories were also close at hand, and these
elicited the childs curiosity. Religion played practically no part in the
family education owing to his fathers proud, free-thinker stance.
The child grew up as a lonely boy. He could not share many of
his daily experiences with anyone in his immediate environment. His
first inner recognition came at age seven when he discovered a geometry book owned by his assistant teacher. For weeks he completely absorbed himself in it. In his autobiography, he remembers this as an inner awakening and a source of great joy. He felt that knowledge of the
soul would have to be of the nature of geometrical sciencein other
words, independent of sense perception.
In his biography, Steiner relates that he felt the direct reality of
thinking, whereas he could not fully experience the physical world. He
was immersed in a world of nature beings and other beings who live
beyond the physical world. He expresses it thus in his biography: I
would have experienced the sensory world as a surrounding spiritual
darkness if it had not received the light from that other world.13 This
is reiterated even more clearly thus: To me the external world really
appeared somewhat shadowy or like images. It moved past me like
pictures, whereas the connection with the spiritual world always had
the character of concrete reality.14 This led him to express the image
of being separated from the outer world by a thin veil, a condition that
continued roughly until his thirty-fifth year. This unusual soul constitution explains many of the experiences that Steiner had to face.
When Steiner passed his entrance examination for middle
school successfully, his father wanted him to move on directly to what
was called Realschule, in Wiener-Neustadt. He wanted to direct his
son toward his own professiontherefore choosing a scientific and
technical education, rather than one in the humanities of the Gymnasium towards which the youth was inclined.
Steiners thirst for knowledge knew no bounds. Through it he
hoped to bring answers about a wealth of inner experiences that no one
could otherwise explain to him. The choice of the technical education

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75

of the Realschule left Steiner yearning for the liberal arts. He decided
to complete his classical education on his own, and bought Greek and
Latin textbooks. Learning Latin and Greek later enabled him to earn a
doctorate. Along with these studies, he felt the need to deepen his
knowledge of philosophy and undertook the systematic study of
Kants Critique of Pure Reason, not because he felt a strong affinity
for the philosopher, but because he wanted to discipline his thinking.
He pursued this endeavor further with more of Kants books, and
works by Krug, Thilb, Schelling, Hegel, and Fichte. The distillation of
all philosophy and natural science left him with the feeling of hitting a
wall. How could he reconcile these teachings with his experiences of
the spiritual world?
It was at the Technische Hochschule that Steiner had the opportunity to listen to Karl Julius Schrer, a very important personality in
this first phase of his life. He was spellbound by Schrers personality,
by the way he gave life to what he lectured about, and by his love for
the work of Goethe.
It was Schrer who introduced him to Goethes scientific work.
It seems that both Steiners philosophic and scientific studies were
starting to converge. Through his mentor, Steiner was invited to edit
Goethes scientific work in Weimar, where he first visited in 1889.
The next year he moved to the city and started a new, deeply fruitful
chapter of his life.
Steiners residence in Weimar between 1890 and 1897 was almost completely framed by his work at the Goethe archives. These
years are characterized by the effort of bringing Goethes views to the
world. This work had started even before the Weimar period with the
publication, in 1886, of Steiners Theory of Knowledge Implicit in
Goethes World Conception.
For Steiner, the study of Goethe was an enlargement of the
study of science from purely physical laws to the laws of the natural
world. He was fond of saying that Goethe was the Galileo of organic
science. Just as Galileo had laid a foundation for an understanding of
the inanimate world, it will one day be recognized that Goethe established the basis for understanding the world of the living. Goetheanism
is, in essence, what some may call a pure phenomenology. For Goethe,
facts were all that was needed to understand realitythere was no

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need to work with theories. Thinking can let itself be guided by following facts from complex, secondary phenomena to simple, primary
phenomena. One phenomenon can be seen as a mystery, while another
would provide a solution, and the act of human thinking would provide
the link between them all. We are following a very similar approach in
this book.
Steiner understood that Goethe had reached an apex of thought
that had not evolved since his time. It was no doubt this experience
with the worldview of Goethe that determined his path of expression
and formulation of his own worldview. It could be defined as the next
step of Goetheanism. Later, with good reason, it would be called spiritual science. Whereas Goethe had satisfied himself by sensing the activity of spirit in nature, Steiner wanted to think of himself and the
world as within the spirit. Steiner was standing at the crossroads of
science and mysticism. However, although he was interested in the
inner experience of mysticism, he could not subscribe to it as a path to
knowledge. He felt that mysticism deepened the dichotomy between
an outer and inner world. It left the world of concepts and ideas to science and sought to penetrate the inner world via enhanced feeling.
Steiner felt instead that he could reach a mystical experience of
ideas.
Steiners inner life, as it had developed through Goetheanism
first, led to another important step. Steiner learned the deeper nature of
meditation in the experience of it. Although he had long held a regular
meditative life before then, at that moment it became an absolute necessity for his being, like eating would be for the body. Through meditation he achieved a third kind of knowledge. Moving beyond conceptual knowledge, his Philosophy of Freedom had established a premise
of knowledge based on sense-free thinking. Now he realized that there
was a third kind of knowledge, one we attain by meditating on a mental picture, for example the human I. This knowledge can be reached
only when the human being can free himself completely from the influence of the physical body, in other words in an advanced state of
meditation.
Steiner entered the third phase of his life in Berlin, where he
had been invited to be the editor of the Literary Review. The crisis
Steiner experienced further justified his perception that meditation was
now an inner, indispensable need for his soul. To this end he further

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77

needed to turn toward the contemplation of Christianity in spirit. He

explains: At that time, I had to rescue my spiritual worldview through
inner storms that took place behind the scenes of my everyday experience. I was able to make progress during that period of testing only by
contemplating, through spiritual perception, the evolution of Christianity. It was in 1899, according to Robert Powell and Paul M. Allen,
that the inner storm found a temporary haven in a deep experience of
Christ.15 Steiner, very private about the matter, describes it with just a
few words: It was decisive for my souls development that I stood
before the Mystery of Golgotha in a deep and solemn celebration of
knowledge.16 This enlightenment also led him to a personal soul
abyss. His marriage to Anna Eunicke in 1899 provided a muchwelcomed anchor to a tumultuous soul life.
Steiner experienced yet another external abyss of society. He
was perhaps one of the last great minds to be able to bridge the gap
between bourgeoisie and proletariat. Through his individual study and
his friendship with scholar and editor J. H. Mackay, Steiner immersed
himself into the social question from which he hitherto had kept himself aloof, given his little interest in politics. The Socialist Workers
Educational School of Berlin asked Steiner to teach history. He accepted, emphasizing that he would be able to offer only his view of
things and taught from 1899 to 1904. For the workers the teacher had
to devise a completely different way of reaching his pupils. Steiner
experienced firsthand the proletariats thirst for knowledge, the kind
usually offered from the most materialistic angles. His work was successful and expanded into the teaching of natural science, at the
schools request. He was invited by numerous trade unions to provide
lectures and eventually delivered an address to 7,000 typesetters at the
Gutenberg Jubilee in Berlin, in June of 1900. Later, despite his popularity, he felt increasingly ill at ease with the schools management,
which neither understood nor approved of his ethical individualism
that was odd company for Marxisms scientific materialism.
The bourgeoisie was living at best in a world of past glories
that it could not or would not share with less-privileged social classes.
From that time onward, the proletariat further identified its cause with
deeper forms of materialism that denied any access to the world of the
spirit. This abyss of existence was felt very keenly by Steiner: This is
how an era arrived that, through its very existence, should have devel-

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oped toward spirit; but it denied its own essential nature. That time
began to make the impossibility of life a reality.17
Steiner had to experience the tragic dimension of our time in
order to make the unprecedented decision to divulge esoteric knowledge. He had seen the pressing need for it. Furthermore, he had no tradition of secrecy to follow since he did not belong to any esoteric society. His knowledge did not derive from these channels or any other
tradition, but from his own spiritual scientific research. It was finally
through a group at the Theosophical Society that Steiner was invited to
talk publicly about his spiritual research. Later on he founded the Anthroposophical Society, and continued to deliver lectures derived from
his own research and to give life to new initiatives in all practical domains until the year 1924.
The year 1923 signaled the beginning of Cayces life readings.
From both sides of the Atlantic came the sign that humanity urgently
needed to perceive the reality of repeated earthly lives.
THE SOULS JOURNEY AFTER DEATH
Serenely let us move to distant places
And let no sentiments of home detain us.
The cosmic spirit seeks not to restrain us
But lift us stage by stage to wider spaces.
Hermann Hesse
Exploring karma and reincarnation based upon Steiners spiritualscientific inquiries, one begins to discover that his idea of karma is noticeably different from the familiar concept of repetition of the same. It
is not a spiritually deterministic view of things, through which we can
possibly refer everything in our present to our past. Thus, a disgrace
that an individual goes through in this life may very well be the result
of choices in a previous life, but it can also result from free will, such
as the souls acceptance of a sacrifice for its own and other peoples
evolution, or a step that will only have later karmic repercussions.
This view of things is far from fatalistic. Although the human
being places himself in an environment that he has, to a great degree,
predetermined, he is still an agent of free will, able to determine his

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actions from within. Karma allows us then to acquire wisdom built

upon our accumulated experience and this, in turn, leads us to become
masters of our future. Thus, the more an individual evolves, the more
he emancipates himself from the universal spiritual laws that act upon
his life. This has another corollary. Many of the things that will be said
here about the laws of reincarnation and karma apply in the majority of
cases; they are tendencies. In order to be able to ascertain the reality in
particular instances, we need to turn to a certain amount of direct inner
spiritual knowledge. The rest is pure speculation. Nobody is entitled to
cast judgment upon his fellow human being on the basis of knowledge
of these general tendencies.
Steiner carried Goethes principle of metamorphosis in the
animal and plant realm a step forward. Over time, the idea of metamorphosis has acquired various connotations, and it is helpful to qualify the different approaches. In the first case, metamorphosis has been
adapted to prevailing scientific thoughtalthough it did not originate
from it. From this perspective, the steps of metamorphosis are seen as
links in a chain of causes of a purely material nature, although they
cannot in any way be predicted through this kind of thinking. When
we use a plant as an example, this perspective says that the leaf metamorphoses into the petal, later into the sepal and stamen, through
physical forcesno matter how little these processes can be concretely explained. In the same way, Goethe saw in metamorphosis the
work of spiritual forces having formative power over physical reality.
He trained himself, through heightened physical observation, to perceive the working of these forces behind the physical world. For
Goethe, the changes that occur at each step of metamorphosis are new
creations of the spirit. Steiner further studied the phenomenon of
metamorphosis by following, in the spirit, the changes a human being
undergoes in the journey from one life to the next.
We will look at some small examples of metamorphosis at the
end of this chapter. It is necessary first to look at the human experience
that shapes our future incarnation, the life that we live in the spiritual
world after death. Science and religion have different opinions on this
subject. Either one of them can simply deny or accept this reality on
the basis of preestablished ideas. Science, because it simply cannot
penetrate this realm of existence, most often denies it. At the same
time, it cannot explain a host of so-called paranormal phenomena, and

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has to either deny this reality or relegate these phenomena to curious

exceptions to the norm. Religion, in most cases, accepts life after
death. In other words, it accepts the living revelations of the spiritual
world that tradition has transmitted to humanity, but cannot elaborate
an understanding of this realm of existence. To Steiner, neither choice
was satisfying, and he began inquiring into the realm of the afterlife.
Evolution of Consciousness
Our life between incarnations can be likened to an expansion from
Earth into the whole of the cosmos. In it we move first from Earth to
the Moon, then to the closest planets (Venus and Mercury), to the Sun
and furthest planets (Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), and culminating in the
region of the fixed stars. At its furthest degree of expansion, the human
being initiates its stage of descent and condensation, a reverse of the
previous journey. The planets form the signposts of a spiritual reality
that is much more encompassing than the physical. This is why we indicate Sun, Moon, and planets with capital letters: this denotes a whole
sphere of spiritual activity that goes beyond the physical planet itself.
In the first part of the journey after death, the thoughts of the
human soul long to expand into the whole of the cosmos, but must first
pass through a process of retrospection that still binds the soul to the
just-passed Earth life (we will explore this review process in greater
detail later in the chapter). After the completion of this process of review, the individual is released from the soul world into the spiritual
world proper. Upon entering the spiritual world, the soul leaves behind
all subjective levels of experience and takes along only an essence, an
extract of its life experience, and forgets the painful process undergone
in the soul world. After the so-called Cosmic Midnight, marking the
midpoint of the souls journey, the human being longs again for incarnation, the process of concentration into a body. This period is devoted
to a process of prospect or preview of the coming incarnation.
Although we portray this odyssey as a journey in movement,
we should keep in mind that it is more of an evolution or expansion of
consciousness. The different spheres of influence that we describe interpenetrate each other. The soul and spirit are immersed in a spiritual
world of which they can perceive only certain qualities at certain
stages of their journey. However, all the other stages of the planetary
expansion are present at the same time and are revealed to the human

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being only when the required maturity has been achieved. We perceive
something new when we acquire the new spiritual organs of perception.
The whole process of planetary expansion is marked by two
important gatewaysfirst the Moon Sphere, then the Sun Sphere. The
Moon Sphere forms the threshold of the soul world; the Sun Sphere
forms the transition into the pure spiritual sphere. After we complete
the expansion of consciousness in the Sun Sphere, our activity and interest turn away from the people and things of Earth, in order to be
completely devoted to beings and events of the spiritual world.
Life in the spiritual world is both a journey of purification of
our lower self, and a journey of consciousness. However, ready-made
ideas cannot prepare our minds, just as they did not help Steiners, to
receive revelations that are quite surprising. We live in the spiritual
world with a new relation to space. Whereas on Earth the space we
occupy with our physical being excludes all other beings and objects,
in the spiritual world the contrary is true. Our being expands to everything around us. However, this expansion and inclusion do not automatically signify participation in the being of others. For this to happen, another element is indispensableconsciousness. Steiners most
startling discovery is the interconnection of life on Earth with life on
the spiritual plane. In fact it is only on Earth that we can act upon our
previous deeds and correct the effect of our mistakes. This does not
happen afterward in the spiritual world. There, on the contrary, we become painfully conscious of the limitations we have imposed upon
ourselves.
It may appear even more surprising that it is on Earth that we
acquire spiritual knowledge, not in the worlds beyond. It is our earthly
spiritual journey that allows us to penetrate into the experience of the
spiritual world. If we have not penetrated these truths beforehand, we
live in the spiritual world without being able to recognize the beings
around us. We may be a little like sleepwalkersour consciousness
will simply not sustain us in a world we cannot relate to. The more
materialistic our outlook in life, the harder it will be to keep our consciousness awake in the spiritual world. The previous analogy of expansion of consciousness will be all the more true. The spiritual world
surrounds each person in the same way. If consciousness has not prepared a receptacle for it, the same experience that is perceived and un-

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derstood by one is completely ignored by another. A distinction is very

important here: accepting materialism as our worldview does not mean
that we have subscribed to entirely materialistic values in our lives.
Those who have offered their work and deeds in love of others have a
very different experience in the spiritual world than those who have
turned their pursuits to purely materialistic aims.
Before turning to the journey after death, let us turn to the time
immediately preceding and following death and the realm of interaction between the dead and the living.
Connections Between the Living and the Dead18
Just as we understand that the way we are born influences much of
what follows in our early years and the rest of our lives, it should not
be surprising to learn that the way we die has an influence on the way
we enter the spiritual world and act therein. Part of this was already
surmised in looking at modern experiences of previous lives.
Our earthly connections with those we knew, who have left
Earth before us, continue in the spiritual world, at least for a time.
These links are very real, but they cannot evolve further than they have
done on Earth. The experience of this limitation feels like a burden for
the soul after death.
The souls who have remained immersed in totally materialistic
pursuits remain in what is called an Earth-bound state after death.
They remain attracted by the sphere of life on Earth for a considerable
time rather than moving on to other planetary spheres. These are the
souls most often contacted by mediums in spiritual sances. Many
souls also remain earthbound due to the concerns they have for others
still living. The same is true in the case of intentions that have been
left unfulfilled. The living can help these souls, especially in the last
two instances, by bringing to completion or resolving what the deceased has left uncompleted or unresolved. We have seen how Jenny
Cockell carried this yearning, even in her following life, and this urge
continued in the need to find her previous-life children.
The souls who cross the threshold of death in readiness, but
prematurely, will have different experiences, according to the destiny
on Earth that preceded their death. Once the attachments to Earth have
been overcome, death by accident will bring a strengthening of ego
consciousness. This stronger resolve continues in the next life on

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Earth. Seen through the lens of karma and reincarnation, accidents

serve a higher purpose. All souls who have died early carry with themselves unused forces from Earth. In the other world, they may be compared to young idealists. They can help the souls on their way to incarnation by inspiring them to move toward the goals of their coming incarnation. Souls who have died prematurely can offer their forces to
the spiritual beings who would otherwise be unable to reach all of
those whose materialistic mindset cuts tem off from the reality of the
spirit. Children represent a special case. Not having engaged yet in
their path of individuation, they readily reconnect with the spiritual
world after death and have a stronger perception of it than adults.
However, they tend to keep a connection to their family and participate
closely to things on this side of existence.
Ascent to Further Worlds of the Spirit
The dead and the living are separated, but not completely isolated.
This isolation is not the same in one direction as in the other. The degree of union depends in great part on the degree to which the living
have turned their thoughts to the spiritual world while on Earth.
After death we live in a world that has been turned inside out.
What was our inner world becomes now our outer reality. The world
of our thoughts and feelings is spread out in front of us: what was our
subjective life on Earth turns out to be our objective world in life after
death. This is what makes possible the apprehension of the life tableau
and the moral life review, both of which we will see later in this chapter. Therefore, all our impulses towards action, all our intentions, form
our inner world. This new perspective makes our knowledge of other
souls far more intimate than we can imagine on Earth. In effect, we
live within other souls with whom we have formed connections on
Earthin this life or in previous onesor completely outside it if we
havent reached the necessary level of consciousness. Lack of connection is experienced in the spiritual world as loneliness. It is a soul loneliness of a depth that has no equivalent in the material world. Even
though we may know that there are others around us, we are not able
to connect with them.
Time after death seems to turn into space. After death, the soul
can turn to events in its destiny much like we can look at progressively
more distant places on Earth. Time lives simultaneously, just as differ-

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ent places in space are apprehended simultaneously in our reality.

Time is, in fact, apprehended as space. Soon after death, the soul
seems to be blinded by a dimension of consciousness that is overwhelming, as we will see later in the instances of near-death experiences. To orient itself, the soul needs the self-knowledge that it has
gained on Earth. Consciousness must be restrained, damped down, in
order for the soul to reach a stage of illumination and the ability to orient itself to the new world. Within this perspective, the moment of
death acquires particular importance for the soul, who keeps returning
to it in order to strengthen its self-consciousness and use it as a point
of reference in its ascent to further worlds of the spirit.
Paradoxically, as we pointed out before, everything is tied to
inner activity in the world after death. A soul cannot apprehend another soul unless it exerts inner activity to connect with it. However,
less inner activity is needed in order to turn to the world of the living
from the other side of the threshold. In fact, soon after death, the departed feel the loss of their loved ones and want to be close to them.
Their loved ones often feel their nearness. The dead can, at this stage,
read our thoughts, but only if we turn them to the spirit, and they can
permeate our feelings. A materialistic soul cannot be perceived by the
dead; they are unable to form a connection.
The dead will perceive the souls of the living in the measure
that these turn to the spiritual world, since this is the reality that surrounds the departed souls. A regular life of prayers and meditation is,
according to Steiner, spiritual nourishment for the dead. The living
can also turn to the dead by creating vivid memories of some episode
of their life on Earth. Training ourselves to overcome our lower nature
is a prerequisite for those who want to communicate more actively and
consciously with the dead. Those who reach a high sensitivity can
avail themselves of tools that allow them to direct their intentions toward the departed one. They can avail themselves of some handwritten
piece, a photograph or anything in which clues of the personality are
offered. In addition, great help is given to those who share sympathy
with survivors and partake in their grief.
The dead are not blind to the egotism we harbor in our souls.
However, they hold an untarnished image of our eternal self. They
cannot follow us in our egotistic pursuits and can approach us in our
states of hatred and antipathy only at great expense of energy. We can

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become aware of their presence, especially at turning points in our

lives, at times when we are facing important decisions.
Let us turn now to the form in which departed souls choose to
reach us. Most often, surprisingly, the dead reach us in the form of another person, and at times in their own form. They often choose the
form of someone we are close to. Thus, the form itself is not of paramount importance; it is simply something that speaks to the way we
see, think, and feel at that particular point in our lives. It is important
to look at the literal element of the vision, but even more important to
look at what is expressed through the images. We should look carefully at what the person does, the feelings that arise in us as well as
desires. We may then realize that what the person in the vision does is
out of character with the outer form, but in keeping with the soul being
of the departed one. Thus, by looking dispassionately at all the elements of the dream image or vision, we can move from the form to the
inner being who is drawing our attention.
As we look at the evolution of our communication with departed souls, Steiners following predictions will be of particular interest to us: In the future it will occur quite normally that a person will
feel that the dead has spoken to his soul. Gradually he will realize from
whom the communication comes, that is, who has spoken to him.19
And further: A time will come when man will converse spiritually
with the dead. People will speak with the dead, and they will listen to
the dead.... In fact, conditions, which in a sense obtain only for the
seer, will gradually become the common heritage of all humanity.
The Journey Through the Planetary Spheres
The first stage of our afterlife experience has been indirectly hinted at
before and has been made popular by the reports of near-death experiences (to which we will return later). It is called the life tableau. By
virtue of the metamorphosis of time and space, the soul perceives all
its life spread out in front of it simultaneously. Near-death survivors
describe it as seeing their whole life spread out before their eyes at
once. The seer can perceive that this process occurs in an average
Earth time of three days. This tableau expands further and further from
us and at the same time becomes more removed from our perception;
by the end, we faintly sense what we clearly saw at first.

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In order to look in more detail at the further steps of the souls

journey after death, we need to introduce a few more essential notions
about the way our soul operates in life on Earth. The soul has basically
two polar attitudes toward everything it meets in life: sympathy and
antipathy. These concepts are larger than the usual meaning of these
words. Sympathy signifies acceptance of what comes toward the soul.
It is what allows us to live within the other being or object. Antipathy
is necessary in order to experience oneself in separation from the
world. It is the motion of the pendulum that awakens selfconsciousness. We need antipathy no less than sympathy in order to
develop faculties of understanding and acceptance.
According to whether we operate from sympathy or antipathy,
we will orient our lives more toward knowledge or toward action. The
region we traverse first after death lies between Earth and Moon. It
initiates what old Hindu tradition calls the stage of purification known
as kamaloca. In this trying time immediately following our life tableau, we experience the effects of our deeds upon our fellow human
beings and upon all other dimensions of creation, whether the plant
and animal realms or other spiritual dimensions. Different from the
previous life tableau, kamaloca occurs in reverse order; we first review
events closer to our death, then move toward our birth. This process
occurs throughout our Moon phase of consciousness.20
After leaving the Earth and expanding into the Moon sphere,
we enter a process of purification. Antipathy is purified by the forces
of sympathy, and sympathy itself is further refined. In the last region
of the Moon sphere, the individual soul becomes one with the soul
world. With the help of the beings that live in the Moon sphere, the
soul passes through a stage of stern self-assessment. The passage
through diverse phases of the soul world existence consists in the purification of cravings that the soul still has but cannot satisfy. The soul
will dwell in these regions according to the measure of its earthly desires; therefore, it may spend relatively little time in one and more time
in another.
Between the Moon and the Sun lie what spiritual science
knows as the inner planets, those planets that, from a geocentric perspective, describe a closer orbit to the Earth than the Sun, such as
Mercury and Venus. It is in the first sphere of Mercury that we encounter the spiritual archetypes of all things on Earth. It may serve to

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define the notion of archetype from a spiritual scientific perspectivevery close to what Carl Jung has defined in his work. In the
spiritual world, everything is in a state of continuous flux or becoming.
The archetypes are creative beings in perpetual creative activity. No
spiritual archetype works alone; each takes on innumerable forms and
works in evolving relationships with other archetypes.
On Mercury we perceive that our physical body is a thought
being. In other words, we see beyond the physical to the spiritual
forces that have formative power on Earth; we may call them formative forces. On Mercury we reconnect with those whom we loved on
Earth: friends and family and all our connections. We re-enliven from
within what connects us to them. It is also in this sphere that the effects of all illnesses and diseases are removed from our souls. We can
connect to other souls and to spiritual beings in the measure of the
moral disposition we had on Earth. Immoral deeds in our life cause us
torment, because we know that we cannot immediately rectify their
consequences.
In the Venus sphere, we move a step further in connecting with
other souls. Venus is the source of what on Earth takes the form of
love. In this area we no longer experience thought beings but, instead,
the element of life that unites us with all other living beings. Steiner
calls this life the fluid element of the spiritual world. Our religious
disposition in life unites us with this unity of life. Therefore, our community of life in Venus is shared with all those people with whom we
shared on Earth a common religious lifea common religious creed.
An atheistic soul will be aware of nearby souls but will be unable to
reach them.
After Venus we reach the Sun, a region that takes a great part
of our permanence in the planetary spheres. In the Sun region, there
are only pure moral relationships. Here goodness bestows blessings,
and evil has no place. The entrance into the realm of the Sun is therefore accompanied by a feeling of bliss due to the fact that we have left
behind everything that was connected with our lower nature on Earth,
everything of an egotistic nature. We connect now with other human
beings, from spirit to spirit, and are now completely surrounded by
spiritual beings. This feeling of bliss is what people experience in an
NDE when they have at least a glimpse of what existence in the Sun
will look like. More about this will be said in the next chapters.

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It is in the Sun region that we find the archetypes of the soul

worldeverything that gives rise to wishes, aspirations, resolves for
life on Earth, and all of the souls desires that make us universally human. In the Sun sphere everything that previously differentiated one
human being from another ceases. We can live in this feeling on Earth
inasmuch as we have striven to see the truly human in all human beings, regardless of race, religion, creed, social classes, and other
sources of differences in a way that goes much deeper than our intellectual stances. Recognizing all that makes us truly human means uniting ourselves with Christ, a being who has to be understood as the central reality in the evolution of the Earth, not the particular possession
of any creed or dogma.
Christ has the faculty of uniting us with all other human beings.
All of the religions of the world can be understood as a stage of revelation of the Christ being in its descent to the physical world. All truly
Christ-imbued persons, whether Christian or not, are the ones who
perceive the brotherhood in all human beings, because they consciously know Christ or implicitly intuit that a universal principle
dwells in all human beings. They may know that Christ came to Earth
not so much as a teacher but to perform deeds that were of benefit for
all human beings. Christas Jung intuitedstands as the archetype of
all selves on Earth, in his words as the central archetype of the soul.
This corresponds to his esoteric name of I Am. Carrying the Christconsciousness within also means having the connection with our
higher self, the I Am, which is recognizable in the way we carry our
inner convictions, independent of all associations with any organized
groups, social class, nationalistic ties, or raceeverything through
which we embody the ideal to thine own self be true. Last but not
least, Christ expresses the universal power of love in the human soul
and is, therefore, most recognizable in those souls who can give of
themselves freely for the good of others. Connecting with Christ cannot be done in the spiritual world. It has to be initiated on Earth
through knowledge and/or action. More about the essence of the Christ
will be added in the exploration of the souls meeting with the double,
following this section.
In the Sun spheres first half, we shape, with the spiritual beings, our next incarnation on Earth. In the second part of our sojourn,
we start gathering experiences from the cosmos. The Sun region is

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where we spend the longest time among all planetary spheres. Those
who have not recognized the universally human in their fellow human
beings and have not recognizedimplicitly or explicitlythe Christ
principle, live a life of complete isolation in this sphere.
Words and concepts can hardly grasp the reality of the spiritual
world beyond the Sun. It becomes harder to draw analogies and pictures from the physical world. The regions of the outer planetsMars,
Jupiter, and Saturnhave been described as the Harmony of the
Spheres in the wisdom language of old times. In these planetary
realms we have a preview in the spiritual realm of how our karma will
be fulfilled in the coming life; we see how our karmic connections will
meet us again in order to bring our karma to further fulfillment. To express it in an image, the harmony of the spheres evolves in stages from
one planetary sphere to the next just as orchestral music would evolve
into choral music. Steiner says that it becomes increasingly tone,
filled with meaning, expressive of its actual being. In Mars, we experience the harmony of the spheres in images, as if we are immersed
in an ocean of tones. These tones, however, stream within us from
our inner self, not without, and we experience them almost as we
would our speaking and singing on Earth.
In Jupiter, the human being learns that the forces of the outer
planets are active in all the phenomena of the physical world. He can
cultivate the devotion for the interconnection of all living beings to
which we give expression on Earth in our deeper religious and spiritual life. In Saturn, the harmony expresses itself through the Cosmic
Word, out of which creation issued forth.
Let us now review the three spheres in succession. Beyond the
area of the Sun we start to understand how single religions relate to
one another. In Mars, we encounter the archetypes of human creation
in arts, science and technology, and government. These are all the archetypes that nourish artists, scientists, scholars, and politicians. They
express an area of concern that goes beyond the daily and the personal
and benefits material needs on Earth. Steiners example of an individual who was given his intentions from this sphere is Voltaire, who applied his gifts through a sharp intellect and a devotion to fight against
injustices and to promote the needs of his fellow men.
In the next spheres, those of Jupiter and Saturn, the human
spirit experiences intentions and goals for life on Earth. Here we also

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experience the reality of the Higher Self, the one that goes from one
incarnation to the next. In Jupiter, what can evolve further are our efforts to grasp spiritual ideas, cultivate spiritual thinking, and offer assistance to others that is permeated with true love. It is from this
sphere that Goethe further evolved the intentions that he developed on
Earth with the offer of his literary and scientific gifts to the world.
In Saturn, we can seek only what serves further progress of the
whole of humanity. We do not only behold our last incarnation, but
also somehow see its spiritual blueprint. In the contrast between actual life and its blueprint, we perceive all our shortcomings. A person
who has received inspiration from this sphere will have a natural inclination in the next life for all spiritual reality. We can intuit the action
of this sphere in individuals like Steiner and Cayce. Another characteristic of human beings inspired from this realm is that they are able to
receive intimations of future evolution on Earth and plant the seeds for
its realization. From this sphere comes the inspiration of all those who
can walk the paths ahead of their time for the benefit of future generations.
Beyond Saturn we penetrate the realm of the fixed stars and
complete our process of cosmic expansion at the Cosmic Midnight.
Each individual will experience it according to ones state of consciousness. Most souls will pass through it as a state of rest and regeneration that offers the capacity to forget. Our consciousness will be
dimmed and we will receive restorative influences of the farthest regions of the cosmos. Some will be able to retain consciousness.
The Return to Earth: A Profound Metamorphosis of Consciousness
In the stage of expansion into the cosmos, the human being feels the
spiritual cosmos as forces of his own being. At the Cosmic Midnight,
we behold the abyss between the perfection of the universe and the
shortcomings of individual evolution, and we set in motion forces that
will determine the next incarnation. We are offered a glimpse of what
the human being will look like in the far future of human evolution.
Knowing that this can only be attained through life on Earth offers a
further stimulus to the returning journey to incarnation.
We also have the opportunity to survey, as an external manifestation, all the previous incarnations and intervening times, much like

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we beheld our last life in the life tableau. The pain and sorrow we have
experienced in life so permeate our soul that they generate new forces
in our will. As we experience, outside ourselves, a panorama of our
past lives and intervening lives, within us arises an intense longing to
unite again with life on Earth. With our will expanding, we come in
contact with those forces that operate in nature, intervening in the line
of heredity throughout the generations.
Before approaching Earth via the inner planets, a profound
metamorphosis of consciousness needs to occur. This corresponds to a
gradual, progressive reduction of the all-encompassing consciousness
achieved at the Cosmic Midnight. During this metamorphosis of consciousness occurs the formation of the spirit germ, which will unite
at birth with the physical germ provided by heredity. The spirit germ is
at first a mighty being as wide as the universe. During its movement
from the spiritual world into the succession of generations, the spirit
germ undergoes a reduction.
The transition to the lower spheres closer to Earth brings about
a more subjectively colored inner life. The returning entity separates
more and more from the creative beings and forces of the spiritual
world. The individual gradually loses the intimate state of communion
with spiritual beings and merely perceives their revelationthe way
they affect his inner and outer world. The soul is aware of the spiritual
world surrounding it, but now perceives it as a whole rather than in its
manifold diversity. This shrinking consciousness forms the basis for
what becomes desire in our physical incarnation.
The individual now starts to feel like a self, separate from the
surrounding world. As such the soul returns to experience sympathy or
antipathy towards its surroundings and thus goes through the later
planetary spheres in a strongly individual fashion. Together with this
contraction of consciousness appear the first glimmers of alienation
from the cosmos. During the passage through the spheres of the inner
planets, an orientation of consciousness towards definite life settings
sets insettings such as life tasks and groupings of karma of the future Earth life. Here are woven the first relationships with those whom
the soul will be associated with most closely in earthly life. The Mercury region has more influence on the shaping of racial relationships;
the Venus region, in the formation of family relationships. These ties

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can be either strong or weak, determining to what extent the individual

will be closely associated with and shaped by race, culture, and family.
In our descent from the cosmos, we develop a deep interest in
the circumstances of future Earth life from the perspective of the spiritual worldfrom decades to centuries before incarnating. We do this
at a time when not only our grandparents, but even earlier generations
are alive on Earth. We follow the development of generations into
which we intend to incarnate with the deepest interest.
In the final stage, the soul now draws towards the Moon
sphere. Here the most intense prospect of the coming life occursthe
reverse movement of the retrospect that occurred after death. It is this
sphere that determines our future sexuality as well as the determination
of physical characteristicsshape of head, color of hair, color and
shape of eyes, and other features. The very way in which we pass
through this sphere determines these characteristics. Now, even memory of the spiritual world fades. It is as if the soul is searching for
memories but is unable to hold on to them. Our feeling and will have
intensified but our thinking has not.
At the moment of conception, it is as if we were giving over
the spirit germ to the stream of heredity. It is as if it falls away from
us, leaving us with a very intense feeling of deprivation. The individual has completed the molding of a soul/spiritual configuration from
earlier lives and in-between lives. This configuration meets with what
Steiner calls the model. This is the physical organization that meets the
spirit germ from the forces of the earthly world. The latter can never
perfectly match our deeper intentions, and thus the first years of life
consist of adaptation and integration between the two sets of impulses.
Something of the model remains even later in life, no matter how
strong the individual may be.
The sojourn in the planetary spheres after death is the source of
many of the metamorphoses that human beings undergo between one
life and the next. Let us look at some of them, pertaining to the dispositions of our soul life.
What is the karma of love and hatred?21 Steiner indicates that,
for karma, it is of great significance whether we do something out of
love or out of a sense of duty. Let us follow someone who has given
love to others in his life. In the next life people he loved will rouse in

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his soul the feeling of joy. In fact, meeting someone who gives us joy
is a great indication of the likelihood of bonds of love in a previous
life. This joy will be manifested in the second incarnation as a general
inclination of the soul toward life. In the following third life, this joy
reappears as a natural capacity for a broad interest in other living beings, phenomena of the natural or manmade worlds.
Let us now look at the second instancehatred. First of all, hatred does not manifest simply in the raw, overt manifestation that we
all know with this word. Every disposition or pleasure taken in criticizing our fellow being, as in gossiping or pleasure in causing hardship,
stems from a hidden propensity to hate, hidden by the pleasure the soul
feels in the outcome of its hateful deeds. The consequences of hatred
in one life appear in the next with the disposition to being hurt and carrying a grudge. It is accompanied by a hypersensitivity to the deeds of
others, and a propensity to see evil intents even when they are not present. In other words, we experience the opposite of joy. In the third
life, hatred manifests with a certain dullness of soul, an inability to
manifest interest in the world that surrounds us and interest in our fellow human beings. A word of caution should be added here: Not all
pain that meets us in life has its origin in hatred from a previous life. It
may be a new, original pain generated in the present lifetime. Moreover, love freely given by a devoted individual or corrective educational measures can mitigate lack of love manifested in one incarnation.
Now, let us examine the karma of religious fanaticism.22 The
fanatic person is the one who lives a religious egotistical soul life. This
person uncritically accepts everything that comes from upbringing or
from a particular marked life experience, and rejects everything that
does not agree with the ideas that color the persons perception of the
world. Any belief in the otherworld stems from an egotistical concern
for the individuals soul. After time in the spiritual world, the fanatic
returns to a life where nothing seems to fit. The individual may become hypochondriac, or depressive, and on the whole have a constant
dissatisfaction, causing feelings of being continuously attacked and the
object of injustice. The soul is constantly wounded. Once again the
soul goes through the spiritual world and then returns to life on Earth.
In this next life the person will be unable to look at the world in an ob-

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jective way, and will be unable to detect the consequences that are the
obvious result of the beliefs the person now holds to be true.
Finally, let us look at an example we visited at the beginning of
the book. What happens to those people who have died prematurely,
who have died before the time of the their thirty-fifth year?23 These are
the people who leave an unfinished life and take with them to the spirit
world the forces that have sustained them in life. They stand in a different position than that of the souls who died at a later age. They still
have available those forces that would have been available for their
physical growth on Earth. They can make these forces available to the
souls that have cut themselves off from the spiritual world. Through
their help, the spiritual beings can offer their assistance to the latter for
their further evolution. Here an element of balance is brought about
between two groups of souls. There are laws at work here that offer a
wider perspective in a realm where the working of karma would otherwise be completely shrouded. Steiner offers us a way to see how
karmic justice is reestablished in a place where we could hardly sense
it. We will encounter confirmation of these laws in examples offered
in the section on after-death communications (chapter 4).
The movement from this world through the next involves a
stage of purification of the soul that has been called the life review.
Ancient traditions knew it as kamaloca or purgatory, although its
meaning was often lost, particularly in the idea of purgatory. The
process of life review can already be initiated in our daily life in the
education of our lower self by our higher self. Jung characterized it
as the process of individuation and the meeting with the shadow.
We turn next to the exploration of this stage and those that follow it.
MEETING OUR SHADOW WITH COMPASSION
I sent my soul through the invisible
Some letter of that after-life to spell,
And by and by my soul returned to me
And answered, I myself am heaven and hell.
Omar Khayyam

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Neurosis is a medical/psychological term that has become common

parlance in modern vocabulary. We all have direct or indirect knowledge of this phenomenon. We experience it firsthand at times when we
feel utterly incapable of bringing change into our lives without outside
help; hence the spectacular rise, since the last century, of specialists of
the inner life and other helping professions. An unheeded neurosis is a
first stage that can lead to psychosis, which can be reversible or become irreversible. We are exposed to this latter phenomenon in increasing numbers. Psychoses manifest in the vaguely defined states of
chronic depression or manic depression, schizophrenia, obsessivecompulsive disorder, paranoid delusions, and hallucinations. All of the
above bear witness to a new malaise of civilization. It is as if the enemy that was traditionally sought and fought outwardly now threatens
us from within.
In a most symptomatic way, this social illness is made outwardly manifest by a rise in the rate of suicide in industrialized countries since the second half of the twentieth century. What is this phenomenon pointing to? The psychologist Carl Jung was a champion of
the exploration of the inner world. He fought his inner battles and experienced what he called the descent into hell. He left us testimonials in his books, accompanied by diaries and drawings of his inner experiences.
Rudolf Steiner defined the basis of all these phenomena as
humanitys encounter at the threshold. What he calls the threshold is
the veil that is drawn between the inner and outer world, between the
physical and spiritual worlds. This veil is growing thinner. Due to increasing circumstances of stress, growing numbers of individuals experience difficulty in separating both levels of reality. The subconscious at times impinges upon our ability to deal with the outer world.
When a psychosis is reached, the individual is no longer able to separate these levels of existence.
The encounter at the threshold is accompanied by feelings of
fear (both general and specific), shame, self-loathing, embarrassment,
disgust, and depression. What lies at the basis of these feelings can be
sought in an individuals biography. Here we find, generally beneath
the level of consciousness, all our wishes and aspirations that we have
not heeded, as well as mistakes or shortcomings that weigh on us, and
dreams we have not pursued.

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In this chapter we will look at how this encounter at the threshold develops from the perspective of a consciously undertaken path of
inner developmentas Steiner outlines it and as he pursued it himselfor from the perspective of an initiation through lifes tribulations. The two differ inasmuch as the first is a more complete and archetypal crossing of the threshold than the second. Only separate
elements of what appears in the conscious encounter at the threshold
will manifest in the initiation through life that is the common lot of
present-day humanity, hence the advantage of looking at the phenomenon from a more encompassing perspective. The encounter at the
threshold sheds light and adds further dimension to the trials that all of
humanity is facing and, in one way or another, learning to overcome.
The encounter with the double is a parallel of the journey of the soul
after death that we previously explored. Initiation, consciously undertaken, or offered through lifes experience, is a process of dying to
ourselves and experiencing the reality of the spirit before the time of
our death. That is why in old times initiation was attained in the mystical temple death.
Jung called the encounter at the threshold the meeting with the
shadow, leading us onto the path of individuation. His whole psychology stresses that this encounter cannot be avoided or pushed aside.
To transform what he calls the shadow we must learn to see ourselves
dispassionately, and seek to transform this being with compassion. He
specified: No one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing
the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the
essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as
a rule, meets with considerable resistance.24 This is why a great part
of the psychology of a true inner path emphasizes encouragement of
the individual.
The encounter with the shadowhenceforth called the doublehas been portrayed throughout the centuries in myths and legends
and is now often portrayed in the media. Tolkien has given us vivid
imaginative portrayals of the encounter with the double and its dangers
in the cycle of The Lord of the Rings. Suffice it to think of the two central figures of Gandalf and his antithesis Saruman.

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Evil: A Reality of the Inner World?

As tradition and literature amply portray, meeting with our double is
centered on the problem of evil. It is relatively easier to accept evil
when it is presented to us in the rich allegory of The Lord of the Rings,
in myths or novels, than it is to accept evil as a reality of the inner
world. However, myths of old were intended as images of the souls
inner path of development. In our time, evil is a concept we can hardly
reconcile with what we call scientific knowledge. In fact, scientific
knowledge is most often assumed to be morally neutral. And yet,
many observations leading to an understanding of good and evil fall
within our daily experience. We all have had the opportunity to realize
that at times we have exerted too much restraint when action was necessary, or rushed into action before understanding all the necessary
background to a certain situation. At other times we may realize that
we were trying to promote a particular idea at a time when others
could not receive it and have therefore limited its possibility of success
in the immediate future. At other times we may realize that we acted
out of impatience, anger, or depressionand that if we had delayed
our reaction we would not be having regrets later. Other obvious mistakes are all our omissions and failures to act upon the deeper urges of
our soul. Finally, at times we may have committed acts that may cause
us lifetime regret. We can therefore reach the conclusion that, to one
degree or another, we could have done better. What these experiences
tell us is that there is a measure between too little and too much, too
early and too late, any single standpoint and its complement. In between the extremes lies an ideal that can be reached only in a life that
would truly be lived in a conscious and almost artistic fashion. Assimilating our shadow or double means learning to accept our limitations,
in the daily struggle of learning to modify, however little, those habits,
tendencies, and dispositions that lead us to do too little or too much,
act too soon or too late, omit, neglect, or deny.
The above leads to an understanding of the problem of evil, as
Steiner saw it. Usually, evil is seen as the contrary of good; somehow
two equal powers stand opposite each other. In this viewthe one
prevailing in the mediawe live in a world of good guys and bad
guys, reward and punishment, right and wrongin brief, among irreconcilable dualities. A spiritual scientific view of things offers a more
elaborate perspective, but one that more fully reconciles with reality.

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From this perspective, good is something that can be attained in a state

of balance between the two directions that relative evil can take. The
balance lies in the middlein a way that cannot be described once and
for all, but is eminently bound to situation and context. Another important aspect of this view is that there is no primary evil, no evil that we
could define as a creative power, corresponding to the powers of good
at work in creation. Evil is merely the result of those powers acting
outside the right time or right area of consciousness. So-called evil offers us a perspective of the world in which the spirit is dissociated
from matter, or their mutual interaction is thoroughly misunderstood.
In one direction, we can be led to believe that there are two
separate levels of existence: the physical and the spiritual. The spiritual would have in itself all that is noble, beautiful, and worthy,
whereas the physical is seen as degraded, vile, and merely necessary to
our existence on Earth. An opposite worldview, perhaps the more
prevalent, ascribes all reality to the physical world and treats all reference to the spiritual world as speculation, fancy, and ultimately as ungrounded delusion. In one direction we move toward a false spirituality of asceticism; in the other we altogether deny the spirit. These are
two very real tendencies of the soul, at both individual and historical
levels. Excesses in one direction are most often followed by the other
extreme.
Thus we see that evil is what moves us, even helps us to seek
balance. Furthermore, evil is relative. What is considered a virtue, up
to a certain point of our development, can later become a fault. Different times of our lives call for different qualities. The courage of youth
can become foolhardiness in old age; restraint exerted beyond a certain
point can turn into inability to act.
From the perspective of spiritual science, good is a matter of
balance that depends on the context and personal phase of development. The Christ consciousness is what allows us find spiritual
grounding in the reality of the here and now. Through the power of
Christ, evil need not be denied nor fought against but rather educated
and transformed into good.
Christ: The Central Archetype of the Soul
Between the two opposing tendencies lies the power that Jung and
many neo-Jungians have intuited as the central archetype of the soul:

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the Christ. Here, admittedly, Jung had to venture outside the parameters of scientific psychology to what he called an essential postulate.
He puts it this way: I will admit that such visualizations are only an
attempt of the clumsy intellect to formulate inexpressible and hard-todescribe psychological facts. I could perhaps express the same concept
with the words of St. Paul: Now not I live but the Christ lives in me.
Or I could quote Lao Tsu and make his Tao my own, the way of the
middle and center of all things. In every case the meaning is the
same.25
It is interesting to note in passing Jungs intuition of the self or
the Christ as the way of the middle. For spiritual science, the Christ
is more than a symbol or a teacher. He is a spiritual being present in
the soul of all human beings. Through him we can find the balance between extremes. Recognition of the Christ does not entail the need for
religious conversion. A clear understanding of the human soul is a
gateway for our acknowledgement of the Christ, as was the case with
Jung and many of those who followed him. We can understand the
Christ by accepting all that is universally human, by seeing Him in
other human beings. The Christ is that being who approaches us in
freedom. The seemingly unfortunate possibility to err on one side or
the other is a prerequisite for the development of human freedom and
for a recognition of the Christ within us.
We will now proceed to a phenomenological approach of the
double, the term Steiner uses that corresponds to the idea of shadow.
We will use double both for the part as well as for the whole; thus,
most of the time the term double will refer to a limited, partial expression of the larger double. Keep in mind, as for everything else in this
book, that this approach is merely a preliminary step in our analysis.
We cannot find the causes of spiritual phenomena in the physical
world, but only in the spirit through the revelations of the phenomena
that lie beyond the veil of the senses. We will try to characterize the
double outwardly by describing its manifestations. These are only
some of the possible manifestations. We refer the reader interested in
this matter to Lievegoeds work.26
The following classification of manifestations of the double is
not intended as a taxonomy; it is merely a functional way to recognize
aspects of a reality that is all-encompassing. These aspects should not

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be thought of as separate parts, but rather as complementary views of a

total picture. The double, as it is understood from Steiners perspective, is a being that the person has built over ones previous incarnations. In this lies a further difference from Jungs idea of the shadow.
In his worldview, shadow is something that we either were born with
or have built in our current lifetime.
In recent times psychology has come to grapple with the matter
of heautoscopy. This is the phenomenon in which we meet ourselvesnot as a mere image but as a three-dimensional figure
outside ourselves. This figure can appear just as we are in life, but also
smaller, larger, younger, or older. The being can remain immobile or
move, and has even been known to speak. However, to the person who
has this experience, there is no doubt that the meeting occurs with oneself. W. Priever, who describes the phenomenon, says that recipients
feel as if something had stepped outside of themselves, leaving them
empty and hollow.27 The reaction accompanying the vision ranges
from fright and shock to loss of speech and even fainting. However, if
the person musters the courage to move toward and even try to touch
the figure, it will disappear. This resolution often results from having
undergone previous experiences and developed in stages the necessary
inner courage to reach such a step.
The above is a dramatic and rather rare experience of encounter
with the double, one that is hardly possible to shake off as delusion.
All scientific explanations fall short of doing anything other than explaining away or merely offering abstract definitions for a reality that
deeply touches the inner core of the human being. This and other extreme appearances of the double often occur to people who have neglected to work on themselves, to the point that this being has acquired
an independent existence in the soulan extreme form of what psychology calls a complex. The appearance of the double in heautoscopy, or paranoid delusions, is often preceded by a serious life crisis,
loneliness and isolation, long depressions, and a tendency toward selfobservation that resembles self-pity. To an extreme, it can lead to a
split personality. Such an encounter with the double is depicted in
novels where the protagonist fights against a personification of his
double, which leads him to an attempt to eliminate it, ending with the
persons own death or suicide.

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Let us look at the double where it appears as our inseparable

companion in daily life. This is what Lievegoed calls the cultural double, parallel in some degree to the idea that Jung expressed with the
term persona.28 We are all influenced by the physical environment in
which we livethrough climate, topography, and other components of
our physical surroundings. They make us citizens of a certain part of
the world. To these are added cultural influences that manifest in the
race and nation in which we are born, the social milieu of our family
and ancestors, the profession we choose, and so on. From the compound of environmental, social, and cultural influences, we receive an
imprint in our soul that defines much of who we are. We take for
granted our place in the world according to all these factors. If we are
totally identified with them we will lack the strength to strive for selfknowledge. By gradually creating distance from them, we may become aware of how we interact with people from other constellations
of physical and cultural influences.
Our first meeting with another person may give us an impression that is not matched by subsequent reactions. We may encounter
the person with initial interest, only to react in a certain way to the
tone of voice, accent, or language spoken, the way the person dresses,
moves, or thinks. These unconscious reactions form the root of all
sorts of discrimination based on race, nationality, religion, culture,
class, and/or particularities of behavior. The conscious, intellectual
recognition of the facts forms the first step required to overcome them.
As we have said, Jung calls this aspect of the double the personathe
mask or faade of the self. Identifying with this layer of personality
can lead to unrealistic self-evaluations. The habits of the cultural double live below our consciousness, and therefore require a gradual
transformation through repeated efforts. An intellectual understanding
of racism, classism, sexism, and all other kinds of discrimination is
only a first step in our inner transformation.
Another group of doubles are previous-life doubles. Contrary
to the cultural doubles, whose manifestations lie within our realm of
experience, these doubles defy all easy characterization. Previous-life
doubles manifest in our ways of thinking, emotions, and associated
behaviors that express themselves in our lives, provoking all sorts of
outcomes that most often cause us sorrow. We may realize that they
act in ways that form certain sets of automatic reactions we express in

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our lives. However, even though we know that they are there, we cannot prevent them from acting in predetermined ways. Often we cannot
see how they fit into our earthly biography, and therefore may feel that
they are both us and not us. Others tend to identify us from this
outer layer of the personality, just as we identify them. Until we understand and begin to transform these doubles, all encounters are, in large
part, encounters between doubles rather than between real human beings.
We can understand the function of these doubles when we start
to transform them. Inner work puts us in touch with the universal experience of grief. Transforming our double allows us to feel the pain
we usually push down, beneath the level of consciousness. Developing
compassion for our double connects us with the experience of grief in
such a universal way as to make us able to relate to the universal human experience. Grief, therefore, acts as the gateway for a true human
encounter. Without it, such an encounter would occur only on the superficial level of immediate sympathy or antipathy.
In some instances, when reincarnation occurs quickly, undigested karmic doubles appear with added strength, causing serious
psychological disorders. In this case, little transformation or metamorphosis has occurred between one life and the next. We have seen this
phenomenon in examples from our previous exploration of reincarnation. We can understand now why, no matter how clearly they point to
the reality of reincarnation, these phobias or extreme behaviors only
form the tip of the iceberg, not the deepest essence of the experience of
repeated earthly lives.
We can further characterize the double according to prevalent
existential modalities in relation to the spirit, the ones that we have
called false spirituality and spirit denial. The first double manifests in
all deep-seated tendencies towards delusions of the soul. It pervades us
with egotistic self-love and guides us towards the escapism of drugs,
romantic illusions, and in general towards avoidance of earthly obligations and self-development. The double of spirit denial tends to entrench us in earthly pursuits alone. It may manifest in endless surges of
energy and/or in a clever, dominating mind that wants to control others. Workaholism and the drive to power have their sources in this
kind of double.

