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1. Introduction to Forgotten Knowledge and NDEs
Many people having near-death experiences (NDEs) say they learned, or remembered, that the spirit world is our true home. It is a place where we pre-existed before this life in the physical. NDErs say it is a home once known to us, but forgotten, so that we can experience a physical life. Whether at birth or after an NDE, our knowledge of life as a soul becomes “veiled” – a forgetting of our higher knowledge – so that soul growth can unfold through this physical life involving choice, consequence, and love. This forgetting and remembering is part of God‘s plan.
This article follows this journey of remembrance. First, it explores NDE testimonies that describe a pre-life vow and veil – why souls consent to forget so learning can become lived. Next, it shows how NDEs briefly lift that veil: home is remembered, purpose clarified, and knowledge returns in forms our minds can carry – often as guidance and the primacy of love. We then consider why most higher knowledge fades after returning from an NDE, as protection, so we can finish our lives without it overwhelming us. From there, we look at what it’s like to live with this forgotten knowledge, including the inner whispers of our soul that help us remember through doing. Finally, we reveal the soul’s longer memory across lifetimes: how remembering can happen in the tunnel, in the light, or in a life review, and why any deeper remembering arrives in measured, healing doses.
Taken together, these testimonies suggest a hopeful insight: nothing essential is ever truly lost. We come here to remember by loving – turning insight into action – until the veil thins and the knowledge we carried all along becomes the life we live.
2. Forgetting Pre-Life Knowledge at Birth
Forgetting pre-life knowledge is part of the divine plan. Across many NDE testimonies, a striking pattern emerges: before we enter this life, we accept a loving constraint – a vow to forget and a veil to cross – that prevents our prior knowing so we can learn by living. In the density of a body, with real choices and real consequences, we rediscover what our souls already know: that we are here to learn and to love, to teach and be taught, and to carry home the wisdom won through experience.
During NDEs, people often describe a sudden recognition that the spirit world is our true home. Truths feel intimately familiar – remembered rather than newly discovered. NDErs recall that we chose our life circumstances, that free will matters, and that even our hardships can produce soul growth – our own or another’s. Knowledge returns not as a language, but as clarity: blocks of meaning, wordless understanding, an expanding mind that soaks up what had been temporarily set aside. Children sometimes remember this pre-life knowledge early, then forget to fit in society; adults remember in the light and wonder how they ever forgot it.
The following NDE testimonies reveal information from pre-life amnesia to luminous remembrance. Their message is consistent and simple: all is known; we had merely forgotten. The work of an Earth life is to remember through doing – to turn insight into love, to meet pain with purpose, and to bring back, after the journey, a heart more spacious and living the knowledge gained.
A vow, a curtain, and forgetting: “We had to take a vow not to remember anything. Then we 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)
The reason we choose to forget: “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)
Remembering our true home: “During an 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)
Remembering our true home: “Suddenly I remembered this place. This was my home, the place that was really my home, and I wondered how I could’ve ever forgotten about it. I felt as though after a long, difficult journey in a foreign country I finally had come home, and the Being of Light who was there before me was the Being that knew me better than anyone else in creation.” (Lisa M.)
Remembering our true home: “We may remember the life with God – a spirit life seems to extend to the beginning of the universe.” (Angie Fenimore)
Remembering our true home: “What I’ll never forget also was the feeling of being Home, to the heart’s forgotten longing, the center of the circle of infinity, the fulfillment of all our unspoken dreams.” (Beverly Brodsky)
Remembering pre-life knowledge: “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)
Remembering pre-life knowledge: “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)
Remembering pre-life knowledge: “It was amazing how my life was shown, with events I had completely forgotten about and others that were so insignificant that it felt like I was seeing each frame of the personal movie of my life on Earth. I realized I understood everything with a great clarity and super-lucidity that I had never experienced before. I discovered that I had personally chosen to take on a physical body and have the life experiences I was having. I realized I had wasted time in suffering, and what I should have been doing was using my freedom to choose true love, and not pain, in all that came into my life.” (Hafur)
Remembering pre-life knowledge: “I realized that I was powerful. I knew who I was and that I was not a child, but also not a man or a woman and that I had put on that outfit to experiment. I had been on Earth for a certain purpose, but had forgotten about it. Thinking about this was astounding to me, even more than how I could have forgotten. It was like I was marveling at this forgetfulness that was so obvious to me in that state. I had forgotten who I was… But this knowledge was not new to me, rather I was suddenly remembering it and it never ceases to amaze me how I could have forgotten about this.” (Stephania B.)
Remembering pre-life knowledge: “My conclusion was that I must have been here [in heaven] before, but I must have forgotten it at the moment of birth. I still can find no other explanation.” (Gail T.)
