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Perspective

Memories of Beyond

Dr. Natalie Tobert

Abstract
This article crosses genre boundaries. The first part explores my personal responses to certain
conflicts happening in the world, while the second part explores the parapsychology around
existence beyond death.

Who am I?

I was conceived and born on an earthquake
fault in San Francisco, California. I was born
British and I was born Jewish. My mother’s
father, whom I never met, died when she
was 12-years-old: he was a Hasidic Jew. My
mother had to stop all schooling when she
was 12, to look after her younger siblings, as
her mother had to find work to feed them.
I am told Hasidic Jews are ultra-orthodox,
and their name is derived from the term for
‘loving kindness.’ According to Wikipedia the world, demonstrating for peace, to
(1), the pious movement of Hasidic Jews stop apartheid, genocide and murder. I
was said to be founded in the 18 century. feel silenced and suppressed by the local
th
My mother always said, “There is no God, community. I was born with memories of
as He wouldn’t have allowed the holocaust.“ exactly how I died in the Nazi Holocausts.
Jewish literature and prayer passed me by, I conducted research and found I was not
however as a medical anthropologist I learnt alone: plenty of other people had memories
about other cultures across the world. It was of how they died there. Some wrote about
my job. it; others attended psychiatric hospitals. My
concern today is for the people who were
Today I stand alongside the Hasidic Jews, who vapourised in the Middle-East. When there
stand alongside peace activists throughout is no ceremony after death, no prayers, no

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