Father I love you. Test

Life outside the body.

No head, or arms or legs or torso.

During the time I was outside of my body, without arms or legs, or a head or a torso, indeed without a body, I was nevertheless there, Me, a spirit with a mantle and energy-cells. Yet, I, the “Me” that I am, was lacking in nothing. I was “Me,” completely. There was nothing to fear.

My soul however, was lacking for a body. It was created to animate a body. Without a body my soul was “incomplete.”

Spirit can understand when separated from the body.

-Brother Raymond may I make a comment?-

“Yes, of course Brother Thomas.”

“The Philosopher says,  ‘If the soul had no proper operation, it could not be separated from the body.’ But the soul is separated from the body; therefore it has a proper operation and above all, that which consists in intelligence. Therefore the soul can understand when it is apart from the body.”

“Thank you Brother Thomas, this was indeed my situation. Had this been a real death, it appears that what I was at the time of such a death is what I would be for eternity. Scary. This impresses upon me the need to indeed be “properly dressed” for the wedding feast. At that time, may my soul be that of a true child of God.[1]”

I could see! I could hear! I could think!

“Brother Thomas, hovering, I was fully conscious of my presence in space, my soul was above the bed looking at my body lying on the bed. With the exception of my body, the complete ME was above the bed. I was alive. Though I had no eyes I could see. I don’t know if I could hear, since there weren’t any sounds to be heard. I could speak but only in my mind. I had no means for audible transmission. I was in the spirit world where vocal sounds are not needed. I was not hungry. Food or drink was a non-issue. I could think. I had my mind, my intellect, my memory and my will. In this state I had all the knowledge and skills I had when in my body, but with no brain. I did not try to perform any gigantic mental feat, but I knew everything I knew when I was in my body, and seemed to have an ability to acquire knowledge a lot easier than when in a body. For example, I knew instantly what I was without a body, what my soul is and what my body is, and I knew these things in depth. I had no human form but here I was in this state, a soul person. I was complete.

“Brother Thomas, how could I see without eyes? How could I think or remember without a brain?”

-Brother Raymond,-  “It  . . . was for the soul's good that it was united to a body, and that it understands by turning to the phantasms.”

“So, Brother Thomas, I only need eyes to see with, when my soul is in my body? I only need ears to hear with, when my soul is in my body? I only need a brain for my mind, when my soul is in my body? I only need my arms and hands and legs, when my soul is in my body?”

-Yes, - “It is clear then that it was for the soul's good that it was united to a body, and that it understands by turning to the phantasms. Nevertheless it is possible for it to exist apart from the body,[2] and also to understand in another way.”[3]

“Brother Thomas, I confirm this. As a soul separated from my body, with the exception of my body, which knows nothing, everything that I am, was there, the complete me. I knew everything as when I was in my body. I did not need a fleshy brain to be the Me that “I am” for I had no body to operate, but I was still “Me.” I now understand God’s reply to Moses in Exodus 3:14:

“But Moses said to God,  ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt?’

He answered, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be your proof that it is I who have sent you: when you bring my people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this very mountain.’

‘But,’ said Moses to God, ‘when I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' if they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?’

God replied,  ‘I am who I am.’ Then he added, ‘This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.’”

If God Who is pure spirit and Truth, can say he is, ‘I AM,’ I, who have been made in his image, can also say and do know, that without my body, in God I also can say, ‘I am.’

After a lengthy explanation (his Question 89 Article Five of the Summa Theologica) Brother Thomas adds,

“Therefore we must conclude that the habit of knowledge, so far as it is in the intellect, remains in the separated soul.”[4]

“Brother Aurelius, I see the spirit as being to the soul what the head is to the body, with this major difference: “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer.” [5]

-Yes, Brother Raymond.- “It is not then the soul, but that which is chief in the soul, that is called the mind. 

In Psalm 3:4, David says, But you, LORD, are a shield around me; my glory, you keep my head high. I think that this should be here taken of the human mind, which is not unreasonably called the head of the soul; . . .”

“I had no tongue but in my mind I could speak. This is where speech begins isn’t that so Brother Aurelius?”

-Yes Brother Raymond.-

“Of necessity, when we speak what is true, i.e. speak what we know, there is born from the knowledge itself which the memory retains, a word that is altogether of the same kind with that knowledge from which it is born. For the thought that is formed by the thing which we know, is the word which we speak in the heart: which word is neither Greek nor Latin, nor of any other tongue. But when it is needful to convey this to the knowledge of those to whom we speak, then some sign is assumed whereby to signify it. And generally a sound, sometimes a nod, is exhibited, the former to the ears, the latter to the eyes, that the word which we bear in our mind may become known also by bodily signs to the bodily senses.” [6]

Dear Brothers and Sisters, dear Children of God, you and I are living eternal souls, this I bear witness to and confirm, before God and before you dear Brother and Sister in the Lord. This confirmation will either be for your happiness or for your anguish, depending on your response to God’s great gift to each one of us, faith.

No anxiety.

As breathtaking an event as this was, I was neither upset, nor nervous, nor fearful in any way. After all, I was not dead; I was alive with all of my faculties and in complete peace. This is probably the most important message I can share with you. When your time on this earth is over, you need not fear leaving your body. You are you, inside or outside of your body. You will continue to be you when your body fails you, for your soul is endowed with the power to bring you into your pure spiritual state, i.e. being you without your corruptible body. Your body will return to you, at the end of time transformed into its glorified state. Please note however, nothing the body has done or not done will determine its resurrection and transformation into its eternal glorified state. This depends entirely on how your spirit lived its “Yes!” or “No!” to God and to your fellow human beings. This depends on whether or not, ‘you did indeed love [7] the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and whether you loved your neighbor as yourself.’ [8]

What is crucial is that you live this life, with your soul in charge of your body and not the other way ‘round. You (spirit) are made in the image and likeness of God (Spirit). You (truth) are made in the image and likeness of God (Truth). Because of your baptism you (spirit) have been reinstated as his Child in Truth, in beauty and in Love. It is natural and normal for you to be about your Father’s business each day you are on this earth, for the Holy Spirit teaches us and reminds us of everything Jesus said to us.[9] As the angels minister to God in heaven, we are blessed to minister to Him here on earth, to be a visible sign of our invisible God.

