9

What Are the Facts About the Afterlife?

Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight. - R. W. Raymond

 

We’re now all sharing what we know about life and the universe as humankind could never do through its 75,000 year history.  In the process, experiences people have and knowledge we all gain from the experiences are openly shared.  The result is that we’ve learned that people are having regular, normal communications with those who have gone on to the next plane of life.  What was previously hidden by the fact that people could talk about their experiences only among a small group of relatives and friends is now known by masses of people.  Our accumulated knowledge is demonstrating continually, indisputably, the reality of the afterlife.  We’re learning as a society what people as individuals and small groups knew about all along.

Just as the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries saw the discovery of the Newtonian universe, and the twentieth century saw the discovery of the quantum universe, the twenty-first century is seeing the discovery of the spiritual universe.

These are some of the communications we’re having commonly now that are teaching us about the afterlife:

Near-death experiences: A Gallup poll in the United States indicated 8-12 million people (approximately the population of New York City) claimed experience of life beyond the grave; in Britain, a Mori poll showed seven people out of 10 believed NDEs happened and constituted evidence of an afterlife.¹  We know about the afterlife from NDE experiences.

After-death communications: A broad range of studies of after-death communication have shown that around 40 percent of people say they have had an after-death communication experience, with the percentage as high as 70 or 80 percent for widows.²  We have learned about the afterlife from what those there have said about it to people.  Loved ones in the afterlife are describing what their lives are like there.

Induced after-death communications (IADC™): From 70 to 98 percent (depending on the environment) of patients who undergo IADCs™ report that they experience an after-death communication, with virtually all insisting that they actually communicated with the deceased person for whom they are grieving. Thousands of patients have now had the experience.³  The reports patients provide to their psychotherapists after these counseling sessions have added to our understanding of the afterlife.

Mental medium communications: Thousands of mediums have had communication with people who have crossed over to the next plane of life, with the results of the medium readings being verified by the family members.  The shelves of bookstores are now crowded with books containing mediums' accounts of the readings and what the sessions have taught them about the afterlife. Perhaps the best compilation of reports is in The Supreme Adventure, Analyses of Psychic Communications, by Robert Crookall.⁴  These reports have provided insights into the afterlife that are consistent across time, geography, and cultures.

Direct voice and physical medium communications: A number of direct-voice and physical mediums have made it possible for people in the afterlife to speak.  Direct-voice mediums have held carefully controlled séances in which unmistakable voices of those in the afterlife are heard.  Their voices have been recorded and now exist in thousands of recordings (see David Thompson⁵ and Leslie flint⁶).  They have provided the clearest descriptions of the afterlife.  If you want to listen to some recordings, link to http://ebook.youreternalself.com/chapter9.htm.

In all, we now have a vast amount of information from the citizens of the afterlife.  This storehouse of knowledge has given us an understanding of what happens to someone when they leave the body, what life is like on the next planes of life, and what those in the afterlife advise for us who are still on the Earthly plane.  The remainder of this chapter summarizes what we know. 

I don’t cite the individual speakers from the afterlife or medium sources because the endless citations from hundreds of recordings and other sources would be cumbersome and the knowledge is repeated often by many on the next planes of life.  Just be assured that every fact was spoken by someone who is a resident of the next plane of life.

The most important issue for most people, of course, is whether their loved ones who have passed away are all right.  I can tell you with great assurance that they’re fine—in fact, they’re joyous.  Everyone who speaks from the afterlife describes their happiness at being without worries, healthy, feeling light as a feather, with a young body that has no aches and pains.  They’re delighted.

As to why they don’t communicate with you often or at all, one reason is that it is difficult for them to communicate with us.  It isn't something they can do easily, and just as few people on our side of life are mediums who can communicate with those on the other side of life, most people on the next planes of life aren't adept at getting through to us.  They do register our thoughts, but may not be able to communicate back easily or at all.

They’re also not worried about you, unless you're grieving and unhappy. They now know the truth that you and they are eternal beings.  You’ll live your life and transition into the next plane of life where you’ll reunite, but in the meantime, they know you need to continue to learn lessons and they know they can’t really do anything to help you with your struggles; you have to work them out yourself. They’re happy and they know you’re fine as well.  They'll be happiest when you're happy.

