Episode 56: Reincarnation and Spiritual Psychology, part 1

How can the idea of reincarnation inspire us to see meaning and coherence in our lives? And how can Martinus’ analyses give us a logical explanation of reincarnation and the mystery of consciousness? In this episode, Mary McGovern and Pernilla Rosell meet Sören Grind, a licensed psychologist and author of four books on spiritual psychology, to talk about his book Reincarnation: A Logical and Loving Perspective on Life, which has recently been published in English.

In his book, Sören Grind shares case stories and reflections from his own practical experience, along with current research on consciousness, near-death experiences and other spiritual experiences.

In this episode, we reflect on what a psychology based om spirituality can mean for people who are searching for meaning in their lives. We also discuss recent research on near-death experiences and how these experiences affect people, as well as how the development of individual talents can be understood from a reincarnation perspective.

This episode is the first in a series of podcasts in which Mary, Sören and Pernilla will reflect on various aspects of spiritual psychology, using Sören’s new book as inspiration. In coming episodes, we will talk about sleep, dreams and the unconscious; life crises; illness and healing; love as the keynote of the universe, and much more.

Links:

Sören Grind (2025). Reincarnation: A Logical and Loving Perspective on Life

The book is available as an e-book from various retailers here

Also in English paperback from Danish bookshops, for example from Bog & idé.

Sören Grind’s books are presented on his website.

Interview with Pim van Lommel by Jens Christian Hermansen on the Martinus Institute’s YouTube channel

More information about Martinus and his works on the Martinus Institute’s website

Episode 55: Is there an absolute reality?

In this episode Mary McGovern interviews Lasse Vogelsang on the nature of reality. They take up such questions as how Martinus describes absolute reality and how it compares to our experiences of temporal reality. How can we relate to the absolute reality that Martinus describes and how it can help us experience that life has a meaning? They look at the cycles in Nature and consider how these cycles also exist in our own lives.

Lasse Vogelsang has a long-standing interest in Martinus Cosmology, having encountered it at the age of seventeen. His professional background is in IT development, and he currently works as a teacher.

This podcast was recorded by Mary McGovern at The Martinus Institute, Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark on 8th October 2024.

Music composed and performed by Lars Palerius.

Photo: Marie Rosenkrantz Gjedsted

Martinus’s literature is available online on the Martinus Institute’s website: www.martinus.dk/en. Here you can also find information about the international summer courses at the Martinus Centre in Klint, Denmark.

Episode 54: Working at the Martinus Institute

In this episode Mary McGovern interviews Torben Husum, the current manager of the Martinus Institute in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen. After finding an article by Martinus and not least a captivating photo of him in the Danish magazine Gralen (The Grail), Torben embarked on a private, intensive study of Livets Bog (The Book of Life). Only many years later did he begin to attend lectures and courses on Martinus Cosmology.

Today he works at the Martinus Institute with various tasks including coordinating volunteers, looking after the fabric of the building, live-streaming lectures, and maintaining the institute’s website: www.martinus.dk.

Already a published author of three books and several short stories, he is currently writing a short introduction to Martinus’s life and world picture. He finds it important to provide a brief biography of Martinus and to convey, among many other aspects of Martinus’s world picture, an explanation of the meaning of darkness and the evolution of sexuality. Inspired by Martinus’s analysis that we are all “wounded refugees between two kingdoms”, meaning that we are no longer pure animals but not yet completely evolved human beings, this episode takes up aspects of mankind’s progression towards the resolution of some of its current challenges.

This podcast was recorded by Mary McGovern at the Martinus Institute on 5^th September 2024.

Music composed and performed by Lars Palerius.

Photo: Marie Rosenkrantz Gjedsted

Links and notes:

Live-streamed lectures on Martinus Cosmology in several languages: crowdcast.io/martinusinstitut. Scroll down through the many Scandinavian titles until you find titles in English.

The Martinus Institute’s English You Tube channel for free lectures and interviews:https://www.youtube.com/@TheMartinusInstitute

Opening hours at The Martinus Institute: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 10am–4pm. Also open on approx. alternate Saturdays, when there are lectures. Check martinus.dk for the calendar of events.

Episode 53: Near-death experiences and reincarnation

Is consciousness a product of the brain, or is the brain a tool for consciousness? What do people typically experience during near-death experiences and what effect does it have on them? What, if anything, do near-death experiences have in common with other spiritual experiences? Can reincarnation solve the mystery of the apparent injustice of the one-life theory?

These are some of the questions taken up in this episode in which Mary McGovern interviews Tobias Anker Stripp and Sören Grind about near-death experiences and reincarnation from the perspective of research into near-death experiences and from the perspective of spiritual science.