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The Lower and Higher Guardians of the Threshold

There are two cardinal experiences that the path of inner development
leads all individuals to experience in present or future incarnations.
They are meetings with the Lower Guardian of the Threshold and the
Higher Guardian of the Threshold. For the purpose of our analysis, we
will provide a few of the signposts of the experiences of these meetings. A deeper understanding can be found in Steiners work.29
The Lower Guardian is the one we have been referring to in
this chapter in the meeting with the double. It is the primary spiritual
phenomenon beyond most of the outer phenomena that have been described in the recovering of memories from previous lifetimes. It now
becomes clear why recovery of previous earthly livesoccurring in
rather extraordinary circumstancesis often initiated by traumatic
events and in borderline states of consciousnessoften during illness.
The Lower Guardian meets us on the way inward and through this
meeting we receive revelations about many deeper truths of existence.
The Lower Guardian reminds us of the need to work at redeeming our
double before we attempt to move further into the perception of the
spiritual world.
Another meeting is possible, with the Higher Guardian of the
Threshold. This is the meeting we can experience in a movement of
expansion toward the cosmos, rather than contraction into the inner
soul. This meeting requires a far deeper level of inner maturity.
Both thresholds, inner and outer, are attained in increasing proportion in modern times. However, many of these meetings occur
prematurely and are accompanied by all the dangers that psychopathology knows well. It is for this reason that the individual human being is guardedprotected from encountering levels of reality before
the person is ready to face them. All healthy spiritual development will
emphasize that moral development should precede perception of the
spiritual world in order to be kept safe from harmful effects. Let us
look at the effects of a path of spiritual development, such as the one
that Steiner has outlined in his two major books, Knowledge of the
Higher World and Theosophy.
The first precondition for healthy development of the faculties
of the soul is a strengthening of our humility and reverence. Impatience and arrogance must be subdued. Another support to healthy
spiritual development is the right amount of stress. The striving indi-

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vidual needs to avoid undue stress, unrealistic pursuits, damaging

practices for the body (e.g., drugs), and sleep deprivation. One of the
first steps of spiritual development leads to the freeing of our thinking,
feeling, and need to act. Whereas in daily life a certain thought automatically leads to a certain reaction, after a short while on the path,
this connection is severed. We learn to bring action, rather than reaction, out of our deeper self, and thereby become able to stand back
with detachment in situations that previously would have filled us with
fear, anger, or dread.
If a moral strengthening does not accompany our thirst for
deeper knowledge, we can stray in three basic directions. If our thinking predominates, we may become reclusive, avoid our involvement in
the world, seek knowledge in an addictive way, and lead a life that
separates spirit and matter. If we live predominantly in our feelings,
we may become completely dependent on outer circumstances and
people, have great difficulty making decisions, or, at another end of
the spectrum, seek security in a spiritual pursuit of an illusory nature.
If we live predominantly in the world of action, we will experience
great surges of energy that we will apply to endeavors that do not necessarily further our true being. In the extreme, all this energy can
manifest in violence. The discomfort experienced by the soul can be
confronted and owned, denied in drugs, delusions, and the like, or finally projected in an outer cause that is a catalyst for violent action.
The influence of the Lower Guardian is intuitively known in
many ways in modern life. Unless we tend towards a certain pathological soul condition, our everyday consciousness only wishes to
penetrate the spiritual world inasmuch as we have a healthy relationship with and assurance on the material plane of existence. Once we
undertake to know the spiritual world, all the hindrances that make up
our personality are magnified and strengthened. This is another way in
which the Guardian protects us. It is as if the soul senses what inner
sacrifice it has to accept in order to reach the goal, and shrinks from
these requests. Subconsciously, it often reaches the resolve to abandon
any further pursuit.
Meeting the Guardian is a stage of spiritual development that
occurs relatively soon on the path of spiritual development, if not at
the very first stage. Although it is a being that is in us, we meet him
seemingly from the outside. If a person has spiritual experiences be-

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fore meeting the Guardian, the individual will either be unable to understand their true meaning, or, having been pushed back by the
Guardian towards the physical world, will clothe these experiences
with concepts that only apply to the physical world. The experience is
impoverished and hardened. If the person repeatedly attempts to cross
the threshold prematurely, there are dangers of psychosis. In fact, we
could say that many mental illnesses are actually failed initiations at a
time when humanity as a whole experiences the proximity of the spiritual world through the thin veil that separates it from the physical
world.
Besides undertaking moral strengthening, the interested individual needs to develop and strengthen his or her faculties of judgment. To understand spiritual reality, we must be able to differentiate
between beings and experiences that face us in the spiritual world. The
world of matter is the best place for this schooling. Inaccurate observation or inaccurate thinking inevitably leads to disillusion in this world,
just as they lead to confusion in the other world. However, this would
only be a one-sided development of the personality that strengthens
our earthly ego. The force that tempers this one-sidedness is interest,
concern, and ultimately love for our fellow human beings and all other
physical beings. In the first levels of the spiritual world, which Steiner
called the soul world, the soul alternates between a state of surrender
toward the experiences it encounters and a stage of separation. The
state of surrender also alternates with a stage of returning to experience oneself and shutting off experiences of the spiritual world. Selfsurrender to the spiritual world is first experienced, although in a very
different way, in the experience of love upon Earth. In the spiritual
world, an overly strong ego carries the inability to connect with its beings and experiences. Thoughts become spiritual beingness in the
spiritual world; although we need to be able to surrender to them, we
can only grasp them through the strength of our consciousness. Otherwise they pass us by, as we have seen in the description of the souls
journey through the planetary spheres.
In order to cross the threshold, we need to be able to reach a
stage of freedom from fear and complete acceptance of our earthly responsibilities. We need that strength in order to withstand the ugliness
of the figure that faces us, with the acknowledgement that we have
built this through all our previous incarnations. It takes an enormous

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amount of courage to take responsibility for all that we tended to project on the world before coming to self-knowledge. The previously
described experience of heautoscopy illustrates, in a graphic manner,
how traumatic this cardinal encounter can be for the unprepared. Seeing ourselves truly is a tremendously humbling experience; therefore,
humility and devotion need to form a foundation for the inner life previous to the meeting. Nothing can be as distressing in the meeting at
the threshold than the failure to develop love.
When we meet the Guardian, fully and consciously, this being
shows us the root causes of all our habits, inclinations, dispositions,
patterns of behavior, and even propensity to illness. After we meet the
Guardian, its figure stands as a reproach to our actions whenever we
stray from our intended path or forget the resolves to which we have
committed.
After meeting the Guardian, we live in two worlds. We know
that the world of death is a world of eternal life. In fact, having met the
Guardian while alive, death becomes a conscious experience. This is
why the Guardian is also called the Angel of Death. Another accompanying factor is the ability for those who have consciously crossed
the threshold to act independently of all the connections that previously determined their livesrace, nation, class, and culture.
In modern times, this meeting at the threshold occurs subconsciously throughout life with many of the single traits described above,
only with lesser intensity. Marilyn Sundermans life (see Chapter 2;
Trauma and Liberation) led her to experience the fatal shortcomings
of three previous incarnations with the accompanying recognition that
she needed to take responsibility for what she projected onto other
people. She realized she needed to develop forgiveness toward the person who wronged her in this life, and whom she had wronged in a
previous one. A very similar experience is described by Barbro Karlen
in the same chapter.
Other faculties accompany the awakening experienced at the
entrance to the spiritual world. Our newly acquired freedom puts us in
the position of accepting responsibilities in a new way. Whereas before we mostly carried our responsibilities out of a sense of duty, more
and more we can face the same necessities from inner resolve and, ultimately, love for the task. Meeting the Guardian leads the human being to realize that not only is the physical world incomplete without

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the spiritual world, but also that the reverse is also true. The transformation of our double can only occur on the physical side of existence.
Knowing that we are both mortal in this world and immortal in the
spiritual is an experience that renews our appreciation for the world of
the senses as an indispensable and unique stage of schooling.
The Greater Guardian
What has been secured through this first meeting is just the first stage
on the path of spiritual development. Another step awaits us on the
path toward higher consciousness. Here, more than in the first instance, human experience fails to find words that match the experience. Steiner describes the Greater Guardian as the being who works
toward the transformation of all humanity and the whole of nature. In
him we can recognize the essence of the Christ. The second threshold
can also be crossed prematurely, and this is done either consciously or
unconsciously in modern times. Here, too, lie great, if not greater,
dangers. This path, felt as an excarnationthe inner equivalent of
deathreleases a feeling of bliss. In it, as in death, the soul is released
through a loosening of the forces that normally hold it within the body.
A clear instance of this excarnation process is experienced by those
who have a near-death experience (NDE). The soul reaches what we
have called the Sun sphere in the journey after death, hence the wellknown feeling of bliss reported by all those who experience an NDE.
We will return to this landmark experience of modern time in the following chapter.
The journey out can be attained in a distorted fashion and prematurely through any of the following in different combinations: sensory hyper-stimulation or depravation, extreme exhaustion or hunger,
or endless rhythmical repetition in movement or dance. These practices are, incidentally, used for mass indoctrination or brainwashing.
Their result offers a temporary feeling of bliss and ecstasy. The person
may have an enhanced sense perception of color, sound, and form, an
experience hardly possible in everyday consciousness. The danger of
premature experiences, however, lies in reversible or irreversible
changes of personality that are attained in all forms of psychosis.
The experience of the meeting of the Higher Guardian of the
Threshold will be looked at in the two following chapters. Steiner
helps us understand the ultimate phenomenon beyond the manifold

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phenomena that we encounter in the world of human experience. He

describes this as a meeting with a magnificent form of light, whose
beauty is difficult to express in ordinary language. This is a stage at
which the human being can live in a purely spiritual consciousness,
detached from sensory experience. It was described in Steiners biography in the decisive experience he had in the year 1899.
Accepting the requests of this Guardian means committing to
work for the furtherance of all that the Christ stands forall of humanity. In a depiction of what the Guardian may say to the human
soul, these were the words used by Steiner: Until now, you have
worked only to free yourself, but now that you are free, you can help
free all your fellow beings in the sense world. Up to now, you have
striven as an individual. Now you must join yourself to the whole, so
that you may bring with you into the supersensible realm not only
yourself, but also all else that exists in the sensible world.30 By accepting what the Guardian expects of us, we renounce all benefits that
may accrue for us from spiritual development, by putting it all at the
disposal and advantage of our fellow human beings. There is no outer
incentive to meeting the Guardian of the Threshold, whereas the temptation to avoid this meeting is the greatest imaginable. Tolkien described the difference between the first and second stage of spiritual
development in the depiction of Gandalf: he first calls him Gandalf the
Grey, then later Gandalf the White. The temptation to keep the experiences of the first meeting with the Lesser Guardian for ourselves and
turn them to our personal benefit is deftly depicted in the character of
Saruman.
In the physical world, our true ego or higher self is, according
to Steiner, a being more foreign than any other person on Earth. We
encounter it in the spiritual world through our meeting with the Higher
Guardian. The prelude to this encounter entails the experience of becoming small and insignificant. In the spirit we become as if condensed into a point. We carry with us all our past with a feeling of not
having a present or future. It takes much inner strength and faith to
trust that out of the encounter with the spiritual world that surrounds us
our higher self comes to us when all memory of what we have been is
blotted out.
In our encounter with the higher self, we start to behold our
eternal individuality in which are woven the results of all our previous

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incarnations. In the spirit and over time, the domain of our previous
lives is presented to us in its objectivity. What is thought of as the
most subjective remains an individual occurrence, but acquires objective value through a level of cause and effect of a higher order. We
can then apprehend what led us, in our life, to want to face certain difficult, uncomfortable, or tragic situations in order to compensate for
karmic debts contracted in the past. We realize we have set in motion
learning opportunities that allow us to correct one-sided tendencies in
our character or develop abilities that we lack. Beholding our true self
in the spirit leads us to the similar feeling we have at the midpoint of
our journey after deathof wanting to set conditions for our coming
life in which we will be given the opportunity to compensate for
wrongs we have caused.
What is incomprehensible to our ordinary self in the physical
world acquires a completely new perspective when our ordinary self is
illuminated by the light of the true self. It is in this sense that the
higher selfintended as a spiritual being and not an ideainspires
what happens to us in the world and leads us to the key events and encounters of our biography. It is ultimately the shaper of our destiny
meaning that in a higher sense we are the very same shapers of it. This
is the ultimate extension of the idea of taking responsibility for our
lives that is becoming more and more widespread at present.
Some basic exercises were recommended by Steiner in order to
help form the attitude of mind that can facilitate a meeting with the
higher self. They will give us an idea of what it means to take these
ideas seriously. In a first exercise, Steiner asks that we imagine an
event we have not wanted and depict it in such a way that it manifests
as the object of our will. In the example of a tile that falls from a roof,
we will represent in great detail how we ourselves have loosened the
tile from the roof and then run to the place where it would subsequently fall.31 The object of the exercise is to come nearer to a perception of how our higher self guides our destiny in the world. A similar
exercise will be given here in Steiners words: I will think back over
the last three to four weeksor better still, monthsletting all the important happenings in which I was involved pass before my inner eye.
I will deliberately disregard whatever injustice may have been done to
me. I will omit the excuses for my difficulties that I have expressed so
frequently, such as, for instance: it was someone elses fault. I will not

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for a moment consider that any other person could have been to blame
but myself.32 From this exercise, repeated over time, arises a completely new personal relationship with the spirit.
With the help of the concepts that emerge from our exploration
on the basis of reincarnation knowledge, we can now turn to other aspects of the human experience on Earth. This will help us to gain orientation in another realm of spiritual experiences that no longer concern life before birth, but life after death. In the previous chapters we
have discovered many experiences that fall primarily within the category of encounters with the Lesser Guardian of the Threshold. We will
see further in the next chapter how it is possible to have glimmers,
premature or mature experiences, of the Higher Guardian of the
Threshold, and in some instances how both encounters occur in sequence.

Chapter 4

OF LIFE AFTER DEATH

And cast the load of anguish from thine heart;
From the cold shell of his great soul arise,
And look beyond, thou native of the skies;
There fix thy view where fleeter than the wind
Thy Leonard mounts, and leaves the Earth behind.
Phillys Wheatley
In the second chapter we presented new spontaneous experiences
pointing to reincarnation and pre-birth existence. They range from the
unconscious level of phobias and recurring dreams to a clear awareness of many elements of a previous life. Firsthand knowledge of the
laws of karma did not appear in modern times in a vacuum. It is only
one manifestation of an expansion of consciousness that points in
many directions.
It is the scope of this chapter to look at as many phenomena as
possible. From these seemingly unrelated new expressions of consciousness, we will try to focus on the common, most fundamental
elements. In keeping with the procedure we have outlined for this
study, could there be underlying phenomena that act like ocean currents in relation to waves and tides, capable of supporting various expressions of the whole? Could there be a common reason for these
many facets of an expanding human consciousness, the growing experience of new dimensions of the spiritual world? We will move from
the individual expressions of knowledge of life after death to the largest social implications of the new spiritual framework that affects all
of humanity at present. We will start with the now famous near-death
experiences, the most important symptomatic event pointing the way
towards what forms the center of this books exploration.

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AFTER-DEATH COMMUNICATIONS
Death is the end of a lifetime, not the end of a
relationship.
Mitch Albom
From time immemorial a large part of the role of religion was concern
for the souls of the dead and their destiny in the afterlife, and the idea
of an ongoing relationship between the living and the dead. These two
aspects were present in burial rites and in the worship of ancestors.
Modern Western consciousness has severed the links between the living and the dead since, over time, all living experience of the spiritual
world has completely faded from humanitys memory. The modern
human being is cut off from the spiritual world. It is one of the most
arduous yet most fulfilling endeavors to regain a conscious knowledge
of the spiritual world, no longer from tradition and dogma, but through
experience and personal understanding.
In this century, more and more people have experienced communication with departed souls, here called after-death communication
(ADC). These experiences are differentiated in many ways. Some rare
individuals have, in this life, carried natural faculties of clairvoyance.
They may have experienced the nearness of departed souls even before
knowing who they were. Others have trained new faculties of awareness and clairvoyance through continued meditative practices and have
eventually been able to communicate with departed souls. Finally, the
large majority of reports of ADC come from the layman. At times in
their livesparticularly but not exclusively at times of deep crisis
more and more people have been touched by a moving experience revealing to them that their loved ones are still part of their lives.
As we discuss this subject, we will look at naturally occurring
phenomena and disregard any information obtained through hypnosis,
spiritualistic sances, or similar practices. Before moving into the
topic, however, let us explore briefly a borderline state of consciousness that affects the dying themselves, and their loved ones, at the time
of death.
The studies of physicist Sir William Barrett report a variety of
phenomena surrounding death.1 The most common of these is the dying persons perception of departed souls, which can be easily con-

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fused with a state of delirium. However, case after case shows that the
dying person retains a clear perception of the surrounding environment
and continues to carry on conversations with the living at their side
while simultaneously perceiving the presence of departed souls. What
adds weight to this observation is the fact that dying patients can perceive the presence of departed souls whose death has been hidden
from them in order to spare them additional grief.
This was the case of Jennie, age eight, and Edith, a little older,
both ill from diphtheria. Edith did not know of her sisters death until,
before dying, she perceived her sisters soul beckoning to her. Other
similar examples are offered in the chapter Visions by the Dying of
Persons by Them Unknown to Be Dead in Sir Barretts book. In some
instances, the dying report the presence of another family member, often living far away, whose death was not yet known. Barrett reports
three such examples in the same chapter quoted above.
Death loosens the threshold between the worldsnot only for
the dying, but also for their loved ones. This phenomenon is admittedly more rare than the previous one. Barrett tells of a mother perceiving the soul of her husband at the same time as her child did, fifteen days before her death. But is it really the exact same vision? Observations indicate that the visions, although referring to the same perceived reality, differ according to the individuals. Thus, a mother only
heard the voices that accompanied her dying daughters vision of her
sister come to lead her to the other side. At his death, the poet Horace
Traubel was able to see and hear the voice of Walt Whitman, to whom
he had been very close in life. The dead poets presence was also felt
and seen, although differently, by Colonel Cosgrave, a friend of both
poets.
Finally, in rather rare instances a person is able to witness the
spirit of the dying person in the transition from one life to the next.
Various accounts are given from the experiences of a nurse in the case
of a girl she knew well, of a personal friend, and of a woman whom
she was tending as nurse. More observations about these phenomena
will be offered in the discussion of hospice in Chapter 6.
That the book Hello from Heaven2 has been a bestseller for
seven years bears witness to the interest that the topic of after-death
communication raises in the US and throughout the North American

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continent. Bill and Judy Guggenheims book was the culmination of

seven years of research, sorting through 3,300 testimonials from about
2,000 people throughout the US and Canada. They quote a 1987 survey that concluded that 42% of American adults believe that they have
been contacted by a deceased loved one; in the case of widows, the
percentage is as high as 67%.
A large part of their research was an effort to find patterns
within a mass of information, and to allow the deeper meaning of the
experiences to arise as a phenomenon from the accounts themselves.
Little effort went into proposing theories and hypotheses. The interest
in ADC lies in the effect it has on the lives of the recipients.
ADCs are classified by the Guggenheims according to various
criteria. Classifying these experiences has value as a visual tool for the
intellect. All the experiences have much more in common than they
have differences. The first is the sensory component; the simplest experiences come from a sub-sensory or sentient level. Individuals in
this group feel an enveloping presence of a loved one, and recognize
the essence of their being. The experience is generally brief, lasting a
few minutes at most. It has a clear beginning and ending, providing
recipients with feelings of warmth, love, and peace that are hardly the
norm in daily life.
The following is an example taken from the Guggenheims
book. Sandy is a forty-nine-year-old nurse in Washington. Her life was
changed forever five years after her father died of cancer:
I was an operating room nurse in Vietnam. This happened two or three weeks after I arrived there in 1968.
Shortly after I got into bed, the hospital was attacked by
a barrage of rocket fire. The Earth was shaking and the
noise was deafening!
I crawled under my bed onto the concrete floor. I
was very cold, uncomfortable, and frightened. All of a
sudden, my father was within! I felt his presence and
his emotional warmthmy fathers caring and love enveloped me.
I felt wrapped in the security of his strength and had
an overwhelming sense of peace. He assured me that it
was going to be all right. He was there several minutes,

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and then he left. This experience strengthened my spirituality and took away my fear of death.
Throughout my tour, I dealt with a lot of young men
who were severely wounded and others who went on to
die. The war didnt stopthe casualties just kept coming.
I sat with many who were dying because I couldnt
imagine them dying alone in a foreign country. My experience with my father contributed to my ability to do
that.3
Although a sentient ADC would seem to fit the lowest level of
sensory experience, the outcome shows that it is as potent as any other
kind of similar experience. Other ADCs may involve the sense of hearing. Auditory ADC, for the majority, involves an inner hearing; in others, the phenomenon does not differ from daily sensory experience.
The voices have all the characteristic tempo, pitch, and intonation of
the familiar voice that is communicating. Messages are brief and to the
point, and communication of thoughts of the living to the deceased occurs telepathically. The sense of touch is more rarely involved, and
apparently implies a very close relationship with the departed soul.
Tactile experiences are most often associated with other sense perceptions. The authors also distinguish between partial and full visual appearances. The difference between the two goes beyond the obvious.
In a partial appearance, either a portion of the body appears, or the
body appears as a mist, in a transparent or not quite solid state.
The other element that distinguishes these communications is the
state of consciousness of the recipient. The first of these is the vision.
Different from an appearance, the vision is more limited in space. It
can appear to be two-dimensional or three-dimensional, and can be
experienced inwardly or outwardly. A vision can be compared to a
stained glass window illuminated from behind. Internal visions are often experienced in conjunction with telepathic messages. The state of
mind that makes communication with departed souls easier is the twilight consciousness that accompanies waking up and falling asleep.
Deeper in the unconscious mind, we can be met by a deceased
loved one and experience their presence in what has been called a lucid or vivid dream. Compared to regular dreams, these experiences are

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more vivid, orderly, colorful, and logical in terms of plot. They are
also easily recognized for their feeling of being more real than life.
Finally, ADCs will occur when an individual is experiencing a
shift of consciousness, as in out-of-body states. Recipients may feel
pulled out of their body and see their body lying still below them;
travel through space at near-infinite speed, and have the experience of
moving through a tunnel before reaching the light. The following is an
example of an out-of-body ADC. Shirley, a nurse in Wisconsin, had
this mystical encounter with her five-month-old daughter, Amanda,
who died of a congenital heart defect:
About three or four weeks after Amanda died, I was lying in bed, but I wasnt asleep. All of a sudden, I felt
myself being pulled out of my body. I felt I was higher
up in the bedroom, near the ceiling, looking out the
window.
The entire window became filled with the brightest
golden light that I could ever imagine! It was like
someone coming at you in a car with their high beams
on. I felt absorbed by the light, and I felt the presence of
my daughter.
Then I saw Amanda! I saw her spirit in that light!
And I heard herit was a telepathic communication.
She said, Thank you very much for all that you gave
me. I love you very much.
Suddenly, I felt a very, very powerful presence
the presence of God. I felt the most incredible sense of
love and understanding that Ive ever experienced in
my life. And at that moment, I understood everything!
I remember being so overwhelmed by the whole
thing. It was like being in a state of wonder. It was a
feeling of total acceptance and total love for who I am.
It was a spiritual love with no strings attached. And after that, I fell into a deep sleep.
This was a lot more than just a dream. I really feel it
was a communication with my daughter. And I feel it
was a gift that was given to me.4

OF LIFE AFTER DEATH

A different type of communication does not occur directly

with the deceased ones, but involves outer phenomenanaturally,
mechanically, or otherwise induced. The Guggenheims identify
three such types of ADCs: symbolic ADCs, ADCs of physical phenomena, and telephone ADCs. Symbolic ADCs involve natural
phenomena. They are fairly common and involve butterflies, rainbows, flowers, animals, or inanimate objects. The butterfly is the
most common, followed by the rainbow. Both of them have a symbolic meaning tied to death and rebirth. The appearances can be
recognized by their perfect timing in association with an important
event, (a memorial service, anniversary, Mothers Day, or birthday, for example), setting, and/or highly unusual behavior of plants
and animals. Most people recognize the signs immediately and inwardly know that they are related to their loved one.
The next two types involve unusual physical occurrences.
Often a departed soul will manifest through mechanical or electrical devices that are activated, shut off, or repeatedly turned on and
off with no outer physical cause. In other instances, objects will be
moved with no outer physical causation. These phenomena often
happen with perfect timing and may actually involve clocks and
watches. Light plays a role just as it does in other ADCs. It is a different kind of light than the one we experience every day. This
light surrounds inanimate objects rather than the deceased.
Telephone ADCs are simply a sub-group of the last type of
experience. They are the least common and can occur both in day
consciousness and in sleep. In either one, the phone rings and the
recipient hears the voice of the deceased, either very clearly or
seeming to come from far off. The messages are very short and to
the point. The conversation ends without hanging up and the phone
just goes silent, as if the line had been cut. Interestingly, this experience occurs regardless of whether the phone lines are functional or disconnected (this was reported before the use of cell
phones).
It is important to mention that not all ADCs are accompanied by the kind of positive feelings we have met in all of the
quoted experiences. Some can have a negative connotation or
reveal different aspects of the spiritual world. We will return to
these when we touch upon all types of negative experiences. Ulti-

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mately this is just a functional way of distinguishing experiences

since, from the perspective and intention of the deceased, such an
appearance always has a forward-moving goal.
To better understand the larger dimensions behind ADCs,
let us look at the phenomena that accompany them. Even from the
limited sampling we have offered the reader, we have seen that it is
not necessary to believe in God in the conventional religious sense
in order to be visited by a departed soul. It is easier to establish
contact when we are in a state of meditation, relaxation, or openness of mind. Prolonged grief is a barrier to experiencing ADC,
whereas prayer, meditation, and the ability to forgive constitute
major gateways. As could be expected on the basis of the above,
children are more receptive to these experiences than adults, and
animals sense the presence of departed souls before humans do.
Departed souls appear in what is, at all levels, a real sensory experience. As we have noted, recipients call it more real
than life and preserve a vivid memory of it. The memory does not
fade with time. Individuals with such experiences do not feel the
need to write down what they have experienced. When they recall
them, the experiences feel as vivid as they did at the time of their
occurrence.
Departed souls appear accompanied by an otherworldly
bright lightvery intense and yet not as overpowering as a very
bright physical light would be. The light either shines directly from
the individual or illuminates that person from behind. No matter
the state in which the soul experienced death, in visual ADCs, the
souls appear whole and healed. Additionally, they show a kind of
serenity rarely possible on Earth and communicate unconditional
love and acceptance. There are exceptions. Abusive individuals
seeking forgiveness will appear repentant; suicides also show a
different picture, one that we will look at more closely later.
Age has no bearing on departed souls. They may appear at
the age they were at the time of death, younger, or older. They may
be dressed in white or multicolored ethereal robes, or wear the
clothes that make them immediately recognizable to their survivors. Deceased souls will often make themselves recognizable by a
gesture, such as a tap on the head, a kiss, a smile, a short colloquial
sentence, or a joke known only by the loved one. Also of interest is

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the fact that those who receive these experiences may be driving,
or may be engaged in other domestic or professional pursuits.
When that happens they are able to maintain control of their physical activity quite easily. When more than one person experiences
an ADC, although the timing and setting coincide, the extent and
type of perception varies. For example, one witness may sense and
hear, while another may hear and see. However both will agree as
to the contacting soul, the time of occurrence, and the tenor of the
message received.
Let us now look at ADCs in a more contextual setting. Cynthia
Bourgeault, an Episcopalian priest, has devoted her book Love is
Stronger Than Death: The Mystical Union of Two Souls to her spiritual friendship with the Trappist hermit Rafe (Louis Numa Robin, Jr.)
in her five-year friendship before the latters death and in the years that
followed.5 Their first meeting in 1990 gave Cynthia an immediate feeling of familiarity. It did not lead, however, to any immediate closeness. In the years that followed, a very close friendship and committed
spiritual friendship ensued.
Before Rafes death they had worked at establishing a mode of
communication with the other world. The communications after death
took a variety of forms enumerated in the Guggenheims research. At
Rafes wake in December of 1995, Cynthia experienced an outpouring
of love and heard a voice distinctly saying: I will meet you in the
body of hope. In the fall of 1996, while in British Columbia, feeling
homesick and drained, upon walking by the shore, she heard Rafes
voice as an inner impression: I love to see the water through you!
and then: You dont have to come all the way to me, because I am
also coming to you.
That same year, on the first anniversary of his death, five minutes after the time it occurred, Cynthia found herself reliving Rafes
death experience. The question that had been haunting her (How did
Rafe die?) was put to rest. Other general experiences in those years
involved mostly the sense of touch. She knew Rafe was there by the
sense of enfolding and encircling presence, often a distinct pressure.
She met him also through words which rang in (her) heart. Cynthia
took it upon herself to continue Rafes mission. She took on his lifestyle, but received a clear indication from him (while writing in her
journal) that she did not need to do it in that way. She was asked to

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accept who Rafe was growing into being, hence the necessity of letting
go of everything he had been before. A year and a half after his death,
Cynthia went to Waunita Hot Springs, Colorado, to the tiny cabin that
Rafe had inhabited during his early days as a hermit. There she experienced, although not fully consciously, the deep sadness and loneliness of Rafe in that place. This experience gave her the feeling that it
had somehow alleviated the heaviness of Rafes soul.
We have completed the first part of a phenomenological
overview of what is known as ADC. The unanimous conclusion of
these experiences is a newly acquired feeling that the soul continues its journey after death. Consequently, fear of death is lessened.
Feelings of grief are also alleviated, although the departed soul
most likely will still be missed. The overall picture is one of great
fluidity between the two worlds. The deceased want to both reassure the living and receive our help for their continued journey.
They may help us surmount trials in our lives or enlist us to help
others. Apart from the fact that these communications occur beyond the physical threshold, they are reminiscent of actions we
carry out every day of our lives.
Has the boundary between the living and the dead become
more permeable in our time? This is an issue that we will continue
exploring with abundant information, so that we will be able to lift
ourselves out of the phenomena in order to see the symptoms that
lie beyond them.
In addition to the examples given above, although more rare, departed souls sometimes want to enter into communication for the sake
of a third party. For example, there is the case of Valerie, an office
manager in Massachusetts. She was called upon to assist another person after her only child, John, died of cystic fibrosis when he was
eighteen years old:
I continued to go to the cemetery even though I always
felt that John wasnt there. But it was an outlet for me
to be there once in a while and reflect. I never interacted with other people at the cemeteryI just went to
put a flower down. Usually I was in my own thoughts.
But this particular time I felt John was talking to me.

OF LIFE AFTER DEATH

He came through to me suddenly and said, Mom,

somebody needs you. This intense feeling that kept
coming over mesomething was pushing me away
from his grave.
It was John, and he kept saying, Mom, you dont
need to be here. Theres somebody that needs you. It
was very brief, it was telepathic, and I was being
pushed and led.
I walked away from my sons grave and came upon
a man who was kneeling by another grave. Led by
John, I said, Excuse me, Im sure you are planting
flowers here because somebody special in your life has
passed away.
The man turned around, stood up, and said, Yes,
its my son. He looked at me like Who are you? And
I said, Im sorry to bother you, but I saw the pretty
flowers and just wanted to say hello, and Im very
sorry. I could still feel John standing nearby. And
there was another soul with him, but I didnt know who
it was until the man started to talk about his son.
He said, My son, Troy, was murdered. He had
muscular dystrophy and was on crutches to help him
walk. He was very smart and intelligent.
The father talked about how angry and hurt he was
and the pain he had about his sons death. He kept
elaborating on the men who had killed his boy. He was
so upset he wasnt with his son when he died. Finally,
he put his arms around me and started to cry.
Then I heard John say, Thats why youre here,
Mom! Youve got to tell him that when those men were
strangling his son, when they were in the act of killing
him, Troy left his body. There was no suffering. The
pain was gone. Mom, the only ones who are suffering
are the people down there who are alive. You are the
sufferers! Troy is with us and hes okay. And he feels
sorry for the men who killed him.
I repeated everything John told me. The man just
looked at me and asked, How do you know this? I

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said, Because my son who died just told me And I

shared with him other experiences that John had given
me, showing me theres a life after death. Troys father
was so elated that he hugged me and kissed me.
John was right! Somebody needed mesomebody
needed both of us. Im so glad we were able to help this
bereaved father.6
With this example of ADC we have moved into a new dimension. Without necessarily knowing it, the person in the last example
was acting as a psychic. The communication she was receiving concerned another soulnot herself. A psychic may be a person born with
natural clairvoyance, and that clairvoyance can resemble, at first, a
lack of definite boundaries between the material and spiritual worlds.
In their work they will be able to contact departed souls who want to
reach their beloved ones but probably would not be able to do it without the help of a third person. In this sense, the communication remains essentially the same in nature as other ADCs, with the added
dimension of the experience of the psychic person.
Most Conscious ADCs
In 1969, Helen Greaves released transcripts of communications after
death with her deceased friend, the Anglican nun Frances Banks.7 In a
very moving way, Frances relates to Helen the reality of the spiritual
world that she is beginning to experiencea view that is all but static.
Frances is living and evolving on the other side of the threshold, undergoing tests and putting to use what she has learned on Earth.
The two women had worked closely for many years and were
well attuned to each other. For years before her death the two had explored deep levels of meditation. They did so within a group of men
and women and called their practice Group Meditation for World
Goodwill. It was during that work that the group received communications from the Mother Superior of their order, Mother Florence, and
later those of Father Joseph White, a priest of the Society of the Sacred
Mission.
On Earth there had been previous steps leading to the day when
communications would be possible. In 1965, upon dying, Frances beheld the souls of her departed friends in the room. At Francess memo-

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rial, Helen clairvoyantly beheld Frances, appearing in her nuns habit.

The communications with Frances were laid out in stages. Three
weeks after the nuns death, Helen had a sentient ADC of a very particular nature with Frances. This is how she related it in her own
words:
I gradually became aware of a Presence. The air seemed
to take on a great stillness and a hush of expectancy. I
switched off the radio and allowed myself to relax into
this peace. No thought of a possible communicator
from another world occurred to me. No word was spoken in my mind. I was very still and quiescent. Slowly
my whole being seemed to be caught up into a peace
and beauty that I cannot describe. This beauty was both
around me and within me. Almost imperceptibly I
passed into a state of deep meditation in which I was
conscious of being immersed in light. I was part of the
Light, yet the Light issued from beyond me. I felt a
One-ness with all that was highest and best and with the
eternal Self within me. I felt the nearness of spiritual
Presences. I was swept into a meditation in which Frances and I had participated years before. Gently, and
with great reverence, it was borne in upon me that I was
not only in touch with my own immortal soul, but also
with the soul of Frances Banks.8
This is how the communication began. Frances revealed later
that she was able to communicate with the help of Helens deceased
husband and from that time also telepathically with Helen. At first,
Helen would write down what Frances was dictating. It was not an
automatic dictation, since Helen retained full consciousness. Later in
the communications, Helen was able to ask questions and have a twoway conversation with her friend. Even so, she was never aware of
what she would be writing about.
The communications went on from early December 1965 until
mid-April 1966. Frances communicated about the steps she was taking
in the spiritual world. At first there was a life-review. Frances saw
all of her life and had the opportunity to be the judge of her own ac-

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tions, realizing when she had often fallen short of her goals. She depicts it as being the accused, the judge and the jury, all at the same
time. Later, the soul arrived at the Halls of Learning, a University of
the Spirit for deceased souls. With the help of more highly evolved
souls, she was able to visit the Lower Regions of gloom and despair,
of the souls that cannot yet see the Light. By degrees, Frances was released into a progressively more spiritual world. She communicated to
her friend the experience of participating in a Festival of Light, where
celestial music culminated in an intimate experience of Light. Progressively her soul ascended and Frances likened her experience of evolving to the progressive shedding of skins.
As Frances evolved to the closeness of the spiritual world, the
communications stopped for seventeen months. In the meantime,
Helen had a vision of Frances. This time she wore a robe of soft blue,
looked amazingly beautiful, and emanated light all around her. Helen
felt that Frances had attained her real self. Therefore, it was a total
surprise to her that her friend resumed communications for a short period in September of 1967. In the spiritual world, Frances says, she
lived in a realm where talk is food. At this stage Frances recognized
the souls of her karmic grouping, in other words the souls who have
attained similar levels of development and are working together on an
earthly goal. Finally, the transcripts ended when Frances entered a new
realm: Light (here) is literally the substance and matter of our thought
life. Thus, as our thoughts become attuned to the vibration of Creative
Divinity, so the substance of our bodies changes, becoming less dense
and reflecting more light.9
Reports of communications of this tenor and clarity are rare.
Another example was recorded at the time of the First World War.
Sigwart (no last name given) was a promising German musician, born
in 1884. He was already writing songs at the age of eight, and composed an opera before going to the front to fight for his country. After
death he tried to communicate to his sister, with whom he was very
close. This sister, who was present at the hour of his death, had been a
great source of comfort to him. After two months of attempts, Sigwart
managed to contact her on July 28, 1915. The communications went
on for five months, much in the same way that they had between Frances and Helen.10

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Sigwart relates his progress in the spiritual world in a way

reminiscent of the communications between the two Anglican women.
Of interest for our study are further elements revealed in this instance.
Once again, it is the very strong love bond that allows the two individuals to remain in communication. Sigwart is grateful for his own
interest in esoteric knowledge during the last two years of his life.
That, together with the fact that his passing was not sudden, played an
important role in allowing him to accept his death. Even so, at the beginning, he had thought he was still alive.
Since his sister is very skeptical at first about the reality of the
communications, Sigwart gives her a series of directions on how to
communicate more clearly and gain assurance about the contacts. He
explains to her that he can best reach her during the day, when she
turns her thoughts to the spiritual world and when she manages to be
courageous. Her grieving, at least in the beginning, forms an obstacle
to their contact. Music (the sister plays piano), on the contrary, is a
channel for bringing them together, since it is a love they both share.
Personal restlessness or disharmony within the circles that his sister is
a part of makes contact more difficult. What is remarkable about this
communication is the nature of the siblings relationship. Although the
ADCs are primarily a way to help his sister in her grieving, they also
benefit Sigwart in his soul journey.
We have looked fully at relationships between the dead and the
living as they have been made visible under very exceptional circumstances. From the above exploration, it appears that departed souls
have a keen interest in our own development. They still want to be part
of our lives and show the love they had on Earth that works even more
strongly from the spiritual world. Departed souls are not the only ones
we can contact. We turn now to another experience that has received a
lot of attention in recent timethe so-called near-death experiences.

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MEETING WITH THE LIGHT

Afraid? Of whom am I afraid?
Not death; for who is he?
The porter of my fathers lodge
As much abasheth me.
Of life? Twere odd I fear a thing
That comprehendeth me
In one or more existences
At deitys decree.
Of resurrection? Is the east
Afraid to trust the morn?
Emily Dickinson
Ever since the famous books Life After Life and Return from Tomorrow, we have all heard, in one way or another, of near-death experiences (NDEs). The typical experience of those who reach the other
side during a clinical death roughly entails the following sequence.
At first they realize that death isnt what they imagined. They float in
spirit above their body and see everything being done to it, as if from
the outside. The whole of their lives passes quickly in review in front
of their sight. Then, they travel at infinite speed through a tunnel and,
on the other side, meet a being of light, of a radiance much brighter
than the sun yet neither burning nor blinding. The being envelops them
in an all-encompassing love and acceptance. This is the basic pattern,
although the sequence is not always complete, and other stages can
also follow.
Elizabeth Kbler-Ross was one of the pioneers in the study of
these phenomena, beginning as early as 1977. Some of her observations are of interest here. A first experience is reported even from patients who had been blind for at least ten years: they could describe all
the details and colors of the operating room in which they were, a first
indication that they are not seeing with their physical eyes. The Swiss
doctor also reports that the tunnel is not as universal an experience as
has been made popular in more recent days. However, in one form or
another, the step after death is represented as a threshold: if not a tunnel, then a bridge, river, or gate. In one of her own NDEs, Kbler-

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Ross had to go through a mountain pass covered with wildflowers, an

image most likely culturally bound to her upbringing.11
While all of the above has been abundantly described elsewhere, there is another part to the story. Not all near-death experiences
are alike. Some are decidedly different in pattern and, for lack of better
word, negative or mixed (negative with positive) to contrast them
with classical, positive experiences. What the percentages are remains arguable, as is whether or not we could really determine them.
The problem may lie beyond science or methodological issues. It is
important, however, to be aware of these other possibilities, so as not
to have a schematic or sensationalistic view of the facts. We will return to them later in the chapter.
In order to classify the experiences, I will assume P. M. H. Atwaters standpoint.12 Her approach is new in the field; she looks at the
experience in relation to the person. There is no such thing as a universal standard experience; there is always a concrete person behind it. In
order to understand the purpose of the experience, we have to look
at the persons whole life prior to the experience. Atwater believes that
we should also look at life after the experience.
In reality we cannot explain the why of something so vast,
beyond human comprehension; but we can start feeling and sensing
how it fits into the context, how it can provide meaning to the persons
life and how easy or difficult it may be for the person to integrate the
experience. Atwaters methodology may derive in part from the different kinds of NDEs (positive and negative) she has personally experienced.13
The way I classify the experiences is simpler than Atwaters,
but very similar. Like Atwater, I define them according to whether you
can call them positive or negative from the standpoint of the person
concerned. In a strictly phenomenological process, there would be no
such negative or positive approach. There can be a positive or negative
outcome, however, depending on whether the individual makes use of
the experience no matter how hard this may be, or undergoes a deep
crisis and is not able to assimilate the new content.
The positive experiences correspond to the general profile that
we have given at the introduction of the topic. The transcendent experiences are more complex or dramatic than that of the basic NDE.

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They include additional parts and could easily be the subject of an entire book.
Positive Experiences: Meeting the Light
Let us first look at some of the more common experiences, those we
can call positive. We will look at childrens experiences from seventeen cases mentioned in Closer to the Light,14 and four cases that appear in Transformed by the Light.15 All these experiences stop at encountering the Light. All of the individuals, except one, experience the
presence of the Light, either by seeing it from afar or by coming into
contact with it. Except in one case, the Light is not identified or it is
simply called God. All of these experiences are positive, except one
undergone by a child who has committed suicide.16 We will return to
the issue of suicide later. Childrens encounters entail no life review
and no judgments or feelings about deeds performed in life. Among all
the examples there is only one child wanting to stay in the Light. The
others want to go back to their lives.
The following is the near-death experience of Spencer Christian (the weatherman on the television show Good Morning America
in 1992), at age five:
I had a near-death experience when I was five years
old. I was living in Newport News, Virginia, and I had
gone into the hospital for what was thought to be a routine tonsillectomy.
They knocked me out with ether. While I was in
surgery I began to hemorrhage severely and lost a great
deal of blood. I know this because I was told, not because I really recall the loss of blood. I was told later
that my loss of blood became so severe and I became so
weak that I was near dying. The doctors thought they
were going to lose me on the operating table. However,
my memory of what happened while I was on the table
is that I regained consciousness while the surgery was
going on. I remember seeing the doctors and nurses
working furiously over me and I could feel the pulling
and tugging of things in my throat.

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The next thing I remember is the sensation of being

outside my body and being able to see from some point
above the operating table. I was up in a position near
the ceiling, looking down.
I recall feeling a complete loss of fear and panic. I
just had a feeling of the most complete comfort and security that I have ever felt. I guess I liken it to the feeling of your mother holding you in her arms and rocking
you.
I dont recall actually encountering a being that I
would define as God. But I do recall the sense of having
an option as to whether I wanted to go back or not.
Somehow I do recall choosing to go back and reenter
my body.17
Aftereffects of NDEs have been generally overestimated by a
wave of enthusiastic commentators on the near-death phenomena. The
truth of the matter is that there is no absolutely positive experience
even a positive experience can be interpreted negatively in some instances. An initial positive reaction can be followed by tormenting
doubts about ones sanity. The persons knowledge and frame of reference, as well as the degree to which the experience is accepted by others make a drastic difference in the outcome. Context, as we mentioned above, plays an important part in defining what is positive or
negative. Dannion Brinkley, who had a very elaborate NDE, mentions
that a turning point in his recovery was a talk given by Raymond
Moody that helped him reorient his life. Later, his personal friendship
played an important role.18
One key symptom of the experience is found in a common reaction of the adult undergoing the encounter with the Light. At that
stage the soul, gripped by an intuition of being home, wants to remain
in the Light. A forerunner of these experiences, Benjamin Franklin,
said after his own NDE, I suffered a good deal, gave up the point in
my mind, and was rather disappointed when I found myself recovering; regretting in some degree that I must now some time or other have
all that disagreeable work to do over again.
What is it that makes even the most hardened materialist look
at earthly experience with new eyes? Once again we will refer mostly

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to Atwaters results, since they include the context factor in their

analysis. As we will see, nothing is black and white. The spiritual experience acts as an awakening, but the result of it in our own lives depends on our own exertion of will. There is no doubt, however, that
many people look at an NDE as a major turning point in their life.
The most discussed aftereffect is a different view of body and
self. Those who have left their body know, beyond doubt, that they are
souls living beyond the physical. They acquire a different view about
death and consequently a lower amount of anxiety and concern with
the matter. It is life in the body that may cause problems. If we are
much more than our body, the next burning question may be Why do
we have to deal with the limitations of it?
Receiving unconditional love in the other world makes recipients of NDEs more accepting of everyone in their environment. They
look at the miracle of each individuality with a true sense of wonder.
With this new attitude comes a possible inability to discriminate and
direct this love. The person may lend little credence to old codes of
behavior and give them up entirely. The new behavior, on the other
hand, may be very nave. Proper discernment and a healthy sense of
caution might not be utilized. Because of this the person becomes vulnerable to ill intentions. NDE recipients have been attacked, cheated,
robbed, or otherwise mistreated for this very reason.
Another change occurs, not only in relationship to others, but
in relation to the inner faculties. The near-death survivor is almost always more psychic, and may intuit future events. In telling of these
experiences, the person may lose discernment of what is appropriate to
reveal and what is not. A feeling that time does not flow in the usual
way may also emerge. Survivors live more easily in the present. This
may lead toward their wish to live without clocks and watches, or refusing to make plans for the future. It is, in other words, an overall reversal of values that occurs after a near-death experience. Survivors
may have difficulty relating to mundane concepts; on the other hand,
they may feel at home in a world of newly acquired ideas.
Since a reversal of old paradigms seems to take place in those
who have experienced an NDE, it comes as no surprise that the personality itself is altered. NDEs, rather than set a norm, seem to bring
what is most needed in terms of personality integration. A quiet person
can turn into an energetic, convincing leader, or a take charge indi-

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vidual may all of a sudden experience the need to let things flow without exerting control.
All these changes can create a strain in relationships that surround survivors. New behaviors and all-out trusting attitudes may
cause concern over the mental health of the person, or simply be misconstrued. New psychic gifts may be simply odd or downright frightening. The new way of relating to time can ease previous tensions or
cause major irritations. Of all these alterations, personality changes
can be the most frightening. NDE survivors have been assigned to
psychiatric wards, although this is less the case these days with our
increased understanding of the phenomenon. Quite often the families
have been sorely tested in accepting the new person.
For some individuals and families this has been an opportunity
for a concurrent change of heart. For many others, the challenge has
ended in divorce and other separations. Integrating the life-altering
perspective of an NDE is an ongoing process. It takes, at the very least,
a number of years, sometimes as long as five, seveneven more. In
the chapter discussing Alcoholics Anonymous, the NDE of Bill Wilson will be looked at within the overall context of his biography. Integrating his experience against the background of and damage caused
by his alcoholic past was the task of a lifetime.
The following is an example of an NDE that gives us the benefit of context both before and after the fact. It is taken from Transformed by the Light:
Suzanne, a 53-year-old mother of two, had a near-death
experience twenty years ago hers is an example of
an NDE that led to an immediate and very visible transformation.
For nearly fifteen years Suzanne was married to an
abusive husband. To the outside world, her husband
seemed like the perfect man. In the privacy of their
home, Suzanne suffered through almost daily sessions
of slapping and shouting. She wanted to divorce him,
but her religious parents told her to stay married and
maybe things would change.
After fourteen years of miserable marriage, Suzanne
experienced what she now calls a stroke of luck.

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While reaching into the glove compartment of her car,

she failed to notice that the traffic ahead had come to a
stop. She slammed into the rear of a stopped car while
going approximately thirty-five miles an hour. She was
taken to the hospital with internal bleeding. While her
injuries were being assessed she had a cardiac arrest.
In the midst of all this hospital chaos, I just
zoomed out of my body and into a tunnel. I was walking down a tunnel with the most beautiful light at the
end that was enveloping and warm. I could feel myself
being surrounded by the most loving arms and my
cheek could feel the warmth of being against someone
whose chest I seemed to be leaning on. There were
people in the distance and I wanted to go greet them.
A mans voice, very warm and caring, held me back
from going to the people. The voice seemed to be coming from whoever or whatever was holding me in that
wonderful loving warmth. The voice said, Suzanne,
turn around. I turned around and I saw my children
standing in mid-air. Then the voice said: Go back and
be a good mother.19
Suzannes life changed dramatically and immediately as a result
of that message. She left her abusive husband and stopped going to
the church where he was a mainstay. She went back to school and
struggled, as many late-in-life students do, to get a degree. After a
few years, she remarried and now has a healthy marriage and
home.
Her faith is still intact, although in a different form. I dont go
to church anymore, but I have a deep personal faith. For the longest
time I thought that the warm entity that held me was Jesus and I was
sure that the experience was a testimony to my faith. But I can never
be a part of organized religion again. After standing so close to the
light, I cant bear bureaucracy in religion anymore.
Near-death experiences affect people even at the physiological
level. While studies are not exhaustive on this account, the following
are observations made by those who have undergone such experiences
or those who have accompanied people who have.

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Survivors on the whole look and act younger. The ability to

handle stress more easily may be one of the main causes of this
change. They also become more sensitive to light and sound levels.
People who previously liked rock and roll music most often grow to
dislike it for this reason. This heightened sensory perception extends to
the other senses. Survivors feel that they can better perceive odors,
textures, and tastes. This new sensitivity is accompanied by a heightened perception of electric or magnetic fields. Many anecdotes report
that lights, clocks, or other electrical fixtures suddenly stop working
around many of the survivors of NDEs. A last effect is the ability to
more readily attract birds, animals, and small children.
Transcendental Experiences
We can now briefly cast a glance at the most developed and unusual
NDEs, those that Atwater calls transcendental. In her book, a few
lengthy examples are given. We will refer to experiences that have appeared in a book written by those who personally experienced these
trials.
In Beyond the Mirror, Henri J. Nouwen, a Catholic priest and
widely read author, provides a superb description of an experience of
the cosmic and personal dimensions of the near-death experience.20
During the period from December 1987 to June 1988, Nouwen experienced an extreme and deep anguish as a consequence of having to
separate from a friend upon whom he had become very dependent. The
irony did not escape Nouwens self-analysis. In a book published almost ten years later, he recalls that during this time he was in a state of
extreme anguish and wondered whether he would be able to hold on to
life:
Everything came crashing downmy self-esteem, my
energy to live and work, my sense of being loved, my
hope for healing, my trust in God everything. Here I
was, a writer about the spiritual life, known as someone
who loves God and gives hope to people, flat on the
ground and in total darkness. What had happened? I had
come face to face with my own nothingness. It was as if
all that had given my life meaning was pulled away and

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I could see nothing in front of me but a bottomless

abyss.21
The crisis culminated in a car accident, where Nouwen,
who was walking along frozen paved road, was hit by the side
mirror of a van. For a while his life hung in the balance. The
turning point was cleansing, healing, and powerful. About it,
Nouwen says: It was not a warm light, a rainbow, or an open
door that I saw, but a human yet divine presence that I felt, inviting me to come closer and to let go of all fears. And further: I knew that hew was there for me, but also that he was
embracing the universe.22 As he reflected on this experience of
divine love, Nouwen realized he needed new theological language to convey the depth and breadth of his new outlook on
life. A diary he kept at the time holds this short entry entitled
Work Around Your Abyss:
There is a deep hole in your being, like an abyss. You
will never succeed in filling that hole, because your
needs are inexhaustible. You have to work around it so
that gradually the abyss closes. Since the hole is so
enormous and your anguish so deep, you will be
tempted to flee from it. There are two extremes to
avoid: being completely absorbed in your pain and being distracted by so many things that you stay away
from the wound that you want to heal.23
These words graphically express Nouwens challenge of integrating his spiritual experience. Like others, he felt at home on the
other side and wished to remain in the Light. Coming back, he felt,
was the chance to express theological knowledge gained directly from
experience of the other world. The challenge lay in finding the words
to convey the otherworldly reality he had known firsthand.
The two following experiences are the most well known of all
the literature on NDEs. We will look at what made them unique.
Betty Eadie clinically died in a hospital the night before undergoing a hysterectomy. Her experience of the tunnel is thus conveyed:

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I felt as if I had been swallowed up by an enormous tornado. I could

see nothing but the intense, almost tangible darkness. The darkness
was more than a lack of light; it was a dense blackness, unlike anything I had known before.24
What her experience adds to other experiences is the extensive
spiritual training she received. She remembers experiencing the
creation of the Earth as if it were re-enacted before her eyes. She experienced the power of the Word and the importance of a living
imagination as the key to reality. She was given insight into the role
of death in human evolution. She also witnessed shining examples of
how souls decide to enter their bodies. In two instances she saw how
the souls of a developmentally disabled person and of a homeless alcoholic actually belonged to very evolved individualities, happily undertaking the sacrifice of that existence for the progress of other souls.
George Ritchies well-known experience blazed the trail for the
recognition of NDEs. His was almost a complete opposite experience
to that of Betty Eadie. He was given a vivid introduction to the world
of souls who live chained to their desires, the lower rungs of the spiritual world. His first encounter with the Light is followed with a closer
approach that he describes in terms very similar to those of Nouwen:
He would be too bright to look at. For now I saw that it was not light
but a Man who had entered the room, a Man made out of light, though
this seemed no more possible to my mind than the incredible intensity
of the brightness that made up His form.25
A similar experience is told by Eadie: I saw a pinpoint of light
in the distance. As I approached it, I noticed the figure of a man
standing in it, with the light radiating all around him. As I looked
closer the light became brilliant.26
Something similar happens also to Howard Storm: Soon the
light was upon me. I knew that while it was indescribably brilliant, it
wasnt just light. This was a living being, a luminous being approximately eight feet tall and surrounded by an oval of radiance. The brilliant intensity of the light penetrated my body. Ecstasy swept away the
agony.27
A final example, from the many in the specialized literature,
comes from Sarah Hinze, whom we have already met in chapter 2 in
relation to the Pre-birth Experiences. Sarah, the mother of nine, recalls
the experiences that preceded a difficult birth. Her fifth pregnancy had

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ended in a miscarriage. In a dream, less than two months later, she was
showed that the baby girl was only temporarily delayed in her homecoming. She also saw that the child was reluctant in leaving her heavenly home. After conceiving again, she was hemorrhaging and on the
verge of miscarrying again. She prayed fervently and had a vision in
which she seems to have experienced anew her own sense of loss in
descending to incarnation. This was accompanied with fear and a
sense of loneliness. The vision ended with the sense of the promise
that incarnation offers. She soon returned to her senses and in full consciousness she recalls: I sensed a being of power enter the room. I felt
compelled to rise. I cannot explain how, but I knew it was Jesus Christ.
I was totally immersed in His love. I begged Him to heal my body for
the sake of the child within me. In answer, he conveyed these words to
my mind: I am the Great Physician. I will heal your body, and this
baby will be born whole and well, for I have so decreed it. The promise delivered, His presence gently withdrew. I rested upon the bed, enveloped in a peaceful, healing power. Soon, the pain and hemorrhaging stopped entirely. I was whole. And, above all, my baby was
safe.28
We have covered a vast array of the most vivid experiences of
the meeting with the Light. Rudolf Steiner first described what we can
describe as the new Christ encounter in a more conscious experience
in his first Mystery Drama, The Portal of Initiation in terms that are
reminiscent of much that has been said in the most transcendental experiences above. In scene 1 of the play the seeress Theodora first says:
Before my spirit stands a Form in shining light. And from it words
sound forth to me Later in the same dialogue she adds: A human
being emerges from the radiant light. It speaks to me: The Christ
once lived upon the earth, and from this life it follows that He encompasses as Soul mens growth on earth.29 This statement introduces us
to further aspects of the Light experience that we will dicsuss in the
next chapter.
In many of the above experiences the Light weaves with the
darkness. In fact, before reaching the Light, many souls experience
their own darkness. George Ritchie found himself traveling outside his
body towards an earthly city. He was in a place where the living and
the dead existed side by side. In it he witnessed the presence of other

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departed souls, who could neither contact the souls next to them nor
come out of their own darkness. Among these he noticed a group of
other souls. Ritchie learned that these were the souls of suicides. In
another scene he found himself surveying from above the scene of a
bar. Together with the living he could perceive the souls of the dead
chained to their alcohol craving. Fights broke out between the souls for
a desired glass of alcohol. Leaving the place of the living, Ritchie entered more deeply into this limbo-like scenario. Here were souls persisting in their negative earthly habits of hatred, lust, and destructive
emotions. They were all unaware of the Beings of Light that hovered
above the scene. Like them, Ritchie was unaware of these Beings for a
while. The realization of their presence took him to a whole other dimension of spiritual existence, into experiences much more similar to
those described by Betty Eadie.
The most vivid example among experiences of the light
filled NDEs is that of Dannion Brinkley. Since his experience covers
much of the territory we have already explored, we will look in some
detail at his moral life. According to the author, I was faced with the
sickening reality that I had been an unpleasant person, someone who
was self-centered and mean.30 Dannion Brinkley relived every action
of his life from the perspective of the victims of his violence or those
who had died from the consequences of his actions. At the end of his
experience Brinkley concludes:
I looked at the Being of Light and felt a deep sense of
sorrow and shame. I expected a rebuke, some kind of
cosmic shaking of my soul. I had looked at my life and
what I had seen was a truly worthless person. As I
gazed at the Being of Light I felt as though he was
touching me. From that contact I felt a love and joy that
could only be compared to the nonjudgmental compassion that a grandfather has for a grandchild. Who you
are is the difference that God makes, said the Being.
And that difference is love. There were no actual
words spoken, but this thought was communicated to
me through some form of telepathy.31

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Brinkley experienced clinical death once more later, as he relates in his book. It is very instructive to know that he relived his
moral life review, and that the first part of it (the first twenty-five
years) was equivalent to what we have just described. He concludes:
Watching these early years again was painful, I wont deny that, but
the agony was tempered by viewing the years since the first experience. 32 It would appear that this experience has a lawful, objective
place in Brinkleys life and that it will still be there awaiting him at his
final, real death.
We have been introduced to many dimensions of spiritual existence, what spiritual literature calls the lower astral and what organized religion would call hell or purgatory. It is to this realm of existence that we now turn to look at negative experiences, keeping in
mind that this is only a relative term. Let us keep looking at this from a
phenomenological perspective. To do this we turn once again to the
direct experience of souls who have been vouchsafed knowledge that
usually lies within the unconscious mind.
IS IT ALWAYS THE LIGHT?
O fools (said I) this to prefer dark night
Before true light,
To live in grots, and caves, and hate the day
Because it shews the way,
The way which from this dead and dark abode
Leads up to God,
A way where you might tread the Sun, and be
More bright than he.
Henry Vaughan
After referring to the host of psychic experiences we have characterized as ADCs, PBEs, and NDEs, perhaps we ought to address a question that has arisen many times. Do these experiences exclusively uncover blissful and generally speaking positive aspects of the spiritual
world? We have mostly discounted this view by adopting a phenomenological approach that finds an answer in the biography of each individual. The experiences of recalled previous lives quoted earlier are

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sufficient to underline that negative experiences have a forwardmoving role in an individuals life. Let us return more specifically to
this matter.
Based on the research of the Guggenheims, a premature death
by suicide will create suffering for both the subject and the survivors.
They offer the example of a womans vivid dream of her boyfriend,
who had committed suicide, surrounded by a fog in a desert wasteland.
He appeared forlorn and restless, and communicated this verbally.33
The Guggenheims conclude that the suicide victim takes his problems
with him in the intervening life. In two other ADCs the individuals
who committed suicide appeared sad, confused, and regretful of their
action and the consequences for their loved ones. Another suicide victim communicated being in a holding place for the time his life
would have lasted on Earth. The consequences, however, are tempered
in the case of those who end their lives by committing suicide during a
terminal illness.
Other examples come from those who express regret for the
way they lived their lives or some particular event that they wish to
atone for, and the desire for forgiveness. An alcoholic, a very distressed man, reappeared to his forty-three-year-old daughter to ask for
her and the familys forgiveness. She could sense his improvement
when she finally managed to forgive him after the others had already
done so. And in a final case, a father-in-law appeared to a thirty-fiveyear-old woman, also very distraught. To her response of not knowing
what to do for him he told her, Oh, yes, there is [something you can
do]! You can pray for me. Tell everybody to pray for me. Dont
forget, tell everyone to pray for me.34
George Ritchies famous life story has introduced us to a different dimension possible in NDEs. Howard Storm takes us a step further into the negative dimensions of the other side. His book, My
Descent into Death and the Message of Love Which Brought Me Back,
emphasizes that his was a positive experience after all. The author
returned a changed man and was able to integrate his experience in a
positive manner. Storms experience shows that even during the NDE,
he had free choice. It was his response that turned the scenario around.
Storms life, previous to his brush with death, sets the tone for
the subsequent experience. All his life he had fought to repress fear,
angst, and dread. He felt anger toward his father and toward injustice

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in general, and a certain blind inner rage. He was afraid of this rage,
because he knew that it could come out unbidden and catch him by
surprise. In a fit of rage he could destroy things and experience the desire to hit people. He lived a life with no faith or hope. A few acquired
behaviors helped him contain this tension. He developed a belief in
survival of the fittest, and repressed all his feelings, mostly with the
help of alcohol. With alcohol he could feel on top; without it, he
tended to be depressed. His life was devoted to his work with little social interaction and few friendships.
Beacons in Storms life were his career as an artist and his
wife. He was starting to gain a reputation and placing all his hopes on
future fame. Just then, a mysterious duodenum perforation created an
emergency that sent him to a hospital in Paris. He was in the operating
room of the hospital when he separated from his body. He felt that his
sense perceptions were extremely vivid. It took him a while to realize
that he was dying. People around him werent responding to his calls,
and later he discovered, with shock, his body lying under the sheets.
His experience began when he heard voices calling him in the
distance, voices that people around him could not hear. Although the
beings persuaded him to follow them, they would not respond to his
inquiries but would urge him to move further. He was now moving in
a hazy landscape, following human beings clothed in gray. They were
pale, but not identifiable as male or female. There was a feeling of
timelessness.
The scenario deepened. Progressively the place became darker,
and he had the feeling of walking on a cold, damp floor. More and
more souls gathered around him. As he started to question their presence, their attitude became more overtly hostile and authoritarian.
They first insulted him and shouted at him to hurry along. They derived pleasure from his pain. Storms misgivings grew as did the flow
of abuse and insult. Finally he was in a completely dark place and the
situation escalated to a climax. More and more souls pressed against
the newcomer, becoming overtly violent and abusive. They screamed
and kicked and soon started to eat him alive, tearing pieces of his
flesh.
Storm remembers details of their grotesque figures, particularly
the sharp fingernails and long teeth. He knew that they felt no pain
while fighting and acted out of a most gratuitous cruelty. At last, com-