And they're busy learning about life and eternity.  They have occupations and preoccupations, often what they wished they could have done on the Earth plane but couldn’t.  They haven’t forgotten you, but just as you have to go to work or have activities each day and leave your family members to whatever they’re doing, those who are on the next plane of life aren’t preoccupied with staying around you.  They’re busy, and they know you have your life to live.

However, you may receive assistance from them in taking care of yourself and learning your life lessons.  You may have a sudden insight or a feeling of calm and peace in the midst of worrying.  Someone on the Earth plane may contact you unexpectedly with a message you need to hear, or you may chance upon some information in a book or on television that helps you through a crisis.  Any of these insights may have been brought to you by that person in the afterlife you wish you could hear from.  They do offer assistance, although it may not be in the way you might expect or wish.

They will often return to be with you when you think of them.  They don’t observe birthdays and anniversaries because there is no time as we know it in the afterlife.  However, when you think of them and they know the family is coming together, they often will stand among you.  They’re with you, but you can’t see them.  Your thoughts come to them in the afterlife and they respond by going to be with you on special occasions. 

Just know that they are happier than they’ve ever been; they are always within thought range of you; and they know you’re just separated from them for a short time.  They’re fine.

If your loved one was an infant or a child, that little one will be with your loved ones who have gone before.  They will continue to rear your child in love, and you will be reunited when you transition to the other side. 

Pets also are kept by family members until the owners transition over, at which time, the pet returns to the owner without question. 

When a person has been ill and can prepare for death, the spirit "calls" deceased loved ones to let them know that the passing will occur soon.  The person may then have dreams about deceased loved ones or visions of them in waking moments.  These are intentional efforts to prepare the person for the coming transition.  Then, when the death occurs, the loved ones are there to greet the person who crosses over. 

Those who are more self-centered and have no belief in the life to come may not send out such a call to those on the other side.  However, they are still cared for by guides who help them until they grow out of the self-centeredness and disbelief. 

That is not the case when a person dies suddenly in war or an accident.  The loved ones come as soon as they can, but the person may be assisted in the transition by a guide or a "rescuer," a person now in the afterlife who has dedicated his or her life to helping people make the transition into the next life. 

When a person dies, the person leaves the Earthly body with very little ceremony.  The separation is quite natural and happens without the person being fully aware that it has happened.

While people who have nearly drowned and been revived describe drowning as a terrible experience, people who actually die as a result of drowning describe themselves as "skipping" the terrible part.   It is common for people who have crossed over not to remember anything about the circumstances at the moment of death.

People often describe floating above their bodies while the body is still alive.  They see the efforts to revive them and the results.  If they are revived, they recall the events in a near-death experience.  If they do not survive, they easily, gently move into the next plane of life.  Crookall explains that about an hour before the person’s body dies, the person’s ethereal self often stands nearby with complete consciousness. Natural death is not accompanied by pain or fear.⁷

After the physical body dies, a variety of events have been described by those who have crossed over.  Those who have died a violent, sudden death, as in war or an accident, may not realize they have died.  They remain in an Earthly "vibration" as they call it, so they can walk on the Earth, sit on chairs, climb stairs, and take busses, but they are spirit, so no one can see them.  One WWI soldier described himself running toward the enemy on the battlefield, but noticing that the enemy was running past him as though they couldn’t see him.  It wasn’t until some time later that he realized he had been killed on the battlefield, but was still running on the Earth plane as the spirit person.  His physical body was lying on the battlefield somewhere but all the rest—his mind, personality, and memories—were exactly the same.

Another man said that before his death, he was walking down the street with his wife and remembered seeing something coming at him.  He then saw a crowd of people standing around staring at something.  He "had a look" and saw someone lying on the street who looked just like him.  "Could’ve been my twin brother," he said.  His wife was crying hysterically, but for some reason, she couldn’t see him.  The reason was that he had been hit by a runaway truck and died.  He got into the ambulance with the body and sat next to his grief-stricken wife, who still couldn’t see him.  Then he went to his own funeral.  He remarked, "It was all very nice, but it was so damned silly because there I was!"

