Biologists tell us that humans are the only animals born without any instinctual knowledge, born completely ignorant, and born completely dependant upon others for survival. Until something changes in the evolutionary progress of humanity, this will have to remain a fact of life. 

 The following information is a brief summary of all the insights concerning knowledge from the near-death accounts profiled on this website.

Birth is choosing to fall sleep and crossing through a veil of consciousness that causes us to forget the knowledge of where we came from and who we really are. This knowledge can only be remembered only at a much deeper level of consciousness. But trying to remember this knowledge is like trying to remember a dream during your deepest period of REM sleep.

In the spirit world, all the knowledge that exists is already known to us. After death, we awaken, regain our forgotten knowledge and once again become our true selves.

Categories of Knowledge From the Afterlife

There are five categories of forgetting and regaining our knowledge of our true selves:

The following excerpts from near-death accounts reveal more on the subject of forgotten and remembered knowledge.

Forgetting Pre-Birth Memories

  We had to take a vow not to remember anything. Then it had to pass through a gray misty-looking curtain. The reason is for us to learn more effectively and faster. The most important reason for us coming to Earth is to either learn or teach. Most times both. All the bad things we go through here is either for our own learning or someone else's. (Darlene Holman)

  David Goines' NDE:  Humans have a mental and spirit body. Before going through the veil, we chose our own physical body. We must forget these memories because in order to experience a physical life, we must experience the physical things, be physically challenged, make choices of free will, and make mistakes so that we can learn from them in ways that only a physical life could impart.

If we retained all of our prior knowledge, we might not bother to experience the physical life for its fulfillment - we might decide to skip the pain and thus miss the pleasure. We promised God that upon accepting the opportunity, challenges and responsibility of a physical life, we would make the most of this opportunity for ourselves and God, return to God with the knowledge and experience gained so that God will be enhanced by our experience.

The reason we need to experience a separation of our total reality when we took on a physical body is because in order for us to appreciate, benefit, and learn all we can from our physical life, we must re-discover what we knew before - in physical ways.

Through our physical life we must discover how to return to God. By the good that we do to each other here, by the ways we improve our minds, and by the ways that we learn to cope with a physical body and physical life, we earn our right of safe passage back to God; and in doing so, we honor God. It is God's love that sends us on the journey and it is our love for God that will allow us to return to God's loving arms. (David Goines)

Forgetting NDE Knowledge

  An experiencer can return with some of the knowledge of the things they have learned during their NDE, but the rest of the knowledge is veiled. (Cecil)

  Immediately after a NDE, some of the experience may be remembered. A feeling like that of a shaft of light coming down through the top of the head making it tender may be felt before the memories are forgotten. (Joni Maggi)

  Arrangements may be made for when, where and how the experiencer will return to the world and what lessons would enrich them or be acquired anew. Some lessons learned during the NDE have to be forgotten. For example, it is not good for the soul to know when the time of their death will be because the experiencer would focus on only that, especially as the time neared. (Karen Schaeffer)

  An experiencer can only take as much knowledge as needed to sustain them. They are given knowledge along the way as they finish out the rest of their life. (Sandra Rogers)

Living With Forgotten Knowledge

  We have a built-in barrier protecting us from the direct impact of our souls' past life experiences, especially those memories that are harmful or so unpleasant as to ruin any chance of correcting those mistakes in the present life. This should be kept in mind when attempting to discover our souls' past lives. Some of the memories are hidden for a very good reason. Bringing them to the surface by force could prove disastrous, crushing the outer person under a burden that even his or her own soul would not have sanctioned. The past does need to be investigated and awakened, but the persons involved in these investigations (hypnotists, guides, and even the subjects) must not assume they know what's best. The inner soul must be allowed to reveal its secrets in a manner that suits its purposes and timing. (Edgar Cayce)

  We have forgotten that we are children of the most high God; that our spiritual side, our souls, needs to return to have total fellowship with God. To do this we have to come to ourselves and realize that in this human realm of existence, our human, selfish side has led us down the road of materialism and of living only for ourselves, which caused us to turn away from God and our divine destiny and forget who we are. It caused our spiritual death. (Dr. George Ritchie)

  In order to become one with God, work must be done to remember or find the truth. The truth is this: our true self is a spirit and our spirit is one with God. (Sandra Rogers)

