The Book 4th Edition

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28. What happens when we die?

“There is nothing more important, as critical, as significant and vital as accepting that communicating with afterlife entities is the greatest discovery in human history.”

Sources

Just some of the voluminous sources on which this study is based include: Silver Birch (Ortzen 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991), Arthur Findlay, White Eagle (Grace Cook), Anthony Borgia, Lord Dowding, Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Leslie Flint, Ivan Cooke, George Meek, Dr Carl Wickland, Sir William Crookes, Dr Robert Crookall, Sir William Barrett, the Rev. C Drayton Thomas, Geraldine Cummins, FWD Myers, Raymond Bayliss, Arthur Ford, Johannes Greber, George Anderson, Charles Hapgood, Dr Maurice Rawlings, Allan Kardec, Emmanuel, Dr Ian Stevenson, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Martin Ebon, Robert James Lees, Ruth Montgomery, Stainton Moses, Ursula Roberts, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Jane Roberts, Helen Greaves, The Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, Professor James Hyslop, Mark Macy, The American Association for EVP, Edith Fiore, Dr Raymond Moody, Edward C. Randall (N. Riley Heagerty) Joe McMoneagle.

Once you are on this planet Earth, it is extremely important to know what is going to happen to you when you die. But how can you find out?

Whilst I respect your religious beliefs, what you will read on this site has nothing to do with religion. It is based on information gathered by hundreds of courageous open minded investigators over the last hundred and fifty years who used careful empirical observation and analysis.

Why does the empirical information have more authority than the descriptions of the afterlife given by the Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist and other religions?

First, beliefs about the afterlife in religions that rely on a "holy book" were written down by people who lived some two thousand or more years ago. One big problem is that the original Biblical documents do NOT exist anymore. We have copies of copies which we know have been changed a number of times over the centuries and therefore we can only analyze what we have to-day. Historians and Biblical experts agree that what information from the ancient texts we have to day is just unreliable.

We do not have to blindly accept what some unknown people wrote two thousand years ago based upon their personal psychic experiences and their beliefs.

Would it not be reasonable to investigate who these people were, where they came from, the extent of their learning and experience, their character, their beliefs, their motivation, who asked them to write, their intentions in writing and on what basis they stated the things they stated? But we can never answer these questions.

Those who do want to believe what was written over two thousand years ago by people about whom we know nothing have to balance those beliefs against the documented experiences of millions of people recorded using strict empirical methods in modern psychic science. For example those who want to believe that the dead lie in unawareness until the sounding of the trumpet on the day of judgment have to balance that belief against the experience of millions who have seen and spoken to their loved ones after their death.

Not too many people in the world to-day accept that some people will be punished in ‘hell for eternity’ in the afterlife. But some religions still teach that.
So why should you accept the empirical explanation as to what is going to happen to you when you die and the conditions that exist in the afterlife when you inevitably cross over?

The need for objective information

Note carefully: all knowledge/information can basically be divided into that which is scientific (or empirical= using scientific method to validate or to measure phenomena) on the one side and the unreliable subjective beliefs on the other side.

Another way of saying this is that science is ‘objective’ – i.e. science has the substance to be independently substantiated - and all beliefs are ‘subjective’ – beliefs do NOT have the substance to be independently substantiated and are regarded as personal beliefs. One most important problem with all beliefs is that anything subjective, i.e. all religious beliefs are themselves subject to complete invalidation.

The advantage of anything scientific or empirical is that given any empirical formula or principle, it can be repeated over time and space and keeping variables constant obtains the same results. That is powerful and that is irrefutable. For example, 5+7=12. Where one can predict with accuracy by way of repeating the same formula using scientific method and obtaining the same results, it would be impossible to show that the formula is wrong.

It will follow that whenever there is an inconsistency between science (the empirical) and beliefs, inevitably, science (the empirical) prevails and will ALWAYS prevail. It can never be any other way.