Others who pass away describe awakening in an open field, where at times a guide comes to help them.  Some awaken on a couch in a home where their loved ones are.  Others awaken in a hospital-like setting called a "reception area" where people help them make the adjustment to being dead and their loved ones come to visit.  It seems that this common period of sleep is around two or three Earth days.

The transition is quite smooth and without incident.  The person may not realize he or she has died, however, and needs help understanding the change.  Some are bewildered for a period of time until they make the adjustment.  A number of those who spoke during séances described how, in the moments after their bodies died, they felt that they must be dreaming and would wake up.

Several of those who spoke in the Leslie Flint séances described being "earthbound."  They stayed on the Earth plane for weeks or years, walking about unnoticed by people, trying to communicate.  A few described acting as poltergeists, banging things and moving things about to get attention.

After a while, however, most people do leave the Earth plane and go on to higher levels.  Some explain that the excessive grief of the survivors depressed them and retarded them from progressing into happier conditions. Their most fervent wish was to reassure their loved ones that they were fine.  Some describe the fact that they couldn’t reassure their loved ones as the greatest difficulty in making the transition.

Guides, "rescuers," and loved ones on the other side help each person make the transition into the new life.  The rescuers focus on people who have died suddenly in accidents or war, who are not prepared for death and are surprised or shocked to see their new surroundings.  These rescuers are often people who themselves have died in accidents or war and have dedicated themselves to helping others make the transition.  The rescuers also help people who are earthbound to grow in their assumptions and perspectives to leave the Earth plane.

Guides are like teachers, who help the person understand the new life.  The guides continue to work with people for a long period to help them mature away from the Earth plane to higher levels. 

The deceased’s loved ones are often the ones who help the deceased to understand that they are dead and what the new surroundings are.

After death, all who cross over describe having a tangible body just as they had when in a physical body.  They have no aches and pains, however, and they feel healthy and light.  When they see themselves in a reflection, they look as they did in their twenties or thirties if they died at an older age.  If they died as children, they grow up on the other side of life.

Those in the afterlife remark often about how completely natural their bodies are, just as they had on the Earth plane.  When the body stops functioning, the person is still completely as he or she was just before dying.  Their personalities, memories, concerns, and intentions are exactly the same.  They are just the mind that is greater than the body entirely, without the physical body, but with a real, tangible ethereal body that has all the same material qualities as the physical body.

People do not lose their individuality in the afterlife and don’t suddenly become omniscient or clairvoyant.  They don’t change.  They also don’t transform into being good or angelic.  They carry their fears, conflicts, and problems into the afterlife.  However, the perspective they have, if they allow it to influence them, changes them more quickly.  They learn what all on Earth would benefit from learning—that they are in fact eternal beings who just finished an Earthly period.  That helps them to alleviate the problems, fears, and negative thoughts they had while on Earth, but they don’t suddenly change.

We absolutely know that people don’t enter millennia of sleep waiting for a resurrection after death.  When the body is no longer attached to the eternal self, the person just goes on exactly as before, with an ethereal body and all the memories, personality, knowledge, inclinations, and interests they had while still using the body.  Many people are surprised to see that they’re dead when everything is so natural.  They experience exactly the same things we do on the Earth plane: their bodies, trees, buildings, homes, walking, daylight, warmth, joking with people, playing games, listening to talks—it’s all just as though they were on the Earth plane, but without any of the negatives.

As it turns out, the Earth is the nursery where the mind grows and becomes what it will be as it continues to evolve through eternity.  When people leave the Earth plane, they enter an environment that suits their mental condition, attitudes, and spiritual level of growth.  Those who have been selfish and cruel on the Earth plane will be on a sphere or plane with others who are also selfish and cruel.  That isn’t a punishment and it certainly isn’t a hell.  It’s a condition they create by their own expectations for the way life is and ought to be.  They expect life to be dog-eat-dog, full of greed and selfishness, so that is the way it is for them.  And they are with others who have the same inclinations. 

