The Dead Saints Chronicles: A Zen Journey Through the Christian Afterlife

by David Solomon

The Blue Garden is our Dream Log. When we sleep, whether we remember or not, we attend a non-physical, non-corporeal night school classroom. Every night the soul goes through a process of analyzing and judging its own activities and thoughts. Every incident of the day, every lesson presented and responded to, prepares the ground for future events. Lessons ignored or badly handled will be repeated. As you grow to understand your dreams and get to know yourself, your dreams will grow beyond the symbolic to the real through approaching-death dreams (ADDs), after-death communications (ADCs), Words of Knowledge (psychic/clairvoyant), and prophetic/precognitive revelations.

  The Violet Garden is consecrated to our daily lessons, especially lessons that repeat themselves over and over. Those summoning up powerful emotions are particularly significant. The Dead Saints Chronicles provide a number of examples of significant lessons to be learned.

  The White Garden is the last section of the Spiritual Journal. It is a place at the top of the sacred mountain where we listen to God. We are the student listening to His voice within while watching and heeding His breadcrumbs on the external plane. Of all the Journal Gardens, I feel this section is the most important. We are initiating a daily communication with God who trains our mind to “hear His voice.”

  Recording Coincidences

  My Journal work began in earnest in September 1980, from the very first day I began recording daily entries. There’s a magic in articulating both our deepest thoughts along with the mundane events of the day. Unbelievable things happened. Coincidences went far beyond chance. Communications from God became daily occurrences once I started paying attention. I was recording my own personal journey with God.

  While I had always believed in God nod coincidences and “God’s breadcrumbs,” it became clear to me, once I focused on writing the Chronicles after June 2013, not only did I notice the breadcrumb trail in greater detail, I noticed the number of breadcrumbs increased—almost daily. When do too many coincidences make it more than chance, the rolling of the dice, or hitting the million to one odds of turning a royal flush?

  Are coincidences real? Are we fooling ourselves? Is it the seduction of our all-too-human irrationality?

  Professor Jay Koehler, at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, is a recognized expert on probability. He describes a coincidence as “A striking co-occurrence of events that appears to be meaningfully related, but, in fact, are related only by chance.” A classic example of coincidence would be, you get to thinking about calling somebody you haven’t thought about for years and reach for the phone and-—you know where I’m going with this-—the phone rings, it’s him (or her)!” If we are wise, and taking Professor Koehler’s course, we don’t tell him we were “thinking” about calling just that person seconds earlier… It is difficult for academics to acknowledge there might just be more going on over and above their laws of probability and chance.

  ~Coincidence? Last night, I ran into Ben’s room and said, “Look son, I found proof of God! ‘Dad, what happened?” On Jim Sinclair’s website, the top of the page posted this quote on January 30 2015 at 10:34 am. “There are two mistakes one can make along the path of truth –not going all the way, and not starting. ~Buddha

  …Two hours later, by chance, I downloaded a book on Kindle: The Fall of a Thousand Suns: Comets, Meteors in History. I opened the first page, and on the top was the quote. “There are two mistakes one can make along the path of truth—not going all the way, and not starting. ~Buddha

  I had never seen this quote before, much less twice within a few hours on the same day. So what are the odds of reading Buddha’s quote twice, two hours apart, from two very different sources? Apparently, God’s same day coincidences often happen in 2’s. Another author, Michael Flipp, wrote an entire book about the coincidence of 2’s called, ‘2! Signs and Coincidences from God.’1

  The Divine message? Use the comet impact book and economic collapse prophecies of Jim Sinclair in Book III of the Dead Saints Chronicles, the Armageddon Stones. Perhaps, God was saying, “Don’t give up.” Go the Distance.” How many miracles do you need before you will believe? ~Chronicle 596

  Speaking for myself, a series of astounding coincidences leaves me little choice but to interpret communications from God as real. Scripture says in James 4:8, Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. The “drawing nigh” part (meaning to close in on) are the breadcrumbs God leaves on the trail for us to notice, which means pay attention! It makes us think, “What are the odds of this? What is the probability of that? Is it of Divine origin? Or is it merely the overlapping of a universal mathematics devoid of consciousness? Can it be the Force of Destiny, or just what Statisticians call the “Law of Truly Large Numbers?” The idea is, if you flip a coin long enough, you’ll eventually get ten heads in a row and the universe flips a lot of coins.

