The I-Spectre

I INSIST on repeating, and I shall never do it sufficiently to my liking, what I have told you previously; i.e. that according to my experience, the moments of purgatory are not continuous. They come and go. Here as on earth, good and bad moments have their tide. With some people these moments follow each other successively, with others there are more or less long intervals. Each case is individual.

Yet the reason is always the same: one has to see and recognise for oneself all one’s foolishness and stupidities. The symbolic forms these experiences take are inherent to human nature. Here we see them—whilst on earth you lack the organ or means which would enable you to perceive them.

As you understand, up to now I have always spoken about the average specimen of humanity. With the coarser types, things are somewhat different. But you have read enough on that subject. However, people of a higher degree of culture and sentiment have their difficult moments too.

Quite recently I met a highly cultured and refined man. He had had strong sympathies and antipathies while on earth, and he had never asked himself whether their reason was not purely a subjective one. In his opinion the fault was always on the other side!

He told me himself, on one occasion when several of us talked together about `Purgatory’, that the most obsessing moment for him was when he had to pass through a dense fog, which completely blocked the rest of the world from sight.
It seemed to him that this painful condition would never end.

The fog which surrounded him in this way had a strange peculiarity: it acted as a mirror.

At first he was not conscious of it. He saw a moving figure before him and thought it was the spectre of some person he once had heartily disliked. He looked away. Useless. Wherever he tried to look, he always saw it. He decided to shut his eyes, but he saw it continually!

After a while, the image changed. It was now that of another acquaintance, again someone he had disliked. And this kind of phantasmagoria was repeated over and over again…. People who once had horrified him, now appeared and disappeared in succession before him.

He told me it was a kind of trial disagreeable beyond expression!

At last there came a moment, when completely worn out and exhausted he appealed to his Guide for help.

At once he heard a fatherly Voice saying:

“But look well, my child! Stop projecting your own image upon another and condemning him…. Look who these spectres are!”
“Then,” he said, “I looked attentively and, to my great horror, recognized myself in all those forms. They had been created by my own attitude towards the people I have spoken of.”
Turning towards his Guide, he asked Him:
“But was there nothing real in the faults I saw in the others?”

The Voice answered:

“They contained a certain reality. But that is their concern. As for you, you have now to deal with what concerns you: that is, your own way of reacting to impressions, purely subjective ones, which you felt towards those people.”
You have here an example of what those on earth consider to be of no importance in the Hereafter. These cases seem inoffensive and books speak little or nothing of them. Yet, once out here, it is not permitted to ignore facts, and many will be surprised!

Please, bear in mind, that there is no punishment involved in it. It is only a matter of consequence, as inevitable as it is natural. It is the only true and efficient way to know and overcome one’s shortcomings.
It must also be said, that the more willing and desirous a soul is of understanding, the sooner its trial is over, and much can be done in this respect already on earth by an attitude of true aspiration to see clearly.
On reading these notes, I hope, that more than one reader will find them helpful, and that, in each case, they may contribute towards obtaining a clearer vision.

Messages of Affection

You ask yourself how we perceive messages of affection which reach us from the earth?

t greatly depends on each individual and his particular manner of reacting.

Personally, when a wave of affection is directed towards me, it generally feels like a beautiful warm sun, a moral sun, in some way. At the same time, I am conscious of the person who sends it and, instantaneously, I can get into inner contact with the person.

Others have told me, that the loving thoughts of their dear ones appear like a delicately rose-coloured brilliant light. They see the light taking exquisite forms, which fill their hearts with great joy.

You have there, in my opinion, the example of two well-defined types: the radiant type and the mental type.

Now, there is something about which I want to be most emphatic and urgently stress the point.

You see, love is always a great help. Certainly! But it may sometimes have the opposite effect. Especially during the first period after the great parting. Because the `mourning’ of those on earth can considerably impede the progress towards light of those who have just come out to us.