Tobias Anker Stripp is a medical doctor working in Denmark. He is also a Reiki master and a researcher who has done research into near-death experiences and has been the driving force behind the establishing of a Danish network for people who have had near-death experiences.

Sören Grind is a Swedish psychologist, now living in Denmark, and the author of three books based on Martinus’s world picture, the latest of which is entitled “Reincarnation – a loving and logical view of life” (not yet available in English).

Links for further information:

“Reincarnation gives life meaning”, an article by Sören Grind In: English Kosmos no 1/2024: https://www.martinus.dk/en/english-ko…

Dr. Tobias Anker Stripp’s website: https://tobiasankerstripp.dk

Sören Grind’s books in Swedish and Danish: https://www.adlibris.com/se/sok?q=sör…

“Through the Gates of Death – Sleep and Death”, an article by Martinus describing how it is to die as a child, a youth, an adult and in old age: https://www.martinus.dk/en/martinus-w…

“The Immortality of Living Beings” by Martinus https://www.martinus.dk/en/ttt/index….

International Association for Near-Death Studies, Inc. https://iands.org

Pim van Lommel, cardiologist and author of the bestseller “Consciousness Beyond Life” https://pimvanlommel.nl/en/

Bruce Greyson, psychiatrist and author of “After – A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond” https://www.brucegreyson.com/

Recorded in Denmark via Zoom on 7 th February 2024.

Music composed and performed by Lars Palerius.

Episode 52: The World Situation and the Future

In this lecture Ole Therkelsen describes how the atrocities of war and the enormous amount of suffering they cause gradually bring about the evolution of the Earth as a living individual and of the mankind that inhabits it. The Earth and its human beings are sphynx beings with a consciousness that is partly dominated by the killing principle and partly by the desire to love and serve everyone. Eventually the loving aspect will take over completely, leading to the creation of a completely loving, empathic and just world society.

Ole Therkelsen (born in 1948) is a chemical engineer and a biologist with a life-long interest in Martinus Cosmology. He was introduced to Martinus Cosmology by his parents when he was a small boy, and since 1980 he has given about 2000 lectures on Martinus’s world picture in fifteen countries in six different languages. Many of his lectures may be heard on http://www.oletherkelsen.dk and on http://www.youtube.com.

He is the author of Martinus, Darwin and Intelligent Design – A New Theory of Evolution and Martinus and the New World Morality. His books are available from http://amazon.com and http://amazon.co.uk.

This lecture was given by Ole Therkelsen in Zagreb, Croatia on 1^st May 2007.

Music composed and performed by Lars Palerius.

Photo: Marie Rosenkrantz Gjedsted

Episode 51: Martinus and Western esotericism

In this episode Mary McGovern talks to Mikael Krall about his master’s dissertation Martinus’ Spiritual Science: An Original Contribution to Western Esotericism?, which was published as a book in 2019. Krall compares Martinus’ world picture with the worldviews of three other Western esoteric philosophers: Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Rudolf Steiner. His aim was to see if Martinus contributes anything new to Western esotericism, and if so, what.

Krall found that Martinus did indeed make unique and original contributions to Western esotericism. On the structural level, his finding was that Martinus uses logical reasoning to a far greater extent when presenting his worldview than Blavatsky, Steiner and Bailey do in their accounts. This can perhaps fulfil the needs of secularised seekers of truth. On the content level, Martinus’ most important contribution is, according to Krall, a clear, logical and consistent theory of how experience comes about and is eternally maintained. Martinus also describes why memory is an important function of consciousness and how it is related to the body of memory, one of Martinus’ six basic energy bodies, a body not presented by the other three authors. Krall describes this function and body as being of key importance in Martinus’ worldview when he logically explains the process of involution and thereby the eternal renewal and maintenance of consciousness through spiral cycles of evolution. Another important contribution, according to Krall, is Martinus’ analysis of a living microcosmos within us and even within the food we eat. Martinus points to our moral responsibility for the well-being of these microbeings, thus widening the sphere in need of our compassion. Martinus’ analysis of sexual evolution and the transformation of the sexual poles is also seen to contribute to the understanding of consciousness and its developmental levels. Krall’s final conclusion is that Martinus’ spiritual science and world picture is an original contribution to Western esotericism.

Mikael Krall is a psychologist and psychotherapist in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a private researcher and scholar in the field of Western esotericism.

Mikael Krall’s book is currently out of print but will be reprinted in 2024.

This podcast was recorded by Mary McGovern at The Martinus Institute, Copenhagen on 8^th October 2023.