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pletely wrecked, he lay in the darkness. In this state he heard a voice

coming from his chest enjoining him to pray. Not knowing how to do
that, he made a first awkward attempt. He was encouraged by the success of his efforts. The beings began to recede, while still trying to
convince him that there is no God. Progressively the landscape around
him began to change and he started to notice a pinpoint of light getting
larger. This is how he was called into the Light, and at this point his
experience resembles those of many other people.
Are there more experiences like those of Howard Storm? If so,
why dont we hear more about them? P.M.H. Atwater first heard the
immediate report of these hellish experiences in a hospital where she
visited a woman who had just suffered a heart attack. The woman had
experienced the presence of very similar, disincarnate entities. In her
case the dread of their presence had been enough; there had not been
any aggression. Two other patients hospitalized for heart attacks also
reported the same kind of experience to Atwater. Before leaving, she
was told by the nurse that there was another patient who reported similar experiences, although he refused to expand upon them. Atwater
herself reports a difficult NDE that traumatized her for years and
probably played an important part in the interest she developed in the
phenomenon. It was a rude awakening for her, but with a positive outcome.
Atwater hypothesizes that many experiences on the verge of
death may actually start with a traumatic situation, and then may or
may not evolve toward the better-known scenario. The cases of Howard Storm and George Ritchie add credence to the hypothesis. In the
individuals she has interviewed, she noticed that repressed anger, guilt,
and fear seemed to play a very important part in the development of
the negative scenario. On the other hand, the religious background did
not seem to influence the outcome. Confirming previous findings of
others, she also acknowledges that children do not have hellish experiences. Individuals undergoing similar experiences may take them as an
opportunity to do a house cleaning of the soul, while others may become despondent and bring themselves down. There is no implicit
power in the experience, but rather in the individuals response.
What is most revealing in Atwaters conclusions is the quality
of perception, similar to what has emerged in ADCs and NDEs. As the
literature has proven and will further prove in the case of suicide, ei-

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ther experience feels extremely real to the senses. The feelings associated with it and the environment are what create variation.
Friendly beings appear in the most acclaimed NDEs; hostile
apparitions, in the others. Colorful and beautiful environments, on the
one hand, contrast with desolate, chilling, and dark surroundings on
the other. Warmth and a feeling of total acceptance and love accompany the heavenly experiences, whereas cold, violence, and danger
characterize hellish experiences. Conversation and dialogue stand in
contrast with screams and insults.
Had it not been for her own life path, Atwater may have missed
the impact of negative NDEs. Whereas other researchers (such as
Moody and Ring) estimate that less than 1% of experiences are negative, Atwater places the proportion at one out of seven, but gives a different value to the term negative. By a chance encounter with a patient
who had a heart attack, Atwater was brought to the hospital at just the
right time.
Death and Resuscitation in the Emergency Room
Dr. Rawlings sheds more light on the phenomenon of negative NDEs.
It was a terrified patient who sent Rawlings on the path of inquiry
about hellish NDEsa patient on whom he was performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The man in turn conveyed that he was
having visions of hell and encourage the doctor to revive him. A final
request came from the patient: Pray for me. Even though he was
taken aback by the tone of command, the doctor tried as best he could.
Returning home, the experience lingered in his soul and he was moved
to look in the Bible for some answers. Pursuing the question further,
he returned to the man in order to get information he could not ask for
on the operating table. Much to his surprise, the individual could not
recall anything that he had mentioned a couple of days earlier.35
The above kind of experience is the result of resuscitation
techniques that have drastically reduced deaths by heart attack. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was introduced in the 1970s. Before that
time, negative experiences were most often experienced in protracted
illnesses and comas. Now, half the people who receive CPR in time
will recover from a heart attack. Resuscitated people most likely to
report a negative NDE are those interviewed just after being revived
by CPR. The irony is that doctors are not trained to offer spiritual sol-

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ace to their patients, while counselors and priests are not present in the
operating room. Of those people who have had an experience, only an
estimated 20%, according to Rawlings, will volunteer information. In a
later interview, the proportions become much lower. In successive resuscitation experiences people may move into positive NDEs.
Rawlings never recorded the contrary movement from positive to
negative, confirming a pattern we have already detected. The same is
apparent from a single experience like Howard Storms: at first he experienced the darkness, then the Light. The reverse has not been reported in the literature.
There are many reasons for not wanting to report negative experiences. Recipients may harbor a sense of failure and consequently
be embarrassed. The weight of the experience may trigger repression
and oblivion mechanisms. Howards Storms testimonial is very much
appropriate here. At the end of his descent he concludes: I havent
described everything that happened. There are things that I dont care
to remember. In fact, much that occurred was simply too gruesome
and disturbing to recall. Ive spent years trying to suppress a lot of it.
After the experience, whenever I did remember those details, I would
become traumatized.36
Many of Rawlingss observations confirm Atwaters work and
add dimension to negative experiences. Hellish NDEs offer sense experiences that, to all appearances, are real. Darkness may be accompanied by a feeling of sensory deprivation, a sort of vacuum. Associated
feelings vary from despondency to loneliness, dread, and despair. Contrary to positive NDE recipients, who often question why they have
been given such an overwhelming experience, recipients of negative
NDEs do not entertain the same question. Another element of hellish
experiences is the appearance of the Angel of Death.
One of these happened to German actor Curt Jurgens. He had this experience after his heart repeatedly stopped during the four hours it took
a Houston doctor to replace part of his aorta.
Soon I had a feeling that life was ebbing from me. I felt
powerful sensations of dread. I had been looking up
into the big glass cupola over the operating room. This
cupola now began to change. Suddenly it turned a

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glowing red. I saw twisted faces grimacing as they

stared down at me.
I tried to struggle upright and defend myself
against these ghosts who were moving closer to me.
Then it seemed as if the glass cupola had turned into a
transparent dome that was slowly sinking down over
me. A fiery rain was now falling, but though the drops
were enormous, none of them touched me. They spattered down around me, and out of them grew menacing
tongues of flames licking up about me.
I could no longer shut out the frightful truth: beyond the faces dominating this fiery world were faces
of the damned. I had a feeling of despair ... the sensation of horror was so great it choked me. Obviously I
was in Hell itself, and the glowing tongues of fire could
be reaching me any minute. In this situation, the black
silhouette of a human figure suddenly materialized and
began to draw near. It was a woman in a black veil, a
slender woman with a lip-less mouth and in her eyes an
expression that sent icy shudders down my back.
She stretched out her arms toward me and,
pulled by an irresistible force, I followed her. An icy
breath touched me and I came into a world filled with
faint sounds of lamentation, though there was not a person in sight. Then and there I asked the figure to tell me
who she was. A voice answered: I am death.
I summoned all my strength and thought: Ill
not follow her any more, for I want to live.37
Suicide: Light from the Other Side
The issue of suicide is more tragic than all the previous ones and presents a more pervasively dark atmosphere. Two books have appeared
at nearly the same time, with strikingly similar titles as well: Beyond
the Darkness by Angie Fenimore38 and Light Beyond the Darkness39
by Dor Deverell. The former is a firsthand account of a failed suicide
attempt, whose victim saw enough of the consequences of her own
choice before meeting the Being of Light and decided to return to her
body. Dor Deverell, on the other hand, is the mother of Richard, who

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committed suicide. Her sons life was plagued by seizure disorder; a

chronic, severe schizophrenia; an almost complete inability to establish social contact; and a life of utter poverty that pushed him to the
margin of society, towards total despair. Deverell managed to establish
contact with her son after death, through a discipline of reading spiritual material to him. The son reached the mother mostly in the dream
state. Tentatively at first, and with progressing certainty later, Deverell
could establish how happy her son was and how he was evolving in his
new life.
Fenimores life shared some of Richards sources of stress.
Growing up in a very unsettled family, she experienced her mothers
remoteness and her fathers alcoholism. Before their divorce, the
mother left and the father went through a succession of short, rather
unstable relationships. Fenimore came to experience her fathers girlfriends antagonism and open enmity, as well as a series of situations
leading to sexual abuse. In short, she felt totally betrayed and began to
experiment with alcohol and drugs. During her adolescence she had
acquired a temporary grounding in religion, through her participation
in church services and Sunday school. After a marriage and two children, unable to cling to her faith, she fell into a psychotic condition
and longed for death as the only escape from her reality.
Reading the biographies of Richard and Angie Fenimore is a
harrowing experience. We realize that they experienced their own hell
on Earth before moving to the other side. Of the two books, Fenimores contains more detail since hers is a personal account. On all
levels we should keep in mind that the two descriptions of life after
suicide are remarkably similar.
Fenimore describes the place where she dwells after death as
a purgatory. She has little doubt that it is every bit as real as the physical world. Her own words are the most eloquent here: The darkness
continued in all directions and seemed to have no end, but it wasnt
just blackness, it was an endless void, an absence of light. I knew that
it had its own life and purpose.40 She goes on to describe more accurately what this darkness looks and feels like: The place was filled
with a crackling energy a state of molecules of intense darkness,
and it was purely negative, even evil. In this purgatory Fenimore
meets other souls who appear to bear physical traits. Most of them
wear dark suits and eventually dark make-up. Their sexual differences

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seem to fade. They are too self-absorbed to be able to engage in any

mental or emotional exchange.
The final outcome of this purgatory was a place of light. Light
and darkness are both very real. Darkness has its own reality; it is not
just the absence of light. Both of them can be transmitted through
thought, telepathically. The most interesting conclusion in Fenimores
words is the following: Light is light and darkness is darkness; and
like oil and water, darkness and light repel each other. Sometimes the
two are tightly intertwined and it is difficult to see them separately, but
they never occupy the same space.41
In relation to her suicide, Fenimores concludes: This purgatory, this hell-like state, had a different kind of sufferingpointless,
redundant and stifling. This was the agonyuseless, never-ending
tormentthat awaited me for taking my own life.42 Fenimores scenario resolved into a heavenly scenario just as real as that of any we
have heard before. It is a life-changing event, setting in motion a different future.
What in Fenimores case took a matter of minutes or hours,
went on for six years of Earth time with Richard, Dor Deverells son.
During these years, he felt his mothers help as a desperate necessity to
be able to move away from the darkness surrounding him. Deverell
kept trying to remain in contact with him through the help of spiritual
revelations in the form of lectures she would read aloud to him.
There are many aspects of suicide. The psychic Van Praagh
communicates that when a person commits suicide, the ties to Earth
are still present for as long as the person would have otherwise lived
on Earth.43 This feeling accompanies the soul with great heaviness,
together with the perception of all the sadness, anger, and other feelings of survivors. In contacting the souls of suicide victims, Rosemary
Altea notices that they are the most reluctant to take first steps.44 She
needs to offer much more patience and love to them than to others.
They obviously need to revisit their death, although they may have the
greatest difficulty looking at it. Rawlings confirms that suicide and
euthanasia victims harbor the same feelings, and that 85% of those
who attempt suicide are actually glad to be back when they recover.

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Affecting Destiny Between the Living and the Dead

Dor Deverell provides an example of how the threshold between the
dead and the living is getting thinner in modern times. Her experiences
have occurred in the realm of feeling and in dreams. It was because
she took on an active path of spiritual development that she could actively follow and help her son further his own. We offer it here because this kind of experience offers potent insights into the workings
of karma.
Richard died in July of 1982. His mother started reading to him
in the fall of the following year. For the next five years, Deverell kept
reading to her son and receiving dream intimations about her sons
progress. The first contact happened in May of the following year. In a
vivid dream she saw that her sons face was expressing happiness. She
later realized that this was on Mothers Day. The next long communication with Richard occurred in September. He appeared to her in a
sentient experience. He seemed agitated that his mother would change
the time of the readings, because he still needed them greatly. This exchange occurred in feelings, not words. Deverell achieved a feeling of
certainty that Richard was making progress and had stopped blaming
others for his own situation.
In 1985, Deverell felt that she might be dying. She communicated the thought by actually asking the question, in writing, of Richard: If I die, would you meet me? Again she sensed her sons agitation and intuited the message that it wasnt her time to die. After three
years of readings, he was still isolated in the spiritual world and had
nobody but his mother to help him. To continue living, Deverell felt
she also needed to take on additional soul exercises. In July of 1987,
the fifth anniversary of his death, during a meditation, she felt her son
had moved to a new important stage and was approaching the Light.
However, the following December her son reappeared in a dream indicating that he was in a transition place of being neither alive nor
dead.
Richards progress culminated the following year. At first he
reappeared saying that he had been given the difficult task of helping
other suicide victims. This caused him much pain, but also allowed
him to work to further their progress via his mothers readings. A
week before the sixth anniversary of his death, Richard appeared in
another dream where he had moved into a place full of light. A short

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time later, his mother gained assurance that her son had moved into a
new realm.
We will now return to the scenario of the near-death experience
in order to come closer to an understanding of its central essence
popularly known as the Light. This pivotal experience that progressively opens up for humanity, will help us to define the spiritual atmosphere of the coming millennium, and millennia! Everything that
we have been reviewing since Chapter 2 has been building up to this
central archetypal reality.

Chapter 5

A PARADIGM SHIFT
FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity
has its place. But Im not concerned about that now. I
just want to do Gods will. And Hes allowed me to go
up to the mountain. And Ive looked over. And Ive seen
the promised land.
Martin Luther King on April 3, 1968,
the day before his death.
From the wealth of first-hand reports in the literature, we have seen the
emergence of recurrent patterns and motifs. After purposefully providing an overabundance of information and following many examples,
we can begin elucidating laws that show themselves at work on the
other side of the threshold of the physical world.
We have looked at experiences of reincarnation, pre-birth experiences, and finally near-death experiences. We have lifted the veil
of two realms of experience normally barred from everyday consciousness: the realms of life before birth and life after death. In the
language of ancient traditions we have opened the gate of birth and
the gate of deathor rather, they have been opened for us. Reincarnation, pre-birth experiences, and the uninterrupted stream of memory
look at existence before birth. Near-death experiences allow us a peek
at the reality of life after death.
As different as they are, the numerous examples we have studied have shown remarkable consistency. All the experiences have
strong sensory elements and provide the feeling of being more real
than life. Is this heaven, the great beyond, the spiritual world? Is this
all of it or just part of it?

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ANOTHER WORLD IMMEDIATELY

BEYOND THE PHYSICAL?
Nature conceals God! But not from everyone.
J. W. Goethe
Individuals who have had a previous life experience can look at their
bodies and experience them in the present, or relive a tragic event in
all its detail. Those who have had an NDE do not need to keep an account of their experience. Calling it back to mind is akin to reliving it.
Memory survives uninterrupted. A pre-birth communication or a neardeath experience lives in the memory with the urgency and presence of
their first moment. They live as if out of time. A siren, the uniform of a
policeman, the sound of a trumpet may send a child who remembers a
traumatic previous life into a panic, regardless of the present context.
Dreams of a previous life have the same concrete, recurring
plot, which is to say a sequential logic. The same is true of a pre-birth
communication dream. They are real and present in the moment. In
these spiritual experiences, thoughts acquire more reality than they
have in our world. They become objective reality that moves from one
being to another through telepathy. The only restriction is the level of
development of the soul. Self-absorbed souls for the most part shut
themselves off from this possibility. People who have clinically died
and come back to life communicate how another being had suffered at
their hands, because they have experienced it in themselves.
What is this world that is in some aspects just as real as the
physical, and in other aspects so completely opposite? It is a world
where objects and beings interpenetrate, where it is possible to know
things from the inside. Space does not exist there in the same way as
we know it. It is a world where time does not existat least not as it
does on Eartha world where it is possible to go backward or forward
in the continuum of time. Souls can appear younger or older than they
are in life. In this world it is possible to know what happened in the far
distant past and what is about to happen in the future. The states of
mind that most easily lead into this other reality are relaxation, meditation, and dreamingin short, those states of consciousness that lead
beyond the sensory experience of time. This is the reason people who

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cross this threshold of existence feel recharged with new vitality. They
may look younger, and attract the forces of other living creatures:
plants, animals, and children.
Another important quality of the other world is reflected in its
vibrancy and energy. The light that appears and renews the soul is brilliant beyond any other light, yet not blinding. People who have been
exposed to it carry the effects in a rejuvenated body. Traveling in this
world occurs almost instantly, as if by the power of thought. There are
often curious side effects. Why do NDE survivors affect electrical appliances? What is this energy that acts like electrical or magnetic energy and yet does not behave according to its laws?
We are touching upon what more and more people recognize
as the etheric realm, in every respect the polar opposite of the physical
realm. In terms of energy, it is the energy that sustains life, and operates in what Rupert Sheldrake calls the morphogenetic fields. Intuitively we know that this is the nature of the energy of the sun.
It would be a whole new field of discussion to prove what the
etheric world is. In the present analysis of this book a few elements
will suffice. Some mathematicians have approached this world and
discussed its properties. We live in a world where a point is situated
next to another point, and where only one point can be present in any
given space at a given time. A line is a configuration of adjacent
points. A plane is a configuration of endless succeeding lines, and so
forth. The etheric world can be defined as counter-space, where these
realities can be expressed in polar opposite terms. The line can be
formed at the intersection of an infinite number of planes coming from
the periphery, and likewise a point is the meeting place of infinite
lines.1 With these terms we give concrete reality to the principle of
simultaneity, rather than to the concept of exclusivity that models the
physical world.
In the physical world, infinity is found at the far periphery of
our galaxy. In the etheric world, infinity is the place of origin of forces
streaming into the physical world. The point becomes the place at
which forces originating from the periphery incrementally converge.
This point can be defined as an infinity within. Seen in that light, the
bud of the plant is a never-ending, unfolding infinity for forces that act
upon it from the farthest periphery of the universe.2

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The etheric world exists in the realm of rhythms. It is created

from the rhythm of the Sun, Moon, and planets, and impresses
rhythmsperiodicities, biorhythmson all living beings. Working
with the etheric means working with these rhythms.
Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, intuited this
deep truth two centuries ago. He developed a medicine through which
like cures likeagain the polar opposite of the conventional approach in which opposites neutralize each other. Given a substance
that at high doses causes a certain illness, Hahnemann developed a
remedy for the illness derived from the very same substance. To do
this he had to work with progressive dilutions; and to make them effective he had to add an element of periodicity (rhythm)the famous
potentization, or originally succussion, explained as follows. The substance to be used as a remedy is repeatedly diluted by a factor of 10 in
a continuous sequence: dilution by 10, by 100, by 1000, and so on. It
is an exponential dilution achieved through repeated potentizations. In
between each dilution the solution extracted is potentized through ten
vigorous shakings, or through other rhythmical shaking actions. At
each progressive dilution, more matter disappears. If the process is
repeated six times, only a millionth part of the original substance is
present. After the tenth, or further dilution, matter is practically absent.
The remedy is still active and is often more potent for its intended use.
As matter is diluted in this process, the etheric energy associated with
it is enhanced and loosened from its material support. It is as if matter
and force were the equivalent of a horse and rider. The acting remedy
is the rider, by necessity carried by the horse of matter. Homeopathy
enhances the power of the riderforceby progressively reducing
the importance of the horsematter. Interestingly, while we can make
homeopathic remedies from naturally extracted substances, it is not
possible to do the same with synthesized substances, no matter how
similar or apparently identical both molecules may be.3 Etheric energy
is present only in living organisms; it is what gives them the qualities
of living beings.
The energy that we are talking about is different from electricityin fact, its polar opposite. Electricity, or nuclear radioactivity are
energies that come from the inanimate; they work in the sense of increased entropy, i.e., progressive dissipation. Etheric energy contrasts

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with entropy and causes the living plant to grow upright, against the
earthly force of gravity; it overcomes entropy.
A process similar to homeopathy happens during any psychic
experience. Let us take an NDE as an example. As the physical body
loosens its hold over us, we are able to move on the level of reality
that constantly surrounds us, the etheric, or envelope of all living
beings. The shock of death acts to potentize the subtle layers of our
spiritual bodies. It is as if we are shaken loose of our physical body in
a potentized fashion. This same process happens in sleep or at death,
and during meditation, relaxation, and prayer.
The realm of the etheric can be fully apprehended in its objectivity, once we are freed from the fetters of personality as in the case
of near-death experience. In our reach to a realm of spiritual reality we
live at first in that world that lies qualitatively closer to the physical,
the realm of the etheric, and then into other realms of spiritual reality.
At the opposite end of the etheric we can experience the reality of our
double, colored with the layers of our personality. We can all have a
share of these experiences according to different states of consciousness. Lowered states of consciousnesssuch as stress, hyperventilation, drugs, or hypersensory exposureopen us, among other things,
to the realm of the double and its compulsive nature. Examples of activities that open us more to the realm of the etheric are enhancing of
the consciousness through prayer and meditation, cultivating a balanced rhythm of life, the practice of art, fostering a reverential mood.
In this realm we are progressively transported into what appears to be
an enhanced sensual experience, although it lacks the physical grounding of the material world. Drugs illustrate the most striking example of
the opposite process. Hallucinogenic drugs have indeed offered many
people their first insight into the spiritual dimension of life. However,
no two people on drugs will experience the same objective reality, and
no second experience can guarantee the results of the first! Moreover,
attaining familiarity with the spiritual in this way binds us to the compulsive nature of our double that manifests first of all in addiction.
In meeting with the Lower Guardian (see Chapter 3), we are
reminded of everything that still ties us to the dimension of Earth,
through our double. We go through this experience and test in order to
gain the strength to transform our human nature. It is very much the

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path corresponding to Jungs process of individuation. It can be done

only by lovingly transforming our shadow or double.
Steiners concept of the double adds to the dimension of the
shadow the idea of repeated earthly lives. What psychology seeks in
upbringing, environment, and/or human nature, a spiritual understanding finds completely within the individual. The double is the creation
that is the result, not only of present environment or culture, but also
of the baggage we have created for ourselves over many incarnations,
and that we meet in the present in order to transform. Differences notwithstanding in the understanding of the phenomena, the practical results are parallel. Whether we understand it as a shadow or envision it
as a double, the path to personal self-development involves a courageous and committed process of acknowledgement of our shortcomings and character flaws. It is only through loving acceptance and progressive modification that we can transform this part of ourselves and
acquire a better understanding of our true self and of the spiritual
world.
If we do not acknowledge our double and allow it to be active
in the unconscious, we fall victim to its compulsive nature, and our
experiences become progressively more limited to the realm of the
physical world and that of the senses. In the opposite experience we
can educate our double so that its final transformation can lead us to
break into the realm of objective perception of the etheric. It is this
process that will gradually lead us to the types of experiences we have
explored earlier. This breakthrough can be a gradually enhanced experience or can affect us dramatically, as in the cases already reported
in near-death experiences and in what we will soon examine.
Looking at the body from the perspective of the double and the
objective etheric realm leads us back to where we started this analysis
with the example of homeopathy. An ultimate expression of the double
appears in the human predisposition to certain kinds of diseases. Illness, especially more serious illness, can often be understood from the
perspective of karma and consequently be seen and accepted as a necessary path of inner transformation. We have seen some of these instances in Chapter 2 in relation to previous-life recalls. Homeopathic
medicine serves as support to the realm of the etheric in which we can
seek true healing. On the contrary, illnesses can be seen as purely
physical disturbances that simply need to be suppressed. Allopathic

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medicine, notwithstanding its undeniable successes, does no more than

suppress the symptoms without addressing the causes. The same alternatives that we face in meeting our doubles are present in illness: outer
suppression or inner acceptance, suppression of symptoms or enhancement of inner vitality. Much is being done currently to show that
the individuals attitude toward (and therefore acceptance of) illness is
a major variable in the rate of recovery.4 Homeopathy is an alternative
tool for healing because it calls upon forces that go beyond the merely
physical and ultimately work at sustaining physical processes.
THE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Only those of us will remain who can smile
in the midst of death in full sunlight.
(Quedamos los que pueden sonreir
en medio de la muerte en plena luz.)
Silvio Rodriguez
In her samples of near-death experiences, P. M. H. Atwater found that
37% of individuals interviewed had these episodes when their lives
were not even remotely threatened.5 She coined the term NDLE, or
near-death-like experiences, intuiting that they were of the same nature as NDEs, and that death is not a prerequisite for acquiring firsthand knowledge of the spirit. The following actually occurred in the
midst of dramatic action:
Mark McDermott of New York City scaled a wall to
rescue a man who was trying to commit suicide by
hanging himself from a large tree. Police and rescue
squads arrived after McDermott had safely lowered the
man and had begun resuscitation. The whole event,
risking his own life to save another, infused McDermott
with such surges of energy that it was as if he had skyrocketed through a barrier of some kind and was flung
into otherworldly realms of power and love and ecstatic
bliss, the likes of which he had never known. Suddenly
he was possessed of all knowledge, especially concern-

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ing himself and the man he had just rescued. He also

experienced merging into a brilliant light and had a
past-life review. It took him several weeks to make
sense of the Earth plane again, as he began to grapple
with the typical aftereffects experienced by the neardeath survivor.
Mark McDermott re-entered the workaday
world so transfigured and transformed by his experience that anyone who knew him did a double take;
overnight he no longer looked or acted the same. He
displayed unusual degrees of wisdom and charisma as
well as uncanny psychic abilities (although somewhat
psychic before, he became more so afterward). Apparently, latent talents surfaced full-blown, and his intelligence increased above and beyond his previous IQ rating. He also found himself filled with a strong sense of
being connected to all creation and all humankind.
McDermott has since gone out of his way to initiate
service-oriented projects.
This man did not simply alter his attitude afterward. He became a new man, completely and totally
changed from the individual he once was.6
It is not necessary to have previous exposure to religion although it may help in order to be the recipient of an NDLE. In another example quoted by Atwater, a man from Montreal had a revelation in his own home. Upon walking across the living room and sitting
in his chair, he found himself transported into a world of light. In it he
recognized the figure of Jesus. He, too, came back to his daily life in
such a transformed way that his friends hardly recognized him as the
same person.
Atwaters stories have their place in a book that is essentially
devoted to encounters with death. The aspect of death is not directly
visible in these NDLEs; yet, isnt the total rebirth of an individual
pointing to an experience similar to death? Could we possibly die to
our old self, even in the middle of seemingly mundane events in our
life?

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In the book I Am With You, Always, G. Scott Sparrow, a

Jungian analyst, has collected many anonymous stories of what he
calls Christ encounters.7 He himself had such an experience on more
than one occasion, which motivated him to inquire about the phenomenon and collect case stories. The witnesses he interviewed normally have many reasons for remaining silent. First of all, there is a
certain natural reticence and humility about sharing this most deeply
personal experience. On the other hand there is the fear of being perceived as a mentally disturbed egomaniac or intentional deceiver. No
material benefit derives from these experiencesonly the added responsibilities associated with personal growth.
What is the distinctive character of these encounters? Many of
them occur to individuals who are active seekers on a spiritual path.
The great majority of subjects have no high status in any spiritual
group or organization, and most of them wonder why they were chosen. Finally these encounters do not presuppose an active religious life.
Christ encounters almost invariably occur in states of heightened consciousness. Thus Christ will appear in lucid dreams in which
the dreamer remains aware and can to some degree influence the outcome of the experience (e.g., by accepting or refusing a painful experience). They can also occur in visions in which the subject is aware of
the presence of a higher being, but still recognizes the physical environment around him. Finally, some of these experiences occur in
heightened prayer or meditative states.
Christ appears in what seems a tangible sense experience: visual, tactile, auditory, olfactory, or kinesthetic. The sense perceptions
received feel every bit as real as normal physical sense experiences
in fact, the subjects define them as more real. Finally, the experience
remains engrained in the memory with the vividness of the first moment of its occurrence, a recurrent motif of our explorations. This encounter is likely to mark the life path of any of the recipients, although
some may turn their back on it. The experiences often allow emotional
healing and this, in turn, is the basis for cases of physical healing.
Confirmation of Sparrows work comes from northern Europe.
Robert Powell mentions a book published in Stockholm in 1973, by
Gunnar Hillerdal and Berndt Gustafsson, entitled They Experienced
Christ. 8 Most of the encounters portrayed are of a visual nature. But
others experienced Christ as an unmistakable nearness, as a silent,

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comforting presence. Others heard his words of consolation inwardly.

Many experiences occurred at night or close to midnight, and most of
them refer to the all-pervading Light and experience of allencompassing love.
The encounter with Christ can be confined to the purely auditory level. In Friend of My Heart, Claire Blatchford describes how for
years she had been receiving messages from Christ, which she wrote
down.9 These are not so-called automatic writings. Instead, while hearing, she remains perfectly conscious of her environment and of the
meaning of the words. The thoughts themselves are more than what
she can conceive of with her day-to-day intellect, and they give her
spiritual nourishment and inspiration.
The event of the encounter with Christ can occur at various
stages of an individuals life. In what has come to be known as NDE,
the meeting is brought on prematurely by an untimely death. The recipient often goes through a long phase (five, seven, or more years) of
integration, a phase of harmonizing an all-too-obvious lower self with
the intimations received from a higher self. And that is only a beginning!
The same can be true, to a lesser degree, of the more conscious
encounters with Christ. Some of these are what recipients call warnings, a call for a change in direction of ones life. On the contrary,
other experiences are a confirmation of the individuals maturity.
Through such encounters, individuals may receive answers to spiritual
questions, or be brought back in time (although strictly speaking they
are in a realm outside timethe etheric realm) to important moments
of history, such as the crucifixion at Golgotha. In some rare instances,
new revelation pours in, similar in effect to the revelations shared by
Steiner and other modern initiates. What many of the recipients of
these encounters convey is a feeling of reciprocity in the relationship
with Christ.
Helen Greaves describes an experience resembling an NDLE in
a book that precedes the ones in which she describes her after-death
communications with Frances Banks. At a time when she started to
connect with the religious life, Helen was undergoing trials of the
spirit. One morning she entered the church of a small village and soon
became aware of a hazy, nebulous glow that seemed to emanate from

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in front of the altar and spread to the roof of the chapela golden light
radiating from its center and shimmering with many colored hues:
Imperceptibly a Form grew in that Center, a Form and
yet formless, a Shape and yet shapeless, a Person yet
not of human personality, an Angel yet wingless,
Beauty of no familiar symmetry, Beauty beyond imagining. Into my mind came the words, the Angel of
Presence, and yet I saw no angel. After falling on her
knees she continues, For one timeless second, Eternity
had penetrated the Veil, and spirit, mind and body were
at one with the Beauty of the Creator. All was timeless,
past and present and future.10
Let us move further in the understanding of the conscious
near-death-like experience and turn to two instances accompanied
by more documentation than others. This is the case of Rufus
Moseley in 1910 and of Jacques Lusseyrans in 1944, both of
whom have left us autobiographies. These two examples also have
in common the development of a new kind of perception, which
could be called etheric perception.
Lusseyran (1924-1971), the author of And There Was Light,
had been blinded at age seven in an accident in which his glasses
went deep into the tissue of the right eye. Already at that time he
went from an experience of complete inner darkness to a new experience of light. About this he wrote: I found light and joy at the
same moment, and I can say without hesitation that from that time
on light and joy have never been separated in my experience. I
have had them or lost them together.(11)
This threshold experience forestalled the development of
new faculties of perception. Jacques became able to see the light
inwardly in association with people and things. When outdoors he
could point to trees or plants that he could not see physically, and
knew what they looked like, their form or branching habits. Consequently, he could also orient himself in space and walk without
hitting obstacles. He could also see people but in a much more
alive and mobile way than physical sight affords. In this kind of
vision a person is always changing from minute to minute. He was
also able to read voices, to detect whether a person was telling

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the truth or not. This is how he became very useful to the French
underground resistance to Nazism. However he recalls all of
these faculties came to an end with strong emotions. Fear turned
him truly blind, but so did anger, impatience or jealousy. Likewise,
this state of grace was sorely tested at the onset of puberty.
In his teenage years Jacques formed a youth underground
resistance group to Nazi occupation of France. He was arrested in
1943 and sent to Buchenwald. Before the liberation he fell ill of
what was probably a pleurisy, coupled to dysentery, and infection
of both ears. While given for dead he started experiencing inwardly the stages of his illness, seeing his inner organs and seeing
his body from above. After that the process reversed and he actually felt the influx of new life. In his words: life, and that was
the unbelievable thing that had taken possession of me. I had never
lived so fully before. Life had become a substance within me. It
broke into my cage, pushed by a force stronger than I. It was certainly not made of flesh and blood, not even of ideas. It came to me
like a shimmering wave, like the caress of light. I could see it beyond my eyes and my forehead and above my head. It touched me
and filled me to overflowing.(12) The author saw a link between
this and the earlier experience, as if the second one were a repetition and enhancement of the first one. After the experienced he had
fully recovered and went on to be of help to his fellow prisoners
until the liberation, eleven months later. The experience of Lusseyran presents striking aspects of physical healing, in some ways
similar to what we will see about Bill Wilson, the founder of AA.
Moseleys life had the very unique characteristic of the
striving for complete independence from creed and dogma, although he was declaredly Christian. He shared his faith first with
the Baptists, then with Christian Scientists, loosely with the Pentecostals, and finally, especially after his direct experience, outside
of any denomination.
His life was underscored by a complete dedication to his
spiritual quest, although this did not proceed from an uninterrupted
life in the faith following his family upbringing. The experience
that was to mark his biography followed a seemingly minor accident. At one point in his life he had to reconsider his relationship
with money, particularly money people gave him for healings that

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he had helped to bring about in their lives. At a meeting where an

otherwise perfectly legitimate collection was requested for a minister, he reacted in such a way as to effectively block the initiative.
Reconsideration of the events in the same evening brought upon
him a deep feeling of shame that he described as an experience of
the deepest death. This inner experience gave way to a deep resolve to stop looking for the best religion and to dedicate [his]
life to moving among the needy, seeking to be loving and brotherly.13
The very same night he awoke between 3:00 and 4:00 AM and
found himself in what he described as cosmic consciousness. This is
best described in his own words: I was given the greatest clarification, understanding, happiness and bliss and put in an almost unbelievable light, revelation and glory. During the experience Moseley could
still hear the doorbell ring and had to consciously decide not to answer
it in order to dwell in the revelations that he was receiving. In the days
that followed, he understood that this was a revelation of the Christ to
come, not just a revelation of the past. From all of the above, the experience of feeling as if reborn appears in a new light. Although
Moseley did not undergo an experience of death, the meeting with his
double that reached its apogee in the above-mentioned instance was
for him equivalent to a death of the old self, and the meeting with
Christ the rebirth of a new self. This new birth was not achieved immediately afterward, but still relatively soon. Before this rebirth,
Moseley explains that he had to overcome a strong romantic illusion in
which he saw the achievement of an otherworldly love, a paradise
where I would be loved after the manner of even the most perfect of
human lovers. And further: I had glimpsed such wonders in the marriage relationship where both husband and wife with redeemed spirits,
minds, souls and bodies were first of all married in Jesus.14
Moseley developed a whole new understanding of nature and
spirit in which we can detect the gifts of direct vision of the etheric.
Even the cattle and the chickens, to use a fine line of Browning, had
learned the new law, so surpassing were they in form, movement,
grace, and beauty he wrote.15 More about this special perception appears below and in the condensed biography offered in Appendix 2.

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Meeting with Christ in the Etheric World

Rufus Moseley experienced Christ in 1910, at a time when very few
people could comprehend it. The same is true of Steiner, whose Christ
experience in 1899 could easily be missed within the pages of his
autobiography, where it is mentions that he stood before the Mystery
of Golgotha in a deep and solemn celebration of knowledge (see
Steiners biography).
From the year 1910, Steiner spoke about the progressive
change of consciousness that this encounter would mean. Many references to this event and its consequences appear throughout his legacy
of books and lectures. It is what has been called the Second Coming, a
term that may generate more confusion than clarity given the zealous
or fanatical overtones it generates. It is the expectation of the Second
Coming, rolled into one with the end of the world, which caused the
frenetic expectation of the Apocalypse in the year AD 1000 in medieval Europe and subjugated many brilliant minds of the epoch. It is this
same idea that turns all expectations toward outer catastrophes and
Armageddon scenarios, and distracts us from turning our attention inward, where the real event occurs.
Steiners understanding of what is at stake with this new possibility for humankind is far more sobering than the doom and gloom
scenarios that grip us into a paralyzing fear, only to bind us to the
promise of a delivering divine superhero. In very prosaic terms he
qualifies this event thus: The event to which we refer is that human
beings can acquire the new faculty of perception in the etheric realm, a
certain number of human beings to begin with, followed gradually by
others, because humanity will have 2,500 years in which to evolve
these faculties increasingly.16 And further defining the nature of this
encounter: A certain number of individuals will see the Christ and
will themselves experience the event that took place at Damascus. This
will depend, however, upon such human beings learning to observe the
moment when Christ draws near to them. In only a few decades from
now it will happen, particularly to those young in yearsalready
preparation is being made for thisthat some person here or there has
certain experiences.17 Finally, referring to what the faculties of perception in the etheric may be:

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This faculty will consist in men being able to see in

their environment something of the etheric world,
which hitherto they have not normally been able to see.
Man now sees only the human physical body, but then
he will be able to see the etheric body at least as a
shadowy picture and also to perceive the connection between deeper happenings in the etheric world. He will
have pictures and premonitions of happenings in the
spiritual world and find that in three or four days time
such happenings take place in the physical plane. We
will see certain things in etheric pictures and know that
tomorrow or in a few days time this or that will happen.18
We have already seen some of these instances reported in chapters 2
and 3. We will look at more of these experiences in the lives of Elisabeth Kbler-Ross and Agnes Sanford in Chapter 6.
Steiner offered us many inklings of what this experience may
signify for humanity. Others have pursued this matter further. More
than any other experience quoted so far, Jesaiah Ben-Aharons description of the Christ event in the twentieth century stands as an example of the highest degree of conscious encounter.19 The Christ appears here not as Jesus or the historical figure of the gospels. He is a
pure solar-earthly spirit. Within his sphere, Ben-Aharon tries to convey in words the experience of the Christs presence in our times.
Through this new presence humanity can participate in cocreation with Christ. For the first time in human evolution [since
around 1933] the human race began to be a creative factor in cosmic
and planetary evolution on which the gods themselves are counting in
their future plans.20 Everything we have described so far through all
of the various spiritual experiences appears archetypally contained in
the imagination he describes. The encounter with Christ opens for the
individual, as for all humanity, what appears to be an apocalyptic rift
between the forces that help evolution and those who hinder it.
Speaking of the event as it was experienced by souls before
birth, Ben-Aharon says: For them, the sublime Revelation showed
itself to be the greatest wholeness on the one hand, yet on the other a
tormenting split of self, mankind and the world. In the individual

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awakens the apparently insoluble dilemma of the distance between the

higher self in Christ and the lower self in the dimensions of space and
time. This leads to what Ben-Aharon defines as the Great Demonstration, and the overcoming of the personal abyss. This split of self has
already appeared in many ways in the examples that have been given
throughout this analysis of spiritual experiences. It was defined clearly
by Henri Nouwen in his diary entry on the abyss, and by the last examples of Helen Greaves, Jacques Lusseyran and Rufus Moseley. Another example will be given later from the life of Bill Wilson, who also
had an experience that could either be called an NDE or an NDLE.
This event showed him the most profound dichotomy between his
higher self in the Light and his lower self subjugated by alcohol. Wilson worked for the rest of his life at joining the two extremes.
The experience of the meeting with Christ opens, for all the
recipients, a degree of knowledge that rests within the shrine of individual consciousness and does not require outer proof of religious
dogma. It ushers in completely new values and perspectives. Henri
Nouwen, the theologian already introduced in the previous chapters,
struggled to achieve completely new goals after his brush with death.
In assessing his new task he tentatively expressed himself thus: Until
now I have been thinking and speaking from time into eternity But
after my having touched the other side, it seems that a new witness is
called for: a witness that speaks back into the world of ambiguities
from the place of unconditional love. And further: I must remain on
the other side while being sent back. I have to live eternity while exploring the human search in time.21
Rufus Moseley pushed this perspective further and attained a
wholly new perspective both of the divine and of the reality of the
senses. He went a step further than Nouwen in articulating a new theology grounded in experience rather than theory, a theology that transcends the dominating dualistic thinking. Talking about the fourth
empire or human-divine realm (the etheric) that is now accessible
to human beings on Earth, he indicates:
It implies a resurrected man with a wholly new
mode of thinking which our academic philosophy and
theology do not provide....

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To understand the fourth empire we need another

dimension to our logic....
The old theology has achieved little more than
compromise, for no true reconciliation is possible in the
old mode of thought. In other words it is impossible to
conceive of a union of nature and the spirit in which
one or the other does not sacrifice something in its essential character....
Ordinary logic is hopelessly involved in the dialectic of either...or and can never fully grasp
both....
In the world as we see it now nature is at war with
itselfred in tooth and clawand spirit is at war
with nature in the historical conflict between natural
and spiritual man, between the lusts of the flesh and the
demands of the spirit. The fourth empire does not require the destruction and disappearance of the natural
realm; it requires its transformation and sanctification,
so that nothing which is beautiful and worthwhile in nature is lost.22
The above words are echoed by Steiners own insights that he
no doubt gained from his own experience in the year 1899, as we
know from his biography. In relation to how the experience will be
available to human beings, he adds: They [the recipients] will not require documentary evidence in order to recognize Christ, but they will
have direct knowledge, as is today possessed only by initiates. All the
faculties that today can be acquired only by means of initiation will in
the future be universal human faculties of humanity.23 Keep in mind
that this applies to the fully conscious experience of the meeting with
Christ. However, it is true to a far lesser degree for all of those premature experiences that literature knows as NDEs.
What has been described as the meeting with the Light or the
Christ is a defining experience of the reality of our higher self and of
love that surpasses all understanding. The ordinary ego, ensnared,
defined, and imprisoned in the dimension of the double, both aspires to
and dreads, as an ultimate annihilation, the step of recognition of our
deeper essence in the spirit. The higher selfSteiner says provoca-

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tivelyis more foreign to us in our daily lives than any other human
being on Earth.
To the ego, all other human beings stand as competitors that it
tries to overcome or dim. This unspoken Darwinian struggle for the
survival of the fittest, illusion though it may be, colors much of ordinary life, and the full recognition of our double is, as a rule, feared and
avoided. Competition and fear are the grounds upon which the ego ordinarily operates, until it decides consciously to let the higher self educate it. The dramatic recognition of our higher self, which we have described from many experiences in this chapter, is accompanied by the
realization of the divine love that supports us. People who have
reached this stage, especially if consciously, can burn the residues of
their lower ego in the light and love that emanates from the spirit.
Consider the intensity and also the speed with which this happened in
the life of Rufus Moseley (see more about in appendix 2). The attainment of this Christ consciousness is not a stationary end result either,
but rather a further path of development that lies wholly outside the
scope of this work.
To resume, we can sayalthough in a very schematic fashionthat the path of individuation spans the spectrum between fear
and love. At one end the ego, wholly identified with the double, lives
in a continuous state of fear. This fear is vanquished by degrees on the
path of encounter with our doublein a first stageand fully overcome in the full experience of our higher self in the spirit. However,
all of us can let ourselves be guided and inspired to take the path of
personal growth and love even before we reach this goal as a personal
experience.
The ego that needs to be overcome and transformed is the essential instrument that ties us to life on Earth, that gives us certainty
and assurance while we are more or less cut off from the spirit. Therefore it is a stage that cannot be bypassed in order to reach a higher
consciousness. The matter of how to educate ourselves in an experiential way on the path to the realization of our higher self is the object of
the next chapter.
What did the wealth of spiritual experiences we have reviewed
indicate? Humanity has freed itself from old taboos and approached
every matter concerning the gates of death and birth from the stand-

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point of freedom that is necessary for its development. The only approach, other than an external morality code, that can limit the excesses of freedom comes from the evolution of a new consciousness.
What PBEs, NDEs, previous-life memories and other threshold
experiences are showing us is the working of destiny and karma. The
factor of context is the link with the idea of karma. Those who have
had positive experiences often puzzle over why they are chosen. The
case of Dannion Brinkley is a good example. Why, as he says himself,
did this experience befall an individual who had painted such a poor
picture in his present life? Could it be that grace from previous lives
rewarded him for what he had not yet accomplished in the present?
Isnt this the same grace that gives him the strength to atone for his
shortcomings?
For those who manage to come to terms with these experiences, given an understanding of the spiritual background, the path of
integration is likely to be much easier and shorter. The case of suicide
has shown us clearly how the fate of the living is tied to the destiny of
departed souls. Through knowledge of karma and reincarnation, resolution can be brought to the most painful human situations. Knowledge
of how destiny works adds weight to what we know from statistics.
Suicide survivors are much more likely candidates for suicide attempts
than other members of society. Apart from obvious considerations of
trauma, could it be that their souls are also enmeshed with the souls of
the suicides?
When karma is more and more understood and perceived as a
reality, it is clear that modifications of the cycles of life and death do
have tremendous implications at a personal level, regardless of legal
and political approaches. These consequences are something that we
have to learn to discern in our life, when we move from an abstract
perspective on a problem for the whole of society to the concrete perception of the particular situation affecting an individual. How does an
abortion affect a family? Can it be done lightly in the name of comfort? Consider that an abortion might be necessary. What will be the
effects we will carry in our souls from having to make that decision?
How can we first acquire consciousness of these psychological aftereffects? And how can we resolve them?
We will see later an example of destiny work that turns its attention to all these imponderables of traumatic decisions that affect the

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history of a family: abortion, traumatic death, banishment, and oblivion. It is the systemic psychotherapy of Bert Hellinger, working with
family constellations.
Present-day humanity is offered the possibility to complete the
tableau of the expansion of the gates of death and birth in the twentieth
century by including the teachings of karma and reincarnation. This
understanding, based on a modern perspective, was reintroduced in
stages during this century at important turning points. Steiner provided
the fruits of his research on karma and reincarnation in 1903 with the
books Reincarnation and Karma and How Karma Works. These were
followed in 1910 by Manifestations of Karma and the performance of
the first of four mystery dramas: The Portal of Initiation. The additional mystery dramas were introduced in the following three years.
The seeds planted in those years reached a culmination in
1923. In that year both Cayce and Steiner took a new step in the revelation of karma. Cayce started giving his first life readings in Dayton,
Ohio, and Steiner gave cycles of lectures where, for the first time, he
took historical figures and traced their incarnations back in time. Unfortunately his life was cut short before he could deepen his revelations. It was in 1962 that Ian Stevenson began studying reincarnation
in young children, and his first book was published in 1974. If we refer
primarily to scientific understanding, except for these landmarks and a
few others, knowledge of reincarnation and karma has not progressed
apace with other areas of knowledge. It is still waiting to be developed
further.
Knowledge of karma and reincarnation becomes all the more
urgent in order to acquire a better understanding of spiritual experiences that modern human beings encounter on their path more and
more frequently. This knowledge will have to struggle against the
concurrent deepening materialistic perspective that we witness in our
world. Many who have undergone spiritual experiences need to be
able to place them in the perspective of their lives, as we have seen
from the groundbreaking perspective of P. M. H. Atwater.
Understanding of the spiritual world needs to be accompanied
by a clear recognition of the eternal core of our being that survives
from one incarnation to another. The central spiritual experience that
is becoming progressively available to all human beings over the next
millennia is a growing reality that permeates human life and the

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planets future. We can now look at another facet of this allencompassing experience.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE DIVINE FEMININE

She is more precious than jewels,
And nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
In her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths
are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
Those who hold her fast are called happy.
Proverbs 3:1518
We will now round out the picture of the spiritual revolution we are
undergoing in the present time from another complementary perspective. The complex image of the new Christ event needs to be gathered
from the partial images that come from many different directions. It is
not surprising that we would need an additional perspective: In grappling with so awesome a subject, the often-quoted images of different
people claiming to know an elephant because they have touched a part
of the animal, with their eyes shut, achieves its full meaning. For some
indeed the elephant may be a column, for others a snake, for another a
big barrel. Reassembling the parts without a greater vantage point
would never reconstitute the reality of the elephant. To do that for the
matter at hand, we will turn once again to those who have attained a
deeper intuitive knowledge of the spiritual world and its laws, and try
to bring together various strands of the tapestry that constitute the reality of the Christ event in the twentieth century and in the new millennium.
The preparations for a new understanding of the Christ in our
times have been preceded by important signposts. In the realm of theology, Eastern Europe has laid down the foundations of what has been
called Sophiology, an understanding of the figure of the historical
Mary and of the Divine Feminine in the order of creation. Its pioneer

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was the Russian thinker and philosopher Vladimir Soloviev, in the last
part of the nineteenth century. His life was marked by key personal
spiritual encounters with what he called the being of Sophia. He laid
down a new theology upon which Andrey Belyi, Pavel Florenski, Sergei Bulgakov, Daniel Andreev, and others further elaborated with their
contributions to the understanding of Sophia in the Old Testament;
Mary, mother of Jesus in the New Testament; and other aspects of the
Divine Sophia in the present. This represented a major shift of interest
in the theological field, in light of which the foundations for the Divine
Feminine of the Jungians and the current interest in Goddess worship
were laid in what Jung called the collective unconscious. The theological interest of the Sophiologists was accompanied at the global level
with the so-called Marian apparitions, beginning in the year 1830.
From a seemingly independent direction, this interest in the
eternal feminine is devoted in many ways to understanding Mother
Earth. The roots have been laid down by a significant development of
the science of ecology and later environmental sciences. What we see
at work in this realm of the sciences is a partial reversal of the tendency towards fragmentation and specialization. Ecology, and, even
more so, environmental sciences point to the need for an interdisciplinary approach to science. Over time this leads to the notion of a holistic science, one that considers the whole as a living being that cannot
be understood merely by the sum of its parts. It is quite natural that the
Earth itself is seen more and more as a living being, particularly in the
Gaia hypothesis, which proposes that our planet functions as a single
organism that self-maintains the conditions necessary for its survival.
Steiner had already put forth this notion in his cosmology, in his scientific approach to Goethes contributions to natural sciences, and the
practical applications that result from it. Biodynamic agriculture, for
example, envisions the farm as a total, living organism.
Societal changes of momentous importance have followed
these new ways of thinking, as well as interests that emanated at first
from small circles of thinkers. We can look at two of these topics in
the twentieth century: feminism and political ecology. Feminism had
its first significant expression at the First Womens Rights Convention
at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. The famous Declaration of Rights
and Sentimentsechoing the American Declaration of Independencemade clear that women were advancing a platform that was

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both political and spiritual at the same time. That it had been a spiritual
revolution as well as a political one is also clear if one refers to the
significant contribution of Elizabeth Cady Stanton titled The Solitude
of Self, written in 1892. The movement truly emerged into the larger
political arena in the 1960s, even though by then the concerns of feminism had become almost exclusively political and somehow deprived
of their full initial impact. Present-day feminism is striving to reintegrate these elements in modern forms through an interest directed both
towards human rights and to the aspects of the Divine Feminineor,
in terms that we may be more familiar with, towards the Goddess.
The 1960s were also a time of emergence of political ecology.
Clearly a new concern for the Earththreatened by unprecedented
natural and manmade disastersbecame the focus of a first expression
of global consciousness. Human beings were beginning to feel a part
of not only a race and a nation, but a global world. Large international
organizationssuch as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earthnow
straddle the field at the intersection of political and larger culturalhumanistic concerns.
At all times Earth has been known as the Mother. Traditions
the world over have known levels of the same reality but with different
names: for the ancient Indians she was Shiva, the spouse of Vishnu;
for the Chaldeans Ea, the mother of Marduk; the Egyptians knew her
as Isis, the wife of Osiris; the Greeks differentiated her with the names
of Demeter, Artemis, and Athena; at present all indigenous traditions
preserve her knowledge. In the Western traditions the realm of the divine has traditionally been referred to as the Father or other masculine
terms. Presently, understanding of the Mother, in all her various aspects, has become the concern of more and more groups of people
from a variety of perspectives. What we will be looking at now illustrates further aspects of the manifestation of the new Christ event in its
relation to the Divine Feminine and all other more external manifestations that we have only partly covered.
We have previously looked at some of the phenomena that affect primarily individual consciousness. Here we will focus on phenomena whose manifestation affects the external world. We will look
at how new manifestations in the etheric affect our physical world,
first in the phenomena of Marian apparitions and later in so-called angelic encounters.

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Marian Apparitions
Due in part to the work of the Inquisitionboth the Roman and SpanishMarian apparitions were not known between 1531 (the date of
the famous Virgin of Guadalupe close to Mexico City) and the time at
which the Virgin appeared in Paris, just nine days before the revolution of 1830. Many other apparitions followed, particularly in France
during the following 70 years: La Salette in 1846, the famous Lourdes
in 1858, Pontmain in 1871, and Tilly sur Seulles in 1896.
A significant change in the nature of Marian apparitions occurred around the year 1879, when Mary appeared in Knock, Ireland,
to a group of about two hundred witnesses. In that small village, practically all the inhabitants could see the divine presence in full day consciousness. After that date, apparitions have affected the lives of growing numbers of witnesses. They may not have beheld the being Herself, but witnessed many of the unusual physical manifestations that
accompanied her, of which more will be said below. The apparition of
Tilly sur Seulles affected more than four hundred witnesses; Montara,
Lebanon (1911) was experienced by more than two hundred; the famous Fatima (1917) apparition touched more than 70,000 people.
The latest great apparition, in Medjugorje, seems to mark an
interruption in these phenomena in the words that the Holy Mother
conveyed to those who saw Her. In that village in the old Yugoslavia,
now Croatia, Mary appeared for the first time on June 24, 1981 and the
apparitions continue to this day. The first visionaries were six children,
but many others claimed private apparitions or visions, and thousands
have seen many other sensory phenomena that have frequently appeared since 1981.
Marian apparitions seem to comemost often, but not alwaysat times and places of great turmoil. Montara, Lebanon, in
1908 and until 1911, was the center of state terrorism against religion.
In Fatima, Portugal, the Virgin appeared after six years that had
brought the death of 17,000 monks, nuns, and priests, with the Russian
Revolution soon to follow. In Beauraing, Belgium, she appeared at a
time of economic depression, shortly before the rise to power of Hitler.
In Kibeho, Rwanda, ethnic massacres followed shortly after Marys
apparitions. It is not too surprising that Marian apparitions are accompanied by invitations to a change of spiritual direction and accompanied by apocalyptic messages. Our times are apocalyptic, and the mes-

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sages that Mary conveys can be recognized in the nature of the events
that modern humanity is undergoingthe initiation process into which
all of humanity is immersed, with its severe tests and challenges.
There is something more that unites all of these events but may
not be detected at first sight. We see in them the qualities of the seers,
those to whom the Virgin first makes herself known. In the great majority of the cases, these are people of lower social extraction, who
have mostly received little education and many of whom have been
sorely tested by poverty, illness, or blows of fate. In many cases the
seers are adolescents or young adults. Such is the case for the children
of Medjugorje. Jacov Colo, of Medjugorje, was abandoned by his father at age eight; his alcoholic mother abandoned him four years later.
Marija Pavlovic, also from Medjugorje, came from a very poor family
and suffered malnutrition as a child. Her friend, Ivan Dragicevic, also
a visionary, entered the seminary in order to become a Franciscan, but
had to drop out because he could not learn Latin, philosophy, or theology.
The only exception among the young visionaries of Medjugorje
was Mirjana Dragicevich Soldo, who had lived in Sarajevo and studied
at the university. She had been raised in an atheistic milieu, learned
English, and traveled widely. Her experienceswhich she originally
resistedcovered a very short time span, from June 24, 1981 to December 1982.
We are quite fortunate to have accurate observations and scientific studies of the seers consciousness before, during, and after the
apparitions.24 Apparitions are either experienced internallyand in
that case are more correctly called visionsor externally. When seen
externally, the seer refers to an exact physical location. In some cases,
witnesses of an apparition have been distributed within a twenty-milewide circle, yet all of them looked toward a common geographical
point.25 At Medjugorje, where Mary has appeared at regularly occurring times, before the apparition the seers prepare themselves by reciting Our Father, the Hail Mary, or the Glory Be. Since 1983, the apparitions have started before the end of the Our Father. All of the seers
kneel down at the same moment and look at the same spot. Some contemplate; others converse, and although their lips move, no voices are
heard. After the experience, they convey that they thought they were
having an ordinary conversation.

