Love Your Enemies: Conversation with Raphael

By Gerd Steeger

Gerd is a sceptical thinking man, who questions everything, yet never found the answers he was seeking. He had no belief in spiritual questions due to the lack of scientific evidence.Then one day at the age of 35, he started a perfectly normal day only to find himself on a bench overlooking the sea. He was joined by a mysterious old man called Raphael, who uncannily knew everything about him.This wise old man proceeded to answer Gerd's deepest questions as to the meaning of life, why there is good and evil, what happens in the afterlife, reincarnation and more importantly The real reasons why we are here on this Earth, what we are here to learn and why we should love our enemies.This fascinating narrative covers a wide range of philosophical questions, providing answers to the most fundamental questions of life and death, based on over 25 years of research by the author into the hereafter. By presenting this information in story form, the reader is drawn into the conversation in a way no text book ever could. The conclusions of this story will be life changing for all who read it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ASC (Awaken Spiritual Consciousness) Verlag
• Release date: Aug 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9783969440889

Book preview

Introduction to the English Edition:

I have known Gerd Steeger personally since 1984 when we both got to know each other while working for the same company, writing computer software in BASIC for MS-DOS computers of the time.

Gerd was very keen to learn about how to programme and was constantly calling me to ask questions on how to solve some problem. He was quick to learn, methodical in his thinking and motivated to get the work done. The art of programming computers requires you to be very precise when trying to solve a problem. You have to understand what each command does and every one has to have the correct syntax so that the software runs without bugs. If something is not working properly, you have to look carefully at every step to find out what is causing the problem and often be very creative in finding new ways to add new capabilities and functions to your software.

This highly analytical way of thinking, once learned, takes a hold of how you think in general. You quickly find yourself looking deeper into controversial news stories in order to find out what really happened. Then 9/11 happened and we both spent way too many hours investigating the reality of that tragic event, but that is not the topic of this book.

We both diversified our interests into other fields beyond programming. I took a deep interest in gadgets, photography, making videos, microscopes, alternative medicine and Dale Carnegie training whereas Gerd took an interest in finance, real estate, cryptology and spirituality. Just like Gerd had learned about programming from me, I learned more about spirituality from Gerd. We have been in constant contact with each other all these years and we both trust each other’s judgement.

Gerd has been working on this book for over 10 years, as a means of collecting what he had learned in his research of the topic. He has been just as thorough investigating this as any programmer is getting his software to work. Over 10 years, he has been writing and fine tuning his knowledge of the topic after discussing this with top experts in Germany and through his own spiritual connection to his deceased mother on the other side. I have been hearing numerous aspects of his research from Gerd over the years and that has also shaped my beliefs on the subject to a certain extent. In order to present his research, Gerd wrote this book in the form of a fictitious conversation with a mysterious figure called Raphael. This gives the story a compelling narrative and pulls the reader into a fascinating story which is also highly educational. I cannot tell you if the underlying message of the book is real, what I can tell you is that I know how much effort Gerd has put into this book and that he is convinced of what is said here and that is good enough for me.

Being British and living in Germany, I am fluent in German and have translated books into English before. Due to our long friendship, I was honoured when Gerd asked me to translate this book into English for him. With his permission and approval, this is not a simple translation, I have rewritten some parts to make them more understandable and readable to an English audience while keeping closely to his underlying story. If you are interested in finding out what is most likely to happen to you when you cross over to the other side, then you will find this book to be compelling reading.

Peter Walker, 28 September 2019

Nobody has been in your life without reason.

While one was a gift, the other was a lesson

and others still, were both.

Today is the First Day, of the Rest of my Life

That this day would become something special for me, was something I would never have guessed. The day began - as you'll read here – according to Murphy's law (Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong). It greeted me with a chain of unpleasant events. I got up as usual, brushed my teeth, took a shower, had a wet shave where I promptly cut myself. Although, my blood clots normally, it took quite a while for the bleeding to stop. I then got dressed and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. I filled my mug with hot coffee and just as I was bringing it to my mouth, the handle broke, the cup fell, smashed on the floor and covered my trousers in hot coffee. I changed my trousers and decided to continue my breakfast. This time, I consciously paid complete attention to my breakfast ceremony and there were no more incidents.

I briefly switched on the television to watch the news. The events surrounding the person convicted of rape had now been overshadowed by the continuing coverage of the German Airbus crash in the French Alps. The data had been recovered from the smashed voice recorder and analysed. The story went that it was presumed that the crash had been deliberately caused by the seemingly suicidal co-pilot. The flight captain, had gone to the toilet, and then tried for several minutes to get the co-pilot to open the cockpit door, without any chance of success.

This event had now completely distracted me from my own clumsiness. Imagining that you were the flight attendant or the captain yourself, for example, being perfectly aware of both the circumstances and the consequences of the co-pilot’s action, can cause a shiver down your spine. The flight captain could comprehend the helplessness of his passengers, a feeling of being at mercy, a feeling of powerlessness. What drama must have taken place in front of that cockpit door until the plane crashed? What fears of death did the captain, flight attendants and passengers experience?