  Hearing God’s Voice in Coincidences

  In chapter 6, we discussed getting answers to our questions from God in dreams. In this chapter, we write down the same question, but we watch for answers that appear in the world around us. Are you looking for answers from a booming voice from Heaven, or do you seek to interpret the tapestry laid in the cloth of your life presented to you every day in Earth University? This “still small voice” is referred to in only one place in Scripture—after Elijah’s dramatic victory over the prophets of Baal:

  Then He sent an earthquake and a fire, but His voice was in none of them. After all that, the Lord spoke to Elijah in a still small voice.”2

  In other words, God spoke to Elijah in a whisper—a prompting so quiet Elijah obeyed and didn’t even know why:

  And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? 3

  God’s “still small voice” quietly directs you every day. He delivers hints like a grand crossword puzzle—to fill in the Across and Down clues, but it is up to you to solve it. The more you pay attention to the whispered clues, the louder the “still small voice”—God’s visual breadcrumbs—become.

  I have always prayed to hear God’s voice. When I could not get answers, I sometimes demanded answers—, which believe it or not, when I did, seemed to work, but not in ways I expected. For example, one day in the early 1980’s, I was upset with God because I had prayed for two days and nights to hear God’s voice. I literally wanted to be blinded like Saul by a brilliant Light from Heaven or hear a booming Voice from God.

  Nothing happened.

  In a huff, grabbing only a light blanket and water, I took off out the back door of Hearthfire and began hiking two miles towards the base of the mountain nearby, and began the arduous 2000-foot climb towards the summit. I didn’t tell anyone I had taken off by myself. As a former Order of the Arrow Boy Scout and Patrol Leader, I should have known better. I wasn’t too concerned about snakes, but the Allegany mountains were chock full of black bears. The danger I courted didn’t even enter my mind. I was determined to force God to give me an answer. After spending a couple of hours climbing, the sun had gone down and it was quickly getting dark.

  I found a large granite boulder jutting out from the side of the mountain, laid out the blanket, and after an hour fidgeting, I fell asleep. I woke up with the first light of dawn. During the night, I received no dreams, no booming Voice from God, no blinding light, nothing—except for a red fox eying me twenty feet away.

  Thank God, it wasn’t a black bear! In some cultures, the fox symbolizes a wise and noble creature that delivers a message from beyond the veil from Spirit. Still, the fox was no blinding Light. It was not the booming Voice or a brilliant Light I was hoping for, BUT I AM SURE from God’s point of view IT WAS EXACTLY THAT. I am not so dense I didn’t recognize that the fox was a not-so-subtle message from God saying, “David, I see you. I hear you.”

  The Lord is always leaving a still, s
mall voice of breadcrumbs and God nod’s. Victor describes his experience:

  After making God cry [and I say that in good humor], my life was shown to me in the form of a long road...and it didn’t look like a road I’d choose to travel [though I knew I HAD chosen the road]. I saw many of the different places I’d live and people I’d know. Jobs. Experiences. Too much sadness. I didn’t want it. But God just kept gently showing me that I was going back. And, way down the road, late in my life, it seemed the trip would become more enjoyable. God told me to stay true, “follow the clues” and all would be well.4

  Statisticians rule out meaningful, God-oriented coincidences. They will never admit to a divine blueprint that brings people, places, and events magically together in a meaningful way. But who anointed the statisticians the rule makers anyway? I believe spiritual people should regard significant coincidences as messages from the Divine. To hear God, usually—but not always—we must believe there is a Higher Power and be willing to listen. The clues are always there, for God is always speaking to us. God speaks when you see a dove sitting on a windowsill, experience an unexpected meeting, receive a call

  answering a prayer, see a word or phrase you prayed for when you asked God for a sign, hear a long forgotten song with a message, or encounter impossible situations that give you goosebumps. You know it’s not a coincidence. There’s a gut feeling. You know God is speaking to you.