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In a second phase, the Virgin pronounces the words Our Father and the visionaries continue, their voices becoming audible all at
the same time. At the end of the divine visit, the seers lift their heads,
all at the same time. Those who pronounce the word Ode (Shes
gone) do so simultaneously.
During the visions, consciousness is intensified, but perception
of the outer world disappears. The object of their perceptions is nevertheless a three-dimensional being whom they can point to with their
fingers. Although for most this is a joyful experience, they also share
in the sadness of the messages that Mary conveys. That these are not
hysterical states can be identified in that what a seer (Marija) says in
daily consciousness matches what is retrieved under hypnosis; also by
the fact that during ecstasy, electroencephalograms of the seers show
rhythms of the alpha type, typical of the relaxation-meditation state.
Furthermore, psychoanalysis found no trace of hallucination or pathological ecstasy, no sign of neurosis or catalepsy; and finally, no sign of
organic anomaly has been found.
Physiological symptoms are also very indicative. The seers do
not react to physical stimuli such as touching or pinching. Reflex
blinking in the presence of strong light is absent in the case of the visionaries; but it is present before and after the state of ecstasy. Eye
movement ceases almost simultaneously with the beginning of the apparition, and regular blinking decreases by 50 to 100%. It seems that
visual pathways remain normal but are not used. The same is true of
auditory channels. No reaction is elicited to 90 decibels during the altered state; before and after it, the seers show normal reactions to 70
decibels. The same may be said of their voices; they have what is
called articulation without phonation (production of sound). The
functional aspect of it is the preservation of privacy and the conducting
of simultaneous conversations among the seers.
Some of the phenomena described above have been recognized
in other apparitions.26 In fact it has been shown that in the state of
trance, the seers will not react to being burned or cut, and that after
returning to day consciousness, their bodies do not show signs of damage.27
After the visions, seers have a heightened consciousness and a
clear perception of their shortcomings. They are also able to work together and understand each other even in the midst of great stress. This

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does not mean that for some it may seem that life on Earth is difficult
after experiencing aspects of life in the spirit.28
Marian apparitions have this added characteristic of affecting
not only the seers but also in some ways the subtle aspects of the
physical environment. Let us look at how physical laws seem to be
suspended or altered for a time. At Knock, the apparition was witnessed during a downpour, yet neither the seers nor the area around the
heavenly presence showed signs of wetness. This has happened at
other similar events. All around Knock, other witnesses saw glowing
balls or circles of light around the church or in the countryside. At
Fatima, hundreds of people saw rains of shining white globules and
heard claps of thunder in a cloudless sky. But by far the most common
phenomenon up to the time of Medjugorje has been the sun dancing.
The sun seems to detach itself from its geographical position in the
heavens, fall, split into two, spin, or throw multitudes of colored rays.
In Medjugorje, at night, lights have appeared at the foot of the hill or
as luminous crosses on top of the hill.
Some apparitions have been accompanied by the appearance of
a spring of water. This was the case in La Salette, Lourdes, Knock,
Beauraing, Banneux, and Kerizinen. Many of the apparitions are also
associated with physically unexplainable healings. We should also
mention the thousands of photographs of the Virgin Mary taken in Zeitoun, Egypt, and in Bayside, Queens.
We have uncovered a series of phenomena that characterize an
apparition that has rarely surfaced in our exploration of NDEs and
only seldom in the case of ADCs. The latter experiences are confined
primarily to the inner world of the recipient. Phenomena like luminaries, the dancing of the sun, and luminous crosses are perceivable in the
physical world. Thus, whereas all strictly personal experiences are
mostly confined to the inner world, Marian apparitions affect the
physical world and the way we perceive it. Other phenomena that
share similarities with the Marian apparitions are the so-called angelic
encounters. They too involve phenomena that manifest externally and
move beyond traditional laws of physics.
Angelic Encounters
The term angelic encounter covers a wide spectrum of phenomena.
Here, more than in any other experience, it is clear that our reference

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to physical parameters, in an attempt to classify spiritual events, is unsatisfying. In angelic encounters, a being may or may not be recognizable. In some cases only the effects of this presence may be the visible
result. The apparition may assume a human form or a clearly angelic
one. In fact part of what we will say here does not differ clearly from
phenomena previously examined, particularly the NDEs.
To explore this sort of phenomenon in a preliminary fashion,
we have turned primarily to the research of H. C. Moolenburgh, and
additionally to the work of Joan Wester Anderson. While books about
angels abound and are often plausible, there are not many that have
looked at these phenomena with a scientific mind. Moolenburgh has
come to the topic from a healthy skepticism, in part inherited from his
scientific approach as a physician. Let us look at the type of encounters he describes through the eyes of the recipients of these experiences, and first of all at the simplest instances of angelic encounters:
The third story is by a woman who was weeding her
garden two weeks before she wrote to me. The date was
29 August 1988. It was half past four in the afternoon
and the sun was shining brightly. Suddenly she had the
feeling that there was someone standing behind her.
She looked around and saw someone standing about
one metre away. She was immediately completely
overwhelmed by this apparitions penetrating gaze. He
was dressed in a shining white garment and he was very
tall. She does not know how long this lasted, but suddenly he was gone. However, for a long time she could
see his wonderful eyes wherever she looked.29
A large proportion of angelic encounters come in human shape,
but most of the time cannot be explained by physical laws. Typical
examples include those where help is received by people who are in
great need, in desperate and/or life threatening situations. The following is an example:
In 1984, an elderly couple was traveling by train. They
got off in Utrecht and took the escalator leading to the
platform. First, the man stepped onto the escalator, and
the woman followed. Then she had one of those typical

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unfortunate accidents that can happen anywhere. The

heel of her shoe was trapped in something, and she fell
back. At the same moment, she felt two powerful hands
holding her arms, and heard a voice which said: Keep
going, keep going. Her husband, who happened to
look round, saw a big man standing just behind her,
supporting her. When they got to the top of the escalator, she turned round to thank the man who had helped
her. There was no one to be seen. Her husband could
not see him either.30
Human figures who appear in this fashion often intervene in a
basic set of ways. They appear seemingly out of nowhere and most
often disappear in the same way. They instill trust and radiate what is
recognized as love. Their verbal expression is minimal, if not absent,
and to the point. Without revealing their identity, the figures accomplish a helpful act and disappear before the recipient has the chance to
see and/or thank the being.
After turning to these examples and all the remaining stories
collected by Moolenburgh, let us look now at the phenomena accompanying angelic encounters. The heavenly visitors that come in a time
of danger seem completely shielded from the elements. In case of
snow, none of it clings to their clothes; in case of rain, they remain
dry. The same is true of those who survive quasi-tragic circumstances.
A girl who was lifted out of a blazing house by unseen forces did not
show any burns or even smoke inhalation.31 A woman who had almost
drowned in polluted water before being rescued by an angelic visitor
did not carry any of the expected physical consequences.
As in many other instances, the being, especially in angel form,
is accompanied by the presence of light. Purely angelic beings defy the
laws of gravity. They may appear to be as large as a house and yet
visible through walls and roofs. They may be floating and their hair or
clothes will not fall. They may speak from outside, or else the voice
may resound inwardly. Finally, the presence of the being may be accompanied by emotional or even physical healing.
There is an element of readiness in those who receive spiritual
encounters. Before the events they often are in a state of despair and/or
imminent danger. Despair may be caused by the death of a loved one,

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by the inability to overcome personal psychological hindrances, or the

belief that their lives are coming to an end. The psychological stress
may drive the individual close to suicide. Accompanying this may be a
crisis of faith or the desire to know about the spiritual world, and most
often the ability to pray in the midst of distress.
During the experience the recipients see as normal certain facts
and events that do not normally occur in the physical world. It is only
afterward that they may notice the discrepancies, because the experience is etched in their memory with a clarity that does not subside with
time. Dozens of years later the experience survives just as clearly as at
the moment of its occurrence. Immediately during the experience there
is an intense feeling of bliss and a loss of sense of time. These feelings
can continue in the following days and weeks. In the short term, the
person may have difficulty returning to familiar earthly reality. A certain melancholy may persist. One woman mentioned the inability to
tolerate small talk after her angelic visit. In a few cases this can lead to
a feeling of confusion and anxiety.
The effects in the long term are very reminiscent of all that has
been said before, particularly about NDEs. Some feel inwardly invulnerable, and almost everyone comes back to daily life with renewed
faith and a clearer feeling of meaning in their lives. They feel more at
one with their environment, and this translates into an ability to perform acts of love and help others. Fear of death recedes, and negative
experiences are more easily assimilated. In some instances there is a
refinement of intuitive perception: the ability to perceive truthfulness
in people and foreknowledge of events to occur in the short term. The
new faith lives independently of old beliefs. Those who have belonged
to a church generally keep on attendingbut those who have not do
not feel the need to join one.
Some of these experiences, at least those involving the seeming
presence of a human being, correspond to what Steiner has defined as
a form of encounter with the etheric Christ. Speaking about the recipient of the experience who may believe he may have seen a physical
presence, he has this to say:
But he will come to realize that what he saw was a supersensible being, because he immediately vanishes.
Many a person will have this experience when sitting

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silently in his room, heavy-hearted and depressed, not

knowing which way to turn. The door will open and the
etheric Christ will appear and speak words of consolation to him. The Christ will become a living comforter
to people. However strange it may seem, it is nevertheless true that many a time when peopleeven in larger
groupsare sitting together, not knowing what to do,
and waiting, they will see the etheric Christ. He will
himself be there, will confer with them, will make his
voice heard in such gatherings. These times are definitely approaching. This is the positive, the constructive
element which will take effect in the evolution of mankind.32
Implications for Humanity
It should not be too surprising that an event as important as the Second
Coming should carry in its wake momentous accompanying phenomena in all realms of life. In the realm of consciousness, spiritual
knowledge is now made progressively available to more and more individuals because they can rise to where the Christ is present for all of
humanity. At the societal level, a new emerging spirituality now confronts a deepening materialism. In the realm of ethics, the human being is making itself the master of all life, intervening in realms that
were previously thought of as the prerogative of God: suppression or
artificial induction of life, determination of the moment of death, and
extension of life through preservation of bodily functions. This is contrasted with a growing awareness of the mysteries of life, and more
significantly with the knowledge of the importance of the moments of
birth and death. With each step taken in a life-denying direction, there
are corresponding steps taken toward greater awareness and responsibility. Side by side with the possibility of shortening ones lifespan
with the help of assisted suicide, there is the growing concern of offering a truly human and fully spiritual transition into death, guided by a
new awareness rather than by mere tradition. The section of Chapter 6
dealing with hospice will illustrate this trend and investigate its spiritual background. Life can be disposed of with an indiscriminate use of
abortion, or such an action may be simply prohibited by law or religious tradition. On the other hand, a human being can reach full indi-

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vidual understanding of the subtler aspects of this decision and make

informed choices based upon personal freedom. We will analyze this
aspect particularly in the section of Chapter 6 on the systemic psychotherapy of Bert Hellinger.
Together with the new expansion of consciousness, we witness
the loosening of the threshold between the physical and spiritual
worldsnot just within the realm of consciousness, but also in our
physical world. Marian or angelic visits and spiritual healing are manifestations of the spiritual world into the physical.
The nineteenth century ushered in preparation for the new
Christ event. It appeared first in an interest in divine aspects of the
feminine and in its earthly counterparts. Sophiology set the tone for a
new interpretation of the divine in the realm of theology. Feminism
introduced a new way of looking at the political realm, an infusion of
new values into the fabric of society. It is significant that they both developed simultaneously, one in the East, and the other in the West.
At present we are witnessing the attempt to interpenetrate social values with their philosophical-cosmological counterparts. The
interest in the Divine Feminine, the Goddess, or Mother Earth is a step
towards the resurgence or emergence of a spiritual feminism, the reformulation at all levels of society of whole new sets of values. Let us
now turn once more to those who have inwardly perceived the nature
of the Christ event of this century.
To what Jesaiah Ben Aharon describes from inner experience,
Robert Powell offers a complementary outlook, focusing upon modern
social trends.33 His research connects the unfolding of the new Christ
event with a progressive permeation of the Earth with the forces of
Christ, accompanied by the growing ability for human beings to be
partakers of the mystery of co-creation with the spirit. The continuation of a deepening materialism manifests with the unleashing of new
dangers, while human beings also attain deeper levels of individual
consciousness than ever before in historyand therefore new moral
capacities. Christs presence in the etheric implies a rather progressive
unfolding, developing over the whole body of the Earth. It will take as
long as 2,500 years to unfold its course. Spiritual experiences we have
grown accustomed to will become more frequent. Others that are only
now appearing will spread further, and new ones will emerge.

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Christs return, in the first phase, is a process of gradual descent into the Earth. As this descent penetrates more deeply, new faculties are released and new resistance arises against His work. Thus it
is significant that the initial point of Christs gradual reappearance corresponds to the rise to power of Hitler in 1933. Here, the seeking of an
absolute material power is contrasted with an attitude of seeking the
spirit. The year 1945 gave us the atomic bomb; the day it first exploded at Alamogordo, New Mexico, was called the day the sun
shone twice. Winston Churchill called it the Second Coming with a
vengeance. Here humanity, instead of seeking the dimension of the
etheric, gave expression to the denial of lifeanti-life, as it wereand
we know that this is the deeper essence of nuclear energy.
The year 1957, twelve years later, corresponds to the launching
of Sputnik and the beginning of the space age. It is clear that it is not
the scientific development itself that is at faultrather the idea of
seeking cosmic knowledge in a materialistic fashion alone. Other progressive events marked the end of the twentieth century: the drug culture, the sexual revolution, terrorism, the spread of AIDS, and lately
virtual reality and genetic engineering, all counterimages of higher
evolutionary levels attainable in the present.
Set against these events, we are beginning to witness a formidable expansion of consciousness, a search for true brotherhood beyond national or racial barriers. For the first time, human beings are
beginning to feel a concern for what happens to all other human beings
and for the Earth itself. More and more individuals struggle to integrate the fruits of spiritual experiences into their lives and to integrate
society with a new consciousness. The personal knowledge of Christ
beyond dogma and affiliation is another expression of this new consciousness. It is in the United States that the above processes (and their
opposite counterparts) are played out more fully. It is in this country
that the weight of the confrontation between a new consciousness and
a new kind of supermaterialism is at its highest.
The Earth is undergoing what every human being is experiencing internally: a tremendous split. As we have seen, humanity has truly
acquired the faculty to work either with the spirit or against it. It is
humanity that makes cosmic history, in manmade events such as
World War II or the releasing of the atomic bomb. It is humanity also
that co-creates with Christ in His coming in the ethericwitness the

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number of people acquiring a new consciousness and experience of

Christ and/or the spiritual world, only now possible.
The destructive aspects of present-day evolution are the most
obvious and visible; the co-creative ability of humanity at present is
seldom considered. This stems from the ability to perceive spiritual
truths from a purely individual perspective, from the faculty of communicating with the dead, or with spiritual beings in ways that affect
our life on Earth.
An additional perspective on possibilities offered the human
being by the new spiritual event of the twentieth century is provided
by the spiritual researcher Valentin Tomberg.34 We will not attempt to
recreate Tombergs thinking, which would take us too far into a specialized field. We will simply enumerate the new faculties that he indicates will develop in humanity as a result of Christs presence in the
etheric realm.
The first, most immediate consequence for those who open
themselves to the spiritual influences of the time is what Tomberg defines as a shame that will take hold of human beings in waves of elemental power. This first encounter with the spiritual world will lead
many to a complete reassessment of their values and to the feeling that
everything will have to be started anew. To this first reaction, often in
the wake of intense despair, Christ will infuse more and more human
beings with new courage. This will be the prelude to a new way of being and acting in the world. These experiences will enable recipients to
speak from a new source of authority that does not derive from dogma
or tradition. A new power of conviction will ring from their words and
by the manner in which they will be communicated. These human beings will willingly accept new tasks entrusted to them by the spirit
accepted no longer out of duty, but out of love.
New help will flow from Christ to human beings in the form of
soul and physical healings. It is these healings that will infuse more
and more individuals with those life forces of which modern lifestyles
most deplete them.
Finally, the most important ability is what Tomberg calls
karmic clairvoyance, a new form of clairvoyance that has no previous equivalent. Through the division and reunion of lower and higher
selves at a higher level that the meeting with Christ harmonizes in a
new way, it will be possible to see simultaneously into the karmic past

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through our lower self and into the future through our higher self. This
will reveal knowledge of events that lie far in the past at the root of
present events, and will allow one to look at precise moments of the
future with the knowledge of what will need to occur at a given time in
the way of compensation. Some examples of this appeared in the accounts of Barbro Karlen, Marilyn Sunderman, and Arthur Guirdham.
Obviously, the new faculties will manifest in different degrees
of precision: in some this will be a precise knowledge, in others no
more than a foreboding. Knowledge of reincarnation and karma increasingly results from the realm of experience and/or spiritual research of mystics, healers, or prophets, many of them Christian. Besides Steiner and Cayce, we may quote Ann Ree Colton, Grace Cooke,
Spyros Sathi, Joan Grant, and a growing host of modern authors. It
does not take an extended analysis to realize that their knowledge of
karma and reincarnation is no mere reinterpretation of old traditions
but something that erupts into modern mans experience with something of a primal necessity. Moreover, it results from personal experience, not belief or dogma.
The future about which Tomberg spoke in 19381939 is the
present that we have been describing so far. What the Estonian seer
foretold has been corroborated by our analysis. We have given many
instances of the lasting effects of NDEs and other more conscious encounters with Christ. A reassessment of personal values from within,
independent of the traditions or beliefs that the individual held previously, is the hallmark of those experiences. Many of the same individuals return to their lives with a new courage and sense of mission,
infused with a passion that stems from the core of their being, not from
adopted creeds or outer obligation.
The life of Bill Wilson of Alcoholics Anonymous is very emblematic of this spiritual blueprint. He was an individual who, having
reached the bottom of despair, was able to acquire consciousness of
the spirit in a new manner, and later work relentlessly for the wellbeing of his fellow humans. He was healed both emotionally and
physically through the experience. The increasing occurrence of phenomena of physical and emotional healing stemming from spiritual
sources, like that of Bill Wilson, becomes much more understandable
in this light and does their source.

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A REVOLUTION OF HOPE

Finally, Tombergs insights lead us back to where we started

our explorations. Knowledge of ones previous incarnations is often
accompanied by an unspoken task. Arthur Guirdham, Barbro Karlen,
Marylin Sunderman, and others render this explicit with the realization
that their knowledge puts upon them the obligation to initiate a process
that dissolves events and causes that lie in the far past.
Thus, of the two primary events that we have distilled in our
studymeetings with the Guardian, bringing us to knowledge of our
double, and meeting with Christit is apparent that the second is the
more important. This primarily defines the spiritual atmosphere of the
new millennium. Ever since the second third of the twentieth century,
humanitys collective meeting with its double is merely the result of
spiritual acceleration conditioned by the possibility of reaching a
new Christ consciousness.
If Christ is operating on our consciousness and our world in a
new manner, then humanity is bound to be affected by the results of
this reality, expressed through new forms of spiritual-social transformation at different levels of society. We will look at some of these
new expressions in the realm of experiential spirituality, which offers a complementary perspective to the theoretical approach pursued
so far.

Chapter 6

THE EXPERIENTIAL
PERSPECTIVE
Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is
seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise what is
the use of seeing?
Thich Nhat Hanh
In our preliminary exploration into the spiritual experiences open to
humanity at the beginning of the third millennium, we have extensively quoted knowledge of the soul that is accessible from modern
sources. Psychologyparticularly a psychology that acknowledges
spiritual realityoffers us a gateway into the reality of the facts and
concrete entities of the soul. Persona, double, shadow, neurosis, and
psychosis are more than symbols or convenient names. They point to
the reality of the life of the soul and its relationship to spirit.
A century after its birth, many new developments in psychology have explored further links between psyche and spirit. Jung was a
pioneer in the field, but other approaches followedsuffice it to think
of the psychosynthesis of Assagioli, the logotherapy of Victor Frankl,
or the whole realm of transpersonal psychology. The practical approaches that we will describe now share some common ground with
these predecessors. However, they essentially constitute a new step.
Because they have in common a way of looking at the individual as a
member of a larger community, these modalities most often involve
group work. Additionally, the field we will be surveying is one in
which spirituality is approached in a nondogmatic fashion, so much so
that they may not appear as spiritual approaches at all, except upon
deeper inquiry. This is why we will refer to them primarily as experiential spirituality, a term that has acquired a certain resonance in
common parlance.
We will look now at five approaches to self-growth and healing, among the most well known and efficient or the most innovative.
By choosing these we do not aim to be exhaustive in the matter. Our
choice is based upon their present widespread use and success in the

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world, or the significant new horizons that they open in the field. The
examples we will draw from are very different from each other, in fact
as different as possible, but nevertheless present some common elements that acknowledge the realities we have so far explored in this
book.
In presenting these approaches we have included biographies:
Bill Wilson, Cicely Saunders, Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, and Agnes Sanford. The reader may opt to look at the substance of the experiential
approach itself and skip the biography. However, the biographies are
included in order to illustrate the relationship with our previous exploration of spiritual experiencesexperiences that these key individuals
have known in their biographies. Only the context of the biography
can fully validate and give meaning to their experiences, and consequently offer us an indication of the weight of their contributions. An
example will suffice: Bill Wilsons famous spiritual experience had a
considerable influence on AAs founding, andfthe way in which he
integrated it sheds light on many of the problems of substance dependence in modern time.
BILL W. AND THE STORY OF AA
The deliberate adoption of a healthy-minded attitude
has proved possible to many who never supposed they
had it in them; regeneration of character has gone on
an extensive scale; and cheerfulness has been restored
to countless homes.
William James
Looking at Bill Wilsons biography will help us build an understanding of the deepest fundamental nature and role of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bills life was so intertwined with the organization that he
strove for years to create a clear separation between the two. The
founding of AA is the direct consequence of Bill Wilsons biography,
and even more so of some particularly deeper spiritual experiences.
Bill W., as he would later be known, was born in East Dorset,
Vermont, on November 26, 1895. It was a very difficult birth for both
mother and son. Bill nearly died from asphyxiation. The place where

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he first saw the light of day was the room behind the bar run by his
paternal grandmother. Alcohol was not very far away, in more than
one respect. Bills grandfather had had problems with it, but managed
to put an end to the habit after joining a revival and making religion a
part of his life. Bills father was also a heavy drinker who would get
himself into trouble. Partly for the above reasons, Bill did not have a
drink until he was twenty-two.
Bill was born into a family that was hardly united, certainly not
according to the standards of the times. His mother would absent herself for long periods because of the treatments necessary for her nervous breakdowns. Otherwise, she tended to be a disciplinarian and
physically abused her son. His parents were divorced around the time
of Bills tenth birthday. Although Bill never spoke about it, he later
characterized this time as an agonizing experience. He did not see
his father for the next nine years. After the divorce, his mother left in
order to study to become an osteopathic doctor. Bill remained with his
grandfather, Fayette. It was a good match for a child who needed affection and for a man who had lost his only son, though it could not
cover up the feeling of abandonment that Bill harbored.
The grandfather understood that it was an uncommon child
who was under his care. There were many skills that Bill could rely
upon: he had great gifts of observation and an ability to gather, digest,
and understand complex information and see the laws behind the phenomena. These skills, mostly directed towards practical applications,
later helped him in his years on Wall Street. He also had a gift for
leadership, allied with an amiable personality.
Bill was intellectually precocious and had both a good imagination and an inquisitive mind. Any challenge to his ability would be
reason enough for Bill to prove himself. This is how his grandfather
directed his interest to the building of a boomerang, which took six
months for the child to finish. Even at around age ten, he had acquired
a single-minded streak that would allow him to be completely absorbed by an idea or task, and not find peace until he had accomplished it successfully. In his school years he distinguished himself in
science, music, and baseball. How he achieved this last distinction is
particularly indicativeit was the reaction to an incident that spurred
him. When a fly ball hit him in the head, Bills classmates jeered at
him because of his awkwardness. Bills irate answer was: Ill show

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you! Ill be captain of your baseball team. That is exactly what he

achieved, by using all his spare time to learn baseball and indeed become captain.
His being Number One also pertained to his obsession with
the violin. He wanted to become first violinist in the orchestraand
succeeded. For all his amiability and popularity, Bill still regarded his
playmates or superiors as competitors. The way he approached his algebra studies showed this trait best. He initially had difficulties with it.
However, the spur to his achievement came from the discovery of his
professors shortcomings. Learning algebra became an incentive to
surpass himself and humiliate his professor. When he reached the goal,
Bill remembers: I had won a battle ... I was the only one on the school
groundsthe Number One man againthe only one who deeply understood the underlying principles of calculus.1
It was clear that this precocious ambition could come only at a
price. And so it did. Bill was showing what could be called the tendency towards a bipolar personality. Every new situation introduced
great anxiety. Moving to a new setting or facing defeat could create a
cycle of depression, the same kind of depression he had first suffered
upon his mothers departure after the divorce. Being Number One was
a way to momentarily keep these feelings at bay.
One experience clearly showed him the limits of this defense
mechanism. His first girlfriend, Bertha, died unexpectedly after a successful operation, soon after their initial meeting. Bill was eighteen,
and the love had been mutual. Her death was a replay of an abandonment scenario, only this time beyond any possible control. Recalling
the event, Bill commented, I could not be nobody at all. I could not
win because the adversary was death. So my life, I thought, had ended
then and there.2 A depression followed for the next three years, and
Bill lost interest in studies, except for his violin, and failed to graduate.
He later made up for lost time on his studies and qualified for college.
It was after the tragic Bertha experience that Bill came to know
Lois. Four years his elder and of higher social standing, Lois was instrumental in helping him out of depression and bringing in the love
and care that the youngster had so sorely missed. Bill later commented, At the unconscious level, I have no doubt she was already
becoming my mother.

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In many ways, Lois was the complete opposite of Bill. When

they met she was close to completing her studies at the New York
School of Fine and Applied Art. Coming from a deeply united family,
she had a happy childhood and remembered hating the idea of growing
up. Her upbringing left her a deep-rooted belief in the power of good,
together with faith and optimism. These were the qualities that were
most sorely tested in her marriage. In hindsight her words carry great
weight: I never dreamt about anybody but Bill Wilson. AA could not
have developed without her constant and faithful support and presence
at her husbands side.
In 1913, Bill enrolled at Norwich University, a military college. The young man felt, at first, completely lost and insecure. On the
occasion of a fall and a hurt elbow, he went to visit his mother for
treatment. Once in Boston, he had no desire to return to college and
developed hypochondria. The imaginary physical symptoms of shortness of breath and palpitations were accompanied by real angst, panic,
and fear of death. After this he went back to Dorset to visit with his
grandfather, Fayette.
It was a military college that he fled, but the army was his next
destination. The year was 1917 and the reason obvious. The call to
serve his country was accompanied by an inner challenge. Was he fit
for his dreams of being a leader? What were these bouts of patriotism,
followed by a deep fear of death? When called to the test, the discovery that he had courage after all offered great relief.
Winchester Cathedral: First Spiritual Experience
Bill had just passed his twenty-first year. The years immediately before and after show, in an indicative way, the challenges he would face
in his life. The young recruit was first stationed at Fort Rodham in
New Bedford. It was here that Bill approached alcohol with foreboding. In New Bedford he felt totally inadequate to enter its high society.
He had never had a drink before, and the first gin cocktail offered him
the magical feeling of belonging. It was the first of many, and Bill discovered, right from the beginning, that he was unable to control his
alcohol consumption. With it he could be the life of the party, without
it a nobody. After an initial phase, his drinking became so serious that
he would pass out, on average, at every third party.

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During his years of service, Bill had his first deep spiritual experience while visiting Winchester Cathedral. For a young man completely at home with materialistic values and pursuits, Winchester became a window into the spiritual world. He felt a sense of ecstasy, as if
supported by a tremendous presence. He recalled, For a brief moment, I had needed and wanted God. There had been a humble willingness to have Him with meand He came. Coming out of his experience, he saw the epitaph above the tomb of a young man, which
read:
Here lies a Hampshire grenadier,
Who caught his death
Drinking cold small beer.
A good soldier is neer forgot,
Whether he dieth by musket
Or by pot.3
Another experience could also have brought on this inner feeling of ecstasy. During a training practice, Bill and his fellow soldiers
were supposed to fire at positions situated over a low hill. Bill was
posted three hundred yards away from the target. When the fourth
round was fired, the shell mistakenly hit the ground nearby, and the
team found themselves covered with tons of soil. They were literally
saved by a miracle and came out unharmed. The first experience of
warning and the second miraculous rescue could have inspired a different direction for Bills life, had he fully taken stock of them.
The army showed the young officer that he could assume responsibility and acquit himself honorably. From this high point, a new
low followed. Not having finished college, he re-entered the workforce
without any special qualifications, again a nobody. He went quickly
through a succession of jobs. He was first an accountant for the New
York Central Railroad, but was fired; he later worked at New York
Central Piers, but quit since he did not want to join the union.
Even when close to success, Bill was constantly undermining
himself. Having answered an ad in the New York Times for a job offer
with Thomas Edison, he followed up and passed the difficult test of
admission. However, he did not accept Edisons personal invitation,

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even though he admired him. The same happened upon completing his
law studies. He was too drunk to pass the final examination.
The pattern of genius and success alternated with that of alcohol and failure. However, Bill soon found the optimal field of action
for a person endowed with initiative and a pioneering spirit. It was another opportunity to prove himself Number One: the stock market.
Once again he quickly got familiar with a whole new world and put
this knowledge to work in an original fashion. For a man who wanted
prestige and power, J.P. Morgan and the First National Bank became
his next role models. He entered the market in 1922 with amazing assurancepurchasing cheap, unpopular securities and becoming in effect one of the first securities analysts. In 1925 he investigated General
Electric just in time, before the radio and cinema boom.
Alcohol was always at his side, although he could break the
spell, particularly when he immersed himself in a whole new environment. By 1927, however, he was lying in order to get a drink. The
situation only worsened and the next year he signed all right, title, and
interest on his accounts to Lois, to protect himself against his own
judgment.
The year 1929 brought compounded misery to the Wilson couple. Added to the stock market crash was Bills break with his employer, Frank Shaw. His next employment in Canada, with his friend
Dick Johnson, lasted only until the autumn. In the few years that followed, Bill started showing signs of mental impairment. The demon
was now moving into full possession, he later wrote. He started to
hide bottles all over the house, and on occasion became physically
abusive towards Lois. He stole from Lois in order to buy alcohol. At
night he suffered continual mental anguish.
There was little change in the years that followed. Bill was now
almost forty, and the constellation of events of his early twenties repeated itself with a crescendo. Both the abyss and the ecstasy were
happening all over again. Because of his genius, Bill could still find
employers. It was his brilliance that Joe Hirshorn admired, and that is
why he employed him despite the alcohol problem that Bill could no
longer hide. Later, a Vermont farming retreat kept Bill dry during a
vacation. Once back in town and back to the bottle, he checked in at
New Yorks Towns Hospital. Towns was already an unconventional
hospital, and Dr. Silkworth, a man who worked with alcoholics, dem-

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onstrated great listening skills and empathy. This step was by now
Bills last-ditch effort. He was in a state of constant emotional stress
and forty pounds underweight. Alcohol was giving him such hallucinations and continual physical and emotional stress that he contemplated
suicide. The doctor was concerned for Bills sanity.
In the midst of all of this, Bill still found the incredible inner
strength to stop drinking for a year (from Armistice Day 1933 to the
next), relapsing on occasion due to the war memories that Armistice
Day provoked. Although he relapsed, a new constellation of events
had already set in. The first of these was the encounter with his childhood friend, Ebby T., a notorious alcoholic. It was religion that had
allowed Ebby to dry out. He had also written a moral inventory and
offered amends to all the people he had wronged in his life. Although
not impressed by the religious factor, Bill could not dismiss the impression that Ebby left on him. This motivated him to get in touch with
the Oxford Group that had helped Ebby make such a turnaround.
The Second Spiritual Experience
However, nothing could help Bill at the stage he had reached. He was
besieged with remorse for the pain he had imposed on Lois, and he
deeply pondered Ebbys experience. Feeling that this was the end, he
remembered his Winchester experience, and in despair he turned to
God, promising that he would do anything to get better. This was his
state of mind before the spiritual experience that AA has rendered famous.
In an otherworldly moment, he felt that the room was flooded
with indescribable white light. He was in ecstasy standing upon a
summit, thinking that he was now a free man. After this peak, the consciousness of his surroundings returned while he still felt a tangible
spiritual presence. He later recalled, Even though a pilgrim upon an
uncertain highway, I need be concerned no more, for I had glimpsed
the great beyond.4 Simple as the experience may seem when verbalized, Bill owed to it that he neither doubted Gods existence nor drank
another glass afterwards. Bill W. had just turned thirty-nine. This experience has the hallmark of an NDE or NDLE, though which of the
two is difficult to ascertain.
Dr. Silkworth had the good sense to validate the experience,
seeing that Bill looked like a new man. He offered him William

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James The Varieties of Religious Experience to find a compass in his

inner world. What is truly incredible at this turning point was Bills
recovered vitality. A man who had been besieged by an unsolvable
problem and affected both physically and mentally, Bill found a new
lease on life and lived another thirty-seven years, despite his heavy
smoking. This new vitality could hardly be explained from any materialistic perspective, pointing once again to the depth and impact of the
spiritual experience. The spiritual turning point initiated the life of a
new Bill W., and significantly marked the fate of AA.
The NDE was the initial spark that animated Bill in the following years. It lit a fire that sustained an inner certainty and convinced
him that there was a way to do what few or none really thought possible: offer a permanent cure for alcoholics. Bill arrived at this formulation in stages, although, as we will see, the essence of these ideas lived
in that moment of rapture and otherworldliness. It was a matter of capturing the experience and rendering it possible for others, and that was
going to be a long road.
William James marked the first milestone along the way. The
psychologist had recognized the signs of a true spiritual experience.
He had observed that these experiences often touch those who are utterly desperate, when they acknowledge defeat and turn to a higher
power, one beyond themselves. This had clearly been Bills predicament before the critical turning point. How could this experience be
offered to other victims of alcohol?
The next step came from the Oxford Group. It was a wonderfully free association that brought people to the Oxford Group. Born as
a nondenominational evangelical movement, it had no theological
theories, no dues or membership, nor any paid leader.
Despite these new connections, Bill Wilsons zeal did little to
capture other peoples attention. It was only danger of relapse that
brought forth a whole new chain of events and brought some important
figures to the fore who would play a key role in the future of AA. Bill
was in Akron, Ohio, where he had just lost a proxy battle to become an
officer of the National Rubber Machinery Company. The old ghost of
defeat conjured up feelings buried beneath the surface, and suddenly
Bill had the thought that he needed the company of another alcoholic
to avoid relapse. It was an insight that would have profound reverberations for the future. He looked up a priest in the Akron phone directory

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and, without knowing why, chose to call Reverend Walter Tunks, who
turned out to be the strongest supporter of the Oxford Group in town.
Reverend Tunks put Bill in touch with Henrietta Sieberling, who knew
of an alcoholic seeking to rehabilitate himself. Henriettas personality
was the determining factor for Robert Smith to accept a meeting with
Bill Wilson. Robert, a doctor and inveterate alcoholic, knew what Bill
was going through. He knew it so well that the conversation carried on
for hours and resumed the next day. The two of them decided to start
working with other alcoholics right away. Bills meeting with Bob
marked the symbolic beginning of AA in more than one way. In Bills
words: I had quit preaching. I knew that I needed this alcoholic as
much as he needed me.4
Bill and Bob were complementary in more than one way. It
was their encounter that laid the foundation of the future AA. The modality of this encounter has been enshrined in the principles of AA.
Bill needed to meet Bob in order to preserve the fruits of his spiritual
experience. The two needed to meet each other for their own personal
salvation rather than for any altruistic goals. Their differences and
complements were a guarantee that AA would be inclusive enough for
other individuals who gravitated around the two at first, and for all of
those who joined later.
The Birth of Alcoholics Anonymous: A Pioneer Experiment
In the years 1935 to 1937, Bill started distancing himself from the Oxford Group. Bills exclusive interest in alcoholism was one reason. The
other was the need to enlarge his frame of reference. For all its merits,
the Oxford Group was based on traditional Christian tenets and on an
active proselytism. Bill needed to offer his experience just as it had
come to him, as a profound unbeliever until the critical time. It was the
two groups of people around Bill and Bob who started to become the
determining factor in all the choices that followed. Bill could propose
ideas and try to implement them, but it was ultimately the group who
would be able to endorse them. In this way an awe-inspiring degree of
true group consciousness steered the fledgling experiment towards
the future form of AA. There was no ready-made blueprint that could
be followed because this was clearly a pioneer experiment.
It was the book Alcoholics Anonymous that paved the way to
the beginning of AA and gave it its initials. Writing it was a collective

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effort. Although Bill wrote the drafts, they were reviewed by Bob and
by the New York members. The contributions of members were critical in making it a document that could be accepted by all and therefore
could serve any possible type of alcoholic. Drafts were also sent to circles of organized religion and accepted by them. The processes and
deliberations continued, down to the choice of the title. Finally, the
editor, Tom Uzzell, reduced the book by a third.
The book contained the central Twelve Stepsan elaboration
of all the principles that distilled Bill and Bobs experience in fighting
alcohol. Bill had originally drafted six steps, and felt that they could be
further broken down. Before proceeding to do so, he asked for inner
guidance. He found himself writing the Twelve Steps with great ease.
This first momentous milestone was followed by the Twelve
Traditions in 1950. Now that a way had been found for individual alcoholics, the next step was to find what could be done to make AA
both self-supporting and protected from outer dangers. These were not
only practical considerations, but also spiritual directives for an organization whose first tradition is that of anonymity. It was there to
protect the reputation of the organization if an individual relapsed.
Anonymity breaks had created trouble in AAs infancy. Anonymity
was the prerequisite for keeping the ego at bay, for emphasizing the
priority of principles over individuals, a symbol for the willingness to
self-sacrifice. Another important principle was the idea that AA had to
be self-supporting and autonomous. It would not resort to advertising
or endorsements. Finally, it had to remain devoid of any specific religious profession. AA was becoming a truly modern spiritual brotherhood, in all devoted to its human aims, over and above any commercial or political ties or individualities.
The last brick added to the edifice of AA came from Bills
stubborn conviction that AA needed to emancipate itself from its
founder, even when most members did not perceive such a need. The
climax was reached in 1955 at the St. Louis Convention. The group
consciousness that had worked wonders until then had to sever the last
tie of dependence. Bill said that now AA was safe, even from himself.
The convention gave birth to the political and administrative structure
of AA. Two panels were elected a year apart from each other, for the
duration of two years. The delegates needed to receive two-thirds of

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the local vote. It was a new, emancipated group consciousness now

ready to lead AA.
We have followed Bills official life closely because it accompanied so intimately the destiny of Alcoholics Anonymous. Other facets of his biography are also very indicative of another aspect of the
fight against alcohol. Bills recovery was far from ended with his spiritual revelation of 1934, although he found in it the inner strength that
completely transformed his life. The years from 1934 to 1955 gave
Bill and the world many insights about the nature of alcohol addiction
and the plight of the alcoholic.
The year 1934 had marked a cardinal life change, but not a deliverance from lifes challenges. Soon after the founding of AA, Bills
previous hypochondria resurfaced. He started suffering from imaginary ulcer attacks and suffering all the ills of being a dry drunk. Alcohol leaves a host of psychological effects and personality modifications that need to be known in order to move beyond the first stage of
withdrawal from the addiction.
In 1944, returning from a long tour of AA programs in the
country, Bill fell into a very deep and long depression that accompanied him until 1955, partly due to the fact that AA was starting to be
independent and did not need him as much anymore. The sudden crisis
surprised him. He would spend days in bed and feel suicidal. The
worst time of this abyss occurred from 1944 to 1946.
After the deepest spell, the depression cleared momentarily in
1946. At that time he experienced a sense of balance, like a glimmer,
between the ecstasy of his spiritual experience and the depth of his
own personal abyss. It was then that he envisioned the idea of the
General Service Conference that he struggled for years to realize.
Bills experience is reminiscent of what we have seen clearly expressed in Henri Nouwens instance: the heights of ecstasy were followed by the necessary integration of the abyss that preceded it. It is
no wonder that it took so long in Wilsons case.
A Closer Look at the Twelve Steps
In a fashion typical of our times, 1939 marked the starting date of a
devastating world war, as well as the beginning of an organization that
helped the recovery of hundreds of thousands individuals. There were

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about a hundred recoveries by April of 1939, and an estimated one

million and more by 1986. Along the way the Twelve Steps of AA
have spawned innumerable sister organizations: Al-Anon was founded
in 1951, and from it grew ACOA for adults and children of alcoholics.
Nowadays about 120 organizations use the guiding principles of AA.
In addition, it could be argued that AA stands as the archetype for innumerable support and peer groups, and crisis and suicide lines that
cover our social landscape with an extensive network.
The following are the official Twelve Steps of AA:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcoholthat
our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves
could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over
to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of
ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these
defects of character.
7. Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we
were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve
our conscious contact with God as we understood
Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us
and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of
these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

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What is it that makes AA unique? It is a path that seeks the

spiritual in a nondogmatic way. God is defined as the Higher Power,
and the person is asked to seek it in as far as he/she understands it.
Spiritual depth is sought in the social dimension of working together,
done from a ground of respect for the individuals freedom.
Let us take a closer look at the sequence of the steps.5 Steps 1
and 2 require respectively: admitting powerlessness and accepting a
Higher Power in our lives. At the heart of step 2 lies the process of developing trust. In order to do so, the recovering alcoholic needs to let
go of living in a self-created fantasy andleading to step 3start to
observe the life patterns the alcoholic has generated. Step 3 implies
turning to God in a nondogmatic way. We can already recognize here
the gesture of letting go of our attachment to our persona and seeking a
connection to our higher self. This gesture is a recurrent motif reappearing at different stages, progressively enhanced. At the first stage it
touches only the level of awareness. Steps 4 and 5 move on to the taking of a moral inventory and the supremely humbling step of admitting
all of ones wrongdoings to another human being. This is what it takes
for the ego to break through the shield of denial that alcohol has built
up. Many alcoholics who cannot achieve this step will slide back into
the habit. In step 6 one is asked to look at how character defects have
been of help in the past. Difficult feelings have also served to protect
the recovering alcoholic. Thus, fear can be of help in calling for protection, but too much fear paralyzes us. At this point, at the idea of
giving up these protective feelings, the individual feels very much lost.
The support of the group is what helps the addict find the strength to
face this inner emptiness. Other supports are the sponsor, AAs literature, and even the simple well-known slogans that AA has contributed
to popular culture: One Day at a Time, Easy Does It, and Let Go
and Let God, among others.
Although these steps have already contributed to a deflation of
the egos self-importance, they would amount to nothing without what
AA calls vigorous action. The admission of ones shortcomings
needs to be accompanied by the desire to provide compensation for the
sorrow caused in the world because of alcohol abuse. At Step 7, having seen the difficulties to overcome and sustain new attitudes, the
need arises to develop new strategies and support them with tools for

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consciousness. Such can be the practice of journaling, calling the

sponsor or other supports, or outlining strategies ahead of time to help
face specific situations. Steps 8 and 9 require that we write a list of
people we have offended, make amends, and offer reparation for our
trespasses. It goes so far as to require us to be willing to pay whatever
the price may be rather than carry the weight of guilt on our conscience. This step may be daunting to the addict who has often shaped
a life around avoidance and is afraid to confront things head on. The
preparation for step 7 has built up the strength for this moment.
The final humbling of the ego consists in taking up what so far
has felt like a duty as an act of love towards our fellow human beings
who struggle with the problem of alcohol. Being our brothers
keeper is the twelfth and final step, a humbling of the higher self toward the lower self. To be vital, faith must be accompanied by selfsacrifice and unselfish, constructive action.6 This is the embodiment
of empathy, the capacity of shedding judgment of our fellow human
being, and providing an open space for another. The higher self of the
individual and the strength of the group can serve as the foundation for
the assistance given to individuals seeking recovery. All of the steps
serve to reorient the will from being self-centered to being inspired by
the spirit, moving from dependence on others to dependence on God,
or the inner voice that speaks within each individual. This is explicitly
stated in Step 11 with the recourse to prayer and meditation.
AA has laid the foundations for a new consciousness, for the
pioneering idea of taking responsibility for our lives that it has helped
to spread and popularize. This dimension is further made explicit in
the recommendation to take on the practice of daily review, particularly addressing the moral content of the day, and the practice of daily
preview, envisioning the day and the tasks to come.7
The idea of taking responsibility for our lives is reiterated in
the recurring theme that we need to forget what others have done to us
and exclusively focus on the self as the source of all events that affect
our lives, as well as the turning point from which change proceeds.
Thus, it is recognized that we must be demanding on ourselves while
considerate of others. Once we focus on the self, we have to identify
our real enemiesthe inner forces of resentment, self-pity, and guilt.
These are the real causes of relapse into alcohol.

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Looking at AA alone may make us lose sight of the fact that

the Twelve Steps apply not only to alcoholics or drug addicts. With the
extension of Twelve Step work, Ruth Hocks insight that this work has
a universal quality has acquired more and more justification. This can
be particularly seen in later manifestations of its work: Emotions
Anonymous (EA) and Co-dependence Anonymous (CoDA). These are
truly universal aspects of the human condition. It is the universal human experience to be swayed to a varying degree by emotions over
which the self does not rule in full consciousness. On the other hand,
even if the term co-dependence lends itself to confusing interpretations, it is within immediate human grasp that many of our close relationships are clouded by mechanisms of unhealthy mutual dependence
and lack of true inner freedom.
Let us take a closer look at the first of these two movements,
EA, and understand how it operates, whom it addresses, and its results.
EA was officially started in 1971 in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1978 it already counted about two hundred chapters in the US and five other
countries. Like all other Twelve Step groups, EA does not judge, diagnose, or offer personal advice. Its overall goals are to enable individuals to solve some of their emotional problems and learn to live in
peace with those that have not been solved.
The general qualification for EA membership is a realization of
being unable to control a certain emotion. In fact, people who apply
experience a very large spectrum of these emotions: from compulsive
perfectionists to universal acceptors or rejectors, from depressives
to paranoids, and everything in between. Phobias can also be treated
within EA.8 But, more interestingly, EA can be effective no matter
what the degree of psychological illness or the initial degree of individual consciousness. Well-adjusted individuals may be able to get
hold of relatively minor challenges (such as an escape into workaholism); other individuals symptoms may have reached what could be
defined as irreversible psychoses, those in which physical symptoms
have permanently set in. In the latter instance, the physical symptoms
can be kept in check, butso it seemsonly if the individual continues to rely on the group. Interestingly, through EA many depressives
find a solution to a problem that very few other medical or psychological therapies succeed in treating. Individuals who heavily depended on
psychoactive medications have found in EA a way to manage their

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personal challenges with no recourse to medication for the first time in

their lives.
Ultimately, the path that AA lays out marks the beginning of a
new way of envisioning spiritual development, in which the social dimension is added to the purely personal path of development. Spiritually, AA leaves individuals free to turn to their own sources of inspiration. The social element also respects individual freedom, since AA
does not offer judgment or guidance. The individual and social aspects
form a natural complement to each other.
BERT HELLINGER AND FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
T. S. Eliot
Bert Hellinger grew up in Germany at the time of the Nazi regime. He
claims it was his parents active faith that allowed him to see through
the lie of the Nazi ideology. After the war he felt the vocation for a
religious career in a Catholic order, and entered a life of a regular practice of contemplation and meditation. Eventually, he became a missionary to the Zulus in South Africa, an experience that led him to realize the relativity of cultural values. He could observe the similarities
between Zulu culture and the spirituality that is present in the cult of
the Mass. This was a first bridge to knowledge of reality of the soul.
During this time he also worked with group dynamic facilitators and
saw how their interventions could help in the reconciliation of opposites.9
Upon leaving the Church he launched into an extensive exploration of the different techniques that have evolved from psychoanalysis. In the years following his training in psychoanalysis, he received
many other trainings and integrated various elements from a long list

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of different approaches: the primal therapy of Janov, Gestalt therapy,

transactional analysis, the family therapy approach of McClendon and
Kadis, Milton Ericksons hypnotherapy, neuro-linguistic programming, and the holding therapy of Irena Precop.
Hellinger achieved an overall integration of these approaches
and has no claim to any particularly new discoveries. In Janov he saw
the validity of a body-based psychotherapy. Observing the manifestation of feelings in primal therapy allowed him to notice that the feelings that manifested themselves covered up the primary desire for love
of the child toward the parents. Reestablishing this primary movement
towards love became Hellingers focus. From transactional analysis he
realized the recurrence of psychological scripts carrying over from
one generation to the next; some of the scripts an individual carries
may belong to other members of the family. Through family therapy
he was exposed to the concept of family constellations, and Jay Haley
introduced him to the role of hierarchy in family dynamics. These exposures fully revealed the systemic dimension of psychotherapyhow
personal destinies are influenced by the family system. Finally, from
neuro-linguistic programming Hellinger adopted the focus on resources rather than on problems. He achieved this goal thanks to his
keen faculties of observation that allowed him to acknowledge what
isone of his favorite expressions. His worldview can be truly defined as phenomenology at its best. The path that took its departure
from psychoanalysis led him away from many of its basic tenets. As
we will see, Hellingers systemic psychotherapy is hardly analytical. It
has an image-based flavor that offers a whole new meaning to the
word psychotherapy.
Hellinger and his Family Constellations have caused a real sensation in the world of psychotherapy. Not only do his ideas usher in a
new outlook in the field, but Family Constellations has almost become
a mass phenomenon in Europe. The new approach generates more interest than any other form of psychotherapy has in the last twenty
years, and this trend is not likely to abate soon. It is obvious that his
approach will raise a few eyebrows. Hellingers background as a
Catholic missionary, his personality, and the radical flavor of his views
feed polemics. He adds to this by standing by ideas and statements that
he says he derives from observation rather than speculation. However,
he seems ready to admit that he has made mistakes and will alter his

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views when new elements of his observations push him in a different

direction; hence the feeling sometimes arises that he may be inconsistent.
Family Constellations
It takes a lot of training, effort, and insight to simply see, and in that
act perceive reality for what it is. Preformed ideas stand in the way.
Truly seeing is one of Bert Hellingers gifts. A pragmatistmuch
more than a theoreticianhe can call himself a phenomenologist with
good reason. To him, knowing how certain phenomena appear is much
more important than any theory he could spin from them. Most importantly, he believes that phenomena, when rightly understood, show us
the way and the tools that we can use. Hellinger describes what he has
observed as systemic psychotherapy and orders of love. What differs from many other psychoanalytic approaches is Hellingers purely
imaginative approach. A second aspect is his primary interest in simply describing facts while staying away from their interpretation.
Let us look at how Family Constellations therapy works. The
client sets up a certain constellation of the closest people in his or her
family situation by placing certain peoplethe representativesin a
determined, given space. The representatives take the place of all of
the significant members of the family constellation, including the client and even deceased family members. The important elements are
the spatial relationships between members, in which direction and/or at
whom each one of them looks, and the postures adopted by each participant. After setting up the constellation, the client becomes a spectator. The work is different from role-playing, because people are placed
in a position of which they know only very few basic facts, such as
partings, divorces, separations, and, generally speaking, other traumatic events. This is a very important element to which we will return
later. The representatives are not asked to act out, but simply to register their feelings and observe the situation. It is as if they were in a
place endowed with a certain power. They experience feelings and
emotions that can be accompanied by physical sensations, such as
shaky knees, difficulties standing up, or tight shoulders. At the next
stage, the facilitator can ask the client to place in the constellation individuals from previous generations. During this process the facilitator
will ask all the individuals in the constellation to convey their feelings

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and physical sensations, and will propose to them simple sentences

that help to clarify the feelings experienced or offer a solution for tension. The sentences are short and to the point, for example, I am angry with you, or I respect you.
The work of a constellation evolves in three stages. In the first
part, a client receives an image of the present destructive family dynamics at work. In a second stage, the facilitator moves through a
search for balance in the family system. The search is led according to
the facilitators intuition, and involves some trial and error. Only the
client and the other participants can say if it feels right or not. The final stage is an image of what could be, an image that can help the individual evolve toward a new equilibrium. It may be the attainment of
a resolution, but it can also simply be a next step on the way to balance. At this stage the client will be asked to take the place of his or
her representative in order to experience the new situation. The facilitator needs to refrain from imposing a solution, only leading the soul
to the next possible step. In fact, at times, he will have to stop a representation before coming to a resolution. It may be that this is the only
attainable next step, or that crucial information is missing. Often, the
latter may come to the surface later.
After experiencing the new state, the client and all participants
are asked to refrain from discussing the experience or offering insights
or interpretations. The images generated from family constellations
work at a deeper level, in fact at the level of the soul, not of the mind.
They have a lasting effect, but it may take some time before results are
revealed to the individual. A single representation may be all that is
needed, or various interventionsat wide intervals of timemay be
staged in order to reach a progressively deeper level of understanding
and resolution.
So what are the questions that Hellinger asks his clients? The
following is a sample:
-

Is there somebody in the family who died young?

Have there been criminal or violent episodes?
Have the parents had previous relationships?
Are there shaming experiences: marginalization,
handicap, extramarital births, people needing psychiatric care, jailing, homosexuality, or emigration?

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Are there unusual relationships within the generations: adoptions, abortions, or sexual abuse?
Are there parents of different nationalities?

