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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Franchezzo

return to the main-page article on "Hell" 

And now was given to me a fresh source of happiness in being able to spend a certain time on earth with my darling, when she was able to be made fully conscious that I was there. Many times had I been to see her unknown to herself;—in all my wanderings I had found time to snatch brief happy moments to go to earth and look at her. And now, although I was still almost invisible to her eyes, yet she could tell that I was present and could feel my touch when I laid my hand on hers.

the empty chair

She would place a chair for me beside her own that we might sit side by side again, as in the dear old days that were gone. She would speak to me and could hear faintly what I said in answer, and could even distinguish dimly my form. Ah me! the strangeness, the sadness, and yet the sweetness of those meetings between the living and the dead!

I would come to her with my heart full of the bitterest anguish and remorse for the past, —the sense of shame and humiliation at what I had become would be such that it seemed hopeless for one such as I was to rise to higher things—and the sight of her sweet face, and the knowledge that she believed in me and loved me in spite of all, would soothe my heart and give me fresh hope, fresh courage to struggle on.

'from the desolation of our lives, a trust and hope in the future grows'

From the desolation of our lives, there grew up in those strangely sweet meetings a trust and hope in the future that no words can describe.

I learned that she had been developing her powers, and studying how she could use the truly wonderful gifts which she possessed and which had lain dormant for so long, and she was greatly pleased to find how well she was succeeding and how rapidly the curtain which shut me out from her was being drawn aside.

direct-materialization mediumship

And then there came to us another pleasure. My beloved had found a medium through whose peculiar organisation it was made possible for a spirit to clothe himself again in the semblance of an earthly body, similar in appearance to his own and recognisable by the friends he had left on earth. I was now enabled to materialise (as it is termed) a solid hand with which to touch her.

Great was the happiness this gave to us both, though I was as yet denied the further pleasure of showing myself to her. I was told I could not do so without bearing on the materialised face the traces of my sufferings, and it would only have pained her to see that.

Later on, when I was more advanced, I should show myself clearly. Ah me! how many, many poor spirit ones would come in crowds to those meetings, hoping for the chance that they too might be able to show themselves and win some recognition—see again some- one who was glad to know that they still lived and could return; and how many were always certain to go away sad and disappointed because there were so many and only a certain amount of power, and those who were nearest and dearest were naturally granted a preference.

The spirit world is full of lonely souls all eager to return and show that they still live, still think of those whom they have left, still feel an interest in their struggles and are as ready and often more able to advise and help than when they were on earth, were they not shut out by the barriers of the flesh.

'I'm not going without you'

I have seen so many, so very many spirits hanging about the earth plane when they might have gone to some bright sphere and would not, because of their affection for some beloved ones left to struggle with the trials of earth, and grieving in deepest sorrow for their death. And so the spirits would hang about them, hoping for some chance which would make the mortal conscious of their presence and their constant love.

Editor's note: A great many testimonies from the other side affirm this principle of not moving on to a better world until the beloved transitions. One example: the story of Mary and Arthur; she could have zoomed ahead but, instead, "waited at the gate", for many decades, for him to meet her. This precept of not moving forward without the true mate is one more version of the unwritten rule, authentic lovers were given to each other as impetus for spiritual evolvement.

Could these ones but communicate as do friends on earth when one has had to go to a distant country and leave the other behind, there would not be such hopelessness of sorrow as I have often seen. And although years and the ministrations of comforting angels will soften the grief of most mortals, yet would it not be a happier state for both mortals and spirits could they but still hold sweet communion together as of yore?

I have known a mother whose son has taken to evil ways, and who believed that mother to be an angel in heaven far away—I have, I say, known her to follow her son for years, striving, and in vain, to impress him with the sense of her presence, that she might warn and save him from his path of sin.

Editor's note: And in this context of mortals offering love and encouragement to a wayward spirit, we find Franchezzo's great assertion concerning the unbroken affinity of Twin Souls:

‘some misunderstanding had parted’ them

K. Notice, Elenchus, why they fell out – “some misunderstanding.”

E. This was their first “insuperable barrier”, with death as the "last." "Insuperable" conflict because neither would go to the other. But it didn't have to be a mountain too high.

K. My heart is heavy as I read this. It all sounds so familiar. Imagine that! – spending a lifetime apart due to wounded pride resulting from “some misunderstanding.” There’s so much sorrow here. If at least one of them had been sane enough to seek for reconciliation, there could have been a chance for healing. But if both are insane with pride, then they’ll have to learn by a lifetime of suffering.

Editor’s note: What is this "true state of things"? There is a reality beyond what we know to be reality, and surface appearances are often deceiving: “whatever may have appeared to the contrary” jars our common sensibility. See the story of Adela and Eddie, his war-time threat of death, communicated to his beloved via the “higher self,” even though the small ego remained unaware of the reality of the contact.

Franchezzo’s observation causes us to pause for another reason: The death of one of the lovers is called “a last insuperable barrier,” suggesting a "farcical dream wherein nothing could be made to go right," a chain of misfortune of which this latest was but the most recent. Why “insuperable”? Poets and songwriters suggest that, if love is “meant to be” it will find a way. In “potentia”, yes, this is true, but not all things destined to manifest as reality will find expression in our sorrowful world.

While acknowledging this element of destiny, we are troubled to imagine the various barriers, not just initial misunderstanding, keeping them apart. And how was this even possible given the strength of their love? We know each enjoyed claim to the other by how they reacted upon transitioning. Released from the bondage of time and mortality, they were now immediately drawn to each other with a potency of a strong magnet; and this, so forcibly, that the old barriers of Earth meant for nothing.

We gasp in astonishment at how easily these long-entrenched hindrances fall to the side, allowing the couple to perceive the all-pervasive reality of their love; a love that had always existed between them but, in its earliest appearance, as Dickens uses the phrase, like a “Blossom that had withered in its bloom.”

'the desolation of our lives'

Editor’s note: Franchezzo uses the phrase "from the desolation of our lives" -- so much loss, so much missed opportunity, so much grief in beholding their ruined mortal lives; how bleak, indeed, seemed their possible future together. But, he now learns, if love is true, everything changes upon transition, the reality that ought to have been begins to assert itself. In receipt of this transitioned augmented perception, the clearer vision of the liberated spirit person proclaims what is real.

I have seen spirits in such sorrow, such despair, trying in vain to win one conscious look, one single thought, to show that their presence was felt and understood. I have seen them in their despair cast themselves down before the mortal one and seek to hold her hand, her dress, anything. And the spirit hand was powerless to grasp the mortal one, and the mortal ears were ever deaf to the spirit voice. Only, perhaps, a sense of sorrow would be given, and an intense longing to behold again the dead without power to know that the so-called dead was there beside them.

There is no despair of earth, great as it often is, equal to the despair a spirit feels when first he realises in all its force, the meaning of the barrier which death has placed between him and the world of mortal men.