From: New American Spring <founder@newamericanspring.org>
Date: Sun, Oct 29, 2023 at 9:08 AM
Subject: Another Fan
To: <John@ndepodcast.org>
Dear Chas and John:
I am a caseworker serving the elderly population in Florida. I was first introduced to the idea of after-death experiences when I took a class called “The Theology of Death and Dying” in 1997 at Fordham University, which was a part of my Masters in Liberal Studies program at the time. This course featured the trailblazing Dr. Moody’s Life After Life text.
I grew up Catholic and was always religiously disposed, so much so that a close friend of the family nicknamed me Priestman when I was a young boy. Later, I came to understand that my attraction to religion is only a symptom of my truer attraction to spirituality itself. Religion is only our human effort to codify the otherwise ineffable.
When I was in my college years, I would begin to experience a sort of disembodied love, a spiritual love. This caused me to examine the monastic life as a possible religious calling, since monks pursue the love of God directly. I did not find a fit in the monasteries, however, because I’ve always had a very stubborn sense of an active mission in the world, and I was only seeking a place, at the time, where my spirituality can incubate. But by the will of God, I had to remain in the “real world” while finding my calling, and here I am still.
I believe that God is allowing the proliferation of near-death accounts because our world is coming into a stage where this truth will be needed to counteract the great varieties of pictures of reality which humankind are being subjected to, some of which are insidious indeed. The fear of death is the greatest obstacle to humanity. It can force people to take drastic measures which are greatly detrimental to their souls, such as perhaps being convinced to live forever in virtual reality worlds through technology, a sort of counterfeit of our spiritual lives after death. What would be detrimental about this is that in such an existence, we would be cut off from God’s love and would be trapped in a sort of solipsistic Hell.
When I was in grad school I had my most profound spiritual experience which is somewhat similar to the near-death experience, except that it happened in the shower. I was swooped into what might be called the Third Heaven for a few minutes. Here, I saw a churning white cloud, and I seemed amidst it, and with every unfolding of the cloud, I experienced the blissful Love of God. This sparked me writing a poem which begins:
The Love of God is like a Churning Cloud of Light,
Wherewith every turning,
There is a new bliss.
This experience, by the way, followed my reading at the time a book called The Cloud of Unknowing by an anonymous monk, written for those who are contemplatively called.
At any rate, I find Chas’ podcast very helpful for those trying to understand spiritual things without necessarily having to consult abstruse, spiritual texts of various religious traditions. Today, I feel I am approaching my mission in life, the reason my soul came here, in my social movement concept at Www.NewAmericanSpring.Org. Please consider sharing this with your audience. On the homepage, there is a link to my main blog, as I am a writer and a teacher by nature.
I almost feel as though I might be a spirit guide in spirit form, come into this world also like a blank tape to rediscover truth from scratch, lol.
Do keep up the good work, my NDE Podcast friends. I try to recommend this podcast whenever I can to my elderly clients. This population is at a time in their lives where the question of suffering and the purpose in life itself is most stark.
Best,
Roger Farinha, Founder
New American Spring
New American Spring 