The more any of these facts is lived as a source of shame or a

source of repressed pain, the more likely they are to deeply affect following generations.
Two systems are explored in Hellingers work: the first is the
family of origin, and the second is the present family. The question
asked determines to which of the two the facilitator will direct himself.
The more clearly and succinctly a question can be formulated, the
more likely the work is to be effective.
And what are the effects of Family Constellation work? A first
strong realization is often the experience of our interconnectedness.
The soul world acquires a new graphic dimension when one cannot
avoid seeing in ones life the concrete effect of a simple representation
that would seem to have only symbolic power. People who expose
themselves to the work, either as subjects or as representatives, become more conscious of the implications of their decisions. They learn
to give more importance to personal needs in relationships and take
responsibility for their actions. Taking responsibility for our actions
occurs independently of the justifications that have guided them. In
fact, individuals may feel responsibility even for their intentions.
Representations may allow us to shed premature prejudice and
acquire more compassion towards others. Many say that having the
experience of bowing before another (for example, in offering forgiveness) is not an act of weakness. The reverse experience does not cause
one to feel proud or superior. In fact, whether we like it or not, images
guide our life. The old image of our family guided us unconsciously.
The new image of a possible future constellation works without need
of analysis, but has an influence on our lives, without depriving us of
our freedom.
Loves Hidden Symmetry10
So what is it that Hellinger sees? In a family unit, certain events leave
scars on the soul. These are mostly dramatic or tragic events: anything
from sudden death, suicide, and homicide to abortions, stillbirths,
adoptions, incest, and so on. Resulting traumas come from the indi-

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viduals response to these events. A family member may be excluded

because of a shameful act, or institutionalized and forgotten because of
a mental, developmental, or other handicap. Each individual in the
family always has a choice: accept the pain and own it, or deny it and
suffer from the hidden consequences of this denial. Accepting all family members and ties is recognizing the reality that the soul always
knows. Rejecting family ties through anger keeps one tied to all the
family members at a deeper level, no matter how close or far one is
from them geographically. The only lawful exception may be one of
members having committed crimes or murders; they do indeed need to
be excluded, at least for a time.
A family is a group of people brought together by destiny. Fate
seeks its completion no matter what we may think, feel, or do about it.
When we divert it through some drastic decision, it intervenes in some
other way in the family unit. These are the phenomena observed by
Hellinger, the ones he groups under the name systemic laws, applying
in most cases within three generations of family links. These laws hold
true regardless of space and time, all the more so when consciousness
and the ability to love are dimmed. They operate across space; family
members affect the system no matter where they are. They also work
across time boundariesthe deceased affect the living, and vice versa.
A family group has a consciousness. Children are a particularly
sensitive link in the family unit. They will suffer with their parents in
order to show their love, because they express love in a primary, blind
fashion. In the case of divorce, they often emulate the parent who appears worse off. They feel incomplete if they are forced to exclude one
of the parents from their picture of the family. However, it isnt only
the parents who play an important role in the family dynamics. Any
member of an extended family unit has a right to membership. Wrong
decisions made by any individual must be condemned without excluding him or her. Excluding or ostracizing can lead to serious physical
and psychological illnesses among children or other family members.
Hellinger alerts us to the reality of destiny or fate in the family
unit. He expresses it in another way via the concept of family hierarchy. This hierarchy flows through the parents to the children, from the
firstborn to the younger siblings. That is why it is important for parents
to share deep commitments to each other first, then to their children.
Children should not be drawn into adult concerns or problems by their

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parents.
More recent relationships have precedence over older ones. If a
parent has a child from a second partner, it is this union that acquires
priority over the previous one. An ideal family situation is represented in an archetypal way in a family constellation. The oldest child
stands close to the parents and the others are arranged around them
clockwise in descending order of age.
Love, at least in the common use of the term, covers a wide
gradation of feelings and emotions. Above we have described the apparently unconditional kind of love that is a childs love. A child will
blindly follow the parent, no matter their fate. This is not a true relationship, but what Hellinger calls an entanglement. By sharing the destiny of the parent, the child is estranged from his or her own destiny.
At an unconscious level, the child feels important, but this feeling is
born out of presumption, not out of any deeper reality. Within the context of hospice, it has been noticed that dying children often hang on to
life, because they feel protective of their parents; this is especially so
in the case of single parents or in difficult stepfamilies.11
Growing into a mature, adult love implies a painful separation
between child and parent, generally associated with a feeling of guilt
from the son or daughter. The necessity of the guilt and the pain associated with breaking the nature of the childhood bond is often resisted
in adult life, resulting in the person, later in life, carrying an unbalanced love or attachment to the paternal/maternal figures.
What Hellinger calls the hidden symmetry of love concerns
the balance of give and take that colors every relationship, especially
in couples. The exchange of giving and receiving needs to be balanced, not from a mathematical, but from a soul perspective; the wider
the exchange, the deeper the resulting growth and joy. The partner
who receives too much will end up feeling oppressed, and therefore
unable to give. The same is true in case of a partner causing harm to
another. Too quick or superficial forgiveness deprives the need that the
offending party has for offering compensation. A magnanimous forgivenessoften a superficial onedeprives the needed outlet for
guilt.
The Souls Perspective
Family Constellations work offers us a brand new perspective on the

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dynamics of a family. It also invites us to revisit important social issues from the perspective of the reality of the soul. Thus, when we
consider such matters as abortion, artificial insemination, adoption,
and incest, we often do so primarily from the perspective of human
rights. This is a justified approach inasmuch as it honors the dimension
of human freedom and justice. However, it is only a partial view of
thingsit does not fully address the souls perspective. Let us look
precisely at how these matters are also issues of destiny.
Adoption may be seen as a generous and altruistic idea, and it
often is. However, at the level of the soul, it is overshadowed by another important choice. Adopting is often the refusal of a trial of destiny: the acceptance of a partners sterility. If this is not clear, then
adoption carried for the wrong motive can lead to divorce, illness, or
more serious issues. Adoption challenges us to accept our overall destiny and the destiny triggered by the impact of a foreign family constellation. In other words, in adopting we dont just accept a child, but
also, at the soul level, the destiny of the members of the childs family
system. In the case of adoption, immediate family members, including
grandparents, aunts, and uncles, are best suited for successful results.
Understanding of the element of destiny is carried even further in the
case of artificial insemination. It may be difficult to understand the
importance of whether the sperm comes from the husband or from another source. Here, as in adoption, it makes a difference whether or not
the issues of two family constellations are compounded.
A polar opposite of adoption is abortion. Regardless of the issue of freedom that goes with abortion, couples intuitively know that
aborting is often psychologically worse than accepting a challenging
baby. The pain of abortion has to be confronted consciously by the
couple through the necessary grieving in order to lessen the psychological consequences.
Another often-neglected aspect of family reality is the role of
ex-partners. From a destiny perspective, it should be made clear that
their role is fundamental. Without their stepping aside, there would be
no new relationship. They are all linked by this simple fact of life.
Family constellations look at this issue closely. One of the surprising
revelations of Hellingers work is the reality of physical intercourse.
This leads him to issue the challenging remark that sexuality is
stronger than love, if we give to love the meaning applied by every-

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day standards. Sexuality creates real links that will invariably appear
in family constellations, no matter how fleeting an episode a person
may consider any sexual encounter. These conclusions strongly confirm the results of spiritual investigation, even if they may stand at
odds with what goes as common sense. They offer us a concrete example of why Hellinger can falsely be interpreted as holding on to archaic ideas, to his Catholic background, or to a neoconservative ideology. This view ignores the fact that everything he says is something
that he has come to observe first and foremost as a phenomenon
through his work.
Where the divergence between legal issues and destiny issues
is the greatest is in the case of incest. As Hellinger sees it, incest is often the result of an unconscious collaboration, where the man plays the
active role and the woman the passive one. Often the perpetrator is a
man who marries a woman with one or more daughters, and the situation presents an emotional and sexual imbalance. The woman often
compensates for this imbalance by unconsciously offering the daughter, who also ends up offering herself, illustrating the blind love of
children. Incest thus becomes an issue of love that does not find its
true and healthy expression. Clearly, the major responsibility lies with
the man, and judicial action is appropriate. However, incest is not resolved by revenge. It is a human situation that needs to be resolved by
acknowledging both the parents fault and the reality of the bonds of
love, however misplaced their expression may be. This is important
because when a person has been denied or excluded from a family
unit, their burden may be taken on by a child or other family member.
This individual will carry feelings not their own, and will often display
emotions and behaviors that are inappropriate or are exaggerated
within a given context. Hellinger calls this an entanglement or identificationthe polar opposite of a relationship, a bond based on compulsion rather than freedom. Personal destiny that has been blocked acts
blindly out of inner necessity, trying to find entry where it has been
denied access.
Entanglement is not of an automatic nature. The information
received through systemic psychotherapy is not universal or equal for
all. Rather, it depends on context. This is most visible when two siblings set up the same family configurations for therapeutic work. One
of the two may be very entangled, for example, with the mothers side

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of the family, whereas the other may demonstrate little response to the
traumatic event and react more favorably toward the fathers side of
the family.
It appears that Hellingers systemic psychotherapy is an imaginative way to make visible the familys forces of destiny. The process
attempts to bring consciousness and a loving response from a mood of
reverence and acceptance. We must first remember and honor anything
that we have done or have been part of, before we can rightfully forget. This does not mean condoning faults or crimes. Standing by the
excluded or vilified in order to give them back their rightful place
within the family system is the task of the facilitator, according to Hellinger. His is a deeply moral workwhen skillfully conductedthat
allows destiny its due.
The final image of constellation work is there for the individual
to simply behold. From it the soul can draw nourishment. Progress will
occur according to the souls needs and rhythms for some, within
months, for others, years. No interpretation is necessary and the persons freedom remains whole. However, for progressively deeper effects, it may be useful to conduct several constellations, leaving ample
time between them.
Working with Departed Souls
Family constellations have shown that a certain memory lives within a
family system. It lives in the soul or the so-called greater soul. The individual brain is merely the instrument that transmits it; it does not
create it. The soul lives beyond space and time. That is why it is
equally at home among the living as the dead.
Family Constellation work indicates that the living need to stop
clinging to their beloved dead ones. After a normal period of mourning, such attachments hamper the departed souls further progress.
Heinz Stark confirms the importance of the moment of death, and particularly the thoughts we carry at that time. He observes that the souls
of the dead can be in quite a few different stateseither at peace or in
a restless state. In extreme cases, such as with those who have been
murdered, he notices that the soul can be caught in an in-between
realm, as if cut off from everyone else and from life itself. This happens particularly when the perpetrators carry no remorse or empathy
toward the victims. At the other end of the spectrum are the souls who

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have made the most progress after death. The latest phase of the dying process of such a soul aspect, which has so far been observed with
the help of constellations, seems to be the dissolution and union with
(or in) those who have lived before, maybe encompassing ever larger
areas of an ever larger soul,12 concludes Heinz Stark. This is probably
why in the majority of cases family constellations concern themselves
with the third generation only. In most cases, after that time, the soul
has dissolved and become part of the greater soul.
Family constellations know no boundaries as far as the soul is
concerned. They help the living as well as the dead. Departed souls are
free to participate. They can achieve clarity or resist change just as we
do. Therefore, central to this working together in both worlds is an attitude of respect toward the dead. Attention may be turned to them before going to sleep, during the night preceding work on a constellation.
People who have done this have sometimes received guidance through
dreams.
In some ways Family Constellation work renders visible the
reality of destiny within the family unit. It also makes obvious the limits of a purely individual approach in psychoanalysis. Hellingers work
is successful precisely because it calls on the participationat the soul
levelof all parts involved. The lack of analytical interpretation honors the needs of different souls and the individuals freedom.
The Knowing Field
What is at work behind systemic psychotherapyand most precisely
at work in a Family Constellation setupis the knowing field, the
name given to this elusive reality by Albrecht Mahr. It is in many
ways, but not completely, an objective field. The reactions that emerge
from representatives have little to do with their personal history. Different representatives placed in the same role experience the same or
very similar feelings, down to specific physical conditions. Experience
with constellation work often renders representatives more attuned to
this hidden reality, and allows them to perceive the same phenomena
more clearly over time. The representations are a form of inventory of
the unconscious energies present in family dynamics. They bring
awareness on one side and healing on another.
Not surprisingly, family constellations can bring to light new
elements of reality. The case given by Bertold Ulsamer of a represen-

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tative, during constellation work, becoming certain of who her childs

father is, is a good example in this connection.13 However, even if this
is true in some instances, family constellations cannot and should not
be used to retrieve information. Ulsamer offers the example of a representative bringing to the surface a history of abuse of a certain woman.
When tallied with the family history it became clear that the abuse had
been perpetrated on the subjects sister. The abuse energy was present in the system and played a role in it. However, the conclusion first
attained was erroneous. Even if these cases are relatively rare, the example ultimately leads Ulsamer to draw the conclusion that one should
corroborate a representation with reality and not vice versa. According
to him, Family Constellations work rests upon three pillars: energy,
order (systemic laws), and reality. In his approach, as in that of many
other practitioners, the energetic approach has priority. Order, which
can only serve as a general point of reference, is a relative notion, and
exceptions to the lawfulness of order are too numerous for this criterion to offer a guiding hand. Also, relying on the principles of order
would offer a facilitator the treacherous comfort of expected outcomes
and resolutions.
At this point we might ask what the knowing field has to do
with the new scientific idea of the morphogenetic field, as Heinz
Stark asked himself. It seems more likely that what we have to do with
in Family Constellations is similar to what appears in work with hypnosis. However, the difference with hypnosis lies in Family Constellations greater precision. Here, the system is expressed by representatives in a state of normal consciousness; the facilitators consciousness
does not dominate over the dimmed consciousness of a client or representative.
For a further analysis of the forces at work during Family Constellations, similar phenomena are seen at work in J. L. Morenos Psychodrama and other similar techniques using drama as a foundation.
People who assume a certain role, although they role-play, often get in
touch with elements of reality of which they had no previous knowledge.14
Other scientific studies support Hellingers work, offering useful hypothesesparticularly so the pioneering work in the field of
psycho-genealogy conducted by French psychologist Anne Ancelin

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Schtzenberger.15 Her work aims to recognize the influence, at the

psychological level, that previous generations have over their offspring. In one of her examples, a client of had a daughter, born on
April 26, plagued since birth by asthma and panic attacks. A brother of
the clients grandfather had died in an attack on April 26 in which lethal gases had been used. After elucidating these facts, the daughter
recovered from both her cough and panic attacks. The client herself
continued to suffer from shortness of breath. It was discovered that her
grandfather was present during the attacks in Verdun. After these discoveries her breathing improved. However, she still had odd habits:
taking her hands to her neck, wearing a short red necklace, often feeling cold. Historical inquiries brought to light that five of her ancestors
had died at the guillotine in 1793. One of them had died on January 9,
1793. The clients brother, Franois, was born on January 9, 1963. After these discoveries the feeling of choking and her related habits disappeared.
Another example from Ulsamers research concerns the 1993
death of actor Brandon Lee, who died during the shooting of the film
The Crow, killed by a pistol that should have been loaded with blanks.
Twenty years before, to the date, his father, Bruce Lee, had died during the shooting of Game of Death in precisely the same way. Hellinger quotes the case of a family where, over one hundred years, three
members of successive generations committed suicide at age twentyseven on December 31. The oldest manthe first husband of the
great-grandmotherwas probably poisoned by the wife and her later
husband on December 31.16 The observations reported above bring us
to a crossroad of influences playing across family generations and also
possibly the consequences of phobias carried from previous lives.
Family Constellation work stands at a turning point. Many of
its aspects need to be better known and explored, now that its effects
can be observed after many years of practice. It may be that family
constellations will continue to evolve and create new forms. What is
beyond doubt, reflected by the growing interest in Hellingers work, is
its revolutionary, groundbreaking effectits pioneering edge into the
realm of the soul and its destiny in a manner that strives to combine
objectivity with the value of the image, rather than the old school of
interpretation.

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Overall, Family Constellations work illustrates the reality of

the modern ideas of destiny that we have introduced, especially in
Chapters 2 and 3. At a first level, it demystifies the idea that family
links are due to a random genetic lottery. The corollary of that
thoughtthat we can free ourselves from these links at willproves
itself an empty proposition when tested by experience. Moreover, by
integrating our relationships with the departed souls, systemic psychotherapy confirms how tenuous the boundary between the physical and
spiritual worlds is at present, as we saw in the exploration of ADCs.

THE REVOLUTION OF HOSPICE: SAUNDERS AND

KBLER-ROSS
Do not fear death so much, rather the inadequate life.
Bertold Brecht
The history of hospice goes back to the Middle Ages. In those times,
hospices were places of rest and shelter for pilgrims and travelers. According to need, the sick were cured and terminal care was offered to
the dying. The term hospice in relation to the dying was first used by
the Irish Sisters of Charity, who opened Our Ladys Hospice in Dublin
in 1879. Sixteen years later they founded St. Josephs Hospice in London. The separate modern hospice unit was inaugurated with St. Christophers in London in 1967. By 1985 there were about seventy such
hospices throughout the United Kingdom. The home care aspect of
hospice was begun in 1969.
In 1975 there were only three hospices in the US: the first was
in New Haven, Connecticut; the second, in Marin, California; and the
third, a hospice unit within St. Lukes Hospital in New York City. By
1977, there were about seventy initiatives covering the span of the entire country. By the early 1990s there were approximately 2,000 hospices in different degrees of development.
During World War II as a nursing student, Cecily Saunders had
seen much death and pain. She became concerned with giving dignity
to the dying and attenuating their pain. She did this by taking on a degree in social work and then another degree in medicine. Subsequently

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she started working in religious hospices. She wanted to combine the

ideas of caregiving with the comfort that modern medicine could offer.
She rediscovered the Brompton Cocktail, a blend of heroin, morphine,
cocaine, alcohol, and antinausea medication, and pioneered the idea of
continuous pain control so that the dying could prepare themselves
more readily for their transition. In 1967 she started her own hospice,
St. Christophers, in the suburbs of London. In it she integrated all the
elements that she thought would add value to a stimulating environment for her patients: a feeling of family, religious support, artall
elements that offer a wider perspective of life.
In America, more than elsewhere, hospice has also received a
considerable contribution from Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, through her
work, her books, and her workshops on death and dying. Saunders and
Kbler-Ross stand out as two of the most prominent figures in the development of the modern idea of hospice. In the United Kingdom, hospice was founded around the idea of a charismatic leader; in the US,
more upon the idea itself. In the UK, hospice relied primarily on Christian ecumenical views, whereas in the US the multicultural factor, with
the need for religious and moral pluralism, made hospice open to a
new kind of spirituality of which Kbler-Ross is an apt representative.
The two pioneers, who have just recently departed within a year of
each other, form two complementary perspectives. Saunders led the
way, and Kbler-Ross offered future possibilities.
Accompanying the Dying: The Story of Cicely Saunders
Cicely Saunderss biography is truly astounding, primarily because of
all the obstacles that personality and circumstance threw her way.
However, these are the very same adversities that made her uniquely
suited to perform her task. Saunders was born on June 22, 1918 to an
affluent English family. She never lacked financial resources or social
connections. However, she was born to a very unlikely and divided
couple. The parents, very different in nature, communicated less and
less as their three children grew up. The mother, Chrissie, rather
charming and considerate, was out of touch with her own emotions
and unable to deal with practical matters. Consequently, she left the
childrens upbringing to the familys domestics. The children had
hardly any connection with such a remote character. Like Chrissie,
Cicely inherited a congenital slight curvature of the spine that was to

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cause her ongoing hardships. She was unusually tall, so much so that
she remembers, I seemed to spend much of my time falling over myself because I am too big.17 Added to this was a great shyness that
caused her feelings to overwhelm her; she tended to accumulate inner
tension until she could find an uneasy release for it. Because of these
many factors, her relationships with men were difficult. From her very
extroverted fatherwith whom she felt very closeshe absorbed a
very lively and wide range of interests and great determination.
Saunders personality is one of great dynamic tension of
marked contrasts. She was fearful and yet daring; very sensitive to
peoples needs and yet ruthless at times; concerned with overall vision
and very keen on detail; knowledgeable of both the scientific and
technological and interested in the spiritual; tending to the autocratic
and yet acknowledging the need for the democratic and striving toward
it; and especially, both practical and intellectual. Her biographer,
Shirley du Boulay, remembers that she could throw temper tantrums if
something did not go the way she wanted it, especially over little
things. For the larger things, she would humbly rely on Gods will.
More than any other quality, it was her extreme determination that
could educate and propel her above her tensions and inner difficulties.
Armed with the experience of her own shyness and her physical pain, Saunders had a great ability to listen to her patients pain, feel
what they were going through, and tell them the truth without scaring
or embarrassing them. In this she awakened trust even with the most
complete stranger. She was persistent even to stubbornness. She had a
good sense of humor, even a sharp wit. She expected a lot from people, even herself, and could have devastating effects on sensitive people, even inflicting public humiliation on them in some instances. This
made her a charismatic but difficult leader.
Such tension of opposites, coupled with her physical disability,
explain how Saunders was uniquely fitted to both act boldly and wait
patiently, to fear the limelight and take progressive steps to learn responsibility and leadership. In her teenage years, in the boarding
school she hated, and despite her little popularity, she decided to take
on the role of house sub-prefect. Likewise, she became a set representativehaving the responsibility over a group of probationersin her
initial years of nursing studies.

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Nursing, religion, and intimate encounters formed the turning

points that marked the path of the founder of modern hospice. Let us
see how. It was the circumstance of the war that gave Saunders the
courage to veer away from the path that upbringing and fatherly inclination had marked for her. At the outbreak of WWII, she took the Red
Cross exams in home nursing and first aid. Later, at her initial training
with the Nightingale Training School for Nursing, even with the stringent conditions of wartime London, she felt she had found home.
However, her back problems did not allow her to finish her studies,
nor to envision taking on the physical strain of the life of a nurse. In
order to keep the precious contact with the patients she became an almoner, the rough equivalent of a medical social worker. However, this
new profession could not satisfy her as nursing had done, nor fulfill all
her lively interests. It was through these interests that she came to volunteer for St. Lukes home for the dying, which, unique for its time,
had both an ecumenical religious approach and a pioneering approach
to pain control. Here, ever since 1935little known to the public or
the medical professiona system of regular giving of pain control
drugs allowed the patients to use the drugs they needed before the return of the pain. This important contribution to Saunderss quest
formed the ground for the next step.
The surgeon Patsy Barrett, for whom Saunders started working,
indicated to her that the problems of the dying stemmed primarily
from the attitudes of the medical profession, and that, if she wanted to
affect a change and have the credentials for it, she needed to read
medicine. Undaunted by the challenge, Saunders enrolled in medical
school at age thirty-three, at a time when only 15% of the enrolled
were women. The challenge of medical studies was hell, according
to her own words. She worked to prove that it was possible to prescribe pain control without causing addiction and without causing tolerance to the medicine. Most of all she felt it was important to leave
control of the matter in the hands of the patients. In the time that she
worked at St. Josephs she had managed to document more than a
thousand cases of dying cancer patients. There she also started to emphasize the importance of seeing patients within the context of their
families.

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Saunderss medical career went hand in hand with key personal

experiences that marked the genesis of the first hospice, Saint Christophers. Chief among them was a spiritual odyssey that she shared in
great parts with key patients.
Saunders had not been raised in religion. A first interest was
facilitated through the reading of such books as Good God by John
Hadham, and C. S. Lewiss and William Temples opuses, which appealed to her growing liberalism. She also joined the Socratic Society,
a group started by C. S. Lewis as a meeting place for atheists and
Christians. The real turning point, however, occurred in the summer of
1945 when she joined a group of six evangelical friends who were
heading to a holiday retreat with prayer, worship, and discussion, to
which she practically invited herself. Her initial mocking and unbelieving attitude was likely a challenge to her friends. However, after
one of the services she decided to pray and ask to receive proof of His
presence. And she reported: The Lord as it were said to me, Its not
you who has to do anything. I have done it all. At that moment I felt
that God had turned me around and that it was all right.18 She wrote a
poem beginning, We saw Him in the foam of curving waves, and
ending, The truth came flooding through our minds so dim / That he
so loved us that He sought our hearts / And peace and joy came in to
dwell with Him. After this episode, the friends could sense Saunderss transformation. She was quite fervent in her faith and shared it
in the workplace despite disapproval, so much so that she had prayer
meetings before work. She later called these her very pious years.
This change had occurred at a time of deep family crisisthe
separation of her parents. Saunders felt she had been softened up by
this suffering and rendered able to surrender. Evangelicalism, by calling to her heart, was able to complete the journey that had started with
the intellectshe felt forgiven. Du Boulay says, There was a sense of
guilt, simply for being. She had never known a world of innocent
acceptance. She had experienced her mothers abandonment from
birth. Many friends sensed a deep loneliness in her that she covered up
with a constant desire for company.
In the genesis of the hospice idea, Saunders moved from realizing it could not be evangelical to requiring a minimum level of commitment to Anglicanism, and finally to a full embrace of ecumenical
principles. What place religion would have among the co-workers was

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a matter of debate for a long time. Saunders realized that hospice could
not be a religious order, and that spiritual life had to be left to the individual. She accepted reluctantly that it would be a community of the
unlike.
In her ecumenical trajectory, Saunders had learned a lot from
the pioneering Saint Lukes, but most of all from the patients themselves. After becoming an almoner, among the first patients with
whom she worked was David Tasma. He was a forty-year-old Pole
who had terminal cancer and felt quite desperate and empty. He had no
family, and was very lonely and in great physical pain. They saw each
other twenty-five times, as recorded in Saunderss diary, before his
death in February 1947. The relationship soon blossomed into love.
Tasma was an agnostic Jew, and Saunders spent much time talking
about religion in a way respectful to his faith. To her credit, before he
died he had managed to reconcile himself with God.
It was also with him that Saunders started discussions about
how to care for the dying. Through this encounter she not only found
love, but also confirmed her vocation for bringing relief and comfort to
the dying. At his death, she organized his funeral according to orthodox Jewish rites. This love relationship left her to deal with personal
grief that she could not publicly acknowledge. After three months,
however, a spiritual experience helped her in the grieving process. At
the time she was in Scotland, walking by a river. In the beauty of nature she felt as if she were slipping out of time and sensed Tasmas
presence at her side, giving her the feeling that everything was all
right. She called the experience very strong and comforting.
This constellation of events was to repeat itself, as if at a higher
level, in her relationship with another dying patient, Antoni Michniewicz, thirteen years later. This was in Saunderss words, the hardest, the most peaceful, the most inhibited and the most liberating experience I have ever had. Michniewicz was a devout Catholic Pole
who had left Poland after World War II. His only close relative was his
daughter, but he also had friends. For a long time he was just a friend
Saunders admired for gentleness and moral fiber. Then one day, he
expressed his love. The two were inhibited in expressing their feelings
by the presence of the ward neighbors, so much so that those who
knew them never suspected the depth of their friendship. Their relationship remained brief and public throughout, and Saunders recorded

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a diary of her conversations with him. She had never experienced such
love in her life, and it provided her inner peace. Eventually she had to
stop praying for his life and Michniewicz was able to accept his death,
practically at the same time. Saunders was with him when he died. After that she was surprised by the depth of her griefafter all, it had
happened before. She could hardly bear going to the ward and carrying
out her normal functions. She constantly thought and talked about him.
She felt later that it was a pathological grieving. Once again, but
more than with David Tasma, she was left to mourn in a position that
was not socially recognized. The next year Saunders lost her father and
also Barbara Galton, whose friendship had sustained her during her
medical studies. This happened during the time leading to the founding
of Saint Christophers and Saunderss determination was sorely tested.
She wrote, It does feel like the end of the world. I had to do this work
and though I wanted to do it, I could hardly bear to go on living. I often thought how nice it would be to die.19 She felt that Michniewicz
was her better, and that his love had elevated her. She now had a
deeper love for God and came to realize that giving in a hospice relationship goes both ways.
Was it just a mere coincidence that Saunders was attracted to
Polish men? She did not feel so, although she could not explain it. She
was later to marry Marian, another Polish man, some time after buying
on impulse a painting of his that she had seen in a gallery. She wrote a
note to the painter, in which she expressed her appreciation for the
painting, and this led to their encounter. In the same way she had purchased Marians painting she acquired the statue of a kneeling woman
(now in the front hall of St. Christophers), which, it turned out later,
was the work of Witold Kavalec, another Pole. About this link with
Poland, Saunders says that it was a link that was there from the beginning and was forged again and again. Poland is a nation that had
suffered much; one of its poets called it The Jesus Christ of Nations.
In the same way that she was drawn to Polish people, she found something equivalent in American Jews. Peoples suffering played a part
not just in her professional life, but also in many aspects of her private
life. Saunders was attracted to people who were in pain, as they were
attracted to her. Barbara Galtonwho was blind and paralyzedwas
one example of many friends whom she saw die.

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Hospice: The Community of the Unlike

Hospices begin with two questions. What do dying patients need, and
how can we accommodate their needs? Although it may seem obvious,
this is an important prerequisite to underline. Putting the patient at the
center concretely means that hospice has the ambition of accepting
everyone. Although this is an ideal that is far from realized, it is already a major difference from a regular hospital, where the financial
element plays anywhere from a very important role to an almost exclusive one at times. Thus business efficiency plays a role in hospice care
that remains subordinate to the goal of individual care.
The goal of offering true care cannot be reached without real
teamwork. Only people who have rededicated their lives through a
common goal can achieve such high standards. Hospice standards of
professional services have to match and surpass those of any regular
hospital unit caring for the dying. Another major difference between
hospices and corresponding hospital units is the ability of hospice to
offer more constant attention to the dying patient. In medical terms this
is expressed with a higher nurse-to-patient ratio. This, however, is
looking only at a quantitative side of the picture. The nurses work is
assisted and facilitated by a host of other professionals, and also often
by trained volunteers. In short, the patient is not only treated, but also
surrounded by an entire community.
Let us look at the professional side of hospice. The hospice
ideal is for the patient to be able to die in familiar surroundings.
Whenever possible, this means dying at home. Only a marginal number of patients may need a hospice room for logistic, social, or medical
reasons. Hospices look at the whole person, not just the medical case.
It is body, soul, and spirit that need attention.
According to Hospice: Current Principles and Practices, an
ideal hospice team is composed of the following specialists: nurses and
doctors, social workers, psychologists, counselors, priests, art and music therapists, physical and occupational therapists, dieticians and nutritionists, pharmacists, and trained volunteers. While this wide variety
is in many cases still a goal to attain, the integration of many specialists is a common practice in hospice work.
Starting with very practical aspects, expecting death means a
disruption in the everyday needs of a patient, a couple, or a family.
The patient may need help with transportation, with finances, execut-

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ing a will, and other personal errands. If the person is hosted on the
hospices premises, the patient is made to feel as close to home as possible. The patient should be able to bring in houseplants or private objects, music, clothes, favorite foods, and even such unsanitary things
as a favorite pet. Visitors continue to be part of everyday life and are
accommodated as much as possible. Couples should be given space for
physical intimacy. Many of these tasks to ensure physical comfort can
be facilitated by volunteers.
The other large component of physical care is the medical aspect, an essential point of it being pain control. Pain can be relieved
with the aid of simple, logistic therapeutic interventions: a pillow
placed in the right position, physical massage, or a change of diet can
be the first important steps. A helping ear can help separate the different levels of pain and offer a degree of relief. Physical pain relief involves the delicate use of potent drugs such as morphine. In an
anonymous setting, pain control can make addicts out of individuals
afflicted with various levels of pain. It can kill the individuals will
and turn patients into vegetables.
It has been found through clinical studies that fear of pain increases pain itself. Beyond a certain level, patients who are in pain and
do not foresee an improvement of their situation in the near future experience horror and hopelessness. Pain control cannot accomplish its
role without enhancement of the patients responsibility. That is why
in hospice settings it is important that patients are able to administer
their own medications to find their individual level of comfort. This is
a very practical way to reduce the amount of morphine and other addictive substances.
The doctor who views patients as more than medical problems
has to develop a whole new perspective on the medical profession. Dr.
Robert Twycross has written The Ten Commandments for Physicians,
dealing with the pain of terminal cancer.20 Among his tasks he lists the
need for a doctor to consider the patients feelings and support the
whole family. This means including the patient in their private life, at
least to some degree.
Psychological needs are cared for in a variety of ways. The
most urgent need of patients is to deal with the psychological turmoil
of dying. Counseling helps them come to terms with their feelings. It
should allow them to resolve family issues and prepare themselves for

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crossing to the other side. It may help them through single steps of
their illness or prepare them for a difficult chemotherapy or for the will
that it takes to face a different physical appearance after medical interventions.
Kbler-Ross contributed to the understanding of the emotional
transition into dying with the now famous five emotional stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. At each stage the
hospice patient discovers new challenges to personal growth. These
stages should not, however, be understood as a mechanical sequence,
but rather as a fluid continuum. Within this perspective, they blend
into each other in a highly personal way, so much so that some stages
may be barely present in some instances. In a later book, Death: The
Final Stage of Life, Kbler-Ross adds to these five steps (which she
dubbed stages of resistance) another two: a stage-of-life review, facilitating the completion of unfinished business, and a stage of transcendence, an active preview of what is to come in the life of the spirit.
In 1963, Robert Butler wrote about his patients urge to do the life review and proposed using this process as a therapeutic tool to facilitate
life closure.21 This process offers patients a sense of an emerging self
beyond the confines of the body and a whole new sense of wonder and
ecstasy.
Emotional support does not end with patients. It is extended to
their loved ones through bereavement or support groups, pastoral care,
and the like. It is clinically proven that the bereaved stand a much
higher risk of contracting illnesses or having accidents.
Finally, it may be difficult to clearly separate what is psychological and what is purely spiritual when dying obliges us to question
our core beliefs. Nevertheless, the presence of a pastor, priest, rabbi, or
other religious professional is a necessity for those who want to turn to
an understanding of the spiritual world. It is not the role of the clergy
to work at a conversionrather to offer answers to the soul who earnestly seeks understanding that lies beyond the limits of physical existence. This last element is what holds together patients, professionals,
and those people who are open to it. Spiritual support, although primarily given by the clergy, is given by the whole spectrum of people
in hospice. It is most often given in a way that encourages patients
own religious convictions. Most of the patients appreciate the staffs
desire to act toward them in a religiously or spiritually motivated man-

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ner. Under optimal conditions, this means a certain level of familiarity

with peoples beliefs and backgrounds.
Without the capacity to embark on a journey of selfknowledge, hospice work may be more than many could handle. When
self-development is integrated, hospice work rewards professionals
and volunteers more than any similar profession could. When selfdevelopment goes hand in hand with an intense interest in the other
human being, death becomes a path of development for the dying and
the living alike.
It is of great interest to the scope of this work that hospice
work makes the reality of the soul a visible experience for those who
work around it. It has been observed that two to four months before
death, sleeping patterns change. Patients will start taking afternoon
naps, then morning naps, and finally spend more time asleep than
awake. They will be more at home in their dream world than in day
consciousness. This is why their visions and communications with departed ones increase. Some visions may be drug induced, but these
will tend to include the living as well as the dead. When the patient
starts to see only departed ones, we can be sure the time of death is
near. We can conclude from the wealth of observations that, for the
dying, both worlds are true and present at the same time, and patients
may have trouble discriminating between the two. This explains why
their language becomes symbolic or imaginative in order to include the
new level of reality.22
Dr. Karlis Osis and Dr. Erlunder Haraldsson found that 84% of
patients have visions of dead relatives to whom they felt close. They
also witnessed apparitions that ranged from angels to beings of light
and spirit guides. These visions are culturally colored; for example,
Christians will see angels, Jesus, or the Virgin Mary, and Hindus will
see Yama (the god of death), Krishna or one of his messengers, or another of their deities. These visions occur regardless of whether or not
medication was taken. Around the time of death, people start to transform; as their bodies die, the dying seem to awaken to the spirit.23
From actively living in the dimension of the spirit in practical
ways, it naturally follows that hospice has fostered the understanding
that artificial life preservation is not desirable. Death needs to be consecrated, not endlessly postponed, when it is becoming unavoidable.

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Euthanasia, too, becomes absurd when pain is controlled and patients

are loved. No patient who could control the dread of pain and loneliness can still desire induced death, nor could hospice entertain the
thought. Saunders, who was a vocal opponent of euthanasia, offers examples of patients in critical condition who entered hospice with the
desire to die, but not only came to feel at ease in the new settings, but
also managed to die peacefully and reconciled to their fate.
Hospice not only promotes a better understanding of the spiritual element that surrounds us, but, by catering to the needs of the dying and their loved ones, also helps to restore the community network
that conventional medicine has most often disrupted. Hospicein
practice, most often the homeis the place where dying patients can
be in the company of children and family. This makes it possible for
family members to incorporate death into their daily experience and
witness the transformation that every human being undergoes through
such an experience. Dying at home gives the bereaved a sense of completion that impersonal hospital care cannot offer. The death of a beloved one can be the beginning of a quest for meaning and the avenue
to new discoveries of the spirit.
Caregivers see their relationships extending beyond their professional role. They may choose to share in recreational activities or
rituals, particularly funerals, and offer support at the hour of a medical
treatment or share in social or personal occasions on hospice premises.
Contacts will continue after the death, in a first step with bereavement
accompaniment. Bereaved families may decide to contact and support
each other. People come together who would not do so in other circumstances. These links often go on among relatives after the death of
the patient. Thus new, unexpected relationships develop that effectively replace traditional structures that have mostly died out in modern societies.
Death, as the most critical part of life, is the most spiritually
charged event in life. Hardly any time is as important as dying; no
place can cause so much pain as well as hard-wrought wisdom and
joy. The two possible outcomes make a world of difference. Bereaved
people can go on mourning and holding the deceased captive to this
side of existence. Otherwise, our purpose for life on Earth can find
harmonious resolution and culmination even in the act of dying. Hospice can effectively restore the sacredness of death and offer the fruits

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of such an experience to modern-day individuals. Many family members can describe the death of a loved one as both one of the most trying and most memorable times of their lives.
Such an experience may be, for some, the first window through
which to view the sacred. The following is the experience of Virginia
Hine at the death of her husband:
There are moments of closeness that can heal long
years of scratchy and even hostile relationships. There
is a strange ethereal quality to the way a dying person
looks just before death. My husband died of a disease
that had rendered his strong body quite misshapen by
the end. Yet to those of us who were tending him, he
began to look incredibly beautiful a few days before he
died. Death really does have its own majesty, if it is
allowed, and it seems to affect the perceptions of those
involved in it. Religious people have many ways of explaining this emergence of beauty at the very end of
life, but you dont have to be religious, in the conventional sense, to experience it.24
Through Death to the Spirit: Elisabeth Kbler-Ross
Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, whose work offers new glimpses at the direction that hospice work can take in the future, stands as the representative of the second phase of growth of hospice, its growth into a movement that is actively shaping its own spirituality and contribution to
modern culture.
Sometimes called the death and dying lady, Kbler-Ross
herself would rather have been remembered as the life and living
lady. Nothing is more apparent to those who experienced her presence than her endless vitality. Her work schedule was one of the busiest anyone could endure. She could survive continued exertion, lack of
sleep, poor diet, and other sources of stress, apparently without them
taking a toll on her body. So much energy came from a woman barely
five feet tall, weighing only a hundred pounds.
In Kbler-Rosss biography, a few elements seem to point toward her life mission: her upbringing, the influence of Switzerland and
the United States, her personal experiences with death, and finally her

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scientific training.
Raised in Switzerland, where she lived until age thirty-two,
she immigrated to America. Her upbringing gave her strength and assurance, coming from a life steeped in traditions, festivals, love of nature and art, within a tight-knit social fabric. Of those days she also
recalled her love for animals and her care of the vegetable garden. Her
biographer, Derek Gill, mentions her going to a secret rock where she
performed her own sun dances in the manner of the Native Americans. Kbler-Ross acknowledged her debt to Switzerland thus: I had
... my family, memories of hiking and climbing in the Swiss mountains, strolling through moors and forests, collecting rocks.... Without
them I would probably not have survived and achieved as I have.25
America provided her a completely new opportunity. Having
come from the land of tradition, she now faced the opportunity to innovate. This is how she viewed the contrast: My destiny had to be the
United States, where I was free to pursue my own work, my own research and my own teaching, none of which could have been possible
in any other part of the world.26 Kbler-Ross was in the unique situation of witnessing how an old culture made death part of life, and then
arriving at its antithesisa society where death was shunned and
completely ignored.
Death itself was a constant companion in Kbler-Rosss life,
practically since the day of her birth. Born a very weak triplet, she survived only through her mothers devoted round-the-clock care. She
weighed only two pounds and had to be nursed by a baby-doll bottle.
In regard to this exceptional birth and her being a triplet, Kbler-Ross
bore ambivalent feelings. She partly felt that she was an unwanted
child, and expressed it in this way: I think that nothing in life is a coincidence, not even my birth, because it gave me the feeling all my life
that I had to prove that even a two-pound nothing was worthy of living. Therefore I worked very hard, like some people do who think that
they have to work ten times as hard to keep a job.27
At age five, she contracted pleuritic pneumonia; her fathers
blood provided vital support. At age twenty-two, returning to Switzerland from Poland in the aftermath of the war, she fell ill with typhoid.
This she survived partly because of the strength that allowed her to
follow an inner voice telling her to keep moving her limbs.
Another element prepared Kbler-Ross to be a trailblazer in

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her field. Although deeply steeped in tradition, her family wasnt religious. When she met with the scientific worldview, she naturally
adopted it while at the same time retaining everything she had been
taught during her upbringing. Thus, she was able to address the scientific world with the credentials of a medical doctor. Although not religious, she had deeper spiritual cravings, as we have seen from a few
elements in her biography. A restless urge compelled her to find answers to humanitys deeper riddles. In sixth grade, in a composition
entitled, My Dream of What I Could Be, she had written, I want to
be a researcher and explorer of unknown frontiers of human knowledge. And she further added, I want to study life. I want to study the
nature of man, the nature of animals and the nature of plant life.28 All
her yearnings could not be blotted out by her scientific knowledge, and
later she did actively pursue a spiritual understanding of the world.
All of the life circumstances described so far wouldnt yet
point to what made Kbler-Rosss personality so unique. In the brief
interval of time between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, she was
completely immersed in an understanding of human suffering and
working to relieving it, practically without interruption. Professionally,
as well as during all of her holiday time as a volunteer, she listened to
and worked with refugees, prostitutes, blind children, the wounded,
orphans, and Nazi prisoners, among others. Her first day working for
eleven hours with World War I refugees coming to Switzerland, she
called the happiest day of her life. She had just turned eighteen.
At age twenty-one, Kbler-Ross met the woman she called
Golda, in the concentration camp of Maidanek, Poland. Golda, a German Jew, was a miraculous survivor of the gas chambers. Although
the rest of her family had died, she vowed to forgive all who caused
her hurt. Because of the contrast between the horror of Maidanek and
Goldas love, Kbler-Ross formulated an important question that
would determine the later course of her life. How can evil hold sway in
the world in such a way? How can individuals allow it to happen? As
soon as she arrived in America, she experienced human callousness in
a way reminiscent of Maidanek, although on a much lower scalethis
time toward mentally ill patients in Manhattans State Hospital. She
pondered the image of the butterfly she had seen drawn on the walls of
Maidanek by many children. Here was an image of innocence and
hope amidst the horrors of inhuman death. This led her to important

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discoveries she would utilize later in her career.

Having realized early in life that the possibility of evil lives in
each of us, Kbler-Ross started focusing on the issue of death. It came
to her from two perspectives. The 1960s had introduced organ transplants along with associated moral issues. In her own words, the
transplant of organs, especially kidneys and hearts, raised an important
question as to when are we ethically, morally and legally allowed to
remove an organ out of a patient in order to save another persons
life.29 The question came to her in a second way from the American
medical professions attitude toward dying patients. Why was death
ignored and shunned? Why were dying people left with no support?
These questions led her to first explore the experience of dying people
by simply listening to them. Later on, she understood ways to alleviate
their suffering.
This was the new frontier Kbler-Ross had intuited in her sixth
grade composition, a frontier that would later test her limits as well as
peoples ability to follow her. In 1969, at age forty-three, two important events propelled her to the task that made her famous. The Macmillan publishing house asked her to write 50,000 words on death and
dying; the book that resulted from it sold very well. In that same year,
Life magazine wrote the famous article about Kbler-Rosss interview
with Evaa twenty-one-year-old woman dying of leukemia. From the
reaction of her colleagues in the hospital of Northwestern University
Medical Center of Chicago, she knew she could not continue her work
in the same setting, and not within the scientific community. The reaction to her book and the prompt readers responses to the Life article
propelled her into a new careerdeath and dying workshops all
around the world.
Kbler-Ross felt that working with death was just the first part
of her task. The success she encountered also taught her to handle
fame. But her real task encompassed more. It wasnt just the attitude
toward death that she challenged, but all the belief systems that surrounded it. She had observed that children, before dying, became
aware of those who had preceded them in death, even though they had
not been told for obvious reasons. She had studied the case of children
involved in car accidents around major national holidays. Many of
them had survived their family members before dying themselves. To
spare them additional stress and pain, they had not been told of their

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siblings or parents deaths, but would still recognize them at deaths

door. Similar to the Golda episode, it was again a simple woman, Mrs.
Schwartz, who opened for Kbler-Ross the research on near-death experiences. At a point when Kbler-Ross was discouraged and contemplated abandoning her work, Mrs. Schwartz, recently dead, appeared
in a disembodied form to the unbelieving doctor. She entreated the
doctor to continue her work. Moreover, she assured her of the continuing help of departed souls.
In the years to follow, Kbler-Ross embarked on an oftentumultuous exploration of spiritual reality. It sometimes led her to extreme experiences due to her impatience and desire to obtain knowledge of the other side prematurely. These also resulted, in some instances, from her trust in the wrong people. Nevertheless, her earnest
desire to serve humanity led her past these obstacles. She thus acquired
a growing certitude about the spiritual world and received spiritual
guidance from departed souls, two of whom she mentions repeatedly
in her biographyPedro and Salem.
The spiritual experiences are central to an understanding of
Kbler-Rosss life and work, as we have already seen on the occasion
of Ms. Schwartzs apparition. In a revealing statement in her autobiography, Kbler-Ross says that if I had not been on the other side, I
would not be able to be with dying children, with parents of murdered
children.30
Kbler-Ross had at least three important spiritual experiences.
The first occurred in 1976, at the Monroe Farm in Virginia.31 This was
a laboratory environment designed to stimulate out-of-body experiences. She was in a soundproof booth, lying on a waterbed, eyes blindfolded. Relaxation was induced by artificial sound pulses. Against the
advice of the scientists, she asked that they send the highest impulses
possible. Of the resulting experience, she said that she did not know
where she was, and she had the feeling of having gone too far. Upon
going to sleep, she was besieged by nightmares. This was what she
defined as going through a thousand deaths. One after the other she
experiencedbodily and psychologicallythe deaths of all the patients she had assisted. The pain was so intense that she somehow got
to the other side, rising above it. After a series of experiences connected with the perception of her body as an energetic field, she came
in contact with the white light that she knew from the description of

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her dying patients, merging into a blissful state of warmth and love.
On coming out of the experience, she could perceive, in a heightened
state, the energetic field of all living beings. When that faded she had
to struggle to reintegrate into everyday life and apparent humdrum reality.
A second experience, which occurred two years later, was a
typical NDE caused by three bites of black widow spiders, which
would normally cause death. Kbler-Ross felt she had a choice between living and dying. Walking into the living room, where a picture
of Jesus hung on the wall, she made the vow to keep living. At that
moment she felt enveloped by a bright light and moved toward it,
knowing that she would survive.
A final NDE occurred when she visited her sister Eva in Switzerland
in 1988. There she expressed to Eva that she was dying and ready to
go. Once again, she experienced the white light and returned to this
side of existence.
In many ways Kbler-Ross was endowed with special gifts of
perception. One of those she describes as follows:
I have had the great blessing of being able to see with
my own physical eyes the presence of hundreds of
those energy patterns (of people) in full daylight. And it
is very similar to a fluttering, pulsating series of different snowflakes, all with their different lights and colors
and their different forms and shapes. This is what we
look like after we die. This is also how we exist before
we are born. We take up no space and it takes us no
time to go from one star to another or from planet Earth
to another galaxy.32
These observations undoubtedly point to her special mission in connection to death and dying. In her, we find the desire of the modern
soul to bring spirituality and science to a dialogue where neither is
subjugated to the other.

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COMMUNICATING WITH HONESTY AND EMPATHY:

NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION
Out beyond the idea of rightdoing and wrongdoing
there is a field.
Ill meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too
full to talk about.
Rumi
Nonviolent communication (NVC) is included in this work as the most
significant tool dealing specifically with language and communication.
Within the blossoming field of similar approaches, it has been chosen
because of the universality of its principles, the inherently phenomenological approach that leads to the concepts it elaborates, and the
thoroughness of its analysis.
From early on, Marshall Rosenberg, the founder of NVC, both
witnessed violence around him and was the object of it. His family
went to live in a neighborhood of Detroit in 1943 when he was a child.
This was the time of the second-worst race riots in the history of the
US. Thirty-three people were killed in three days, mostly African
Americans. Rosenberg was the target of racial hatred directed at Jews,
and knew what it meant not to feel safe at school.
Marked by these episodes, he wanted to understand what
moved people to act violently toward each other and what moved
some individuals, even in trying circumstances, to act with compassion
and understanding. After completing his studies, he received his PhD
in clinical psychology from the University of Wisconsin in 1961. He
was dissatisfied with the approach of clinical psychology, particularly
its emphasis on the problem rather than on resources, and its judgmental language. This brought him closer to the views of such pioneers as Rogers and Maslow.
However, Rosenberg felt psychology did not offer answers to
his larger questions; thus, after studying psychology he immersed himself in comparative religion. He was puzzled by the frequent use of the
word love, and came to define it as something we want to manifest and
do rather than as a feeling. He was further helped by psychological
research that looks at what constitutes healthy relationships and how

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love is manifested in this context. This helped him come to the conclusion that human beings are not inherently violent, and launched him on
the pursuit of a kind of communication that would promote nonviolence. In this context, violence is any power we use to force people to
do what we want. Physical violence is only a small part of it; the systems of punishment and reward and the use of guilt and shame or duty
and obligation form the larger part of the picture. Another aspect is the
perpetuation of violence that is enshrined in the way we speak, from
single words to trivial but common expressions that denote and perpetuate judgment, criticism, analysis, and diagnosis towards self or
others.
The result of Rosenbergs efforts was the founding of the Center for Nonviolent Communication in 1984. By 1998, the center had
trained 600 schoolteachers who taught more than 12,000 students. In
2002, more than 120 trainers taught NVC skills to an estimated 50,000
people. NVC trainers work with educators, managers, caring professions, lawyers, military and police personnel, clergy, and government
officials, among others. Rosenberg and other trainers work in war-torn
areas, economically disadvantaged countries, schools, inner city areas,
and businesses.
Rosenberg explains that NVC in itself is only a tool for the
goal of increasing awareness of our own and other peoples feelings
and needs, in a way that enriches everybodys life. NVC as a method
is the gateway to a new consciousness. Only when this new consciousness is acquired can NVC claim to be fully successful.
NVC works from two angles.33 First, it puts us in touch with
our self, mostly through the expression of our feelings and needs. This
is what it calls honesty. At a second level it asks us to be sensitive to
the needs and feelings of others, i.e., to be empathic. The dialogue of
NVC is a subtle dance between the arts of honesty and empathy, and
the discernment it takes to recognize when one or the other is needed.
It is all based on communication in the present in order to stay away
from the temptation to talk about things of the past, where facts are
inextricably mixed with interpretations.
The first strength of NVC is the phenomenological definition
of the levels of language. If we look at the language components of
NVC, we will distinguish four primary levels in the structure of com-

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munication: observation, expression of feelings, expression of needs,

and formulation of requests.
At the first level of an interaction or dialogue is the idea of accurate observation. What is it that defines observation and distinguishes it from interpretation? Our familiar language lays many traps.
We often say things like You are always late, or You never do
when we may say more correctly, Four times out of the last five you
were late, or You havent done the jobs you promised me, twice already. Language that is not truly reflective of reality is, by definition,
alienating.
At another level is everything we try to define in the emotional
realm. Here, too, we can remain objective (e.g., I feel/am upset, hurt,
sad, angry) or exit into the realm of interpretation (e.g., I feel manipulated, rejected, abandoned), of which nothing can be said with
certainty. When I say words like manipulated or abandoned, I immediately project an interpretation of somebodys intention into my feelings, by implying that the other person had the intention to manipulate
or abandon me. At this level, a key distinction needs to be expressed.
In the realm of feelings and their expression, we often confuse stimulus and cause. No two individuals react in the same way to external
stimuli, whether a source of joy or pain or anything in between. An
expression such as You make me angry blurs the distinction between
cause and stimulus, and detracts from the ability to take responsibility
for our feelings. Going a step further, feelings that are not pertinently
expressed and/or inwardly apprehended form a barrier to ones understanding and self-connection.
At the next level is the expression of our needs. Here too, language can reflect that we are truly in touch with our objective needs
and aware of themas in I need respect, assistance, support, communication, growth, self-expression, freedom. Or our language may
reflect that we are alienated from our deeper selfas in I need you to
be nicer to me, I need you to do what I want, I need a new car, career,
girl/boyfriend, in order to be happy. In the first example, we are expressing what individuals want and need in a universal way; in the
second, the needs of the individual concern external factors instead of
the self. When we express a need in a universal manner, we are not
depriving anybody else of his or her freedom. Needs, when truly understood and expressed in a universal way, are not mutually exclusive.

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My desire for comfort, safety, or respect need never be expressed at

the expense of anyone elses comfort, safety, or respect. My desire for
anyone to be nicer to me imposes my expectations of what being
nice means upon the other person. A need expressed in those terms is
neither universal nor conducive to productive communication and
connection.
Not expressing our needs in the appropriate context comes at a
price. What is at stake is not only our connection with others but also
with the self. Understanding our needs is often more difficult than understanding our feelings, which are more immediate. Feelings inform
us about our needs. The two together help us express both honesty and
empathy, with ourselves and others.
When we can correctly observe and express our feelings and
needs, we can then pursue ways to satisfy our needs. At this level the
self expresses itself with either requests or demands. Demands are
non-negotiable strategies, which are often perceived as the only way to
reach a goal. Requests differ from demands in that they are part of a
dialogue and involve negotiation, illustrating that there are many ways
to reach ones goal without denying the other persons goal. The most
important difference between requests and demands lies in how we
react when we hear the response No. Hearing no does not affect a person who makes a request, unlike the one who puts out a disguised demand.
We can express ourselves from either an inclusive or exclusive
perspectivethis is all reflected in our choice of language. In the
world of nonviolent communication, these two perspectives are familiarly called jackal and giraffe. The giraffe, in this context, has been
chosen as one of the gentlest animals, with the largest heart in creation,
and symbolizes the ability to look at events with detachment and a
sense of peace. The jackal offers the more self-centered perspective.
From the perspective of giraffe/jackal, NVC distinguishes four
ways of receiving a message. If we are centered in ourselvesgiraffe
perspectivewe will hear another persons input in such a way that it
will inform us of either the other persons feelings and needs, or our
own. From the jackals perspective, we will formulate criticism of the
other person or of ourselves.
To make dialogue productive, NVC has us perform a dance
between honesty and empathy in the art of hearing both our own and

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the other persons deeper needs and feelings. Nowhere in the practice
of NVC should we deny the jackal voices that surface into our consciousness. These voices are the object of self-empathy, the same kind
of empathy we would offer another person. A jackal message contains vital information about ones feelings and needs. Jackal messages
play an active part in our daily living, and it is only through our acceptance and slow transformation of them that we can speak a language
that is truly respectful of all beings, including ourselves.
The above is a very simplified version of the study of language
and communication at the core of NVC. Language must be finely
honed to determine what part of it is an expression of self, and what
part betrays a desire to manipulate for our own advantage or play the
victim of circumstances. NVC provides an exhaustive analysis of all
the variations of expression and their higher and lower effectiveness in
promoting the well being of the person engaged in conversation.
Nonviolent communication, not unlike other approaches we
have analyzed, is a tool for moving away from a moralistic worldview
to an inner morality of our higher self. From this vantage point there is
no need for either/or, good/bad, winner/loser. As with family constellations or the Twelve Steps, it is an invitation to take responsibility for
our lives, which we can do only when we abandon harsh judgments of
self and others. NVC moves away from looking at the past, because
speaking about the past often increases pain, causing us to relive it
again. What lives in the present is stimulated by the past but is much
more accessible and objective. The only possible exception is when we
have to do work with a past trauma, e.g., when role-playing a perpetrator.
Nonviolent Communication and the Heart of Social Change
As a method, NVC is the gateway to practical spirituality.34 After using it purely as a communication tool, many will awaken to experience
a clearer relationship to the self. The greatest joy comes from feeling
connected to the life around us and contributing to the enrichment of
our own and other peoples lives. It is more of an experience than a
feeling. Two important questions to ask ourselves are, What is alive
in us at the moment? and What can we do to contribute to life, our
own or that of others? Even though these questions are simple, we

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often dont know how to answer them because we may be disconnected from our feelings and needs. Through NVC we can discern
what supports life in us and others, and what does not. But we need to
do this in a way that does not introduce evaluations and judgments of
the other person.
True connection with self and others offers us an insight of
what divine energy feels like. A way to visualize this idea has been
introduced by Joseph Campbells idea of not doing anything that isnt
playin other words of not doing anything in order to obtain a reward
or to avoid punishment. We simply set as our goal to do what contributes to life.
Given its immediate practical emphasis, NVC is probably the
tool that most easily moves outward from the individual to the largest
social levels. We can indicate this transition schematically in the following way:
1. Connect to everything in life that promotes our inner
peace.
2. Create life-enriching connections in our relationships.
3. Promote positive change in existing social structures as
well as create new, life-enriching structures.35
Whether with two people, two groups, or two countries, the
principles of NVC are the same. The focus of the process lies in seeing
the beauty of enriching life (our own), the liveliness of a relationship,
or the life-giving capacity of social structures. What will change, especially on a broader level, are the preparation steps and speed of the
process.
Practicing nonviolent communication on ourselves leads us to
the idea of learning from our mistakes without losing our self-respect,
an aspect of the practice of self-empathy. When we do this in the way
in which most of us have been educated, we will punish ourselves by
judging ourselves and consequently feel shame, guilt, and depression.
If we allow ourselves to feel the pain of our unmet needs and to connect to the act or words we regret, we will feel a natural pain, a sweet
painsweet in comparison with the pain of depression, guilt, and
shame. Mourning will give us the opportunity to get in touch with a

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beneficial regret. This uncomfortable pain, easy to repress, will allow

us to see the needs that werent met in the choice we regret
especially by feeling empathy toward what the other person experiencedas well as the need we were trying to meet. Having done this,
we can envision how all our needs would be better met next time. The
whole process takes place at equal distance from guilt and denial,
which is a way to make our pain productive, rather than turning it into
outer or inner violence.
Mourning is an alternative to apology, as it is commonly understood. An apology implies that something is wrong with us and that
admitting it to another person sets the record straight; it also implies
the need for instant resolution. Furthermore, apologizing can become
an end in itself, a quick way out of a difficulty with no learning associated with it.
Once we understand that every action that may hurt us is the
expression of our needs, then we can respond empathically when people diagnose us, respond to us with silence, or when they say no. In
every instance we can seek to understand what their needs and feelings
are. With practice, we become able to hear something said to us, not as
a judgment, but as vital information that allows us to connect with the
other person. In the empathic dance we express what is alive in us and
try to see what is alive in the other person. The key of the process lies
in not wanting to change the other, but in helping ourselves and others
realize that there are better ways to meet our needs at a lesser emotional cost.
As was the case in the personal experience of mourning, there
is an important tool in gratitude. It is a deceptively simple idea that
requires practice, but when it succeeds, it enriches relationships. What
we generally understand as compliments and praise do not serve the
same goals as clearly expressed gratitude, because they are most
commonly couched in moralistic judgments, such as, You are great
or You blew it. Although not as immediately damaging as criticism,
positive judgments offer little to our growth. They tell us nothing
about ourselves and give little specific feedback on which to capitalize
in the future. Praise and complimentsas has been provenhave only
short-term success.

