Afterlife Adventures

by William Fergus Martin

  A man who was a Christian Church minister when alive on Earth communicated the following. However, please note his reference to ‘those who sincerely follow Christ’ means those who cultivate the principles of Love and Forgiveness; not a reference to those who follow the doctrines of Christianity as we know it while on the Earth. As mentioned earlier, others follow Christ by a different name.

  “There are many good who, at first, are satisfied with their own conception of the Highest. The idea of Jesus Christ does not at first appeal to them, but later it does. Naturally, people may say that I [having been a Christian Church minister while alive on Earth] am prejudiced. But on consideration of other religions it will be seen that their followers are unlikely to qualify for such high place as those who sincerely follow Christ; because their lives are generally influenced by practices which are neither good nor moral.” — Life Beyond Death

  Some in the Afterlife actively call upon Jesus for help when they are require additional strength or support for work they are doing on earth or in the lower spheres. This help is immediately forthcoming and is very tangible and real to them. They feel it as an in-pouring of power, or a lifting up of some kind, which enables them to perform their task with greater skill, peace and ease.

  “Were I about to engage in difficult work, say a mission of help to those on a lower sphere, I first visualize Our Lord, and draw to myself actual power through consciousness of Him. As you draw strength in prayer, so do we continually draw much greater strength from our realization of Him.” — Life Beyond Death

  When we no longer have the distractions of a physical body and all the entails. We can far more quickly and easily connect with spiritual presences in a real and practical way.

  “Our surroundings aid us in this easier realization of Our Lord. On earth, one was hampered by distractions and anxieties, not always selfish ones, but thoughts and difficulties about others, as well as personal perplexities. But here, where we now are, we can see our way so much more easily and clearly. When I visualize Our Lord there seems to come an actual light, like a search-light or something of that kind, and this shines into my mind, illuminating anything that might have perplexed or seemed difficult to me. And that which I have alluded to as a light comes to me whenever I visualize Our Lord's face, or call to mind his voice or touch. Whenever we do this we seem to attract the light which illuminates every difficulty and everything we have to do.” — Life Beyond Death

  Sometimes visits are possible to the higher spheres where Jesus can be seen and experienced in his full glory of expression. I’ll quote a few examples at length as these could be very valuable to those who want to know more about Jesus and his work in the Afterlife.

  “After arriving there [in a higher sphere] we found ourselves moving with a multitude which converged from all directions towards one point…. And then, we saw Him. When saying, ‘I saw Him’ I am speaking in the same sense as that in which you would use the words if telling me that you had seen some friend in your house. I saw his face, his hair, his form…. Pictures on earth have not described Him very accurately. Or perhaps it is that his spiritual body so far surpasses anything that was possible to his more limited body on earth. It is beauty, and the love of Our Heavenly Father. Words convey but little to you when I say that his features are beautiful. A great majesty, together with great sweetness and humility, radiate from Him, as a light shining through a globe.* - Life Beyond Death

  Here is another example of meeting Jesus that goes more into the insights and perceptions the person had and gives us a glimpse of their inner experience.

  “You might have expected that we should bow, or fall upon our knees. But I did not want to do that, I wanted to look up; the feeling was to lift myself to Him. To kneel, to bow the head, is fitting while on earth. But we felt as the flowers may feel which turn towards the sun, instinctively upward to the sun…

  This experience came to me through Him, through that spiritual body of Our Lord which I was seeing and hearing with my actual senses, in the same way that I see [any person]. I then felt that I was able to symbolize or interpret God in everything around me, and not only there, but even in the things of earth. I felt during those moments as if I understood everything; as if a spirit of life, flowing through Jesus to me, explained even ugliness and sin, as well as beauty and goodness. I felt only hope and ultimate good for everything…

  The trouble on earth is just the lack of this, the absence of a complete realization of God under any and every circumstance. Here we feel that at all times; but on this occasion we realized it in a different way, in a more personal sense.” — Life Beyond Death

  To some Jesus appears in all His Glory radiant with God’s Presence. To others he appears more plainly as a wise elder brother able to walk and talk with them and offer them wisdom, help and guidance. It all depends on the needs of the person and of the situation.

  This message was from a man who was a New Arrival who learns something of The Christ from those guiding him in his new life.

  “Evidently this [Christ] power is wonderful. [My Guide] seemed to love to speak of it; yet he was in awe of it. It clears away illusions as the sun clears away fog. He said I am still living in a fog; a fog of my own creation and design. Well, well! Once I thought I knew a lot. Then I was sure I knew a little. Now I know I know nothing.” – Private Dowding

  This is also from a New Arrival who had a more direct experience of Jesus.

  “I saw that I was not alone, but all around and above were fair and loving forms, some of those whom I had known, others of whom I had heard, while some were [new to me]. But all were friends, and the air was full of love. And in the midst of all was He, my Lord and Savior… He had an admirable look of warm affection, which was as the very breath of life to my soul. He is with us always. This is Heaven - to be with Him. You cannot understand how the consciousness of His presence makes the atmosphere of this world so different from that with you. There are many things I wish I could write to you, but I cannot, nor could you understand them. I can only tell you that He is more than we ever have imagined. He is the Source and Giver of all good gifts. All that we know of what is good and sweet and pure and noble and lovable are but faint reflections of the immensity of the glory that is His. And He loves us with such tender love!” — After Death: Letters from Julia

  Is ‘Sin’ Caused by a Mistake in Identity?