On the contrary, unselfish love, and the faith in the indestructibility of life are powerful forces, which liberate and strengthen, not only those who feel them, but also those to whom they are directed.

Let him try who doubts it!

You will readily understand that for one who starts a new and greatly intensified life here, and who naturally wants to enlighten the loved ones left behind, it is rather discouraging to find that one is `declared dead’ by them!

Sometimes he is held up by a dense black fog, brought forth by the griefs and regrets of the mourners, so that owing to their own action they become inaccessible to him. Bear in mind, I speak of things I have seen!

Really, selfishness in love can be a terrible barrier between the two worlds and the source of unutterable pain to those, who have just left the earth!

It is curious to observe how barbarous our civilization is in this respect. What have they done to the beautiful message of Christ, those who pride themselves in it?

When will the time come, where backward customs regarding the `great change’ give place to a more enlightened attitude and mentality?

The Dawn of a New Day

As a sequel to our previous subject, I shall tell you a story of down below this time.

I once knew a young woman who had to watch her beloved husband `pass out’ just before their first baby was born. The shock was so great, that for a while the worst was to be feared. Three days she remained in an alarming state of apathy.

On the day of the funeral, an old friend of the family asked permission, which was granted, to remain alone at her bedside.

At first, the young woman gave no sign of being conscious of her presence.

Then, the kind lady began to talk very softly. She spoke to the husband, as if he really were present. She told him to have a little patience, that his dear wife would soon be with him again, for love is a powerful agent. What can the powers of the dark do against love? ... Did he not know that his dear wife’s love was of the purest alloy? That her love will be victorious and restore her happiness and life, as well as courage and faith to continue her way in an apparent solitude…. And soon he will have a small being over whom to keep watch from the Other Side. His wife will be deeply conscious of it. She will know know! in her heart, that he will never lose interest in his child, and, gradually, the young mother will become accessible to him and perceive his thoughts. She will be conscious of his presence, and their happiness will continue on a higher plane, the plane to which one accedes through a great and nobly fulfilled sacrifice…

While she was talking thus, the young woman seemed to awaken from her lethargy. She listened. She relaxed. The first tears began to run down…. She leaned on her elbow, drinking in the liberating words. An ecstasy came into her wet eyes, and on her quivering lips dawned a new smile…

“Isn’t it true, my child?” said the old lady now turning towards her. “Isn’t it true that you will never declare him dead? Never will you agree to be parted? Your love is stronger than appearances. It will raise you above the deceiving illusion of `death’.”

From this very day, the young woman renewed her normal life. She took the habit of talking in thought with her husband. She firmly refused to wear mourning and, later, talked much to her child about his father.

Time did its work. Her love became purer and freed itself from the narrow bonds of attachment. She became a very noble woman and, for all those who knew her, a living testimony that everything, indeed, depends on the attitude we take towards death.

Useless to say that she was of valuable help to her husband in the Hereafter. He was not hindered in his normal happy progress and did not find himself separated from her by the usual wall of erroneous conceptions regarding death. She always remained accessible to him, and vice versa, and luckily he had his share in the happiness of the three.

A Product of Orthodoxy

WILL you tell my sister to rely upon her intuition when she has to deal with documents of the sort that worry her?

She can, can, always distinguish the real from the false, if she retains a perfect inward stillness..

Now, let me tell you something:

It is about a lady out here.

I met her some time ago. When on earth, she was a devoted Christian Orthodox. Very psychic, without knowing it. Very sure of her superiority. Very intolerant.

But, nevertheless, good, otherwise she would not be on this plane.

She was very sure of going to Paradise.

And, indeed, she found her Paradise!

However, what she enjoyed there, was not that immense bliss which we feel when we are in the presence of the Eternal Now. It was only a `purely personal satisfaction’.

She felt that everything was exactly as she had always said and known it to be.

She did not realise at all, that the little amount of happiness she was enjoying, was all she was capable of feeling just then, and that her purification still awaited her.

