This article was based on a response to a deeply touching email I received from a person who remains brain damaged due to an accident. The question was, "When I die, what should I expect considering that my brain is severely damaged? Can I be born normal again, or am I condemned to this condition in the future?"

Essentially, this person wants to know whether physical conditions survive death. To people who understand and accept the idea of reincarnation without doubt, this question may sound basic. But to someone who is struggling every day, wondering whether life is worth living now, if there is more to life, or if there is any future hope, the question is not basic at all but a matter of life and death, a matter of spiritual well-being. This person is responding to inner guidance, seeking information to help him deal with present existence.

If physical conditions were to survive death, many more babies would be born with illnesses and physical or mental disabilities that resulted in death in a previous life. (By the way, death is a misnomer. I prefer to describe this natural phenomenon as transition from one existence to another.)

The part of us that goes through transition is not physical. It is whole and complete in every respect. It cannot be damaged or destroyed. This is our spiritual self. We may lose a leg or an arm or, as in this case, sustain brain damage, but we do not carry any of these physical conditions over to the other dimension of existence following transition. Although some personalities on the other side may require healing before returning to earth, that healing is of a spiritual nature and not physical.

Our physical bodies are created here on earth, but the other component of who we are, the immaterial, the God essence (variously described as our memory or personality), has always existed and will always exist. This God essence enters the body with the first breath we take at birth, as we become a living soul once again, and it leaves the body with the last breath. Any damage to the physical body, even at birth, can be attributed to harmful conditions of this physical world, not to physical conditions from a previous life. In other words, any damage to the physical body is not a result of reincarnation.

Even the experiences of people with severe brain damage, which they may not be to recall or perceive now, are all there in the indelible memory. They are not lost. The only limitation for people with severe brain damage is in the human body. It is only a temporary condition.

This thought-provoking book may comfort you, intrigue you, or surprise you regardless of your religious or spiritual beliefs. At the very least, it will help to explain many of the extraordinary events and mysteries we all encounter in our lives.

In Voices from Beyond: The God Force, the Other Side, and You, the author takes you on a pilgrimage to the edge of what you know and what you believe, and gently guides you to unimagined places.

Buy Voices from Beyond