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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity


 

Franchezzo

Aftermath, Part II: Materialism's exaltation of experience in the world ignores the greater aspect of experience, the awakening of life within. Dr. Peebles on the other side admonishes us: “Do not become hypnotized by belief [such as reincarnation, which he insisted is error], but find God within and be free; then your eyes will be opened and you will not want to come back to this Earth again.” What is needed is a brief opening of the eyes, just one moment of clarity, not many additional lives.

 


 

return to the main-page article on "Hell" 

 

Experience, it is said, describes a necessary ingredient of the reincarnation process. And yet the word “experience” is not easy to define.

An online etymology dictionary offers this:

And also the prefix, "ex":

From this we discern that “experience” is an attempt, a “try”, a test, to observe; an effort to gain evidence, proof, of something sought for.

This endeavor to seek for something, to observe, to test, to secure evidence, is more readily apparent in a very closely related word, “experiment”:

we notice that it’s ‘ex-perience’ not ‘intra-perience’

There’s a presumption built into the word “experience.” It’s a belief that whatever it is we’re looking for, it will be found “out there” not “in here.” This is an implication to be drawn from the little prefix “ex”, which means “out of” or “from.”

It's an important distinction. The dysfunctional ego constantly perceives its own neediness, a burning awareness of “I don’t have enough” because “I am not enough.” Caught in this morass of existential deficit, it would never think of looking within. “What sense does that make?” laments the ego. “If I am to get what I need to feel good about myself, the solution has to be found ‘out there.’ I already know that I have nothing ‘in here’.”

And so the ego is a true-believer in “experience” – a quest to find something, some knowledge, some enhancement, some fortification to fill up the emptiness inside which dominates its perceptions of life and the universe. Whatever it gains, however, it’s never enough. Nothing ever satisfies. If you ask the ego what it needs, it always has one answer – “more.”

This is why the ego, so readily drawn to reincarnational belief, insists that it requires – how many lives? – certainly not just one more, its neediness would never settle for just one more life -- but it imagines that only a hundred thousand lives could ever fill up its bottomless pit of craving desire for “more”.

And so when the ego says it needs more “experience”, from the endless iteration of lives, what it’s really saying is, “I believe that more knowledge will save me.” This quest for more knowledge is the “try” or test that’s built into the word “experience.” It’s the effort to gain evidence, proof, of something sought for – and what is sought for? – that would be more knowledge, which the ego believes will make it feel whole and complete.

tinker, tailor, soldier, spy

The ego believes that all of those extra lives will “fill me up” with a knowledge of what it’s like to be “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy.” If it has the knowledge of all of these lives, genders, occupations – that giant ball of wax of experience – “then I’ll feel complete and satisfied. I’ll be evolved, spiritually mature, in all that knowledge.”

This is the ego’s illusion.

Editor’s note: Knowledge will always be in demand, even a million years from now – but not to mature us spiritually. It has no power to do that. Materialists often make this mistake. We hear them asserting that with more information, better education, society will be changed for the better. But this, without something else, doesn’t seem to work out. In fact, the most intelligent and best educated tend to be the most corrupt, the greatest oppressors, and no matter how rich and powerful they become, it’s never enough for them. The ego can’t be coaxed into greater maturity with more knowledge, per se.

 

“Do not become hypnotized by dogma or belief [such as reincarnation, which he insisted is error], but find God within and be free; then your eyes will be opened and you will not want to come back to this Earth again.”

Dr. Peebles is one of the great teachers on the other side. See his channeled testimony here and here. Notice in the masthead quotation how he forthrightly states that finding God within will take away the sense of existential emptiness, allowing one to “be free”, to escape the desire of coming back to the Earth.

Editor's note: Dr. Peebles passed on in 1922. His testimony offered via Anna Wickland is some of the wisest and most helpful I’ve encountered over the years. However, during the last hundred years, extending to the present day, several other mediums have claimed that Peebles speaks through them. I have not reviewed them all but, one of them especially, to be frank, I do not believe that the Dr. Peebles we’ve known is speaking. The current version strikes me as a silly spirit, mouthing empty platitudes, babbling, moreover, at times, spewing nonsense, teachings contrary to natural law, of the sort that the 1922 Peebles would disown. One needs to be careful of identities as mischievous spirits are not unknown to impersonate a famous teacher.

