Ray Catania - Near-Death Experiencer/ Metaphysical Teacher/Life Coach/Author

Hi, I'm Ray Catanya. I am a metaphysical teacher, an intuitive life coach and an NDE survivor.

What is the soul?

I view the soul similarly to the consciousness, which is the energy that's generated from the brain or the mind. They are similar in the sense that I think they are both can be considered divine in nature, but from a scientific perspective, they are one and the same.

What's the difference between a young soul and an old soul?

I think the primary difference between a young soul and an old soul has less to do with time and more to do with the knowledge that's acquired throughout various lifetimes. Since time is a man made construct, it would seem to me that the knowledge accumulated through incarceration incarnations would bring about an older soul, so to speak.

What is the soul's relation to source God?

The source is an entity, an energetic entity, as is our soul or consciousness. Each of us has a connection, a direct connection to the source through our awareness, which is our highest level of consciousness. It's my belief that a little bit of me, a little bit of you, and a little bit of everybody comes together and connects to that source and creates that source. And what that means is, as in every religion we've heard, you're a part of God and God is a part of you. And this is exactly what it means by being a piece of that entity. You are a part of God and God is a part of you.

Are human incarnations voluntarily chosen?

I don't believe they are voluntarily chosen. I believe there's more of an order or a natural design to those choices. And I don't think we have very much to say about where we're going next.

What's the purpose of life on the physical plane?

The purpose of the incarnation is different for everybody, as we all have different soul contracts that we must fulfill. Whether you come back to say, Earth or another planet, in another galaxy, or in another realm, or another dimension, that is going to be decided by nature's design. And it will be for the benefit of that soul in order for it to advance and move forward. So again, I think it's part of that natural design that we are sent here to accomplish. Something that many would refer to as a soul contract. It's a learning process, something that we must overcome, something that we must learn and in order to advance our soul to the next level.

Do souls have more than one incarnation either on Earth or elsewhere?

Yes, I definitely think we do. Unless you're one of the miraculous individuals that can learn everything in one shot. I Think you are going to come back? The Buddha told us that it was his seventh life in which he was enlightened, and therefore he was not going to come back. I don't think it had anything to do with the number seven, However, I think it had to do with when you reach enlightenment.

Does the soul plan its incarnations ahead of time?

A soul plan? To a degree, I would say, yes, there is. There are things that we must learn to advance ourselves to, say, the next level or the next realm, wherever it is that we need to be. What I can tell you from my mediumship experience, I'm limited to just a couple of realms. Of course, this one, I can also communicate with the fourth, which is the next one, and I believe my guides are at the fifth. Now, in order to get to the fifth, I believe we have to master four in order to get to five. And of course, you have to master three to get to four to get to five. I am. These. These are my beliefs only because those are the realms that I was able to have communications with. I'm sure there are plenty more where the plan comes from. Honestly, I cannot tell you, but I can say this. That plan is specifically designed to. For you to fulfill an obligation and be able to help others so that they can fulfill theirs.

Do we have soul groups that we incarnate with across different lifetimes?

Well, I would ask that question with a question. When did we separate? We're all one. We all come from one entity, and we're still a part of that entity. So it would be likely that we would see each other once again in a reincarnation. As far as it being a contract or an agreement, that isn't something that we would necessarily know. It's more of we are given these obstacles to overcome. Are other people a part of those? They very well may be because you may be responsible for helping them or they you. Yeah, absolutely. In fact, one of my coaching clients referred to it as Earth School. And I love that we are literally in a classroom learning rules that we need to learn in order to advance. If one day you are to be someone's guide, then you have to experience these things for yourself. And. And it's not necessarily about good or bad. It just is in the experience and the overcoming of such that will allow you to one day help others.

Do spirit guides or angels assist us?

Absolutely. Our guides are here to assist us. And the more comfortable you become with learning how to connect with them, the more information you can gather. It's like solving a puzz. If you're looking for an answer for something in particular. The answer's not gonna come in the form of language, so it's going to be given to you in symbols. I recall when I was trying to decide whether or not to release my first book, I was very nervous about it. I went into a meditative trance and I saw my guide, one of them, holding a pen and a notepad, and he kind of just let it go. And I got my answer, which was, publish the book.

What is the veil of forgetting and why do we need.