  Recording Rubik’s Cube Lessons

  The Dead Saints record a very interesting description of how the soul learns our lessons on Earth.

  Mary was visiting her dying grandmother a few hours before her own scheduled surgery and was shocked to see how bad her grandma looked. After a short talk with her, Mary had to leave and admit herself for pre-surgical care because the surgeon had to run antibiotics for an hour directly into her blood stream before the surgery.

  At this point, she was anxious about her surgery and worried about her Grandma. Time seemed to slow down. Eventually Mary was rolled in for her operation and given anesthesia. Mary found herself out of her body and heard her grandmother’s voice. Within a few seconds, she saw her grandmother sitting on the edge of the bed, but instead of her grandmother having an amputated leg, during her near-death experience her grandmother still had both legs. She noticed her hair was thicker and blacker than it had been in the last five or six years, and if she had to guess, she looked like she was in her 40’s or possibly 50’s. Mary continues describing her conversation with her grandmother during her NDE:

  [Grandmother] proceeded to tell me she was doing great, but her body was dead. [Grandma had died during Mary’s operation] She also stressed she had limited time with her so basically she was told to “listen up.” Mary’s grandmother stated an “all knowing” entered her when her spirit passed out of the body. And, to help her with grieving she was going to give Mary as much information as she felt she could understand, in as much time as she was allowed. Mary did not remember it all, and for fear of being ridiculed, several years passed before she dared talk about it. Here is what her grandmother told her about her experiences during her NDE:

  She likened the soul to a ‘puzzle cube.’ I believe she meant a rubric cube. The cube was the whole soul. Each side was a section of our soul. Each space was a learning experience required for each section of the soul. As she explained it, each section of the soul touched a different dimension, and would continue returning to that dimension until all the spaces of learning were completed. Then that dimensional level would not repeat, and your soul would work on the next section.

  Each soul yearns to learn and complete its lessons. Once the “puzzle” of the soul was completed, your whole spirit would remain intact with all the knowledge it collected. [The soul] would not have to return to a vessel and would live in the presence of God forever. It is so much information I can’t remember all she said at this time, but I will say she alluded to the fact there were other ‘vessels’ of learning for our soul other than those here on Earth. The other striking comment [she made] was that she was in contact with my core soul and I would from time to time feel her presence because our ‘learning’ portion of our soul is connected to the ‘core’ soul.5

  In my research for the Dead Saints Chronicles, this is one of the most remarkable messages. Grandma dies while Mary is having an NDE on the operation table, and gives her a unique point of view about the compartmentalized lessons of the soul. She is told these lessons can be completed in other worlds and in other dimensions, and her ‘core soul’ too, would be in touch with her granddaughter from time to time.

  The important lesson we should take to heart and not forget in this Afterlife communication is this: Grandma knew she had only a short time to communicate the knowledge she had received upon her death (which we know was permanent) before moving “on” to the Kingdom of Heaven. This particular experience demonstrates there are laws of communication between the living and the dead—a sort of “Afterlife non-interference” rule which shows up from time to time throughout the Chronicles.

  Moving from Victim to Cause

  The Spiritual Journal records the lessons God presents to us every day and to what end? Many of us believe the way we act and think and who we are today, are largely due to external influences; parents, geography, poverty, wealth, IQ, health, or even acts of God. “I am the way I am because of my parents, etc.” “I will never get an education. My parents were poor. I don’t have good grades. I am not that smart. I am ugly. I am unlovable. I am a burden. I am a failure. I can’t do this because...” We use excuses all the time as to why we cannot or do not succeed and this plays out in every area of our lives.

