I think the issue of the dormancy of memory in the afterlife merits further discussion.  Though I respect Don's quest for spirituality, I find multiple reasons to believe that memory does not need to go dormant once we have passed on in spirit.  Rather, all the evidence points to an initially enhanced memory, followed by a period of a readjustment of goals and focus (but not a loss).  If, during the secondary stage of death, we turn our minds away from earthly concerns, this is (I believe) much like what we do when we are alive; we focus on something, until we are needed to reunite with our friends and family.  I think the key point omitted from Don's matter-of-fact statement that "memory goes dormant in the afterlife," is that there is no evidence that it (memory loss) is a permanent issue, and that it is not necessarily outside of our control. 

What evidence is there for this?  Reams and reams.  Many people who experience NDEs are met by their loved ones immediately on passing.  This may, at times be by a grand parent who died decades before.  Did they simply wait idly by the earth plane for that moment?  Unlikely.   Were they an imposter - a helper imitating grandpa?  Possibly, but those who have experienced it claim - no, it was them (they were certain).  Falseness and deception is not that easy among good people in the afterlife, as communication is by thought.  But, I digress.

To go on with NDE evidence that memory does not inevitably go dormant, Don himself often cites an NDE in which a woman was healed but met her mother who informs her that her constant grief, several years after the mother's death is hindering the mother's own progress.   The mother obviously did not forget her, but found it difficult to concentrate on her new focus and tasks as she was pulled into her daughter's earthly grieving. 

Swedenborg, Bruce and others speak of travel and meetings in those who are in the planes of consciousness in the afterlife.  Your thought of someone you loved brings you to them.  It is just that quick and that easy.  Distance is irrelevant, as is time.  Numerous examples exist from astral explorers and NDE experiences.  So, I would argue that not only does memory not go dormant as a "rule of nature," quite the opposite, memory and thought may be summoned when needed.  Some would call this the grace of God.  I can't disagree - and that is how E. Swedenborg viewed it.  But when one says it is his grace alone, it removes us from the equation - as if we were helpless and could never remember our loved ones unless some outside source permits it. 

So we are told in numerous examples that spirits in the afterlife are called, frequently, by our own thought and grief to be with us - even when we are not aware of their presence. 

Often when mediums are giving a reading, they will mention that a deceased relative acknowledges the birth of a new family member, or an important life event, implying that the deceased family member is "watching" and concerned, long after they have passed on. 

So we have numerous reports of people meeting long dead relatives immediately after death.  We have NDEs where people meet relatives who report being summoned frequently by an earthly person's grief or thought, we have mediums (the least reliable resource?) reporting that long deceased relatives are happy or aware of important life events.  Taken as a whole (and the specific case evidence for all this can fill up several volumes), what are we to believe? 

In my opinion, the evidence clearly points to retention of memory when it is needed, but a change in focus in consciousness.  When I was in college I worked in an X ray crystallography lab at Columbia University for a year.  During that time, I knew the equations to calculate the position of molecules in a crystal.  I had not thought of that in decades till now.  I don't remember the specifics. But the memory is there.  Why?  My focus changed.  But I can remember that rather minor part of my life.  What are the chances that my memory of my mother, wife or son will "go dormant" without my consent?  None.  Sorry Don.  It just will not happen.  I have no doubt that our focus changes, and we become deeply involved in other issues in spirit.  But we do have a choice, and it is clear from all the above evidence that the choice is ours, and that God's grace is manifest when the will of two loving people wishes that memory and contact. 

My mother passed away in hurricane Sandy.  Since then, I have had minor contacts with her, but no stunning verifications.  And yet, at one point, I felt her move, in spirit toward my heart area (some may say chakra).   As if she were with me, letting me know that she was still involved, watching, helping.  The failure of Houdini to communicate a code word or the fact that Robert Bruce may have happened upon people who were not focused on their loved ones and seemed to have dulled memories is minor compared to my own experience and the mountains of evidence that memory does exist when we pass on.   

Does it seem odd that we would focus on a new project, and not be thinking about our earthly loved ones while we are in spirit until we are called or change our own thought and desire the contact?  Perhaps, but   it makes perfect sense to me. 

Matthew

  I'm inclined to mostly agree with your post.  I think what often happens is that as we progress in those other dimensions and as we move into more expanded states of consciousness, we tend to lose a lot of our (human type) attachment to the Earth, and our previous human earth life. 

