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The World Beyond exists above and beyond time and place, inside and outside our reality, and takes up no space. Each of us already exists there, and when the time comes for us to leave here, we merely leave our physical body, once and for all, and continue to exist as a unit of consciousness. We already arrived here with that unit of awareness, or spirit mind, and it turned into electro-magnetic energy, which some see as the aura, and grew into the form of the physical body. This is how all matter is formed in the material world, and though the theory of evolution is supported by the research of palaeontologists, astronomers, geologists, astro-physicists, biologists and other scientists, the reality of the eternal nature of the spirit world, beyond the calculated 13.7 billions years of existence of the known universe, can never be fully understood by the mortal human brain and its reasoning powers. Modern scientists, including behavioural psychologists, literally haven't a leg to stand on when they deny the existence of the soul and spirit, since they themselves will find, in the end, beyond death, that they still exist as a unit of consciousness. This series about the Spirit World, however, will not PROVE anything to them, or us, but at least we KNOW the truth of the further existence, if we have had any experience of what lies beyond the physical life, in our dreams and out-of-body experiences and contact with the Other Side. Also, there is a continuous flow of evidence mounting up from psychical researchers, parapsychologists, transpersonal psychologists and researchers into other lives like Michael Newton and Brain L. Weiss.
Because of this non-material and unending existence of the soul or spirit in the spirit world, the descriptions of it which are given in the books and articles reviewed in this series can only be approximations of the reality, using our languages and imagery, which have emerged over time to help us communicate and describe the material reality which we experience, in its own terms.. For a deeper discussion of the non-physical nature of the spirit world, I would recommend the reader to examine “The Unknown Reality” by Jane Roberts, published in two volumes by Prentice-Hall Inc in 1979 and now available through the Sethcenter in New York. Available at that website are all of Jane Roberts’s books, a DVD of Seth speaking, and many cds of the Seth material, his groups and classes and a radio interview with Jane. There is also a dvd of her husband Robert Butts discussing their work together. It is interesting to note that Jane Roberts lived all her life in New York State, first at Saratoga Springs, then in Elmira, less than a hundred miles South of Rochester, the home of Modern Spiritualism. She was also partly of North American Native descent, as are many of our good mediums. I for one think that the materail that she brought over from the World Beyond through the entity known as Seth complements and extends the knowledge we have already received through earlier spirit communications.
It is a pity that the material about the Spirit World is so scattered around the world in so many different languages, some of which is banned or disputed by the various churches. For example, the Catholic Church banned publication of Teilhard de Chardin’s books during his lifetime, even though he was a Jesuit priest. As a palaeontologist and philosopher he continued with the line of reasoning commenced by Descartes in the 17th century, and his study of states of consciousness, and his idea of a global "noosphere" or universal, non-local mind, has partly been materialised in the advent since his death of satellite communications and the internet. Human consciousness still seems to be evolving, but what scientists fail to see is that it is already in touch with the Spirit World, since that is the source of our material universe. However, our knowledge of it is restricted by our current belief systems, which are incomplete, and so tend to materialise our current desires, fads and speculations, rather than the possible world of peace, love and harmony.
Another source of information is the collection of books by medium Chico Xavier in Brazil, the most famous of which about the Spirit World is “Nosso Lar” (Our Home) – which is now available on-line, and which will be reviewed here in a future article. The major world religions might well follow the example of the Church of England, and establish a branch to study the World Beyond, as in its “Churches’ Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies,” founded in the early 1950s.
The British writer Jane Sherwood wrote several books about the afterlife, from communications she had with her husband, an old friend, and from T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia). Here is a review of some passages taken from “The Country Beyond,” published by Neville Spearman, London, in 1969. where her friend is giving his first first impressions of the Spirit World after his passing
After a period of sleep he found himself awaking in the lovely air on a sunny hillside….How the change took place he do not know …. he almost thought at first that he was back in the world again, so happily familiar it all looked to his eyes which were greedy for the light and loveliness. But at last his mind began to assert control. He could think again and before he could find the desire to move or explore the scene he had to try to produce some order in the crowd of impressions and memories he had brought with him.
Above all, he was happy….He was in an ecstasy of love and worship of the whole of which he was a rejoicing part. It seemed a long while since people had played any part in his life. The sense of their presence had faded out of consciousness during a long illness and since its close he had been solitary. He had no desire to find companions and now his eyes were filled with beauty and he could think of nothing but its unearthly joy. As he lay there on the hillside he left behind all sorrowful musing and gave himself up to the sheer rapture of satisfied senses. This was no earthly beauty. There was a light ON things and IN them so that everything proclaimed itself vividly alive. Grass, trees and flowers were so lighted inwardly by their own beauty that the soul breathed in the miracle of perfection. He was utterly content. From all these glorious things there streamed a light of their own. Colour and fragrance were not a tincture of their substance as on earth but were the very life they shed forth upon the lovely air. The air itself had a light in it, a sense of being life in itself and as one breathed it, the last choking fumes of earth were banished from the body’s recollection. He thought of all the hackneyed similies we used on earth – air like wine, and so on, but here they were statements of fact. The air IS wine, the light IS life. The gleams of meaning which substance reflects on earth had become the actual being of things. One perceived them by way of their meaning and saw less by sight than by understanding.
He was almost at a loss to describe the heavens as he saw them from his hillside. The light radiated from no one direction, it was a glowing, universal fact, bathing everything in its soft radiance so that the sharp shadows and dark edges which define objects on earth were missing. Each thing glowed or sparkled with its own light and was lighted as well by the circumambient splendour. The sky, as he looked upward, was like a vast pearl gleaming with opalescent colours. There was a suggestion of unfathomable depths of space as the shimmering colours parted their transparencies to show the infinite abyss.
He was awakened from his absorption by the sound of voices. If the loveliness of tree and flower had held him spellbound his first sight of fellow beings gave him more cause to rejoice. Here was another form of life, a more complex one which also emanated its own lovely qualities in visible rays. These people were more than alive; life streamed from them, palpitating with their emotions, lit and splendid with their joy and waxing and waning with its intensity. Here, again, bodies were not defined by shadows and the ssofter outlines were glorious with the outflowing life. He trembled at their approach and felt like an interloper from a lower sphere. They came towards him, greeted him and reassured him. He had been feeling like a strayed mortal in heaven until they came; now he had to realise that he was one of them and was glad to go with them and learn of them something of the conditions of his new life.
He speedily grew used to his new form. His body had wonderful lightness and resilience and it was as though the thought and desire of motion could move it without any cumbersome machinery of muscular action. This more vital body, so pulsating with life, is quick to respond to thought and emotion. Each passing phase of feeling glowed and pulses through it visibly, irradiating it with colour and meaning. This was the aura It is simply the outgoing life, the emission of life in the form of emotion, true always to its origin in the [spirit] being [or essence]. This self-revealing is unavoidable, automatic. It is present in all living things on earth, as well as here. A long time could be spent telling of the rhythmic patterns of vibrating light and colour which can be seen there, This electro-magnetic phenomenon could be linked up with the theory about the emission of photons of energy in the form of light.
Jane's friend then went on to discuss his social life in the Spirit World. [to be continued].
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