Word Gems: Hell: Franchezzo: an overview

I call your name, but you're not there... you call to me, and my soul answers to yours

A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands (1896) is channeled testimony from the other side. Franchezzo had been a very handsome Italian young man, by which allure he drew to himself hundreds of women, sexually merchandizing them.

Along the way, near the end - as he died young - he was granted meeting with his Twin Soul; obviously, due to no virtue on his part. Though, upon transition, he woke up in a very dark and very unpleasant place, the sacred memory of her - his "transforming fire" - drove him to rid himself of the Small Ego.

This work represents high quality information, resting solidly on natural law, and is corroborated, in terms of main tenets, by the best we have from the Spirit World.

"But where was I? Why this darkness? Why was no light left with me? I arose and groped as one does in a dark room, but I could find no light, hear no sound... I groped on, for how long I know not. It seemed hours, for in my growing horror and dismay I felt I must find some way out of this place.

"And to my despair, I seemed never to find any wall, any door, anything! ... Overcome at last, I called out loud, I shrieked and no voice answered me ... I bethought me of her I loved, but something made me shrink from uttering her name there...

"Was I mad? Delirious? ... And she, my Angel of Light, oh! where was she? ... I called wildly to her name ...

"Before me, far, far away, came a tiny speck of light like a star that grew and grew and came nearer and nearer till at last it appeared before me as a large ball of light [and] I saw my beloved.

"Her eyes were closed as of one in sleep, but her arms were held out to me, and her gentle voice said in those tones I knew so well, Oh! my love, where are you now; I cannot see you, I only hear your voice; I only hear you call to me, and my soul answers to yours...

"I tried to rush to her, but I could not. Some invisible force held me back ... In an agony I sank to the ground in unconsciousness, calling upon her."

Editor's note: This "tiny speck of light in the distance" is mentioned in a great many of the afterlife testimonies. A sincere call for help in the dark realms is always answered by the Guides.

"Alas! Alas! My despair, my anguish, was extreme, and I called out wildly [for her] and struck myself, and tore my hair, in wild and passionate horror of myself, and then my passion exhausted me, and I sank senseless and unconscious of all once more."

Editor's note: He now discovers his own hideousness, which brings on a sense of guilt an self-loathing. He wishes that she never see him again in this condition.

"I shrank back and sought to hide myself, and my heart grew hard, even to her ... And as soon as [the vision] of her was gone, I called frantically for her to come back ... She did not hear, but she felt my call ...

"Twice, three times, she came, and each time she came I felt the same shrinking from approaching her, and each time when she left I felt the same wild longing to bring her back ... Ah! now I knew death was no endless sleep, no calm oblivion...

"Each day my mind awoke, more and more, and I saw clearer and clearer the events of my life in a long procession before me - dimly at first, then by degrees, growing stronger and clearer, and I bowed my head in anguish."

Editor's note: Notice how his Twin, his "Angel of Light," the one who "answers to his soul," becomes his Transforming Fire, even in the rat-cellar of the lower realms; especially there. Without his memory of her grace and goodness, and his "wild" desire to be with her, he likely would be there still, to suffer his torments, for decades, or even many centuries.

"I was sitting, wrapped still in my despair, when I heard a voice, gentle and soft, calling to me - the voice of my beloved. And I felt compelled to rise and follow that voice till it should lead me to her ... I could see dimly ... [he is allowed to see her at home.]

"She sat at a little table with a sheet of paper before her and a pencil in her hand. She kept repeating my name and saying: 'Dearest of friends, if the dead ever return, come back to me, and try if you can make me write a few words from you, even yes or no in answer to my questions.'

Editor's note: Allow me to summarize a portion of that which ensues. He sees her Spirit Guide, a full-time Troubadour, standing at her side; also, her two brothers, now in the spirit world, who act as unofficial helpers in her life. "These spirits were bright, radiant, so that I could not look at them; the sight seemed to scorch my eyes as with a fire."

