Interview with Louise Illig-Mooncie, author of ‘Encounter Between Two Worlds’ (plus literary events from 3 December 2019)

German-born Louise Illig Mooncie has written about the coming to terms with her country’s uneasy past. Her spiritual journey has taken her to the UK, India and Ireland and she shares her experiences in the book Encounter Between Two Worlds. She talks to Angela J. Phillip about her journey.

Q1 Hi Louise, congratulations on the publication of your book Encounter Between Two Worlds which I found fascinating. This book feels like a lifetime’s journey. When and where did the story start?

It is indeed a life-time’s journey, my soul-journey. It has been a search for a deeper meaning and understanding of life’s challenges and mysteries. I have a wealth of memories from a very young age of my world in post-war Germany with all of its difficulties and secrets. That’s where it all started and it’s when I started to try and make sense of the past.

Q2 The story switches between three places – Germany, the UK and India. Can you say a little about each of these places in relation to your feelings of belonging and your sense of life journey?

Obviously, Germany is my birthplace and I maintained strong links with it after I moved to the UK through working for German TV in London. Following my divorce and  raising my son as a single parent, I almost reached burn-out as I started my spiritual journey. I felt that by staying in England I would find what I was looking for.

This search for peace and understanding finally led me to a guru (teacher) in India. At the time, I wrote a diary about this life-changing journey and my slow spiritual transformation. I experienced a warm feeling of home-coming and a deep inner happiness in India. And indeed, this happiness is still in my heart. It is not tied to a particular country or place, it is there at any moment.

I must mention that Ireland also played a pivotal role in my life, having had a near-death experience while visiting a friend in Dublin (described in the book). I am very fond of the people and the landscape.

Q3 From your book, it seems that one of the key turning points was your meeting with The Jewish Ghost?

Without this extraordinary experience my book would not exist. This was the WOW effect in my life, changing my way of thinking about my own life, and everyone else’s for that matter, completely upside down. I started researching the possibility of reincarnation and felt very lucky when the BBC ran a well researched series of programmes about this subject, exactly when I needed it most (please see below for details).

For many years I did not speak to anyone about my ‘encounter’ with The Jewish Ghost, which I believed was a meeting with, or vision of, myself in a former life. I spoke about it only to the well known author and psychic from Tunbridge Wells, Peggy Mason. She shed some light on my experience and I describe this in my book.

Q4 Can you tell us about the purpose of your book and and what point in life did you become sure that you would have to write it.

We live in difficult times and sometimes we become angry or even violent in defence of our personal opinions. I am seeking to achieve the opposite. Although my book is about my personal journey, I believe that the message of peace is relevant to all of us. We, as a human race, are all connected with one another. The whole of creation is connected, everything is one, one breath, one heartbeat. With my book I am trying to make an offering for peace in the world, peace in our hearts.

A few years ago I felt compelled to tell my new husband and my son about my extraordinary experiences. They both encouraged me to write about them.

Q5 Does your belief in reincarnation affect the way that you live?

Definitely! I think about the consequences of my actions-reactions much more, and I’ve pledged to myself to live a truthful, loving and compassionate life.

Q6 Who or what has had the greatest influence on your life?

I’m a child of the 60s and people like Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Albert Schweizer (the humanitarian) made a great impact on me, not to forget the Beatles whose records my father banned me from playing at home. When I was young, my generation desperately wanted to change Germany, to make it less ‘dusty’ and rigid. In those days, we looked to England for guidance.

Buddhism, the Dalai Lama and my Indian Guru played a big role in my life. Now I’m a ‘free spirit’, believing that all of us have a place and a role to play: unity in diversity.

Q7 Which book in addition to your own would you most recommend to readers? Which writers do you most admire?

Aaahh, many writers inspired me when I was young, for example Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann. Now I mostly read books with a message, written by people who are brave enough to tell their truth, like Anita Moorjani’s book Dying to be me, or Rabbi Gershom’s book Beyond the Ashes.

There are many wonderful writers out there. I recently met an author from Bexhill, Harold Lawrence. He was launching his book At A Stroke at The Bookkeeper, in King’s Road, St Leonards on Sea. It tells his dramatic story about surviving a stroke. I expected a sad evening, but he made us laugh instead. I found him to be really inspirational and with a great sense of humour.

Q8 I understand that before you wrote this book, you filmed a documentary in India called ‘The Miracle of Puttaparthi’ and another in France?

Yes, I made a documentary about an amazing hospital for the poor in the heart of rural India and another in France called ‘Chartres Cathedral – A Sacred Geometry’. Both films were inspired by Prof. Keith Critchlow who is a British expert in Sacred Geometry. These documentaries were projects close to my heart and I made them independently of my work for German TV.

Q9 What is your next project?

Nurturing my relationships with family, friends…and continuing to spread a message of Unity, Love and Peace.

Thank you so much, Louise, for talking about your life’s journey and for the account you give in your book Encounter Between Two Worlds.

Please buy books from independent bookshops if possible.
Encounter Between Two Worlds by Louise Illig-Mooncie
Reincarnation: you only live twice – clips from the BBC programme
Religious studies KS2: The cycle of birth, death and rebirth – BBC (2015)
Dying to be me by Anita Moorjani
Beyond the ashes: cases of reincarnation from beyond the Holocaust by Yonasson Gershom

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Bookshops & Events

Bookbuster 39 Queens Rd, Hastings
Buddha Triangle Bookbuster Crimbo Banger
Saturday 14 December 6 – 8 pm hosted by Buddha Triangle & Bookbuster
Go to Bookbuster’s Facebook page to see more.

Printed Matter Bookshop 185 Queens Rd, Hastings TN34 1RG
Jan 2020: Book launch of Paul Anderson’s Suedeheads & film screening of Horace Ove’s ‘Reggae 1970’ at The Electric Palace Cinema, Old Town.
Please see Facebook page for details of other events.

The Bookkeeper Bookshop 1a Kings Rd, St Leonards
Come and look at the Bookkeeper Bookshop Facebook page to see more.

The Hare & Hawthorn Bookshop 51 George St, Hastings Old Town
For more information see the Hare & Hawthorn Facebook page.
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Well, folks, what have you all been doing this past week? I hope that it has brought good things for you all and that you are reading and writing a lot of interesting things.

Angela J. Phillip – update on my writing life
Please see: How do you know when a novel is finished?

For a selection of other posts on my writing journey, please see angelaphillip.blogspot.com

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Thanks so much for reading and happy writing. Please get in touch with any comments or suggestions.

Angela J. Phillip

images thanks to Louise Illig-Mooncie & Paul Way-Rider

 

Also in: Hastings Bookchat

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