  By coming here without our eyes fully open, we are forced to follow the whisperings of our spirits -- those quiet truthful impressions that spring from the subconscious. As we follow them, we begin to hear also the whisperings of God. (Betty Eadie)

  We have all forgotten that we were the one original being. So we live out our lives in the illusion of separateness. Our aim is for all of us to come together again, to merge back into the original being and become the One we truly are beneath the surface. The way to do this was love. Love is simply the name of the natural force which, like gravity, tends to pull everything back together. As human beings, the way we experience this force is through love. As fragmented creatures, our job is to love each other and become one again. (Joseph Kerrick)

  Souls getting ready for embarkation to Earth are like battle-hardened veterans girding themselves for combat. This is the last chance for souls to enjoy the omniscience of knowing just who they are before they must adapt to a new body. (Dr. Michael Newton)

  The reason we don't remember the lives we lived before is both simple and complex. The simple answer is, "Because we have not lived before." This is because our current conscious mind, personality, and body are new; they have not been alive before. Nor have they reincarnated in the true sense of the word. However, our souls have been alive before - this is the distinction - and they have reincarnated. The memories are those of our souls' - not our own conscious memories. (Edgar Cayce)

  When we trust in God, he guides and directs us to further knowledge as we need it. Growth is a process, and when we take time to internalize and understand what we believe, we are more richly blessed; our beliefs radiate in our countenances for all to see. (Betty Eadie)

  During a NDE, a person can remember and feel different times and events as if they were happening right now. In life, death is merely the other side of a threshold over which we can not normally see. So, too, in death, life and the land of the living were on the other side of a very thin veil. (Lynnclaire Dennis)

  The knowledge of what has always been, remains in us ... When we follow our hearts, when we are in tune and balanced, and when we listen to the still inner voice within ... we "know." (Betty Eadie)

  Edgar Cayce:  Karma is memory coming into consciousness again. What occurred in the past can be recalled and have an effect on the present. The recollection may not surface to the conscious level; the personality may have no awareness of the memory, in fact. Yet, it exists at the deeper, soul level.

After death, as a soul draws closer to Universal Mind of God it becomes aware that some of its memories are not compatible, and since its ultimate purpose for being is companionship with same, the soul will seek out opportunities to resolve these incompatible memories.

We must meet every bit of our karma. However, there is a way that it can be modified, softened, even ameliorated. If a soul, knowing another soul has wronged it, forgives that soul and holds no lingering resentment perhaps has even forgotten the wrong in the depths of its forgiveness and understanding then it begins to take hold of the power of forgiveness. The more it forgives, the more it perceives and understands forgiveness. Then, when it approaches the Universal Mind and realizes it possesses memories that are incompatible with It, forgiveness is much more viable, removing the barrier of separation.

Humans have became so encapsulated in the physical that we began to identify ourselves more with our bodies than with our consciousness. We began to think of ourselves as physical entities rather than free, living consciousness. We began to think we were only physical beings and our heavenly origins began to be forgotten. The physical body is so substantial, so captivating that it is difficult to hold on to the more delicate reality of spirit-thoughts, pure point of consciousness in a Universal Mind. (Edgar Cayce)

Remembering Afterlife Knowledge

  During a NDE, a person may remember spirit and other dimensions of life which they knew as a child but had forgotten in order to fit into society. Then, they may realize that life means falling asleep and forgetting who we are. (Josiane Antonette)

  All that happens in life is for a purpose, and that purpose is already known to our eternal self. (Beverly Brodsky)

  During a NDE, our consciousness expands while we absorb more knowledge. During the return trip, the whole process is reversed and even more knowledge can be given. (Mellen-Thomas Benedict)

  At death, it can feel as if we have been living behind a curtain our whole life. Then, all of a sudden, this veil of illusion is lifted and the floodlights shine on us. Then we learn the reality that everything is really veiled spirit. (Daniel Rosenblit)

  a NDE can feel like going to a large gathering of relatives at Christmas but not being quite able to remember their names or who they are married to or how they are connected to you. The experiencer knows that they are with family. It can feel like they are closer than anyone the experiencer had ever known. (Rev. Howard Storm)

  During a NDE, a person may notice the landscape gradually becoming familiar. They may feel as if they had been there before. They may remember that heaven is our real home. They may remember that on Earth, we are visitors and a homesick stranger. (Arthur Yensen)