The Troubadour-Guide indicates that he will act as "medium," aiding transmission of Franchezzo's thoughts to his lover. But the man-in-the-dark is angry that he cannot speak with her directly. "And I knew as he spoke that I did not truly repent. I only suffered. I only loved and longed."

Nevertheless, messages are received and she is more than delighted. She asks if she can do something for him. "No, not now." Guilt and self-loathing, welling up in his spirit, prompt him to end their communication; that, she should be tormented no more with him. But his words are spoken in bitterness not love.

But she will have none of this: "Do not say that to me, for I would ever be your truest, dearest friend! as I was in the past, and since you died my one thought has been to find you and to speak with you again!"

The Troubadour, unseen to his charge, now speaks to the man-in-the-dark. He says that she is exhausted, not only by this emotion-laden encounter, but due to her constant sorrow since his passing. He commands him to leave that she might rest...

Suddenly, back in the darkness, he finds himself once more without her tender presence. But now he has company.

The radiant-white Duo, "The Justice Brothers," have followed him into the rat-cellar. They pay him a little social call, and now begin to psychologically work him over...

"You think she loves you? We don't think so. We think she's in love with an idealized image of you. She doesn't know the real you, does she? You misrepresented yourself when first you met her. You had been with untold numbers of women, took advantage of them, deceived each one, didn't you? You didn't tell her that, did you, Nature Boy? - but you got caught this time, got burned this time, didn't you, pal!

"Our sister's pureness has mesmerized you, beaten you up! You had never met anyone so wonderful, so glorious, so pure as she - and now you say that you love her! Well, how sweet! yer breakin' our hearts! You think that means something? Big deal! Who wouldn't love her?"

"And just look at your pathetic self! Even if you have a strong bond with her, you will be a very long time crawling out of your own sewer pit! We think this is a match made in hell! And guess what, Greaseball! When she passes to our side, her loving and tender spirit will send her straight to a higher and most wonderful realm, even higher than ours! How many aeons will it take you to catch up to her? If you really love her, don't you think you should spare her the grief of interminable suffering for you? Shouldn't you just set her free, release her, even for her to love another while on the earth plane? For once in your shriveled life, buddy, do the right thing and be a damn man! or will this be just one more of your frolics into self-absorption!"

The man-in-the-dark, thoroughly shaken by their brutally penetrating evaluation, collapses to the dirt.

"I bowed my head to the dust in shame and agony, for I knew that I was vile and in no way fit for her ... She might know happiness yet with one more worthy than I ... and I would only drag her down into sadness with me.

"For the first time in my life, I put the happiness of another before my own, and because I so loved her and would have her happy, I said to them: Let it be so then. Tell her the truth, and let her say but one kind word to me in farewell, and I will go from her and darken the shadow of her life by mine no more.

"So we went back to her, and I saw her as she slept, exhausted with her sorrow for me ... Then they awoke her and made her to write down their words, as I stood by and heard each word fall as a nail in a coffin where they were burying my last hope forever.

"She, as in a dream, wrote on, till at last the whole shameful story of my life was told, and I had but to tell her myself that all was forever at an end between us, and she was free from my sinful presence and my selfish love...

"I said adieu to her. As drops of blood wrung from my heart were these words, and as ice they fell upon her heart and crushed it.

"Then I turned and left her - how, I know not - but, as I went, I felt [the mental chains beginning to loosen which held me to the dark realms!] I was free to wander where I would! ...

"Then she whom we had deemed so weak and gentle that we had to decide for her, called me back to her...

"She said she could never give me up so long as I had love for her! Let your past be what it might! Let you now be sunk to the lowest depths of hell itself! I will still love you, still claim my right - the right of my love - to help, to comfort, to cherish you, till ... you be raised up again!

"And then it was that I broke down and wept as only a strong proud man can weep...

whose heart has been wrung and bruised and hardened, and touched by the soft tender touch of a loving hand till the tears must come to his relief."