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To be effective, gratitude should be specific to an action that

has enriched our life, and on which we are clear about how it has affected our feelings and especially our needs. Expressing gratitude offers the giver and the receiver consciousness of their power to enrich
life. Expressed gratitude fulfills the receivers need to participate in
contributing to the common wellbeing. Feedback for what we do is
much more necessary and fruitful than we commonly acknowledge.
Receiving gratitude can be difficult because social habit has us brush it
off or hide the idea that we should rejoice in receiving it. The more we
are connected to life in ourselves, the more we are able to receive
gratitude as well as hear the other persons needs behind any criticism,
since both offer us the opportunity to better contribute to our own and
other peoples wellbeing.
On a final level, social change comes from focusing on the
beauty of what we want and not on what we oppose. Understanding
the injustice of domination structures that perpetrate violent relationships in most of our social landscape is generally seen as the reason for
requesting quick social change. In the NVC approach, this understanding does not lead to the same line of action. We can just as readily recognize the nature of alienating structures and behaviors around us, but,
as with change, this is a much longer process. All social change comes
down to numbers and momentum. Organizations and structures will
change from within when a sufficient number of participants see different and more efficient ways to meet their needs than they see within
the main paradigm. In an NVC mode we cannot advocate destruction
of those structures; rather we must work with the people within. This
can be long and time consuming, which is why it requires the committed cooperation of many people. At the same time, NVC has already
successfully worked at establishing alternative structures, especially in
education. NVC schools exist in many countries and most often within
the existing public school system. Here social change can be initiated
within structures that are based on the idea of sharing power, rather
than holding power over others. More will be said about this later.
People who meet in order to do social work may themselves
carry layers of inner conflict, and their goals may be stalled by internal
disharmony. NVC helps us to see what we want to change in ourselves, before what we want to change in the world, and realize that

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unless we come from a certain conscious practical spirituality, we are

bound to do more harm than good. This helps us to contribute to the
common good, because we want to enrich life rather than correct what
is wrong. In fact, we may first want to build spaces of celebration in
our life that ensure that our action comes from a place of inner abundance.
In the process of promoting social change we will acquire clarity about what social structures would fit a way that meets everybodys
needsstructures that work without rewards or punishments, structures where leaders are also servants. For that to occur, we must base
our efforts on the idea that we do not work for money, but rather in
order to satisfy ours and other peoples needs, especially spiritual
needs. Money is such an integral component of our world that it is
most often implicitly taken for a need, and used in a system of reward
and punishment that does not honor a persons needs. In this arbitrary
scale of values, the needs of a doctor are more likely to be met than
those of a manual laborer, implying that the needs of the former are
intrinsically of more value than those of the latter. A conscious motivation for work comes from the organizations mission, not from
money, status, or perks. A good organization expresses sincere gratitude to its workers and aims at promoting the satisfaction of their
needs in accordance with its own mission.
Social work, especially in areas of great tension, requires some
groundwork preparation that happens behind the scenes. In Illinois, a
meeting between the school board and the recently created NVC
school took ten months to schedule. 36 Since the board would not answer calls or direct requests for setting up a meeting, the school had to
give NVC training to a person who had access to them. In another instance, Marshall Rosenberg did mediation work between Christian and
Muslim tribes in Nigeria. It took an hour to resolve the matter, but six
months were needed to get the two sides to sit together in the first
place! Other such work in areas of conflict has been carried out in Israel and Palestine, between Serbs and Croats, in Northern Ireland, and
Rwanda and Burundi, among others.
At times, before an especially charged meeting, the collaboration of a team is crucial. It may be necessary to do despair worka
term borrowed from Joanna R. Macywhose goal is the transformation of all enemy images that prevent us from seeing a human being

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in any person we are meeting. Let us see how this process was used at
a critical point in the development of the above-mentioned NVC
school in Illinois.
After the school was created, the school board had four new
members who had subscribed to a platform of getting rid of the new
school even after it had been successful enough to win a national
award for educational excellence. It took ten months to arrange a meeting with the board. The meeting had to be kept secret because some of
the board members did not want the press to know about it, since it
would have been politically embarrassing. Marshall Rosenberg was
very pained about things that had been said about him in the press, particularly by the boards superintendent. He had personal judgments
about people on the board, particularly in regard to their sociopolitical
choices. It took three hours of despair work the night before the meeting for his colleagues to hear the deeper needs behind his rage and
hopelessness. Together they role-played the school superintendent to
see his humanness and needs. The next day, coming across him before
the meeting, Rosenberg was able to hear the superintendents needs
despite the pain that his reactions had triggered. The meeting went
well, and in the evening the superintendent called and apologized for
his past behavior and expressed the desire to hear more about NVC. At
the next board meeting, he voted in favor of the school that he had
been elected to sabotage.
Nonviolent Communication in Areas of Social Unrest
Trauma originating from social tensions can be dealt with, first of all,
at the individual level. Let us look at the example of an Algerian
woman who had been raped and forced to witness the death of a friend
for matters most likely concerning enforcement of religious observance.37 This process of healing is a kind of mediation in absentia,
except that in this case the perpetrator is role-played by an NVC
trainer who will interpret the perpetrators feelings and needs at the
time of the acts.
A process of mediation usually starts with the victim, giving
her a chance to express her feelings and needs until the perpetrator is
able to hear them correctly. Then the process is reversed and the victim hears the perpetrator until she understands his feelings and needs.
In the example of the Algerian woman, hearing the needs of the perpe-

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trator is what allowed a healing that was sustained over many years.
His suffering was the gateway to her healing. Surprisingly, as in that
specific instance, the process can be done in a matter of one hour or
two and in a room full of people. It is healing also for those present.
In the previously mentioned case of Nigeria, it took six months
to convince the two tribes to meet. Thirty percent of the population
had been killed because of the ethnic strife. There were people in the
room who had many loved ones who had been killed by those of the
other side; nevertheless, it took just an hour to resolve the matter.
Given the strength of the NVC process in mediation, it is not
surprising that it is introduced more and more often in restorative justicewhich is the idea that justice is better served when perpetrator
and victim arrive at a mutual recognition of each others feelings and
needs. The common retributive justice of punishment and rewards is
an economically and socially costly system that tends to perpetrate the
ills it wants to protect us from. Restorative justice is an alternative that
is not only more economic but also more conducive to social reconciliation and individual rehabilitation. Most recently, the Brazilian
Ministry of Justice has requested NVC training for its first pilot project
of restorative justice.
Nonviolent Communication in Business
Nu-Wheel is a Tucson business specializing in restoring used or damaged vehicle wheels. It was going through a difficult transition when
traffic was diverted from its location because of public works; other
misfortunes had rendered the owner very sensitive and irritable. Consultant Marie Miyashiro introduced NVC ideas to this business as
productive communication.38
Mr. Stevens, the owner, used to get irritated when there were
delays in the orders or lowered performance standards. After NVC was
introduced to him, he realized that business can become more productive through the introduction of policies and procedures that everybody
can support, along with the ability to incorporate more employee feedback and work out alternative scenarios with them.
In organizations, time is thought of in terms of efficiency, and
very often employees feelings and needs are not considered or explored. This often generates unproductive meetings and feelings of
frustration and alienation. When people see that their desires matter,

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production will improve. It is equally important that supervisors perform evaluations that objectively assess rather than criticize.
Meetings can be places where things are decided with efficiency, but also places to strengthen human connections and renew
interest in the work.39 A way to ensure that kind of connection is to
start with a quick check-in, where each person tells the group where he
or she is at in the moment. It is also a moment to get quiet and reconnect with oneself. Im feeling excited about or I am feeling
overwhelmed about could be sufficient. There are no comments
offered, no questions and answers required.
During the meeting, each participant is invited to speak honestly with a focus on his or her own needs and feelings, refraining
from using language that implies right or wrong, especially in others,
without avoiding talking about sensitive issues. Before making any
resolutions, the group can explore the needs of all, especially those
who have reservations. Finally, everyone benefits from the incorporation of time for celebrating and being thankful for what others contribute to their lives.
NVC in Education
Our present system of education tends to reinforce domination structures. Public schools teach us obedience to authority and offer us the
idea of work done for extrinsic rewards. In the final analysis, they tend
to maintain and preserve the existing class system. It is possible, however, to envision a different system that would offer different outcomes. After educating ourselves, we can educate others to understand
and use NVC. NVC schools teach respect for authority, but not obedience. With the realization that submission and rebellion take away our
power, these schools will teach children to listen not for what is
wanted of them, but for what others in authority need. Tests are given
in order to see if the teachers have done their job; they are tests about
the efficiency of the learning process. NVC schools now exist in the
US, Serbia, Italy, Israel, Costa Rica, and a growing list of countries.
Professors are introducing this new way of teaching at levels of higher
education as well.
Skarpncks Free School of Stockholm, based on NVC principles, started in the fall of 1998. It then had twenty-four children, ages
six to nine, and four teachers. 40 Four years later it had sixty-three stu-

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dents, ages six to thirteen, and nine teachers. The initiative was
founded on the wish of Swedish parents who desired a school based on
democratic ideas and respectful, life-affirming relationships. Principles
of NVC are not taught, but simply lived out by the faculty. The teachers wanted to include learning opportunities out in nature and in the
community, offering the children a lot of projects but refraining from
forcing them to participate. They felt that the most important thing was
to empower the children to make independent choices, and trusted that
this would also be an appropriate basis for acquiring academic skills.
The children could be divided, roughly, into three groups. The
youngest children, who had been exposed to NVC education at home,
were the most comfortable making choices. A second group was confused by the idea of options, and almost wished they would be told
rather than asked. A third group, seeing that they had the choice,
dragged their feet. The teachers felt tested, particularly by the last
group, and often felt discouraged, although they recognized how much
these children needed to experience real trust. This scenario went on
for the entire first year and caused much apprehension in the teachers
about the second year.
During the second year, the last group played out even more of
a rebellious attitude. The teachers hung on to the realization that before
saying yes, the children needed to experience their power to say no. It
took them another full year to graduate to being able to say yes from
their heart, and for teachers to still see the yes that hid behind their no.
By the end of the third year, a strong level of trust had been built in the
school community.
The process of inner transformation, especially within the faculty, is not clear cut, progressive, and harmonious; rather, it goes
through ups and downs. But when NVC consciousness is strongest, the
results do follow. The teachers are learning to spend more time listening and less time talking, and it is not an easy change. Since the process takes time, they are learning to celebrateamong themselves and
with the childrenevery little success along the way. These are some
of the most prominent results after three years:
-

Most of the children show their appreciation by

coming early and lingering after school; they play
easily with each other.

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The number of conflicts has drastically decreased,

and the students handle them more and more on
their own.
Teachers seldom experience open resistance from
the students.
Student test at or beyond the average national level.
Students are asking teachers to be taught the NVC
process.

Paulette Pierce is an associate professor at Ohio State University, where she teaches in the Department of African-American and
African Studies to primarily African American students about topics
that touch upon painful matters such as slavery, lynching, and rape.41
She had difficulty looking at these topics without refraining from
blaming whites. Having herself embraced the violent perspective of
the Black Power Movement earlier in her life, she had felt that it was
important for whites to experience guilt and for blacks to experience
their anger. This is part of the victim/oppressor perspective. With such
a focus, the satisfaction of ones needs remains precarious. However,
an alternative paradigm exists in historythat of the civil rights
movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
NVC in the classroom goes against the perspective that in social life there are always winners and losers. Pierce saw the appeal of
that perspective, but had difficulties with the NVC jargon and doubts
as to whether she could be strong enough to handle the explosive feelings of her students. A strong incentive was her feeling of disconnection between her own life commitments and her style of teaching, even
though she was passionate about her profession. As a teacher, in the
past she was able to give all her opinions and act as an intellectual
gladiator of oppressed people, encouraging others to do the same.
She set her goals explicitly with her students, while acknowledging the limitations of the setting, such as the need to grade them.
She proposed to grade in order to educate and improve, offering individual and group projects as alternatives to exams and papers. She
tried to set a new standard by explaining to her students that the goal
of learning is not about deciding who is right or wrong. She supported
this process by encouraging honest discussion of feelings and needs,
shared leadership, and interracial cooperation.

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During this experience, Paulette became much more conscious

of her language, gestures, and ability to bring redress to situations
where she had caused hurt. She also felt less need to be in control, and
was therefore able to address situations of discomfort with the input of
the students, finding that this would lead to better solutions than the
ones she could have devised alone.
During the first year, many African American students became
furious over the racial contents of an article in the student newspaper.
The crisis was handled by processing the feelings and needs of those
individuals who had felt most hurt, and doing this in racially mixed
groups. The class decided to publish an alternative article, and organized a highly successful silent protest march on campus. Paulette estimated that the experiment was highly successful, even though she still
feels afraid of putting herself in situations where she would be overwhelmed by the feelings of her students. Even before introducing
NVC, students issues could be so powerful that she had to offer recourse to the Office of Student Counseling Services.
As with many similar communication tools, NVCs value is far
better appreciated by action than what can be said in writing. It is simple to understand, but difficult to internalize. In essence, it is a tool for
connecting with both our deeper self and others. Its use should ultimately render us equally open to appreciation and to criticism. The
ultimate goal of any kind of feedback is to allow us to find out whether
there is fulfillment of our life intentions, much more than a need for
approval.
PRAYER AND SPIRITUAL HEALING
If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.
Alfred Tennyson
Our previous examples of modern experiential spirituality have put
forward its importance for the advancement of personal or social healing. It is within this context that spiritual healing finds its place. Even
though this may surprise us at first, the reader will find here much of

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what has emerged earlier. In addition we will find a link to what we

have explored in the earlier chapters of the book that concern spirituality proper.
Prayer has been defined in countless ways throughout the centuries, according to a variety of types and methods. Nevertheless, a
constant element of prayer is the belief that when we ask something of
God, a Higher Power, or the spiritual world, we can receive an answer
that will manifest in the physical world. Agnes Sanford, a pioneer in
the field of whom more will be said later, believed that we should proceed into the realm of prayer as we do in the realm of science. What
can appear as a miracleand therefore as something that we cannot
find an explanation foris the result of higher laws that operate beyond the physical realm but ultimately manifest in our world. Amazingly, she indicates that the healing of the body is one of the simplest
and most direct ways to test what prayer is.42
Prayer and Healing: Scientific Evidence
Placing prayer and healing side-by-side may raise some eyebrows, especially in scientific quarters; but to those who pray, the association of
these concepts is familiar. Let us have a look, from a scientific perspective, at a growing host of phenomena that have already caused
many scientists to enlarge their worldviews. We will need to turn to
churches and hospitals, doctors, healers, and priests to start formulating an answer.
In England, the US, Canada, and many Eastern European countries, there is a movement of cooperation between traditional medicine
and spiritual or energy healing. In 1994, at least three general-practice
surgeries in England had spiritual healers paid by the government under the National Health Plan. It was estimated that about 1,500 healers
worked at one point or another in British hospitals.43 In Canada and
the US there have been about 30,000 nurses using therapeutic touch in
hospitals and clinics. The founder of this therapeutic technique is
Dolores Krieger, who taught nursing at New York University. A close
equivalent, bio-energy therapy, was officially accepted by Polish authorities in 1982. The same can be said about Qigong, based upon the
healing effects of certain hand motions: waving, pushing, pulling, and
circling, which are done at a short distance from the patients body.

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Since right after World War II, churchesparticularly Anglican and Roman Catholic churcheshave revived an ancient form of
healing, the one that tradition knows of as the laying on of hands.
All of this is done without any sensationalism, and is also practiced
more and more throughout England, Canada, and the US. The trend,
however, is not limited to Christian denominations. In the US particularly, a word of caution is necessary regarding television healers. We
do not place them on the same level, even if some of them may have
genuine healing powers. Many hoaxes have been discovered that cast a
serious shadow of doubt over most of the movement; spiritual gifts do
not mix well with media sensationalism and the temptation for quick
profit.
It is a well-kept secret that scientific research in the field of energy healing has a respectable past and a sizeable accumulation of data
and observations. Dr. Larry Dossey has retrieved about one hundred
scientifically sound experiments on the topic. Half of them show evidence of prayers influence in human life. If we look at the total of experiments with humans and other living beings, there have been more
than three hundred such studies since the early 1960s.44 We will look
at them more closely, but first let us consider some phenomena and
scientific observations.
Scientists have a host of terminologies that conceal evidence
rather than elucidate it; one of these consists of the cases of spontaneous regressionsunexplained instances of healing. The fact that their
occurrence is limited makes many in the field see the dismissal of
these cases justifiable in light of the dictum, The exception justifies
the rule, in itself a very questionable scientific tenet. Another term
that covers up more than it possibly explains reality is the placebo effectinstances of health improvement when patients are given a neutral substance under the claim that it is an effective medication. It
could be argued that the placebo effect proves that mind or spirit has
an effect that often goes beyond what matter alone can achieve. In this
sense, a placebo is a repository term not dissimilar from spontaneous
regression. None of the above dismissals are possible from a phenomenological approach. Disease is what informs us about that indefinable thing that we call health. Aberrations tell us about normality.
No phenomenon enters the statistical perspective in this view of
things. Spontaneous regression or placebo effects are not unexplain-

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able anomalies; rather they are phenomena in which higher laws are at
work in matters of health.
Yujiro Ikemi, at the Kyushu University School of Medicine in
Fukuoka, Japan, conducted rigorous studies on five cases of spontaneous regressions from cancer, including confirmation by biopsy of the
illness.45 In these cases, regression does not necessarily mean complete
disappearance, but rather, at whatever stage the disease may be present, it has ceased to have an effect on the patients health.
The first individual was a practitioner of Shinto. At the age of
twenty-one, he was appointed a teacher. At age sixty-four, he was diagnosed with cancer of the right upper jaw. He was totally accepting
of Gods will and showed no tendency towards depression. He did not
fight against the cancer other than with the moral support given him by
leaders in his church. He lived for the next thirteen years without any
form of medical treatment and died at age seventy-eight from a trauma
to his back.
A second patient was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma at age
seventy-seven. He declined surgery and accepted the will of God. Four
years later the cancer had regressed. A Japanese housewife married a
difficult husband at age twenty-four. In 1966, at age thirty-one, she
was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma with numerous metastases. Twothirds of her stomach was removed and she was given three months to
live. She was strong in her religious faith, and nine years later x-rays
showed no sign of the previous metastases.
The other two stories are essentially the same as the ones described here. A certain pattern emerges from all of the patients: They
all accepted responsibility for their illnesses and life crises, and no
anxiety or depression followed their diagnoses. All of them had deep
faith and gave themselves to the will of God.
The above examplesalthough eloquent in themselves
cannot be qualified as true experiments in the most classical use of the
term. Let us move further, to more laboratory-defined experiments on
the power of prayer, spiritual healing, and ultimately the power of the
mind over matteror over deterministically defined events. These
next experiments involve human beings. Unfortunately, and quite understandably, these are the most difficult ones to achieve in an experimental setting. Experiments conducted by Dr. Randolph Byrd, a practicing Christian, have been highly publicized.46 He conducted the dou-

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ble-blind experiments at San Francisco General Hospital with a group

of 192 patients who were prayed for by prayer groups, and a control
group of 201 who were left to medical cures alone. The people in the
prayer groups were told the first names of the patients with a short description of their diagnosis. The results indicated that the prayed-for
patients:
-

Were five times less likely to require antibiotics

Were three times less likely to develop pulmonary edema
Did not require endotracheal intubation, whereas twelve in
the other group did.

Overall, this seems to amount to a strengthening of the immune system. There was, however, no significant difference in mortality. Part of
this conclusionquite understandablycomes from the fact that doctors could not give equal treatment to the patients; thus, for example,
those patients whose immune systems were most affected probably
received more antibiotics and treatments to help speed up the recovery.
The studies had many problems built into them that render them inconclusive.
Dr. Sen OLaoire, a Roman Catholic priest, headed a research
project on intercessory prayer through the Institute of Transpersonal
Psychology in Palo Alto, California.47 It was a controlled, randomized,
double-blind experiment to test mood, self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and other indicators of psychological health, through tests such as
the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory. There were 147 subjects in a control group, and 259 subjects
who were prayed for. Ninety individuals who did the praying received
photos and names of the participants, and were to pray for them fifteen
minutes each day for twelve weeks. They recorded in detail their
prayer in a diary. All of the participants were tested before the beginning of the experiment and at the end of it. The tests showed marked
improvements, possibly attributable to prayer in all domains examined.
Let us quote an experiment that refers more specifically to
spiritual healing. Dr. Daniel Worth, of Healing Sciences International,
Orinda, California, conducted double-blind experiments on the ability
of a healer to cauterize a standard inflicted wound. The individuals to
be healed were kept unaware of the presence of a healer. The partici-

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pants were given 8 mm-wide, skin-deep wounds on the forearm. Unknown to them, some of them were treated by a healer, Laurie Eden,
whom they could not see; the other participants were left untreated.
After sixteen days, the wounds of thirteen treated people were entirely
healed. None of the control group had healed yet.48
Dr. Dossey and various researchers have been interested in
comparing directed versus nondirected prayer. It is easy to understand
the meaning of directed prayerwhat we may call an outcomeoriented form of request. Nondirected prayer might ask for something
like what is in the best interest of a person or object prayed for. This
is a vast topic. Nevertheless, we will be able to draw some conclusions
from the data. Let us place different sets of experiments side by side.
The Spindrift Organization of Salem, Oregon, has performed a
variety of experiments with prayer.49 One of their studies indicates that
nondirected techniques appear quantitatively more effective, often resulting in twice as effective results. Their experiments were conducted
on mold cultivated on agar plates. Part of the mold was stressed with
alcohol rinse. Directed prayer had little result on it, whereas undirected
prayer allowed the mold to resume its growth and multiply again. The
same was confirmed in a test in which batches of seeds were either
under-soaked or over-soaked. Participants did not know which ones
they were praying for.
Drs. Jeanne Achterberg and Mark S. Rider studied the ability
of their subjects to affect two types of white cells that play an important role in the immune system: neutrophils and lymphocytes.50 Thirty
subjects were randomly assigned to study and visualize one and only
one type of cell, including images of the shape, location, and patterns
of movement, for six weeks. Each group was able to affect specifically
its own kind of cell and not the other.
This general trend is further confirmed by experiments done at
the University of Arkansas College of Medicine, which showed that a
woman age thirty-nine was able to change her skin test for chicken pox
from positive to negative and vice versa at will, by using highly specific and precise visualization.51 This may indicate that directed prayer
has to work hand in hand with specific visual imagery, and depends on
the vividness and strength of such imagery. In more than one way, this
approach allies faith with scientific insight. What science seems to indicate in the experimental setting is also the conclusion of spiritual

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healer Spyros Sathi. He distinguishes between psychic healers, in

which the healer transfers his own vitality in an undistinguished fashionand without deeper knowledge and spiritual perceptioninto the
body of the patient, and spiritual healers, who work with full knowledge and perception of the physical and energetic levels of reality. The
spiritual healer can therefore help in more specific waysand in more
numerous instancesthan the psychic healer.52
Without doubt, the most convincing experiments on healing
were performed on animals or lower forms of life. Bernard Grad of
McGill University has worked for at least three decades on experiments with healing.53 He is a convinced experimentalist, led into this
work by a number of experiences he had in his youth and a key encounter with healer Oskar Estebany. The Hungarian practitioner could
detect disease in the body because of the changes in perception in his
hands, such as a prickling sensation in his fingers, burning or cold, or
vibrations moving down from the arms to the hands. Grad had to work
as a pioneer in the field and first of all establish experimental protocols, such as experimental settings and the optimal length and rhythm
of exposure to healing. In all the experiments, Estebany did not touch
the animals or plants. There was no chance of physical and/or chemical interaction, and the animals and plants were of a homogeneous age
and similar genetic strain.
Let us look at the experiments with animals first. Two groups
of mice were wounded in a standard way, by removing a piece of skin
from their backs under anesthesia. The group whose cages Estebany
held for fifteen minutes, twice a day, healed significantly faster. The
same was true in the case of mice that had been given an iodinedeprived diet. In these conditions their thyroid glands tended to swell.
Those under Estebanys influence showed much less swelling. Dr.
Grads experiments on wounded mice were replicated by Remi J. Cadoret and G. I. Paul of Manitoba University, and by Estebany himself,
in strictly double-blind conditions, yielding consistent results. Dr.
Grad went on to study the ability of Estebany to heal barley seeds that
had been stressed by a 1% saline solution. Estebany could achieve this
by holding the container of the saline solution for fifteen minutes.
For experimental purposes, lower forms of life offer the most
precise and controlled settings. Sixty university volunteers, not chosen
on the basis of their healing abilities, were asked to induce the bacteria

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strains of E. coli, which are normally unable to assimilate lactose

sugar, to do so by mutating. The students were asked to induce decreased or increased mutations. The results showed the desired effects
when compared with the control batches.54
Experiments on blood were performed by Dr. Braud of the
Mind Science Foundation of San Antonio, Texas. Thirty-two subjects
were asked to keep red blood cells from dissolving when diluted and
placed in test tubes in a distant room. Half of them were given their
own blood, half blood from the others, but none of them knew which
one they were assigned. They worked in two sessions of fifteen minutes. The technicians analyzing the results were also blinded to the
conditions of the experiment. The subjects were able to protect the red
cells from dissolving and bursting to a degree that cannot be explained
by sheer chance. The source of the blood had no influence on the results, although the individual skills varied to a meaningful extent.
There was a significant degree of use of visualization in the experiments, although it was not a definite and exclusive criterion.55
No form of life is beyond reach of the power of mind. In fact
its power seems to reach even into the realm of technology. Research
was conducted at Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR)
on a machine generating random physical events (a random event generator, or REG).56 Experiments determined that individuals could influence the output toward particular patterns. The most successful
were deeply bonded couples. Experimenters asked individuals to influence the output of the REG before and after it was run. Readings
were taken after the generation of events or after the prayer was performed (in case of delayed influences). It was surprising to realize that
in both cases the effects were identical to those occurring simultaneously.
Similar results were obtained by physicist Helmut Schmidt. In
the latters experiment, psychologist Hans Eysenk and researcher Carl
Sargent estimated the chance of results being due to coincidence at one
out of several million. Roger D. Nelson analyzed the results of more
than eight hundred studies with REGs and published them in Foundations of Physics, confirming all the previous conclusions.
Let us look at some other aspects of this new kind of energy at
work in the realm of healing and prayer before we turn once again to
characterize it. We have offered the example of how the mind can in-

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fluence the metabolism of common strains of bacteria and is able to

induce reverse mutations whose natural occurrences are infinitely low.
If consciousness can provoke changes in the genetic map of E. coli
bacteria, then genes do not have the absolute power that conventional
science and popular belief confer upon them. Reverse mutations have
now been studied over time; these are mutations that go from abnormal to normalthat is to say, mutations that take a route of reversed
entropy and statistically defy all odds. Such mutations have also been
known to occur in patients with myotonic dystrophy, a common form
of muscular dystrophy in which muscle wasting affects the face, neck,
hands, forearms, and feet.
Let us look at another unusual feature of this bio-energy. In the
earlier quoted experiments on mice by Dr. Grad and Oskar Estebany, a
linger effect was noticed; the side of the table where mice were
given energy healing had a residual healing effect on other mice that
were later placed thereand not the other side of the table.
Researcher William G. Braud has tried to envision scenarios
that would explain the nature of this energy that does not decrease with
distance.57 Only ELF (extremely low frequency) magnetic radiation
would act similarly and cause little attenuation with distance, but these
waves do not display time-displaced effects, since they carry only a
limited amount of information. In order to encompass the observed
effects, a substantially more fundamental level of theoretical model
will need to be displayed says Dr. Candace Pert of Rutgers University, a leading authority on brain biochemistry, who believes we are
dealing with a kind of energy that is as yet unknown, something that
somehow belongs to the realm of spirit and soul.
From whichever angle we look at the phenomena, we are returning to what we have defined as etheric energy, an energy that follows laws that are different and yet complementary to the physical.
Etheric energy is the term coined by Rudolf Steiner to refer to an energy that acts contrary to all the laws of gravity, the energy that works
against entropy, the law of dissipation of energy. It is therefore the energy that sustains all living organisms. One way to characterize it
among manyis to call it levity. In the plant that is bound to gravity
by physics, chemistry, and physiology, levity is the force that pushes
the plant upward against all physical laws. In effect, as Dr. Pert intuited, we have to do with the first rung of the world of soul and spirit;

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therefore, the laws that we are acquainted with do not belong to the
physical world anymore. We can even say that our normal way of
thinking cannot apprehend this realm of existence.
If this is a new kind of energy not encompassed by any of the
concepts we actually hold in the realm of matter and physical energy,
the next obvious question is: What kind of scientific protocols can
allow us to investigate this new field? This is a field in which the subject and object of inquiry mutually influence each other, thereby
breaking one of the basic tenets of modern sciencethe criteria of objectivity and reproducibility of every given experiment.
Much published evidence suggests that a physicians beliefs influence the results of the experiments. The double blind allows us to
limit the effects of consciousness over matternot eliminate them. J.
Solfvin concludes, As a general rule, the double-blind cannot any
longer be assumed to guarantee the exclusion of the non-specific effects of the treatment, especially when the actual treatment has a weak
or variable effect. However, double-blind experiments are not useless. The greatest value of double-blinds may lie, however, in their
limitations, which reveal something marvelous about usthat there is
some aspect of the human psyche capable of shaping events in our
world.58
Consciousness is another imponderable element in all and any
of the most elaborate experiments. The same healer can succeed in
many experiments and then fail in a following one. Obviously, even
the best of healers can have a bad day. Finally, it is next to impossible
to replicate experiments given the enormous amount of variables when
we deal with human consciousness. Dossey concludes: Although science has much to say about prayer, it raises more questions than it answers. The mysteries of prayer not only remain, they deepen. There
is, however, a new kind of science that resorts to what we call imagebased techniques that give a global evaluation of the results sought.
Let us look at another modern-day scientist employing such an
image-based technique to study the overall effects of prayer. For years,
Masaru Emoto has been studying water quality by looking at the way
water forms crystals when frozen. Photos of water crystals have to be
taken at a very high speed, requiring specific freezer temperatures, microscopic observation magnifications, lighting, and lens irises. The
crystals are never the same from one day to another. No single crystal

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organization ever returns. The only element that distinguishes water

crystals is the overall hexagonal form that most of us have seen in pictures. The crystals differ in their specific form, definition, proportion,
kind of branching, and prominence of the center in a way that gives us
an overall indication of the quality of the water. Pristine water from
nonpolluted sources crystallizes in clear, recognizable patterns. Polluted water crystallizes very poorly (only partially), or cannot crystallize at all. Treated water may have all the officially required chemical
properties and still not be able to crystallize. This indicates that there is
more to quality than chemistry.
Emoto has conducted an experiment with water quality before
and after prayer.59 To that purpose he has analyzed the water at the Fujiwara Dam in Minakami-cho. The water in its natural condition does
not show the least ability to form a crystal structure. The Reverend
Kato, chief priest of the Jyuhouin Temple of Omiya City, was asked to
pray for the water for an hour next to the dam. To the surprise of the
scientists, the water crystals that resulted were as complete and beautiful as any of the more remarkable pictures obtained in ideal conditions.
The experiment was repeated in a more polluted body of water,
Lake Biwa.60 On the morning of July 25, 1999, there were 350 people
offering their prayers, facing Lake Biwa. Here, too, pictures of water
crystals before and after prayer show striking contrasts similar to the
ones in the previous example. The algae that covers the lake yearly
was drastically reduced that year, as the press reported. The effect of
this experiment was protracted in time. However, by August 2000 the
bad odor indicating pollution had returned.
We can conclude the exploration of prayer and healing with
Dosseys apt words:
The recognition of a soul-like quality of consciousnessby science on the one hand and by religion on
the otherwill constitute a bridge between these two
domains. This point of contact will help heal the bitter
divisions between these two camps. No longer will
people feel compelled to choose between them in ordering their lives. At long last science and religion will
stand side by side in a complementary way, neither attempting to usurp the other.

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Let us now look at how prayer and the capacity for healing
have developed in a particularly gifted individual who was a pioneer in
this field.
The Life and Work of Agnes Sanford
Agnes Sanford was a healer who devoted most of her life to healing,
and a great part of her writing career to propagating a new understanding of it. Her biography is truly enlightening in that it illustrates links
between many of the phenomena we have been studying.
Sanford was born in 1898 in Hsuchoufu, China, to a couple of
Presbyterian missionaries.61 Her father was a priest; her mother, a
teacher. Young Agnes was raised in an austere, natural environment,
away from radio and television. Every day she was taught to memorize
Bible verses, and her mother handled her education. Some of her earlier memories, described in her biography, came from gazing with awe
at a tiny white flower of a speedwell herb, and at the flowers of a blossoming pear tree.
The spiritual world is important to the Chinese people, and
Agnes grew up hearing about spirits from a very early age. The childs
dream life was very active and nourished her in a variety of ways. Art
also awakened much of her interest; she began to paint as a child and
soon discovered literature, reading Dickens, Scott, and other resources
available to her. In her early teens, her love of nature formed a gateway to her first spiritual experiences. Twice during two summers, she
recalls in her biography, while immersed in the beauty of the landscape, she felt transported to an experience of oneness with nature. In
this state, she lost all notion of time and acquired the first inkling of
the sentient life of all beings, even inanimate objects.
Prayer entered Agnes life, as part of her education and upbringing. Already in her childhood she had experienced proof of the
results of prayer, even before her mind was able to acknowledge it.
While she was still living in Hsuchoufu, she had been overwhelmed by
a very real fear of death. At a loss to deal with this emotion and being
taught to keep her feelings to herself, she decided to turn to prayer, to
ask God to remove that fear. The solution came through a dream, in
her words, the most real and vivid dream that I ever had. She was

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filled with the radiation of Gods power and with overwhelming joy.
Her fear of death left her immediately.
In her adolescence, another experience confirmed the power of
prayer. On Christmas day, she was visited by her school roommate
Rachel and her brother, who had seizure disorder. His appearance must
have made a deep personal impression on Agnes, who decided to pray
for him for seven years. Unknown to Agnes, the young man healed
long before the end of her period of resolve.
At age fourteen, she was sent to the Shanghai American
School. There, she was first captivated by the beauty of the stage when
seeing Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. Love for writing and drama
was something that she would carry throughout her life. After that first
year she moved to a small Presbyterian school for young ladies in Raleigh, North Carolina. On the way to the US by boat, she had another
experience of oneness with nature, this time while lying on the back of
a lifeboat at night and watching the stars. She felt at one with the universe and lost all notion of time.
In America, she felt like a foreigner and longed for the familiarity of China. Her return to her former culture did not immediately
yield the anticipated results. Feeling like an outsider, she fell into a
depression. It was finally through the deeply rewarding experience of
teaching that she gradually emerged from this identity crisis. Her second assignment was teaching English literature, composition, and
grammar at an Anglican school for boys. Here she fell in love with her
future husband, Ted, an Episcopalian. She married him in 1923 and
formally became an Episcopalian, initially at least to satisfy custom as
well as her husbands wishes.
Married life meant letting go of her profession as soon as her
first child arrived. The creative young woman abandoned her own
dreams in order to fit the role of dutiful wife that was expected of her.
The joy of motherhood was contrasted by a growing depression, and
Sanford became suicidal. Her love for family expressed itself only in
worry about everybodys safety, but the depression completely engulfed her. There were many more subtle changes that intervened in
Sanfords life. Not only did she forget her childhood devotion and the
gifts that she had received through prayer, but nature, which had nurtured her with magical power, lost all its charm. She had to go through
her own personal abyss.

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It was a serious ear infection of her third son, Jack, that opened
the way to an inner transformation. An Episcopalian minister, Hollis
Colwell, came to visit her and casually inquired about her children.
Upon hearing of Jacks illness, he resolved to see the boy and say a
prayer for his health. What surprised Sanford was the complete confidence with which the young prelate turned to God, and the child was
healed the next day upon waking. The same minister prayed on different occasions for the healing of Sanfords mental depression. From the
first time he did so, she experienced great waves of joy during the
act of receiving a prayer.
Sanford started experimenting with prayer at the explicit suggestion of Colwell. The results were not immediate. One day, nevertheless, she prayed to be healed from a bout with the flu because she
felt she could not take time from work. To her amazement, the results
followed immediately. It was a small sign, but the beginning of a lifelong exploration of the wonders of prayer and of spiritual healing. She
realized at that time that it was not enough to ask of God; it was
equally important to believe fully that the prayer was answered.
Sanfords first true healing was performed on a child in critical
condition whose heart, bloodstream, and kidneys were infected. Sanford felt moved by compassion and the strong feeling that something
needed to be done given this desperate diagnosis. After the prayer, the
healing began in stages over the two next days, and the recovery was
prompt. It was an encouraging result.
After this turning point Sanfords activity branched off in many
directions. Starting with a Bible study group, she gathered a group of
mothers who met for nearly two decades. Through the depth of personal connection, the group became a prayer group, and thus also the
instrument of spiritual healings. During World War II, the mothers
were concerned about their enlisted sons. They attempted to help
through prayer. To that purpose they first had to realize that they could
not pray for victory, but for peace for all parties. They prayed that their
sons be spared as much as possible from having to kill. This was accompanied by withdrawing any support for the war, even purchasing
war savings stamps. While it constitutes no positive proof, it is at least
indicative that none of the sons died in combat.
In 1947 Sanford wrote The Healing Light, a book that has become a classic in the realm of spiritual healing. The manuscript strug-

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gled to find a publisher until a friend, Dr. Glenn Clark, decided to undertake publication himself. The book started selling slowly.
Sanfords career as a spiritual healer began when she volunteered as a Gray Lady in the Red Cross in Tilton Army Hospital,
where she initially had no intention to offer healing of the body. Her
first recovering patient was a man whose infected bone would not
heal. After her first positive result, she continued to heal hundreds of
returning soldiers and teach them to pray for their own healing. This
work of healing did not come without its burdens. Working at Tilton
Hospital, Agnes started to feel pain around her heart. She expressed
that she was carrying the fears and burdens of all of those whose
health had become her concern.
Sanfords life of prayer needed outer support as well as attention to her own personal healing. This was done through confession,
helping her to clear herself of the tendency toward spiritual pride that
becomes very tangible for someone engaged in spiritual healing. This
evolution was basically reached in two stages. The first was what she
called an experience of the Holy Spirit, made possible in working together with her Tucson friend, Marion Lovekin, and prayer partner,
Mildred. This first step, realized through prayer and inner guidance,
was accompanied by the experience of deep joy and the ability to understand reality in a different way. Many unsolved problems were now
coming to the surface of her consciousness with the knowledge of
what needed to be done for them. She felt she had received the gift of
peace and the ability to work much more effectively than previously
without feeling weary. To those who knew her, it seemed she had shed
many years.
Sanfords illumination by the Holy Spirit was only a step, as
she realized at the death of her husband. Soon after, she felt deeply
attracted to a widower, but when his response did not meet her expectations, she found herself in the throes of a new depression and questioned her desire to live. It was a young priest by the name of John
Sandford who best intuited her deeper needs. He relentlessly offered
his help, even when she grew weary of prayers, both his and those of
others.
Finally she had a Christ experience that she described thus:
Light shone all around me, and Jesus stood before me in such a real
way that I could see Him with my mind though not with my eyes! I

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laughed, I cried, I was utterly beside myself with joy and the feeling of
being loved.62 This turning point was a culmination as well as the
catalyst of further spiritual experiences, to which we will return later.
After this experience she had truly acquired a perception of the
energetic level beyond the physical. In the morning, as she turned to
meditation, she would take walks in heavenly places. This perception later came to her in full day consciousness. She writes: Yesterday
morning for the first time, as I looked out to the misty hills ... I could
see the light around the trees. I do not know what this light is. But I
cannot imagine it or dream it into reality. When it comes, it comes of
itself, as though emanating from the very trees and not from me.63
Given her familiarity with the realm of the etheric, it is not surprising to see that other kinds of spiritual experiences accompanied
Sanfords life. Even before reaching adolescence, she had a recurring
experience. She prefaces it with the feeling of being abandoned by
God, and defines it as a soul sickness that the doctor could not diagnose. Something akin to a memory awakened while studying ancient
Greek history. She was experiencing or re-experiencing a scene of
human sacrifice, one to which her historical education could hardly
have referred. It was as if I had slipped back through time and seen
this particular episode. And it was more real and more completely
devastating than anything I had ever seen in China. I could feel it coming before it came. My throat would constrict and my stomach would
turn sick and I would think, Oh no! Oh no! But then it would come
and I could not stop it.65
Throughout the years, the image with its associated horror occasionally resurfaced in her memory. This dream is mentioned specifically again in the biography after the central Christ experience that
Sanford had toward the end of her life. It was, therefore, not surprising
that the Christ experience was preceded by a very deep depression.
Now she started reliving the episode of the human sacrifice in ancient
Sparta that she had experienced earlier in her teens. It was an exceedingly dreadful memory. She describes the place that formed the prelude to her memory as not heaven, nor earth. The memory was preceded by an encounter with Christ saying that he would send her to
Earth. Then she relived the scene of the human sacrifice that had occurred before. She could see only peoples backs, while being aware of
an angelic presence. A boy was sacrificed upon an altar that had the

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form of a sundial, but his spirit had already left. The scene changed
and Sanford found herself back at the original landscape that preceded
the scene. Here, somehow she seemed to experience anew her prebirth intentions of relieving suffering and remembered being willing to
do so.
The remembrance of this whole set of events opened the door
for Sanfords quiet acceptance of all challenges that followed. She explains that she was not angry with God anymore. She goes to great
lengths to disclaim that everything she says lends credence to the idea
of reincarnation, which she qualifies as this dreary theory. Nevertheless not only does the scene look like a previous life memory, but also
the subsequent resolve is reminiscent of the souls desire for atonement for a deed committed in a previous life! Nor is it surprising that
in the sequence of events, the healing of this memory closely follows
her meeting with Christ and the acquisition of vision on the
etheric/energetic level of reality. There is an inherent lawfulness to the
fact that only Christ could heal this kind of memory.
It will come as no surprise that the new Christ event acquired a
deep significance for her. Obviously she could not state it openly, and
she may have only vaguely intuited it. The following quote is nevertheless very revealing of Sanfords deeper beliefs: For the Holy Spirit
of Jesus Christ is coming again in His glory, and there is no holding
Him back. A new day is dawning. A new age is upon us: the day of the
Lord; the kingdom of heaven. The Son of righteousness is rising and
nothing can stop His Coming, just as nothing can stay the sunrise from
creeping over the mountaintops.66
It will not be surprising at this point to see the themes of conscious knowledge of ones own previous incarnations with the meeting
with Christ, and the faculty of spiritual healing. The work of the Cypriot healer Spiros Sathi has been documented in three books by author
Kiriacos C. Markides. Sathi has undergone similar experiences to
those of Agnes Sanford. He experienced meeting with Christ four
times in his lifea meeting he associates with a feeling so intense that
it was very painful to come back to daily life.67 More than Sanford, he
carries the memory of his previous lives clearly imprinted in his consciousness. He, too, in the process of helping to heal a patient, can
spiritually perceive the deficiencies of vitality, even before they manifest physically with illness.

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While Agnes Sanford and Spiros Sathi are two of the many
genuine spiritual healers of this century, other healers have operated
under similar conditions to theirs both within Christian and other religious or spiritual traditions.
THE EMERGING FIELD OF EXPERIENTIAL SPIRITUALITY
Nature never repeats herself, and the possibilities of
one human soul will never be found in another. No one
has ever found two blades of ribbon grass alike, and no
one will ever find two human beings alike.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
We have reviewed in detail the genesis, methodology, and spiritual
implications of techniques in what we have defined as the emerging
field of experiential spirituality. The examples of such practices previously shown are either the most well known, or else some of the most
unique and promising. Many of these stand for other approaches that
resemble them. The Twelve Steps is the larger archetype for all encounter and support groups. Support groups work as shorter versions
of the Twelve Steps, in which the higher steps are not taken. Similar to
hospice, we can mention the international residential community settings working with the developmentally disabled, such as Camphill
founded by Karl Knig and following Anthroposophical principles
or the Federation of LArche, founded by Jean Vanier and centered
around ecumenical or interfaith spirituality. Hellingers Family Constellations shares common ground with Morenos psychodrama and
with Playback Theater. Nonviolent Communications ideas are echoed
in different ways in the Path of Contemplative Dialogue of Steven
Wirth or the Rules of Communication of Claude Steiner, and others.
Healing based on prayer or laying-on of hands is practiced in the West
in forms similar to therapeutic touch or in the east through Qigong and
other forms.
We have selected five examples that cover as vast a field of
human experience as possible. We have also left aside important fields
that could arguably be included under the umbrella of experiential
spirituality. Such is the case of restorative justice, particularly in its

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most community-oriented forms such as Peacemaking Circles, or the

whole growing field of life coaching, with forms such as co-active
coaching and spiritual coaching. In a wholly other direction, we find
the new energetic approaches to medicine as they appear most clearly
expressed in the Bach Flower Remedies. These remedies are used as
helpers in overcoming patterns of behavior. Finally, there is a fairly
new approach to finding the sources of life patterns in the direction of
precise events of previous lives. This is the approach of Destiny Learning, developed by Coen van Houten, based on enhanced sense observation, artistic work, and exercises. While including these approaches
would enlarge the scope of what we are calling experiential spirituality, the conclusions we would be able to reach would not be significantly different.
Hellingers systemic psychotherapy is, in many ways, the closest to the field of classical psychology, although in itself a complete
phenomenological psychology with a purely imaginative flavor.
Twelve Steps may be called a modern nonsectarian path of spiritual
development in its own right, appealing both to the individual and the
social components of spirituality. Hospice adds the institutional dimension and interdisciplinary team approach in the reconsecration of
the experience of death in modern consciousness. Nonviolent Communication focuses on the power of language as the springboard of the
experience of self and others; it wants to lead us to the full expression
of our feelings, needs, and desires and the realization that they do not
stand at odds with anybody elses, when all are clearly understood.
Prayer and spiritual healing work via the spirit in the human being and
the acknowledgement that each one of us is the vehicle of forces that
work beyond self, and operate beyond the physical. The spiritual level
is acknowledged as the ultimate source of health.
Can we now come closer to defining what joins these approaches to the healing of the psyche and eventually the body under
the umbrella, however loose, of experiential spirituality? The first
level is the one that has appeared since our introductionthe recognition of the spiritual level of reality. This is a movement that has been
initiated within psychology itself. Already in the 1950s and 1960s,
new schools of thought moved away from the original pessimistic
views of Freud and those who followed him. Carl Jung towered far
above anyone else in a cognitive perspective that offered powerful in-

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sights over the dimension of the spirit. Others like Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, and Erik Erikson helped create approaches
that acknowledged and rested upon the human drive toward goodness,
beauty, knowledge, and personal development. The emphasis we have
just defined underlines all of the techniques to which we have turned
our attention. They all draw from the resources of the individual,
rather than focusing on the limitations.
What all approaches have in common is a clear departure from
the analytical realm. Thorough analysis or a foundation of knowledge
has often preceded the work; however, this is not part of the process.
Nonviolent Communication may eventually be understood relatively
easily from a cognitive perspective. It is, however, quite another matter from an experiential perspective, where its ideas can only be acquired via a continuous practice that alone can undermine and transform deep-seated resistances in our psyche. Hellingers rich stores of
observation are merely general guidelines for practitioner and participant alike; clinging to predetermined dynamics undermines the role of
the facilitator and the outcome of constellation work.
Even in the other processes, as expected, analysis once formed
the support for action. Bill Wilson and other members of the early Alcoholics Anonymous undertook a profound study of the stages of
transformation of the alcoholicthe ability to move away from dependence on others to dependence on the Higher Power. These principles became enshrined, in an intuitive fashion, in the Twelve Steps. It
is not analysis that allows the process of healing, but rather the process
of admitting ones own weaknesses and trusting in the help of others.
Hospice work is also based on a very deep experiential analysisof
the process of dying. We are all more or less familiar with the five
stages of grieving, as they have been popularized. The power of hospice work lies, however, in the body of social interaction between the
dying and their extended circles of family and friends, as well as the
professionals and volunteers.
At a first level, the leap between psychology and experiential
spirituality lies in the clear recognition of the spiritual dimension of
the human being. Psychology, as a science, can only postulate spirit.
Experiential spirituality, as a practice, can more openly recognize
spirit as a driving force.
Immortality of the soul is a central idea to the work of both

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hospice and Family Constellations. Hospice promotes familiarity with

the spiritual dimension of the experience of the dying person, who
lives in two worlds. For the dying, the spiritual becomes so tangible
that it is not always discernable from daily reality. Hospice work also
leads us to inquire about the first steps in the link between living and
departed souls. This aspect is taken further by Hellingers work. Here,
in an existential way, we come to terms with the idea that human relationships do not end with physical existence; nor does the progress of
the soul end after death. The acceptance of the immanence of life is the
goal of Twelve Steps, in its declared aim of moving away from dependence on human beings to dependence on a Higher Power. Energy
healing can be accomplished only from the perspective of a dimension
of reality other than the physical. The spiritual dimension of human
relationships appears somewhat more subtly, and through continued
experience, in the practice of Nonviolent Communication.
Another defining dimension of all the forms of experiential
spirituality is their ability to work from the perspective of the higher
self in conjunction with our ordinary ego. It is this approach that can
promote a nondogmatic exploration of spirituality and/or religion. This
is also the avenue to reconciliation of the dialectic of terms of oppositiongood and bad, right and wrong, dos and dontsthat enables us
to work from the perspective of the resources inherent in each human
being rather than from their problems or limitations.
Twelve Steps does not speak of a higher self per se. Nevertheless the prerequisite of turning to a Higher Power, recognizing our
powerlessness, and turning to prayer and meditation are the landmark
attributes of reaching toward the true self. Nonviolent Communications distinction of the possibility of giraffe behavior and its equal
emphasis on honesty and empathy leads to a reconciliation of opposites only possible from the perspective of our true nature. In a more
general way, hospice promotes this paradigm shift through tolerance
and encouragement of all religious and spiritual approaches to the
spirit, and surrender to the experience of death. Hellingers psychotherapy recognizes the same basic idea through the fact that everyone,
whether one appears as villain or saint, has a place in the family system. Nothing portrays this better than the facilitators role of standing
by someone excluded and recognizing even that higher self that may
be completely hidden from view. The above approaches move away

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from notions of conventional morality. They encourage us to rediscover the universal element of morality that lies deep in the foundations of the soul and that each one of us is called to recreate anew,
rather than relying on external codes of conduct.
Another common but not universal feature of experiential spirituality is the idea of working with the double or shadow. This goes
from a clear definition to an only vaguely implied level of meaning.
The dialectic regarding lower and higher selves is playfully placed at
the center of NVCs definition of giraffe and jackal behaviors. Neither
term of the equation is glorified or denied; jackal talk and behavior
needs to be acknowledged if we want to acquire a giraffe perspective.
Not denying, but educating the lower self is the object of the practice
of the moral inventory, and for this reason, offering apologies to those
we have hurt has such a central importance in Alcoholics Anonymous.
Energy healing often recognizes a link between illness and the errors
of our lower nature, but this is not a clearly specific tenet, nor is the
proposition of the double clearly discernable in hospice philosophy.
From this brief and far from systematic overview, we have discerned the role that spirituality plays in all these approaches. It is not
surprising that it played a central role in the life of the founders of
many of these techniques, or of those who played a central role in their
proliferation. We have seen the earnest path of Agnes Sanford, a pioneer in spiritual healing. Her case culminated in an NDLE that can be
defined as a clear Christ experience. Bill Wilsons life was clearly
marked by his spiritual experience of 1934. His formulation of the
Twelve Steps was anchored in many ways to this defining moment in
time. Elisabeth Kbler-Ross linked the power of her convictions and
the strength of her work to the attainment of the certainty vouchsafed
by her various near-death and other spiritual experiences. Neither Wilson nor Kbler-Ross called themselves Christian, nor did they belong
to organized religion. Nevertheless, they both had a keenly personal
understanding of what the life of Christ meant for humanity. Here is
Kbler-Ross in her own words: And Easter is the most important day
in our liveswhether you know it or not.Every day in my lifeand
that to me is what Good Friday is all aboutGood Friday is viewed by
many people as a sad day because of the crucifixion. But without the
crucifixion we wouldnt have had the resurrection. And without the

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windstorms in life my patients would not die with peace and dignity
and really knowing what we need to know at the moment of our
death.68 And Wilson, considering the same topic of life after death,
closely echoes her in his own words: Everything considered, I feel
that proof of survival (after death) would be one of the greatest events
that could take place in the Western world today. It wouldnt necessarily make people good. But at least they could really know what Gods
plan is, as Christ so perfectly demonstrated at Easter time. Easter
would become a fact; people could then live in a universe that would
make sense.69
Saunderss deep experience of the grief in dying, and her afterdeath communications (at least in the case of David Tasma) led her to
a deeper understanding of Christ, through which she could effectively
embrace ecumenicalism. Bert Hellinger came to his lifes work after a
conscious dedication to a religious path. Marshall Rosenberg extended
his views of psychology when he embarked on the study of comparative religion. He formulates his spiritual commitment in terms of the
divine energy that flows between human beings and the endeavor to
support all that is life giving.
Unfolding Knowledge of Light and Darkness
Darkness and light are two characteristics of the dilemma that lies at
the center of experiential spirituality. Darkness and light have been at
the center of our study as well. To the first, we have devoted primarily
the second chapter with the experiences pointing to life before birth; to
the second, we have devoted our chapter on life after death. The archetypal experience of meeting with the Lower Guardian is accompanied
by the recognition of our personal darkness. The light of unconditional
love is the experience of all forms of NDEs, whose ultimate archetype
is the meeting with the Higher Guardian in the Light. In this contrast
stand our lower selves and higher selves, whose interplay defines each
human biography in endless variations. It is not surprising that the experience of the higher self becomes the defining turning point of inspiration for individuals such as Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, Bill Wilson, and
Agnes Sanford.
We are coming closer to what may be experiential spiritualitys
two central tenets: the individuals responsibility in shaping ones life,
and the sacred dimension of human relationships. Over and over again

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we are told that supposed accidents or life crises have a reason. Alcoholism is not simply a genetic disease passed down through generations; death can be looked squarely in the eye; the pain of traumatic
events can be integrated within the family system. In all these approaches, we recognize that there is no solution to the problem without
an acceptance of the consequences of our actions and inclusion of all
the people who play a part in our lives. Alcoholism or other kinds of
addiction cannot be tackled without looking at those we have hurt.
Death becomes much easier to confront if we face it with courage, accompanied by caring professionals and by those we cherish and love.
Difficult situations in a family can be overcome by integrating and acknowledging all of the members of a family, no matter how painful the
initial confrontation may be. By taking responsibility, we can break the
pattern of compulsion; destructive and inherently violent habits in our
thinking and language can be overcome. Beyond taking responsibility,
this means being willing to envision our roles as co-creators with the
divine, as we inherently do when healing does not concern us but others, as in the case of spiritual healing.
Individuality is only one part of the equation. The natural complement to the experience and challenge of individual responsibility
lies in recognition of the sacredness of human relationships. It is this
realization that emerges for many as the surprising spiritual element of
Nonviolent Communication, which can become a new form of consciousness after being used as a tool. Reaching clarity about our own
feelings and needs progressively awakens us to knowing ourselves in a
spiritual fashion, but so does the ability to reach a quality of relationship hardly present in common life. Consider the richness of the
Twelve Steps and the function of the group in the recovery of an individual. The same is true of hospice and the weaving of relationships
that derives from its interdisciplinary approach. The practice of Family
Constellations is vitally linked to the participation of all the representatives, who often derive as much benefit from the experience and the
repeated exposure as do the individuals staging their own family constellations. Spiritual healing can be accomplished through the activity
of groups, or else spiritual healers can benefit from cooperation with
and support from other healers.
Our darkness is a necessary stage to a progressively unfolding
knowledge of the divine light, as it is typified in an emblematic fash-

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ion in the now-common phenomenon of near-death experiences. That

this kind of practical spirituality has emerged in the twentieth century
is another of these synchronistic events. Only at present, in the new
emerging spiritual dimension humanity is traversing, can the ideas of
personal responsibility and higher selves acquire more meaning and
reality. This study has tried to give these experiences a name and find
the source from which they derive.
We are now living at a time when it is harder to keep the balance and harmonious separation between what is sense-perceptible experience and what can be called a psychic or spiritual level of experience. One level of reality impinges on the other without our always
being able to control the situation. Most of us will need help, at one
point or another in our lives, in integrating experiences that leave us
disoriented or that we cannot comprehend. Psychotherapy started
along the premises that there was a specialist and a patientone who
knows and one who needs help. A century later into the practice of
practical spirituality, perceptions have shifted. The expert is now more
of a facilitator. In Twelve Step programs we have a continuum: The
recovering alcoholic starts at the lower rungs, calling for help and relying on others. Once through the process, the alcoholic is ready to facilitate it for others. Although we still have leaders and those who are
led, this definition of roles is much more fluid. Even the expert in
the case of Family Constellations or Destiny Learning is subordinated
to something larger. Hellingers work cannot be led to an intended solution. It is the greater soul of the patient and the family that determines the outcome, which the facilitator merely draws out.
Group work is one of the common elements of experiential
spirituality. If destiny is the kernel of the problem, then the approach
can only be a group approach. Recognizing the modern idea of destinyor the notion of individual responsibility aloneis the gateway
for an acknowledgement of spiritual laws that influence groups or individuals. Twelve Steps does it by turning to individual morality.
Through the exertion of the will, the recovering alcoholic takes responsibility where he once used to blame others. This can be done
only by confessing the limitations of the ego and seeking our true self
in God as we understand Him. Hospice work reveals that the individual has to find acceptance of the most significant spiritual thresholddeathand this can be done only by turning to the spirit, with

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the help and support of a new community. Obviously the same reality
of spiritual awakening may be expressed in a variety of ways. For
some, the reality of love in personal relationships is the gateway to the
spiritual; for others, it may be through meditation or prayer.
In entering the methods of experiential spirituality, many of us
recognize the necessity of two dimensions of spiritual workwhat we
may schematically call vertical spirituality and horizontal spirituality.
Vertical spirituality refers to the axis of individualGod/Higher Power.
Horizontal spirituality connects us to each other in society. The second
is the specific goal of a more experiential and practical spirituality.
Since all of its techniques are nonsectarian, our relationship with the
spirit is strictly the domain of our conscience. Earnestness in this direction is certainly a great support to the work of healing.
Knowledge of the laws of karma and the practice of experiential spirituality reinforce the dimension of horizontal spirituality. Here
is a dimension of spirit that is acknowledged to be an increasingly
problematic area of life. There is a profound yearning visible everywhere in society to re-enliven a dimension of life that has undergone
such profound devastations with societys exponentially growing
transformationthe destruction of traditional structures happening at a
much faster pace than the formation of new alternative social structures. The dating frenzy promoted by myriad agencies and the fragility
of intimate relationships are only the most visible tip of the iceberg. A
horizontal spirituality, clearly acknowledged and embraced, is almost
an imperative for those who seek spiritual growth in the modern world.
This does not imply dependency on outer structures. Most of the social
therapeutic approaches we have described can either be interiorized
after a time or be used only according to needfor example, when
fighting an addiction, facing death, or other traumatic events. The necessity of a conscious integration of horizontal spirituality will be ever
greater for those who want to work in the social field and/or the renewal of culture. Central to this practical approach to spirit is the ability to evolve a truly universal and completely individual elaboration of
a new, nondogmatic morality. This is the needed antidote to the proposed restoration of worn-out codes of morality, which are revived
beyond their usefulness in a time of cultural crisis and turn into fundamentalism.
Through the recognition of the horizontal dimension of spiritu-

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ality, experiential spirituality can attain the furthest reaches of its

meaning. It is not solely about bringing healing to individuals, but also
about bringing it to groups of people. Alcoholism or other kinds of addictions are best healed in groups. From the groups that are formed
emerge different kinds of relationships than the ones that existed in the
dysfunctional settings of addicts. A slow but steady modification of
the social environment is the final result of the work of AA or any
other Twelve Step group. The hospice movement likewise affects large
groups of people. Suffice it to think of the widespread diffusion of bereavement groups offered to those who mourn for a loved one. The
number of new social relationships formed within such groups cannot
be quantified. However, the most visible result appears now after more
than thirty years of hospice work. The perception of death itself has
shifted from a completely taboo topic to one that more and more people actively acknowledge or even study with great interest. This is
again a ripple effect that reaches across society, not just individuals.
The same can be said about Family Constellations. It is spectacular in
Hellingers work, when healing can be brought to the realm of the
dead with further effects among the living. Nonviolent Communication applies not only to two individuals, but also to opposing groups,
parties, ethnicities, or religions. NVC carries enormous promise in the
educational realm, where it aims to create a new way of being among
the new generations. It has also been used as a tool for social transformation in areas most affected by ethnic and/or religious wars. Finally,
prayer and spiritual healing can be powerful means for forming community, as they often occur within those churches that want to turn to
the most concrete and experiential dimension of faith.
Experiential spirituality has its greatest potential as an instrument for bringing about social and cultural renewal. What can start as
a separate practice involving a few hours a week or a separate workshop during the year can gradually be incorporated in the work of organizations and movements for social renewal. All the examples
quoted form a beginning for what is bound to expand much further in
the next century, with the potential to positively affect larger segments
of the social body.