They remain on that lower plane of life until they grow out of it.  They are given help and are taught by higher-level people who work with them to help them understand their self-centeredness and hostile, cruel, or violent minds.  However, they will remain on that level as long as they choose to continue to hold the assumptions that comprise their spiritually backward minds.  No one put them there; no one demands they change; no one punishes them.  They remain there until they choose to grow into a higher spiritual level.  Then, they simply evolve into another level naturally.

Some materialist scientists are still materialists in the afterlife.   They are on the next plane of life sure there’s some physical explanation for what has happened to them and endeavoring to understand it, and they work in teams as they did on the Earth plane to study what has happened.  They still won’t allow themselves to believe in the afterlife and spiritual existence.

People find themselves in a comfortable environment that is familiar to them so the transition is easier.  They carry their expectations into the afterlife and those shape what they encounter.  They actually create their realities.  The realities are "collective," however.  Groups of people with similar attitudes and expectations are on the same plane or sphere and the reality fits all of them, just as the reality of the Earth plane applies to all who are here.

When people are earthbound and unable to accept their own deaths, they may grow to understand what has happened by learning that others cannot see or hear them, seeing their own funerals, meeting loved ones who have died years before them, and having new abilities, such as being able to pass through walls, float, or be transported by simply thinking of a destination.

Some describe a life review as one of the ways they grow spiritually.  It helps them understand their assumptions and perspectives, but is not a punishment. 

No one in any of the séances by physical mediums ever describes a hell or place of torment.  The concept of hell is a myth invented by the church in the first and second centuries CE.  For more about why hell is a myth, link to http://ebook.youreternalself.com/chapter9.htm.

The environment depends on the person’s state of being.  If someone is still tied to the Earth and its environment, they will experience a very Earthlike existence, for as long as they remain at that level of thought.  Eating and drinking aren’t necessary in the afterlife, but when a person first enters, eating and drinking are available as the person wishes, to help acclimate them to living their new life. The person will no longer eat and drink when they grow out of the need to do so.

Each person lives in a home with loved ones.  The homes are very often duplicates of the homes they loved on the Earth plane.  Sometimes, people who were wealthy on the Earth plane are in smaller houses to help them learn that wealth isn’t important.  The homes have no heating or air conditioning because the temperature is always pleasant.  Unless the person wants to experience Earthlike conditions, there is no sun, no moon, and no stars.  There is a continual pleasant light that comes from no source.  There is no night, although some describe a "twilight."  People do "rest," but don’t sleep.

The buildings are described as being made of a solid material, but it has a pearl-like luminescence.  There are large buildings housing schools, art galleries, and museums in vast, beautiful, clean cities. 

Houses have gardens around them, with natural soil, just as on Earth.  People who enjoyed gardening tend the gardens, and beautiful flowers grow continually and profusely.  No one picks the flowers, however.  They are left to grow naturally.

The afterlife has all the attributes of the Earth plane.  There are mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, and vast fields of flowers.  There are birds and all the animal species, but they don’t prey on one another and they are not afraid of each other.  The animals are described as living in separate areas, but people can walk up to them and hold them.  The animals are at a higher state of being than on the Earth plane, able to communicate through a telepathy that doesn’t require speech.  They understand themselves as being one with humankind and are completely comprehended by those with whom they come into contact.  No animals are killed.  No animal products are used in making things.

Music and art are integral, vital components of the afterlife planes.  There is continual music, although a person doesn’t have to listen to it.  The choice is entirely up to each individual.  There are vast orchestras made up of thousands of people playing instruments, some of which are like those on the Earth plane while others are unique.  As an orchestra plays, beautiful colors appear around the orchestra in keeping with the music. 

There are no cars, busses, or other machinery.  People walk to destinations, although they do have the ability to simply focus on where they would like to be and they are transported there.  Most, however, explain that they prefer to walk.

A person may continue his occupation from the Earth plane.  Artists still paint; builders still build houses; teachers still teach.  Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde are still writing plays.  However, people are not required to be anything they don’t wish to be.  If a person always desired to play the piano while on the Earth plane, but never had the chance, she may learn to play the piano on the next plane of life and give recitals or be part of the vast orchestras.  Someone who just loved to grow flowers on Earth but ended up being an auto mechanic can become a gardener in the afterlife.