Photo: Mary McGovern

Music composed and performed by Lars Palerius.

Episode 50: Martinus Cosmology, logic and the problems of consciousness

This episode is produced in collaboration with the Swedish podcast Kosmologipodden. Hosts Micael Söderberg and Mary McGovern interview Nikolaj Pilgaard Petersen about logic, the easy and hard problems of consciousness and about how Martinus’s world picture informs Nikolaj’s views of philosophy, science, materialism and the experience of life.

How does Martinus define logic? What does logic have to do with love? Why does consciousness exist at all? Why do we experience anything? Is our brain even necessary? These are some of the questions we take up in this episode.

Nikolaj Pilgaard Petersen is a teacher with a PhD in Philosophy and an MSc in history and mathematics. In addition to teaching and communication, he does research work in the field of philosophy; he is the author of several books on philosophical topics for a wide, Danish-speaking audience including “Hvad er virkeligheden mon i virkeligheden?” (What is reality in reality?) (2016) as well as a number of scientific articles.

Nikolaj has two YouTube channels: In English: The Nature of Reality and in both English and Danish: Nikolaj Pilgaard Petersen

This podcast was recorded by Micael Söderberg and Mary McGovern at The Martinus Centre, Klint on 3^rd August 2023.

Photo: Bo Edvindsson

Music composed and performed by Lars Palerius.

Episode 49: Martinus: His Life and World Picture

In this episode Mary McGovern interviews Lennart Pasborg, the Danish film director who has recently made a documentary film about the Danish spiritual writer Martinus (1890-1981). His film is entitled “Martinus: His Life and World Picture” (42 mins.) and portrays both Martinus’s ordinary, everyday life and his extraordinary spiritual cosmology.

In 1921, at the age of 30, Martinus underwent a series of profound spiritual experiences that — as he himself explains — left him with extraordinary, intuitive sensory abilities. With his 10,000 pages of writing and 100 symbols he contributes to an understanding of the mystery of life and the individual’s life and fate, and to the development of a new and peaceful world culture based on tolerance, humaneness and love for all living things.

Lennart Pasborg first encountered Martinus’s works in 1984 and immediately wanted to make a film about his world picture. Little did he know at the time that 38 years would pass before he achieved his goal. Lennart’s other works include documentary films on art, music, ballet, spirituality, and on philosophy and children.

Here is a link to the English version of the film. It has an English voiceover and optional English subtitles.

And here is a link to the Danish version “Martinus – liv og verdensbillede”.

Spanish and Swedish subtitles are available.

This podcast was recorded by Mary McGovern at The Martinus Institute, Frederiksberg, Copenhagen Denmark on 14^thMarch 2023.

Music composed and performed by Lars Palerius.

Episode 48: The Rise of Internationalism

“Internationalism is the unselfishness of a nation, and nationalism is the selfishness or egoism of a nation.” Martinus: The Fate of Mankind, chap. 45

In this lecture Ole Therkelsen points to the inevitability of the development of internationalism, despite all current attempts to hang on to nationalism. He looks at the anatomy of war and the anatomy of peace and asks, “What can we each do to contribute to world peace?” He quotes Martinus as saying that the best thing we can do is to change ourselves – not the others – and turn ourselves into “cells of peace” in the body of the Earth. This involves forgiving our so-called enemies, understanding our fate and seeing the necessity of practising neighbourly love in all aspects of life.

This lecture was given by Ole Therkelsen at The Martinus Centre, Klint, Denmark on 31^st July 2008.

Music composed and performed by Lars Palerius.

Photo: Marie Rosenkrantz Gjedsted

Episode 47: Economics – present and future

Martinus’s spiritual world view includes an analysis of the evolution of our current economic system towards a future situation in which the “false business principle” – getting as much as possible as possible for as little as possible – will be replaced by the “true business principle” based on the equal exchange of assets. He envisions a time-based economy to which everyone – with the exception of children, the elderly and the sick – will gladly contribute. With the inevitable growth of neighbourly love and selflessness, no one will want to be a burden on society or earn anything at the expense of others.

Mary McGovern interviews Lasse Vogelsang on these themes and on the future of our working lives in a coming international world state.

Lasse Vogelsang has a long-standing interest in Martinus Cosmology, having encountered it thirty years ago at the age of seventeen. His professional background is in IT. Economics is one of his interests.

This podcast was recorded by Mary McGovern at The Martinus Centre, Klint, Denmark on 20th October 2022.

Music composed and performed by Lars Palerius.

Photo: Marie Rosenkrantz Gjedsted.