The ancient ones, are men and women who had been chosen, from the beginning, before the creation of this world, in the counsel of Heaven to be servants of our heavenly Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ, during the lifetime they chose to be upon this Earth. The ancient ones are the prophets, teachers, apostles and leaders of old and the not so distant past. Yes, as I just mentioned, I was guided to the tunnel of Light by my guardian angels. What is really amazing about our guardian angels is we choose them. I also came to realize one of the things we know, from pre-existence, is we will have our guardian angels that will work with the Holy Ghost to lead and guide us. We don’t always listen, but they are there still the same. As I mentioned, we choose them, and they us.16
Heavenly Angels
Humanity has encountered angels since the beginning of time. Taken from the Greek, angelos, meaning messenger, the Bible records over three hundred angelic references. They are spiritual beings of heavenly residence, employed by God as the ministers of His will. The Dead Saints describe many types of these angels during their heavenly journeys. The following excerpt from Bobby describes a fascinating account about these heavenly beings:
Next, I was at the top of an assembly, similar to an arena. There stood the choir of angels. I was so very excited. The sound was loud and beautiful. I can still hear it in my head, though it cannot be described with words in my vocabulary. The music was like incredible streams of notes and chords that cannot be heard by the human ear. The appearance of the angels was hard to describe because they barely had shape to them and their bodies did not look like human bodies. There was a very vague line that defined their substance, almost like pillars of energy contained by a thin line of light. I don’t recall distinguishing features like noses, hair, or anything else like what humans have. However, the angelic mouths were soft o’s as they emitted beautiful music. Their eyes had no definitive description of color but they did look identical to each other. Their eyes all gazed at the center of this stage where this bright Light shined. This was GOD. The choir lined left to right and for as far as the eye could see.
I remember someone else to my right, a guide perhaps? It was male. I say this based on the feeling and understanding that it was male. I recall being extremely excited and in awe. I said something to the effect of, ‘Do I get to sing too?’ and the guide saying, ‘Oh, no. You cannot sing with them.’
I said, ‘Their eyes! Look at their eyes!’ I seemed to be trying to get their attention, but the guide lovingly said, ‘Yes. They NEVER take their eyes off HIM.’
‘Never?’ I asked.
‘Never,’ he replied.17
Many Dead Saints describe great halls and libraries in Heaven where angels keep track of everything happening on Earth: births, deaths, animals, plants, water, and scientific advances people are making. Siobhan was catapulted through a white tunnel and found himself in one of these great halls that looked like the Parthenon in Athens, Greece:
I went inside and saw the beautiful, white marble flooring. I went down a long hallway and there was a room with thousands of scrolls. I pulled one out to read it. It was writing that I’ve never seen before. Then the writing disappeared in front of me. I then looked over my shoulder and there was a man standing in the doorway with a stern look on his face! I got scared and took off running. That’s the last thing I remember. I woke up in the hospital in a lot of pain. I was getting zapped with a defibrillator.18
The City of God
Jean describes her visit to the City of God in 1981. She woke up lying in her hospital bed, unable to breathe. Every joint in her body was in excruciating pain. Jean knew she was in trouble. In the days that followed, her heart stopped beating four times. During this time, she had experienced an amazing journey to Heaven:
I found myself in a city and was told this was the City of God. I was shown other parts of the city as well...where souls were working with people on Earth...scientists, the arts, and more. There is always a push there to “inspire” those on Earth to create beneficial things for mankind in every area. There was so much more too. But, more than anything this place was filled with love...love of mankind, love of everyone on Earth, and of the Earth itself. Communications were transparent there. Thoughts shared as in a conversation here. The people I saw were all working happily so and in great joy.
This city had many different places, all geared to a different need. There was a place of rest where souls could recover from traumatic lives on Earth. There were working places where souls could help mankind and others grow and be more. There were libraries and theaters and schools. And there was also the Temple of God. I was taken into this large hall and before me were beings of pure Light. One was sitting directly in front of me on a chair or throne. These beings did not have human shape but were more like pure energy of Light. I found myself prostrating before them in awe. The love that emanated from them, particularly the one in the center, was overwhelming. I definitely did not feel their equal, but did feel this great, great honor to be there. I was embraced by this entity in the center and told, ‘You have done well, my Child, and I am pleased.’ The love that came flowing through me and the approval made me weep.