I cite the Galileo case where world theologians in his day – some three hundred and fifty years ago citing the Bible has authority stated that the earth is in the center of the universe. Galileo, as we know, stated that science tells us that the earth revolves around the sun – not the other way around. The Church eventually had to accept that science prevailed over the Bible and over theology.
Accordingly, to-day the empirical explanation prevails over the subjective religious beliefs about what happens to us when we die.

The consequences of the afterlife are enormous. The more you get to know about the afterlife conditions, the easier your transition will be. There is one universal agreement in this world: we ALL have to make the journey, we all have to cross over.

Where can we get empirical information?

There are at least seven major areas of modern evidence for what happens when you die.

First, there are Near-Death Experiences or NDEs.

Second, there are out-of-body journeys and the experiences of shamans and remote viewers.

Third, there is direct experience through apparitions, clairvoyance, clairaudience and deathbed visions.

Fourth, there are revelations through other than conscious states of awareness such as hypnosis, dreams and holotropic states (The word Holotropic is from the Greek Holos meaning whole and Trepein meaning moving or oriented towards. It relates to a powerful method of self-exploration, personal transformation, and healing created by Christina and Stanislav Grof, MD ).

Fifth, there are revelations through mediums from loved ones who have died.

Sixth, there are revelations through electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and instrumental trans-communication.

Seventh, there are revelations through mediums, channellers and automatic writers from spirit teachers of high degree.

These kinds of direct experiences of a psychic nature have led people of every culture that ever existed to understand that life continues after physical death. In every culture they have formed the basis of religious beliefs.

Since the end of the nineteenth century however a body of scientists in England and America have set out to investigate such experiences systematically using empirical methods and to reach conclusions which are based on sound research based on repeatable observations, thus taking the study of the afterlife out of the province of “religion” and into the realm of psychic science.

Over the last sixteen years I have researched hundreds of the most highly credible sources I could find. I was particularly interested in the investigations of researchers who were highly qualified, highly trained observers such as scientists, doctors, engineers, lawyers and judges who were of impeccable character and who had more to lose than gain from putting their credibility on the line.

In the case of revelations through mediums I wanted to know about the character and motivations of the medium, whether that medium had been able to produce empirically verified survival evidence before a number of credible investigators and whether those investigators had established over a long period of years a consistent relationship with the communicating entities.

I was particularly impressed by the work of several other investigators had already done the same thing.

Dr Robert Crookall

The great scientist Dr Robert Crookall, DSC. PhD, undertook a systematic study of hundreds of such communications from the afterlife obtained through many of the above avenues and published the results in his book The Supreme Adventure (1961).

His work is considered 'scientific' in that it painstakingly and objectively examines the evidence, it is internally coherent and it provides hypotheses consistent with a great mass of factual evidence.

Crookall was amazed at the consistency of the evidence coming from all over the world. Communications from every country — from Brazil, from England, from South Africa, from Tibet from Europe, from India and from Australia are all consistent. He was also amazed that they were identical with the beliefs held by the natives of the Hawaiian Islands, cut off from other civilizations for years prior to their 'discovery' by Captain Cook in 1788.

He was also amazed at the consistency of the evidence given by people who had Out of Body Experiences, Near-Death Experiences and the communications of high level mediums.

Crookall was a member of the Churches' Fellowship for Psychical Study which came into being in England to allow those who had personal experiences of a psychic and spiritual nature to share them and to examine them in the light of traditional church teachings on the afterlife.

The preface to his book was written by a former Chief Justice of the British High Court who concluded that: “It behoves every ordained Minister in the land to use it”.

Arthur Findlay

Another brilliant and highly respected investigator was Arthur Findlay, practical businessman, a successful stockbroker, who approached the task of psychic investigation with a cool and rational mind. For five years he undertook a special investigation with John Sloan, one of the most gifted direct voice mediums of all time. As he puts it:

I have created conditions so as to make fraud and impersonation impossible, and, by persistent enquiry have obtained information about the Etheric World, its inhabitants and how communication takes place which should satisfy the average individual...I have dealt with hard facts all my life. I have required a knowledge of economics and mathematics in my business life, and, outside of this, my special interest has been in physics. I have therefore approached this subject in a matter-of-fact way, and have obtained information which makes the phenomena, to my unbiased person, both reasonable and natural.