But, cannot a perception of the “God-life within” also be an experience? And if this is the real ticket to maturity, doesn’t this mean that experience is the vital element after all?

Not exactly. If we use the word “experience” loosely, without deference to its strict meaning, then we could slide this past the goal. But let’s recall that “experience” contains a presumption, and the ego is well aware of the bias. The prefix “ex” means “out from” or “away.”

Given the ego’s sense of inner malaise, it has no reason to suspect that its amelioration will come from within. It never looks there. And so when the ego uses the word “experience,” it does so with a view toward a strict definition of “what I need is ‘out there’.”

‘apperception’ is the necessary pre-condition, the ultimate foundation, of what we call experience; ‘apperception’ is what makes experience possible

Why is it that experience, and knowledge gained from it, without something else, cannot mature us?

Animals have as much experience of the world as we do, but they lack the ability to transcend their own programming; not as humans might. Apperception speaks to an inner framework, a deeper self-knowledge, which experience of the world cannot impart.

Dr. Daniel Robinson of Oxford on the work of Bishop Berkeley (paraphrased, from a lecture): “Without apperception, experience avails nothing; the Self is different from the idea; content different from the knower. Apperception is paramount to the process: to be experienced at all, the successive experiential data must be combined or held together in a unity of consciousness, which implies a unity of self, and this inner integration is as much an object of experience as anything is. Therefore experience, both of the self and its objects, rests on acts of synthesis that, because they are the [pre]conditions of any experience, are not themselves experienced.

Editor's note: "Apperception" is not a common word. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) coined the term (from the German apperzeption). He did so within the context of his “monads,” which he said are building blocks of reality, a “self-sufficient indivisible simple substance.” There are four different kinds of monads, Leibniz postulated, with God as the supreme monad, followed by humans, animals, and other items of the world. All these have a degree of perception, but God (and humans) enjoy a higher grade, an “apperception,” which is self-consciousness (that is, the One who describes himself as the great “I Am”); further, he asserted, God demonstrates absolute apperception and appetition (this latter becomes a desire directed towards a specific purpose. See the youtube lectures of physicist Dr. Frederico Faggin, inventor of the first computer microchip in 1971, who sees Leibniz’s “monads” as a starting point to explain that Consciousness, not matter, forms the elemental essence of all reality. The appetition of Universal Consciousness is to know itself which, as Dr. Faggin puts forward, is the driving force of evolution in the cosmos).

Kant distinguished transcendental apperception from empirical apperception. The first is the perception of an object as involving the consciousness of the pure self as subject -- "the pure, original, unchangeable consciousness that is the necessary condition of experience and the ultimate foundation of the unity of experience."

apperception speaks to an enhanced structure of the mind, not just more knowledge

On the "Clear Thinking" page I presented the following paragraphs which introduce the concept of "pre-condition to experience" or foundational structuring of the mind:

I've presented several errors of debate in Robert Thouless's "How To Think Straight." Some of you might like to get his book and read all 34.

content vs. structure

It's helpful to become aware of Thouless's cataloging of the "dishonest tricks," as he calls them. We see them everywhere in society. It's virtually all we hear from many politicians, from Big Religion, from Facebook debates, from sales ads, on and on - but, especially, if we're not very careful, we find these "tricks" well at home in the privacy of our own minds, where they do the most harm, with the one who's the easiest to fool.

What can be done? Thouless offers a philosophical assessment: essentially, he says, "if we had enough public awareness, better education, we could all begin to think straight."

This problem, however, I believe, runs deeper than education, which is just more content. Some of the biggest violators of clear thinking are the most highly educated, and not even the captain of the Harvard debating team might be immune. We must look at the mind's disability in terms of "structure" not just "content."

 

 

It's a proverbial question: Is the glass half-full or half-empty?

We are tempted to answer one way or the other - usually, half-empty. But why should this be so? It's the same glass, the same quantity of liquid.

Kant's mind-imposed structures on sensory data come alive in this little thought-experiment.

