Nema and World War II were born in September 1939; history has grown increasingly more complex ever since.
Her formal education occurred in parochial schools, a convent boarding school, and at the College of Mount St. Joseph near Cincinnati, Ohio, where she received a B.A. in English.
In her search for transmundane knowledge and understanding, she has relied on her experiences, and on those of her colleagues, with vision trances, unlearned knowledge, and spiritual ecstasy, interpreted through traditional theories, practices and beliefs.