The last fifteen years has led to an unprecedented explosion of knowledge about and interest in the afterlife and in other than conscious ways of knowing. The Internet has made the sharing of such knowledge much easier and has further taken it out of the restrictive confines of "religion" where observation has been mixed with "beliefs" and rituals. It is now possible for ordinary people to record and share their experiences and to contribute to the exponential accumulation of knowledge without the restriction of dogmas. An excellent example of this is the knowledge that has emerged from the study of near-death experiences—see Kevin Williams’ wonderful site www.neardeath.com

At a time when quantum physics is leading us to question the nature of existence and physicists are writing of alternate realities and of the creative power of consciousness, what is amazing is both the incredible beauty and the highly persuasive internal consistency that emerges from the picture of the afterlife which emerges from numerous sources from around the world.

Vital eyewitness messages from the afterlife

Vital messages from afterlife intelligences transmitted in different countries to us humans on this earth in the last few decades REPEATEDLY inform us that, (succinctly put):

• All humans survive physical death, irrespective of their beliefs.

• At the point of death we take our mind with all its experiences, our character and our etheric (spirit) body—which is a duplicate of the earth body. It comes out of the earth body on the point of death and is connected to the earth body by a silver chord. Death occurs when the silver cord is severed from the physical body. Silver Birch, a high Intelligence from the afterlife who has transmitted more than nine books, informs us that in the afterlife the etheric body and our surroundings will be just as solid as our world seems to us now.

• The state of mind at the point of death is crucial. Some pass over consciously and are fully aware of the loved ones who come to welcome the new arrival; others are unconscious and are taken to a special place of rest.

• Those who on earth are deeply caught in very strong addictions— drugs, alcohol, gambling, tobacco, or overindulgence in sex can get caught on the astral level trying to satisfy them.

• Some people at the point of death find it easy to get out of the dead physical body. With others, helpers need to actively assist in the transition. Some very materialistic people will have a very heavy duplicate body and it will be more difficult for them to separate from their dead physical body.

• A WARNING: Some hallucinogenic drugs have the potency to lift the duplicate out of the physical body. Seen by entities from the afterlife, drug takers, '...have pathetic looks as if they had no soul... they are vacant behind the eyes. When out of the body other lower entities try to enter the drug-taker's body—then you have possession.'

• There is no such thing as heaven 'up in the sky' or hell 'down below': the location of the afterlife does not change from the earth plane—different spheres interpenetrate—from the highest vibrations to the lowest.

• Those with dogmatic, unalterable fixed ideas about what to expect immediately after death are likely to experience serious problems.

• Atheists, agnostics and others may not be encumbered from passing on to the higher spheres—what they did in their lifetime and the motivation for what they did will be important not what they believed in.

• Love, unconditional love, is the most powerful force known in the universe.

• Unconditional love is the irretrievable link with our loved ones in the afterlife.

• Ordinary reasonable people are met by their loved ones—soul-mates are reunited. Higher Intelligences inform us that in the afterlife our appearance can regress to our best age—for most people from the early to mid twenties.

• Loved ones from the afterlife, recently arrived and others, do have the power to visit loved ones still living on earth.

• Recently arrived loved ones, usually within three months of transition, are permitted to transmit visually—by way of dreams or by apparition and other means—evidence that they are still alive.

• The kind of life to be lived in the afterlife—the beauty, peace, light and love which await most people are unimaginable.

• One can still learn spiritual lessons in the afterlife and progress to higher even more beautiful spheres.

• Once you enter the afterlife, you will experience a feeling of enormous lightness.

• Any physical disabilities people had on earth will disappear—once they have adjusted mentally there will be no such thing as deformity, sickness, blindness or any other thing which adversely affected them on earth.

