Welcome to Realm-2: Prologue to Realm-2

Prologue to Realm-2

I am meeting Kevin. Our hosts for this dinner know him well, and have related his story. Kevin had an emergency heart operation, he nearly died on the operating table and after his recovery discovered he had become psychic.

Kevin turns out to be a quiet, reserved man. He is shy about recounting his visitations from the soul of my departed friend whom he calls, "The Cobbler" but he tells us how full of energy Mario was after he died. Mario's surname was Schoenmaker, the Dutch words for "shoe maker" so Kevin, who had never heard of him, has got that one right. At one point he becomes slightly distracted, as though he is listening to someone else. He turns to me and says, "You are the teacher," which is true, I had been teaching for thirty years. Then he looks over the table to my wife, "Is your name Lyne-Melody Rawson?" She nods. "He says, 'She loves her music.'"  Melody had been a professional singer for many years. She had also conducted a large choir. She really loved her music.

I ask Kevin about his experience on the operating table. Although his physical body was anaesthetised,  he experienced himself rising out of his  body and hovering over it while the medical staff were hastily trying to prevent him from dying. He sees his cardiac surgeon rush in, sporting a flamboyant yellow tie. The surgeon opens him up and the operation is underway and fortunately successful.

The next time he meets his surgeon, Kevin remarks that he is not wearing that spectacular yellow tie. The surgeon is taken aback. "How do you know about the tie?" 

Kevin explains his out of the body experience in the operating theatre. Although sceptical, the surgeon confesses that he only wore that yellow tie when he played golf. That day, he was in the middle of his weekly golfing date when Kevin's major heart attack caused him to abandon his game and rush back to operate - still wearing his golfing tie.

How am I going to react to Kevin's story? Over the years I have shared this experience with many people. Their reactions fall broadly into three groups.

Group number one looks vaguely interested and then changes the topic of conversation. I suspect that they are filing me away in their mental filing cabinets as "slightly strange, but not a threat." Group number two begins to reconstruct the story. Kevin already had some background about Melody and me. He had seen the surgeon wear this tie before, and his subconscious created an exceptionally vivid dream, and so on. According to group two, everything can be explained in terms of neural pathways and reactions in the brain. Only group three actually take the account on board and accept it. They may say something like, "I had an experience myself that was similar," and then we go on to a discussion about psychic abilities or near death experiences. 

The responses of the first two groups of people are Realm-1 reactions. This physical world of the senses is all there is. It is the sum total of reality. Anything that contradicts this position is either irrelevant and can be ignored, or is a threat and must be disproved. 

Recently I saw a post on Facebook from someone who had come to a life crisis. A deeply loved partner had died unexpectedly. From the depths of their heart, they posted a cry from the soul:

Is this all there is?

For thousands and thousands of years there have been those who have answered, "No!" to this question. They have answered "No, there is so much more," because they have experienced another, and greater reality. They have travelled from Realm-1 to Realm-2. 

Eventually every human being makes this journey. Eventually our life in the world of sense perception comes to an end. We then confront Realm-2. 

Why should we trouble ourselves to make the journey from Realm-1 to Realm-2 now? There are three powerful reasons:

• Wonder
• Understanding 
• Hope

We enter into Realm-2 through a sense of wonder. As Christ put it, we have to become like a little child in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

As we journey deeper into Realm-2 a huge understanding enfolds us. Life begins to make sense. We discover that our life has meaning and purpose.

Purpose creates hope. Despite all the pain and suffering we encounter in our lives and the world around, we live in the expectation, the hope, that everything we experience leads to greater consciousness, and greater consciousness leads us to wisdom.

Mario, my departed friend, used to relate a story from his childhood. An aunt would visit and bring her tapestry frame so she could work on her current tapestry while she was chatting. Little Mario would crawl under the frame, and look up at the underneath of her work. It was a maze of coloured thread woven from one side to the other without any discernible pattern. Then he would crawl out from underneath and stand up. His new vantage point was startlingly different. Where before he saw chaos, now he saw order. The random riot of coloured threads transformed into a beautiful picture. Sense and harmony were revealed.

The journey into Realm-2 is accomplished through your work and effort. To this end, we have given little exercises at the end of each chapter. Though some of these exercises may seem simple, if you engage with them on a regular basis, then new discoveries will open up and your insight will deepen.

We hope that something of this sense and harmony, wonder and understanding will become part of your life's journey.

Welcome to Realm-2!