Since there are no manufacturing plants, people who engaged in manufacturing occupations on Earth find other occupations and preoccupations.  Many teach children who have left the Earth plane and grow up in the afterlife.  Some people do "rescue" work, helping people who have died to understand where they are and guiding them along as they adjust to their new lives.

There is no money.  People act out of love for one another.  They give of themselves in ways that make both them and the receiver joyful.

The afterlife, they explain is vaster than we can imagine.  There are millions of planes of existence, occupied by vast numbers of people at various levels of spiritual maturity and interest.  It is incorrect to view the afterlife as a few discrete planes.  Instead, there is level after level of continuously different planes where people are together based on their interests and attitudes.

There are some levels that are actually below the Earth plane in spiritual advancement.  There, the people are in a kind of darkness of thought.  They are at that level because of their own mindset, however, and are given guidance to grow out of it.  Eventually, everyone advances beyond the darker levels.  These lower planes are not a hell, however.  There is no such place of torment.

Some in the afterlife refer to a transition plane between the Earth and the next levels of existence where a person may remain until acclimated to being in the next life. 

People in the afterlife find themselves in conditions of their own making based on their mental condition, attitude, and spiritual growth.  They then may stay on the level they are at, if they wish, or advance into higher levels of spiritual growth.  Some people prefer to stay where they are for long periods of time.  Higher level teachers and guides try to help them learn so they can advance, but there is no pressure, and no one requires anyone to leave a level and progress to another level. 

The conditions in the life close to the Earth plane that most people enter are so pleasant that many choose not to evolve into higher levels of being for a long time.  They remark that they are content to stay where they are, although they know there are higher levels.

Because the afterlife has no sun, there are no days or years to count.  There are changes that occur, and people have the same types of experiences as they had on Earth that occur over time, so there is a time of sorts.  However, they don’t count time, and since they realize their eternal nature, there is no hurry to accomplish things.  Their sense of time, in other words, is quite different. 

People who commit suicide are met with compassion and understanding on the next plane of life.  There is no judgment or condemnation.  However, there is great sadness among all living on the next plane of life when the suicide victim arrives, and he or she feels deep remorse.  That person sees the grief family and friends still on Earth suffer, because their thoughts and emotions are known by the person who has committed suicide.  Many attend the funeral unseen, and because they then understand that life really is eternal, they realize that they could have worked out the problems and lived full lives with those who loved them on Earth, but now the opportunity is gone.  What could have been a wonderful, rewarding life has been cut off.  And in the afterlife, the person still has to face and work out the problems he or she was experiencing, but with all the remorse and sadness that accompanies the suicide.

Suicide is not an alternative if the body is free of unbearable pain.  Most difficulties will pass with time and the person will live a rewarding life, growing, learning, loving, and experiencing.  And the problems still must be faced in the afterlife, with the added burdens of remorse and knowing that nothing can now be done to go back to life to make things better and have a joyful, fruitful lifetime.

Those on the next planes of life explain that the Earth plane is saturated with other planes of existence that we simply can’t see.  There are earthbound people who wander about until they are able to release themselves by their change of thought, from the Earth.  They crave the pleasures and experiences of the Earth plane but, of course, can’t experience them.  As a result, they may stay around living people who have the same inclinations, influencing them through their thoughts.  Destructive people in the afterlife, for instance, will be attracted to people with destructive tendencies still alive and focus their thoughts on influencing them to consider destructive behavior.

They also describe the fact that beings on other vibration planes coexist with us.  Changes in our atmosphere on the Earth plane affect them, so pollution is affecting the other planes as well as our own.

Ghosts are described by those in the afterlife as being impressions on the memory of the "ether," the unseen spiritual atmosphere surrounding Earth.  When emotional events occur, the ether may retain a memory of the event.  Later, sensitive people may be able to see the memory act out.  The memories are described as ghosts, and generally appear in relationship to traumatic events.  These ethereal memories have no spirit attached to them, can move only in the ways the living person moved when the memory was created, cannot communicate, and are completely harmless.  That is why hauntings often involve the same spirit seeming to perform the same actions repeatedly, with no communication between the apparitions and the witnesses.  When the conditions between the Earth’s atmosphere and the ether are just right, the memories may play out like a movie so more than one living person witnesses them. That is what happens when people witness a battle scene being played out by what people call "ghosts."  In any event, there is no living spirit there when the memory comes from the ether.