• The mind has enormous power in the afterlife. It can create matter there and can cause the body to travel at the speed of thought e.g. you imagine you are at any place in the world and you are there instantly.

• Those who were consistently evil are either left alone or are met by those others of the same very low vibrations, with the same very low spirituality to be attracted to the darker lower spheres.

• Some people on earth have a much better transition to the afterlife than others—the more knowledge we have about the afterlife, the easier the transition.

• Some people get stuck 'between the two worlds'. Because they still feel themselves solid, they do not accept that they have actually died. Many get into mental confusion and could get lost for decades and for much longer.

• Energy—positive or negative—is a 'boomerang'. When you send out good energy towards someone that good energy is returned sooner or later. If you send out negative energy by unfairly being dishonest against someone, or by cheating or lying or harassing or discrediting or causing harm to someone?that kind of negative energy will inevitably return to you.

• ‘You will reap what you sow' is the recognized universal spiritual law. Karma means you will not get away with it. All negative deeds against others have to be experienced for the purpose of 'continuous spiritual refinement'.

• Every thought, every word and deed is recorded... in your life review you will experience the ripple effects of all of them .

• In the higher spheres you will be able to recall and see any event in any period of your existence three dimensionally.

• Abuse of power and systematic harassment of others are two of the most karmic actions. Horrific karma awaits those whose task it was to protect society but themselves willfully abused their power, indulged in willful transgressions and caused harm and injury to others.

• You will NOT be excused for your evil behavior by claiming that you were just obeying orders.

• Cruelty—mental or physical against humans or animals—is highly karmic and is never justified.

• It is guaranteed that those who consistently abuse and harass others will have to face their victims, in the afterlife before severest retribution.

• After the severest retribution of those who intentionally harassed and deliberately violated other peoples' rights, the transgressors will have to apologize and seek forgiveness by the victims before they are allowed to make any progress.

• Hell for eternity and eternal damnation were invented by men to manipulate the hearts and the minds of the unaware—they do NOT exist. Whilst there ARE lower spheres in the afterlife which are particularly dark, unpleasant and even horrific—some call them 'hell'—ending up there is NOT for eternity. The universal Law of Progress ensures that at some time in the future those with lower vibrations will eventually, even if it takes eons of time—centuries even thousands of years—obtain higher vibrations and graduate to the higher spheres.

• No one judges you or condemns you to the lower spheres. You condemn yourself to the lower horrific spheres ('hell') by the low vibrations (low spirituality) you acquired during life on earth.

• Deathbed conversion? We have been and we are repeatedly being informed by Higher Sources that immediately after we die our vibrations do not change—not even if one repents shortly before death. We take with us the accumulated vibrations (spirituality)
we gained or lost during our whole lifetime on earth. Baptism, repentance are absolutely meaningless as a way of getting ' a better deal ' immediately after death.

• If you helped just one person to attain the true knowledge you would have justified your existence on earth?Silver Birch.

• Preventing others from accessing true knowledge is highly karmic.

• No one on earth or elsewhere can hurt you spiritually.

• People on earth are not all born spiritually equal.

• Selfishness is one of the greatest transgressions against spirituality and is highly karmic.

• Not everybody has to 'reincarnate.'

• You do not come into this world to have a dream run—without pain, suffering, without problems. The more varied your experience, the more learning from many mistakes, the more valuable your lifetime.

• Many of you will be cheated, maligned, unfairly harassed... but justice will be done... not in your world maybe but certainly in the world to come.

• The universal laws operate whether or not you are aware of them.

• Whenever there is an inconsistency between science and a belief system—such as religion, traditional belief or skepticism, science inevitably prevails.

• Being religious does not necessarily mean being spiritual.

• Not participating in religious rituals e.g. baptism, confessions and non-belief in creeds and dogmas does NOT encumber anyone from attaining higher spiritually and the higher afterlife spheres.

• In the afterlife communicating is done by telepathy.

• Communicating from and to the earthplane with those in the afterlife can be (and is being) done by telepathy.

