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(27) More about the Life Beyond by those who are now living there.
Most books about life after death are written by those who have not been there yet, so really what they say is just discussing the possibility of a future life, and they merely review what theologians, philosophers and scientists have already written on the subject. Nothing very informative is given beyond that. I have browsed though many books with "afterlife" in the tile and found nothing substantial and factual.
This series is devoted to collecting the best of the reports from those already living there. But these illustrations are only one of at least two dozen different ways we can prove that there is more to life than meets the eye. Each one of these areas would take up many articles, or several books, to cover the ground, and has already done so. I won’t list any of these here now, but would recommend interested readers to take a look a Victor Zammit’s book, A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife: Irrefutable Objective Evidence. This is available to read free on-line at www.victorzammit.com and is also available as a book in print. As a lawyer pleading a case, he discusses the evidence of each of the phenomena in great detail, and from this the reader can follow up by reading other books and journals, and perhaps attend some public meetings, services or séances to see for herself, or himself.
Contrary to what you’d expect after watching a lot of fictionalized drama about mediums and life after death, a dying or deceased person does not go directly into the full light of the Next World, even if they are escorted by loved ones or helpers. The communicator from the previous article, a former writer, continues his account with a description of the different planes over there. [When he talks of a man doing this or that, he is using the language of his times, in a patriarchal society where women, like children were still mostly seen and not heard. So in the following talk, for ‘man’ read ‘person.’
"The newly released soul (a person who has just died) in most cases does not have to experience the underworld conditions [of a limbo or purgatory of the lower spiritual planes] and can rapidly traverse them while in an unconscious state, and wake on the [central or intermediate] plane sometimes known as the Summerland, and there find comfort and peace. The lowest astral plane is one of burning and persistent desire, all of which the sufferer has engendered and fostered during his earth life. Those who go there are souls which have lived with neither consideration nor affection for any creature but themselves. On the plane above, life is a little brighter. Although it is still shadowed with a greyness like that of a November morning, a dim light shines here and there, because the inhabitants are developing affection for something, although perhaps only for nature or for animals. Throughout the soul’s journey through the spheres, light comes only because the inner self is awakening. Stunted trees and vegetation becomes visible but the inhabitants still dwell in mists and are themselves clothed in grey. Being in fact wrapped up in self-centredness they still create for themselves similar clothing and environment. In this manner does their self-centredness become outwardly actualized in a perfectly logical and natural manner.
On the third astral plane we find brighter conditions, because there is a desire to do something for the fellow-next-door, a wakening interest in one’s neighbour. Here normal earth conditions tend to reproduce themselves. We gather for public worship, we dwell in houses which are perhaps somewhat dilapidated and not over salubrious. Again, the inward spiritual conditions of the inhabitants become externalized in this manner. Men’s souls here, however, are striving towards the light, and this is why conditions grow more hopeful, more harmonious.
We pass to the fourth plane, where things are decidedly better. Now we find beautiful scenery, happier and on the whole finer conditions than on earth. We see the types of home described in many Spiritualist books, the lakes, rivers, mountains, flowers, and animals. This is in all a bright second edition or continuation of a comfortable life lived on earth. Here the soul has attained to some mental and spiritual development, and having thus attained, begins to create these conditions of harmony and beauty out of itself; for they are after all only the reflection of the soul’s mental and spiritual level. The human spirit is at last able to modify the conditions and environment which surround it, from itself – from out of itself; much as a man on earth is continually contributing harmony (or disharmony) to his family and home life. This is why, and how, comfort, serenity, harmony and beauty come into being….
Beyond these mental planes souls journey towards the celestial or cosmic consciousness of the higher regions. Only when they are longing with all their heart to become reunited with the God-consciousness, or Love-Intelligence which is their real home, do they reach this highest celestial sphere.
It is possible for souls dwelling in these celestial spheres to communicate from there with the earth. There are messengers for that very purpose. Few people understand the wonderful mysticism of parts of the Bible, as when Jacob dreamed he saw a ladder placed between heaven and earth, and saw angels descending and ascending it. People will perhaps regard this as a childish story. Yet that is just what is still happening. Communications are indeed coming down from the heaven world to the earth people: alas, that so much is lost in transit and that so much confusion exists concerning the right methods of communication.
Let us return to a further description of the mental planes. The soul first enters a mental plane where it finds itself surrounded by the previous creations of its own mind. It is here that the chief characteristics of the man of cold, hard, intellectual thought have found expression.