Was this God? Was this the ultimate? I really don’t know. I just know I was and am so much less than this Being and those who were nearby. Yet, the love was so wondrous to have too. I found myself, upon returning wanting to just be worthy of that love.19
In closing this chapter about Heaven, even the visions of the Dead Saints and those of Scripture likely pale in comparison to the real majesty of these mystical celestial realms. According to the Dead Saints, the Kingdom of Heaven is not a gated community. Heaven is like “a kid opening Christmas presents multiplied by millions,” says one Dead Saint.20 No peeking!
—
Endnotes
1Teri R NDE, #2301, 08.10.10, NDERF.org
2Dannion Brinkley with Paul Perry 1994. Saved by the Light. New York: Villard Books. p. 10.
3Robert N NDE’s, #3337, 01.05.16 & 05.05.13, NDERF.org
4Robert N NDE’s, #3337, 01.05.16 & 05.05.13, NDERF.org
5Emanuel Swedenborg 2012. Heaven & Hell. USA: Swedenborg Foundation Press. p. 280.
6Barbara W NDE, #2855, 10.15.11, NDERF.org
7James L. Garlow and Keith Wall 2010. Encountering Heaven and the Afterlife. Bloomington, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers. pp.156-157.
8Ana Celicia G NDE, #3891, 02.25.15, NDERF.org
9Linda G NDE, #1653, 07.20.08, NDERF.org
10Mary R NDE, #1716, 10.12.08, NDERF.org
11Rev. Dr. Robert J NDE, #3915, 03.18.15, NDERF.org
12Robert N NDE’s. #3337, 01.05.16 & 05.05.13, NDERF.org
13Cristeal B NDE, #3131, 09.02.12, NDERF.org
14Corey L NDE, #3293, 03.14.13, NDERF.org
15Ron K’s NDE, #724, 12.04.05, NDERF.org
16William C’s NDE, #119, 04.29.02, NDERF.org
17Bobby HR NDE, #3932, 04.23.15, NDERF.org
18Siobhan B Probable NDE, #3980, 07.26.15, NDERF.org
19Jean R’s NDE, #2932, 01.18.12, NDERF. org
20Anthony A NDE, #3264, 02.09.13, NDERF.org
— 18 —
Ghosts, Apparitions & Earthbound Spirits
Dream: I saw two homeless men on a city street sidewalk attempting to suck water from a potted plant through ½-inch straws. The dirt they were trying to draw water from was bone dry. In the next scene in the dream, I saw the same two men in a conference room full of people going through the same routine, attempting to suck water through large straws from the same, bone-dry potted plant. Shocked, I asked the taller man ‘Can I get you some water?’ He nodded yes.
I filled a glass pitcher of clear water and poured it into a cranberry juice glass bottle I thought was empty. No matter how much I emptied the cranberry juice bottle, when I poured the clear water, it colored the water a red cranberry
juice color. Handing him the juice bottle, it became apparent to everyone in the room, he was not a destitute homeless man at all. Like a veil falling away, he revealed Himself to be a King. I wondered, ‘How could someone so great become a beggar?’ Then I began to cry realizing He was Christ in disguise. ~Chronicle 927
This is a subject of perennial interest to many people on many levels—from the merely curious to cheap—thrill seekers to avid debunkers (posing as “scientific” researchers) to serious researchers looking into paranormal phenomena and genuinely spiritual realms.
Over the centuries myriads of books have been written on the subject of ghosts, Earthbound spirits and all manner of strange, disembodied phenomena. However, from the perspective of the Dead Saints, none has been written. Given their frequent encounters with such spectral apparitions in their life-altering journeys into the Afterlife, it is perhaps they more than others who are best qualified to speak with authority on the matter.