Flight attendants are trained to behave professionally in such dangerous situations; to hide their own fears, in order not to further unsettle their passengers. Nevertheless, flight attendants are intelligent people who are fully aware of the hazardous situation and merely suppress and better control their own growing emotions. Even people who believe in life after death, or who have perhaps seen or experienced evidence/indications of life after death, are not free of fear. Their own ego, as part of their body, nearly always wants to live on. My thoughts were also with the perpetrator, the co-pilot. What motivated this man to take his own life, in a way in which he arbitrarily decided to plunge 149 other people to their deaths with him?

The next thought that came to my mind was: Can one really, unconditionally believe everything that the mainstream media tells us, is true? Perhaps this report is just as true as the coverage of an alleged pilot failure on Inter-Air Flight 148, which occurred on January 20, 1992 in Strasbourg. It was claimed that both experienced pilots were completely overtaxed and did not fully master the relatively new Airbus A320 aircraft type in this situation. Shortly before landing, the plane collided with a mountain and 87 passengers lost their lives. A disastrous rescue mission cost even more lives. To this day, it is still unclear why the plane crashed and why the rescue mission had been so extremely amateurish.

The black box, is allegedly capable of surviving enormous heat and pressure, yet - according to official reports – it was completely destroyed by the heat and could therefore not be analysed.

A little dickybird told me, that it could have happened very differently: Every airplane has a sensor that indicates the height above ground level. This sensor gave false values to the pilots, which meant that they assumed they were at a higher altitude than they were in reality. When the pilots noticed this error, due to better visibility, they gave full thrust and used the joystick to pull the aircraft up to a higher altitude. Unfortunately, the software was designed to avoid aircraft stress or a possible stall and prevented this climb. The software that was supposed to support the pilots, overruled the experienced pilots and that sealed their fate. If the black box had been evaluated and the results officially announced, the then relatively new Airbus shares would have dropped in free fall.

Why did they risk that possible survivors would freeze to death? There was a risk that if one of the pilots had survived, he could have explained what happened? Are the interests of a large company, and in this case, even of a state, more important to media coverage than telling people the truth? Can it be completely ruled out that the mainstream media had not sold their souls to lobbyists, just like in Goethe's Faust?

I decided to turn off the television and let the impressions have an effect on me during a walk. I opened the front door to leave my apartment, while completely lost in thought, and just before the door finally fell to, I just managed to put my foot in the door to prevent it from shutting me out. Not only was my front door key not in my pocket, but it was still in the lock on the inside of the apartment. It would have been expensive to re-enter my own apartment, with the help of a locksmith. The shock was still with me for some time, even after I had already left my apartment – carefully this time. My way led me past the letterboxes, which in this building were located in a block on the ground floor. I emptied my letterbox in order to quickly find out if an important letter had arrived. The long-awaited, important letter was to be found amongst some other letters. Full of expectation and hope, I opened it and read the first lines: We read your letter with interest, but we have to tell you that with regret.......

The Old Man and the Horse

What else could you expect, from a day like this, I thought? Would it be better to sleep through the day and wait for another, better day, or should one look at this supposedly bad news without regard to its value, as one knows from the story about the old man and the horse that the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tze liked to tell.

You don't know that story, dear reader? Then I do not want to withhold the story from you:

An old, very poor man lived in a village, yet even kings were jealous of him as he owned a beautiful white horse. Kings offered fantastic sums for the horse, but the man then said: For me this horse is not a horse, but a man, and how could one sell a man, a friend? The man was poor, but he never sold his horse. One morning, his horse was not in the stable. The whole village gathered and the people said, You, stupid old man! We always knew that one day the horse would be stolen. It would have been better to sell it. What a misfortune! The old man said: "Don't go so far as to say that. Just say: The horse is not in the stable. That much is a fact: Everything else is opinion. Whether it is a misfortune or a blessing, I do not know, because this is only a fragment. Who knows what will follow? People laughed at the old man. They had always known that he was a little crazy.

But one evening, fifteen days later, the horse suddenly returned. It had not been stolen, but had broken out into the wilderness. And not only that, it also brought a dozen wild horses with it. Again, the people gathered and they said: Old man, you were right. It wasn't misfortune, it actually proved to be a blessing. The old man replied: "Again you are going too far. Just say: The horse is back. Who knows whether this is a blessing or not? It is only a fragment. If you read only one word in one sentence, how can you judge the whole book? This time people didn't know what else to say, but inside they knew that the old man was wrong. Twelve magnificent horses had arrived.

The old man’s only one son, began to train the wild horses. A week later he fell off the horse and broke both his legs. Again, the people gathered, and made their judgment. They said: Again, you got it wrong! It was an accident. Your only son can't use his legs anymore, and he was the only one to support you, in your old age. Now you are poorer than ever. The old man replied: You are obsessed with making judgments. Don't go so far. Just say that my son has broken his legs. No one knows whether this is a misfortune or a blessing. Life comes in fragments, and that's all you get to see.

It turned out that a few weeks later, the country started a war. All the young men from the village were forcibly drafted into the military. Only the old man’s son was left behind as he was crippled. The whole village was filled with lamentations and cries of pain, because this war could not be won and it was known that most of the young men would not return home. They came to the old man and said: You were right, old man - it proved to be a blessing. Your son may be crippled, but he is still with you. Our sons are gone forever. The old man answered again: You do not stop judging. Nobody knows! Say only this: That your sons were drafted into the army and that my son was not drafted. But only God knows whether this is a blessing or a misfortune."

The Mysterious Raphael

I left the