The "glass half-full or empty" becomes microcosm of a grand systemic issue:

What about other areas of life? What else are we viewing as "half-full" or "half-empty"?

Do I see my own life as "half-full" or "half-empty"?

How do we view the past? - was it "half-empty" every day? What about the future? Is there fullness there? are good things assuredly coming? - or is it all just variations of emptiness?

 Let's be more realistic.

There are very few people who live their lives seeing "half-full glasses." Fullness, abundance, wholeness, and completeness are concepts foreign to the Small Ego - because in that dark world of perpetual lack, there are only degrees of emptiness; and even when "the glass is full" we don't really see it as full, as to make us happy, but only as a new threat against losing what we have. 

structure vs. content

All this "insanity" manifests as distorted view of the universe, wherein, ironically, God and Goodness are All-Pervasive; but, to many, living in a private hall-of-horrors, the threat of loss continually looms large and burdens one's spirit -- all glasses in life are forever perceived to be "half empty" -- as we suffer under draconian mind-imposed structures which filter and sort the in-coming sensory data.

This is the essential problem of the ego. No amount of content, knowledge, or experience can fundamentally influence it – not until a deficient structure of mind, a basic neediness of “I am not enough,” is addressed.

Dr. Peebles says that once we perceive the God-life within, our desires will change, a certain structure of the mind is altered. We’re no longer rabid to fill up an existential neediness. We feel more whole and complete.

This goes beyond learning some new fact of the external world, some new “ex-perience.” We are changed from the inside out. Or so it seems. The soul’s influence, once dormant -- but there all the time -- begins to awaken. And then, as the apostle Paul used the phrase, we become “a new creation.”

‘remind her of the things she used to love’

In Part I we spoke of this principle, employed by the Guides, as an attempt to awaken the soul. It sometimes seems to work, but most often does not.

A mere remembrance of some good thing of former times, while momentarily, possibly, pleasant, cannot awaken the soul. The image of something warm and loving, of and by itself, cannot rouse the soul to action.

But if the dormant soul finds within itself its own desire to come alive, that is, if it is its time to do so, then the image of past love can serve as catalyst, a kind of portal, to awakening. But only if the soul is predisposed to accept it, wants it, and is desirous of seeking for it.

The images of past love, at the right time, can “germinate” the seed of the soul, as sunshine and moisture vivify the seemingly dead acorn.

 

W. Aber’s “Beyond The Veil”: channeled testimony via direct-materialization, from the latter 1800s: "Good-evening, friends. I  say  'friends'  because  all  are friends  who  are  working  to  better  the  human  family… I  have  been  in  spirit  life  so  many  years  that I have  no  ties  on  the  earth  plane. I am called  Zelda… This  is  my  first  visit  to  earth  for  many  years.  As  my work  lies  far  beyond  yours,  I  have  no  desire  to  visit  this  plane, and  would  not  be  here  tonight  if  the  good  Doctor  (Reed)  had not  requested  me  to  give  you  something  in  regard  to  the  work I  am  engaged  in.  He  tells  me  that  a  simple  recital  of  my  work may  be  very  instructive  to  you… We  use  no  textbooks  in  the  schools  of  spirit  life but  through  the  power  of  our  minds  we  are  able  to  place before  our  students  pictures  of  any  subject  we  wish  in  explain. A  spirit  who  passes  into  the  spirit  spheres  before  s/he  has  reached maturity  is  best  taught  by  instructive  games. We  have  a  system  of  music  that  far  surpasses  the music  of  your  earth,  and  we  only  use  such  as  will  awaken the highest  aspirations  of  the  soul.  We  teach  our  pupils  anything in regard  to  harmonious  sounds…”

Editor’s note: There is much important information here, but for our purposes at hand let us take special note of Zelda’s comment, “we  only  use  such  as  will  awaken the highest  aspirations  of  the  soul.” In other words, these Guides cannot command or forcibly induce but only attempt to “awaken” the soul, which is always in control and will not be budged until its ready to move.