Poltergeists, on the other hand, can be earthbound people who are not able or willing to change their mental condition to allow themselves to leave the Earth plane.  They are almost always simply trying to attract attention and are frustrated that no one can see them or respond to their communication.  As a result, they may bang on things, move things about if they can, and otherwise disrupt the Earth plane. 

Some are immature spiritually, and may have been mischievous on Earth.  They continue their mischievous activities by staying on the Earth plane and influencing people who are susceptible because of their natural inclination toward the same sort of mischief, temporary weakening through drugs or alcohol, or opening themselves to influence by having some medium abilities but not being mature enough to keep the lower-level people from intruding. 

Many children have mediumistic ability because they are more open and naïve, but they lose it as they grow older and become more jaded.  Poltergeists are often associated with children and adolescents because of this latent medium ability they can draw from to act in the physical realm.

If children use a device such as a Ouija board, they can hear from earthbound people who intentionally deceive them.  In those cases, the lower level spirits can provide misleading and disruptive messages.  In no circumstances, however, can a lower level spirit possess someone. 

Some on the next planes of life have also said clearly that these earthbound spirits are the cause of many cases of psychosis, paranoia, depression, addiction, manic depression, criminal behavior, and phobias.  They cannot "possess" a person, but people who are sensitive to the other realms of life and easily influenced can become the focus of earthbound spirits who wish to use them to have vicarious experiences.  Dr. Carl A. Wickland, a member of the Chicago Medical Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science, and director of the National Psychological Institute of Los Angeles, describes his experience with people afflicted by these influences:

Spirit obsession is a fact – a perversion of a natural law – and is amply demonstrable. This has been proven hundreds of times by causing the supposed insanity or aberration to be temporarily transferred from the victim to a psychic sensitive who is trained for the purpose, and by this method ascertain the cause of the psychosis to be an ignorant or mischievous spirit, whose identity may frequently be verified.⁸

Some mediums have warned that those who are conduits for automatic writing can hear from earthbound spirits:

Both Smith and Rosher [mediums using automatic writing] were warned by their communicators about intruders. "Mother said the misinformation had been written by spirit intruders who were sometimes able to exert more power than she and so could push her aside and take control of the pencil," Smith wrote, further stating that "everyone who dies rebellious is a potential source of mischief."  Burdick warned Rosher that there are spirits on his side "who would try to use you in a wrong way."⁹

Those on the next planes of life do not talk about a devil or demons.  Those mythical creatures developed in religions out of a need to give an identity to the evil and suffering humankind endures, but there never were such creatures.  You can read more about the devil and demons at http://ebook.youreternalself.com/chapter9.htm.

However, they do speak often about "thought regions" where people who were degenerate on Earth are together because of their common attitudes.  And they do indicate that these people are still bent upon impeding humankind's growth to spiritual maturity.  As such, they sometimes use the word "hell" to describe the thought region, but never suggest that it is a place of torture.  That hell with fire and brimstone is a myth. This is an account Mike Tymn had on his always-fascinating and informative blog that contains a deceased's soldier's description of the thought region where some degenerate people remain out of their own choosing:

. . . Private Thomas Dowding, a 37-year-old British soldier, was killed on the battlefield in WWI. On March 12, 1917, he began communicating through the mediumship of Wellesley Tudor Pole. After floundering in the ethers, not even realizing he was dead for a time, as time goes on that side, he was met by his brother, William, who had died three years earlier, and began his orientation.

“Hell is a thought region,” Thomas Dowding communicated on March 17, 1917. “Evil dwells there and works out its purposes. The forces used to hold mankind down in the darkness of ignorance are generated in hell! It is not a place; it is a condition. The human race has created the condition.”¹⁰

This thought region, he explains, "depends for its existence on human thoughts and feelings.”  People are there because they choose to be there, but "Release will come from within some day.”  When any person chooses to mature out of the condition, they rise from it immediately.

