Hi Volgerle,
That was an interesting adventure, indeed!
As I was reading, I thought of another theory on the topic. It’s pure speculation of course, but here goes:

I think one may also retrieve and/or heal aspects of the lower self : the male and female within (mental and astral elementals), the child within, the shadow self, etc. Fragments of one’s soul (all the personalities a soul gave, is giving, or will give birth to) may also need to be retrieved and/ or healed.

So regarding your retrieval experience, there is a possibility that you retrieved an aspect of your self, or even a `fragment` of your soul, that needed healing. Ronald was a close childhood/teenagehood friend of yours, which suggests a close bond with you, perhaps a bond of familiarity such as one you could have with other self aspects or other `fragments` of your own soul. Therefore, you may have chosen to picture as your friend a self aspect or soul aspect close to you in need of healing and guidance.

However, it may also have been really him, even if he is still alive… I think retrieval or healing of personalities focused in the physical (alive) can occur yes

When it comes to healing, I believe some counsciousnesses may also come to us in the non-physical to make some kind of arrangement on an event or meeting that will later take place in the physical in which we will have the opportunity to heal a part of them and/or be healed by them. Again, the appearance given may only be chosen because the characteristics we attach to a person known in the physical stick well with our perception of the counsciousness met in the non-physical, who may be unknown to the conscious mind.

Well, whatever is the answer to your experience, all these theories are very interesting to explore!