Once, when I was 17, in my first year of university, I wrote a story and told it to my friends before bed. There were four people in our dorm room. We were all atheists, and they really liked my fantasy story.I told them that we were born on this Earth as punishment for crimes committed on our home planets. Earth is a prison, and everyone serves their time.

Many years later, I read similar thoughts in Helena Blavatsky and Robert Monroe. Blavatsky said that our body here is like a prison for the soul; our true home is not here.

In his third book, Robert Monroe described how the soul of an alien from another star system decided to experience what it meant to be human and subsequently became seriously stuck in a cycle of reincarnation. Earth is like a trap for souls.

Twelve years ago, when I was in intensive care, I saw some things in my delirium and tried to remember them. The main idea that remained with me was that death is not liberation from this world. The true path to liberation is the path to truth through meditation.