CHAPTER THIRTY

There would be music; dancing. Everyone would have wings in their favorite colors (mine would be green). You would get everything you want. At night, you could barely hear bells in the background.

Julia Roberts
ABC Prime Time
June 23, 1994

(L. Frank) Baum was deeply interested in Theosophy...and during his life was rumored to be a Buddhist. He believed in reincarnation and karma, in doctrine that the earthly journey was but a step in our spiritual evolution. One commentator's suggestion, that the name for Baum's mythical land came from the Biblical Job - who lived in the "Land of Uz"...

Marc Ian Barasch
The Healing Path: A Soul Approach to Illness
J.P. Tarcher/G.P. Putnam
(c)1994

The afterlife can be several things. You can go to Asgard and live with the Gods, or (you) can go to Hell.
Hell has three levels and depending on how you have lived your life decides which part you go to after death. Hell is a waiting place where you wait to be reborn into this plane of existance again (Midgard). Of course, you can be damned to Hell for eternity for your actions in this life, but that is rare.
Mostly you are reborn into this life and usually into the same family line.
If you are chosen to live with the gods in Asgard, (that) breaks the cycle of rebirth. Otherwise, (rebirth) goes on indefinately until the end of the wolrd (Ragnarok).
I became interested in (the beliefs of Asatru)...about two years ago, and started doing research into it. As the tenants of Asatru are the values I have always lived by, and (due to) some personal religious experiences I had while researching, I decided to become Asatru myself.
Asatru is the northern European religion that preceeded Christianity by thousands of years. (It) has a different concept of Heaven and Hell than Christianity, and is also polytheistic - the chief God being Odin. The religion uses very little dogma as most organized religions do.

"Hraesvelg"
The Eagle
systems operator, The Eyrie BBS
Utah

I dreamed death came to me one night
and heaven's gates flew open wide.
With kindly grace St. Peter came and
ushered me inside.

There to my astonishment were friends
I had known on earth.
Some I had labeled as unfit and some
of little worth.

Indignant words flew to my lips:
Words I could not set free,
For every face showed stunned surprise -
No one expected me.

English church leaflet

I tend to follow the "quantum universe" theory of other lives. I believe that which makes us "us" is one soul. I have one soul that is at this moment living many thousands of lives - since it is "me" in essence, I can remember things that have happened and will happen.
I've had remembrances of living in Japan with a crippled wife - the wife was a boyfriend from this life.
I've remembered living in a part of Texas called Tonganoxie as Clara Beverly McKlouhan, with a sister Stacy.
I've been an indian; a colonist; and a whore during the French Revolution.
I believe I've been here a very long, long, long, long time.
Since linear time is only a concept of the human mind, we are living all lives simultaneously.
We seem to be at different points in our evolution - this is to help us improve. Who organized this? We did. We are the God, the collective consciousness, if you will. Being Taoist for the most part, I recognize the God in all.
I hope that one day soon I will be able to move on and help humanity in its spiritual endeavors. I want nothing more in life than to give all of myself to anyone who could possibly need me.
I plan to be a healer as a career - I don't know exactly what kind of healer as of yet...
I've had one ghost experience. It was very strange. I woke up one day and there was a girl rifling through some papers of mine....I said "Hey!" and she stood up and left the room. [Later] I had a friend spend some nights over and I didn't tell her about this...one night she looked "as though she had seen a ghost..." I asked her what she saw, and she described the girl I had seen.
I have spoken with a deceased friend and it was a little disturbing. I was asleep...in the living room, and from my bedroom in the basement came Mark. His eyes were red from crying and I started to cry when I saw him.
"Oh Mark, I love you, I love you!" [I said]
He nodded and said that he knew.
I said, "Are you staying?" and he shook his head and said, "No...I have to go away."
I felt so sad, but he sat with me for the rest of the night hugging me.
Other friends have "heard" from him, and we didn't share this for the longest time, because when he visited every single one of us he was VERY unhappy, and that scared us.
No, I don't believe he's in "hell." Well, maybe he is - but maybe we define our own hell and he is simply trapped within his own vision.
Another boy died with Mark - his name was Pete. Although I didn't know him as well, I got some [tarot] cards that said "confusion." The rest of the cards were very much joyous and [spoke] of a "heaven." Although I'm not sure myself what happens when we die, Pete has found peace - whether that be in eternal sleep or in "heaven" - who's to say which is right?
I've only done (post-death) readings for friends of mine. Once I was able to give a message to my girlfriend Gudrun about her grandmother [who] had only died three days before and was probably lingering around getting her act together. As with all the dead I have contacted, her initial reactions were that of, "Um, what the heck happened?" It is not an instantaneous enlightenment all the time, but usually within a day or so the spirit realizes that it is not a dream and they do not have to wake up, and then truly amazing things happen to them.
I told Gudrun that "Granny is happy because she can dance and breathe." I wasn't aware that Granny had had chronic asthma, and that as a child her dream had been to dance. Of course, Granny didn't need to breathe without her body, it was just the loss of the constant strangulation she had been subjected to [while] in her body.