People on a higher spiritual plane can materialize on the Earth plane (see Chapter 2 for examples).  Elisabeth Kübler-Ross tells of her experience with Mrs. Schwartz, a patient who had died and appeared to her two years later in fully materialized form.  She had a conversation with her and touched her.  In all respects, Mrs. Schwartz was fully human in form and substance.¹¹  A friend of mine named Mike Thompson had the surprise of having his ex-wife’s uncle suddenly appear in the seat next to him as he was driving.  The uncle spoke to him, then disappeared.  Mike learned several hours later that his ex-wife’s uncle had died at the moment he appeared to Mike.  Such stories are common.

Physical mediums can also enable people from the next plane of life  to materialize using a substance called ectoplasm drawn from the medium’s body.  The medium doesn’t make it happen; instead, it occurs naturally during a séance.  The ectoplasm is attracted to the form of the deceased’s etheric body and envelopes it, with all the feel of the body, including the feel of bones and soft flesh that are not actually present.

Our eternal selves are the assumptions, perspectives, thoughts, feelings, memories, intentions, insights, creativity, revelations, and all other inner processes that make up our minds.  None of these are in matter or energy, the physical realm.  When the person leaves the physical body behind, what is left is the eternal self, the real person.  As a result, the afterlife is a world of thoughts.  There, everything is very real and tangible, but it is a result of a person’s attitude, thoughts, and intentions that create the world.

In this world of thought, people can communicate through speaking, but most communicate through thoughts.  Animals also communicate by thoughts with people. 

Books read themselves to people. When someone wants to read a book, she just needs to focus on the book and the author's thoughts at the time of the book's creation will communicate the book to the person, exactly as the author intended it.  Reading word by word isn’t necessary.

People create using a combination of intention, creativity, and effort, but the effort isn’t like pounding nails.  It takes work, but it is a mental form of work.  When someone wants a new suit or dress, they just have to imagine the type of fabric and someone else will create the fabric using mental images and an effort like work.  They say we won't be able to fully understand the process they describe as well as they can.

Buildings are constructed through thought and effort.  At higher levels of spiritual development, things can come into being by just thinking them into existing, but that is not the preferred way and that is not available at the lower levels of development.  Most people prefer to have the effort involved in bringing the imagined thing into being.

Several on the other side have described working to influence people to experience after-death communication.  One person in the afterlife named Alfred Higgins described both giving a message to his wife directly and to a medium to give to his wife.  You can hear the recording of his séance at http://ebook.youreternalself.com/chapter9.htm.  Soon after his death, he went to his home and found his wife standing in the kitchen peeling potatoes.  She couldn't see him, of course.  He stood close to her and concentrated his thoughts on her, calling her name.  She suddenly dropped the knife she was holding and looked up.  She then burst into tears because she had heard him, but couldn't see that he was standing next to her.

Some time later, he influenced his wife, by thinking, to go to a Spiritualist church.  There, he gave the medium the thought message that he had died as a result of a fall from a ladder to let his wife know the message was for her. The medium got the ladder image, and told those assembled about it.  When the man’s wife responded, the medium misinterpreted the message and suggested it meant she would be ascending upward into new endeavors.  He was frustrated, but kept focusing on the medium. 

He concentrated his thoughts on the medium to have her tell his wife he knew about "the ring," and that it wasn’t the right ring.  While he was still alive, his wife had lost the wedding band he had given to her and she bought a new one identical to it, not telling him she had lost the original.  In the afterlife, he learned what had happened.  He influenced the medium with the message and the medium did get the message correctly.  His wife understood, but was very surprised that he knew about the ring.

Frederic W. H. Myers, a pioneer in psychical research, communicated through a medium named Cummons using automatic writing.  He provided this description of how those on the other side influence the living in automatic writing:

The entity identifying himself as Myers explained the difficulty in communicating by means of automatic writing.  "The inner mind is very difficult to deal with from this side," Cummins recorded.  "We impress it with our message.  We never impress the brain of the medium directly.  That is out of the question.  But the inner mind receives our message and sends it on to the brain. The brain is the mere mechanism.  The inner mind is like soft wax, it receives our thoughts, their whole content, but it must produce the words to clothe it."