   But, we certainly don't forget the love connections we had while there!  That is pretty silly, when it's these that are what are MOST real about our human lives.  But, it's not like we focus on it all the time, as we are busy with other focuses and work.  However, if we become aware that one of those loved ones is going to transition, you can bet your booty that most of us are going to make an effort to be there for that person when they transition.

   But, do you think about what cars you had, your house,  your professional status, even what your physical body looked like,  eating food, etc, etc, no most of all that superfluous stuff does fade for those progressing and expanding.  Those kind of things are not important to begin with anyways.

     Sometimes we deliberately pull away from contact with our loved ones still here because we realize that their over attachment to us tends to be a limiting thing.  Some people can handle contact in a healthy and growth facilitating way.  Some, or many can't, or not for awhile, or not that often.  As mentioned on another thread, humans rarely live, express, and tune more fully into that Consciousness and force of PUL.   A lot of our "love" is diluted and distorted, with a lot of hang ups and over attachments. 

    In the beginning of transition, many of us still have these more human like attachments, hang ups, and selfishness mixed in with love.

  But the more you progress in these other states, the more these are dropped and transformed closer to that of the ideal of PUL.  Hence, you do for others what you realize would most benefit their spiritual growth and for many humans, that is to not try to communicate with your in physical loved one unless it is HELPFUL for them to do so.

  And not all folks that transition progress that much for a long while.  They don't have to necessarily be more fully and classically "stuck", but some folks will over think on and be over attached to their former in physical life, and these folks DO tend to try to communicate over much with their loved ones irrespective of what's helpful for them and their growth patterns.

  Again, there are no black and whites with these processes.  While we can generalize to some extent, not everyone follows the same patterns, because we are individuals and each case can be a bit different than the other. 

    I tend to be a bit wary of sweeping over generalizations when it comes to trends and processes related to consciousness growth.  The only thing i'm completely certain of as a black and white, is that PUL is the ideal and standard, and our attunement to it or lack of same, is what determines our level and rate of growth back to conscious atttunement as an individual with Source and the Whole. 

  Lot's of times when a person has a very strong left brain side, when not in a consistent balance with the right brain side, one tends to compartmentalize information, or to think more in terms of black and whites, as the left brain side is very linear and step by step logical.  It doesn't have the necessary fluidity and holism to realize the many shades of gray and relativity on it's own.  That's where help from the right brain side comes in.

  In balance, we begin to see more true and with less distortion.  How many humans have a good and consistent balance and integration of these two very different but connected sides?  Or between the inner masculine or feminine?   Think it was an accident that when Bob Monroe asked to meet the most spiritually mature person living in his space/time reference, that he came upon a person whom he perceived as perfectly balanced between the masculine and feminine and that was one of his overriding perceptions of that person?    No accident there. 

  The closer we come to that attunement within ourselves, the more "He/She" like we become, the more clearly and accurately we will perceive as a trend.  There is no getting around this, except to be temporarily raised up, so to speak, by guidance forces and for a purpose to see/perceive something necessary for us within that time to do so.



 

Doc:

If anything our ability to remember increases after we die, it doesn't diminish. Consider how much is remembered during a life review by an NDEr. I believe it would be more accurate to say that body-based identities go away once they are no longer needed.

Some people speak of merging with God and "all knowledge" is available.

I think Don is overly fond of attributing things to misleading spirits, imagination and telepathy(the later so mediums can be debunked), so he was prone to accept what somebody like Robert Bruce has to say about this matter.

When it comes to the spirits I communicate with, memory doesn't seem to be a problem. Going by how all the data adds up, they aren't misleading spirits, confused spirits, or projections of my imagination.

I can't say that I completely agree with what Nanci said in the quote you provided. I believe she goes over board at times. Going by my experience, the "me" that is in this World now does matter to the friendly spirits I know.

Agreed on all points Albert.

'What evidence is there for this?  Reams and reams.  Many people who experience NDEs are met by their loved ones immediately on passing.'

Great post Doc and agree with you. But I think one of the reasons why bereaved people may feel unsatisfied is because the ADC may not come to order or be of a different type to that which is  expected ...