"Damiana," 22
Theater of the Vampires [East], BBS
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Research by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A London Ghost

...Our hands were all on the table...when the clairvoyante on my left whispered in an agitated voice:
"I see him. He is there. He is standing on the stair looking down at us."
"An elderly man, bearded, with rather slit eyes and a cunning expression," was her description of the apparition...
...the dialogue between us ran thus, the answers coming clear-cut and swift.
"Are you a spirit?" - "Yes."
"A man?" - "Yes."
"Are you the spirit who has haunted this room?" - "Yes."
"Have you a reason for haunting it?" - "Yes."
"Is it money that troubles you?" - "No."
"Papers?" - "No."
"Remorse for deeds done?" - "Yes."
I then explained to the spirit the conditions under which he lived, and the need to turn his thoughts away from worldly matters, which retarded spiritual progress. I begged him to cease to annoy innocent people, and I told him that he could only work out his own salvation by adapting his mind to the new conditions, by being unselfish, and by striving for higher things.
I said that we would pray for him, and Mr. Vale Owen, there and then, offered up a beautiful prayer that this, our unhappy brother, might be eased and helped. I then asked if he had heard and understood.
"Yes," was the reply.
Had it affected his attitude of mind? Some hesitation, and then, "No." Clearly he was a man of resolute character, not easily to be influenced.
I then said that we would take any message from him, and would like first of all to know his earth name...The following letters came out: L-E-N-A-N.
"Is that right?" I asked. - "No," was the reply.
"Is LEN right?" - "Yes."
"Should the next letter be I?" - "Yes."
"Is Lenin the name?" - "Yes."
"Are you the Russian leader?" - "Yes."

Singular Records of a Circle

I have...a considerable bundle of records from a [seance] circle in Uruguay...
The monologue with [Harriette Wilson] concludes thus:
Q. "Are you happy?" - A. "No."
Q. "Have you others to whom you can talk?" - A. "Yes" (glass moves violently).
Q. "Don't you like them?" - A. "No" (furiously).
Q. "Why?" - A. "I don't find them to my taste."
Q. "Do you know us?" - A. "No, who are you? Interesting?"
Q. "Have you talked to others on this earth?" - A. "Yes. Many."
Q. "Can you materialise?" - A. "No."
...The next [visitor] was a James Kirk...He said that he lived in a grey twilight and was not happy, having none of the luxury to which he was used. It was his first return to earth and it gave him pleasure. He said that he had been in several spheres...
...[David Overman] seems to be in a cheerful, frivolous sphere. [His] dialogue runs:
Q. "Any ladies there?" - A. "Plenty. Too many."
Q. "Are you restricted?" - A. "Not unreasonably. We can even dance."
Q. "What clothes?" - A. "Any. I wear a very handsome suit..."
...[Norah Sallast] died at the age of nineteen, seventy-eight years ago, which takes her back to the middle of the last century.
Q. "Are you happy?" - A. "No."
Q. "Why?" - A. "Life is so monotonous. I hate it" (violently).
Q. "Have you anyone to talk to?" - A. "Yes. I hate it all. You can do little to help me. I was wrong in my life."
Q. "And you suffer for it?" - A. "Quite enough."
Q. "Any prospect of happiness?" - A. "I doubt it."
...In reference to her surroundings [Laura Yelverton said] that "it is all grey and almost sticky in atmosphere." There were many to whom to talk. She...seems to be in some sort of purgatory...
...The next spirit seems to have been more intelligent and of a higher grade than the others. He gave some prophecies which seem to have been fairly accurate. Then comes the following:
Q. "Is it pleasant where you are?" - A. "Very. I am happy. I have interesting companionship."
Q. "Do you hope to rise higher?" - A. "I do earnestly."
Q. "Is there reincarnation?" - A. "Yes" (violently).
Q. "Have you risen higher since you died?" - A. "Yes, twice."
This is the kind of vital information which we want. As to reincarnation, it is clear at any rate that it is at only long intervals, since in three centuries he had not himself experienced it.
The next visitor gave the name of John...He was very unhappy, "I hate my surroundings."
...There followed a very sprightly young lady named Willette..."Life is quite good here...What a hole!" she added.
...The next gave the name of James Welby and he made the comprehensive remark, "we live as mortals do." ...The dialogue then ran:
Q. "Are you happy?" - A. "Extremely."
Q. "Are your wife and daughter with you?" - A. "Yes."
...He then added that he was happy and that his surroundings were more or less like the earth he knew, but more happy and less troubled.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Edge of the Unknown
(c)1930 G.P. Putnam's Sons
New York

