I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as a plant and rose to animal.
I died as animal and I was human.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die human,
To soar with angels blessed above.
And when I sacrifice my angel soul
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
Rumi Jalaluddin
ancient Persian poet
"The devil rebelled against God in heaven and was cast out." What if I do that? Do I have any guarantee, or am I only there on good behavior? Isn't one trial period enough? Am I prevented from free choices thereafter?
Worry? No. That would be despairing of divine justice. I was not created to be discarded.
Reincarnation, to me, would seem to be the ultimate affirmation of personality continuing. Consider. Almost every atom in your body has been replaced since your childhood by the food you ate. In a very real sense, you resemble a jet of water shooting into the air; never the same pieces, but always the same in construction and direction. Was what you lost in growing up, in any sense YOU? Would the total loss of a body, then, be any more important if we acquire a new and better one?
I guess most folks realize at some point that the religion they were born into, no matter which one, is just baby-food. It comes in little jars, easy to digest, and not something you want to live on forever. After that, the search is on.
Whatever the real answer is, it certainly isn't "nothing." At midnight on some clear and moonless night, drive to a place away from all the city lights. Cover your eyes and let them adjust to the complete darkness for about five minutes. Look up. You are looking at the Milky Way, "stars like dust..." It's a thin mist of stars, far too many and much too distant to be seen as anything but a formless glow. They all resemble our sun, only most of them are bigger and older. And that's just one arm of the spiral galaxy that we live in. While some stars are dying of old age, others are just now being born. Ask for a picture of the Orion Nebula if you want to see this happening "right now" - speaking in cosmic time scales.
The galaxy Andromeda is another great picture, probably similar to our own galaxy, at least in size. Ours is just one galaxy, and there are billions of other galaxies. That much is visible fact. You are a citizen of the Universe. And the challenge to grow is worthy, at least to me.
Fit all that together with one tiny human ant, living on a speck of sand somewhere in that immensity of space and time, unsure of the rules, and personally facing eternal heaven or hell at the end of less than a hundred years.
I do not believe in anything. To me, "faith" is a dirty word, not for mixed company. I do believe that one will find the Truth if one stops looking for faith. I do not believe that the two are even close relatives. While I do not embrace fairy tales, there is definately a truth out there.
Thomas Howard
Air Force veteran
Stoneage BBS
Utah
Phil Hart
Basically BBS
Wake Forest, North Carolina
George Carter
The Seeker's Place BBS
Darby, Pennsylvania
"Eagle Master"
Eagles Nest BBS
Utah
Enter Faustus and Mephistophilis
Faust. When I behold the heavens, then I repent, And curse thee, wicked Mephistophilis, Because thou hast depriv'd me of those joys.
Meph. Why, Faustus, Thinkest thou Heaven is such a glorious thing? I tell thee 'tis not half so fair as thou, Or any man that breathes on earth.
Faust. How Provest thou that?
Meph. 'Twas made for man, therefore is man more excellent.
Faust. If it were made for man, 'twas made for me: I will renounce this magic and repent.
........
Faust. My heart's so hard'ned I cannot repent.
Scarce can I name salvation, faith, or heaven,
But fearful echoes thunder in mine ears
"Faustus, thou art damn'd!"
Then swords and knives,
Poison, gun, halters, and envenom'd steel
Are laid before me to despatch myself,
And long ere this I should have slain myself,
Had not sweet pleasure conquer'd deep despair.
Have I not made blind Homer sing to me
Of Alexander's love and Cenon's death?
And hath not he that built the walls of Thebes
With ravishing sound of his melodious harp,
Made music with my Mephistophilis?
Why should I die then, or basely despair?
I am resolv'd: Faustus shall ne'er repent.
Come, Mephistophilis, let us dispute again,
And argue of divine astrology.
........
Faust. How many heavens, or spheres, are there?
Meph. Nine: the seven planets, the firmament, and the empyreal heaven.
........
Faust. Well, I am answered. Tell me who made the world.
Meph. I will not.
Faust. Sweet Mephistophilis, tell me.
Meph. Move me not, for I will not tell thee.
Faust. Villain, have I not bound thee to tell me anything?
Meph. Ay, that is not against our kingdom; but this is.
Think thou on hell, Faustus, for thou art damn'd.
Tragical History Of Dr. Faustus
Christopher Marlowe
1588
Henrich Heine, 1844
Francis Bacon
Of Truth, 1597
If one thing is common to all experiences from the time of Marx and Engels up to the alternatives, it is this; heaven simply cannot be set up on earth...
