Akako is a grandmother who has spent her career in the UK in the caring sector.

The following transcript of the audio tapes beneath follows the sense of what Akako has to say rather than her exact wording.

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I am inside flesh but my soul is bigger than my flesh. I can feel other people’s feelings.  If you’re happy, I’m happy. If you suffer, your suffering is coming to me naturally. It’s not what I want but it is because we are all connected. It’s not my choice to suffer your suffering but that is the natural (way of) nature.  I’m lucky that I’m more flesh than soul. There’s a limit to (how much I feel) because of course there are some people who are unable to empathize with other people, and who don’t feel (like this).

Interviewer:  I wonder if this is probably because you happen to be a particularly sensitive person to other people?

I don’t think so, no. I’m (like this) because of the experience that has made me (like this). Though I don’t know because there are some people who can just watch other people’s suffering and it doesn’t have an effect on them.

Interviewer: There are other people who speak like you do.  You’re saying that the limits of your being able to introspect or feel your way into their suffering or feelings (is because) you’re basically flesh and blood?

It depends on soul level.  An older soul is more spiritually high than a young soul. (I think like this) because I believe in reincarnation.  if you don’t believe in reincarnation, when you die, it is ‘finish!’ (It is my) experience (that has made me like) this. After we die, we all become ash?  I don’t want to (have) that sort of philosophy. I had it (before my experience). I saw that with that way of thinking there was no need to make an effort because after all when you’re finished it’s all over.  I know this because if life is only once….

 Some people feel they experience enlightenment (but my view of enlightenment is that) they fall; and it’s the feeling of the vacuum around them – the not knowing the fact that they didn’t actually fall down from the cliff – that in itself is the nothingness.   There is no room for ego when you are falling down. A man may want to think that he wants to kill himself, but things change.  In that moment of falling there’s nothing in his brain.

That is leading to enlightenment.  One has enlightenment afterwards. My enlightenment was like an electric shock – Boom! – and my whole body felt like white gold. There was a white silver light, a silver light. It was like an electronic shock. The next second I was crying for joy. At that moment something told me that I got the (child – indistinct) meaning.

I was so proud of myself. Until then I didn’t believe in God. I was very negative about my life but after that I accepted as a whole my life process of suffering or agony.  One knows unhappy things but that does not mean this unhappiness is a bad thing.  This experience is leading to enlightenment.

It was a sort of transformative moment.  All the past means good things for me. Experience is for me my treasure.  I saw myself. I opened my eyes and I saw myself.  Maybe God helped me. I opened my eyes that time. Some people don’t know. We are all the same everybody.

All nature is the light, the trees (outside) the water melon (gestures) here and everybody can experience this but some people never experience it so they have to come back, and then again. They have to polish their soul. Until they polish it… and they go to a higher self spiritually.

I have had this experience just one time.  I think that until I die probably I’ll not experience these things again because my life is now everything is smooth. That was my luck. I never expected it. I had said to myself ‘this is life too much for me.  I cannot live anymore.’ I thought that way, ‘Physically I’m alive but spiritually I’m dead!’  The next second after my experience it was the reverse.

When I experienced this light I wanted to find out what it was.  So I read a lot of religious books.  Nothing satisfied me as religions are like a business – if you become a member you have to obey all the rules.  My personal revelation was not studied.

We must respect ourselves.  If we become go into a religion the master – we call it ‘sensei (sic)’ – is the most important person and then there is the god and we are nothing, but I tell you we are all important ourselves.  That’s what I wish to emphasize.

God loves us, God protects us, even if we don’t know God they protect us. They protect everything.

We just try our best.  There was this Japanese man who found out he’d got cancer, the doctor told him he got one month to live.  He cured the cancer because I think he was ready.  Not everybody can experience this but this particular man experienced enlightenment and then the cancer disappeared. He become a guru.

We believe there’s God but we have a philosophy that says thar God has created the world for humanity not for religion.  The world is created for us not for religion.