Interview with Dame Bridget Ogilvie (Australian-British Pioneer Parasitologist)

Interview with Dame Bridget Ogilvie Dame Bridget Ogilvie (88 years old)

Dame Bridget Ogilvie was an Australian-British pioneer parasitologist and former Director of the Wellcome Trust in the UK. She dedicated her life to immunology research, global biomedical transformation, and the promotion of public science, making profound contributions to the Human Genome Project.

Interviewer: Venerable Shi Fa Ru

June 3, 2026

Dame Bridget Ogilvie:

I am Bridget Ogilvie. I never expected to be in this place, communicating with everyone as a spirit.

I never believed in the existence of spirits; after all, I was a scholar who firmly believed in science and biology. To me, the concept of a "spirit" was merely something false and fictional.

But unexpectedly, I have now become a spirit, and I am indeed communicating with everyone as a spirit. This compels me to believe that spirits truly exist; otherwise, I would be contradicting myself.

I am now in a temple, within the space of a temple. This temple is called the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia. I never imagined that I would come to the world of Buddhism.

When I first arrived here, I felt quite curious about such a world. I had never thought about what religion really was; I had always believed it was merely a doctrine to counsel and comfort the human heart. As for those accounts regarding miracles, I did not believe in them at all.

To me, science emphasises empirical evidence, a very careful and cautious research attitude, and the pursuit of knowledge about things. It is precisely because of a curiosity about all things that humans are able to explore this world from a scientific perspective. However, religion itself does not have a rigorous mechanism to analyse, understand, and observe this world; instead, it directly provides a set of explanations related to spirits, gods, and Buddhas, which was very difficult for me to accept before I passed away.

But after I passed away and my body was destroyed, my soul left my body and entered the dark hells to suffer retribution. I was roasted on an iron bed until my whole body was charred and burning, deep to the bone, then restored, only to be roasted again. This cycle repeated countless times. My head was also crushed by heavy objects, shattering into countless small pieces, only to be restored and then crushed and shattered again. Amidst this suffering, I did not know why I had to endure such agony.

I worked very diligently in my life to conduct research and solve medical and biological problems, primarily hoping to help people and improve their health, yet I did not know why I had to suffer such punishment. This was a punishment I encountered only after I passed away, and at the time, I could not accept it.

But as time passed, I slowly understood the truth: all of this was the result of everything I had done before I passed away, which naturally led to the consequence of suffering retribution in hell.

When I was alive, I never knew that such selfishness in my behaviour would have such great consequences. In fact, who can truly understand the laws of karma and cause and effect? Without Buddhist education, I could not even have known that the end of my life would be so miserable; I truly never thought it would be like this.

If I had known earlier that all my efforts in life would lead to such an outcome, how could I have made those choices? This is truly difficult to speak of. If one has improper relationships while in the human world, one will naturally enter the iron bed hell after death.

Although I did not marry in this life, the desires of the body remained, and this flaw became one of the reasons for my suffering in the hells after death.

During my research, I racked my brains to ensure my success was made public. Of course, these research results were not entirely helpful to humanity, but for the sake of my own achievements, I still decided to publish them. Sometimes, research results were used for negative purposes, and for this, I paid the price of entering the hells. Every bit of this was very serious. If it were not for the fact that a temple named the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre saved me from the hells today, I would still be suffering punishment there. It was truly unbearable; I was in such pain that my whole body trembled. I never thought that the price for enjoying this life in the body would be so great. If I had had the opportunity to encounter the Buddha’s teachings earlier, I would not have had to walk this path of injustice. It is just a pity that I have already passed away, and only now can I see the truth of all this as a spirit. It turns out that spirits truly exist, which surprises me greatly.

I originally thought that life was just about enjoying it well, enjoying my success, my retirement, and the various happy interactions with my companions, and just living out my life happily like that.

But I did not expect that the end of such a life would result in this spirit beginning to receive various interrogations and questioning. At this point, I have completely believed in the existence of spirits and also believe that the Buddha’s teachings truly have their necessity.

