LOVE BEYOND DEATH

This utterly captivating story is intertwined with the Network and Frenchman's Cove, where we held a conference on The Conscious Universe with Dean Radin in 1999. I had met Hermod Sverre, a tall Norwegian doctor, some years before and we immediately became good friends. He attended a number of Network events and had registered for the conference in Jamaica with his girlfriend Elleke van Kraalingen. This was to be an extraordinary trip to paradise, a dream come true, not only in terms of the depth of their relationship, but also as an intense experience together. They seemed blissfully happy in each other's company, radiating love and joy to all around them.

When the conference finished, they went to spend a further week swimming and diving in Negril, not far from Montego Bay. On the last evening, Hermod miscalculated when crossing the road and was killed instantly by a car that hurtled him 50 yards through the air. This might have been the end, but it turned out to be a new beginning. His death was a tremendous shock to his friends – it seemed unimaginable that such a vital human being was no longer with us. 10 years later, Elleke was able to share her extraordinary story with Network Members, again at Frenchman's Cove at a meeting on death and survival with Peter Fenwick, David Fontana and myself. As readers will know, David has since died, but contributed an illuminating foreword to the book which he calls a remarkable document.

As the title suggests, this is a story of love beyond death, which will certainly stretch your mind and enlarge your understanding. As a psychologist and long-time meditator, Elleke is more aware than most of the way our minds work, including her own. She does not romanticise the relationship, but recounts the challenges they faced as well as the ecstasy they experienced. Reading between the lines, there are hints of what was to come in conversations relating timelessness to our time-bound perceptions. The narrative is very vivid, recounted as it is in dialogue as the story unfolds. There are rough edges to be smoothed and shadows to be integrated. Hermod is ambivalent about life with its suffering and has difficulties with commitment, even though Elleke is clearly the love of his life.

Suddenly, he is torn from her in an instant described in searing detail. This cannot be happening. And yet it is, and, amazingly, he is almost instantly with her in his subtle form. The next few hours are a nightmare, but she feels his presence constantly when she has to make the inevitable phone calls to Europe. She has three children, who were already becoming fond of him, so it is a great shock to them as well. He explains to her that there is no death, no time, only reality. She can't doubt this with one part of her being, but still feels his physical loss acutely. Then there is the mortuary, the flight home with an empty seat beside her, the funeral, and the embrace of family and friends.

Then an extraordinary odyssey unfolds as Hermod is able to take Elleke into realms not normally consciously accessible to human beings in the flesh. These journeys resemble the most remarkable accounts of near-death experiences and remind the reader of similar descriptions by Swedenborg in the 18th century, although these did not take place within the context of a personal love becoming cosmic. Elleke showed enormous trust and courage in venturing so far into the unknown. But the power of their love enabled this to happen, and the reader is swept along as new vistas of wisdom and insight are revealed. Being familiar with the field, I recognise the coherence of the story as they travel to ever finer densities, merging together and even losing any everyday sense of individuality at what Ken Wilber would call the causal level.

Here, timelessness stretches in all directions and we can realise our extended identities both in terms of time and incarnations, and also as parts of group souls with a common purpose, all contributing to each other's growth and to the growth of the whole. Each chapter has a short poem at the beginning, capturing the essence of the experience – both melting into the One and falling back into time and space where they are still one, and yet apart. In the subtle realms, they are also able to create forms, in one case a house where they can both go, both together and individually. One realises that it is possible to create thought forms instantly in these realms, while the corresponding process takes time in the physical world. As Hermod puts it, 'we create a reality together with our imagination and that is real.'

At one point, Elleke has to decide inwardly whether she wants to die in order to be with Hermod (although she already is) but she chooses to continue life on Earth with her children growing up. Incidentally, the children show unusual wisdom in their comments on Hermod and the significance of his death - they themselves feel a corresponding pain. It is very hard for Elleke to live fully in two worlds at once, the physical world and the light of consciousness which is also love; and yet these two worlds are in fact one, just as they are two and yet one, growing together.

As human beings we are focused on the physical world, and we can narrow our understanding so as to shut out these larger perspectives on reality. Elleke is able to draw the reader beyond their current understanding with an emphasis on being rather than doing and also an immense gratitude for the gift of life. Gradually, healing occurs and the beauty of life springs up anew. We gain a deeper sense of ourselves as co-creators in a multidimensional web of consciousness in which we are all linked. This book will deeply touch your heart while illuminating your mind to remind you of what you may have forgotten about life and its deeper meaning.