There is an interesting article on amnesia and memory loss in today’s NY Times.  Here’s the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/health/psychology/23amne.html

The article suggests the hippocampus plays a mediating role in structuring memory.  Perhaps there is some equivalent in the afterlife.  Without this function, memory is fragmented and “barren of personal dimension”.

Quote:


I acknowledge the fact that memory loss occurs, just as probably everyone else who has posted.  What we are trying to say is that it would be very odd and almost retarded that we would loose our memory for good.  Don, do you believe that we are doomed to permanent memory loss?  If so, can you pleas address the points I made in my previos post in (1)? Did Swedenborg ever say that the memory loss was permanent?  Does Robert Bruce say that the memory loss is permanent?(I truely do not know)  Doesn't this seem to contradict life and existance as we know it?  Doesn't it feel wrong to you?  Or are all of your beliefs simply based off others "verifications?"

Roger,

This post has been primarily created for your reflection.  You are troubled by the rarity of ADCs with "physical" credentials as impressive as Leonard's contact with his son. Jeff, and daughter-in-law, Karen.  I think it is a mistake to use a preconceived theology or metaphysic as a foundation and then reject impressive evidence that fails to fit this paradigm.  Rather, one should adjust one's preconceptions to fit initially disconcerting implications of good evidence.  So I will present 12 factors that might help explain the rarity of ADCs of the highest calibre.  In my view, these 12 factors make it expedient to bow before the many mysteries until better concrete evidence is discovered.   These factors might also serve as a useful grid for your more concrete reflections.

(1) The Frequency of ADCs:
As already noted, one study found that 50% of Americans and 48% of the British report astral contact with newly dcceased loved ones within the first year of  their passing. These ADCs are very reassuring to the recipients.  It seems likely that the newly deceased care more about whether their contact comforts their bereaved loved ones than about whether its quality of its verification rivals the sheer “physicality” of Leonard’s ADC.  Such higher-level ADCs may be harder to master without the help of an advanced guide or angel.

(2) Lack of Permission:  
The newly deceased may not be capable of creating ADCs with the impressive “physicality” of Leonard’s experience on their own initiative.  They may need special permission from angels or saintly guides.  Thus, Leonard’s deceased son Jeff  regretfully informed his Dad: “I’m sorry, Dad, I’m not PERMITTED to drive any further.”  On what basis is this permission granted?  Obviously, permission to create ADCs this impressive is not routinely granted to comfort the bereaved.  Perhaps, one reason for rare exceptions is the sudden premature death of a young family before they had a chance to fulfill their destinies.  But even this is not sufficient grounds for an exception.  Permission may also require the satisfaction of conditions like (3)-(9) below, which seem particularly applicable to the lower planes and the earlier stages of postmortem orientation.    

(3) The Issue of the Bereaved’s  Psychic Attunement with the Newly Deceased
     Loved One:
During my death vigil with Carol (cancer), I discerned that she would quickly verify her smooth transition to the next life and I urged those present to anticipate an ADC.  One might assume that she would contact her two sons and her girlfriend Cathy who quit her job to take care of Carol for 4 months. Instead, she has to date only contacted her boyfriend Chet. The day after her funeral, Chet heard a loud woman’s voice in his house shout his name so loudly that the house shook and objects rattled.  No one else was around.  Why would Carol contact Chet and not her sons and loyal girlfriend?   Besides Carol, only Chet’s family had experienced the paranormal.  The others were left-brained skeptics about such phenomena.  I think Carol tried to contact her other loved ones, but failed due to a lack of psychic attunement which is different from love.   .  

(4) The Issue of the Psychic Aptitude of the Bereaved:
Quite apart from the psychic attunment between the bereaved and his deceased loved one, exceptional psychic gifts may enhance the likelihood of experiencing more spectacular ADCs like Leonard’s.  Leonard seems to have been naturally psychic and had experienced other paranormal experiences apart from his ADC.

The premonition of a spiritually gifted Methodist missionary to India, Dr. E. Stanley Jones, poignantly illustrates this issue.  Jones was seheduled to be a key-note speaker at a Christian missionary conference in Dehli.  He was patiently waiting in a long ticket line at an Indian airport, when he suddenly heard an inner voice: "Get out of line now!”  Jones initially dismissed this voice
as his own paranoia.  But as he drew near the front of the line, the inner voice returned and became more insistent and repetitive.   Finally, an embarrassed Jones left the line.  He began to worry that the conference hosts would consider his excuse childishly paranoid.  Well, the plane crashed, killing several hundred Indian passengers, mostly Hindus.   When the Indian press heard about his premonition, they besieged him with impertinent questions: e. g. “So, Dr. Jones, are you saying that God loved you more than all those Hindus?  Did God warn you just because you are a Christian, but allowed hnndreds of Hindus to die with no warning?”  Jones replied softly, “Oh no, I’m sure that God loves those Hindu victims at least as much as He loves me.  It’s just that I’m the only one who could listen to His voice.”  