  We have been taught to be victims of circumstance, instead of becoming a cause for change in our lives. We do not take responsibility for the thoughts we think, and because we believe we are victims, we do not change. We use guilt and remorse as excuses and point to our failures as evidence. We do this with ourselves, with others, and with God. And sadly, most of us think this way until the moment we die.

  So, we ask, to what end? If we are to make a change in our lives, and recognize the mistakes we are making, we must become conscious of what we are thinking and doing. The Spiritual Journal helps us become aware through the art of reflection and observation, our self-talk—what we say to ourselves every day. It records what we see and hear and helps us to correlate what is real and what is illusion: What is victim thinking and what is cause thinking; to see repeating patterns of action and thought that do not work for us. To see what helps us grow and become better people. To care about God, others, and ourselves in an organized manner through the act of writing with ink and pen or keyboard. [For more detailed information about the spiritual journal, please read Mary Elizabeth Marlow’s, Spiritual Journaling, to be released, Spring 2016. See also www.maryelizabethmarlow.com]

  According to the Dead Saints, every thought and action builds a garden in your heart and mind on Earth University, and is reflected like a mirror in a garden you build in Heaven. The journal then becomes a record of our apprenticeship in the garden—what we have learned, and its flowering grandeur reflected in Heaven, seen by God and angels in all its glory at the end of our lives.

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  Endnotes

  1 Michael Flipp 2012. 2! Signs and Coincidences from God. Amazon Digital Services, LLC.

  2 1 Kings 19:12

  3 1 Kings 19:13

  4 V’s NDE, #1866, 03.07.09, NDERF.org

  5 Mary R’s ADC (After Death Communication), #833, 04.23.06, NDERF.org

  — 9 —

  The Life Review

  ~DREAM: After seeing yesterday the musical, A Christmas Carol, performed at the Virginia Beach Arts Center, I dreamed the following night of three teenagers following me; a girl named Michelle, a tall oriental man, and pretty black girl who looked like Whoopi Goldberg (she was happy and funny). They were following me because they were hungry. I gave in and tol
d them I would feed them all Kentucky Fried Chicken. I somehow knew they represented my past, my present, and my possible future. They followed me into the house and began doing a comedy routine over and over. I told them it was getting a little irritating, “You’ve got to change up your act, otherwise, nobody is going to listen to you.”

  I followed the tall, oriental man into my kitchen, and he stopped to face me. Looking deeply into his eyes, I could see some scaly features to his face, like I get from my chemo and prednisone. Suddenly, he put his hand on top of my head near my brain tumor and began healing me. I could feel the warmth and power of his prayer, and a very real presence of God entered the room. We both were in tears and I looked at him and said, “Why haven’t you given your heart completely to God? All you have to do is ask and His presence will enter your heart. He stared at me for a moment and then said, “I am not ready. I still want to play.” ~Chronicle 908

  NDERF, in a recent study reported almost 23 percent of Dead Saints surveyed had a review of their lives before returning to the body. What did they learn from their dramatic experience, and what can we learn by beginning the Life Review process in our own Journal work—before we die on the operating table, or in a car accident, or by a terminal illness or sudden event which does not afford an option to return to life and make amends for our negative actions and thoughts.

  Paying attention to God’s breadcrumbs—our daily lessons and dreams, interpreting and applying what we have learned about ourselves, and making changes in habits of love, forgiveness and communication—gives us the opportunity to change the direction we are headed before we die.

  If our daily walk through Earth University is (insofar as possible and practical) devoted to becoming conscious of our thoughts, actions, and emotions, we will be creating the essential conditions for experiencing the celestial realms with their eternal gardens…an opportunity we will all confront soon enough. I hope my own example, as well as the testimonials of the thousands of Dead Saints provide readers with that perspective before you shed your mortal coil and take on the Body of Light.