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The Real World Beyond
More descriptions of the Future Life in spirit.
The spirit of a once famous man, after describing his initial experiences on the other side, went on to describe what his new world looked like, and how life was organised. He admits that his friends on earth would find him altered, - far more blessedly ordinary, and free from the accursed legend which became an epic movie, and which for so long was his prison. Here are some facts from him about the Life Beyond.
"With the exception of the border regions of misty unreality, our earth [in the spirit world] is as solid and actual to our senses as the [physical] earth is to its denizens. The border lands are probably unreal largely because we come upon them before our new senses are functioning properly; to those who make their homes there, no doubt they appear quite real. Once one’s new senses have developed and are adjusted, this world has a solid surface with its physical features diversified as on earth and with a clothing of grass, trees and flowers. True, they are of a finer texture and a more lucent beauty. Again, much of the contrast with earth may be due to our more ethereal senses but perhaps both the objective and subjective reality are different. I do not want to paint a sentimental paradise but it is difficult to avoid it.
There is a serene unity about our conditions. On earth you may go from the sordid hell of an industrial town to its clean and prosperous suburbs and through these to the open country in a very short time, but here the sordid hell is relegated to the lower planes and populated by those who feel secure and at home in such surroundings and the pleasanter types of country are far removed from them. Thus in this region are stately cities with all that an urbane town-dweller can wish; noble buildings, churches, libraries and galleries and all the amenities of civilization for those who want them. There are stretches of lovely country with parks and mansions, wild regions of mountain and moor and rivers and seas of incomparable beauty.
The necessity of producing and consuming food is no longer a factor in our economy. Clothing and luxuries are available freely for those who think they want them, but greed so easily satisfied soon dies of surfeit. There are no extremes of temperature so another spur to effort is missing. The fact that no one NEEDS food or any particular kind of clothing or housing removes the tension and fear from living altogether and with this freedom a great deal of the element of greed has vanished proving, if proof is needed, how entirely greed is the child of fear and insecurity.
When people first arrive here the ease with which any desired goods can be obtained sometimes goes to their head, and they begin to clutch and hoard as they would have done on earth; but this is usually only a temporary phase. If it is a deep-seated trouble they probably gravitate to a lower plane where such attitudes can be tolerated but as a rule it is only a short-lived madness. I could moralise a lot about the effects of the removal of fear among us. In retrospect it is easy to see how it plays the devil in human affairs and is at the root of evils of various kinds. This is illustrated clearly by the effect of its absence. For what have we to fear? We no longer fear death; it is a discredited bogy. We no longer fear hunger nor thirst; they do not exist. We no longer fear cold nor heat; our climate is equable, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that our bodies do not register change of temperature. There are no insurmountable barriers or distance or difficulty; if we want to go to the ends of the earth it is all open before us and our own desire will guide us surely to any destination. With all these material freedoms there is no frustration to engender anger or bitterness, no fear to breed hostility, no ‘haves’ to cause envy and greed in the ‘have-nots’, and, above all, no death to be feared as the ultimate evil. ….There is no place for an evil principle here and we have passed beyond the scope of nearly every temptation. Here in the pure sunlight of happiness we mature as we purge our bodies of their corroded ills, but we can add nothing to our stature. That is to be achieved, if at all by our lives on earth; all we can do here is to perfect what has been won there in the conflict. Here we simply consolidate our gains…..
There are replicas of each country here…but the stupid barriers of language do not divide us to the same extent, since where words fail other ways of understanding are open to us and so no serious misunderstanding can arise….There appears to be less mingling of races on the lower planes where there does not seem to be the same desire to cross national boundaries. Among us, and still more so on higher planes, national distinctions become blurred and will finally be lost.
An interesting variation in our society is caused by the admixture of earth-ages as represented in any one plane. There can easily be people living in close harmony here together whose earth lives were separated by centuries, and this means that often the generations widely separated in earth time are simultaneous here. For instance, I may be associating with my grandfather, great-grandfather and so on for some generations back yet we shall all be roughly of the same age. The differences in our earthly experiences give rise to piquant interchanges and contrast and what I may call the living history aspect of our society intrigues and delights the historian. The structure of our society is therefore very diversified…. Many people have been here for hundreds of years in earth time although they hardly ever realise this, and so one gets a mixture of the manners and customs of many ages and historical eras. There is certainly no danger of dullness – the bewildering variety of people, manners and outlooks is endlessly fascinating…..
Dogmatic teaching about heaven and hell is fortunately corrected by the known facts; freedom from the cramping doctrines of eternal punishment, original sin and predestination is a wonderful release for those who have lived out their lives under such man-made shadows. For the more philosophic, I suppose the great discovery is that the whole scheme of things is built on eternal justice and that any philosophy based on materialism is untenable….it is always the less material aspect [of life] which is the real and abiding, whereas the material is always the transient.
We know that our stay on any one plane is temporary and, however our estimate of time may compare with the earth calendar, this notion of progress from plane to plane as development justifies it is common knowledge here. There is room for much speculation and differences of opinion as to ultimate ends, of course. Much of the thought of higher spheres is open to those who care to know, but there are many here who are satisfied to enjoy the easy satisfactions of their care-free lives without speculating upon any further development. In general, I think that those who have farthest to go are most concerned with the journey. As I have said before, among thoughtful people at the university [here] much study is given to the progress of the human spirit, its ascent of the planes and its probable return to earth when purification is complete.
But there is a vast multitude of good, well-meaning people here who are quite content to leave such problems to their pastors and teachers and for them some kind of church life is helpful and even necessary.
I watch all this with great interest. My own position is influenced by two factors – the mere logic of survival and of the conditions of life as I know it now and as I anticipate it in the further ranges of existence, and my researches into the minds and thoughts of those already in higher spheres. At least pessimism is dead and no negative attitude will stand up to the known facts. Whatever the chaotic thought of earth may achieve, we at at least have the guarantee of experience for a lively faith in the love and eternal justice of the Absolute. This is a term I use in default of a better. I do not know if there may be lesser gods, advanced spiritual beings whose jurisdiction may have a more limited scope, but above and beyond all these I am convinced that the foundation and ground of all being must finally exist in the one Ineffable and Eternal Spirit.
T.E.Lawrence [of Arabia] communicating through medium Jane Sherwood between 1938 and 1959.
Reviewed and condensed from Chapter 9 of “Post-Mortem Journal” by Jane Sherwood. Neville Spearman, 1964. Reprinted by The C. W.Daniel Company Limited, 1991.
For those making a serious study of the nature of the Life Beyond, this Journal is highly recommended reading. Richard R.
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