What do I infer from this amazing paranormal  incident?  Jones was a devout man of prayer and meditation.  His spiritual discplines allowed him to tune in to his clairvoyance and save his life.  The Hindus booked on this fatal flight lacked his spiritual gifts.  God normally expects us to develop our own gifts just as He expects us to make scientific and medical discoveries through our own research.  God’s “hands-off” policy is motivated by respect for our free will and His desire that we create our own culture, technologies, and disciplines.  

(5) Lack of ADC Instruction in the Early Stages of Postmortem Life:
God’s “hands off” policy may explain the limited priorities of the guides who greet the newly dead.  The guides of the newly dead may be almost exclusively focussed on the adjustment process of the new arrivals rather than on the longing of bereaved loved ibes for reassuring contact.  

(6) The Issue of Limiting Beliefs about the Possibility of ADCs:
Suppose a man dies who was never really open to ADCs during his life.  His limiting beliefs may prevent him from aggressively seeking out mothods of ADC contact.

(7) The Problem of Self-Absorption:
For many, the early stages of postmortem adjustment may be so traumatic or engaging that ADC contact with the bereaved may be a low priority.  These new arrivals may get caught up in reunions with deceased friends and family members.  Perhaps new arrivals are often assured that  there is no need to contact their bereaved loved ones.  

(8) The Problem of Disorientation in Adjusting to the Afterlife:
Many people die of long debilitating illness and cross over, very disoriented.  They often need a prolonged stay in a rehabilitation center.  During their long convalesence, they may have neither the ability nor the inclination to try to contact their bereaved loved ones.

(9) The Impossibility of Contacting the Living from Certain Spirit Planes:
An OBE adept named Claire points out that ADCs are not even possible from certain lower spirit planes.

(10) Loss of Earth Memory in the Higher Spirit Planes:
Swedenborg discovers that earth memory becomes dormant in the higher astral levels.  This amnesia seems to be a key to explaining why ADCs are so rare after the first year of the loved one’s passing.  But ES concedes that earth memory is occasionally restored “when it so pleases the Lord (HH #461).”  One example of this memory restoration is the more comprehensive past life review.  This review forces each soul to experience life from the point of view of those his life impacted.   In various widely separated stages, the soul experiences the emotional reactions of others in his life.  


(11) The Danger of ADCs to Deceased Loved Ones from Higher Planes:
In my initial post, I challenged claims that channeling at its best can put us in touch with our deceased loved ones.  But assume for the sake of argument that I am mistaken.  The best of classical channeling agrees with R. Bruce’s insights about the formidable barriers to successful retrievals from hellish planes:  Advanced souls may find it very difficult to cope with the spiritual vibration of lower spiritual planes through which they must pass to reach the earth plane.  

Consider, for example, what Paul Beard reports in his enthralling  book, "Living On: How Consciousness Continues and Evolves After Death:"

“To enter these areas fills rescuers with a deep sense of distress; these helpers, sensitive men and women, can themselves become affected and drawn into some of the purblind emotions they seek to lift from others, and if they remain too long in this area they declare they can, to some extent, be temporarily overcome by them.  For the price to be paid in order to reach these minds is to lower their own consciousness and concepts to a level acceptable to, and capable of being understood by, those they hope to rescue.  Evil is powerful at its own level, and clearly a rescuer needs sterner qualities than those of the self-congratulatory do-gooder (88-89).”

One of the most memorable posters on this AK board was a fellow who had just mastered the OBE state.  He was reluctant to continue his exploration because of terrifying experiences he had when he descended to the lower planes.   He said he was overwhelmed by the toxic atmosphere and could barely resist succumbing to its hypnotic pressure to perform evil acts consistent with the defining purpose of those particular planes.  His negative experiences independently corroborate the revelations of the mediums reported by Beard.

(12) The Indirect Danger of ADCs to the Earthly Recipient:
Advanced souls in the heavens may have other good reasons for their reluctance to try to contact earthly loved ones.  For example, they may be well aware of the cunning role of spirit impersonators from lower planes and the potential dangers they represent to surviving loved ones.  Advanced souls may not want to encourage their earthly loved ones to open their naive spirits to such deceptive spirit contamination and its dangers.

Don

Don:


Regarding the below, "the occult" is quite a broad term. Going by what I heard, Martin Mallaci's book tends to indicate that people get effected when they dabble in dark things like black magic. You wrote something similar once.  You also said that people sometimes get effected when they over do speaking in toungues. Would M. Scott Peck consider something such as going out of body to be occult? Or what if a person prays to God and asks for divine guidance? Should they expect that only a demon will answer them?