My wife's best friend Jane's husband Mike had died after a long battle with cancer. My wife, Jane and another friend were at Jane's house a few weeks after the funeral. Over a long evening my wife, on going to the toilet, had noticed that her shoes had been moved to the middle of the hallway and so moved them back again. Going again later she noticed that the shoes had been moved again. Unsettled she mentioned this to the others who also remarked that they had noticed it when they had gone out the room but had said nothing. 'Well if it happens again I'm leaving' my wife joked, but sure enough on inspection the shoes had been moved to the middle of the hallway again. The interesting thing is that my wife's choice of shoe had always been a running gag between the three friends and Mike and the propensity to be of such a size as to be a tripping hazard. My wife assured me that no one else was present to move the shoes and it was not a practical joke by Jane and the other friend.

ADCs, it would seem don't always come in the form we expect !

Quote:


The above quote is from Nanci Danison's book.  This, if true, and I have received similar understanding from my own communications that it is, could explain why ADC seems to be unlikely after a period of time.

Which doesn't mean a person's "history" is inaccessable, because it is always a part of memory within consciousness, which can be accessed and perhaps even carried within a field of consciousness such as Don mentions, Sheldrake's fields on his other thread.  At least I can see where positive growth type of consciousness could become a part of a field of consciousness for the purpose of evolution of human consciousness.

K

rondele wrote on Feb 8^th, 2014 at 2:38pm:


  This is one of those combos of yes and no's.  We have freewill.  Generally most of us (and especially the more mature we become) try to stick to certain rough sketches of plans, goals, etc. 

  But with dealing with the freewill of self and others, sometimes we can get way off these sought after and worked towards goals and general plans. 

  A very interesting quote in the Cayce readings go something like this, "accidents occasionally happen, even in creation, strange but true." 

   We like to think that we live in a completely ordered and according to plan reality, especially the spiritual backdrop, but there is a certain amount of chaos potential--how could there not be with freewill as a reality and gift to us?

  Especially once we are focused here. 

  No individual being, not Yeshua, nor even Source Itself can always know how we will choose to use our freewill.  Once we have made a choice and gone in a certain direction, multiple probabilities of greater and lesser degrees are "thrown off" so to speak, and such levels of consciousness can see those quite clearly, but at each choice it fluctuates a bit or a lot depending. 

  One could argue that when we were created out of Source and/or it's Child the Planning Intelligence or Logos, that we had a certain amount of some kind of individuality and uniqueness and as the saying goes, character to some extent is responsible for "destiny"... so it's possible at that moment of creation of free willed individuals, Source saw all possible paths for each individual, but didn't necessarily KNOW which ones we would go down when we got around to choosing, and moving. 

  So sometimes regular ole guides don't have a clue where we will end up, if we happen to make certain key choices at certain key points that are very different from the goals and intents we came in with, or someone elses freewill impacts our path strongly. 

   This is one of the reasons why our guidance level is so watchful of us while we are focused here, because they realize they might have to help adjust for some of these unforseen or un probable developments.  Say a drunk driver, and we get warned to step off the road at the right time. 

  To note, the being whom Nanci refers to as "Source", i think would rather disagree with being labeled such as far as accuracy goes.  One can ask him oneself.

   Just one of the many, many Creator Beings out there, and not the Source.   Like us, a Child of same, and like him, we will eventually move into similar roles and capacity as He has already, a full co-creator and companion with the Source and the Whole. 

   Having a facile tongue and being a good story teller is entertaining yes, but i agree with what Albert has said, she takes some things too far.  But definitely an interesting and i would say, mostly accurate source to look at.  I've read other NDE's that have talked about merging with the Light, Source, God, Love, or whatever they labeled their conception of it.

  What i find interesting about Nanci's account is that she does distinguish and realize that the Creator Being she merged with, wasn't all there was. 

But then again, so didn't other psychically oriented sources like Bruce Moen (aka the "Planning Intelligence) and others.  Course, Cayce's guidance talked about it quite awhile ago.  Then there is John of the NT, and other much older sources.   

    I understand the delicate nature of skirting around or avoiding identifying exactly who and what the Creator Being of this reality is, because of religion and how many have been turned off by same, but wish some modern sources would speak the truth as is. 

  Bob Monroe's wife, the other Nancy, pretty much channeled him, and he gave clues to his nature and who and what he is.  The Light that we exist in, move in and have our being in.  Sort of the masculine side of reality to the Source which is more Yin, void side of latent all potential (over simplifying because both have both side within their nature, but the masculine is definitely stressed in the Creator Being of this reality, aka the Light, and the Yin or feminine is definitely more stressed or apparent in the Source.
   
  You could say this reality is the result of their re-merging and love making so to speak.