Is primarily there because of the immense confusion that one would have if it weren't there. It's to help guide you through this life. And you're focused on this life. However, you will at times remember things from others. You just won't remember that it was from the other. If all that information was accessible all at one time, it would be too disruptive to this life.

Discuss the role of free will in a given incarnation.

The role of free will. I love this question. Free will versus destiny. Let's start with that for a moment. I believe in free will. I think that you can change the outcome of your destiny. That's not to say you don't have one. You can set yourself on a path that will eventually lead you to the place in which you wish to go. However, think of it like you're lining up dominoes. And you know if you tip the first one, eventually that last one is going to tip over. But what if you change your mind and you don't want that last one to tip over? Well, you just pick one up and now you've changed the outcome and you've changed that path for the rest of your life. Every single thing we do has a consequence. And this falls right into play with karmic energy. The things that we do for others, we are going to get back. Perhaps not from that individual, but it will come back to you in some way. And this is why I think that karmic energy is one of the most important things that one can learn and utilize in this lifetime or any other.

Is life on the physical plane an illusion?

No. We are here. We took this form, and our consciousness or our soul lies within this form. That part of this is very much real. When we complete the contract, when we complete the things we need to do, then we will move on to the next. But right now, my energy, my life energy, consciousness, soul, whatever you wish to call it, is in this form, in the here and now, and very much real. There are different realms of reality. So Like I touched on earlier, the next realm of existence is the one in which we become more energy, less mass. And eventually, if you do get to the level of guides, which I refer to as the fifth realm, there is no more mass whatsoever. In fact, when I see my guides, they have no body structure, they're not male or female. They are literally just energy.

Describe the life between lives.

So what I know is what I have learned from my mediumship and speaking with others who have passed, we'll call it speaking, for lack of a better term, that you become all knowing and you know the things that you did that were, let's say, right, wrong, kind or evil. And you learn the mistakes that you made. As far as when you come back and you return, you, whether or not you're going to repeat those mistakes, because you're not going to have a full memory, you will have to navigate that on your own. But that's part of the nature's design. So I don't believe that you're judged. I just simply believe that you are told the things that you did and in the manner in which it affected the other people.

Are we judged or punished for our mistakes in the afterlife?

So the way I see it is when you cross over, you instantly see the mistakes that you've made. I think any medium will tell you that most of the messages that come through are regrets. They are things that they wish they had said or wish they had done when they were here. So there's clearly a crossover which comes with a fulfillment of knowledge whereby you know who you've affected negatively and who you've affected positively as well. And often the negative things that we get are folks that are frantically trying to reach their loved one to say I'm sorry. It is a self recognition and you're given another opportunity to get it right. There is no judge and jury. If there was, that would remove natural selection from the process. That would remove natural design from the process.

Is there such a thing as hell?

No, I don't believe there is. Now I cannot say that for certainty, but it depends on how you look at hell. Is it a destination jail, a punishment? In that case, I would say no. But hell can be right here on earth. Hell can be an experience that your energy is having. No matter what realm it's on because of karma. And the things that you've done, they are going to carry through. So if you are the type of person that's hurt people and done those types of things that are punishable, you're not going to necessarily be sent someplace. But you are going to experience the negative karma that's coming your way. Whether it's in the next life, the one after, the one after that, you will not escape it.

What is karma?

Karma is an energy. As we know. Thoughts are energy. Everything technically is energy. What you put out, your thoughts are going to come back to you. This is how the law of attraction works, the law of vibration works. Karma is not much different in the sense that the the energy that you put forth, whether that be in the physical form of hurting another person, it's coming back to you. Whether it be in the thoughts that you have of harming another person, that's coming back to you. Whatever it is you put out will take the form of energy and it will be on a specific frequency. That frequency is coming back to you. The things that you do for other people, that is also coming back to you. And as a rule of thumb, I tell my clients to do two things every day. One thing for someone else unselfishly and one thing for yourself that doesn't harm anyone. But it's for your natural growth. You're putting forth that positive karma and at the same time you're giving yourself some self care and love, which there's nothing wrong with that. They are all laws of the universe. Absolutely. There is no oz behind the curtain. This is all natural design. It's been this way forever and it will continue to be this way forever.

How do you define forgiveness?