Conclusions

ANOTHER GLOBALIZATION
IS POSSIBLE
This world may indeed, as science assures us, some day
burn up or freeze; but if it is part of His order, the old
ideals are sure to be brought elsewhere to fruition, so
that where God is, tragedy is only provisional and partial, and shipwreck and dissolution are not the absolutely final things.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In our exploration of the revelations of the spirit that make modern
spiritual experiences understandable, and of the wealth of approaches
to experiential spirituality, we have ascertained the creation of new
values for the emergence of a new culture that recognizes and honors
larger and larger areas of consciousness. This work places itself in the
perspective of cultural renewal, in the realization that all lasting social
change comes from a grounding in the spirit that alone can provide
new sources of values and meaning.
At the end of the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century, philosophers already referred to what they saw as the impending death of culture. Since then, the symptoms of this phenomenon have surfaced further and become more and more obvious.
This has been the focus of our first chapter. Old utopias and institutions from the past are either crumbling or being artificially sustained
beyond their time. The resurgence of nationalism, on the other hand, is
causing worldwide devastation at a time when continued movements
of emigration and mixing of races is becoming a fait accompli. The
greatest part of what the media convey could hardly be called culture,
but rather represents the effect of the invasion of economic interests or
political agendas into culture.

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NEW INITIATIVES
Ever against this downward trend we see myriads of steps,
small and large, that are affirming the birth of a new way of looking at
the social question from the framework we have defined as the emergence of Civil Society. Let us look at how these new values are shaped
in various fields of action.
Business and Trade
We will begin with actions directed at the circulation of goods. We
have all heard of or been part of product boycott. It is an activity
whose final aim is to influence the economy, but boycotts are done
primarily in order to uphold and promote values. The targets of boycotts are corporations that perpetuate degrading practices towards their
workers and/or the environment or other moral issues. The participants
in these actions have two aims in mind: first, informing the general
population about little-known facts concerning the manufacturing of
products, and second, inviting a change of behavior from the informed
parties. These two factors, together with access to the targeted audience, determine the degree of success of a boycott. Here, economic
choices are affected by an area in which corporations and the media do
not have exclusive control: knowledge and information. No political
channels are necessary to initiate or conduct a boycott, although their
presence may later help.
A large-scale boycott was conducted in the 1990s in order to
stop products coming from sweatshops of the Burmese dictatorship. A
successful Internet campaign reached the decisive point when Massachusetts and Los Angeles passed resolutions supporting the boycott in
1995. The cities of Portland, Oregon, New York, and Berkeley followed suit. At Harvard, a movement started by undergraduates successfully derailed the universitys contract with Pepsi, who had plants
in Burma. In 1997, Pepsi announced that it was closing its operations
in the country. Walt Disney, Liz Claiborne, and Eddie Bauer also
bowed to the pressure.
Corporations have started to reckon with a force that operates
outside of the canons of the economic and the political, a force with
which they have had to come to terms. Witness the numerous exam274

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ples of successful boycotts and corporations reversing earlier decisions

in matters of labor or environmental practices. Socially responsible
investing is another initiative that has been regularly growing over the
last decade. Issues for which funds are screened include: alcohol, tobacco, military investments, human rights and employment equality,
environmental impact, and animal testing. Individuals invest in socially responsible funds through a number of specialized firms. In conjunction with exerting these choices, investors and firms can engage in
shareholder activism. Corporation policies can be influenced from
the inside by the added power of shareholders acting in concert to
modify practices found objectionable, discriminatory, exploitative, or
damaging to the environment. Under US corporate law, owning $2,000
of company stock for a year allows the stockholder to introduce a resolution. Co-op America, which actively supports initiatives for economic justice, estimated $922 billion as the amount of stock controlled
by investors who favor socially responsible choices in 2002.
That the choice of a product comes with a lifestyle and is imbued with values has been made clear before the practice of boycotts,
with the marketing of organic produce, promoting respect for the environment. A more recent practice has spread under the name of Fair
Trade products, applying mostly to consumer goods coming from the
Third Worldcoffee being the most common example. Fair Trade
coffee is often produced in small cooperatives. It may be grown organically and/or under the shade of trees, both better environmental
practices than traditional monoculture. Finally, the product is sold
through organizations that allow most of the proceeds to reach the coffee farmers. Through these organizations the farmer is better protected
from the price fluctuations of the open market. By promoting cooperative and healthy workplaces, and respect of the environment and cultural traditions, Fair Trade serves as an educational tool. The Fair
Trade Federation encourages public disclosure of anything belonging
to the product and acts as a consumer education organism.
Over the last ten or twenty years, Community Supported Agriculture has gained a foothold in our country. The experiment is centered on the idea of providing consumers with organic (or at least pesticide-free) produce while consciously ensuring the viability of the
farming operation. It is a way for consumers and producers to work

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together at the smallest conceivable economic level. At a microeconomic level, CSAs have spread an alternative economic model that is
based on the direct integration of producers and consumers, a model
that bypasses many of the constraints created by a vast and impersonal
market economy. CSA subscribers support the needs of the farmers
and their families, and have a voice in production choices. The needs
of farmers and consumers are negotiated directly, rather than mediated
by the supposedly value-free market economy. For the farmer, this is
primarily an economic decision. For customers and supporters, this
choice may stem from political convictions or the desire to create new
values, respect the environment, and support those who make courageous and economically risky life choices. All of the examples given
above are means for introducing alternative visions that integrate larger areas of values, traditionally left out of the economic model.
Social Justice
Other examples of cultural action directed towards the social arena are
the so-called Conversation Cafes. In 1992 Len and Libby Trauman of
San Mateo County, California, started the Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue
Group. Its focus was directed at the process of peace in the Middle
East. It did so by bringing together people of both concerned parties.
People of Jewish and Arab descent meet in a living roomnot to resolve an issue, but simply to listen to each other and enlarge each
others perspective. A very precise procedure emphasizes listening and
information as opposed to attempts to convince and influence the
other. The originators of the idea see this as a preliminary step to action in a more political realm. The latter, they say, must be preceded
by a clearer perception of reality and a better understanding of and
empathy for the perspective of the other party. The idea has achieved a
successful response, and at present specific conversation cafes cover a
wide spectrum of interests.
Still within the aim of promoting social peace through the
agency of the law, we can look at the idea of restorative justice. It aims
at replacing the normal course of justice and retribution with a mediation involving offenders, victims, and a third party. It is applied in
cases of minor offenses and assaults, and property crimes, and has
served the justice system by alleviating court dockets. Restorative jus276

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277

tice is a preventive system dealing mostly with juveniles and first-time

offenders, people who often respond more readily to educational efforts. The approach stems from the idea that while the offender has to
be held responsible, it is also true that his deed has torn him out of the
web of society. Entering in dialogue with the victim is the means for
enhancing empathy and understanding on both sides, while offering
the offender a chance to reintegrate the fabric of society. Through this
mediated dialogue, it is easier for the offender to agree to restitution
and carry through with it. Victim and offender come out enriched from
the dialogue. Introduced twenty-five years ago, restorative justice has
now spread to forty-five states in the US and counts more than three
hundred programs nationwide. It is interesting to note that both Yes
(Fall 2000), a more political publication, and Health and Spirituality
(Spring 2001) speak of the phenomenon in basically equivalent terms.
An impressive citizen initiative on the national scale is the Brazilian Citizenship Action Against Misery and for Life, initiated by
Herbert Betinho de Souza of the Brazilian Institute for Social and
Economic Analyses (IBASE). It arose from the movement that led to
the demise of the corrupt president Fernando Collor. In 1994 it was
estimated that about 2.8 million Brazilians were active in the
neighborhood hunger committees that the initiative promoted. A third
of Brazils population has made contributions to its goals. The way the
organization works is through simple, manageable goals. People with
at least some resources are invited to meet face-to-face with a hungry
person and devise how to help him or her. It is an invitation to make
connection, to hear a story, and to be changed by an encounter and
later move on to action. This experience offers a practical view of the
ills of a country. The personal and social levels become the basis of
later political change.
Another inspiring story is the one that led to the Treaty to Ban
Landmines, signed in 1997 by 140 countries, though not by the US.
The sponsors of the initiative were New England activist Jody Williams and socially engaged NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and
Physicians for Human Rights, plus victims of landmines themselves
and other famous individuals. Williams won the Nobel Prize in 1997,
but she attributed the merit to the voice of Civil Society.

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278

The Media, Education, and the Individual

A growing section of the alternative press is ever more loosening its
connections with clearly defined political choices, and more and more
consciously exploring areas of cultural/spiritual renewal. Although it
might originally stem from the arena of political alternatives, this sector of the media actively explores the power of the individual to set
forth original ideas for renewing society at a local level, or toward alliances of interest groups crossing classical political boundaries. Individuals set forth as examples come from segments of society that we
cannot quite define as politically homogeneous. Additionally, these
publications often focus on the power of art and spirituality to affect
our lives, or simply matters of lifestyle such as our nutritional habits,
spiritual choices, and schooling. Examples of the above are Yes, Utne
Reader, Ode, and Kosmos.
The growing importance that homeschooling takes in modern
society, especially in the US, underscores once again the impact of a
generalized cultural crisis. There are an estimated 26,000 children
homeschooled in Australia and New Zealand, about 80,000 in Canada,
50,000 in the UKall low figures compared with the US. The first US
parents known to be homeschooling were the Bergmans in Utah in
1971. By 2003 there were an estimated 1.1 million children taught outside public and private schools in the US. According to the 2003 US
census, 33% of homeschooling parents gave religion as a reason for
their choice. This was followed by 30% who objected to the poor
learning environment of public schools, 14% who were critical of
school curriculums, 11% who wanted to offer more challenge to their
children, and 9% who gave morality as a reason for their choice. Of
the families that homeschool, an estimated 58% come from a religious
conservative background.
Homeschooling allows parents a flexibility of choices in the
following matters:
-

Choice of the curriculum: from traditional education to

Waldorf, Montessori, and Charlotte Mason approaches,
or the theory of multiple intelligences and others

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279

Allowing especially the younger children more playbased exploration and more imaginative rather than
cognitive ways of learning
Offering an education that is more tailored to individual
needs
Placing more emphasis on artistic education
Offering religious, moral, or spiritual education as part
of the curriculum
Providing consistent education for children whose parents work obliges them to move often

Homeschooling covers a variety of concerns and sets of values

that represent all ends of the political spectrum.
Sociologist Paul H. Ray has shown us what impact is felt in society from the aggregate action of those he has termed cultural creatives, each acting at first through purely individual choices. In 1997,
Ray estimated that 24% of Americans, a total of 44 million people, are
cultural creatives who subscribe to values other than those supplied by
our media. The same tendencies can be seen at work in places such as
the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, and Britain.
Most of the cultural creatives make choices that advertising cannot
reach, based on their own cultural priorities. Many individuals in this
group have withdrawn their trust in traditional institutions and have
placed a greater emphasis on personal empowerment. Cultural creatives are likely to promote the use of art or personal creativity in their
daily life instead of abusing passive media and television absorption.
They may be interested in providing their children with alternative
education or homeschooling. Aware of the need to give a central place
to spiritual values in their life, they may adopt meditation or prayer,
learn listening skills, or develop conflict resolution skills. Approximately 33% of them claim to have had a spiritual experience, and 82%
believe in the healing power of prayer. They often actively support
nonprofit organizations that care for the environment, the fate of excluded segments of our population, and the Third World. All of these
separate actions of individuals and groups and their cumulative effects

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are hardly quantifiable, but they have a growing impact on societal

choices.
GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES
The new kinds of social action we have described cut across traditional
political divides. Good examples are homeschooling or socially responsible investments. Various political approaches are present in both
phenomena. Whether you homeschool your child from a liberal perspective or from a traditional Christian perspective, one of the main
reasons to do so lies in a certain recognition that teaching has suffered
great limitations by having to be entrusted to the political arena, rather
than being an independent cultural concern. The diversity of approaches brought by the many forms of homeschooling reinforces the
idea that freedom of perspective and diversity should prevail in education.
Socially responsible investments may stem from respect for the
environment and social justice, or from concern for individual moral
issues as, for example, from a more religious perspective. The two are
not strictly exclusive and actually can overlap. What is common to
both approaches is the desire to establish values and put them into operation in the economic realm, rather than have an imaginary neutral
market set those values.
The above actions that affect our sociopolitical body are the
visible result of NGOs operating within a new emerging canon. The
US counts, according to estimates, more than one million NGOs (including all organizations, whether they are involved on the globalization issue or not). The National Wildlife Federation in the US lists
three million members. Consumers International claims five million
members worldwide. The network of Friends of the Earth reaches a
million people in sixty countries.
In 1998, eight major nonprofit organizations possessed $4 billion worth of resources: CARE, World Vision International, Oxfam
Federation, Mdecins Sans Frontires, Save the Children Federation,
Eurostep, CIDSE, and APDOVE. Socially responsible funds in the US
reached $1 trillion by the year 2000.1 These financial numbers are one
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281

of the indicators of the strength of an emerging Civil Society that has

in many ways become a worldwide reality.
Let us look more closely at the movements and organizations
of Civil Society and the type of action we have explored. Most of the
NGOs do not engage in the production, distribution, or consumption of
goods. When they take advocacy of political rights as their goal, they
do not aim at taking over any of the functions of government. Rather
they tend to encourage government to better accomplish its role.
The political sector ensures our social needschief of all, the
idea of equality and fairness through the instrument of the law
besides promoting the conditions under which businesses, organizations, churches, schools, and other social entities operate. Economic
activity ensures the production and circulation of goods and satisfies
our basic daily needs. Spiritual needs that create values originate from
an area that we are calling culture, in order to differentiate it from
government or the economy.
Culture deals with worldviews, knowledge, meaning, values,
symbols, identity, ethics, art, and spirituality. Places of worship, places
of entertainment, schools, sports venues, museums, and art galleries
are its gathering points. Identity and meaning are inseparable. They
give human beings a cognitive, esthetic, and moral orientation in the
world. Culture is the source that determines our behavior and action in
the world. The prime mover behind culture is the realm of the spirit,
intended as its source. It is in the area of culture that we learn to commit ourselves to ideals such as freedom, justice, individual responsibility, and civic responsibility. Later we can employ this knowledge in
the economic and political arenas. If the cultural arena is usurped by
the state or the market, it is ultimately the human quest for meaning
that is impoverished, mutilated, or delayed.
The idea of the promotion of human dignity through culture is
diametrically opposed to the purported idea of market democracy.
According to this view, if a country wants to look like America politically, it has to follow its example economically. Actually, the reverse
is much more likely. A vibrant cultural life is necessary before a certain degree of integrated economic development is possible. Such was
the case for America in the one hundred and fifty years preceding the
Revolution. Such a development of civic life led to the Declaration of

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Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, all of them

crowning a vibrant life of ideas. Economic development came only
after political independence. The latter followed the development of a
specifically American culture.
To develop a free society, we need to start with culture. We
have to start with the choices and the setting of values that can only
come from Civil Society. When Civil Society is underrepresented, the
results are similar no matter which ideological doctrines are chosen.
Benjamin Barber argues with irony: You can look at countries like
Singapore, that are quasi-authoritarian, China that remains deeply totalitarian in its politics, both of which nonetheless have capitalist
economies. China is probably the most capitalist, or becoming the
most capitalist, of any nation in Asia. They are very good at capitalism. Theyve also proven rather good at communism, and they also
proved you can do both at the same time.2 China did not develop an
independent and vibrant life of culture. It is this independent culture
that is most feared at present; witness the fierce control exerted over
Tibet and over all other religious traditions, most recently Falun Gong.
Chinese authorities perceive that their one-party system must continue
to exist in a cultural vacuum because it would not survive the challenge of freedom in the cultural sphere. This also explains their obsessive fear of tools of communication such as the Internet. The same is
true in the dictatorial regime of Myanmar (formerly Burma), where
owning or operating a computer with access to the Internet is a serious
crime. These examples prove in reverse the role of information, education, and all that befalls the role of culture. As is the case in China with
the cultural monopoly of the Communist Party, so it is elsewhere. In
the United States as well, control of the media is vital to the interests
of the transnational corporations and their political allies.
Another kind of globalization is possible if we turn the assumptions of elite globalization upside down. TNCs cannot drive a new
world paradigm, because their prevailing value is the bottom line. Elite
globalization makes this paralyzing predicament a worldwide reality
by driving values down to the lowest common denominator. The economy cannot be the source of values, but rather the source of the spiritual emptiness that is all around us. An alternative idea of globalization
looks first and foremost at the creation of a new global culture along
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283

the lines that we have been following so far, values stemming from
new revelations and new practical consciousness tools. The new spiritual experiences that reach the surface of human consciousness reveal
that there is a vibrant source of renewal we have barely begun to tap.
A new source of spiritual knowledge can lead us to an acknowledgment and understanding of all that cries to be heard at present. Experiential spirituality offers us another set of tools to accompany this
awareness, encouraging a personal transformation that will contribute
to a critical shift of consciousness that can reverse worldwide destructive trends. From the cultural realm, benefits really can trickle down to
the political and the economic.
Ammunition for this way of thinking comes, surprisingly, even
from a recent Economist article.3 The results of political changes that
occur in nonviolent fashion, the article suggests, are not long lasting if
they are not sustained by the presence of strong and cohesive nonviolent civic coalitions. Political changes may only bring further disillusion. Such has been the case most recently in Ukraine and Myanmar,
despite successful political campaigns. The Economist article concludes: Countries with few local NGOs, civic groups, trade unions,
churches, student organizations or other independent sources of influence are unlikely to produce the necessary leaders. And if they do, the
sensible autocrat will squelch them as soon as possible. That is what
happens in Iran, where opponents of the regime, especially students,
are given no chance to organize, and where television is always censored and newspapers often closed.
Action stemming from the cultural arena can lead to two essentially different orientations in the world. It can either be life sustaining
and life affirming because it addresses the real and deeper needs of
human beings, leading us to the affirmation of compassion, community-mindedness, beauty, and truth; or life destructive because it embraces substitute values that cannot reconcile an individuals needs
with those of others. Elite globalization replaces our true needs with
the artificial needs with which advertising continuously bombards us.
These create destructive, dysfunctional, and ultimately pathological
individual and social behaviors. Discovering the spiritual source from

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which our deeper values and desires can be recognized leads to the
possibility to satisfy the needs of all.
When values are lost, the cultural vacuum is filled by the reality of the economy and political utopias or agendas. This has been the
tragic reality of the twentieth century. Where culture failed to renew
itself, two great temptations took over; fascisms alliance of the state
and big business with a prevalent economic drive, and communisms
enshrinement of the primacy of state ideology over individual rights.
The third voice, belonging to culture proper, was too weak to emerge
over the ideological battles that stormed over the century. Now that the
Cold War is over and the two world adversaries have melted into an
indistinguishable alliance, we could argue with Michael Lerner that we
stand at the edge of the globalization of selfishness, a perverted mirror image of what culture is about. Where spiritually motivated values
fail to emerge and take hold of the imagination, we will find ourselves
more and more exposed to the aberrations of materialistic selfishness
that defy understanding. Corporate executives, not otherwise famous
than for profiting from the most colossal failures of the century, go to
unprecedented efforts to display wealth. Kenneth Lay of Enron had a
$13.5 million waterfront estate of 15,000 square feet in Boca Raton,
Florida. The no less infamous Bernie Ebbers of World.Com owned a
thirteen-room apartment worth $18 million, on Fifth Avenue in New
York City; the furnishings alone were valued at $11 million.4 In the
cultural vacuum of our times, billionaires are seeking their next million with the same energy with which hungry people in the Third
World seek their next meal.
The perversion of culture also appears in the present megamedia, permeated and dominated by economic interests of advertising,
often transforming information into entertainment and sensationalism,
and turning their sight away from the places in which spirit manifests
itself in real cultural renewal. Political and economic powers know the
values that these media yield and their effect on public opinion to
which they are very sensitive. That is partly the reason for US spending of more than $400 billion per year on advertising.
Global culture works in tandem with the personal spiritual experiences we have outlined. Individual consciousness mirrors global
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285

consciousness. The personal experience of spiritual abundance is preceded by a personal encounter with the shadow, the personal abyss,
everything that wants to define a world of scarcity and fear and deny
the existence of hope, compassion, and love. It is a stage that takes
time, tolerance, and dedication to overcome, and that leads us to believe that there will be no light at the end of the tunnel. The encounter
with the Light of love or Christ is the experience to which humanity
can aspire in its future. As described most typically in near-death-like
experiences, we can see that more and more individuals come refreshed from the experience knowing the reality of love and of an
abundance that can fill all dimensions of our lives. But we do not need
to have experienced it firsthand to embrace its message and walk in its
footsteps. We all stand before this epoch-making choice in our lives.
Civilization is going through this worldwide set of choicesa
culture of fear accompanied by scarcity of resources, mounting terrorism, and insecurity; or a gradual shift towards the embodiment of a
sustainable economic development that supports personal growth,
compassion, and all the highest human aspirations. The choice lies between a culture of exclusion, antagonism, and competition and a new
way of looking at the other as the indispensable complement that
allows us to overcome isolation, separateness, and loss of meaning.
Instead of the old dualism of good and evil, right or wrong, good or
bad, we can make room for a new philosophyone of reconciliation
in which evil is not fought and overcome, but rather understood, integrated, and transformed, whether at the personal or the collective level.
More and more voices of individuals and organizations that are
looking beyond the dualism that has permeated the twentieth century
are finding an echo in the popular soul. Jim Wallis looks at the
right/left divide in his recent bestseller, The Politics of God, from a
politically independent but spiritually committed stance. The subtitle
of his book indicates this very same concern for balance: Why the
Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesnt Get It. Looking at the major
issues at play in national politics, he sees the divide between right and
left corresponding primarily to the emphasis of the former on individual responsibility and of the latter on social responsibility. The two
values, he reasons, are not at all incompatible, but are most often presented as such. When we look at smaller initiatives, typically at social

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work with an underprivileged population, it is implicitly accepted that

social responsibility will not be fostered at the expense of individual
responsibility.
To return to an already familiar place, these values correspond
to what the practice of Nonviolent Communication professes as universal human needs. My desire for individual responsibility will not be
prejudiced by anybody elses need for individual responsibilityquite
the contrary. Nor will a concern for individual responsibility be
harmed by others exerting their idea of social responsibility. The two
complement and strengthen each other quite naturally.
The above view, when applied to one of the hottest issues in
the national arena, is fertile ground for analysis. Wallis reasons that the
issue of abortion sets the two above sets of values against each other.
On the one hand is the very valid and justified issue of human freedom
and social responsibility; on the other, the no less true sacredness of
life and individual responsibility. The reader may remember how both
sides of the issue were treated in Hellingers Family Constellations. In
the family representation, the soul of the newborn is just as real as the
soul of the mother, albeit from a perspective that goes beyond conventional morality. When the issue is examined under the lens of national
politics, Wallis determines that all of the choices we are presented with
are polarized perspectives that avoid looking at all the necessary sides
of the issue. On one end of the spectrum, the life of the newborn is sacred and the mothers freedom is sacrificed; on the other, the choice of
abortion is trivialized, as if saving a human life were at the same level
as any other personal choice. When all needs are considered, we could
ask a third question that political slogans comfortably avoid: How can
we help parents in their choices and give them the means to avoid being pushed into the socially and humanly costly choice of abortion?
Abortion will then be available as the means of last resort, when all
other alternatives have failed.
To return to Hellinger, even though the necessity for abortion
can be understood, the soul will pay a heavy price no matter the convenience of the choice. Yet, when that choice is unavoidable, help can
be offered to relieve the suffering. Here again, from the realm of experiential spirituality, we can devise the nature of a choice that stems
from a purely cultural matrix rather than from a political one
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moreover a solution that transcends the trap of conventional morality

bound to particular religious or political views, or socioeconomic factors. In the clamor of political extremes, all desire for reconciliation is
lost and voters will often face equally unsatisfying choices.
In the above examples we have indirectly shown how a complex situation can be adequately encompassed and understood with
two techniques of experiential spirituality. NVC and systemic psychotherapy have helped us focus on an issue from a purely cultural perspective, because they clearly transcend the limitations of the intellectual structure of either/or that reigns in common political or economic
choices, but is out of place in large societal issues.
Initiatives in the cultural sphere do not spring from direct action, but from a need to understand the world in a different way.
Whether participating in a boycott or joining a support group, the aim
of the individual is the need to inform oneself and others of the choices
that positively and negatively affect both the individual and society. A
real encounter based on true listening is often the simplest, most radical beginning in this renewal of the cultural sphere. Growing segments
of society are realizing more and more the power that lies in telling our
life stories. Two individuals who know each others stories can better
understand and accept their diverging perspectives. This archetypal
encounter between two individuals is the very heart of the approaches
of experiential spirituality.
Once an encounter has occurred, we can take a further step by
changing behavior in order to match new beliefs. This is the simplest
starting point for nonprofit foundations. An inner need to seek information on an urgent topic ignored by the media and by public consciousness may naturally spill over in a desire to spread that awareness
and help fight the social ills that have been perceived. Craig Kielburger of Toronto was thirteen when he started the organization Free
the Children. At age twelve, he came across the story of Iqbal Masih, a
child who had been forced to work as a slave for a Pakistani carpet
factory. After escaping at age ten, Iqbal received an education and
later traveled to many countries, speaking against child labor. He was
murdered at age twelve. Craig first brought this topic to his classmates attention, speaking in the classroom about Iqbals biography.

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An informal group took over from there, holding speeches in schools

and in religious and community groups. The turning point was a petition for the liberation of Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian activist who
fought against child labor. The release of the Indian leader, together
with a press conference that drew Canadas medias attention, were
two important steps towards the founding of Free the Children, an organization that has worked with more than 100,000 children in 27
countries. All the members, apart from supporting staff, are under age
eighteen.
Let us look at the soul of another genuine activist with a deep
spiritual commitment. Julia Butterfly Hill fully embodies what it
means to be a spiritual activist. For 738 days, including two very cold
winters, she lived near the top of an old-growth redwood tree in
Northern California.5 The purpose of her action was to alert people to
the devastating ecological practices of some lumber companies, and
the connivance of public agencies and the very same political world,
which claimed to enact enlightened legislation in the matter. For more
than two years she experienced the gamut of psycho-spiritual experiences, from the depths of despondency and fear to the transformations
brought by the power of prayer and acceptance. Her action stemmed
primarily from the desire to test her personal beliefs and grow from
them, not just proselytize for a cause. This is the kind of action impossible to achieve without a spiritual awakening. This is her testimonial
referring to a crucial moment of her tree-sit: Things began to look
overwhelming. I decided to fast and pray. When you cleanse your
body, you also cleanse yourself mentally and spiritually. So I fasted
and prayed, because this tree-sit needed some divine intervention.
She was not part of any specific political movement, and had,
in fact, to fight against narrow-minded interpretations of her intentions. She started her action where Earth First had taken initiative, but
without being an Earth Firster. She did it solely out of her own personal beliefs, often in contrast to political directives she was receiving.
Her experience led her to realize that she had to be inclusive, and
could only work at raising consciousness of others, including her socalled enemies. She tried and succeeded to be inclusive of all outlooks,
extending her willingness to share with the very same people she was
criticizing. The result of her example made it possible for a new politi288

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289

cal alliance of lumber unionists and environmentalists to emerge, two

forces long at odds with each other. The landmark trait of her work is
the focus on resources, rather than problems, that can only stem from a
belief in and dedication to spiritual values.
Becoming what could be called a spiritual/cultural/sacred activist means spreading consciousness of the uniqueness of the role of
Civil Society and its autonomy from traditional politics and business.
Beyond opposing what is destructive and life denying, spiritual activism should contribute to the promotion of new global values that uphold healthy social relationships, and respect the environment, the
spiritual world, women and minorities, and individual ethical choices.
Resistance is a very real, initial need. We have seen it in the events
leading to the battle of Seattle and the awakening of consciousness that
resulted from it. This work will be needed as long as Civil Society remains the poor sister of national and international governance and the
economic sector. However, resistance alone has a limited impact. Beyond that stage, it becomes necessary to devise and implement alternatives through dialogue and cooperation.
CIVIL SOCIETY AND EXPERIENTIAL SPIRITUALITY
The above overview, far from systematic, can at least indicate how
vast is the arena of culture and how diverse is the work that can be accomplished in its realm. Two very different levels have been encompassed within this review. One is the structural level of the promotion
of the cultural realm, what is now called Civil Society; the other is the
inner aspect of the change of consciousness needed in order to move
from the idea of political activism, with which we are all very much
familiar in our time, to the fluid, moving, yet unknown consciousness
that is needed to affect the realm of culture as a spiritual, visionary, or
cultural activist.
At the outer level is the need to promote a healthy and independent Civil Society through the formation of networks of initiatives
and through an active participation in the emerging three-way dialogue
that has been dubbed three-sector partnership. In so doing, Civil Society establishes its equal rights in cooperation with government and the

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

organized business sector. At this point in history, it is still the

younger, weaker sibling that the two giants want to co-opt and subjugate to their own interests. The understanding of the need for Civil Society to stand on its own feet as the third force is a notion that is only
slowly gaining ground.
Great steps have been achieved in recent times wherever Civil
Society is invited to the table on an equal footing in dialogue with
government organizations and businesses in the growing idea of threesector partnerships.6 The novelty of this approach lies in a dialogue
that goes beyond opposing ideologies. In the reality of the precariousness of Civil Society, this work of dialogue, which alone can bring
lasting results, needs to be supported by a clear recognition of the issues that Civil Society stands against.
The aim of this work covers what we could provisionally call
the inner aspect of Civil Society, the sets of ideas and techniques
that can help define its identity, promote its inner strength, and set a
whole new way of being and working for those who want to act primarily at the promotion of those values that are threatened by the
globalization of selfishness. It is not only a new society that needs to
be encouraged; it is a whole new human being who can see beyond the
unavoidable outer and inner traps of materialism that are reflected in
the strictly dualistic mind. This is a work that takes time, ideas, and
techniques. The promotion of these ideals both on a cognitive and on a
practical level requires what more and more people see as a culture of
encounter and dialogue that will allow the cultural sector to overcome
its traditional weaknesses of insularism, dogmatism, and suspicion of
other groups ideas and behavior. It is this culture, first achieved at the
local level, which can be applied later at the local, national, or global
levels, in the dialogue between Civil Society, government, and business. Where will the global experts in dialogue, mediation, and arbitration be if they will not permeate the culture of the local organizations
for social change?
That this culture of dialogue, moving beyond sterile dualistic
thinking is emerging is the realization of Paul Ray. In relation to the
new cultural wars fought within the nation, or at a global level, this is
what he suggests So, what position do the Cultural Creatives take in
the cultural war? They refuse to choose sides. They head off in a third
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291

direction that is neither left nor right, neither modern nor traditional.
Oppositional movements have influenced them less than cultural
movements that try to educate our desires and change our minds about
reality. They want to see the big, inclusive picture, and they want to
work with the whole system, with all the players. They regard themselves as synthesizers and healers, not just on the personal level but on
the planetary level, too. They keep cutting across social class and racial lines, across ideological lines of liberal and conservative, and
across national boundaries, rejecting militarism, and across national
boundaries, seeking long-term ecological sanity.7 Even if the overall
estimate may appear over-optimistic, it certainly reflects an evolution
of consciousness. This perspective is present in the way social change
is presently debated.
New organizations have sprouted on the sociopolitical horizon
from a variety of backgrounds that cover new realities of the politicalcultural arena. The year 2006 alone saw a Conference of Spiritual Progressives in Washington DC, a conference on Sacred Activism in Seattle, and the Spiritual Covenant for America also in Washington DC.
Books have appeared approaching the political question from a variety
of new angles, such as Gods Politics by Jim Wallis, The Left Hand of
God by Michael Lerner, The Bank Teller and Other Essays on the
Politics of Meaning by Peter Gabel, and The Great Turning: From
Empire to Earth Community by David Korten.
How can spirituality work hand in hand with concern and action for social change? Stone Circles convened a Conference on Spiritual Activism in June of 2005 in New York.8 People in this gathering
came from numerous traditions: Buddhist, Christian, Islamic,
Yoruban, Yogic, Native American, and others harder to define. They
were engaged in practices that ranged from meditation and prayer to
nonviolence, sacred scriptures, worship, yoga, ritual, storytelling, art,
music, and time in nature. Their stated interest lay in the recognition
that a consciousness shift is needed in order to promote significant
changes of behavior. Spirituality is the springboard that helps them see
the larger picture and renew their energy and commitment to daily
work. Combining action with reflection, social engagement with contemplative practice, can ultimately lead to what could be boldly defined as embodying love. It is recognized that many organizations for

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social change struggle to support their own people who often face exhaustion, burnout, and inner hopelessness. Attending to ones needs is
an important step towards the healing of the organizations and the
communities to whose needs the individuals attend.
Movements for social change will not be successful unless
rooted in spiritual principles and practice. Participants in the Stone
Circle conference expressed the need for techniques that help to cultivate sets of principles and mechanisms that simulate deeper awareness of what is happening directly in the moment. The difficulty lies
in finding practices that respect all backgrounds and spiritual beliefs.
Groups often need to find an internal balance between the individuals
more focused on process and those who want more action and decision-making. This tension does often turn into a rift. And yet, emphasis on either inner transformation or action may simply be a false dilemma. This is at least what new movements that have emerged with
the millennium tend to demonstrate. They are offering us a tangible
prospect on the future role of Civil Society.
ARGENTINAS HORIZON OF HOPE
With the benefit of what we can reap from the experiences of the Zapatista movement and Argentinas experience of horizontalism, we
can look at how new forms of social change both support and are supported by personal inner change. For this, we will look primarily at
Argentina. Here we can find an emblematic portrayal of the devastating policies of elite globalization on one of the most developed and
industrialized countries of South America. And yet, we can see, as a
phoenix rising out of the ashes, a movement of hope that can serve as
an example to all who strive to carry further social change hand in
hand with inner development. In addition, looking at Argentina will
form a sort of summary and compendium in action for everything that
has been articulated in this book. A first dream made concrete will offer us a way to dream further the future of a sustainable globalization.
The Political Situation
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293

Argentina had a strong welfare state in the 1940s and 50s. This gave
rise to the Peronism, essentially the regime of a populist strong man,
Juan Peron. The political ideal of armed insurrection touched the country in the early seventies through ERP and the Montoneros. The former
were originally a Trotskyist movement that later embraced Maoism.
The latter was formed by left-wing Catholic and Peronist groups.
In 1970, the Montoneros kidnapped former dictator Pedro
Eugenio Aramburu (in power 19551958) and others who had collaborated with him: unionists, politicians, diplomats, and businessmen.
Other important kidnappings occurred in 1974 and 1975, targeting
politicians and business executives. In 1975, the group sank an Argentine destroyer and exploded a bomb in the Federal Intelligence Department of Buenos Aires, killing eighteen. For their part it is estimated that the ERP occupied 52 towns, robbed 166 banks, and stole
over US$76 million. They concentrated their activities in the impoverished area of Tucuman to the northwest. The Montoneros carried out
techniques of urban violence; the ERP acquired control over about a
third of the Tucuman area. Both groups never constituted a serious political threatdue to the lack of popular supportand were the object
of intense repression, sanctioned by the government of Isabel Peron.
They offered, however, the pretext for the political repression in the
years that followed1976 to 1983in what has been called the
Dirty War. Estimates of human rights organizations place the number of people who disappeared at 30,000. They were the object of
murders and torture of great cruelty. The repression targeted all political opposition, trade unionists, and students.
Under the atmosphere of continual repression, a new kind of
movement arose: the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Asociacin
Madres de Plaza de Mayo). These were mothers who met while trying
to find out the fate of their disappeared sons and daughters. Every
week for almost thirty years, they have gathered in the central Plaza de
Mayo in Buenos Aires for a half-hour walk around the plaza, modeling
a kind of humanitarian protestone that took the regime by surprise.
They wore white scarves as a symbol of peace and displayed pictures
of their loved ones. The original association discontinued its efforts in
2006, judging that they had the support of the present government; a
faction still seeks further recognition of the governments role in the

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abductions and murders. Three of the fourteen founders have disappeared.

The Economic Situation
Argentinas economic woes have deep roots in its political past. The
origin of the latest turmoil lay at least as far back as the military regime, which contracted enormous debt for projects that were left unfinished and for the Falkland/Malvinas Islands War against the UK. In
the eighties the state was unable to pay interest on its debt. Inflation
grew and reached 200% per month and 3,000% annually in 1989. Carlos Menem came to power and implemented a neo-liberal agenda in
alignment with the IMF, bent on labor deregulation and privatization
of state companiestelephone, energy, and water among them. Argentina kept on borrowing, and due to a favorable exchange rate could
import cheaplywhich led to a flight of the dollar away from the
country, an impoverishment of the industrial infrastructure, and consequently higher and higher unemployment.
The introduction of soy in Argentinean agriculture speaks volumes for the neo-liberal policies sponsored by the IMF. Most of the
worlds soybean cultivation comes from three countries: the US, Brazil, and Argentina. Together they produce 188 million metric tons, or
more than 80% of world production and more than 90% of the soy
produced for export.
This trend has resulted in the massive displacement of Argentine farmers, and the appearance of hunger and starvation in one of the
richest agricultural nations. This is also accompanied by ecological
devastation. To place land under soy cultivation, vast acreage has been
deforested, making the soil more susceptible to flooding and ultimately
desertification. Most of the soy cultivated is of the Roundup ready
genetically modified strain, meaning that it is routinely cultivated with
high doses of Roundup herbicide, which it has been engineered to tolerate. At present, due to extensive monoculture, soy will be more and
more susceptible to emerging microbial, fungal, and other attacks,
such as soy rust, which entered Argentina in 2003.
Numbers give an idea of the progression of the crop: production reached 27,000 metric tons in 1970, 3.5 million in 1980, 10.7 million in 1990, and finally 34 million in 2004. Soy formed 50% of the
294

CONCLUSIONS

295

countrys grain harvest in 2003; rice, wheat, corn, and sunflower declined apace. Internal beef consumption declined by 16% between the
years 2002 and 2003 alone.9
The production is dominated by a few companies that have
formed a de facto cartel, leveraging the infrastructure necessary for its
growth from the government, while passing on social and ecological
costs to the community. Between 1967 and 2001, under the pressure of
the neo-liberal policies sponsored by the IMF, 260,000 family farmers
went out of business; 160,000 after 1990 alone.10 Where soy reigns,
the landscape has been depopulated of most farmers, practically made
dispensable. The companies have mechanized much of their production and the local population depends on jobs that occupy them for
only a few months a year.
To give an idea of what the changes meant for Argentina, consider that the country that had been called the granary of the world
has started to know hunger and starvation, particularly after the 1980s.
Between 1990 and 2003, the agronomist Alberto Lapolla estimates that
450,000 Argentines died of hunger, the equivalent of 55 children, 35
adults, and 15 elderly a day.11 The transnational corporations have
transformed Argentinean lands as short-term investments, a little like a
factory that depreciates and can be moved elsewhere. Benefiting from
government-sponsored infrastructure, they can maximize their profits
in a short span of years, then leave the local community to deal with
the ecological devastation that happens particularly fast in ecologically
fragile soils.
The precarious economic situation generated in the 80s was
aggravated by a sudden reevaluation of the dollar, which caused prejudice to the countrys exports and the source of dollars that they constituted. By the end of the 90s, the results of these policies were clear.
Argentina entered a recession, while the government continued contractive policies that further hurt the poor and unemployed. Foreign
investors withdrew their investments, and further capital resources fled
overseas. That was not allthe 90s continued a trend of disruption and
social fragmentation that affected the last surviving places of encounter: the neighborhood clubs or libraries, the unions, and the social ser-

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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

vices. Even the habit of meeting the neighbor over coffee was receding, say some. All sense of community was fading away.
The economic collapse culminated in a collective loss of confidence in the economic policies of the government. When the citizens
started withdrawing their assets from the banks, the government froze
their accounts. Yet here, what could have been a violent uprising and a
spiraling of violence effectively gave birth to something new.
December 19 and 20, 2001
We have seen the precedent established by the Mothers of the Plaza de
Mayo. In the 90s, following the closure of industries, the unemployed
started to organize first in the south, then in the north, and finally
around the capital in MTDs (Movimientos de Trabajadores Desempleados or Movement of Unemployed Workers). They essentially created a movement without hierarchy, staging massive blockades of major road arteries and pressuring the government for unemployment
subsidies. The blockades earned them the popular name of piqueteros
(roughly translated: blockaders). It is of great interest to remark that
the great majorityin places up to 90% of their rankswere women.
Argentine speak of the 19th and 20th to refer to all that happened during those two key days of spontaneous uprising in December. These started with pot bangings (known as cacerolazos), in which
the population spontaneously marched towards the center of the capital. Along the way banks and foreign and especially American companies were the object of destruction. The middle class, in effect declassed, found the inspiration to extend in solidarity towards the underand unemployed, understanding that their common woes had their origin in the neo-liberal policies of the government. The accompanying
slogan was Que se vayan todos (roughly, We want all of them
[politicians] out), which replaced previous political slogans. Participants encompassed a large political spectrum. President de la Ra declared a state of siege. In reaction to that, more pot-banging demonstrations followed in Buenos Aires and other major cities, indicating
that the government was losing the support of the middle class. Those
who did not take part in the outpouring often helped those who were.
On December 20, the protesters converged to the Plaza de
Mayo in spite of the state of emergency. Five people were killed, and
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297

other violent incidents occurred throughout the country. Having lost

political support, de la Ra resigned.
A participant to the events has said: This was the beginning of
a new sense of identity, and moreover of community. People started to
regain the confidence to look at each other after the fear generated by
years of military dictatorship and economic devastation. In effect
community began around the question of how can we solve our problems?
Horizontalism
In the last ten years we have witnessed the development of social
movements that do not act along the political premises of the past.
Rather they show us the potential of the assertion of an independent
Civil Society. One of the earliest was the Zapatista movement that began to involve the indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico from
1996. The indigenous communities have organized themselves at a
grassroots level in a process honoring their cultural identity, independently from the state or political platforms. At another level, a similar
development is promoted by the landless movement in Brazil (MST),
reclaiming land left uncultivated. Other similar movements are rising
in the Third World in the South African shantytowns, India, Ecuador,
and Bolivia through the initiative of indigenous groups rising to stop
the privatization of common resources (in particular, water) and destruction of the environment. On a smaller scale this is also taking root
in Eastern Europe, Canada, and the US. What is unique in Argentina is
the level of organization and the impact this new idea has on the economy with the formation of expanding networks.
Different concerns converge into the movement: struggles for
the earth, life, work, health, and against hunger, bringing together people of revolutionary persuasions, feminists, LGBT, indigenous communities (Mapuche and Guaran), and also many with no previous
militant experience. The convergence has become something larger
than the sum of its parts in the fight for dignity and freedom.
We have seen that the MTDs played the role of forerunners of
the present movement. They started in the north and south of the country and organized against local governments and corporations. In great
numbers they took their requests to the streets by blocking major

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roadways and pressuring for government subsidies. What was new was
their recourse to direct forms of decision-making. Instead of designating a representative, the group decided that they would negotiate directly at the blockade. They thus obtained the first unemployment subsidies in Latin America. These movements created a loose network,
called Anibal Veron, soon after the crisis of 2001. Over time another
one was born in its stead, the Frente Dario Santillan. A shift occurred
around 2003, when part of the MTDs decided to focus on selforganization and attempt to implement their own self-sufficiency,
rather than depending on the state. Roadblocks lost a great part of their
importance. Other forms of organization have acquired further importance in the movement that recognizes itself with the two central ideas
of horizontalidad (horizontalism) and autonomy.
The aftermath of the 19th and 20th saw the rise of spontaneous
neighborhood assemblies in which many tens of thousands were actively engaged. Some estimate that there were about 200 assemblies in
urban Buenos Aires in the month following the uprisings, each comprising from 200 to 300 people.
Often, writing on a wall or a poster would invite people to meet
at a certain place and time, and an assembly was born. However, participation in the assemblies has decreased since the heyday of the 19th
and 20th. The adversaries are state interference, other intruding parties
pushing political platforms, and a lack of concrete direction for their
work. The political parties have resorted to creating false neighborhood assemblies, then using the time they have to press for their agendas. This, however, further discredits them. Most of the neighborhood
assemblies that survive are those that have concrete projects and/or
occupy buildings.
Another element of the landscape of horizontalism is the tomas
(taken). The word is used for occupied factories. It is consciously
chosen over words with a political connotation, such as occupied or
recuperated. The greatest majority of the tomas, if not all, occurred
in places that were abandoned by the owners and in which the workers
had not been paid, at times for up to six months. These were workers
who had nothing else to turn to than their work and trade for survival.
Many of the factories had also been partly emptied of machines and
raw materials, or else had aging equipment. The assemblies also occu298

CONCLUSIONS

299

pied buildings and banks that had been abandoned for a great number
of years. No violence was done to the factories, no door forced, nor
were the sites used for living quarters.
From a few dozen at the beginning of 2001, there are now a
few hundred revived workplaces. Among these are: factories, printing
presses, medical clinics, a four-star hotel, and a daily newspaper.
These workplaces work very closely with the media and art or educational collectives, offering them space. Among activities offered there
are: popular kitchens that feed over a hundred people a day, popular
education classes, theater and music workshops, bakeries, cafes, and
places for working with street kids. Popular kitchens are often the first
step addressing the urgent needs of poverty and undernourishment.
Others who have land organize organic gardens and raise animals for
meat.
The tomas seem to have quite a wide popular support. The
government is constantly trying to find openings and weaknesses in
the workers vigilance or support in order to evict them. When the authorities and police come to dislodge the occupants, support is offered
in most cases by the neighborhood associations and other collectives,
but also by people from all walks of life; for instance, the retirement
home situated across Chilavert came out to defend the reopened printing press. In some cases, as for Zanonone of the largest reopened
factoriessupport included Internet articles from journalists and other
individuals all over the globe. At present, many occupations have received variable levels of support through the legal system.
The workplaces have started to network in order to support
each other, initially through a system of barter of their products and
services. The networking is starting to expand to a global level, facilitated by the tide of change that is going on throughout South America.
In 2005, a First Gathering of Recuperated Workplaces was convened
in Caracas, Venezuela, with representatives of 263 workplaces from
eight countries. Networking extends to other aspects of the whole
movement. The Argentines are weaving relationships with the Landless Movement of Brazil (MST) and are constantly exchanging ideas
with the Zapatista Movement of Chiapasfor example, through visits
of delegates to Mexico. Global networks have now been established,

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such as the Peoples Global Action (PGA) and, of course, the World
Social Forum.
We have reviewed the developments that characterize the Argentine revolution. Something has already emerged of what makes
horizontalidad unique, through the new social structures that have been
created. But, we will not find its key signature in a rigid definition.
Horizontalism is not an ideology. It is more of a way of relating to one
another in a direct democratic way. Another departure from classic
ideology is that you will not find only one key thinker in the movement. This is why we will quote this or that voice, be it a worker in a
toma, an assembly participant, or an MTD member, as they have been
collected in interviews by Marina Sitrin.12
Another key word of the movement is autonomy. This word is
used to differentiate the new phenomenon from the state or from hierarchical organizations. It has no relation with the Marxist understanding that the term covers, especially in Italy. Unlike older forms of
autonomy, social change is not requested from the state or deferred to
some future ideal condition such as seizure of power. Autonomists
intend to change the world without taking power. In this they are similar to the Zapatistas. To be truly autonomous is to come close to not
depending on a specific plan. I believe that now is the point of ruptures, where plans are falling apart, and that little by little we will find
ourselves without them, says an unemployed worker from an MTD.
From now on we will refer primarily to horizontalism in order to refer
to the movement as a whole.
The new movement emphasizes an experiential approach as
opposed to utopian ideas and goals. If one day we achieve true autonomy, we wont be autonomists or autonomous, but will, in fact, be
free, claims Emilio of Tierra del Sur neighborhood assembly. Another individual echoes, The reality of the situation is never subordinated to the ideallike the concept of a correct assembly. Were much
more on the side of reality than the ideal. We dont celebrate the fact
that there are assemblies in the abstract. We dont find all assemblies
interesting as a general rule. The same spirit is found in the Zapatistas dictum: walking while questioning, and moving forward with our
reflections, which implies a willingness to proceed through trial and
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301

error. It is interesting that the two movements speak with similar

words in spite of having little contact.
It is not surprising that Argentine horizontalism places great
emphasis on the realization of concrete projects; starting a community
kitchen or an organic garden is more important than laying a permanent blueprint for the future. Thoughts and ideas are not solely the
product of cerebral cogitation. Thoughts must also engage the physical
body. Thoughts emanate from transformative practice, says a member
of an MTD. [Horizontalism] is something thats constantly under
construction and reconstruction, says one of his friends. In fact, people equate the experimentation with ideals to a sort of quest. Ultimately, no forms or techniques (e.g., assemblies or piquetes) are seen
as universally valid. What is used today may have no reason to be tomorrow. There is a refreshing commitment to questions rather than
answers, and this is reflected in how the participants express themselves in I believe or I feel and ultimately I dont know or Im
not sure, without dimming their enthusiasm for a continued search.
What is started is wholly new, a process of uncharted creation. It goes
from traditional delegation to direct participation. So, in the beginning
at least, it is strengthening the traditional democracy of the voting poll
to a more direct democracy. It is to this, among other things, that the
term horizontalism refers.
Another important feature of horizontalism is the idea of true
dialogue without compromise or fear of different opinionstrue consensus over and above weak compromise. Full discussion promotes
participation; it does take more time, but the walk is important, and a
new consciousness is created through it. Listening to each other is, in
fact, at the center of the whole process. This is the process that awakens awareness of the importance of the process of communication and
the new practices of sociability that the movement is seeking to consolidate. This is the means for getting to the core, to what everyone has
in common, rather than pitting one interest against another. All of this
is what the political parties cannot do when they try to join or co-opt
the process, especially in the assemblies.
Horizontalidad counters the idea of one personone vote as an
idea of ultimate justice. Rather, it wants consensus, working to encompass differences. In this way, no central authority is needed

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rather, facilitators or temporary leaders. When all voices are included,

a true group thinking that does not sacrifice individuality can
emerge. Thus, much of the support that people and organizations offer
to each other starts just at the level of listening to and sharing experiences that can inspire. When a toma is threatened by eviction, the support and input of others who have gone through the experience can be
a very important first stage. The attempt to encompass diversity is
summed up by Neka, a woman from MTD Solano: What we are as a
movement is not about building a unified movement or hegemony, but
a step toward creating diversity. This [building horizontally across
different movements] is much more powerful than building a single or
universal movement.
There is a diffuse realization in the new movement that classical political thinking is what caused the problem in the first place.
Many will clearly indicate their distance not only with institutions, but
also with all forms of political thinking. They may call their experience a process of internal revolution. Those who consider themselves political militantsand there are manyoften express themselves in the old revolutionary language. However, two elements are
grafted to it. The first is the reference to the new terms of horizontalism and autonomy; the other is a distance from institutions and a disillusion with party politics. If there is a model that is often invoked, it is
the Zapatista precedent. Overall, this translates to the desire to move
from the individual to the social levels of reality, rather than the reverse. The bridges to the new individual experience are the flexible
social structures and networks.
Many groups consciously decided not to ask government for
helpin some cases even foregoing help offeredin order to intentionally step into a space of autonomous initiative, rather than dependence upon the government for solutions. On the other side, the reality
is that the unions and the political parties do not do much to offer support to reopened factories or MTDs.
An experiential approach, a commitment to questioning, and
inclusiveness lead to another important result of horizontalismthe
joy and creativity that exudes from many of the participants, in spite of
an often-grim reality of need. This is how it is expressed by Toty of
MTD La Matanza: We are constructing with a happy passion. Hap302

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303

piness isnt something you can postpone until tomorrowwe must

live with total fervor today, echoes a fellow unemployed member.
Everybody realizes that this was hardly possible before the present.
Under capitalism, we were giving up the possibility of enjoying ourselves and being happy, remembers Neka of MTD Solano. But she
adds for good measure, The leftist parties try to destroy our differences. Its a form of power to make us one thing. That form of power,
of course, is false and fake and would have everyone obey a capitalist
or Trotskyist boss. One way to extend this joy is through solidarity
with the least fortunate. Assemblies have taken initiative for helping
out the cartonerosthe unemployed who survive by recycling cardboard and other recyclablesoffering them hot meals when they finish work, staging celebrations and fundraisers, and so on.
Listening, creating, and spreading joy embolden many to express ideas that seldom find their way into the arena of social change.
This is what has become consecrated with the term affective politics.
The movement has to be the thing that revives healthy relationships,
says Vasco of MTD Allen. Another fellow unemployed member expresses it even more boldly: We try to love each other. Its difficult. This is part of our changing culture, and as we change we notice how much we really need to. Many individuals interviewed by
Marina Sitrin (in her book Horizontalism) recall with pleasure how far
they have come along in modifying relationships of antagonism into
caring and appreciative friendships. Over and over again they express
the wonder of discovering something new about themselves or celebrating the reconciliation with the one who was perceived as an enemy. Affective politics is not just meant for internal consumption,
however; people express wanting to extend it to the rest of society.
Building a New Culture
Horizontalism offers us the most concrete example of what it means to
create social change from a cultural perspective. It is a departure from
anything attempted in the past. We are creating a new movement, and
this movement doesnt have much to do with previous ones (Nicolas
from Indymedia). And further: Were not creating the opposite, but
are creating something else. We arent building the opposite to the
capitalist system, thats been tried and it doesnt work (Emilio from

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Tierra del Sur neighborhood assembly). We are entering an uncharted

territory, and this is accompanied with the often stated We dont
really know what we want, but we do know what we dont want. The
creation of this newness explains the need to create new words or
adapt old ones to express a new realityone, moreover, that is rapidly
shifting.
Carlos G of Zanonthe largest factory occupied in Neuquen
says, What the workers of Zanon are accomplishing represents a truly
inspiring redefinition of values. And further: It is all part of a new
reeducation. You speak with a certain confidence, you feel that it is a
compaero that struggles at your sideand there you become more
human. How are you not going to love him? Yes, you esteem him, you
love him, and I am not exaggerating. There is a diffuse consciousness
that horizontalism is really about a whole redefinition of values, and
further, that these values are not something definite and immutable.
This lack of uniformity is itself the source of aliveness of the movement. Some see that this redefinition of values is what will lend
strength to the fight against poverty and social ills. The difference of
horizontalism with the alternative politics of the past is that the latter
struggled for single issues or for material advancement alone. The new
movement wants that advancement to be the result of new values and
new relationships and not the other way round, because that is already
a source of joy and transformation in itself.
A particular example will be particularly meaningful for what
has been explored within this book. In Argentina, the topic of abortion
has been previously viewed within a traditional worldview, heavily
influenced by Catholicism. At present, in the discussions that come up
around abortion there is an urge for working with all its aspects and to
treat them within the context of Argentinas culture, rather than solely
as a question of rights. Acknowledging the trauma of abortion is advanced as an important aspect: To have an abortion is a terrible thing,
whether you have the money to have one or not. Its a horrible experience from a cultural point of view. Its also awful because someone is
messing with your body, says Paula, of a feminist and LGBT collective. And she adds, It would be a very profound cultural question, not
only a legal question. And Claudia, of an alternative-media collective,
adds: One thing that is clear though, is that the feminist discourse of
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the past no longer works. Its old, and it needs to be revised to speak to
our present condition as women. Considering that this is said by
women who have not hesitated to stand up where men had most often
given up, these remarks cannot be passed off as submissive acquiescence. These views are often expressed by the very same women who
are very active in changing the machista attitude that is still very present in the movement. Once again, this is part of a spirit of inquiry and
questioning, rather than reliance on ready-made answers.
Looking at the Argentine backstage, we can further delineate
the profound meaning of the present movement. December 19th and
20th are described over and over again as a rupture, the equivalent
of a collective shift of consciousness that made possible a new social
birth. This goes together with the realization that what has most power
is really the new consciousness. Many people survived the crisis and
began to think about how to rebuild their lives in a different way. Its
really incredible, says Martin of a neighborhood assembly, referring
also to himself. People relate the experiences predating December
2001 to their present life and see how they have changed by taking
new, unprecedented steps. They link the change to their own adoption
of new values. Many have found new abilities and skills they would
never have suspected. Even those who were already politically involved will notice this: I changed. For me, it wasnt a political awakening, because from a practical and theoretical point of view, I was
always involved. But what I did have was a really skeptical attitude,
says Carina of the Argentine World Forum mobilizing committee.
The new consciousness lives with the heightened awareness of
being poised between two worlds, two diverging realities. We all arrive here from the outside, having been beaten up by the outside
world. Whereas here [in the MTD] you may have a problem, but it
comes out of work were engaged in, rather than your lack of something, says a woman from MTD La Matanza.
The people in the new initiatives have the feeling that they are
learning to be human from a wholly other perspective. They want new
ways of being and thinking. They can point to larger implications of
their personal predicament from diverse perspectives. Capitalism
produces sick people and sickness, in that order, says a man from

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MTD Allen, adding, That is because we live in a society where everybody is permanently desperate, and that makes people sick. Another unemployed worker intuits that this matter has even deeper roots:
The problem of power cannot be attributed exclusively to capitalism. Its historical roots lie in the totality of modernist thought and in
the way humanity carved out its historical trajectory. Ultimately, this
is best explained by Neka of MTD Solano: We have fought against
and attacked the capitalists, but we didnt know how to combat capitalism. We can annihilate private enterprise and the corporation that
symbolize all of that [system of domination], but if we dont combat
our way of relatingwhich reproduces all these thingsit seems like
we are fighting an empty battle.
At bottom some feel it is cultural survival and the survival of
our humanity that is at stake. Were at a point in time when the contradictions of capitalism presuppose either the dissolution of humanity
or the creation of a whole new civilization, states an unemployed
worker. And Emilio, of the Tierra del Sur neighborhood assembly
says, How do we change ourselves and our communities? This is as
important as getting rid of the IMF. More important, even,
Cultural change of such a dimension is a slow path. In the
words of Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos: We take the slower path
in order to construct something true, something that is representative
of the people and the collective. This indicates that nothing allencompassing is awaited from the first steps. What horizontalism understands is that the self cannot find expression in traditional politics.
It is lost in the abstraction of interest groups, social classes, or abstract
thinking. Rational thought and directed action are valued at the expense of feeling, relationships, and what makes a person whole.
For all of the above reasons, taking power is a very low priority; exerting it differently is the key. Horizontalists pride themselves of
holding assemblies and taking decisions in ways that are completely
transparent. Power is felt in the individuals ability to change the tenor
of their relationships and build new social relationships and structures.
It is seen as capacity, a potential. This goes together with the realization that what has most power is the new consciousness. I dream that
we recover our culture, that we recover the value of each other, and of
merely being human, says Gonzalo of HIJOS (a collective of the
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307

children of those disappeared during the dictatorship) in summing it all

up.
It comes as no surprise that in the radical shift that horizontalism represents women played a very important role from the beginning. They also played a part in it before horizontalism was thought of
as a new reality. In the dark days of the Dirty War, the Mothers of the
Plaza de Mayo ushered in a protest movement that went beyond the
political to essential human values and presented the first real rupture.
Women in the movement are very aware of the role they have in shaping a new culture.
The creation of new values is the real threat to the existing system, and this notion is clearly expressed by how repression manifests
itself, as in the case of Chilavert, a printing press of just eight people
the same who printed the book Horizontalidad. The attempted eviction
of the press involved eight assault vehicles, eight patrol cars, two ambulances, and police with dogs. They had to retreat due to the overwhelming support the workers received from all areas of society, including the neighbors and even the elderly from the neighboring retiring home. In other instances as the case of Felix Salud, an occupied
clinic, the police were present in numbers surrounding the whole
building, and had brought in assault vehicles, fences, firefighters, and
helicopters. There, too, thanks to the outpouring of support, the eviction was staved off.
But the difficulties are not just external. Many realize that in
order to create the new they need to resist fear, and that fear is the best
weapon the government can spread against the movement. Fear and
inner doubt naturally take over once the initial euphoria of change
wears off. As Emilio of Tierra del Sur aptly puts it, Its much easier
to believe in the system by voting for a leftist party, than to attack it.
Creating new values is challenging and exacting. Many unconsciously
experience the difficulty of staying in the vacuum of the creation of a
new culture, and some take refuge in what they know, the promises of
political parties. This means that some people in the movement come
and go, even return, challenged by the transformation that is needed at
a personal level. Political parties know this, and will pay good money
to enroll the most active participantsfor example, at election time,

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offering them ten or a hundred times the money they are able to make
on their own. Some offer examples of salaries of up to $1,500a considerable amount in Argentinain order to buy off people to sap energy from the movement and cause division in times preceding the
elections.
It is to be foreseen that the islands of new culture will coexist
with the older culture, and that this may be the predicament for a long
time. Creation can take place alongside the survival of the old. This is,
in fact, what happens with an alternative economy that is set alongside
the prevailing one, with which it has to have innumerable points of
contact. It would be preposterous to postulate a parallel economy.
We have seen how the new economic initiatives seek strength
in the collaboration of like-minded initiatives. They are seeking to do
so in independence from the state, political parties, the church, and all
of the institutions in general. Central to the new approach is the creation of flexible networks. Emilio of Tierra del Sur expresses it thus:
The traditional leftist configuration is like a tree, where the central
committee is the trunk. On the other hand, the relations we are experiencing between different movements resemble web-like formations. Its like a network, a real network, where no single group leads.
Its a web of independent and interrelated communities, which dont
work around a single consolidated project; rather relationships form
around concrete projects.
The clearest example of the articulation of these networks is
expressed by the revived workplaces. Chilavert, the printing press, has
commitments with other reopened factories (for example, through barter), with popular kitchens (printing free flyers for them), with
neighborhood assemblies that came out in their defense, and so on.
They will themselves show up when another factory nearby is threatened with eviction. However, there is an understanding of the limits of
close cooperation among reopened factories. This works well between
entities of comparable size and output, but not beyond that. The
smaller networks can only address the first levels of needs. The future
will require further experimentation and creativity.
Another important aspect of horizontalism is what is emerging
in education, information, the arts, and medical care. Many MTDs and
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309

initiatives are establishing schools with a wholly new curriculum, consciously different from the prevailing culture of domination as it is
propagated in the public system. At MTD La Matanza, where the new
school is supported by the microenterprises (sewing, baking, silkscreen
printing, and book publishing), a woman says, We believe that in
some way were going to change the education system from what we
experienced. All the things were taught are carried inside ourselves
and they are difficult to remove later. We think that its more difficult
to struggle with the enemy inside of ourselves. Another woman adds,
Teachers are used as a tool for the government to promote the system,
and we want to break with that. Occupied workplaces and neighborhood assemblies often invite artistic collectives and independent media
and harbor cultural initiatives under the same roof.
MTD Solano has taken similar steps and also foresees doing
the same in matters of health care. As Neka says, We also talk about
producing autonomous health care and autonomous education. We
also have a lot of people working in libraries and with childrens projects. For matters concerning health, the reopened clinics feel an urge
to set themselves up in such a way that they can provide to the needs
of all, regardless of financial resources, and strive to do so within their
constraints.
The thorniest issue at present lies in the relation to government
and its institutions. The movement as a whole has taken a stance of
stand and resist. Understandably, horizontalism needs to accumulate
practical experience and find an understanding of its own unique contribution, before it risks being diluted or co-opted. The new that is being built needs to be protected and strengthened before the risks lying
in the next stages can be taken. Most are aware of the dangers of cooptation and how capitalism has been adept at incorporating everything that supposedly threatened it. That may be the reason for refraining from engaging at this stage of the game. Some will admit that the
relationships with the state will deserve due attention in a not-toodistant future. This [relationship with government] is really ambiguous terrain that intelligence can occasionally help you navigate, says
a man from MTD Solano. Weve chosen, at least within the movement, not to become auxiliaries to, or supporters of, the government.