- the "consummation" can be described in a dialectical movement of thought: as life, justice, love, salvation.
* A life into which we are taken with our whole history, however in which provisionality and mortality will be overcome by permanency and stability; a true, imperishable life in that God who proved himself in the Crucified as the living, life-bestowing God: an eternal life.
* A justice for which we are already fighting in this society, however without ever attaining it, because of the inequality, incapacity and unwillingness of human beings; a justice which - in the light of the justified Jesus - proves to be the law of his grace, which combines justice and mercy: an all-transcending justice.
* A freedom which we have already felt on earth, whose relativity however will be removed by the Absolute itself; a freedom which - as God's great gift in Jesus - has finally left behind law and morality: a perfect freedom.
* A love in which we shared already here and which we bestowed here, whose weakness and suffering however will be transformed by divine strength and power; a love wholly and entirely filled by the God whose love has proved in Jesus to be stronger even than death: an infinite love.
* A salvation of which we have already had a hint, whose fragility and fragmentary character however will be entirely sublated into the definitive wellbeing or whobeing of God, which, in the light of the resurrection of the dead Christ, seizes the human person in all his body-soul dimensions: a final salvation.
All this then, as the kingdom of perfect freedom, of all-transcending justice and of infinite love, is final salvation: eternal life - for man and world a life without suffering and death...
Hans Kung
Eternal Life?
English translation (c)1984
William Collins Sons & Co., Ltd.
and Doubleday & Company, Inc.
Ransom Stark
The Guild BBS
New Orleans, Louisiana
At the age of seven, (Beverly) towed her sled to the top of a very steep hill and aimed it at a cement bench by the street. Her plan was to slide headfirst into the bench. Without hesitating, she lay down and took what was to be her last ride.
She successfully hit the bench and immediately found herself floating above her body. She saw children surrounding her, but no one went for help. Instead, they examined the wound and went back to their play. This heartless reaction didn't surprise her because she lived in a tough, inner-city neighborhood.
She floated higher and higher to the rooftops of the buildings, where she had never been before. She also saw that the apartments had fake Tudor fronts. Things then changed:
"I went up and up and faded into a deep silver-blue surrounding. Then came something that looked like a big umbrella without a stick. This umbrella seemed to fold around me, and everything became very dark. Then, suddenly, i was in a very intense, bright light. I felt warm and loved in a way that I had never felt before.
"Then I heard a voice from the Light: 'You have made a mistake. Your life is not yours to take. You must go back.' I argued with the voice. 'No one cares about me.' The answer I got back was shocking. 'You're right. No one on this planet cares about you, including your parents. It is your job to care for yourself."
Beverly was suddenly returned to her body, which at this point wasn't a pleasant place to be. She was in intense pain. Her mouth had been imbedded in a wooden railing around the bench. Her neck was broken. She tried to move her head and lost many of her teeth and a piece of her tongue.
Beverly remembers thinking that as soon as she could she would go back to the top of the snowy hill and try to kill herself again. As soon as that thought came to mind, Beverly was engulfed by the umbrella and taken out of her body again.
Warm in this "bubble of love and life," she was treated to an awesome vision. The warm bubble melted the snow and ice from a nearby tree on which she often played. The bubble showed her that, although the tree was encased in snow and ice now, it would have green leaves on it in the summertime. She saw herself sitting beneath the tree, eating a sweet apple from its branches, and feeling pleasure and joy. Suddenly, she understood what was being shown to her.
"I saw that the winter tree with the snow on it and the summer tree with the apples were two parts of a whole. I saw that my life now was like the winter tree. And when I realized that summer was ahead, I was willing to go back into my body."
........
After ten years of listening to the near-death experiences of children, I find myself agreeing with Jung: Science - as great as it is - tells only half the story about life beyond and the human soul. The children of the Light tell the rest.
Listen to what they have told me:
"I have a wonderful secret to tell you. I have been climbing a staircase to Heaven."
"There were a lot of good things in that Light."
"There was a beautiful Light that had everything good in it. For about a week, I could see sparkles of the Light on everything."
I wasn't afraid to live again because I knew that someday I would be with that Light."
"You'll see. Heaven is fun."
Melvin Morse, M.D.
Closer To The Light
(c)1990 by Dr. Melvin L. Morse and Paul Perry
Villard Books
a division of Random House, Inc. New York