The Internet has made it possible for the first time to systematically collect, collate and explore large numbers of NDE testimonies looking for commonalities regarding the subject. Earlier investigations, however well-intentioned and intelligently devised, were hampered by the subjectivity of both the data and the providers of the data, along with its unavoidable unrepeatable nature. It was next to impossible to establish verifiable connections. Now, the Dead Saint testimonies take much of the guesswork out of the study. A common event links them all: all have died, (most can provide medical records to prove it); all have returned to life from the dead with their individual stories out of which come common themes, one of which concerns ghosts, apparitions and Earthbound spirits.
It is not so much the conclusions reached are very original. Rather, they re-inforce and elaborate upon very ancient teachings, including the spiritual guidelines laid down in nearly every religion, warning us like a parent admonishing a child, not to dabble with summoning up spirits in the Afterlife. For when we do so, we play with a fire we do not understand. The advice of religion has always been to seek God within for answers. If God, then, wants to send a spirit, or grandfather Tom, or an angel to communicate with us directly or in a dream, then and only then, is that acceptable.
The Dead Saints confirm that the ghostly entities they so often encounter in the Afterlife are indeed lost souls who never reach Death’s Grand Central Station to prepare for the Life Review and Judgment—so they can move on. It is complicated. What we see, in our normal state, in the spiritual dimension is only the tip of the iceberg. We are playing in a very big universe with “powers and principalities”1 we are only beginning to understand. It behooves us to beware.
Meanwhile, modern science, with no such qualms, tries an end run around the priests and psychics, attempting to communicate with spirits using electronic equipment to detect changes in magnetic, infrared, and room temperature when “spirits” are present. The SyFy channel’s popular “Ghost Hunters” has produced convincing data regarding the existence of ghosts using sensitive equipment to detect (and sometimes literally “see” or “hear”) ghosts.
All across America, amateur investigative teams are creeping through people’s homes at night, trying to rid them of paranormal pests. Bill Wilkens, who created paranormalsocieties.com, a national online database of ghost-hunting teams across the United States, says ٤,٤١٣ ghost-hunting teams are registered on his site, and ٢٠٠ more have asked to be added.
John Zaffis, a paranormal investigator for ٣٨ years (dubbed the «Godfather of the Paranormal») who hosts the television show Haunted Collector claims he’s been attacked by hostile entities.
“I’ve been scratched, I’ve been burned. I’ve seen people levitate. I’ve seen people’s eyes change, and I’ve seen people thrown around,” he says. “That changes how you look at things.” Noah Voss, a paranormal investigator for 25 years who sells ghost-hunting equipment at GetGhostGear.com, says the job requires not just nerve, but sensitivity as well. People share experiences with him they don’t reveal even to their spouses.
Stephen LaChance, founder of the Missouri Paranormal Research and an “extreme” haunting specialist says, “Novice teams will try to provoke spirits, and the next thing you know these things follow them home,” he says. “About two years ago, we had more investigative teams calling us to help them than individual families. It was crazy.” LaChance talks about his work as if were a ministry and sees their work as a way to help people in distress.
What is not made clear to their mass audiences is how dangerous this work can be. That the release of the movie ‘Ouija’ is pitched to naive teenagers on the premise that contacting the dead through “Ouija Boards” or devices that can digitally record the voices of the dead, is “fun,” disturbs me. It opens the uninitiated, untrained, and unprotected to spirits who are, at the least, no more evolved than those who summon them up and who are often spiteful and angry. What is promoted as “fun,” could (and has) led to a number of dangerous situations – such as possession, spiritual attack, a haunted home.
There is a good reason a veil separates the living from the dead and separates the first Realms of Light from darkness in Earth University.