  “You see that the evil which men do lives after them, and it is this evil which is the scourge and punishment of all. We have all sinned, and we have all things to put right, and to undo. But the joy of those who love is to be able to set about doing this, and to know that it can be done. For the mission of Christ was not merely to manifest the Love of God, it was to affirm the salvability of man, the undoing, the recreation, the regeneration of man.” — After Death: Letters from Julia

  From what I can gather from the Afterlife perspective, most of our problems come from being mistaken in who we think we are. We can get caught up in the desires and tendencies, which arise from being in a physical body, and tend to over identify with them. Building an identity around our life on earth and living only from this perspective causes suffering or “sin”. We think of ourselves too much as being the roles we play in order to sustain physical life and to be successful in the world. However, that is not who we really are. Who and what we really are is an aspect of Divinity, our Soul, trying to live through us.

  If someone steals, they are unintentionally making a declaration that they are not worthy enough, capable enough, or have enough energy to obtain what they want in another way. Such is an affront against, or denial of, their Soul. If they look to awaken that Divine Spark, their Soul, and its ability to act with intelligence and creativity, they would be fully capable of obtaining what they need in life without having to steal. Therefore, what makes stealing a ‘sin’ is that it is a lie. It misses the mark and does not express our true nature. It actually denies our true nature instead. In other words, a ‘sin’ is so
mething that denies our Inner Divinity, that Divine Spark within us, and reduces us to something less than our true potential.

  Also, an act of theft would injure the person being stolen from. It would be treating them as someone unworthy of care or even respect. It would be denying the Divinity within them; as it would be treating them as if the Divinity within them did not exist. The fact that they may not believe in the Divinity within themselves either is beside the point. In this case, stealing from them would reinforce whatever lies or illusions they believe about themselves in regards to their apparent lack of worthiness.

  This example would not only be ’sinning’ by stealing; it would be encouraging the ‘victim’ to ‘sin’ in the form of anger, resentment and bitterness. They would likely do so in response to the lie the theft was ‘telling’ them about who they are and what they are worth. If they practice forgiveness, they can rise above the situation, and be on a pathway to discovering our Inner Divinity.

  A ‘sin’ is really something that denies the goodness in ourselves, or in others. It is an act, or even a thought, which turns against goodness and affirms negativity, lack, and darkness instead. We are here to cultivate that goodness within and when we do so, especially in the face of temptation, this strengthens us. Temptation works to help awaken that divine light within us and helps it to be born within us and in the world. It is like rubbing two sticks together produces a flame that can become a fire. As we resist temptation, our consciousness of our divine nature gradually bursts into flame.

  The natural response and attitude of the Divine nature is love - or rather that is the word we are familiar with that most closely matches it. Someone who becomes an embodiment of hatred and cruelty is deliberately and actively going against their own Divine nature and so is a worse ‘sinner’. They are also setting themselves up to have a terrible time in the afterlife. Through the Law of Attraction, they will find themselves in a place with like-minded people - some of whom will be even more cruel than them - who are directly creating their environment with their habitual thoughts. They will try to act out their tendency to cruelty on each other and create an environment to match. Not a pretty picture.

  Who’s Bad?

  Nobody is ever truly fulfilled in being ‘bad’, at least not for long. No one can be fulfilled by a lack of life, lack of light and lack of love - which is what evil is; it is the lack of these things. Even some of the most evil people in history would be offended if you called them ‘evil’ (in fact they would probably do very evil things to anyone who dared too!) as they somehow managed to convince themselves that what they were doing was the ‘right’ thing.

  When we do something ‘bad’, we go against our own long-term happiness. We are being spiritually stupid. Being obsessively interesting in sex, money, or power goes against our own happiness as it limits our sense of who we are to a very small being on a very small planet (sorry Gaia) in a very small part of the universe. It gets us enmeshed in an Earth-centric consciousness and the cost of our greater good.

  “Sin consists in the living without God; that is to say, without love. But the more you think the more you see that love that is selfish is not love, and love that injures its object is not love but cruelty. The love that sacrifices the permanent welfare of the loved one, to the immediate gratification of the pleasure of the moment, is not real love. All love supposes some degree of restraint, and this is true of the Highest as well as of men and women. Restraint that is born of the intelligence that foresees. And real love is the keenest-sighted of all things.” — After Death: Letters from Julia

  Sex, money and power are not the problem; the problem is what we do to get those things. Manipulating another person out of greed or for physical gratification is the real problem. Treating another person with such disregard and disrespect towards their Divine Potential temporarily stops us from being able to experience our own Divine Self because we are disconnected from it. Things which are ‘bad’ or ‘sinful’ are really about us creating a limited and limiting sense of identity and basing our sense of self on something that is transient. Sin is playing small, grasping the trinkets and baubles available on Earth, rather than looking to the bigger picture.