The moment came, and vanity manifested itself first:

She, SHE, SHE! ... was in Paradise! .. .

How her husband must regret having laughed at her!

She exalted in an ever growing satisfaction, without noticing that her Paradise gradually lost its poor artificial glow…

In her consciousness she alone existed, she, she, SHE! and always she! ! !

But our forms here are surprisingly plastic.

As her exaltation augmented, the good lady became inflated like a balloon…. Eventually she realised the fact and felt uncomfortable.

She glanced furtively about her to see if anybody had noticed.

But there was nobody…

There were only the traditional emblems of the Orthodox Paradise, and she was in the centre of all that-she, she, SHE! ... reflected a thousand times, just as she was.

Her hideous swelling filled her with indescribable aversion.

Finally, not being able to bear it any longer, she dropped, praying to be delivered from this mocking Paradise, and especially from herself and her own self-importance.

A profound sleep came over her.

How long a time she remained in that state, I do not know. But when she regained consciousness, she was back in her bed.

At first she thought it was only a bad dream, but now she knows it was nothing of the kind.

At that very moment the task of her readjustment to our real world here began.

That was when I met her.

At present I help her to regain her poise and take her right position in the new environment.

I am fairly successful.

Later on, she will have to pass through other purifying experiences. Meanwhile she is endeavouring to attain her husband’s consciousness in order to make due apologies with all justice and loyalty.

In the Service of Mankind

I MADE the acquaintance of a doctor here, who is in quite a peculiar position. He has become so linked up with his work, that he cannot resist from exercising his profession.

He works chiefly through clairvoyants and is perfectly happy to see his treatments continued. It is now over fifty years that he carries on his work.

I consider it to be a strange case of concentration.

He was conscious of his death. Long beforehand, he knew that he was going to die.

Once out here, he immediately began to adapt himself to the new conditions and looked for the possibility of continuing his task. He found it, and since then, he has not even taken the time to get interested in anything else.

Once I asked him, whether he had not had certain experiences, pleasant or disagreeable, very different to those on earth. You know what I mean. He answered half surprised, half absent-minded: “No!”

Almost at once he took up his former occupation again.

I ignore how long he will go on like that. Meantime he does much good work, without even a thought for his own merit.
This is a good example that there exists a way for everyone, according to his temperament and his own particular reaction towards environment.
Each case is individual and brings about its own, unique experience.

Little Talents of the Subconscious

IN many ways life on Our Side resembles that on your side, with considerable differences however. In the beginning it requires a certain adjustment, which is only difficult for people limited by narrow and material habits.

You wonder whether I infer that we even dispose of the comforts you have below, such as bicycles, cars, etc.?

Well, my dear friend, given the power of creative imagination over here, everything is possible. I told you in the beginning, how in our passive moments our usual terrestrial environment spontaneously forms around us, through habit, and that in its kind it is even quite a real environment. At least for the moment.

It is the same thing here. Anyone who, on earth, has passed half of his time on an engine, cannot free himself all of a sudden from that particular state of consciousness and habit. The psychic automatism peculiar to each individual, because of his terrestrial habits, persists in this world and tends to express itself along the familiar lines. That is how, for example, in the beginning the mere feeling of wellbeing brought back something of my youth—and I was in uniform!
When in a moment of absent-mindedness, as it sometimes happens, I find myself going on an errand by `bike’, this is due to a psychic automatism of habit.

The same happens with a driver, of course.

Only here a mad driver can pass through you at full speed, without your even having to notice it!

Why?

Because only logical and essential things have a real existence in our world.

When one deliberately thinks of creating something, art, mechanics, etc., the creative power of the will thus directed engenders a real and lasting form in the plastic matter of our world.

The driver’s car, mentioned above, as well as my supposed `bike’, are but empty shapes without real consistency or duration.

How rich in possibilities this world of ours is, if only you knew!

Oh no! One does not feel bored here, you may be sure of that.