Myers went on to explain that success in sending the thought through depends on the inner mind of the automatist [medium doing automatic writing], which must contribute to the body of the message. "In other words, we send the thoughts and the words usually in which they must be framed, but the actual letters or spelling of the words is drawn from the medium's memory.  Sometimes we only send the thoughts and the medium's unconscious mind clothes them in words."

Myers also offered that when discarnate beings want to communicate through a sensitive, they must enter a dream or subjective state which detaches them from the memory of concrete facts in their past lives.  "Further, if we communicate directly through the medium, though we often retain our personality, our manner of speech, we are frequently unable to communicate through the medium's hand.¹²

People in the afterlife who were scientists and artists on Earth explain that they discovered after death that they had been inspired often when they made discoveries or created great works of art while on Earth.  Those on the next planes of existence are greatly interested in inspiring people on the Earth plane and helping them to make discoveries and create beautiful art works.  Some explain that they are looking for promising people to inspire.  It is, in a sense, continuing their work on the Earth plane, although they also are doing their own work in the afterlife.

Those in the afterlife all say there are no churches or religions, although some people still cling to dogma and beliefs from the Earth plane for a while until they grow out of them.  God is at the base of all existence, the power behind all consciousness.  God is pure love that permeates matter, energy, consciousness, and the seen and unseen realms.

There are no "holy scriptures," no rituals, and no dogma among those who have released themselves from the Earth plane's belief systems.  Some people temporarily still cling to the old beliefs, staying in pockets with others who have the same worldviews.  Everyone enters the next plane of life with all the same assumptions and perspectives they had on Earth.  As a result, there are some Christian groups living together there who are sure they’re in a holding pattern waiting for the rapture and their return to a physical existence on the Earth plane.  Some who believed that the spirit sleeps until the resurrection, are "sleeping," although they’re given guidance and inspiration to begin understanding that they’re already in the next stage of their eternal life. 

All of these people with narrow, restricting views eventually grow out of them into freedom and spiritual maturity.  No one stays in these conditions forever.

The fact that people's attitudes and expectations create the reality they're in is one of the reasons people from different faiths see different personages when they have near-death experiences. Some Christians expect to see Jesus, so that is who the guide coming to meet them is. I don't suggest that the figure who greets them isn't really the Jesus they expected to meet, just that a person may be greeted by Jesus because they expect it. If they were Hindu, they might see Yamraj, Hindu king of the dead, when the guides come to help them.  Compassionate, loving people greet everyone.  People carry their beliefs and expectations into the afterlife and those shape the environment in which they find themselves.

Many are very disillusioned with the Christian church, and warn that religious dogma is the greatest obstacle to spiritual growth and the spiritual evolution of humankind.

They also are unhappy with the Spiritualist movement, which they describe as being shallow.  People in the movement, they say, focus on the display of mediumship, rarely going beyond the weekly readings in services to helping people grow spiritually based on the underpinning knowledge that they are spiritual beings having a physical experience.

They emphasize that humankind has no understanding of the power of the Holy Spirit, and if it simply allowed the power of God to manifest itself, humankind would be dramatically changed.

Those in the next planes of eternal life consistently describe reincarnation, not just onto the Earth plane, but into other "spheres" or locations in the universe and other planes of reality.  However, they don't describe a process of reincarnating repeatedly to become released from the necessity of doing so again, as some religions suggest.  Individuals choose to reincarnate in the physical realm for three reasons: to help someone in their Earth life, to serve humanity in general, or to learn life lessons that will help them mature spiritually.  However, they emphasize consistently that the individual makes the choice.  No one is reincarnated repeatedly against his or her will.  We are in charge of our eternal spiritual growth.  And when loved ones make the transition into the afterlife, those who preceded them are still there to greet them—they're not "absent" because they're engaged in another incarnation.

 

Much more about the afterlife is available at http://ebook.youreternalself.com/chapter9.htm.

 

Thanks for reading. I really want this book to help people realize they're eternal beings having a physical experience. Any comments, positive and negative, will help me. Mail to rchogan@youreternalself.com. The book is published in paperback by Greater Reality Publications. Click here to purchase a copy of the book. Thanks. Love and peace, Craig

 

Chapter 9 Endnotes