  Will I be able to see Jesus, Buddha or any of the Prophets?

  As far as meeting a prophet or a major figure like Jesus or Buddha is concerned, I have to extrapolate and assume that what is true for those who want to meet Jesus is also true for those who want to meet other spiritual leaders. The goal of all such major figures is to teach the universality of Love and to lead their followers in that direction. Those major figures, like Jesus, are still very active in the Afterlife and so can be seen and heard and, in some cases, even conversed with.

  Much depends on the aspiration of the person concerned. If someone strongly desires a thing, and it will do them genuine good (i.e. it is not just out of curiosity), then such is usually accomplished sooner or later. If someone in the Afterlife earnestly prays to see or meet Jesus, or other spiritual leader, then they get a response in accordance with their quality of prayer.

  As shown earlier, there are accounts of those who see Jesus, for example, regularly and there are those who see him but rarely if at all. There are others who have met him (usually at some crucial moment) and even in the Afterlife have not recognized Him - as they were just not ready yet.

  Prayer

  “We thank each of you for your prayers, in which we, too, joined with you. The power of prayer cannot be too strongly emphasized. It surrounds those who are being born into spirit with a tangible radiance and protection, assisting them greatly. When you pray, it is like switching on a light. You form a connection with the powerhouse of God.” — Letters from Mother

  A father was taking his 7-year-old daughter out on a walk on a hot summer day. The girl spotted a place selling ice cream. What would you think if the girl turned to her father, threw herself down on her knees and pleaded, “I know I am unworthy, wretched and sinful, but please can I have a strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce?” Most of us would find this bizarre. At the very least, you might wonder whether the girl had a terrible and domineering father and whether the girl was developing serious self-esteem problems. Yet, this is effectively how many people pray to God. They feel like they need to abase themselves as if God was capricious, temperamental and likely to turn on them on a whim.

  “Prayer in its highest and most lofty form is neither supplication, entreaty nor praise. It is the intimate communion between a son or daughter and a loving Father.” — Beyond Human Personality

  To understand how prayer is used in the Afterlife, we need to shed any idea that people have to abase themselves in this morbid self-punishing way. Prayer is the act of asking something of our beloved father who we know (or ought to know) loves and cherishes us. Prayer is much more effective when accompanied by a feeling of expectation that it will be met or, if for some reason what we are asking for would not be good for us, something even better will be arranged on our behalf. Prayer should not be said with a feeling of ‘this is probably not going to work’ or ‘I probably don’t deserve anything good’. Prayer needs to have ‘wings’ and this is what a happy sense of expectation provides. That kind of prayer can really fly. Prayer should not be tied to heavy leaden weights of, “I hope you don’t mind me asking” or “I know you don’t usually answer my prayers…” That type of prayer is not likely to go anywhere and has no effect.

  However, when we are praying for something in a selfless way, this gives it added power.

  “I have, during this posthumous period, learnt that the efficacy of prayer is essentially dependent upon the attitude of the soul at the moment, and not upon the actual phrases themselves. The one who would invoke God and lay open their heart to Him, must first purify themselves mentally in the strictest sense. They must be quite sure that there is no alloy of selfishness, no taint of self-interest in the demands or petitions being laid before their Maker.” — Beyond Human Personality

 
In the Afterlife realms, which are very amendable to the power of thought, prayer is particularly effective. What is prayer other than a form of focused and deliberate thought? This deliberate focus, coupled with a reaching towards our creator, attracts spiritual power to the very thing that our mind is focused on.

  Prayer has a very unique and varied role in the Afterlife. This does not mean that everyone there spends their time being all serious and somber. They know that God is completely willing to contribute to making them deeply happy. God is very near and very dear to them. They can feel His Presence easily within themselves and in their environment. Therefore, prayer is natural and spontaneous for them and it is often used to express the heartfelt gratitude they feel as it naturally arises with the wonders and delights they discover in their new life.

  As someone from one of the brighter realms says:

  “Our minds are fully and perpetually conscious of Him, so that we can see His hand and His mind in everything that surrounds us.” — Life Beyond Death

  Also, what makes a big difference is that they can see the effects of prayer. If they want to, they can see the spiritual energy emitting from, say, the Earth, to their realm as prayer and see a descending energy from the higher planes comes back in response. They can then view the effect of this energy coming down to Earth. They also have the advantage that their awareness of the Presence of God gives them a natural faith.

  “For, having a greater awareness of the Holy Spirit, we can the more easily and fitly pass into the Presence and present our plea to God. Now, I use advisedly the term ‘Presence’ for this word is the only one I know of which conveys the suggestion of a pervading nearness.” — Beyond Human Personality

  When the prayer’s energy is directed at the Lower Planes of the Afterlife, which obviously have no physical matter to slow or hinder it, the effects are very obvious and immediate. The material substance of those planes can change right in front of the eyes of the person praying and a way opens up to them, through walls, or obstructions of any kind, to release them to move forward. Not every denizen in the lower levels has freedom of movement and may be constrained by their own attitudes. Prayer can very literally help set them free, but the wanting to be free must at least partly come from them.