Superimposed Existence
The Dead Saints suggest the lower realms hold many mysteries. Dr. Ritchie describes in his book, My Life after Dying, how he went with the Son of God who revealed how the physical reality of the Earth is superimposed within dimensions of the “astral plane.” According to Ritchie, these beings are not typically aware of our existence, just as we are not aware of them, including their structures and cities. He says beings there segregate themselves into “neighborhoods”
according to “ethnic and moral” standards just as we do here on Earth. Birds of a feather stick together—because as he says, “It is too threatening to be with beings with whom you know disagree with you.”2
Superimposed Astral/Earth dynamics are further revealed during a June 2015 interview I had with Margaret. During her NDE as a young toddler, she conveyed to me one distinct memory of how unseen beings co-exist on Earth:
I was on the brink of death. My family members (who were practicing Roman Catholics) had the village pastor perform final rites (called Extreme Unction at the time; now known as “Anointing of the Sick”). I experienced an initial period of darkness. I assume this was when I first fell unconscious…At some point I became aware there were two beings in the room with me. Although they seemed very solid, to my young self, they were VERY tall and appeared to be made of almost transparent pure white energy. They caressed me, and one sat with me at all times on the side of my bed while the other stationed himself beside the door to my room like a guard. I was aware at all times of both the ‘real’ world and the plane the beings of Light inhabited. In fact, the two worlds seemed to be super-imposed on one another. At times, I could see my parents in the room with the priest and he would sit on the chair right on top of one of my guardians. This astonished and upset my young self by its ignorance and rudeness, and from that time I developed a dislike and distrust of him and authority (especially religious authorities) that I have not been able to shake.3
How these “astral” planes border the Realms of Heaven is an open investigation. From Dead Saint descriptions, these realms are diverse and multi-dimensional—all the way ‘up’ to the City of God.
Are Ghosts Real?
Henry had one question that was answered during his NDE. He asked, “Are ghosts real?” The answer he was given:
Yes, in the human body there are two forms of spiritual being. One is the “soul” which is the spiritual being that has a symbiotic relationship with the physical body. The second is the being created by the “biology” of the human body. This Being is intelligent and is basically the personality of the individual. Its purpose is to provide for the human needs of food, hunger, survival, and procreation. This concept is very similar to Freud’s “Id, Ego and Superego,” the division of mind and
personality. The soul provides us with all the things of the individual that separates us from the Animal Kingdom. This is the ability to reason, use logic, or feel awe when seeing a sunset. The soul is the creative side of humankind. The second being is more our animal side and drives us to accomplish or pursue things to satisfy our needs and wants.
When we die, the soul separates and proceeds to the other side (Forgive me for simplifying everything). The entity of the body also dies taking with it the strong emotions, “baggage,” and drives of human beings. This is a natural part of the dying process. However, sometimes under violent or sudden death this other/being, for lack of a better word, doesn’t have a chance to die. Instead, it remains behind as the drive, emotions, and motivation of our spirit. This body being, without the guidance of the soul is basically just a shell. It wanders about with no goals or purpose.
It often repeats acts it has done before because memories are the only “guidance” it has. In time, this being’s energy dissipates and nothing is left. But that process can take a long time. Hence, we have a “ghost” that haunts a house or person. A ghost has the center of its existence when it was with its human body and soul. Here on Earth it remains until it eventually vanishes. The ghost can be communicated with and guided, yet has no real will of its own, but only that of habit.4
Hafer noticed shadows of people walking like Zombies without purpose, a description indicative of ghosts:
I sensed I was in some kind of cave or dark tunnel, and towards the back a small Light appeared that grew larger to the degree my own light grew. It got nearer, as if it were a reflection of where I should go. In the darkness there were many shadows of people around me walking without feeling or purpose. (Like Zombies) I saw on my right a being who didn’t show me his face and I thought it was my dead Grandfather because of the suit of English cashmere, his cane and hat, he wore when he was alive. He indicated to me that I shouldn’t try to speak with those people because they would pay me no mind. They were in their own unconscious dream walking like robots. This made me sad and feel compassionate towards them. I decided to continue on my way towards the Light at the back of the tunnel and came out upon a very beautiful little beach where there were many ranges of colors I have not seen on Earth.5
The Dead Saints Chronicles: A Zen Journey Through the Christian Afterlife Page 29