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We understand the limitations in this and know there are others who
are doing it.
On one level, these relationships are starting to be built. The
judiciary is often asked to support the tomas and give a legal foundation to their enterprises. Local legislation, sometimes only temporarily,
offers a framework for factories to continue in operation and explore
how to legalize ownershipfor example, forming a cooperative. In
this realm it is clear that an adversarial stance would only lead to a
dead end.
A new movement is showing the way in Argentina, Chiapas,
and elsewhere. What is most prominent is the fact that it is organized
primarily along cultural and not political lines. Nicanor Perlas, a cultural activist in the Philippines, defines what characterizes the new cultural arena of Civil Society in its being organized in a wholly new
way.13 Much of what he expresses can be recognized in the Argentine
situation. We will search in vain in Argentina for a new charismatic
leader that inspires a unified line of thought or strategy. Leaders offer
what best they have for temporary mandates that they receive; they
have to prove their integrity through the tenor of their life and commitment. The movement itself is led by many; it is mobile and fluid. It
works like a network rather than a tree, as is the case in any political
party. The outcome is a fluid creation of new ideas and initiatives,
rather than the creation of new permanent structures. This is a concrete
example and inspiration for all culturally based initiatives aiming at
social change in the future.
HORIZONS FOR A NEW CULTURE
This book has looked at what already exists in the realm of cultural
renewal, as it applies to social matters, and how it can be articulated in
terms of principles and practices. What is offered can be envisioned as
a basis for the contemplative practice of the emerging Civil Society. It
is not intended as a complete inventory, but rather as a sampling of
ideas and practices that inform and sustain a new way of acting in the
world that is only becoming possible at the beginning of the millennium. Let us briefly review the two complementary aspects that have
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311

emerged from this work: new spiritual ideas and new spiritual practices.
Rudolf Steiner was a pioneer in the diffusion of the ideas of
karma and reincarnation from a new scientific perspective. Edgar
Cayce, Spyros Sathi, Arthur Guirdham, Joan Grant, Grace Cooke, and
a growing host of mystics and seers have come to the knowledge of
previous lives and have contributed to the diffusion of these ideas that
are sorely needed for the whole of civilization, despite the fact that the
dominant culture most often vehemently resists them.
Acceptance and active exploration of these ideas creates the
opposite consequences of what is most often naively feared. Considering that we most likely are eternal individualities, being schooled in
the material world will lead human beings to want to better their lot in
life. The realization of a responsibility that we do not magically blot
out or absolve ourselves from with death will awaken us to a more urgent desire to bring redress to those deeds we regret. Furthermore, a
genuine understanding of the laws of reincarnation and karma eliminates the false dilemma of knowledge versus faith. True knowledge is
indeed the avenue to love, but such results may not appear immediately or in the same incarnation. That does not absolve us from the task
of acquiring knowledge of the spirit, or from the effort of expressing
love for our fellow human beings. All knowledge of the spirit will inevitably make us better people, able to act with more compassion and
understanding of other human beings. Neither side of the equation of
knowledge/love needs be a false dilemma; nor do faith and science
need to be irreconcilable.
An understanding of karma that reaches beyond the few easy
clichs is of great importance in the moral realm. It deepens the feeling
of human responsibility, and gives full meaning to the familiar concept
of taking responsibility for our lives. In the idea of karma there is
really no other substitute for individual responsibility, nor anyone to
legitimately blame for our life burdens beyond the structural ills of society. The most important consequence of understanding these ideas
rightly is that we shape our destinies to such an extent that what meets
us is most often the result of what we ourselves have set in motion, or
of what challenges we have embraced with love for the taska love
that we often need to rekindle.

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It is most often objected that the notion of karma is a kind of

escapism from responsibility. It is true that old ideas about karma have
often degenerated in this direction. Living with a karmic perspective
means living fully engaged in the present with the awareness of the
weight that our decisions carry. These premises would encourage anyone to acquire spiritual discipline and develop listening and/or conflict-resolution skills. Sheer intelligence and willpower will be reevaluated in the light of the fact that they have little value in a larger
perspective where acceptance, atonement, forgiveness, and personal
growth are key virtues. A karma-based perspective is a continuous invitation to understand and accept other peoples limitations, change
our own perspectives, and slowly modify our worldview.
Acquiring a deeper understanding of karma in our own lives
will invite us to the underestimated effort of accepting ourselves as we
are, mourning what we regret, and growing into the realization of the
unique contribution we can make to the world. Self-acceptance will
then form the basis for accepting others and forgiving them their transgressions. Knowledge of the laws of karma will render us more realistic in what we can expect from others in one lifetime. It will also grow
into the realization of what our role can be in their personal growth.
The above holds true when we direct the gaze to group issues,
knowing that they are the compounded effects of a mosaic of individual karma or the replay of other more ancient situations of conflict.
Wars, ethnic hatreds, and religious strife plunge their roots far deeper
than the mind can acknowledge in a necessarily simplified manner.
While we most often may not be able to reach such knowledge, we can
at least be wary of ideological and strictly political solutions. Holding
this perspective in mind is already a great help in the direction of moderation.
The perception of the divine in the dimension of the human can
help us consecrate our life to service of our fellow human beings. Service will then be perceived as the necessity of the souls growth and
find its reward in understanding of the network of love of which we
are part for both our own and other peoples growth. It is a true wonder that the divine can always be perceived around us in other human
beings, and that every encounter is an opportunity for us and for the
world. Not least of all is the growing realization that human beings are
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313

beginning to actively co-create with the divine in a way that is only

becoming possible now that the veil between the two worlds is thinning.
Taking responsibility is, as we have seen before, the central
idea of experiential spirituality. The practices we have examined invite
us to a paradigm shift, to a new consciousness. Most of all we need to
patiently vanquish the demons of the dualistic mind, the us versus
them mentality that seeks an enemy in every problem. If there is an
experience most easily reached by anyone who earnestly engages in
experiential spirituality, it is the idea that the enemy is us. As Civil
Society invites us to think beyond duality in the social realm, so is experiential spirituality threefold by nature. It invites us to think in
both/and rather than either/or terms, and to reach the third term of the
equation without which the opposition of the two remains sterile. NVC
is most often carried out in conflict situations, and there is no term of
opposition that it cannot help us resolve; there can only be a corresponding lack of skill. There is no moral issue, no matter how painful,
that a Family Constellation setting cannot help us move in the direction of improvement and healing over time. Likewise, the Twelve
Steps help us modify entrenched aspects of our personality concerning
substance abuse or relationship dependence when they are taken earnestly to their ultimate consequence. Prayer at the personal or group
level is another healing and community-forming tool of great power.
A new consciousness is what can differentiate individuals and
organizations working in the cultural field. The old objections that
pacifists were as angry as those who supported war is what should invite us to ponder and hesitate to rely on formulas for quick solutions.
As the report of Stone Circles suggests, a different society will ultimately only derive from the slow incremental effect of the sum of
changes in individual consciousness until a significant shift is produced. How can this tendency be accelerated and how can it be found
in large doses in the organizations of Civil Society? It has been proposed and repeated in many of these circles that we have to set the basis for a vigorous culture of encounter. How could this become more
than wishful thinking? It is a fact that moral exhortations hardly produce desired improvements. Behind every idea that acquires strength

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in the world, there is concerted practice and individual discipline.

Where then are the techniques and discipline that would allow Civil
Society to be a spark for cultural renewal and social change, if not in
the tools of experiential spirituality and in new spiritual knowledge?
What is it that makes a cultural/spiritual activist different from
the typical political activist of the last century? We have seen it in the
example of Julia Butterfly Hill. In the measure that this kind of activist
is directed outwardly, all the more did she need to be aware of herself
and of the tenor of her relationships. The variety and depth of the tools
of experiential spirituality make it only a matter of choice for all of us
to know what we need in order to ally effectiveness with compassion,
determination with flexibility, and practice enthusiasm without dogmatic fervorin brief, to ally the opposites in a synthesis with the
third within ourselves. This will be the stuff of miracles.
The emerging force of Civil Society needs to grow in the
awareness that it does not just want to bring about new outcomes. It
must first and foremost want a different way of being, at a time in the
history of our planet where few other options remain.

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APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1
Pre-birth Memories: An Account
(Excerpt taken from Children Who Communicate Before They Are
Born: Conversations with Unborn Souls, by Dietrich Bauer, Max
Hoffmeister, and Hartmut Georg, Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge,
2005, pp. 6265)
It was much more difficult to write it down than I had
imagined. I wanted to stick as strictly as I could to the truth, but my
descriptions sound to me like a delicate fabric which I am trying to
reproduce with rope!
She starts by describing the difficult life situation of her own
mother who is not married, has an alcoholic partner, and has already
had one miscarriage. During her second pregnancy, in about the sixth
month, she feels the child in her womb kicking her vigorously, after
which she is not aware of it moving any more, and it feels as though it
has died. She immediately goes to the doctor, who wants to operate on
her, for he thinks the child cannot be saved. She rejects this, goes to
another doctor, who gives her injections and orders rest, until, some
days later, the child moves again.
I was this child.
This child is born, but she is not beautiful to look at. One of her
eyes squints, the corners of her mouth turn downwards, and later on
her teeth grow crooked. She makes a sickly impression, and gets a
temperature every now and again for no apparent reason. Her mother
does not like showing her to people. Friends are sorry for her being so
unsightly, and the only thing they admire is her blond hair.
The child wonders why adults pity her. She does not feel at all
unhappy or lonely, for she lives and plays with a little brother to whom
she gives things and a big brother who protects her. Only the grownups cannot see these brothers. Not until later does she hear that apart
from the earlier miscarriage, her mother had a further miscarriage after
her second child.
It happened once that in the presence of the child the
expression the end of the world was mentioned. In bed that evening
she imagined the following picture: the sun setting, the yard with its
hill and its cherry trees disappearing, the linden tree in front of the
balcony and herself with her little blue tin bucket all disappearing. And
she was afraid that there would not be another day tomorrow. All later
feelings of fear were nothing compared to this feeling of being caught

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318

up in the destruction of the world, of seeing everything she was used to

holding onto disappearingthe house being razed to the ground and
the trees crushed and herself swept away in the roar of the storm. A
monster opens its jaws and threatens to devour the child. She screams
with terror. She turns over in bed until she lies on her knees and
implores: Dear God, do not let the world come to an end tomorrow!
Let the sun come back! At least tomorrow!
Then the whole world was transformed. A great calm was
suddenly there, and a question hung in the air: Why? She then
entered more strongly into her own inner depths, searched for the
reason why and, finding the answer, she said: I want to do something
in the world. I have promised to do something great, and I still have to
do it. And giving this answer she felt herself to be in the center of
creation, full of love towards everything that had just appeared so
destructible, but also full of a feeling of responsibility beyond all
understanding.
Now, for the first time, she experienced loneliness, and wept.
But then it seemed as though at the head of her bed there was seated a
being clad in a wide, white robe, before whom she knelt, and laid her
head on its lap, and the being spread out its wings over her.
When the child started school the moments of conviction came
less often. The child often thought of a being sitting on the right hand
of her bed, but she felt as though she were merely imagining it.
Admittedly the being did speak to her, and she felt his presence, but
less and less did she believe in what she saw. Yet she was furious
when this being gave her to understand that it was not going to oblige
any more but wished to withdraw. The child convinced herself that the
being could not possibly withdraw, for she herself was creating it in
her own thoughts. But the room became empty.
The child is perplexed, and cannot bear being deserted.
Whether on that evening or later on, she resolves to believe that the
being exists as long as she can only feel it. And the resolve restores her
sight. The being is there again in front of her. Now, however, he stands
up and moves towards the child, standing before her, joined in some
mysterious way to her brow. The child felt the being as outside herself
yet at the same time within her, where, with a movement of the hand,
it pulled away something like a curtain which appeared to have been
just inside her forehead. And for the first time the child saw the

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319

following pictures arising, like a dream, but at the same time like a
long-forgotten memory.
As a grown-up, decades later, she writes: I am amazed that the
experiences I want to narrate have not been forgotten or concealed
beneath the passing years. It is more as though, closing my eyes, I
were remembering something that had recently happened or, to be
more exact, as though it existed right now, filling the whole of time,
outside me, above me.
And then she gropes for the right language for the memory
pictures, tentatively seeking for the right feeling of responsibility for
what she saw, strict with herself: I feel myself released from
darkness. I move and this fills me with wonder, joy and the
inescapable wish to continue this movement. At the edge of the
darkness a being detaches himself, which accompanies me on my left.
Lights emerge in front of me which move and intertwine like snakes,
but which do not concern me. It seems to me that my companion wants
to embrace me and carry me back into the unconscious dark. Yet I
strive on towards something which looks like a spot of light. It is a
plain spread out before me, picturesque and colorful.
I am warned against my parents, especially my mother. But
with all my strength I want to dive into this light. The voice of the
being now becomes clearer. I may choose between two ways: the one
is to be externally beautiful but inwardly impoverished, the other to be
rich and beautiful within. I choose the second way with the thought
that I shall after all be able to have an influence on my exterior. Then I
am surrounded by a kind of love, but also sadness. And as I depart I
am allowed to make a wish. But the movement has caught me up. It
appears that that itself is the wish. I experience time, feel that what lies
behind me is fading away. I am alarmed and force myself to turn
round. I want to be certain about my father, never lose consciousness,
and bear a light within me. The joy of the being who is beside me feels
like a song. Then it grows dim, after which an impressive voice tells
me that I shall have a task, and I promise to remember it. As I move
forward forgetfulness overcomes me, enveloping me like a cloth. Once
again I call out, and this call is like a bridge which becomes as thin as
a thread and hazy. Then my memory fades.
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APPENDIX 2
The Life of Rufus Moseley
The following has been gathered from the Manifest Victory: A Quest
and a Testimony, by Rufus Moseley, New York: Harper and Brothers
Publishers, 1941; and A Resurrection Encounter: The Rufus Moseley
Story, by Wayne McLain, Minneapolis, MN: Macalaster Publishing
Co. 1997. The quotes come from Moseleys book, unless otherwise
noted.
Rufus Moseley, born on August 29, 1870, grew up in a very close-knit
community near Elkin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
He had a warm, honest relationship with his father, whose utter
honesty he admired. His mother led a very devoted life of prayer and
was very supportive of her childrens education. Such was her faith in
Rufus that she followed him later into then highly criticized Christian
Science. The boy was so physically frail that it was feared he would
die young. He suffered many attacks of physical poisoning and painful
indigestion. In later years the doctor would use opiates to relieve the
pain, but Rufus so disliked the aftereffects that he would often prefer
to endure the pain.
During his childhood he grew up among Primitive Baptists,
Methodists, and Missionary Baptists. At age six he awakened to the
following words of the Bible that his brothers read to him:
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. This is
the discourse of Jesus to the Samaritan woman from John 4. In his
autobiography he also mentions that while taking First Communion he
saw a gentle, glowing light over the table. These experiences
notwithstanding, in his youth he had not formulated any precise
commitment to faith.
As a child he was already successfully applying his skills as an
arbitrator between quarrelers. From an early age he wanted to become
a lawyer. At school he learned to read slowly and his handwriting was
poor. At age seventeen, he took an exam that allowed him to teach at
the elementary level. He taught his first summer term in a challenging
and disruptive classroom. Seeing that he was hardly old enough to pass
as an authority and master a difficult situation, he decided to seek and
befriend the ringleader, and managed to win the classs trust.

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321

He later pursued four years of college education at Peabody

College, one year at Mercer University, one semester at Heidelberg,
Germany, and several summers at Harvard. At that time his spiritual
leanings came to the fore, and he resolved to turn to a life dedicated to
Christian teachings. Yielding to this inner urge he had his first
experience, although brief, of being in the kingdom of heaven,
meaning a state of rapture.
From 1894 to 1900 he taught at Mercer University in Macon,
Georgia. From 1889, when entering Peabody, to 1900 when he
resigned his professorship, he had a very active intellectual life.
Political science was one of his major interests. He so impressed his
professor, Henri Pratt Judson, that the latter helped him secure a
teaching fellowship. Besides political science he had a thorough
background in philosophy, depth psychology, and literature.
According to biographer Wayne McLain, he was one of the most
educated men of his time.
The flexibility of Moseleys thinking may be a little puzzling.
In theological terms he was not a fundamentalist, although more
orthodox than the average fundamentalist; not a religious liberal,
although he saw himself indebted to many liberal thinkers. He would
have sympathized with the goals of liberation theology, but not its
means. He did not have an apocalyptic vision of history as it is
currently held, but viewed Christs mission as the ultimate goal of
history. He did not see human destiny as an escape from earth, but
neither was he a philosophical naturalist. He did not deny the
experience of earth; rather he saw it lifted and spiritualized through
Christ. He could always see what was worth saving even in his
philosophical adversaries. Of Deweys deterministic philosophy, quite
opposite to his thinking, he adopted the pragmatism and the practice of
learning through experimentation.
Moseley was strongly influenced by idealists such as Plato,
Emerson, and other transcendentalists who helped him realize the role
that mind and ideas play over form and matter. He saw the ideal made
actual through the ministry of Christ. With a certain challenge to
commonly held opinion, he stated that he came to the Baptism by the
Holy Spirit (his Christ experience) more through Emerson and Plato
than through biblical orthodoxy. In his autobiography we can see how
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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

living so deeply in the world of ideas transported him to the spirit.

While reading Plato he once completely forgot his body and the pain
that so often plagued him. He stated: I was lost in intellectual
delight. When he returned to his everyday consciousness, his pain
resumed. This experience was repeated some years later.
Throughout his academic career and especially later, Rufus
liked to express himself with humorous thoughts and in parables that
would suggest rather than fully elaborate on philosophical concepts.
He was able to relate his spiritual insights in brief, condensed
sentences, rather than with elaborate trains of thoughts. He loved the
poetsparticularly Tennyson, Emerson, Browning, and Donneand
after his Christ experience, found more truths in them than in the
philosophers. McLain intuits: Such a capacity for transfigured
synthesis in thoughts is a poetic quality more of the nature of intuition
rather than analysis. In essence, Moseley had gone through a
thorough, comprehensive schooling of the intellect before being able
to express flashes of deeply intuitive knowledge.
From 1900 to 1910 Moseley was associated with Christian
Science. He became a paid contributor to the Christian Science
Journal and eventually the First Reader of the Macon congregation.
This was a radical departure from the Baptist background of Mercer
University. Christian Science had grown out of the New England
transcendentalist movement and was then a very new development in
American religion. The young man was attracted to Christian Science
as the most daring and radical experiment for doing again at least
some of the works of Jesus. He was, we could say, on a quest for
complete wholeness. His health played an important role in his
decision. However, he wanted to know the laws of life that make one
healthy and was determined to not ask for healing unless he learned
how to live better.
The eagerness of Moseleys inner journey led him to willingly
sacrifice a position of prestigehis professorship. He resigned
because of his desire to learn from the Christian Scientists and the
obvious fact that this could not be accepted by the faculty at Mercer.
Here, as in everything else he did, he was seeking to be led by the
spirit. His resignation was accepted with mutual good feelings and his
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323

relationship with the Baptists continued on even better terms after his
departuresuch was the esteem in which he was held.
Even though Moseley was weary of Christian Sciences
aspiration for perfection, he was attracted by its enormous claims, in
the spirit of experimentation. The spirit under which Moseley entered
this phase of his life can best be understood by the conviction he had
then reached: I saw in the love and wisdom of Jesus a scientific
certainty, an understandable law, and a workable principle that I had
not seen clearly before. I saw that the teachings of Jesus are really
provable or demonstrable to all who dare honestly and bravely to try
them. When we yield to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and His way of life, we
are not in the realm of opinion, not in the realm of belief, but of
highest self-evident truths. This, as we will see later, stemmed not
from dogmatic persuasion but from an intuition of the possibility of
experiencing the very same ideas that he intuited.
What led Moseley to his final Christ experience was a gradual
crescendo over time. The seeker had quite a few experiences that are
actually frequently confused with the ultimate goal. The difference is
that the last one had permanent effects, albeit with a minimal delay as
we saw in the chapter on the Christ experience. Asked by a Methodist
minister if he had had a second blessing (the so-called Baptism in
the Holy Spirit) he answered that, Christ encounter included, he had
had about seventeen.
He first experienced a wonderful sense of divine love when
he initially converted, but he said he was too immersed in his quest for
knowledge and ambition to become a lawyer or somebody important.
The experience of union and love increased when he gave himself
completely to the quest for God and abandoned the ambition of a
secular career after leaving Mercer.
Moseleys trademark was his great earnestness to openly
experience what others offered him. On the occasion of a visit from
the evangelist Penn, he alone responded to his invitation to experience
the spirit despite peer pressure to resist the emotionalism of
revivalism. He went to another service with Pastor Penn and later,
while reading a passage of Saint John, he felt sure of being at that
moment in the joy, peace and fearless love of the Kingdom of
Heaven. All these steps along the way illustrate how much Moseley
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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

eagerly and sincerely believed in the possibility of fully experiencing

what he believed to be true.
Upon attending his first Christian Science service in Boston,
during communion, he felt lost in the spirit and enveloped in a great
ocean of love. He had no conscious memory of how he went from the
gallery to the main floor of the church. In his experimenter zeal
Moseley became interested in Moore Halls gatherings in Macon held
by ministers of the Pentecostal movement that had just recently spread
from Azusa, California. As he gave himself to thought and prayer, he
says, A burning power got over my body and I had periods of unusual
illumination. Finally in about a weeks time the glory left, but the
power on my body increased.
Other pronounced spiritual experiences followed the aftermath
of the resolution of difficult human situations; for example, his various
choices that led to the parting of the ways with his colleagues. The
decision to seek release from the Christian Science movement caused
him much inner suffering. Afterward he felt much stronger awareness
of the presence of the spirit. He joined the Pentecostals, but there
experienced tension with their orthodox tendencies. Among his
certainties at the time he claimed: thatthe Spirit of Truth, rather
than a church, or even the church that is His own body, was to be the
authority, teacher, leader, guide and revealer of Him, and that we
should not even call, much less look upon anybody on earth as Master,
Rabbi, Leader, Father, Mother, etc.
McLain states somehow intuitively that only a resurrected
mind is the appropriate response to Moseleys resurrection testimony.
We could argue that the reverse is also true: only because he had that
resurrected mind could he reach the cardinal experience of his
biography. In effect Moseley possessed one of the most trained minds
of his time. He had an intense earnestness allied with objectivity in the
approach to the truth. Moseley reached this stage through a complete
dedication to knowledge together with an utter capacity for self-denial,
to even abandon knowledge for the pursuit of his higher self.
Knowledge was never an end in itself.
After his central experience, he perceived Christs presence
even in nature. Even the cattle and the chickens, to use a fine line of
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Browning, had learned the new law, so surpassing were they in form,
movement, grace, and beauty. The experience of cosmic
consciousness motivated Moseley not to be the leader of any sect, nor
belong to any branch or denomination of religion. He explained that,
in a way, he hated all denominations for their sectarian limits, and in a
deeper sense he loved them all. This resolution allowed him to be of
help to all groups and churches. He felt assured that he would not need
to build any church because the churches of others would open to him.
Likewise he was offered a regular space in the Macon Telegraph
where he could regularly pen articles. Until the end of his life he
worked in his pecan grove while he ministered to the poor and
imprisoned and witnessed to those on the top of human privilege.
Moseley is remembered for the truly genuine interest he had in
everyone, his ability to smile and laugh much, and his irrepressible
optimism. With such a dose of earthiness it is not surprising that he did
not like the epithet of mystic, but preferred to call himself a
firsthander. His writings in the Macon Telegraph reveal his interest
and concerns with economic justice, world hunger, international peace,
and overcoming racial prejudice and denominational bigotry.
More important than everything he did in the world were his
theological views, or rather the tangible fruits of his Christ experience.
Having originated in 1910, they still sound prophetic and corroborate
much of what later phenomena have brought to light. Moseley invited
those who listened to him to leave the observer stance and become
subjects of the quest for Christ, to have the desire to meet Him in the
here and now rather than hope for Him after death. In an article in the
Christian Science Journal of September 1908 he wrote that while to
God there is only one universe, one creation, for human beings the
Christ is the mediator between the two worlds. And he concluded
with: The resurrection and ascension as well as other events in the life
of Christ Jesus are unfolding stages of consciousness as well as facts
that are possible of recurrence in the experience of all who go His way.
Everything in God is always a present and eternal possibility for each
and every son of God. (Manifest Victory, p. 63) Through his
experience Moseley realized that heaven wants to come to Earth much
more than we need to go to heaven. The transformation of the earth
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REVOLUTION OF HOPE

comes from having to unite with the divine made human, the truly
human that incarnated in Jesus Christ. He saw in the death and
resurrection of Jesus the beginning of the biological transformation of
the entire external universe. And further: Love creates the external
order. In a word love creates, completes and transfigures
concretion. (A Resurrection Encounter: The Rufus Moseley Story, p.
14) Rufuss encounter with Christs resurrected, glorified body
sustained and emboldened his conviction that human destiny includes
a transfigured Earth.
For Moseley the resurrection appearances of Christ are not
finished. It is essential to transform our inner being in order to make
this encounter possible. The appearance of Christ has to be explained
not as that ultimate journey in outer space that we would take after
death, but as a movement into a higher dimension of being. Moseleys
prophetic views overcome the notion of a dualistic universe with a
material Earth and a divine heaven. That is what led him to assert that
heaven and hell are already present, and that likewise Christ can be
encountered in the here and now.
The consequence of all the above is that we are made to be
partners in the work of the spirit, of Christ on Earth: The divine
purpose is to make us like Jesus Christ, and partners with Jesus Christ
in making all things like Him. And further: Hes interested in a
cosmos that is redeemed and glorious, and a new heaven and a new
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, peace and everything (from a
talk he gave in Ardmore, Oklahoma shortly before his death in 1954).
Moseley loved the experience of the Earth. In the new meeting
with Christ, old notions of asceticism play no part since there is to be
no separation between the sacred and the profane. Neither gazing up
into heaven nor working to make the Earth better, apart from the Holy
Ghost and apart from vital union with Jesus, will prepare one or the
world for His coming, either before or after the millennium (Present
and Coming Kingdom, Macon Telegraph, May 7, 1933). It isnt
therefore surprising that Moseleys focus lay not in the Christ that was,
but in the Christ that is and therefore in the elusive idea of Second
Coming. In this regard he writes: The reason that we have to wait for
the full manifestation or coming of Christ, for the kingdom of God on
Earth in its fullness, is that God awaits our full cooperation with Him
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and for His perfect love to triumph in us and in our relationships with
one another. He is ready and all that is in the way is for us to get
ready. (Workers Together, Macon Telegraph, June 22, 1930) and
further: Jesus is coming again and coming in great glory to the end
that we may be changed even bodily to His likeness and be lifted to
His throne of power and dominion. (God is Love, Macon
Telegraph, August 19, 1934)
His personal experience is what allowed him to say that the
coming of Jesus in glory does not mean that He is brought to the level
of the worlds life, but that He is to appear as He is to lift us into His
likeness, and as fast as possible to lift all life. He is first to appear to
those ready for His appearing. And further: In the light of all that is
now at hand through the love of Godwhat manner of response there
should bea putting on of Christ, what hastening preparation for His
coming, what co-working with Him that everything that lives and
suffers and enjoys may at the quickest possible moment receive and
participate to the fullest in the love and peace and glory of Christ.
(Resurrection as Fact, Macon Telegraph, April 20, 1930)

327

NOTES AND
BIBLIOGRAPHY

NOTES
Chapter 1: Globalization: Willing or Not
1) Nicanor Perlas, Elite Globalization: The Attack Against
Christianity, CADI monograph, (Quezon City, Philippines: Center
for Alternative Development Initiatives, 1998), 2627.
2) Ibid., 16.
3) Data from Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs, 2003 quoted in
David Korten, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth
Community (Bloomfield CT: Kumarian Press; San Francisco:
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006), 5859 and 62.
4) Perlas, Elite Globalization, 1718.
5) Quoted in Korten, Great Turning, 59.
6) Perlas, Elite Globalization, 18.
7) Ibid., 18.
8) Jesaiah Ben-Aharon, Americas Global Responsibility:
Individuation, Initiation and Threefolding (Great Barrington, MA:
Lindisfarne Books, 2004), 3334.
9) Arianna Huffington, Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed
and Corruption Are Undermining America (New York: Crown
Publishers, 2003), 12.
10) Perlas, Elite Globalization, 3233.
Chapter 2: Of Life Before Birth
1) Sarah Hinze, Coming From the Light: Spiritual Accounts of Life
Before Life (New York: Pocket Books, 1994), 1489.

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

332

2) Dietrich Bauer, Max Hoffmeister, and Hartmut Georg, Children

Who Communicate Before They Are Born: Conversations with
Unborn Souls (Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge, 2005), 19.
3) Ibid., 3132.
4) Ibid., 8283.
5) Hinze, Coming From the Light, 9294.
6) Bauer, Hoffmeister, and Georg, Children Who Communicate, 62
65.
7) Ian Stevenson, Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A
Question of Reincarnation (Charlottesville: University Press of
Virginia, 1987).
8) Carol Bowman, Childrens Past Lives: How Past Life Memories
Affect Your Child (New York: Bantam Books, 1997).
9) Stevenson, Children Who Remember, 7376.
10) Trutz Hardo, Children Who Have Lived Before: Reincarnation
Today (Saffron Walden, UK: C.W. Daniel Co., 2000), chapter 6,
161170.
11) Stevenson, Children Who Remember, 71.
12) Hardo, Children Who Lived Before, chapter 7, 184193.
13) Stevenson, Children Who Remember, 172173.
14) Bowman, Childrens Past Lives, 214215.
15) Ibid., 213.
16) Hardo, Children Who Lived Before, chapter 5.

NOTES

333

17) Jenny Cockell, Across Time and Death: A Mothers Search for
Past-Life Children (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993).
18) Betty Riley, A Veil Too Thin: Reincarnation Out of Control
(Malibu, CA: Valley of the Sun Publishing, 1984).
19) Although the antecedents are not stated in an unequivocal fashion,
mention of a flu appears before the first recall episodes, and
mention of being very ill before another series of dreams close in
time to the first ones. See Riley, A Veil Too Thin, 8182 and 86.
20) Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, Beyond the Ashes: Cases of
Reincarnation from the Holocaust (Virginia Beach, VA: ARE
Press, 1992).
21) Barbro Karlen, And the Wolves Howled: Fragments of Two
Lifetimes (London: Clairview Books, 1997), 1.
22) Ibid., 87.
23) Ibid., 41.
24) Marilyn C. Sunderman, Past Lives, Present Joy: My Spiritual
Journey (New York: Kensington Books, 1999).
25) Karlen, And the Wolves Howled, 228.
26) Arthur Guirdham, The Cathars and Reincarnation (Saffron
Walden, UK: C.W. Daniel Co., 1970).
27) Arthur Guirdham, We Are One Another: Astounding Evidence of
Group Reincarnation (Saffron Walden, UK: C.W. Daniel Co.,
1974).
28) Arthur Guirdham, The Lake and the Castle (Saffron Walden, UK:
C.W. Daniel Co., 1976).
333

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334

Chapter 3: The Spiritual Perspective

1) Edgar Cayce: My Life as a Seer: The Lost Memories (New York:
St. Martins Paperbacks, 1997), 13.
2) Ibid, 17.
3) Ibid, 94.
4) Ibid, xx.
5) Ibid, 171.
6) Ibid, pp. 188-89 and 258-59.
7) W.H. Church, The Lives of Edgar Cayce (Virginia Beach, VA:
ARE Press, 1995), 19.
8) Mary Ann Woodward, Edgar Cayces Story of Karma (New York:
Berkley Books, 1971), 33, referring to Reading 31621. Other
readings in the chapter have been quoted from this and the
following book.
9) Noel Langley, Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation (New York: Warner
Books, 1967), 110. Many of the readings in the chapter have been
quoted from this book.
10) Harmon Hartzell Bro, A Seer Out of Season: The Life of Edgar
Cayce (New York: Penguin Books, 1989), 193.
11) Langley, Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation, 267.
12) Ibid., 269270.

NOTES

335

13) Rudolf Steiner, Autobiography; Chapters in the Course of My Life:

18611907 (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1999),
chapter 4.
14) Ibid., chapter 37.
15) Ibid., 304305, and Robert A. Powell, Most Holy Trinosophia and
the New Revelations of the Divine Feminine, (Spring Valley, NY:
Anthroposophic Press, 2000), 86.
16) Steiner, Autobiography, chapter 57.
17) Ibid., chapter 59.
18) The reader will find a more about what is described in the chapter
in the following sources by Rudolf Steiner: Earthly Death and
Cosmic Life, seven lectures given in Berlin in January, February
and March 1918, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1927); and The
Presence of the Dead, seven lectures given in various cities in
April and May 1914, (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press,
1990). For a collection of different lectures on the topic, see:
Staying Connected: How to Continue Your Relationship with
Those Who Have Died, edited by Christopher Bamford (Spring
Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1999).
19) Rudolf Steiner, Life Between Death and Rebirth (Spring Valley,
NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1968), lecture: Anthroposophy as the
Quickener of Feeling and of Life, Tbingen, February 16, 1913;
and lecture: The Mission of Earthly Life as a Transition for the
Beyond, Frankfurt, March, 2, 1913.
20) Because of the modern names assigned to the planets, the
designations of Venus and Mercury are used in the reverse order,
corresponding to their earlier designations; thus in what follows,
Venus is considered first and Mercury second. Steiner, Between
Death and Rebirth, lecture of Nov. 3, 1912, among many other
lectures.
335

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336

21) See Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, vol. 1, (London: Rudolf

Steiner Press, 1972), lecture of February 24, 1924, Dornach; and
Karmic Relationships, vol. 5, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press,
1984), lecture of March 30, 1924, Prague.
22) Steiner, Between Death and Rebirth, lecture of March 10, 1913,
Munich.
23) Ibid.
24) C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,
Collected Works, vol. 9, part ii, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1979), 8.
25) Quoted in Gehrard Wehr, Jung and Steiner: the Birth of a New
Psychology (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1990),
279.
26) Bernard Lievegoed, Man on the Threshold: The Challenge of Inner
Development (Stroud, UK: Hawthorn Press, 1983).
27) Werner Priever, Illness and the Double (Spring Valley, NY:
Mercury Press, 1984).
28) Lievegoed, Man on the Threshold.
29) See particularly: Rudolf Steiner, How to Know Higher Worlds
(Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1904).
30) Steiner, How to Know Higher Worlds, chapter 11: Life and Death:
The Great Guardian of the Threshold.
31) Rudolf Steiner, Reincarnation and Karma: Their Significance in
Modern Culture (Vancouver, Canada: Steiner Book Centre, 1977),
lecture of Jan. 30, 1912.

NOTES

337

32) Rudolf Steiner, Secrets of the Threshold (Hudson, NY:

Anthroposophic Press, 1988), lecture of August 31, 1913.
Chapter 4: of Life After Death
1) Sir William Barrett, Death-Bed Visions: The Psychological
Experiences of the Dying (Northamptonshire, UK: The Aquarian
Press, 1926).
2) Bill Guggenheim and Judy Guggenheim, Hello From Heaven: A
New Field of Research After Death Communication Confirms
That Life and Love Are Eternal (New York: Bantam Books, 1995).
3) Ibid., 33.
4) Ibid., 16566.
5) Cynthia Bourgeault, Love Is Stronger Than Death: The Mystical
Union of Two Souls (Great Barrington, MA: Lindisfarne Books,
1997).
6) Guggenheim and Guggenheim, Hello From Heaven, 3512.
7) Helen Greaves, Testimony of Light (Saffron Walden, UK: C.W.
Daniel Co., 1969).
8) Ibid., 2223.
9) Ibid., 144.
10) The Bridge Over the River: After Death Communications of a
Young Artist Who Died in World War I, translated from the
German by Joseph Wetzl (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic
Press, 1974).

337

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338

11) Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, On Life After Death (Berkeley, CA:

Celestial Arts, 1991), 1416, 50, and 60.
12) M. H. Atwater, Beyond the Light: The Mysteries and Revelations
of Near-Death Experiences (New York: Avon Books, 1994).
13) Ibid., 4647.
14) Melvin Morse, Closer to the Light: Learning from Near Death
Experiences of Children (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990).
15) Melvin Morse and Paul Perry, Transformed by the Light: The
Powerful Effect of Near Death Experiences on Peoples Lives
(New York: Ivy Books, 1992).
16) Morse, Closer to the Light, 158.
17) Morse and Perry, Transformed by the Light, 7275.
18) Dannion Brinkley, Saved by the Light: The True Story of a Man
Who Died Twice and the Profound Revelations He Received (New
York: Harper Collins, 1994), chapter 8: A Saving Grace and
chapter 13: Heart Failure.
19) Morse and Perry, Transformed by the Light, 7778.
20) Henri J. M. Nouwen, Beyond the Mirror: Reflections on Death and
Life (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1990).
21) Henri J. Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through
Anguish to Freedom (New York: Image Books, 1998), xiii.
22) Nouwen, Beyond the Mirror, 35, 48.
23) Nouwen, Inner Voice of Love, 3.

NOTES

339

24) Betty J. Eadie, Embraced by the Light (Placerville, CA: Gold Leaf
Press, 1992), 38.
25) George B. Ritchie, Return From Tomorrow (Grand Rapids, MI:
Fleming H. Revell, 1978), 4849. Rudolf Steiner first described
this aspect of the Christ encounter albeit in a more conscious
experience in his first Mystery Drama, The Portal of Initiation.
In scene 1 of the play the seeress Theodora first says: Before my
spirit stands a Form in shining light. And from it words sound forth
to me Later in the same dialogue she adds: A human being
emerges from the radiant light. It speaks to me: The Christ once
lived upon the earth, and from this life it follows that He
encompasses as Soul mens growth on earth. (From Four Mystery
Dramas, Rudolf Steiner, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997)).
MOVE TO CHAPTER?
26) Eadie, Embraced by the Light, 40.
27) Howard Storm, My Descent into Death and the Message of Love
Which Brought Me Back (London: Clairview Books: 2000), 30.
28) Hinze, Coming from the Light, pp. 5-7.
29) Steiner, Four Mystery Dramas, (London: Temple Lodge, 1997).
30) Brinkley, Saved by the Light, chapter 2: The Tunnel to Eternity.
31) Ibid., chapter 2: The Tunnel to Eternity, 2425.
32) Ibid., chapter 14: The Second Time I Died, 187.
33) Guggenheim and Guggenheim, Hello From Heaven, chapter
15: Exceptions to the Rule: Fearful and Other ADCs.
34) Ibid., 24142.

339

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340

35) Maurice Rawlings, Beyond Deaths Door (New York: Bantam

Books, 1978), 25.
36) Storm, My Descent into Death, 21.
37) Maurice Rawlings, To Hell and Back: Life After DeathStartling
New Evidence (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993),
6869.
38) Angie Fenimore, Beyond the Darkness: My Near Death Journey to
the Edge of Hell (New York: Bantam Books, 1995).
39) Dor Deverell, Light Beyond the Darkness: The Healing of a
Suicide Across the Threshold of Death (London: Temple Lodge,
1996).
40) Fenimore, Beyond the Darkness, 92.
41) Ibid., 119.
42) Ibid., 105.
43) James van Praagh, Talking to Heaven: A Mediums Message of
Life After Death (New York: Signet Books, 1997), 152.
44) Rosemary Altea, The Eagle and the Rose: A Remarkable True
Story (New York: Warner Books, 1995), see chapter
Suicides.
Chapter 5: A Paradigm Shift for the New Millennium
1) George Adams, Physical and Ethereal Spaces (London: Rudolf
Steiner Press, 1965).
2) Olive M. Whicher, Sunspace: Science at a Threshold of Spiritual
Understanding (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1989).

NOTES

341

3) Rudolf Hauschka, The Nature of Substance (London: Vincent

Stuart Ltd., 1966), see chapter 17.
4) Bernie Siegel, Love, Medicine and Miracles: Lessons Learned
about Self-Healing from a Surgeons Experience with Exceptional
Patients (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1986).
5) Atwater, Beyond the Light, 90.
6) Ibid., 91.
7) G. Scott Sparrow, I Am With You Always: True Stories of
Encounters With Jesus (New York: Bantam Books, 1995).
8) Quoted in Robert Powell, The Christ Mystery: Reflections on the
Second Coming (Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press,
1999), chapter Reflections on the Second Coming.
9) Claire Blatchford, Friend of My Heart: Meeting Christ in Everyday
Life (New York: Lindisfarne Books, 1999).
10) Helen Greaves, The Dissolving Veil (London: Neville Spearman,
1967), chapter xv: Vision and Faith.
11) And There Was Light, Jacques Lusseyran, (Boston, Toronto: Little
Brown and Co., 1963), 17.
12) Ibid., 281.
13) Moseley, Manifest Victory: A Quest and a Testimony, (New York:
Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1941), 71.
14) Ibid., 85.
15) Ibid.
341

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

342

16) Rudolf Steiner, The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, (Spring

Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press), The Event of the Appearance
of Christ in the Etheric World, lecture of Jan. 25, 1910.
17) Steiner, Reappearance of Christ, lecture of October 1, 1911.
18) Steiner, Reappearance of Christ, lecture of January 25, 1910.
19) Jesaiah Ben-Aharon, The Spiritual Event of the Twentieth Century:
The Occult Significance of the Twelve Years from 1933 to 1945 in
the Light of Spiritual Science (London: Temple Lodge, 1993).
20) Ibid., 22.
21) Nouwen, Beyond the Mirror, 67, 71.
22) Rufus Moseley, Manifest Victory, 7376.
23) Steiner, Reappearance of Christ, lecture of March 6, 1910.
24) Rene Laurentin and Hennri Joyeux, Scientific and Medical Studies
on the Apparitions at Medjugorje (Dublin, Ireland: Veritas
Publications, 1987).
25) Ingo Swann, The Great Apparitions of Mary: An Examination of
Twenty-Two Supranormal Appearances (New York: Crossroad
Publishing Company, 1999).
26) Ibid., 136 and 184.
27) Ibid., 138, 186, and 229.
28) See the case of Jacov Colo in Janice T. Connell, The Visions of the
Children: The Apparitions of the Virgin Mother at Medjugorje
(New York: St. Martins Press, 1992), 92.

NOTES

343

29) H. C. Moolenburgh, Meetings with Angels: One Hundred and One

Real-Life Encounters (New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1991),
62.
30) Ibid., 16.
31) Joan Wester Anderson, Where Angels Walk: True Stories of
Heavenly Visitors (New York: Ballantine Books, 1992), 109.
32) Steiner, Reappearance of Christ, lecture of October 1, 1911.
33) Powell, The Christ Mystery.
34) Valentin Tomberg, The Four Sacrifices of Christ and the
Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric (Spring Valley, NY:
Candeur Manuscripts, 1939).
Chapter 6: The Experiential Perspective
1) Pass It On: The Story of Bill Wilson and How the A.A. Message
Reached the World (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World
Services Inc., 1984), 5051.
2) Ibid., 37.
3) Ibid., 60.
4) As Bill Sees It: The A.A. Way of LifeSelected Writings of A. A.s
Co-founder (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services,
1967), 257.
5) Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men
and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism, Third Edition,
(New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976).
6) Ibid., Chapter 7: Working With Others.
343

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

344

7) Ibid., Chapter 6: Into Action.

8) Emotions Anonymous, (St. Paul, MN: Emotions Anonymous
International, 1978), see Chapter VII (1): A Prisoner of My
Fears, 6878.
9) For Hellingers biography and influences on his work see:
www.hellinger.com. See also Bert Hellinger and Johannes
Neuhauser, Supporting Love: How Love Works in Couple
Relationships (Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker and Theisen Inc., 2001).
10) Bert Hellinger with Gunthard Weber and Hunter Beaumont, Loves
Hidden Symmetry: What Makes Love Work in Relationships
(Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker and Theisen Inc., 1998).
11) Marilyn Webb, The Good Death: The New American Search to
Reshape the End of Life (New York: Bantam Books, 1997), 230.
12) Heinz Stark, Return of the Shaman, in Derselbe Wind lt viele
Drachen steigen, ed. Gunthard Weber (Heidelberg: Carl-AuerSysteme Verlag, 2001), 9.
13) Bertold Ulsamer, Senza radici non si vola: la terapia sistemica di
Bert Hellinger, (Spigno Saturnia (LT), Italy: Edizioni Crisalide,
1999), 8384.
14) Ibid., 82.
15) Ibid., 5152.
16) Ibid., 5253.
17) Shirley du Boulay, Cicely Saunders: The Founding of the Modern
Hospice Movement (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1984), 207.
18) Ibid., 48.

NOTES

345

19) Ibid., 120.

20) Sandol Stoddard, The Hospice Movement: A Better Way of Caring
for the Dying, rev. ed. (New York, Vintage Books, 1991), 226
227.
21) Marilyn Webb, The Good Death: The New American Search to
Reshape the End of Life (New York: Bantam Books, 1997), 236.
22) Ibid., 240.
23) Ibid., 221, 2434.
24) Anne Munley, The Hospice Alternative: A New Context for Death
and Dying (New York: Basic Books Inc, 1983), 316.
25) Derek Gill, Quest: The Life of Elizabeth Kbler-Ross (New York:
Harper Collins, 1980), 3267.
26) Ibid., 327.
27) Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, On Life After Death (Berkeley, CA:
Celestial Arts, 1991), 24.
28) Gill, Life of Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, 40.
29) Kbler-Ross, On Life After Death, 43.
30) Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, The Tunnel and the Light: Essential
Insights on Living and Dying (New York: Marlowe and Co.,
1999), 110.
31) The later experiences in Elisabeth Kbler-Ross life are taken from
her autobiography The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and
Dying (New York: Touchstone, 1997).
32) Kbler-Ross, Tunnel and the Light, 9495.
345

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

346

33) Most of the concepts referred to in this short presentation appear in

Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D., Nonviolent Communication: A
Language of Compassion (Encinitas, CA: Puddle Dancer Press,
1999).
34) For an understanding of the spiritual dimension of the practice of
NVC see: The Center for Nonviolent Communication, The
Spiritual Basis of Nonviolent Communication: A Question and
Answer Session with Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D.,
http://www.cnvc.org/spirital.htm; and Marshall B. Rosenberg,
Ph.D., Practical Spirituality: Reflections on the Spiritual Basis of
Nonviolent Communication (Encinitas, CA: Puddle Dancer Press,
2004).
35) For the application of NVC to social change see: Marshall B.
Rosenberg, Ph.D., Speak Peace in a World of Conflict: What You
Say Next Will Change Your World (Encinitas, CA: Puddle Dancer
Press, 2005); and Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D., The Heart of
Social Change: How You Can Make a Difference in your World
(Encinitas, CA: Puddle Dancer Press, 2005).
36) Rosenberg, Speak Peace, 121125 and 148154.
37) Ibid., 8385.
38) Tiana Velez, Workers Help Unlucky Nu-Wheel Come Full
Circle, Arizona Daily Star, 6/27/05, linked from NVC Article
Archive, Small Business Makeover: A Local Business Counselor
Offers Advice, Puddle Dancer Press,
http://www.nonviolentcommunication.com/aboutnvc/article_archiv
e.htm.
39) Rachelle Lamb, Making the Most of Meetings, Puddle Dancer
Press,
http://www.nonviolentcommunication.com/aboutnvc/2007_09enl.htm.

NOTES

347

40) Sura Hart and Marianne Gthlin, Lessons from the Skarpncks
Free School, Puddle Dancer Press,
http://www.nonviolentcommunication.com/press/article_PDF/Sura
_Hart/Skarpnacks_Education_SHart.pdf.
41) Paulette Pierce, I Had a Vision but No Roadmaps: My Journey to
Nonviolent Communication in the Classroom, Puddle Dancer
Press
www.nonviolentcommunication.com/press/article_PDF/Paulette_P
ierce/Black_Power_NVC_PPierce.pdf
42) Agnes Sanford, The Healing Light (New York: Ballantine Books,
1947), 9.
43) Tom Harpur, The Uncommon Touch: An Investigation of Spiritual
Healing (Toronto: Mc Clelland and Stewart Inc., 1994), 119.
44) Larry Dossey, Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the
Practice of Medicine (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), xv
and 201.
45) Ibid., 3031 and Appendix 1, 23741.
46) Ibid., 17980.
47) Ibid., 19192.
48) Sanford, Uncommon Touch, Appendix 2.
49) Dossey, Healing Words, 9799.
50) Ibid., 1056.
51) Ibid., 106.

347

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

348

52) Kiriacos C. Markides, The Magus of Strovolos, The Extraordinary

World of a Spiritual Healer (London: Penguin Arkana, 1985), 213.
Spiros Sathi indicates that the spiritual healer also takes the karma
of the patient upon himself and suffersat least partlyfrom the
symptoms of the patients disease. Healing someone else can be
done only when the persons karma has been mostly paid off and
the healer is willing to bear the rest. Christ can relieve the healer of
the full obligation.
53) Sanford, Uncommon Touch, 10812, and Dossey, Healing Words,
19294.
54) Dossey, Healing Words, 190.
55) Ibid., 179.
56) Ibid., 113121.
57) Ibid., 198199.
58) Ibid., 1367.
59) Masaru Emoto, Messages from Water, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Hado
Kyoikusha Co., Ltd., 1999), 13537.
60) Masaru Emoto, Messages from Water, vol. 2 (Tokyo: Hado
Kyoikusha Co., Ltd., 2002), 11925.
61) Information about Agnes Sanford mostly comes from Agnes
Sanford, Sealed Orders, (South Plainfield, NJ: Bridge Publishing,
1972), and occasionally from Sanford, Healing Light.
62) Sanford, Sealed Orders, 280.
63) Ibid., 313.
64) Sanford, Healing Light, 64.

NOTES

349

65) Sanford, Sealed Orders, 1718.

66) Ibid., 227.
67) Markides, Magus of Strovolos, 121.
68) To Say Yes to It, lecture given to the Edgar Cayce Foundation,
Virginia Beach, in 1985, in Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, The Tunnel and
the Light: Essential Insights on Living and Dying (New York:
Marlowe and Co., 1999),
69) Pass It On, 374.
Conclusions: Another Globalization is Possible
1) Nicanor Perlas, Shaping Globalization: Civil Society, Cultural
Power and Threefolding (Quezon City, Philippines:
CADI/Globenet 3, 2000), 80.
2) Benjamin Barber, Mc World and the Free Market Threat to Civic
Culture, transcript of a lecture given at University of Colorado,
Boulder, October 7, 1998.
3) A Rainbow of Revolutions, The Economist, January 21, 2006,
2325.
4) Arianna Huffington, Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed
and Corruption Are Undermining America (New York: Crown
Publishers, 2003), 36.
5) Julia Butterfly Hill, The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a
Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods (New York:
HarperSanFrancisco, 2000).

349

REVOLUTION OF HOPE

350

6) For a discussion about tri-sector partnerships see: Perlas, Shaping

Globalization, chapters 15 and 16.
7) Paul Ray and Sherry, Ruth Anderson, The Cultural Creatives:
How 50 Million People Are Changing the World, (New York:
Three Rivers Press, 2000), 94.
8) Spiritual Activism: Claiming the Poetry and Ideology of a
Liberation Spirituality, convened by Stone Circles, friends and
allies at the Garrison Institute, New York, June 2326, 2005, a
gathering report.
9) Marcia Merry Baker, Soy Monoculture in the Americas:
Globalization Ruins Food Economy, and Cynthia R. Rush,
Cartels Soy Revolution Kills Argentine Farming, Executive
Intelligence Review, November 19, 2004.
10) Rush, Cartels Soy Revolution.
11) Ibid.
12) Marina Sitrin, ed., Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in
Argentina (Edinburgh, Oakland, West Virginia: AK Press, 2006),
31. But beyond that, organizing was a matter of pure physical
survival.
13) Perlas, Shaping Globalization. See chapter 9: The Cultural Power
of Civil Society, and chapter 13: Civil Society and the
Threefolding of National and Global Social Space.

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