Children remember, then forget: “During an 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 is known – we simply forgot: “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 mind expands with forgotten knowledge: “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)
Read this article on Pre-Existence and the Near-Death Experience.
3. Forgetting Higher Knowledge After an NDE
NDErs describe receiving vast knowledge – why events unfold as they do, how lives interweave, what awaits beyond the veil – which is then forgotten upon return. What remains is the sustaining light: that love is the core truth, that we are guided, connected, and free to choose how we live that love. The rest is purposefully veiled, not as punishment but as protection – so we can finish our lives without being overwhelmed by timelines, destinies, or the precise hour of our death.
Many NDErs receive flashes of future possibilities that fade on returning. Some NDErs receive the healing of forgiveness during their life review, while others remember their mission in life only to forget upon return. Yet they may find the door between worlds never fully closes. The following NDE testimonies show how NDE knowledge returns in measured portions: just enough to nourish, nudge, and re-center us in the one lesson that survives every veil – love above all else.
Most NDE knowledge is veiled: “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)
Only sustaining knowledge is retained: “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)
The truth of love is retained: “I have forgotten most of [my NDE] but the truth is love.” (Ellen K.)
Why everything predestined is forgotten: “I also understood that everything happens as they are meant to. I knew the ‘Why’. That is one of the things I can’t remember. But it made perfect sense and I thought, ‘Yes, of course, how could I have forgotten?’ It was so SIMPLE! I was shown what was important and what was not. Love above all was the purpose of the Universe and that we are all interconnected.” (Anita E.)
Knowledge of choosing life is retained: “I had other questions that were also answered by the Beings. They answered almost at the same instant that I asked them. I have forgotten the other questions and answers now, except for the last question. I was asked, ‘Do you want to continue this life, or die?’ I thought, ‘What’s death?’ The Light began to show me. I knew without a doubt that death was not an ending, but a wonderful opening to my real life. I would be more knowledgeable and live in unconditional completeness and love. I remember feeling almost unworthy of such an indescribable, unconditional love. I was in awe of how much love was enveloping me. My next thought was, ‘I have not been in this life that long and have not shared very much love yet.'” (Judy G.)
The path to the light is retained: “From the time I was intubated at work shortly after the accident, to the time I was taken off the medication three days later the only thing I was able to remember was the path and light.” (Rusty S.)
Some knowledge of future events are retained: “While I wasn’t aware of receiving information during the encounter itself, I also woke with the knowledge that I had been shown a series of events that would happen in my future. Most of what I was shown was almost immediately forgotten.” (Jeanette U.)
Forgiving and forgetting life review knowledge: “[My] past flashed before me, out of my control I don’t remember an actual review, but I do remember a sense of embarrassment not over one particular past incident, but over all of them at one time. I knew all of the mistakes at one time. I can’t explain it, but I also knew I only had to forgive myself and they would be forgiven. Or forgotten, or something.” (Deborah Le)
A person’s mission in life is forgotten: “It is during the ambulance trip that I realized that I could no longer remember my mission. I had forgotten! I came back from a heavenly state to accomplish this mission and I forgot what it is shortly after re-entering my body! This was a life-transforming event and I thought it was over but I was wrong. It seems that once the door between both worlds is open, it never closes again.” (Chantal L.)
Knowledge such as time of death are forgotten: “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)
Particular knowledge is forgotten: “I had a much more deep and rich understanding of the things I focused on while there. I understood that the concept of ‘me’ was more myself than it was on Earth. We were all beings from this place and not beings from Earth. I could hone in on whatever knowledge I wanted, but I also knew that certain knowledge would be completely forgotten upon my return.” (Katherine L.)
What it feels like to forget: “Immediately after an 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)
4. Living With Forgotten Knowledge
The paradox at the heart of many NDE testimonies is this: we come from a clarity of understanding into forgetfulness so that we can learn to remember. NDErs describe pre-life knowledge – an omniscience before birth – that is veiled as we take on a body at birth or return from an NDE. On Earth, the weight of living can eclipse our divine identity; yet the soul keeps whispering to us, and love keeps nudging us home like gravity. In this view, remembering isn’t the acquisition of new facts but the gentle undoing of amnesia – remembering to trust God, to listen inwardly, and to let what has always been known to surface again.
The following NDE testimonies define this trajectory. They begin with the soul’s pre-life lucidity and the immersive downloads of truth that can overshadow earthly details. NDErs say this forgetfulness is worsen with materialistic behavior. Work must be done to remember our true selves through love. They point to the inner cues – the “still voice,” our free will, and trust – by which we recover our spiritual bearings. They acknowledge the pain of chosen lessons in life and the role of karma as memory returning for resolution, with forgiveness dissolving the separations we imagined into being. Finally, they suggest that the veil is thin, time is fluid, and the remembering continues across a lifetime – where we stop forgetting who we are.