Berserk wrote on Jan 24^th, 2007 at 12:24am:

Thanks Recoverer for mentiioning M Scott Peck.  I've been trying to remember his name for the past few days and here it is.  Also, another book question (sorry I'm not on topic):  years ago I read a book called The Betty Book that dealt with afterlife knowledge.  The author (Betty I assume) wrote several books but I think these were in the early 20th century.  I wonder if it's the same Betty. Thanks - Rob

Thanks Don.

When discarnate loved ones are permitted to communicate with us, how might they cope with the danger of being infected by the negative vibration of lower planes?   In our world, there seem to he two basic ways of esploring distant locales non-physically--remote viewing and OBEs (or its variation, astral projection).  OBE adept, Robert Bruce apparently discovers how astral doctors and nurses employ a form of remote viewing to staff astral hospitals without being infected by the lower vibration:  .Robert observes:
 
“The doctors and nurses that staff and run these astral hospitals do not appear to be quite real....So far I have not been able to strike up anything resembling a meaningful conversation with any of them.  They seem to be very two-dimensional in nature.”

The two-dimensional nature of these doctors and nurses contrasts with Robert’s experience of the very real relatives who "descend" from higher planes to visit newly deceased loved ones.  These relatives seem very real to Robert but have impaired memories of their earth life.

How this astral remote viewing might work is described by the famous deceased
parapsychologist, F. W. Myers, in a message channeled throuigh a distnguished medium:

“I have to concentrate my thought for what you might call a moment and I can build up a likeness of myself, send that likeness speeding...to a friend, to one that is in tune with me.  Instantly I appear before that friend, though I am more remote from him, and my likeness holds speech--in thought, remember, not words--with this friend.  Yet all the time I control it...and as soon as the interview is concluded I withdraw the life of my thought from that image of myself and it vanishes (from Paul Beard's "Living On, " 69)."

Don

Roger,

Thanks for posting the web account of Telly Savalas's ADC.  It is the most impressive web reference ever offered on this site.  I have not seen "Kojak" for many years.  Yet, coincidentally, just before I was about to create this post, I felt an impulse to turn on my TV, and there was Telly Savalas!  Telly's and Leonard's ADC lend each other credibility because both men are chauffeured in a vehicle driven by a discarnate human. 

I will bring my active participation in this thread to an end with this post and one more.  In this post, I will quote two ADC reports with which you are familiar.  I want you to reread them and ask yourself whether their sheer "physicality" is not somewhat reminiscent of Telly's and Leonard's ADCs.

(1) After his NDE, Howard Storm became fascinated with the books of Catholic mystic, Thomas Merton.  He and his new pastor (Bill Crawford) decided to drive to Merton's trappist Abbey of Gethsemane, Kentucky to visit Merton's grave.

"The monk then directed us to the grave of Thomas Merton, who was known as Father Louis in the monastery, and he left us alone.  Bill sat on a bench while I prayed on my knees by the resting place of Father Louis.  I was crying because I felt his presence near me when suddenly a young man appeared by my side.  He was wearing a sweatshirt and blue jeans.  He handed me a book of Thomas Merton's poetry open to a poem titled `The Cemetery at Gethsemane.'  When I read the poem, I understood that Thomas Merton had felt the presence of the saints buried there." 

"I gave the book back to the young man, closed my eyes, and said a brief prayer of thanks.  When I opened my eyes the young man was gone.  I was surprised because in the enclosed area of the cemetery there was nowhere for him to go.  I looked around, but he had vanished.  Confused, I went over to Bill, who sat facing toward me thirty feet away, and asked if he had seen the young man with the book.  Bill said he had been watching me pray.  He said, `The man appeared from nowhere, handed me the book, waited while I read the poem, took the book from me, and vanished.'  I asked him if he was certain.  He assured me he was.  Later, when I was looking at photographs of Thomas Merton, I saw a picture of him when he was in his early twenties.  He looked just like the young man in the cemetery!...The spirit of Thomas Merton had visited me and consoled me at his grave (Howard Storm, "My Descent into Death," pp. 118-119)."

(2) My second example is taken from the amazing book you mailed me written by Howell Vincent, a Presbyterian minister  Howell recounts an encounter that he and 4 family members had with his deceased ex-wife, Nellie:

On at least two occasions this radiant mother had come to [her daughter] Rea in VISIBLE, TANGIBLE form and talked with her...I was privileged to be present at one of these heavenly visits by Mother Nellie.  Together with Rea I talked with Nelly, fully recognizing her face and form and voice.  I saw her place her hand on Rea's head in blessing, and I saw her give Rea a flowet, a calendula, WHICH WE PRESSED AND KEPT.  At that time three other members of our family were present, including Rea's second mother, Agnes, and they all saw Nellie and talked with her, as Rea and I did.  We were all wide awake and walked around the room with Nellie ("Lighted Passage," p. 25)."

Don