 

postscript

existential crisis in summerland

Channeled information from “The Angels Diary and Celestion Study Of Man” (1903) by Mrs. Effie Shirey and Charles Samson

 

“After a time the new life became so natural to me that it seemed as though I had always known it; it was no longer a dream but a grand and beautiful reality. With my studies, my music and art, the companionship of new friends that I had
found since I became an inhabitant of the heavenly world, the delightful musicales and instructive lectures… and science experiments… the time passed very pleasantly.

Kairissi. This sounds like an ideal life, doesn’t it – there you are, moving from lecture to concert to art project to social gathering to science experiment. What’s not to like about this? – well, I have a certain glimpse, but I’d like your comment first.

Elenchus. On the surface, it all seems perfect. This is testimony by a girl who’d been over there only a short time. She’s feeling right at home. And I’m sure she’s also involved in some form of charitable works.

K. And, you know, there’s nothing wrong with any of this. We could all do worse, and I think it’s what many of us want – I certainly want to live this way. I can hardly wait to experience all those wonderful activities. But, even as I look forward to a “full day-timer” of events, there’s a certain uneasiness lurking in the shadows.

E. We spoke of this in the series of articles, “Will You Survive The Terror Of Eternal Life.”

K. There’s a whole class of people over there who are busy-busy, never slow down, and believe themselves to be very spiritual; and yet, they’re all quite insane. They tend to hide in experience, seek to distract themselves with experience, and with their busy-busy lives they immerse themselves in it - and yet they remain as frantically "empty on the inside" as ever. We spoke of them in “the 500 tape-recorded messages from the other side.”

E. May I suggest that, after two somewhat-intense writings on “aftermath,” we limit our discussion. What would you say is the real problem here?

is this all there is

K. Well, this girl might be fine, there’s nothing wrong with what she’s saying. However, we both know that if the studies-art-service regimen is all you have, you’re headed for burn-out. It might take a while, even a long whole. There’s so much to do and see in Summerland that you can fill the day with fun things for a very long time, but, eventually, that little voice inside the deeper part of you is going to come calling and ask, “Is this all there is?” And that’s when the existential crisis starts.

E. I’d like to connect all this with the “aftermath” discussions. We’ve seen that, while experience is what everyone wants – we want to know more, we want to see things, we want to be thrilled – experience, by its very definition and nature, is external to the soul. And nothing external to the soul can sustain one’s spiritual life and health.

K. Elenchus, let me say this and be very clear. When I first “met” you – I mean, in a real way, when I realized who you are to me – something in my inner being was activated, some deeper part of me came alive, and it lit up like a proverbial Christmas tree. And I was never the same again. That kind of illumination and “coming alive” might be termed an “elevated level of consciousness.” Once you get it, it never goes away.

jaded and disillusioned

E. As you say this, those named John and Mary will be quick to retort, “Oh, yes, I fell in love once, it was nice in the beginning, but it didn’t last, I know better now, but it was a good experience, I guess, but thanks anyway.”

K. And that’s not what I’m talking about. When we meet true love in all its glory, it might seem like the fireworks is coming from your mate – and, in a way it is, but – the reality is, it’s coming from the deep inside of you. He's the one who activates your inner life, in a way that nothing or no one else can. And now you’re like a lighthouse sending out rays of illumination – of joy, wonder, and bliss. And it’s not coming from the outside; not really.

E. Say more on this, Kriss.

K. For anyone to survive eternal life, and not succumb to the existential terror of a mind-numbing infinite array of tomorrows, then – let me warn you now – the busy-busy daytimer of study-service-art-music and all the rest just isn’t going to cut it. Those things are great, and we want them, but we need something more. In the beginning, when you’re new over there, you’ll think you’ve got it covered – but soon that little voice will be nagging you, “Is this all there is?We will not survive eternal life, in a sane way, until we find, within the deeper self, our wellspring of life, one that never runs dry. And let me tell you this, your eternal Twin is the one who’ll lead you, most unfailingly, to those waters of refreshment.

E. That artesian spring that never runs dry is what Jesus talked about, too. (John 4) - It occurs to me that there would be no need for him to use an analogy of "never running dry" if this were not an existential threat to us, meaning, there are lots of people who do "feel" that it's all gone dry.

K. But this is just how the ego perceives itself.

K. Adrian Smith’s dictum, “This world cannot be fixed but only forsaken, cannot be saved but only transcended” gathers new meaning with the missionary efforts of Franchezzo in the Dark Realms.

