Life-Review: An Spiritist Omission?

Life-Review: An Spiritist Omission?

by | Jun 27, 2021 | Allan Kardec, Andre Luiz, Life After Death, Near-Death Experiences, Spiritist knowledge

“Somewhere in my unconscious is a non-judgmental Recorder that notices and understands with love, even when I (consciously) don’t.”

Charlotte Guest

Nowadays this is a puzzling observation. Neither Psychology nor Psychiatry nor Neurology ever referred to the existence of such a retrievable memory unit in the human subconscious. This quote appeared as a catchphrase in a published report of a non-near-death experience. It refers to the experience of a rapid life review of the memories and events of a person’s life. The review is sometimes chronological, but most often is a panoramic or 3-D unfolding of images archived in the subconscious. Reports of a life time review are a common element of the Near-Death Experiences reported by thousands of people all over the world.

Surprisingly, this phenomenon has not been reported in the fundamental works of the Spiritist thought, and this is especially confounding because of their intense focus on the life of the spirit both while in and without matter. That’s sure to beg the question why that happened.

One of the earliest persons to report such an experience, when he nearly drowned, was Admiral Francis Beaufort of the British Navy. He wrote, “The whole period of my existence seemed to be placed before me in a kind of panoramic view.”

Here is an example of a lifetime review reported by Dr. Jeffrey Long in a recent book: 

I went into a dark place with nothing around me, but I wasn’t scared. It was really peaceful there. I then began to see my whole life unfolding before me like a film projected on a screen, from babyhood to adult life. It was so real! I was looking at myself, but better than a 3-D movie as I was also capable of sensing the feelings of the persons I had interacted with through the years. I could feel the good and bad emotions I made them go through.”

A second interesting example was reported by Camille Flammarion (1922), the same man of science who delivered the eulogy at Allan Kardec’s memorial service in 1869:

 

During this fall, which could hardly have lasted two or three seconds, his entire life, from his childhood up to his career in the army, unrolled clearly and slowly in his mind, his game as a boy, his classes, his first communion, his vacations, his different studies, his examinations, his entry into Saint-Cyr [military academy] in 1848, his life with the dragoons [regiment], in the war in Italy [1857], with the lancers of the Imperial guards, with the Spahis [cavalry], with the riflemen at the Chateau of Fontainebleau, the balls of the Empress [Eugenie; wife of Napoleon III] at the Tuileries, etc. All this slow panorama was unrolled before his eyes in less than four seconds, for he recovered consciousness immediately

Of the five works by Allan Kardec, Heaven and Hell (1865) is the book that brings the more complete review of mediumistic messages related to the passing of a large number of individuals, from the highly spiritual to the more ignoble. In every case they were encouraged to describe the experience of dying and what they encountered in the hereafter. None of them reported anything close to a life-review.

Similarly, in the large collection of works authored by Andre Luiz over more than twenty years, most of them dealing with the experiences of the return to the spirit world, none reported a case of a life-review.

Chico Xavier, through whom Andre Luiz dictated his books, however, shared in a television interview in the mid-1960s, that he experienced a life-review when the airplane he was on had a mechanical problem and lost altitude quickly. Most of the viewers and the Spiritist community took it just an interesting event caused by panic, a physical event and nothing else.

What should we make from this striking omission? The NDE reports cannot be discounted, after all they are supported by strong evidences and a growing body of research? So, we are left to ponder the possible reasons.

  • Was the bringing life-reviews to light a decision by the spiritual mentors?
  • Or was it blocked by the subconscious of the mediums, all of them hailing from a heavy Catholic culture?
  • Or was it considered irrelevant at the time and therefore reserved for future times?
  • Or, if we look at those works from a different vantage, the information conveyed was just the core of an edifice that is to rise gradually as intellectual conditions of humankind allow? And, if that is the case, are we, those who appreciate its lights, willing to recognize the proposition that the Spiritist body of thought is incomplete?

After all the questions for such a complex subject, it may be our capability to ponder that is to be loved, even if it’s not the understanding. This is a tall order of ideas and we shall return to this issue in our next post.

The Life Review Experience

Dr. Kenneth Ring

Bibliography:

Holden J. M., Guest C, (1990). Life-Review in a non NDE Episode, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1990, Vol. 22, No. 1

Stevenson I., William E. (1995) Involuntary Memories During Severe Physical Illness or Injury, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, vol. 183, No. 7.

