Father I love you. Test

             Now, I left my body.[1]
              “Brothers, I was reflecting on what just happened, when suddenly, I found myself (not my life) but Me, myself, leaving my body. In the first experience, I stayed in my body while life was leaving my body. In this second experience, life stayed in my body while I was leaving it.

            In one instant whoosh,[2] in a determined and focused stream, I exited from my body, from my right side, from my rib area.[3]  I (not life) was that flow, I was that movement. The exit of my soul happened in a “wink of an eye.” [4] I will now share this experience with you as best I can.

            First it is necessary to show you what our body looks like if we could see our soul and our body at the same time. There will be more explanations on this later on, but you must see this first if we are to better understand what follows.

Our bodies are completely contained in what we know as our soul. If you could see your soul and your body with the eyes of the flesh this is what it would look like. The overlap between soul (white shading) and the body is somewhat exaggerated to demonstrate that the soul contains the body and not the other way ‘round. In fact the intellect outside of the head area (which I call the “mantle,” permeates and surrounds the body, every hair, every limb, every organ and every cell to the finite limits of each and every one of these.

Now that you see what we look like if we could see our soul with our eyes, it will be easier for me to explain what happened next.

Soul’s exit.

            In one sudden whoosh, I exited from my body. I left the extremities of my left side. I left my left arm and left leg. I left my right leg, my torso, my right arm and my head, and I exited out of my body through the rib area on my right side. 

            Now to describe this exit in stages.

Soul’s exit, stage one.

            In the above picture, we see the soul in its first stage of leaving my body.

            The soul withdraws from my left side, and begins its exit in tubular form from the rib area on my right side. We can also see the “tube” has a wavy gray line, this is a line where the soul has closed in upon itself for the exit, more on this later.

            At this stage the soul has left the left side of my body.

Soul’s exit, stage two.

            The soul (still in tubular form) withdraws from the right side of my body, bringing my Spirit (circular area) last. Again we see the grey “break line” keeping the two halves closed. I remember thinking its appearance and shape on exit, resembled a large long cucumber. Though the body still has life, it is now completely inanimate. There is no “Me” to activate the body. My soul is now arcing to place itself above my body.

Soul’s exit stage three.

            Now the soul is completely outside of the body, but still in tubular form. My Spirit is the large circular white area.

 Soul fully exposed, stage four.

            Having arced out and above my body, the “tube” (what I now define as the ‘mantle’) stopped and opened up. I (circular Spirit) was face down,[5] and found myself staring at my body.

            The open mantle[6] revealed 100 or so blinking energy cells. The open mantle resembled a kind of vessel, one that came to a round point at its far end, something like a leaf. You can see this from the graphic above.

            The shell-like, protective mantle was a delicate, exquisite, fine, pure white, silk like substance, what Brother Aurelius identifies as a “spiritual substance.”[7] Its outer edges were beautifully ruffled and slightly frilly, very delicate, like the fins of a cuttlefish.

            Is this how we die? First, life slowly and gently leaves our body? Then, when it has left, our soul makes its rapid departure? If this is the case, there is certainly no physical pain in either exit. In a way it is a joyous occasion for we now become aware of who and what we really are. There may be some spiritual, emotional and physical pain[8] in dying, but I truly doubt there is any pain in death itself.

Brother Aurelius’ comments.

            "Brother Aurelius, is this what happens when a soul leaves the body?"

            -Brother Raymond,-                                    

            "As regards bodily death,[9] that is, the separation of the soul from the body, it is good unto none while it is being endured by those whom we say are in the article of death. For the very violence with which body and soul are wrenched asunder, which in the living had been conjoined and closely intertwined, brings with it a harsh experience, jarring horridly on nature so long as it continues, till there comes a total loss of sensation,[10]  which arose from the very interpenetration of spirit and flesh. And all this anguish is sometimes forestalled by one stroke of the body or sudden flitting of the soul, the swiftness of which prevents it from being felt." [11]  (Bold highlight is the author’s.)

            “Brother Aurelius, you said, ‘a sudden flitting of the soul, the swiftness of which prevents it from being felt.’ This is exactly what happened to me. It began, it continued and it finished, all in one quick and instant “whoosh.” I felt nothing except for my withdrawal and exit from my body. Brother Aurelius, I simply cannot describe to you the speed with which I (and all of the spiritual substance that is my soul) exited from my body. When I say I exited from my body, I mean my mind and everything that is the historical Raymond, everything that is me other than my body. It is simply indescribable and (because it was a new experience) it was a somewhat frightening experience. Yet, if it happened again, I would happily explore this phenomenon to its fullest. While outside of my body, I was as secure as a baby in its mother's arms. This experience has clearly shown me, the soul is truly everything we are, truly everything.