E. Are you saying that “hell” cannot be “fixed” or “saved” but only “forsaken” and “transcended”?

K. I am saying that, but what is true for “hell” is also true for every other domain of the ego.

E. Explain this to everyone.

K. Adrian made his comment in reference to the Earth-world. Many people disagree though. They believe that with better information, education, more good-will, people trying very hard, we can change the world into heaven on earth. But any world that is run by the ego cannot attain such elevation.

E. This is an interesting point. All worlds of the ego exist for a purpose. Each one has been designed by God and the Guides to help people, that is, in the long run, to become more mature and spiritual.

K. As usual, yes, we might be required to take the long road home, but these ego-worlds are purposefully set up as “classrooms” to lead people to a better view. And I’d like to make clear that the worlds of the ego would include, not just the many “neighborhoods” of the Dark Realms, but also the unspiritual Earth, and even the “lower levels” of Summerland. We talked about this problem afflicting many in Summerland in the “500 tape-recorded messages from the other side” writing.

E. This is an alternate perspective, isn’t it? All three domains exist to deal with the ego’s malfeasance but in different ways, at different levels of immaturity. Each world is an educational system in its own right. And so we’re not supposed to fight or try to change the system, or the "classroom", because it exists for a reason.

K. However, in each of these three “classrooms,” while the system cannot be made right or perfected, individuals within the system can be saved, they can transcend the ego’s domain. We saw this very clearly in the adventures of Franchezzo.

E. And, of course, that’s how it works for individuals on Earth and also in the ego-led “neighborhoods” of Summerland.

K. What this is telling us is that people cannot be saved in groups but only individually – each in his or her own time, as the soul awakens to its own deeper life.

 

 

 

Editor's last word:

opening a doorway to new perspective

We have discussed that the soul cannot be strong-armed into wakefulness. Force-feeding it with more experience or more lives will leave it unmoved. This "coercion" includes leading the soul to perceptions of love.

And yet, as we’ve seen, the Guides themselves attempt to “remind her of the things she used to love.” What is the proper view here?

While the soul, if it remains adamant, stands immune to outside influence, it is possible to present a portal, a “doorway to new perspective,” which might offer the "student" a clear choice, if the student is ready. And I think this is what the Guides are doing with their therapy of “reminding.”

a vision of a better tomorrow

This “doorway” might unfold a vision of a new tomorrow. It speaks of second chances.

Nevertheless, in each individual case, each troubled soul, mired by the oppressive ego, must decide to “walk through the doorway.” It cannot be forced - and must enter the process of renewal by its own volition.

It’s strange. One well-placed mental image, inspired by a Guide’s whispering efforts to persuade, might open a portal, might cause a sin-weary suffering one to choose and to consider “coming home to God.”

one moment of clarity

Repentance does not require another life of experiences, or a hundred thousand - but, instead, one inviting doorway of possibility, a brief opening of the eyes, as Dr. Peebles said, just one moment of clarity, is all that's required to trigger an awakening process. But only if the soul is ready and willing.

 

restatement

What is the real issue here?

Experience, per se, cannot change and evolve us. Only a perception of the life within, of what we've had all the time, the “inner soul-riches,” can advance us.

What does this mean?

It means that we do not need to gain something from "out there" but only to realize what was "factory installed."

The dysfunctional ego is led by systemic fears of “I don’t have enough” because “I am not enough.” It’s a poisonous, debilitating, gnawing feeling of “lack” on the deep inside.

We might gain a whole world of experience from “out there,” or 10,000 lives of doing everything under the sun, but, without something more, one’s inner existential uneasiness will not subside.

This is the core problem with ”R” and why it cannot help people.

the poisonous feeling deep within will not go away just by experiencing more

Only when we access the life within, the “true self,” are we granted release from the poisonous sensations of "not enough".

This perception of “inner life,” when it comes, comes in "no time," comes in one timeless eternal moment of cosmic clarity.

In receipt of this mystical gift, we are jettisoned into a higher level of consciousness, and we’re changed from the inside out.

And the change is permanent.

 

 

Aftermath: Part I