  We may remember the life with God - a spirit life seems to extend to the beginning of the universe. (Angie Fenimore)

  The farther forward a person is propelled through the tunnel, the more knowledge can be received. The mind can feel like a sponge, growing and expanding in size with each addition. This knowledge may come in single words and in whole idea blocks. Everything can be understood as it is being soaked up or absorbed. The mind expands and absorbs as each new piece of information comes in. It is receiving knowledge that was already known but forgotten or mislaid, as if it were waiting to be picked up on the way by. (Virginia Rivers)

  I had complete love and acceptance for everything. I saw my own gentleness, tenderness, harmlessness. I simply was perfect and loving. I said to him, '"Of course!" I felt I was connecting with knowledge that I had known before. I wondered how on Earth had I forgotten anything that important. I have known that.

I said, "Can you tell me what everything is all about - the whole world - everything?" "He said, "Yes." He told me in only three sentences at the most. It was so simple. I understood that immediately. I had total comprehension of what he was saying to me. I remember again saying to him, "Of course!" Then there was that feeling again of connecting with knowledge I had once had. I wondered how on Earth did I forget that. (Jayne Smith)

  The light gave me knowledge, though I heard no words. We did not communicate in English or in any other language. This was discourse clearer and easier than the clumsy medium of language. It was something like understanding math or music - nonverbal knowledge, but knowledge no less profound. I was learning the answers to the eternal questions of life - questions so old we laugh them off as clichés. "Why are we here?" To learn. "What's the purpose of our life?" To love. I felt as if I was re-remembering things I had once known but somehow forgotten, and it seemed incredible that I had not figured out these things before now. (Kimberly Clark Sharp)

  I was in the company of an innumerable amount of others who were just like me. It was as though they were family ... that I didn't know or I had forgotten. They knew all about me and were there to celebrate, comfort, ease and move me ahead. There was no sense of recognition but I knew they were there to help. (Grace Bubulka)

  In heaven, we have the opportunity to assess our progress as a soul, to evaluate pros and cons and outcomes, to remember all truths including that of our real identity. (Dr. PMH Atwater)

  Other thoughts were conveyed and I remember thinking, "Wow, now I get it. Everything about our existence finally makes sense." ... He kept saying, "All is known. You have simply forgotten." I didn't feel like I knew anything; yet, there was a place in me that knew everything. (Laurelynn Martin)

  The light was delicious. I soaked it up like a dry sponge soaks up water. I felt like I had been sealed up in a vacuum packed jar for a long as I could remember. Now the jar was opened and the pressure was gone. I could breathe again. I could feel energy flowing into me, loosening and softening parts of my being that I did not even know I had. My whole being thrilled with well being and joy. A feeling that I had known before, though I could not remember where or when. (John Star)

  Floodgates of knowledge opened, and truth poured into me without end or constraint. Its source was the light and truth all around me, and it was clarified, or explained at my level, by my grandmother. She gave me knowledge about God, life, the creation of the world, and even the reaches of eternity. The truths were comprehensive and complete and rushed upon me in such enormous volume that I thought my head would explode. It was coming too fast. I wanted to be able to absorb it, to remember it all, but it was too much. "I can't take this!" I said. "Stop!" (RaNelle Wallace)

  Emanuel Swedenborg:  Once people are in the spirit world, it is very obvious what kind of people they were intrinsically in the world. In the spirit world, they are acting on the basis of what really belongs to them. If they were inwardly involved in something good in the world, they then behave rationally and wisely - more wisely, in fact, than they did in the world, because they are released from their ties with a body and therefore from the things that darken and, so to speak, cloud things over.

On the other hand, if they were involved in something evil in the world, they then behave senselessly and crazily - more crazily, in fact, than they did in the world, because they are in freedom and are not repressed. When they lived in the world, they were sane in outward matters because they were using them to fabricate a rational person. So once these outward matters are taken away from them, their madness is unveiled.

All people who have lived in the world involved in what is good, and who have acted out of conscience (those who have acknowledged something divine and loved divine truths, especially those who have applied them to their lives) - it seems to all such people, when they are brought into the spirit world, as though they have been roused from sleep and come awake, or have come from darkness into light. (Emanuel Swedenborg)

Remembering Past-Life Knowledge

  See the research conclusions on reincarnation.