Unless one brings along that particular sort of spirit, which is not interested in anything or finds fault with everything.
But this kind of mentality has no access to the plane where I live.

Rapture

TODAY I have something delightful for my sister. Margaret took me to a real Enchanted Garden. I never imagined could exist.

“Come,” she said to me. “I shall show you the world I love above all!”

She took me by the hand and led me through a long, long alley of rose bushes in full blossom.

Beyond was a large field full of the most beautiful white lilies.

“Look well,” she recommended. “But look well, I tell you! Don’t you see?”

And then I began to discern little diaphanous beings that moved in and between the flowers. I could not believe my eyes!

“But,” said I, “Fairy Tales are really true here?” She began to laugh:

“Fairy tales are true everywhere! Here they prepare the budding of the flowers on earth. This is the way we garden out here. But come. Let us go farther!”

We crossed the field of lilies I do not know very well how, without even as much as touching them. On the other side was a little lake with beautiful water-lilies. Here as well I saw those light, graceful, little creatures. It seemed as though they were amusing themselves, but Margaret explained that they were actually reviving the plants on which they frolicked.

Around the lake tall trees stood erect, and on their branches known and unknown birds leaped about and sang on high notes.

“Now you must look very carefully,” said Margaret. “You must try to see through the veil of visible form.”

And truly, I gradually became conscious of a presence still more ethereal and far bigger than the merry little elves, more serious also, though radiant with joy! It is the direction of this enchanted world, the One that controls the active forces.
It seemed, I do not know how, as though she comprised everything in herself. And yet, if you looked at her, she did not appear to be above human size. How can one explain it?

Margaret told me, that the form visible to our eyes was only Her `symbol’, so to say, but there was not one inch of Her realm which she did not embrace with Her Radiance and where one did not feel Her Presence.

She was glorious to behold!

Her role seems to be the reviving of vegetal life, which is being prepared in Her world, before descending to earth.

I wish I were able to talk better about this beautiful enchanted world where Margaret seems to go very often, but it is not easy for the moment.

With regard to the little elves, you can rely upon the fairy tales of our childhood, for they unconsciously follow a tradition. Of course, in reality there do not exist, all the physical details of clothing, as represented in the books for the apparel of these little beings is made from their own emanation.

Their expression, which I gradually began to discern, has something very peculiar. It is nothing but joy of life! They are not conscious of fulfilling a function in the Universe. They do not possess the most elementary sense of responsibility. Life is of an unblended beauty when looking at them. Imagine a perfect flower and a graceful bird united in an ideal human form. And there you have the little elves of the garden!

As to the great personality Herself, She is like a Super-Elf. In Her the same great joy, but much deeper, less mobile. An intense love emanates from Her.

Her aspect? There are all the colours, as with the little elves, but infinitely more transparent and delicate.

Was She fixed in space above her realm? That is difficult to say. She was there!, an individual presence. And at the same time she gave the impression of comprising everything in Herself. She was to be seen in every corner of this immense garden.

Did she appear to be young or old? Really, it is quite impossible to make a comparison with your conceptions of these words. As a matter of fact, many things out here cannot be described in the terrestrial language. One does it as well as one can, and that is the reason for so many apparent contradictions.

But this is not all.

I also went to the Children’s World.

There everything is light and graceful. One comes out of it as from a purifying bath. I inquired about many things, amongst others, about the fate of vicious children. I was told, that those were wrapped up in a special mist similar to the way a caterpillar wraps the cocoon. This process has the effect of dissolving the impurities of the past, so that these children can join the others on a higher plane afterwards.

Normal children spend a happy time there. They, generally, develop very rapidly and pass into more ethereal regions. The persons who undertake the task of looking after the infants, are souls woven of tenderness. They are radiant to behold!

I have been told that children, who come out here, quickly detach themselves from the earth. The soul that receives and takes care of them, has in each case the familiar appearance of the mother—and gradually modifies!
And now, enough for tonight.