The delicate balance which exists between the intellectual and the intuitional part of man must now be taken into account, for on the next or second mental plane the soul responds to the intuitional or spiritual light which is now drawing it upwards and onwards, ever higher and nearer to the central focus of its being, which is God. On this second mental plane the man becomes conscious of an intuitional inflow which tones down his hard intellectuality and enforces a purer intuitional conception of existence. In this condition the man himself becomes creative, since from this plane springs all the creative urge or activity which takes an ultimate form on earth as art, literature, music, religion, science, all of which are varying expressions of creative energy derived from a higher source: here man finds himself able to contact the Source of all his higher inspiration and creation. [It was this plane, apparently, that Frances Banks had reached when she last communicated with Helen Greaves]*. From this intuitional (but still mental plane, you understand) he passes to the higher, the third and last mental plane. Now he enters a state of quiescence. In peace and tranquility of the intuitional plane, able at last to see himself as he really is, the spirit remains perfectly conscious . He is able to gauge the complete effect of his life, not only as it has affected the lives of his fellows on earth, but in relation to the whole creative principle; to estimate the magnitude or otherwise of his personal contribution towards God’s evolving Plan of Creation. [People often remark, if there’s a God, why does he allow all this suffering – these pointless and tragic shooting sprees, wars, murders, genocide, suffering of all kinds, industries polluting the atmosphere and oceans The thing is that materialists are unaware of spiritual law, and so think they can do anything and get away with it scot free. So they create a disastrous reality around them as a result of greed, self-interest, indifference, hate and violence. Joseph Conrad’s novel “Heart of Darkness” depicts the soul-less character of such people. Imperfect as our cultures, philosophies and religions may be, they have guided us towards a more civilized behaviour, with compassion and reverence for life, which is more than was achieved in primitive times. But we have still some way to go before we find paradise on earth. Richard]
The third mental plane is a condition of withdrawal from outer form into an inner relationship with the universal power; a condition where man’s inner ego contacts that universal sphere of spiritual being and attainment. Whereas life on the planes below has been in definite form, now there is to some extent an absence of form. It will be very difficult for the man of earth to imagine such a condition, concerned as he is with his form-life. When you attempt to visualize or imagine the Universal, that great Omnipotence whom you worship and love as God, your mind cannot conceive him in any particular form; yet within your being and outside in the whole universe at all times and in all places, God’s pulsating life radiates power – the effect of which you recognize by its myriad manifestations as an Intelligence ever proclaiming its handiwork - [using the word God here not in any particular religious or scientific meaning, but to include the 1001 names for the Infinite Intelligence behind life, Allah, the Tao, Jahweh, the Great Spirit….]
So when we reach the third mental plane we find absence of form: that is, man’s ego is no longer limited, confined or bound down to any particular form of being, to any particular kind of body. He is rather spending his time, not only in withdrawal into the centre of himself, but also in expansion from that centre until his being contacts the whole, the life universal.
It is true that it is possible for men and women still living on earth to contact this sphere; but the effect is so powerful, the plane so tremendous in its vibration, that the effect can even be harmful to the human organism. [Gopi Krishna had a terrifying experience when the Kundalini power rose as he practised his Yoga exercises. Although he successfully developed his psychic abilities, the experience nearly killed him, and he was lucky to have kept his sanity. See his many books].
We touch on a vast theme. It has seemed necessary, however, to explain that this universal power can shatter man’s body, unless it is sought in humility and truth, and with a pure and selfless motive. If a man attempts to reach this power by intellect alone, without due attunement, without growth of the spirit, there must inevitably be disaster. Yet if that same man will strive with mind and heart and spirit to seek the kingdom, holding fast in simple and childlike faith, he must reach that plane of the universal and there receive truth and power and life from the fount of all life. [ three meditations, or melodies on this theme are 1) – Seek you first the Kingdom of Heaven, and its righteousness, then all else will be added unto you, and the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. Alleluia Alleluia. [So goes this well known chant from the Middle Ages]. 2) Another chant, actually a four-part round, is “Rose, Rose, Rose Rose, Will I ever see thy red. Aye, thou surely will, when thou art dead” 3). Or the chant “I sought the Lord and I found him, within the deepest cave of my heart: be still and know I am God.”
Reviewed and condensed from several sessions with the medium in London. Details and conclusion to follow.
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