Corruption and liberation.

“Brother Thomas, living outside my body as I was, I felt so much lighter, thinking was so much easier, perception was so much clearer and quicker. I seemed to have perfect intimacy with my soul, and with creation. My thoughts were not hampered. I did not have to work my way through a maze of selections and rejections. I did not have to climb and stumble over distractions and curiosity. I did not have absence of thought, nor did I daydream. Why was this? Why does my mind not function like this when I am in my body?”

-Well Brother Raymond,- “The separated soul . . .  has a greater freedom of intelligence, since the weight and care of the body is a clog   upon the clearness of its intelligence in the present life.” [10]

“Brother Aurelius, how is this so?”

-In my work, The City of God, Book XIV Chapter 3 I stated,-

“We are . . . burdened with this corruptible body; but knowing that the cause of this burdensomeness is not the nature and substance of the body, but its corruption, we do not desire to be deprived of the body, but to be clothed with its immortality. For then, also, there will be a body, but it shall no longer be a burden, being no longer corruptible. At present, then, (-and this is our lot as well as yours Brother Raymond-) the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things, nevertheless they are in error who suppose that all the evils of the soul proceed from the body.”

“Brother Aurelius, that helps to straighten me out. I suspected all these difficulties were due to the fact I was clothed with a body. In reality, it is because of the corruption of my body that my spirit is weighed down, not because of my body. In effect, we are already suffering under the weight of sin. This brings to mind a very sobering thought. If my body is already corrupt because of original sin, with what greater reason must I not add to its burden. I should avoid all those things that would burden me with still greater darkness, seeking only those things that bring me more and more into God’s Truth and Light.

Thank you Brother Thomas and Brother Aurelius.”

The difference between biological life and spiritual life.

When I experienced life leaving my body, I experienced a gentle ripple moving upwards in my body, first from my feet, then up my legs, up my torso, through my chest and out through the top of my head. I knew biological life was leaving me, because as this ripple moved up my legs, they became inanimate, I could no longer move them. The same with my torso and with my arms.

Now, contrary to this first experience, in the second experience, I (spirit and soul) completely left my body. In the first experience, life was leaving my body, but I remained in my body. Now, I (spirit and soul) left my body, while life remained in my body. My body had life but no soul. Consequently, no part of my body could move.

The other striking difference between these two exits (life and soul) was that life exited slowly and gently, rippling up from my limbs, while my spirit and soul gushed out of my body in one great instantaneous whoosh! Because of this experience, and reviewing the spiritual events of my life, along with the research I had to do, I now know that:

1. Body,

2. Biological life,

3. My soul (spirit, mantle and energy-cells) and

4. Spiritual (eternal) life,

are four very distinct realities of my existence.

I (spirit and soul) being spiritually alive can exist without my body and without natural (biological) life. My body however, cannot exist without biological life, but it can exist without me, (i.e. my spirit, my soul and their spiritual life) since it did so while I was out of it.[11]

I began to wonder about patients who are diagnosed as being brain dead. They may indeed be brain dead biologically speaking, but they certainly are not person dead. They continue to be a person, a soul with a spirit. They continue to be, though their ability to function is prevented by a brain that may be damaged. They can no longer physically respond, but the spirit is still there. It is wrong to identify these persons as “vegetables.”

“Brother Thomas, What are your thoughts on this? Is biological life and spiritual life two different kinds of life in our existence?”

-Brother Raymond,-

“The separate soul cannot by its natural power move a body. For it is manifest that, even while the soul is united to the body, it does not move the body except as endowed with life: so that if one of the members become lifeless, it does not obey the soul as to local motion. Now it is also manifest that no body is quickened by the separate soul. Therefore within the limits of its natural power the separate soul cannot command the obedience of a body; though, by the power of God, it can exceed those limits.” [12]

“Thank you Brother Thomas, this was one aspect of my experience that truly caught my attention. The life my body needs to be alive, and my soul’s life, are two different realities. My body is dependent on biological life to be alive, it is not dependent on my soul for this purpose per se. My spirit and my soul on the other hand do not need my body or its biological life to exist, though they were made one for the other. It is clear from all this, that the purpose of my spirit is to, ‘love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind and to love my neighbor as myself,” while the purpose of the rest of the soul is to animate the body to actualize this love for God and neighbor.’[13] Is this not so Brother Aurelius?”

-Yes Brother Raymond, in my work on the Trinity Chapter 12, I cover this item extensively.-

“The Trinity in the mind, is the image and likeness of God, in that it remembers, understands, and loves God, which to do is wisdom.”

In summary then, body and biological life are one reality, soul and spiritual life are very much another reality.

Creation a stage?

If Creation is indeed a stage, the play is to give glory to God. You and I (with untold millions of spirits) have been in the wings forever. Now, at this point in history, in our own time, God the Producer calls on us to speak, to act, to sing, and give glory to Him our Creator. In his creation, he makes us the players.  Millions of spirits and thousands of acts have preceded us. Millions more spirits and thousands more acts will follow us. Today, now, at this moment... our spirits are on stage. How will we play our roles? Will we be invited to the King’s reception after the performance? Will we feast with his guests? [14]