The Fairy of the Wheatfield

GOOD evening, my friends. I have seen something splendid! I have seen the fairy of a wheat field, and the manner in which she vivifies it.
She does not `work’. No! She has no sense of duty nor responsibility.

She simply moves from one place to another, just like that ... without an apparent end in view, but with a feeling of pure joy due to all the beauty she perceives!

She sees the wheat on her own plane of consciousness whilst, for earthly eyes, everything is still deep in winter sleep.

She goes all over the field on her light feet…. And as she becomes conscious of its beauty, her heart fills with love, so much and so profoundly, that she finally wishes to unite herself to all that beauty, to `take it into herself’ entirely!

And now she extends her aura ... extends it more and more, until it reaches the furthermost extremity of the field. She really takes it in entirely, and holding it that way, her love still intensifies, while the light which emanates from her gradually becomes more beautiful and glorious!

Expanding that way, she seems to `merge’ into the wheat in order to unite herself to it. Then the light goes on augmenting, and here she herself emerges again…

She appears as though reborn, more radiant than ever due to her profound love, while under the influence of her presence the vital principle becomes active in each of the material grains.

Understand it well: she does not know anything about this. She does not know your physical matter.

According to her vision the field appears like in summer-time, shortly before the flowering season.

She is solely conscious of beauty, which awakens love in her.

And love does its work all by itself !

Never before have I realised so clearly that Love is truly the very basis of Creation.

All creation is based on the love of beauty, and each creature is born from the resulting joy.

That is the very foundation of the Universe, and of everything that lives in the Universe.

Love is a marvellous constructive force, whereas hate, even in its most anodyne form is ever destructive.

That is what I discovered while making this wonderful experience.

Duo

ANOTHER case, the last one for some time, if you do not mind.

It is about a brother and sister, twins. Both belonging to the same Protestant sect, very severe and narrow-minded, very pious too.
Undoubtedly you will find it very instructive to know the difference in their conditions here, and why. I will endeavour to explain.

The brother, a priest, a worthy man, honest but intolerant, was shut up in his doctrine. He had no imagination, was incorruptible and tireless in the exercise of his ministry, highly esteemed not only by his own parishioners, but by the whole town, yet without being really loved.

His sister had a totally different nature. The narrowness of her creed could not shut her up. Her soul soared beyond the limits of the faith she professed. She was a woman with a great heart and universal sympathies.
They both died the same year.

On coming out here, she at once found her Paradise. Not the conventional Paradise however, for she had never created it in detail in her imagination. But a Glory and Bliss she had sometimes timidly expected in her deep and spontaneous trust in the love of her Saviour.

He, who had always more feared than loved the Divine, is still from time to time assailed by deep depressions. He lives in a colourless and joyless world, as he has done on earth. He fulfils almost the same duties in a very restricted world of good, limited and `respectable’ people.

His sermons are still threatening and lifeless.

He is not even capable of perceiving the difference between his condition and that of his sister. He sees her at his side, as usual. She, on the contrary, is fully aware of his state, and that is the only dark point in her otherwise happy existence.

We think she will succeed in calling him to life at the appropriate moment.

This case should set many believers thinking.

Here are, in fact, two persons, both of them equally virtuous, both of them belonging to the same creed, equally conscientious and faithful.

Yet, for one the doctrine became a prison, which prevented the expansion of his spirit. For the other, the same doctrine was only a cocoon where the caterpillar changed into a butterfly.

What do creeds and doctrines really matter? Everything depends on the inner life and not on the creed. One can do without any religious creed or belong to the most limited dogmatism, it does not matter. The only real point is that living joy which is created in every heart by a deep feeling of the fundamental unity of all life, joined to an intimate and confident certitude of the immense Love-Wisdom everywhere present in Creation.

“Where Love Rules” is an extract from The Other World: Experiences and Messages
Received Telepathically  from Albert Pauchard.