I define forgiveness probably a little bit differently than most people. I don't necessarily view it with regard to letting someone off the hook. You're forgiving them or yourself so that you don't have to hold that anger and those negative feelings inside of you. If you do, the only person being harmed is you. So by forgiving the other person, you're not saying, hey, it was okay what you did. What you are saying is I'm no longer thinking about you or what you did so that it doesn't ruin me.

How do you define happiness?

Happiness? That's a very good question. Happiness is the way I see it, contentment. It's not being super happy or blissful and it's not being on the other side of the spectrum, which is sadness, guilt or shame. In fact, it's almost impossible to experience extreme bliss without experiencing extreme sadness, shame and guilt. Let's say, for example, you want to purchase an expensive automobile. Well, you buy it and you're driving it around and you just feel great about yourself and you're in this blissful mode and what happens in a couple of months? That feeling wears off and you still have to make these payments, and the bills are coming in and you're looking at them, and now here comes the guilt. So you just went from this side of the spectrum that you thought was incredibly blissful, and you just brought yourself all the way down to guilt and shame. And that will apply to absolutely anything. There is no bliss unless you have the flip side. Drinking and drugs, you use them, you feel great. You're over here. The next morning, you wake up and you go, oh, God, why did I do that to myself? Again, there. You cannot have this side without this side. But where's happiness? It's right in the middle. It's right in the middle. Not too much of this, not too much of this. And you're always right here in the middle. And I call it contentment.

What. Where is heaven?

Heaven is not something that I believe is necessarily a destination. It is within you. I firmly believe that heaven is a part of your existence. So you can. Heaven can be right here on earth. It can be in your next life, your next realm. It will come with you with that positive karmic energy that you put forth. Heaven is more of a state of being, in my view, than it is a place or a destination. And I. And I think. And you know, this is just my opinion. I do believe that that is what Jesus was saying, is that it's. It's a state of being and a place within you, not necessarily another place that you go. And so is hell. I also said hell wasn't a destination either. They're all within you because this is. Happiness is within you. Everything starts and ends within you. But remember, we're all connected. We're all one. There's that unifying force that is consciousness. So heaven is a state that can spread. I can put forth heaven towards other people by doing things for them, by helping them in any way that I can. And so can you. So to a degree, we have certain godlike abilities and we can use them to help other people. It's all within us.

What? Where is God?

Where is God? Okay, so it depends on your perception of God, and I will share with you mine. I view God as an entity in which we are all a part of. Every religion said something along the lines of, you are a part of God and God is a part of you. Now, if you take this to be true, and I do, that means a piece of you, a piece of me, and a piece of everyone else. All these energetic beings connect in one Place. It is in that place, that universal collective where I believe you will find God. God is not a personality. God is made up of us. So the personality is a collection of all of us. It's not a he or a she. It is a collective consciousness. So when we exchange information, I'm talking to you, and you are a God. So is the next person I speak to. So is the next person. So am I. We are all God. All of our personalities make up God.

Many believe we're shifting to a higher consciousness on this planet. Do you agree? And if so, can you describe this shift?

Yes, I do agree. I think that we've seen a decade of it going the opposite way. And I think what's happening now is we've realized that this polarization that's been going on is very unhealthy for the collective as a whole. And more and more people are being awakened to the fact that we must move in this other direction. And eventually we're going to reach a tipping point, like Eckhart Tolle says. And that tipping point is going to just push us over the edge to the point where the majority is going to be awakened. And it's going to be a much more pleasant place to live, to say the least. The characteristics of it are people loving people. If you hurt another person, you're hurting yourself, because we are, after all, all one. And if you subscribe to that and you believe in that, then doing something positive for someone is doing something positive for yourself. That's the shift. That's what's happening. People are starting to realize you've got to do good for other people in order to receive good for you.

Do we create our own realities?

You can certainly control everything that transpires in your life to a degree. Okay, there can be a few unexpected things. But at the end of the day, I think if you look at them hard enough, you may find a connection between your thoughts and that thing that occurred. Personally, I manifested a terrible car accident. And at the time, I was like, why me? Why me? But then I really looked at this, and I remember I hated my job so much, and I didn't want to be there so much that I started to have thoughts of, well, what if I got hurt? How could I get hurt and not have to go to that job and still get paid? And it came to fruition. So we are a part of everything that happens in our life. And the things that we can contribute to others, where we're able to, those things will come back to us. And if you Take the negative approach, then that's coming back to you also. And when I was saying earlier, when I said that I had spiritual awakenings where I dropped huge negative parts of myself, I was breaking off pieces of that ego. So one of the things for me that I had to get rid of was my anger because I came from an angry childhood home. So that was normal to me. In order for me to progress and advance into energy, I had to drop that. And when you work at it and work at it and work at it, one day it clicks, it comes together, and in a moment where you should be completely angry, you're not. And it's just gone. And that's when you know you've made it to the next step in what you're supposed to achieve in the here and now.