............................... Heaven calls,
And, round about you wheeling, courts your gaze
With everlasting beauties. Yet your eye
Turns with fond doting still upon the earth.
Therefore He smites you who discerneth all.

The Divine Comedy
Purgatory
Dante Alighieri, 1300

Whoso would know the power of God's dominion,
And how a man resembles that high good,
Must lie in prison, is my firm opinion:

On grievous thoughts and cares of home must brood,
Oppressed with carking pains in flesh and bone,
Far from his native land full many a rood.

If you would fain by worthy deeds be known,
Seek to be prisoned without cause, lie long,
And find no friend to listen to your moan.

See that men rob you of your all by wrong;
Add perils to your life; be used with force,
Hopeless of help, by brutal foes and strong.

Be driven at length to some mad desperate course;
Burst from your dungeon, leap the castle wall;
Recaptured, find the prison ten times worse.

........

To tell the truth whereon my mind is bent,
Here man knows God, nor ever stints to pray,
Feeling his soul with hell's fierce anguish rent.

Let one be famed as bad as mortal may,
Send him in jail two sorry years to pine,
He'll come forth holy, wise, beloved alway.

Here soul, flesh, clothes their substance gross refine;
Each bulky lout grows light like gossamere;
Celestial thrones before purged eyeballs shine.

........

Now to return unto my primal thought:
Who wills to know what weal awaits him, must
First learn the ill that God for him hath wrought.

........

I'll add no more. Now I'm become fine gold,
Such gold as none flings lightly to the wind,
Fit for the best work eyes shall e'er behold.

........

Then when I gained some respite from that din
Of troubles, and had given my soul to God,
Contented better realms and state to win,
I saw along the path which saints have trod,
From heaven descending, glad, with glorious palm,
An angel: clear he cried, "Upon earth's sod
Live longer thou! Through Him who heard thy psalm,
Those foes shall perish, each and all, in strife,
While thou remainest happy, free, and calm,
Blessed by our Sire in heaven on earth for life!"

Autobiography Of Benvenuto Cellini
1566

The devout meditation of the isolated man, which flitted through his soul, like a transient tone of Love and Awe from unknown lands, acquires certainty, continuance, when it is shared - in by his brother men. 'Where two or three are gathered together' in the name of the Highest, then first does the Highest, as it is written, 'appear among them to bless them'; then first does an Altar and act of united Worship open a way from Earth to Heaven; whereon, were it but a simple Jacob's-ladder, the heavenly Messengers will travel, with glad tidings and unspeakable gifts for men.

Characteristics
Thomas Carlyle
1831

I don't think that you can really know what to find when you die. I do think that there is a "tunnel" as it's called.
One night, I was given an opportunity to walk this tunnel while I was sleeping, but I decided I didn't want to and woke myself up. When I did, I found [I was lightheaded] and I had to actively start breathing again.
As for the afterlife, it's like nothing you could ever imagine. It's [as if] those from a two dimensional standpoint see a three dimesnional object - they don't have the faculties to see the whole of it.
I do believe that there is reincarnation. After all, even heaven can get boring after a while. Humans tend to want a little strife in their lives, and I don't see why this tendancy wouldn't continue in the afterlife.
I think [heaven is] a different experience for each person, depending on their beliefs.

"Andara Bledin"
Dominquez Hills, California
Theater of Vampires (West), BBS

In heaven there is no beer,
That's why we drink it here

song performed by
Clean Living c.1975

Well I ain't afraid of dyin' -
It's the thought of bein' dead.
I want to go on bein' me
once my eulogy's been read.

Don't spread my ashes out to sea,
Don't lay me down to rest.
You can put my mind at ease
if you fill my last request.

Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die
Lord, I want to go to heaven,
but I don't want to go tonight.

Fill my boots up with sand,
put a stiff drink in my hand;
Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die.

Fix me up with a manikin;
just remember I like blondes.
I'll be the life of the party
even when I'm dead and gone.

song performed by
Joe Diffie
1994

Chapter Thirty-one

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