            I now know that regardless of how my body may die, whether through a long drawn illness or if it be blown up, I (my soul) can exit from my body as fast as I need to, "a thousand times quicker" than the blink of an eye. The experience of seeing and knowing that all of me, (and I mean all of Me) exited from my body, neatly, orderly, completely and for all practical purposes, nearly instantly, is something that I once would have said is not possible. I say nearly instantly because I was conscious of its leaving, first from every area in my left side, then every area in my right side, and lastly, my Spirit. I experienced a complete withdrawal. However, I will never be able to share with you, how all of what we are can be transported, instantly, wholly, completely and totally intact from our body to another location. The speed, the precision, the interaction, the coordination, the flawless cooperation and the harmony of the soul’s many parts, revealed an “engineering perfection” unknown to man, if such a phrase can be used in matters like this.

            Angels know what fast
I have since found out, the speed with which I exited my body and the speed with which I later returned to it, was nearly the same speed by which angels move. The only reason our speed is somewhat slower, is because our movement is from one point A, to another point B, whereas angels do not move from point A to point B. Angels need only think of a place and they are there, without any “going there.” Technically speaking, for an angel there is movement (i.e. from here to there) but it is from one place to another place without a route in between. In the case of my soul, though its movement was lightning fast, it did have to move from the extremities on the left side of my body, to a point of exit on my right side, then to the outside of my body. As you can see, it followed a route, which was the same route for its return. I can talk about this comparison on speed and movement between our soul and that of the angels because of another experience I once had.

            I am a Permanent Deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, and am allowed to keep the Eucharist[12] at home. I kept the ciborium on the top shelf of my bedroom clothes closet, where it was hidden from view, and in a clean quiet place in our home.

            One day, I simultaneously opened both folding doors to the closet, and to my surprise I saw two angels, one at each side of the ciborium. Each angel was in a genuflect position, hands clasped over the breast, in a posture of reverence. Their heads were bowed and their long narrow wings coming together behind them.[13]

            Obviously startled, the angel on the left side of the ciborium abruptly turned his head toward me. Our “eyes” locked. The other did not react to my presence, remaining in his venerating posture.

            In an instant the angel who saw me, left. It was obvious I surprised him. His quick withdrawal seemed motivated by a degree of shock. I saw his direction of departure as his head turned to his right and disappeared. He had clearly indicated that he was going to his right, when he then disappeared on the spot. By the time I turned to see the other angel, he was gone as well.  What struck me (besides seeing the two angels) was their “makeup.”

            They were very simple beings.[14]  Had they not had an outline, I would never have seen them. Since angels do not have bodies like we do, how else can they be identified except by an outline? The nearest I can come to describing them (without taking anything away from their noble, classic and refined appearance) is to say, when God chooses that we see one, they generally look like we do, but the similarity ends there. They each wore a white robe. Their features (body contour, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, arms, hands and wings) were identifiable only because they were contained in an outline. Their eyes were simply two small circles but without any of the parts that make up an eye as we know it. Yet notwithstanding this, it was obvious they saw, as I know one did indeed see me.[15]  The nostrils in their noses again consisted of two tiny circles.

            Their heads, bodies, hands, their complete profile and wings, were visible only because they were contained in an outline, like a frame contains a picture. It was obvious they needed nothing else to be what they are. They appeared simply as an outline of what they are, which made them appear as having wings and being dressed in a white robe. Their reverence, worship and devotion for our dear Lord, was very manifest. Their celestial beauty radiated from their purity, simplicity and obvious association with God. Without a doubt, the sole reason for the existence of these two angels, is to be in constant loving and reverent adoration of our dear Lord in the Holy Eucharist.

            This made me wonder, “Is our soul of the same species as an angel?”

            “Brother Thomas you covered this point in your Summa Theologica Article 7 Question 75, ‘Whether the soul is of the same species as an angel?’”

            -Yes Brother Raymond, I wrote in part,-

            “Things which have different natural operations are of different species. But the natural operations of the soul and of an angel are different; since, as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. vii) ‘Angelic minds have simple and blessed intelligence, not gathering their knowledge of Divine things from visible things.’ Subsequently he says the contrary to this of the soul. Therefore the soul and an angel are not of the same species.”