"I went back to my love, and though they would not let me touch her [in his still-putrid condition], [the Troubadour in-charge,] who was her guardian, whispered to her that her prayer was answered! and that she indeed would lead me back to the Light!

[The very next day, after sleeping, she seeks for a medium that she might speak to her beloved.] "I felt myself summoned by the voice of her whose power over me was so great, and in obedience to it, I found myself standing in a small room ...

"She was telling [the medium] what had passed the night before, and how much she loved me, and how she would gladly give all her life if by so doing she could comfort and help me. And that man spoke such kind words to her - from my heart I thanked him and still thank him for them - He gave me so much hope.

[Through the medium, Franchezzo explains to his love that, despite his wanton lifestyle of old, he had never truly been in love with any of the others; only] "she had been to me as one sacred - loved with a love I had given to none but herself." [The medium encouraged him] that if I would seek now to learn the things of the spirit and work to advance myself, the gulf between us would disappear! ...

"Had it not been for my one star of hope, my angel of light, and the hopes she had given me through her love, I must have sunk into the apathy of despair [and the deepest levels of hell].

"But when I thought of her waiting, as she vowed she would do all her life for me...

...when I recalled her sweet and tender smile and the loving words she had spoken to me; my heart and my courage revived again, and I strove to endure, to be patient, to be strong..."

the goddess and her gift of salvation: "I recalled her love, and then I strove to endure"

"This place where I was now was is like a huge prison. It was the House of Sorrow; yet it was the House of Hope! for all there were striving upwards to the Light! and for each had begun a time of hope.

"Each had his foot planted upon the lowest rung of the ladder of hope by which he should in time mount to heaven itself..."

Franchezzo: "I went to Earth very often, to where my Beloved dwelt. [I would stand looking at her] as she sat and worked or read or slept... she would always be, in a dim way, conscious of my presence, and would whisper my name... One night after I had watched her sink into sleep after a weary time of weeping, I was suddenly touched upon the shoulder by [her guardian Troubadour]. He asked me if I would be very quiet and self-restrained if he allowed me to kiss her while she slept. I, wild with this new joy, eagerly promised. She was lying quietly asleep, with the tears still on her eyelashes and sweet lips. I took her hand so gently into mine, so as not to awaken her. Her hand closed half consciously upon mine. The bright [guardian Troubadour] smiled at us both and said, 'Kiss her now!' I kissed her not once but half a dozen times, so passionately that she awoke and the bright spirit [Troubadour] drew me away in haste! ... again and again she repeated my name softly to herself!" - I call your name, I call your name...

Franchezzo: "It was indeed only possible to pity these poor unfortunates who had made such utter slaves of themselves to their base desires that they could not resist them and were drawn back time after time till at last, satiated and exhausted, they could move no more. For myself, I might also have yielded to the temptation had it not been for the thoughts of my Pure Love, and the hopes she had given me, the purer desires she had inspired."

When Franchezzo began to think in a more selfless way, he was allowed to leave the rat-cellar and to move into a more decent, but very modest, prison cell; one with bare stone walls, a cot and the scantiest of furniture. He began to attend lectures which instructed him on the nature of love. He would remain in this "reform school" environment for some time, until his soul vibration-level might sufficiently advance... inch by inch, day by day... representing a settled state of mind. The dark thought-patterns of a lifetime will not be erased overnight; but the good news is that there is real healing for all those who choose it... inch by inch, day by day... As Jesus said, these recovering ones will stay in prison until they have paid the last penny; to whom? - primarily, to their own higher selves.

No one will or can pay this "debt" for another, a deficit resulting from years of selfish thought and lifestyle:

Every inauthentic and disingenuous action; every egocentric manipulation and power-posturing; every fear-based and self-demeaning thought; every closing of the eyes and sweeping under the rug; every untoward mental effort which takes us farther afield from Sacred Destiny - each choice, good or bad, is recorded in our spirits, raising or lowering one's inner-person vibration; each decision, either increasing the light within or fostering an internal darkness.