Long J. and Perry P. (2010) Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences, Harper & Collins, p 98

Flammarion, C. Death and Its Mystery, 1922

New Heights For The Human Consciousness

New Heights For The Human Consciousness

by | May 21, 2021 | Allan Kardec, Andre Luiz, Consciousness Studies, Life After Death, Near-Death Experiences, Spiritist knowledge

Ellen was in awe of the light, the intensity and beauty of the colors, and the lightness of the space where she found herself. Love was all pervading, and she felt that she had become the love that enveloped her. Almost simultaneously she felt a deep awareness that we are all perfect, and that everyone has a purpose for their lives on Earth. She was welcomed in that journey by a being of light, and felt from him the most serene reassurance that all was OK.

As far as clinical death goes, Ellen’s story is not unique. Similar stories have been part of our history, and have been observed in most cultures of the world. What makes it different now is the fact that Ellen’s story is one of many thousands that scientists have documented, and supported with extensive medical data, in the last 40 years.

This story is another example. It was published in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, in 1991, as part of a large study conducted in Holland. Having suffered a heart attack, a patient was brought to a hospital in Holland. He was clinically dead. During the resuscitation procedures a nurse removed his dentures and put them away. The resuscitation was successful, and after recovering the patient made an inquiry to the team on duty about his dentures.

Days later, in the hallway, he saw and recognized the nurse who assisted in his resuscitation. The patient told the nurse that he was the staff person who had taken his dentures and described the drawer where they had been placed. The nurse, who had forgotten all about it, went to the room and found the dentures, exactly where he was told by the patient.

In thousands of cases or cardiac resuscitation like this, the medical facts are consistent. The patient was connected to all the machinery of an Emergency Room, and was deemed to be clinically dead for several minutes, without a heartbeat or any indication of brain activity.  Still, many patients are resuscitated and recount similar stories about “what is on the other side”.  Such examples are abundant and comprehensive.

Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) have been studied for more than 40 years by researchers from a variety of disciplines including neuroscience, psychiatry, medicine, physics, and nursing.

The body of knowledge has become highly respectable and the advancements have the potential to transform how human beings see themselves and their lives on Earth.

This is a new frontier for scientists to explore the duality of body and mind. The scientific community has chosen the word consciousness as an alternative to the words soul or spirit, given their heavy religious connotations. It is important to be aware that words such as psyche, soul, spirit, mind, or consciousness communicate very much the same idea, that is, the non-physical essence of a human being.

Allan Kardec was adamant about the importance of maintaining the evolution of Spiritist thought current with scientific knowledge. It is therefore with this reference that we want to take this space to share some personal observations about the currency of our conceptions on the transitioning of the soul to the spiritual sphere.

If we take a dispassionate stance it’s clear that there are solid parallels between the new findings and the ideas espoused by Allan Kardec in Heaven and Hell, and in the Andre Luiz’s series about the after-life. At the same time, we must evaluate some of the new ideas that expand what we know, or help refocus the discrepant ones. This will be a series of seven blogposts, starting with the feeling of elation reported by most NDE’s experiencers, in our next issue.

The Afterlife Through Fresh Eyes

The Afterlife Through Fresh Eyes

by | Oct 3, 2020 | Andre Luiz, Chico Xavier, Life After Death, Spiritist knowledge | 2 comments

Time and culture color writers’ interpretation of what they see and experience and therefore play a large role in shaping their view of reality.  Two gifted spirit writers report their afterlife experiences more than 50 years apart and allows us to experience with them these differences in time and culture in their reports: Andre Luis, a Brazilian who wrote, starting in the 1940’s, about his spiritual experiences, and Ricardo Petrillo, an American whose more recent experience he documents in A Journey of the Soul, published in March 2020.

Andre Luiz is the pen name of a spirit who followed a medical career in his last existence.  He lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the turn of the 19th Century, based on the dates inferred from his works. F.C. Xavier, a medium who lived in a small rural town in the South of Brazil, received via automatic writing the series of more than 10 books, the last published in 1970.

