Breakthrough Personal and Scientific Evidence for Life After Death
Rhonda Eklund-Schwartz
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I took a deep breath and marched toward the open door. Entering my Mother’s small study filled with books and memories… The air felt heavy and still as I slowly turned to see what had once been the door to my closet as a child standing slightly open, revealing only darkness.
Reaching for the door knob, it seemed as though everything was moving in slow motion. The door eased opened and my heart began beating faster as light from the room flooded the tiny space. With the darkness swept aside, I could see my Father’s folded, military flag leaning against the wall on the floor in the corner. But more amazing yet was the sight of several loose sheets of paper curling up from behind the flag, which seemed to be standing vigilant over the illusive documents.
I stood there for a moment, seemingly frozen in time, considering what all of this meant. If those were the papers I had been looking for; and if I had been led to them by my Mother who had passed three days earlier – then everything from that moment forward was different, everything from that second on was changed.
FOREWORD
Gary E. Schwartz, PhD
Try as you might, you cannot annihilate that eternal relic
of the human heart, love.
Victor Hugo
Is life and love eternal?
Is it true, as the writer Victor Hugo proposes, that we cannot “annihilate that eternal relic of the human heart, love”?
The painter of Starry Night Vincent van Gogh, expressed it this way: Love is something eternal, the aspect may change, but not its essence. Is the essence of love something eternal as van Gogh suggests?
The poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, said it this way: The dawn is not distant, nor the night starless; love is eternal. Is love neither distant nor starless, but eternal as Longfellow suggests?
In The Living Energy Universe book, I asked this question in a more scientific fashion: Is our love “our energy and information” like the light from distant stars, continuing its radiance long after the star has “died”? Does the energy of our love have the same kind of immortality as the energy of stars?
One need only look up at a starry night and be reminded that an astoundingly accurate history of organized star light persists in the cosmos for millions or billions of years. If this living photonic history did not exist, there could be no science of astronomy or astrophysics, and we would know next to nothing about the universe in which we live.
I am neither a poet nor a painter. I am a scientist, and as such am forbidden professionally to express (or endorse) such metaphorical and metaphysical beliefs as “eternal relics” and the “essence” of love without empirical evidence. In my books The Afterlife Experiments, The Truth about Medium, and The Sacred Promise, I have shared some of the latest scientific research addressing the question “does consciousness survive physical death”? I have explained how I was led, slowly but surely, to the conclusion that the probability that our minds and hearts “our love“ continues after physical death, is the same probability that the light from distant stars continues in the “vacuum of space” after the stars have “died.”
However, no amount of laboratory experiments – no matter how carefully controlled or replicated they may be – can replace the power and inspiration provided by accumulated personal experiences of real life evidence for life after death. It is the combination of controlled laboratory research with accumulated real-life evidence that makes a convincing case for the continuity of life.
In Love Eternal, Rhonda Rae Eklund-Schwartz reveals a compelling true history of personal observations and experiences which she carefully recorded and analyzed over an eight year period following the death of her mother, Marcia Claire Eklund. Collectively, Rhonda’s personal investigation provides convincing evidence that the “essence” of Marcia is not only alive and well, but that her mother is continuing her commitment to remain in her daughter’s life.
Some of the observations and experiences Rhonda shares are truly astounding and breathtaking. I can vividly recall my first reading of Rhonda’s carefully typed and documented journal in the wee hours of a Friday evening following a keynote address I had given at a scientific conference at Duke University on life after death sponsored by the Rhine Research Center,
As I was reading Rhonda’s remarkable and heart warming journal of observations and experiences, I was reminded of the distinguished author Susy Smith. Susy had written a total of thirty books on parapsychology and life after death.
I had met Susy when she was 85 years old and she became my “adopted grandmother.” Susy was fond of saying that she “couldn’t wait to die so she could prove that she was still here.” Susy’s physical life ended just shy of her 90th birthday. However, as I chronicle in detail in The Sacred Promise, Susy has honored her promise and made seminal contributions to our ongoing research as an evidential and active collaborator “from the other side.”
I was surprised to discover that Rhonda and Susy shared much in common concerning their relationships with their respective mothers “here and there.”
Like Susy, Rhonda had lost her mother when she was in her middle years. Like Susy, Rhonda had been an only child. Like Susy, Rhonda had a special loving relationship with her mother. Like Susy, Rhonda had neither a spouse nor children; therefore she was able to focus her attention on the question, “Was her mother still here, and could they continue their loving relationship”? Like Susy, Rhonda was scientifically minded, a careful observer, and she collected substantial evidence of her mother’s continued presence. And like Susy, Rhonda eventually came to the firm conclusion not only that the essence of her mother was still here, but that their love was continuing to grow and evolve.
I can speak with some authority that the accounts you are about to read are genuine. I have had the privilege to come to know Rhonda well and can confirm that besides being a gifted professional painter and a deeply loving person, she is careful, thorough, detail oriented, and analytical. Though Rhonda and I decided to share a life together – and we have uncovered surprising evidence that Marcia and Susy played a critical role in bringing us together, as Rhonda details in Part III of Love Eternal – I have written this Foreword as a scientist, not a spouse.
I have seen the original handwritten notes that chronicle her personal history as well as witnessed first hand the latest part of her extraordinary journey. What you are about to read is “breakthrough verity” in the true sense of these words and deserves to be celebrated.
I have come to know Marcia not only through Rhonda’s accounts, but through a number of private readings with certified research mediums, as well as occasional intuitive moments which turned out to be evidential. Marcia was, and is, an exceptional woman: deeply spiritual, an experienced educator and healer, and a prototype of a loving mother and wife. In the process of reading this book (and do not miss the Afterword), you will come to know Marcia too, and I would not be surprised if you come to love her as I have.
Though controlled research on the question of life after death continues in the academic laboratory, what leads me to believe in the reality of life after death is that well documented, replicated, verified, convincing, and at times astounding after death communication happens in real life that only the most cynical of non-believers would summarily dismiss as being merely “anecdotal.” The truth is that the most meaningful laboratory science often occurs in the laboratories of our personal lives.
If you are already a believer in love eternal, you will be both comforted and inspired by this book. If you are unsure about the possibility of love beyond physical life, you will be amazed and encouraged by this book. And if you are a firm non-believer that nothing persists beyond physical life, the least you may do is be touched by the great love evidenced in this book and be impressed by the thoughtful way that the author has attempted to make sense of her genuine extraordinary observations and experiences.
May you enjoy Rhonda’s journey to Love Eternal as much as I have.
A Surprising Postscript: Just as I was finishing a draft of this Foreword, and before I had the opportunity to read it to Rhonda, she came into my study with a copy of The Afterlife Experiments. Though I had forgotten this, it turns out that the title I had selected for the Preface of the book (written ten years earlier) was “Is Life and Love Eternal”? I inserted the opening sentence of this Foreword to honor this appropriate continuity.