What's the secret to remembering who we really are?

Okay, so there isn't a secret to remembering. In fact, I don't think you're meant to remember too much because of the confusion it would create. There is somewhat of a clean slate effect, if you will. And I think it's important that it's this way for a couple of reasons. One is you've crossed over. You've been told you've seen it firsthand. I shouldn't say you've been told. You've seen what you did right, what you did wrong. You got a second chance to come back and you have this clean slate. Everything you experience, and I mean everything you experience is in your subconscious mind. It's there. It doesn't have to come to the forefront of your brain to be something you acknowledge and deal with. It's there. And as you go through your incarnations, you are going to experience more of these. And they're going to go in that computer drive, that hard drive that is your subconscious mind, and they're going to be there. And eventually, when you complete, the soul contracts. That is your opportunity to reach enlightenment. There is heaven, There is what you're looking for. It is the top of the mountain.

What does our soul want us to know?

One of them is acknowledging the fact that we are all one. The other one is acknowledging the fact that you're actually energy and not form. Separating those two is done by, or at least it was for me, having several spiritual awakenings where I dropped significant bad habits. They were monumental changes in my life. And each time I had an awakening, I got closer and closer to being more in touch with my energy and less in touch with my body.

Is there a positive message or message of hope you'd like to leave us with.

One of the greatest things that I've learned about myself and others is that we are one of the few animals that have an awareness. If you have an awareness, that means that you are aware of your thoughts, you're aware of your emotions, you're aware of what it is you're doing. You're aware of the choices you're making. And if you're aware of them, you can change them. And changing them for the better is simple. And the more times you do it over and over, it becomes natural. And you don't become reactive to the ego, which is not really you. That's a collection of what other people told you about yourself or things that you saw when you were a kid and you took it verbatim. You're your awareness. You're your own entity. Don't subscribe to anyone else's world. Use your awareness to remind yourself that you're in control of your life and as many others as you can affect positively. The only way to overcome fear is to face it. Literally. You know, this is the first interview I've done. I'm not gonna lie. I was scared to be here, and I'm still nervous to be here. But I'm here so that I can help spread this message. There's no other reason for me to be here. So this fear is something that I'm facing so that hopefully somebody out there will get something positive and take it away and actually use this. Because it's changed my life, and I promise it will change yours. Face it, remove it. Because fear is an illusion. It's not a reality. It's not real. It's in your mind. It's in your ego. Your ego's there to protect you from everything. Well, what is it protecting you from? If it's stopping you from doing something that you really want to do that's good and healthy for you. What if it's stopping you from doing something that would help other people? Because fear of failure or fear of this or fear of that, you've got to let that go because it's not real. Remember, your awareness makes the decision. I'm aware that I'm afraid, but it doesn't mean anything. So I am going to choose my emotion and change it to something else. And I'm going to use that moving forward action. The first thing we do is recognize where this fear is coming from. Is it your fear? Is it something that you're afraid of? And if so, why? I'll give you an example. Recently, I climbed to the top of Machu Picchu. I went up there to get my healing rights from the Cairo tribe in Peru. I was very excited to do this. However, when I was about six or seven years old, my parents had some friends over and they were talking about fears and phobias. My mother said I'm deathly afraid of heights. So I adopted that as my own. Somebody asked me, what are you afraid of? I'm deathly afraid of heights. I didn't even know what heights were. So some 50 years later I'm avoiding heights. But now I gotta climb to the top of the mountain to get my healing rights and there's nothing stopping me. I didn't even think about that so called fear. I went up the mountain, came down the mountain and then remembered I had that fear and I remembered it's not mine. I carried somebody else's fear. And more often than not, your self limiting beliefs are not your own. Stay out of the ego in your awareness and move forth. Just do it. It's not your emotion. You're carrying other people's and you've got to let those go. Yours are positive, they're pure, they're connected to source, they're connected to oneness. Those are the ones that you have, those are the ones you want to have.