The Body Dies but the Spirit Lives: 2Nd Edition, Revised and Expanded

By R.J.R. Rockwood

In this unusual autobiography R. J. R. Rockwood describes the end of his previous incarnation, and how relieved he felt at separation from his physical body. He then viewed his future parents from the Afterlife. He was spiritually present during his own birth, after which his spirit became attached to his newborn self.
Rockwood describes interactions with an invisible playmate and various ghosts. At the University of Florida his telepathic ability became the basis of a master’s thesis. During the Coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, he communicated telepathically with several spirits who had succumbed to COVID-19, asking what it felt like to die, and what separation from the physical body was like.
This and other experiences in Rockwood’s life are described in his latest literary endeavor, The Body Dies but the Spirit Lives, 2nd Edition Revised and Enlarged.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664125414

R.J.R. Rockwood

Dr. Robert John Remington Rockwood has a B.A. in English and German and an M.A. In English and Russian from the University of Miami; a Ph.D. in English and Linguistics from the University of Florida; and he has done advanced study in historical linguistics at the University of North Carolina. For the year 1973-1974 he was a Fellow of the Medieval Institute of Western Michigan University. Dr. Rockwood has served on the full-time faculty at Florida Southern College, Florida Keys Community College, Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Florida. From 1978 through 2001 he worked as an industrial technical writer, editor, and web designer at such companies as Lockheed Martin, Unisys, NCR, and Talus. Starting in 2002 he taught online courses for the University of Phoenix. The Body Dies but the Spirit Lives, 2nd Edition, Revised and Expanded (2020) is his twelfth book published by Xlibris. The others are: • Leopardo da Gotcha (2002) • The Passing of Merlin Zauber (2005) • The Last Ant (2007) • Dillon's Rocking Bear Invisibility Chair (2013) • I Don't Talk to Earthlings (2016) • Owen Often Beside Himself (2016) • The Primrose Path (2016) • The Spirit of Alchemy (2017) • The Eternal Life Ministry of Teenage Michael Maier (2018) • The Rhetoric of Inner Space: Student Writing Based on Dreams (2019) • The Body Dies but the Spirit Lives On (2019) Dr. Rockwood lives in Roswell, Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta. His e-mail address is [e-mail].

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Copyright © 2020 by R. J. R. ROCKWOOD.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/14/2020

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Cover Art

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue

DEDICATION

I dedicate this 2nd edition of my book to David Winkler, my former student at Florida Southern College, and afterwards a good friend and frequent email communicant. David persuaded me to write a book about my Bengal cat Leopardo da Gotcha and to submit the manuscript to Xlibris. So far, this present book is my twelfth Xlibris publication.

COVER ART

The cover art is acrylics on canvas. My practice is always to do the cover art before I start writing the text. This was no different. I was in the hospital room when my stepfather died. At that moment I saw something leaving his body. This cover is my attempt to recreate that moment.

PROLOGUE

The first edition of this novel, published in 2019, was never finished. After I completed Chapter 8, I was immediately rushed to the hospital, where I underwent open-heart surgery, and then spent seventeen days in the hospital.

Afterwards, I felt enormously weak and doubted that I would have the strength to complete the novel. I therefore decided to publish the unfinished work as is.

I determined that if I ever recovered sufficiently, I would complete the manuscript as I had earlier imagined it, and publish a revised, expanded second edition—so here it is!

I want to thank my sister Karen Rankin for her proofreading and correcting errors in the final manuscript for the second edition of this book.

CHAPTER ONE

The physical body serves as a temporary dwelling for the spirit—also referred to as the soul. There are those who imagine that bodily death amounts to individual extinction. They fail to realize that the spirit does not know death. Furthermore, nearly everything worthwhile about a person is already contained in the spirit. I endured many months of excruciating pain before death finally ended my previous incarnation. Death brought sudden relief from pain followed by great happiness. In fact, I felt more alive dead than when I was alive.

I suddenly found myself floating near the ceiling of the hospital room where my body lay. I was flabbergasted to discover that although I was totally separated from my physical body, I could see, hear, and think quite normally. When the doctor pulled the sheet over my body’s head, I figured it was time to leave. I floated down the hall of the hospital and before long I found myself enclosed in a bubble, pulled through a winding tunnel that led to heaven, where I was immediately attended by several helpful spirits.