Do spirits in the astral realms look forward to a transcendental climax, an ecstasy or state of exaltation, presently out of their reach?
Many souls speaking from the afterlife see with great clarity how much growth lies ahead of them. The Englishwoman Etta Thomas (-1920), communicating through the famous medium Mrs. Osborne Leonard to her brother and psychical researcher Drayton Thomas, sees herself as a work in progress. “. . . the four years since I passed over have gone very quickly and very happily. I grow more conscious of the wonderful things around me, things of which I was not wholly conscious at first. For instance, my range of sight and hearing, as well as understanding, is constantly increasing.
Other spirits look ahead to a future that almost takes away one’s breath. An unidentified woman who dedicated herself to the care of children in London’s slums but was no saint tells us why she must be satisfied with her present station in a “lower heaven”: “Oh! the vision of what lies ahead would o’erpower us. So we wait in preparation in ‘the vestibule of Heaven.’” Are there many levels? “Oh, yes! There are others, how many I have no idea. The question which sometimes occurs to me is: Shall we ever reach the last? Is there a final? Since God is infinite, is it possible for us to arrive at any limit? Think how far we were from holiness when we commenced our pilgrimage on earth, and what a trifling distance we have yet travelled, then you will understand that there must yet be innumerable such stages before we can hope to stand in the undimmed splendour of God’s presence.
Frances Banks, an Anglican nun who began communicating through the medium Helen Greaves a month after her death in 1965, sees herself as evolving toward “the eternal Center of Light and Creative Energy which men call God.” She feels she is already on the upward path, for she finds herself sloughing off her astral body in favor of a Body of Light. “I feel as though I am starting on a Path of Light which leads . . . into Realms of unimaginable beauty and wonder of which I have, as yet, but the faintest glimmer of comprehension.”
Drayton Thomas (1867-1953), the well-known theologian and psychic researcher mentioned above, received this message from his deceased father: “One cannot attain a stage at which one can say, ‘Th ere is nothing more to will, I must go on exactly as I am.’ Because when we master what we think is the absolute crowning point of knowledge in any subject, we immediately find that it has opened out a world of new knowledge again. You see it all around you. The possibilities over here are infinitely greater… there will always be this glorious sense of adventure in understanding.” However, “There are sluggards and dull people here, as with you.”
The California judge David Hatch (1846-1912), writing through the hand of the medium Elsa Barker in 1914, confirmed Thomas’ warning: “Most souls are nearly as blind as they were on earth.” But there are plenty of teachers “who stand ready to help anyone who wishes their help in making real and deep studies in the mysteries of life.”
Edward C. Randall (1860-1935), a Buffalo, New York attorney and psychic investigator, sat through over 700 seances with the direct voice medium Emily French and came to this conclusion: “I have come to know there is no death; there are no dead. That change is one step only in life’s progression, in the unceasing march of evolution, in which neither identity nor individuality is lost, and that life goes on and labor continues as the soul works toward perfection, for progress is an absolute law that nothing can resist.”
I endorse with deep conviction this view of our future state. But I always remember that a dedication to the affairs of earth must be our present focus. As that great Anglican hymn has it, “Come, Labor on. Who dares stand idle on the harvest plain while all around us waves the golden grain?”
Stafford Betty, Professor of Religious Studies, CSUB, (ret) is the author of When Did You Ever Become Less by Dying? and Heaven and Hell Unveiled. His novels include The Imprisoned Splendor, The Afterlife Therapist and Guardians of the Afterworld. His latest book, The Hell Dwellers: A Novel about the Dark Side of the Afterlife is published by White Crow Books. Stafford can be found at staffordbetty.com.
