Spiritual Revelations from Beyond the Veil

Douglas Hodgson is a former Dean and Professor of Law living in Perth, Australia. His legal books have focused on human rights and justice, while I reviewed in these pages his most recent book on transcendental spirituality, wisdom and virtue. Here he turns his considerable analytical and synthetic powers to categorising and describing insights from hundreds of near-death experiences from the IANDS website – hence, his subtitle ‘what humanity can learn from the near-death experience.’ The result is in my view the finest synthesis I have read of profound and converging insights on the nature of reality, consciousness and the purpose of human life. As such, it reads like a users’ manual for living a fully human life. The contents are set out in a series of bullet points, which means that some sentences will speak more clearly and directly to individual readers. As is the case with Evelyn’s book reviewed above, NDEs have a radically transformative impact on belief systems.

The best way of conveying a flavour is to report on insights that particularly struck me as I read through the various chapters. God/The Source is characterised as Light, Love, Oneness or universal Consciousness: ‘God is an entity of infinite loving energy without beginning or end; subsisting in every dimension, seen and unseen…He is Love. I felt it. I knew Him. I was part of Him…God is immanent within His creation but the creation is all a part of God;’ (panentheism) and, interestingly, ‘we are not God, but God is us.’ Heaven is a state of love, light, joy and bliss: ‘profound unconditional love, total acceptance and forgiveness.’ ‘Everything is one. We are all connected…We are part of everything and everything is part of us.’ ‘Our soul is energy, light, essence and consciousness.’ ‘You are simultaneously everything and nothing.’ ‘There is nothing to fear. We are all Divine entities;’ ‘Do not fear death and the unknown; upon rebirth in the spirit world, all-knowingness returns;’ ‘Unclutter your mind. Detach from the material world.’

In the higher spiritual realms, ‘belief, faith and trust in God are superseded by a certainty of knowing, and awareness of, God…Empathy, understanding, forgiveness and acceptance allow the soul to progress to the higher realms.’ ‘Time and space do not exist in the higher realms which are folded and collapsed into oneness;’ ‘Anger, greed and negative emotions do not exist in the higher realms;’ ‘In the spiritual realm, knowledge and information are ’downloaded’ into your consciousness… Souls have full access to the universal data structure… the soul and all of its questions will receive instantaneous answers (this was the experience reported by Walter Russell)…there is no sense of time or self.’ ‘Love is the answer; Communication is the key.’ Communication, as Swedenborg already reported in the 18^th century, is telepathic. On the purpose of life and meaning: ‘Essentially, we are here to learn and to love and be loved; to develop loving and caring relationships. We are here to expand within ourselves our capacity for unconditional love… and to manifest it towards other beings.’ The challenge, as already recognised by the Gnostics, is that we forget who we truly are: ‘the energy of love is the essence of life.’

‘Life is not a series of coincidences but of choices made, and we remain responsible for the consequences at the soul level.’ We are here to live fully in the present moment, and to love Nature and all life forms.’ ‘The laws of attraction and cause and effect are universal: ’Your thoughts and feelings create your life and your own reality…Energy flows where your attention goes…Like attracts like. Positive attracts positive; negative attracts negative…. Worry and fear attract just that into your life.’ We live in a universe of energy – ‘we are the life-force or energy that is one with God… Everything exists in a continual balance between light and darkness; positive and negative… Love is the vibrational energy flowing through and connecting all things like an electric current.’ ‘Fear does not exist in the Divine realms; it is an instrument of earthly control.’ ‘The physical body is a temporary vessel, which we depart at death, transitioning into another realm… death is returning Home for debriefing and reprogramming.’ The life review is a stock-take, evaluation or exit interview to ask what we have done with our lives, and how we loved, helped and cared for others. We will need to forgive ourselves, and come to realise the significance of small acts of kindness.

In his conclusion, Douglas notes the limitations of the dominant view that consciousness depends exclusively on the functioning human brain. The contents of this book are an implicit refutation of this proposition, and provide a unique treasure trove of life wisdom and advice, reminding us that all is an interconnected oneness, that life is a precious gift, that our souls are the energy that is one with that of God/Source and that ‘Love is the most powerful force in existence.’ As the Bulgarian sage Peter Deunov put it: when we return to the invisible world, we will be examined on how we have applied the law of love. In this remarkable compilation, you will be able to glean the essence of the love and wisdom that we are here to learn and apply. It is sure to be the most important book you will read this year, and to which you will often wish to return for further inspiration and insight.