Pre-life omniscience before earthly forgetting: “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)
Immersed in Truth, earthly knowledge is forgotten: “While I was out amidst the stars with my Guide and I was being shown or downloaded with all kinds of Knowledge and Truth, I felt so absorbed and focused, so perfectly present in that moment, that I’d forgotten everything from my life on Earth.” (Amy Call)
Our divinity forgotten; materialism causes separation: “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)
Remembering our divinity with God: “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)
Love reunites our forgotten divinity: “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)
Knowledge from our spirit leads to God: “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)
Remembering knowledge of chosen suffering: “I know about our purpose here, but I still fight it. I still cry, and rant, and wish I was ‘over there’ again. I still rage that my soul chose such a mind-bogglingly difficult life. I hate it sometimes for what I see as arrogance in doing so. It chose to suffer, but it feels like I (the awareness) am the one who suffers and it feels unjust. I often wish I didn’t know.” (Sandi T.)
Choosing to remember forgotten knowledge: “[Remembering] is resurrecting your lost InSpirited skills and forgotten knowledge and about healing your energy field back into harmony with Eternity, Creator, HOME. It’s for everyone. Yet, we must choose.” (Sharon Q.)
Inner balance yields innate knowledge: “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)
Remembering by ceasing to forget: “It was over a year later that I remembered / not forgotten the event. When it came to me, it wasn’t that I remembered the event; it was that I just didn’t forget anymore.” (Todd I.)
Trusting God reveals radiant knowledge: “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)
Timeless memories across a thin veil: “During an 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)
Lifelong unfolding of remembered knowledge: “The NDE will last the duration of your life on Earth. New things will always pop into your thoughts, like things forgotten at the light, or discovering that new gift you came back with is endless.” (Shirley R.)
Karma returns soul memories while forgiveness heals separation: “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)
5. Remembering Afterlife Knowledge
NDErs consistently report that what they experienced beyond the veil feels more real than ordinary life and, crucially, it is not forgotten. Many return with steady convictions and practical gifts: a clearer sense of purpose, guidance that feels divinely sourced, and capacities that help others at the threshold of life and death. Above all stands love – vast, intelligent, unmistakable – often remembered as both an environment and an identity.
As the veil lifts, the self becomes whole. Life reviews unveil our true nature, illuminate the meaning of events, and reconnect us with a soul family whose presence feels intimately familiar. Communication there is effortless, a kind of shared mind or remembered language. Consciousness expands; insight arrives in torrents – sometimes too swiftly to carry back intact – yet enough remains to realign a lifetime. The light heals, joy returns, and what matters is simplified: live in love, act from conscience, and let truth shape your every day.
The NDE testimonies that follow trace this progression of remembrance – from unshakeable reality to enduring love, from reunion and telepathy to moral clarity – offering a map drawn by those who have crossed the threshold and come back with these higher memories as their compass.
Enduringly real and never forgotten: “[My] experience was definitely real. It is as real as my existence today, I have never forgotten it.” (Jane A.)
Unforgotten gifts of purpose, mediumship, and guidance: “I knew where I had been. I look at life different now. Everything seems to have purpose. I am also able now to hear spirits of past loved ones, not just my own, kind of like a medium. I am able to help people crossover. I have been blessed by the Higher Power with a true gift. Something I have never forgotten.” (Valerie R.)
Unforgettable, pain-free comfort in divine love: “I was where I wanted to be. I didn’t care if I didn’t come back. I didn’t feel any pain during this time, just extreme comfort. The overwhelming love I felt will never be forgotten.” (Lisa K.)
Unforgettable yearning for a love-filled realm: “I wanted to go back to the tremendous love I felt in the beautiful, color-filled place. I have never forgotten that experience.” (Catherine T.)
Unforgettable vivid clarity beyond normal memories: “I remember the experience more accurately than other life events that occurred around the time of the experience. I knew this was something memorable, and I doubt that I would have forgotten or misremembered so vivid an experience.” (Cassandra P.)
Unforgettably vivid, clearer-than-life recall: “I remember the experience more accurately than other life events that occurred around the time of the experience. Something like this will can’t ever be forgotten.” (MaErija)
Unforgettable recall and divine guidance: “I feel very comfortable talking about death and have never forgotten or lost the experience. I also am very connected and can manifest what I want most of the time. I am very sure about my beliefs. God sends me messages every day, and I know where they are coming from. I have learned to listen and know the truth.” (Bobbie K.)