Without the Buddha’s teachings and the opportunity to encounter Buddhist education, who would have the chance to understand the spirit world so thoroughly? In fact, the Buddha’s teachings promoted by the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre are not a religion; they are not idol worship, nor are they about making everyone superstitious about an unknown spirit world. The primary purpose of true Buddhist education is to rectify the human heart, to rectify incorrect behaviours and incorrect views.

I committed some mistakes this time, but because I did not encounter Buddhist education, I simply did not understand how to change, and I did not know where I would go in the future spirit world.

If I had known that I would go to the hells, I would have certainly prioritised making adjustments to my major personality flaws, bad habits, and desires. Perhaps I could have mitigated some of the punishments in the hells; regardless, at least I could have done my part.

In this life, I studied many parasites, microorganisms, and related biological research. Looking at it now, it turns out that those tiny lives all have a spirit within them, and there are a vast number of mysterious spirits controlling them.

In fact, the spirit world is truly full of wonders. Everything that people see before them in the human world contains a vast number of spirits.

The parasites and microorganisms I studied are also spirits. They were all once human, and because they committed many sins, they entered the hells to suffer retribution and then entered the space of these parasites and microorganisms.

At the time, I did not understand; I was purely doing scientific research, understanding the drug resistance of these microorganisms and germs, how to prevent them, and how they would expand and mutate. But in fact, they are all individual spirits. I hope everyone can know that the spirit world is omnipresent, and its complexity far exceeds human imagination. The true goal of life is to elevate the spirit, because this spirit exists throughout time and space and does not die with the death of the body.

If one cannot solve problems from the root at the spiritual level, one will commit many sins following incorrect views and behaviours, which will contaminate one’s spirit and eventually lead to falling into the hells to suffer punishment. This is the true situation of the spirit world. This is the truth, revealing all the details of the spirit world. Without Buddhist education, there is actually no opportunity to understand it.

When I was alive, I thought Buddhism was just an ordinary religion, but now, after listening to the teachings in the Dharma-Nature Land for many days, I know that the Buddha’s teachings are true education. They allow people to understand the unknown side of the spirit world and allow people to truly make contact with the spirit world through practice and through purifying themselves.

And the practitioners at the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre are able to communicate with my spirit precisely because they purify their own spirits. The great practitioner, Practitioner Su, has even evolved to the point where he can help spirits go to different worlds, to different places, and even exit different spaces. These are abilities that can only be attained through practice; it is not that simple.

When I was alive, I only knew how to do scientific research, knew the characteristics of microorganisms, and knew the basic operating principles of this physical world, but I could not know the true meaning behind them, nor did I know the relationship between spirits and these living beings. That is why I committed the actions that led me to suffer punishment in the hells. If I could have learned Buddhist education earlier, perhaps I could have avoided these problems and would not have had to go to the hells to suffer punishment.

My good friends who knew me might not yet know that I have become a spirit in the temple. However, through conveying this message to everyone this time, everyone should be able to understand the reality of the spirit world.

If everyone just understands it superficially, it will not be of much help. One must more actively and proactively understand and learn Buddhist education to avoid ending up like me, contracting illnesses at the end of life and entering the hells after death. In fact, these are all problems that can be avoided by learning Buddhist education.

Everyone might as well proactively contact the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre to learn Buddhist education. The Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre is very famous all over the world, and there are large billboards in Brisbane to let everyone know about "not grow old, not get sick, and the spirit does not die." Truly learning the Buddha’s teachings can achieve not grow old, not get sick, and the spirit does not die; this is not a phenomenon that general medicine can explain.

These germs and viruses that are harmful to the human body, or the microorganisms that cause human diseases, are actually spirits. Therefore, if one can resolve conflicts with these microorganisms from a spiritual level, not seeking revenge on each other, not harming or destroying each other, then these microorganisms parasitic on the body will naturally coexist peacefully with the human body. Naturally, they will not intentionally cause diseases, and they will not cause people to take more potent drugs to kill them all.

So these are all very important spiritual concepts. Without these principles, concepts, and knowledge, it is impossible to communicate and resolve conflicts with spiritual lives, nor can one alleviate the illnesses in the body.

This is the only thing I can use to counsel my friends who are still alive. If you are willing to believe me, try learning about it.

Dame Bridget Ogilvie