If Andre Luiz, a highly gifted spirit writer, were to write his spiritual series in current times, through a different medium, how would he tell the same stories of life in the hereafter? Would he say the same thing today as he did then?

The answer has to do with culture, that is the knowledge, religion, values, and habits that shaped the outlook on life of both himself and his medium. They both saw life and the world through the lens of a Victorian morality, the then dominant Catholic Church presence, small town rural life, and conservative values.

In contrast, Ricardo Petrillo, born and raised in the northeastern U.S., returned to the spirit life in 2005 at the age of 20, making him a member of generation Y.  How does this young man, writing from the spirit realm today, through a highly educated medium, tell stories about his experience in the hereafter? As expected, in a different and interesting way!

The differences, as they should naturally exist, may in large part be due to societal and cultural changes. Between 1970 and 2005 the world has experienced the greatest transformation in its history. Of course, it all started with the worldwide reach of the Internet. Let’s quickly contrast the ideas and values that defined the 1960s in Brazil and the 2020s in America.

Conservative Catholicism

Homophobia

Victorian morality

Divorce prohibition in Brazil

Abortion illegal

Women are homemakers

Institutional racism

Chastity till marriage

Book reading

Fixed phone lines

Liberal Christian values

Same-sex marriage

Sexual liberation

No-fault divorce

Women’s right to choose

Women in professional careers

Racial equality (struggle for)

Pre-marital sex accepted

Web learning

Mobile phones

In A Journey of the Soul, Ricardo Petrillo created a book of exploration and self-discovery focusing on his journey in the afterlife. Petrillo dictates his own firsthand experiences after recovering his full consciousness as a spirit. In many regards, his reporting follows the style of Andre Luiz. Andre Luiz is the established and respected recounter, while Petrillo is the cub reporter, but between them there is a gap of more than 70 years. 

Dante’s Inferno, H. Lachman, 20th Century Fox

Since time and environment play a key role in defining a person’s view of reality, it may be interesting to comment on what may be some noticeable differences in their observations. This is done purely out of curiosity and to help the reader consider how perspectives, even at spirit level, change over time. To make it easy to follow, let’s identify their perspectives by their initials AL and RP.

AL reports on the existence of strongholds and castles in the lower zones. These are typical old European constructions, some with moats, which are rarely seen in the Americas. RP describes the buildings mostly as non-descript conventional structures common in modern cities. The purpose of such buildings is the same, i.e. to assist rescued souls. Another difference regards the description of modes of patient transportation. AL writes about the use of dogs, traction animals, and birds of prey, while RP mentions only the use of a gurney maneuvered by aids. Interestingly both allude to the existence in those facilities of defense centers located in high towers. RP also describes the tower as containing different windows that have energy resonance with various planes of suffering. The viewer could move from one window to another in order to focus his vision on those planes.

H.Bosch, An Angel Leading a Soul into Hell

In AL the conception of lower zones resembles, in amazing detail, the centuries-old conception of hell promoted by the Church and the purgatory described by Dante. They are portrayed as physical places located contiguous to the Earth crust. RP conveys a more subtle and less gloomy vision of the struggles of those who strayed the right path, by focusing on their states of conscience.

 

The situation of people who spent a long life on Earth in a body marked by motor disability (e.g. cerebral palsy) or intellectual disability, represents another noticeable difference. AL explains that after leaving their bodies, these spirits quickly recover their normal capacities and, after a brief period of adaptation, resume their normal lives in the spiritual realm. RP offers a much deeper view of their return, describing the work of several institutions to help their readjustment.

H. Uldal, Silence in Purgatory

He relates a series of exercises and activities they take up to gradually recover or relearn how to function in the spirit realm. It seems that these spirits experience an atrophy of the senses (movement and balance) after a long stay in a constrained condition and need the assistance of specialized helpers for their re-assimilation.

By comparing and contrasting Petrillo’s recently published A Journey of the Soul with the well-established series by Andre Luiz, we share a perspective on the role that time and culture play in shaping the writers’ view of reality and their interpretation of what they see and experience. By logic, a writer writes for their time, not for people in the past or in the future. The spirits do not escape this reality. Their perceptions and ideas are defined by the environment and culture of their time. As a new generation of spiritual writers begins to share their new perspectives, our view of life in the hereafter will gain new colors and interpretations.