            -And, I included my reply to Objection 3,- “The body is not of the essence of the soul; but the soul by the nature of its essence can be united to the body, so that, properly speaking, not the soul alone, but the "composite," is the species. And the very fact that the soul in a certain way requires the body for its operation, proves that the soul is endowed with a grade of intellectuality inferior to that of an angel, who is not united to a body.” [16]

            “Thank you Brother Thomas.”

            -You are most welcome Brother Raymond.-

            I also wondered how these angels could move so quickly. Again I asked Brother Thomas about this.

            He said, -Brother Raymond, humans and angels each travel through time, but there is a vast difference between what time means for humans and what time means for angels. For us humans, time is the time it takes for us to move from point A to point B. This is real time because everything in our world is measured in nano[17]  seconds, milli seconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, centuries and so on. So, no matter how fast we move, it is still movement through time, from point “A” to point “B”.

            With angels however, an angel can travel instantaneously from point “A” (which can be anywhere in the visible and invisible creation of God) directly to point “B” (which can also be anywhere in the visible and invisible creation of God). “Time” for them, is simply that “time” it takes to go from “A” to “B.” As instantaneous as the movement is, there is nevertheless a gap, a space of sorts between “A” and “B.” Here is an extract of my work on this subject:-

            “Now the local movement of an angel is not the term of any other continuous movement, but is of itself, depending upon no other movement. Consequently it is impossible to say that he is in any place during the whole time, and that in the last "now" he is in another place: but some "now" must be assigned in which he was last in the preceding place. But where there are many "nows" succeeding one another, there is necessarily time; since time is nothing else than the reckoning of before and after in movement. It remains, then, that the movement of an angel is in time. It is in continuous time if his movement be continuous, and in non-continuous time if his movement is non-continuous for, as was said (Article [1]) his movement can be of either kind, since the continuity of time comes of the continuity of movement, as the Philosopher says (Phys. iv, text 99).

            But that time, whether it be continuous or not, is not the same as the time which measures the movement of the heavens, and whereby all corporeal things are measured, which have their changeableness from the movement of the heavens; because the angel's movement does not depend upon the movement of the heavens." [18]

            “So, Brother Thomas, we (as humans) live in time, a material dimension because our entire existence, everything we do and everything that happens to us is measured in units of time. With angels, there is no material dimension, so there are no units of time, therefore no time dimension. Time for the angels is simply a never-ending series of nows.”

            -Brother Raymond,- Thomas replied, "The actual passing from one extreme to the other, without going through the mid-space, is quite in keeping with an angel's nature; but not with that of a body, because a body is measured by and contained under a place; hence it is bound to follow the laws of place in its movement. But an angel's substance is not subject to place as contained thereby, but is above it as containing it: hence it is under his control to apply himself to a place just as he wills, either through or without the intervening place."

            -On the question, ‘Whether the movement of an angel is instantaneous?’ our readers can consult my larger work on the question of angels.  In this work I examined,

            (1) Whether there is any entirely spiritual creature, altogether incorporeal?

            (2) Supposing that an angel is such, we ask whether it is composed of matter and form?

            (3) We ask concerning their number.

            (4) Of their difference from each other.

            (5) Of their immortality or incorruptibility.- [19] 

            “Thank you Brother Thomas, this confirms what I saw, when in one instant they were there and in the next instant they were gone, but, one left in a specific direction while the other simply vanished."[20]

            For us humans, because we are incarnate beings, we see the invisible (where time does not exist) through the visible (where time does exist) while angels do not. For them, our visible and invisible is their constant visible.

            Being spirits without a soul, they are much simpler in their composition than spirits with a soul. Considering further that a soul is made for a body, the difference is compounded that much more.

            Angel = Spirit.

           Human = soul (Spirit, mantle and energy-cells) + body.[21]

            Dearest Child of God, from the graphic you saw what a soul looks like. I will now describe and elaborate on this marvel that you and I are. We will look at our soul as an entity, as well as its individual parts, i.e., spirit, mantle and the energy-cells.

 A first observation.

            Before moving on let us remember, there exists in you and I two kinds of life; biological life and spiritual life.

            When our bodies can no longer function, we first suffer the loss of our biological life, which takes place when biological life leaves the body, from the feet upwards through the head, as I experienced.

            Once the exit of biological life reaches a point of no return, then we, our personhood, exit from the body by way of our soul, i.e. our spiritual reality.