Dr. N: If this happens to the child, what do you do as its soul?
S: Quiet the child as best I can. Reach out to the parents through the baby to calm them.
Dr. N: Give me an example of how you can reach out to your parents?
S: Oh, make the baby laugh in front of them by poking my parents' faces with both hands. This sort of thing further endears babies to parents.
Dr. N: As a soul, you can control motor movements of the baby?
S: I'm ... me. I can push a little on that part of the brain which controls movements. I can tickle the kid's funny bone sometimes, too ... I'll do whatever it takes to bring harmony to my assigned family.
Dr. N: Tell me what it is like being inside a mother's womb.
S: I like the warm comfortable feeling of love. Most of the time there is love ... sometimes there is stress. Anyway, I use this time to think and plan what I am going to do after birth. I think about my past lives and missed opportunities with other bodies and this gives me incentive.
Dr. N: And you haven't yet had the memories of all your past lives and your life in the spirit world blocked out by amnesia?
S: That starts after birth.
Dr. N: When the baby is born, does it have any conscious thoughts of who its soul is and the reasons for the attachment?
S: (pause) The child mind is so undeveloped it does not reason out this information. It does have parts of this knowledge as a means of comfort, which then fades. By the time I speak, this information is locked deep inside me and that's the way it's supposed to be.
Dr. N: So, will you have fleeting thoughts of other lives as a child?
S: Yes ... we daydream ... the way we play as children ... creating stories ... having imaginary friends who are real ...but it fades. In the first few years of life babies know more than they are given credit for.
Dr. N: All right, now it is the time right before your birth in this life. Tell me what you are doing.
S: I'm listening to music.
Dr. N: What music?
S: I'm listening to my father play records-very relaxing for him-it helps him to think-I'm a bit anxious for him ...
Dr. N: Why?
S: (giggles) He thinks he wants a boy, but I'll change his mind in a hurry!
Dr. N: So, this is a productive time for you?
S: (with determination) Yes, I'm busy planning for the approaching time when I will enter the world as a human and take that first breath. This is my last chance for quiet contemplation of the next life. When I come out-I'll be running.
Conclusion
THE information contained in this book about the existence of souls after physical death represents the most meaningful explanation I have found in my life as to why we are here. All my years of searching to discover the purpose of life hardly prepared me for that moment when a subject in hypnosis finally opened the door to an eternal world.
My oldest friend is a Catholic priest today. As boys walking together in the hills and along the beaches of Los Angeles we had many philosophical discussions, but were miles apart in our spiritual beliefs. He once told me, "I think it must take courage for you to be an atheist and believe in nothing beyond this life." I didn't see it that way at the time, nor for many years afterward. Starting at age five, I had been sent by my parents to militarytype boarding schools for long periods. The feelings of abandonment and loneliness were so great I believed in no higher power than myself. I now realize strength was given to me in subtle ways I was unable to see. My friend and I still have different approaches to spirituality, but we both have convictions today that order and purpose in the universe emanate from a higher consciousness.
Looking back, I suppose it was no accident in my own life that people would eventually come to me for hypnosis-a medium of truth I could believe in-to tell me about guides, heavenly gateways, spiritual study groups, and creation itself in a world of souls. Even now, I sometimes feel like an intruder in the minds of those who describe the spirit world and their place in it, but their knowledge has given me direction. Still, I wonder why I am the messenger for the spiritual knowledge contained in this book, when someone with less original cynicism and doubt would surely have been much better suited. Actually, it is the people represented in these cases who are the real messengers of hope for the future, not the reporter.
Everything I have learned about who we are and where we come from, I owe to those who were drawn to me for help. They have taught me that a major aspect of our mission on Earth as souls is to mentally survive being cut off from our real home. While in a human body, the soul is essentially alone. A soul's relative isolation on Earth during a temporary physical life is made more difficult on a conscious level by thoughts that nothing exists beyond this life. Our doubts tempt us into finding attachments solely in a physical world we can see. The scientific knowledge that Earth is only a grain of sand at the edge of a galactic shoreline within a vast sea in the universe adds to our feelings of insignificance.
Why is no other living thing on Earth concerned with life after death? Is this simply because our inflated egos hate to think of life as only temporary, or is it because our being is associated with a higher power? People argue that any thoughts of a hereafter are wishful thinking. I used to do so myself. However, there is logic to the concept we were not created by accident for mere survival, and that we do operate within a universal system which directs the physical transformation of Self for a reason. I believe it is the voice of our souls, which tell us we do have personhood that is not intended to die.
All the accounts of life after death in my case files have no scientific foundation to prove the statements of these subjects. To those readers who find the material offered in this book too unprecedented to accept, I would hope for one thing. If you carry away nothing except the idea you may have a permanent identity worth finding, I will have accomplished a great deal.
One of the most troublesome concerns of all people who want to believe in something higher than themselves is the causality of so much negativity in the world. Evil is given as the primary example. When I ask my subjects how a loving God could permit suffering, surprisingly there are few variations in their responses. My cases report our souls are born of a creator which places a totally peaceful state deliberately out of reach so we will strive harder.
We learn from wrongdoing. The absence of good traits exposes the ultimate flaws in our nature. That which is not good is testing us, otherwise we would have no motivation to better the world through ourselves, and no way to measure advancement. When I ask my subjects about the alternating merciful and wrathful qualities we perceive to be the self-expression of a teacher-oversoul, some of them say the creator only shows certain attributes to us for specific ends. For instance, if we equate evil with justice and mercy with goodness and if God allowed us only to know mercy, there would be no state of justice.
This book presents a theme of order and wisdom rising from many spiritual energy levels. In a remarkable underlying message, particularly from advanced subjects, the possibility is held out that the God-oversoul of our universe is on a less-than-perfect level. Thus, complete infallibility is deferred to an even higher divine source.
From my work I have come to believe that we live in an imperfect world by design. Earth is one of countless worlds with intelligent beings, each with its own set of imperfections to bring into harmony. Extending this thought further, we might exist as one single dimensional universe out of many, each having its own creator governing at a different level of proficiency in levels similar to the progression of souls seen in this book. Under this pantheon, the divine being of our particular house would be allowed to govern in His, Her, or Its own way.