• There are some inherent dangers in communicating with entities from the afterlife.

• Those from the afterlife can read our minds and can put thoughts and ideas into our minds. Lower, mischievous entities can put negative thoughts and ideas and the positive more enlightened entities assist us with positive thoughts and ideas. A great deal is left to the exercise of free will.

• We are at liberty to call the powerful protectors from the afterlife to assist us in coping with our everyday problems but they will not make decisions for us.

• Materialists and others spend too much time worrying about their last ten or twenty years on earth and do not spend a tiny fraction of their time thinking what's going to happen to them in the next ten, twenty thousand years, fifty thousand years... and much, very much longer.

• What will happen to a person who suicides will depend on a number of things. Motivation is always very important. For example, there will be a big difference if one commits suicide because of inevitable death and one who suicides to avoid responsibilities. Those who take their own lives to avoid problems and responsibilities are likely to increase their problems and responsibilities in the afterlife.

• There are different levels of spheres in the afterlife—from the lowest vibrations to the highest. On physical death we go to the sphere which can accommodate the vibrations we accumulated throughout our life on earth. Simplistically put, most ordinary people are likely to go to the 'third' sphere—some people call it the Summerland. The higher the vibrations, the better the conditions—which will take us to the higher spheres. We are informed that the higher spheres are too beautiful to even imagine. For those with very, very low vibrations, very serious problems do exist.

• Consistent with the Law of Progress, eventually, even if it takes eons of time, all will progress to the higher spheres,

• Like attracts like in the afterlife. Unlike on the earth plane, those with lower vibrations cannot mix freely with those in the higher spheres.

• There truly is a war between the Forces of the Light and the Forces of Darkness. Those who continuously disseminate darkness: ignorance, false and pernicious propaganda, hatred, harassment of others, abuse of power, lying, cheating, dominance to exploit and other negative energy will attract—and are very likely to become part of the Forces of Darkness. Those others spreading and working towards greater understanding, knowledge, peace, love, light, harmony and other positive energy will attract and become part of the Forces of the Light.

• Self responsibility—ultimately, you yourself are responsible for all acts and omissions during your time on the earth plane.

Internet references

Silver Birch is an extremely wise and loving spiritual teacher who spoke through English trance-medium Maurice Barbanell for more than forty years. A number of books have been published containing his teachings. He is an eyewitness to the afterlife and an inspiration to millions. A number of Silver Birch books are available from New Age bookshops.

Silver Birch Anthology http://www.newage.com.au/library/SilverB.html

Nora M. Spurgin was motivated to research this question when a dear friend was dying of cancer. Her findings are highly relevant: Insights Into the Afterlife - 30 Questions and Answers on What to Expect
http://www.ettl.co.at/uc/misc/insights.html

On the Edge of the Etheric - Survival After Death Scientifically Explained
http://wvnvm.wvnet.edu/%7EGSA00121/books/books.htm

There is no Death http://wvnvm.wvnet.edu/%7EGSA00121/books/books.htm
(NB scroll down to bottom of page
Florence Marryat (1838-1899) was a famous author, newspaper and magazine correspondent as well as a playwright, operatic singer, actress and journalism school instructor. In "There Is No Death" she gives an account of her 15 years of experience with materialization mediums on both sides of the Atlantic, including watching her materialized daughter, Florence, who died shortly after birth, grow from a small shy four year old child to a beautiful 19 year old woman. On this site you can download a free copy of her complete book.

Brazilian Spiritist Federation
http://www.febrasil.org.br/
This site contains several books containing teachings by highly evolved spirits through many different mediums on the nature of the afterlife and other topics which together comprise the philosophy of Spiritism. The books have been coordinated and edited by Allan Kardec. They are available in English as well as other languages and can be downloaded free of charge. For details of a newer translation of The Spirits Book which answers more than 1000 questions about life, death and the afterlife, and a summary see Afterlife 101 http://www.afterlife101.com/Spirits_Book.html

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