February 6 2024
Enduring Enchantment and Endless Consciousness.
The décor in my living room where I read and write, has been fashioned not by me, but by my late wife, who died on October 23 2020, in her 93d year. Her artistic and inspiring arrangement of original artwork, of paintings and embroidery, of wood carvings and colorful plants, and, of course, family pictures, assures her enduring presence, inspiring me every moment of the day, captivated by her enduring enchantment.
After her slow death, due to dementia and physical ailments, my spouse of 67 years appeared to me in a dream a while ago. I wanted to kiss her, but she told me that I had to wait at least three years.
I believe that conversation to be true. I know that her body is dead; I also know that her spirit is still alive. Death is not the end: we humans are more than just body: we also are soul and spirit, and so retain consciousness.
Some biography.
Both my wife and I were born in 1928. She was the 8th of 12; I the 4th of 9. Her father, the only minister of a church with 1300 members, died a month before her 9th birthday. Her mother, in the midst of the world-wide economic depression, was faced in 1937 with greatly reduced income, but was able to raise her 12 children – 5 female and 7 male – with almost all of her brothers attaining professional status.
My wife’s parents were very gifted, and so was my wife who, because she and her sisters were female, and would surely marry, did not have the educational opportunities their brothers had, which she resented greatly, yet, due to her talents she became a Master Graphologist, an expert in hand-writing analysis.
My daily routine.
Each morning I settle myself in my Lazy Boy, looking south to the large window there, with red and green plants on its sill, while the West wall in my living/dining room is adorned with colorful art objects, including a large decorative glass painting, suspended in the fixed window there. On the east wall of my living room, I have a large bookcase well-proportioned, beautifully crafted, overflowing with books, of course, flanked also by original paintings from recognized artists.
In a word, my writing and living space is inspiring, enchanting and restful: a constant reminder of my wife’s artistic arrangements. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of having been married to her for nearly seven decades.
Endless Consciousness.
We all are part of this world, forever: Enchantment and Eternity and Earth belong together.
My brother Drewes in den Haag, the Netherlands, gave me a Dutch book, (it went through 9 printings in the first year) the title translated as Endless Consciousness, in which the writer, Dr. Pim van Lommel, a heart specialist, who in that medical capacity often witnessed death, relates how the Almost Dead Experience is a proven fact. I myself experienced it, when my father died, who, just before the end, said, “Is the radio on? I hear music.” That music continued, I believe, after his body expired.
In his introduction the author writes, and I translate: “I have concluded that endless consciousness always has existed independent of our body and will continue to do so. There never is a beginning nor an end to our consciousness. That’s why we seriously must consider that death, just as birth, is a transition to a different state of consciousness, while during life the body functions as an interphase.”
If that is true – and I am inclined to believe it – then this has enormous implications for life and the hereafter. And for theology as well. Jesus, on the cross, told his co-sufferer, that he would that day be with Jesus in paradise: he would join Jesus in his full consciousness, to be fully restored to life on the Day of the New Creation.
Where did we go wrong?
We have allowed ourselves to live apart from nature, and often apart from our fellow humans as well. We are the poorer because of this loss of integration. We have been too anthropocentric and now we reap the harvest of our lopsided existence, scorning the holiness of all that exist, acting and believing that we are ‘superman’, above the mere irrational elements in creation which lack our rational powers. We are starting to realize that we now, more than ever, are dependent on a well-functioning earth, which provides us with our daily needs.
In the Lord’s Prayer there is a line: “Hallowed be thy name”. It is my considerate opinion that this phrase has nothing to do with God’s name – God is beyond a name – and refers to everything that carries God’s name, his signature, enchanted by his touch that is beyond AI comprehension.
Eternity is now: Life never ends.
Endless Consciousness confirms that ‘nobody ever disappears’, that the good deeds of some will always be part of them (Revelation 14:13) while, that in others, pride will haunt them forever.