Life events fulfill our Higher Self’s purpose: “All that happens in life is for a purpose, and that purpose is already known to our eternal self.” (Beverly Brodsky)
The life review reveals our true identity: “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.” (P.M.H. Atwater)
When the veil lifts during a life review, all is revealed spirit: “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)
Remembering our soul family: “An 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.” (Howard Storm)
Remembering our soul family: “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)
Remembering only love endures, for others and self: “In that state I discovered that the only important thing is LOVE. From that moment, on I love people much more intensely… I also love my self very much, something I had completely forgotten to do during my intensive professional life because the only luggage we can take with us from this life is what we do out of love for others and ourselves.” (Esteban FR)
Remembering being love, God within: “I’ve certainly never forgotten any of it, but it really made me remember the specific experience and love. It wasn’t just that I FELT unbelievable love, I WAS unbelievable love. God is love and that God was within me and all of us.” (Demi B.)
Remembering the forgotten language of group-mind: “I felt like I could hear without there being any sound. It was like a group consciousness where I could hear everyone’s thoughts, but it was like a language I had forgotten. It sounded familiar, but I was straining to remember what the words meant.” (Sarah)
Consciousness expands knowledge and returns with more: “During an 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)
An overwhelming, personalized download of divine knowledge: “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)
The healing light and remembered joy: “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)
Telepathic group-mind in a familiar yet forgotten language: “I felt like I could hear without there being any sound. It was like a group consciousness where I could hear everyone’s thoughts, but it was like a language I had forgotten. It sounded familiar, but I was straining to remember what the words meant.” (Sarah)
The spirit realm reveals character and the good awaken wiser: “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)
6. Remembering Past-Life Knowledge
When NDErs speak of remembering past lives, they rarely mean the recall of everyday personality. What returns is deeper: a soulful recognition that stretches across lifetimes, resurfacing as déjà-vu at the threshold – a remembering that the tunnel has been traveled, that Home has been visited, that life between lives is real. In this view, the conscious mind is new for each incarnation, but the soul carries the long memory – of choices made, lessons underway, and love threaded through many lifetimes.
These memories don’t break through all at once, and for good reason. A wise veil protects our present life from being overwhelmed by the weight of the past. Glimpses arrive in at the right time – during a life review, in the hush of an NDE, or through gentle, guided inquiry – revealing just enough to heal and to orient, never to crush. Within that flow of knowledge, a liberating message appears: soul growth is the aim, love is the measure, and even the choice not to return remains a possibility when our lessons are learned.
The soul remembers reincarnation, not conscious minds: “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)
The soul remembers reincarnation and between-lives: “While my friends enjoyed my life review, memories of my eternal life filled my mind. They included hundreds of physical lifetimes, in humans and other species, as well as thousands of what we would call years spent living in what I was calling ‘Light Being society,’ and what might also be called ‘life between lives.’ I was astounded that I could possibly have forgotten all of it.” (Nanci Danison)
The soul remembers reincarnation and the tunnel: “I was keenly aware, once the experience started as I went through this ‘tunnel‘ state, that this was dying and I had done it before countless times. I was disappointed with myself that I had forgotten that this is what happens at death.” (Mark W.)
The soul remembers reincarnation as a choice: “As they are teaching us all those forgotten things… we all can choose not to reincarnate anymore and remain in this energy.” (Frederic M.)
Remembering past life knowledge in a soul-protected, timed manner: “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)
Read this article on Reincarnation knowledge from the Life Review.
Read this article on Reincarnation and the Near-Death Experience.
7. Conclusion: Remembering by Living
The NDE testimonies in this article reveal this simple truth: birth is a forgetting and death is a remembering. We consented to a loving veil before birth so that learning could become lived – so that free will, consequence, and love would be more than ideas. NDEs briefly lift that veil suggesting death is a remembering. They remind us where Home is, what matters most (love), and why so much important knowledge is allowed to be forgotten: to protect the purity of this lesson-filled life.
If forgetting is part of the plan, then remembering is also a part of the plan – our goal. NDEs help to fulfill this plan. We remember by loving – in ordinary choices, honest service, and acts of quiet responsibility. We remember by listening for the “still, small voice,” by trusting conscience, by forgiving ourselves and others so the past can release its hold. We remember by treating every person (including ourselves) as a soul in progress. In this way, knowledge returns not as trivia from beyond, but as a life reoriented toward what is good, true, and loving.
NDEs also suggest our story is longer than one lifetime. The soul carries a durable memory thread across lifetimes, revealing what we need, when we’re ready, in measured and healing doses. Each time we choose love, we thin the veil a little – and become more fluent in the language we simply forgotten.
So let the light guide where it can. Live as if your life review has already begun; act as if your smallest kindness will echo through someone else’s awakening. In the end, nothing essential is lost. And when the veil lifts for good at death, what we will remember most is the love we practiced. Then we will truly be Home.
