I’ve been studying about learning theories. At first I hated it. But now I’m curious about the ultimate theory that involves more than your physical brain. You know that scripture — “Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.”? I’ve understood that to mean learn as much as possible — go to school, read, get a good education. What we learn is important because we take that with us after mortal life.
But then I got to thinking about how learning is reported in NDEs (near death experiences.) People who have crossed the veil in a near death experience report that learning is greatly enhanced in comparison to what we have on earth. It sounds superior to our methods of learning in mortality. Here’s my proof:
First, Hugh Nibley related that during his near death experience, he realized he could learn anything in five minutes —
“I looked around and not only was in all possession of my faculties, but they were tremendous. I was light as a feather and ready to go, you see. Above all I was interested in problems. I’d missed out a lot of math and stuff like that, how would I be able to go, well in five minutes I could make up for that.” (Faith of an Observer)
Second, Dr. Ebon Alexander reports in his near death experience of a higher form of learning —
“Up there a question would arise in my mind and the answer would arise at the same time, like a flower coming up right next to it … there was no such thing as a question without an accompanying answer. These answers were not simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ … they were vast conceptual edifices, staggering structures of living thoughts … ideas so vast they would have taken me lifetimes to find my way around if I had been confined to earthly thought.” (Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife
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)I’ve also read that if I diligently acquire more knowledge here on earth, that it will be to my advantage in the next life. But now, I wonder if it’s so much easier to learn in the spirit world, why does it matter how much I gain here? Nibley said he could pick up math in a few minutes. I got to thinking about that and decided there must be things we only learn while in the flesh.
Even though I love to study history, science, cosmology, and figure things out — there is a another type of learning that is specific to this life. You can’t just isolate yourself like a monk and study. We must learn to live in a world of chaos, passions, good and evil — without the physical presence of God — and gain the knowledge of faith while in the soup of mortality, where evil often gets the advantage. And it’s easy to get discouraged.
“We are free; but we are free beings hemmed all around by an environment conspiring to make us feel that we are not free.” (Proof of Heaven)
This environment is the only way for us to become like God. So even though God “understands the terrible burden it is to live with amnesia of the Divine for even a moment” (ibid) it is the only way of learning about faith.
This is why it’s so important to look at the hand of God in your life — everyday and make note of it. Write down the things you learn while in the flesh. The things that are more than the physical brain. The things we learn by faith and experience. The things that the world will never understand.
Some of the things I’ve learned the last three years are inexplicable by the world’s standards of comprehension. Things like always having sufficient for my need — when logically it just doesn’t pencil out.
