Spirit Guides inform us that the purpose of the Dark Realms is not to punish but to 'grind the lust for sin out of the soul'

We cannot forever evade our true selves, the hushed whisperings deep within, the sacred destiny, a heritage of having been "made in the image"; we cannot avoid, but only delay, a requirement to vivify one's spirit, to grow in consciousness, to enter self-realization, to unfold the soul, to evolve as a sentient being, to love ourselves, to choose life – but, most of all, the great imperative, in this world and the next, to explore sacred personhood, to become fully human, to claim birthright, to advance as mature sons and daughters of Mother-Father God.

Editor's Note: This article is part of a series; see the 8 link-icons below - each is best reviewed within a wide corpus of knowledge. My research, for nearly 60 years, attempts to get at what's real and true. Concerning priority of the topics, there's a song-lyric, "love changes everything" - so it is with the scientific evidence of the afterlife; its reality changes everything.

Dante's 'Comedy' is famous for its 'abandon hope all ye who enter here' and other errors, but, even so, it offers an important message

Special note: The "Divine Comedy" helped to popularize the error that suicides are more evil than most. See the above "7th circle of hell."

Written in the early 1300s, "The Comedy" became a classic “Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Afterlife.” More than other works or even official ecclesiastical doctrine, the epic poem would come to define Western civilization’s images of hell, purgatory, and heaven, influencing the popular imagination even today. But, once we get passed the draconian mythology, we find a good deal of wisdom.

“O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall? … Consider your origin. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.” Dante Alighieri, "The Comedy"

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Old Man River

I'm tired'a livin', but I'm scared'a dyin'...

Editor’s note: Concerning one’s ability to leave a dark place of detention “the very same day” – which is true – it should be pointed out, strange to say, that many do not want to leave. Many will linger in dark detention for months or years; and, in hard-core cases, they may settle in for decades or even centuries.

Why do they insist upon suffering?

There is a companion article which discusses this phenomenon in some detail. All of us have friends and relatives who’ve ended up in a dark place and, in many cases, do not know how to get out; and sometimes they don’t want to. We might be able to help them.

See the lengthy discussion on the “Sensibility: 1-Minute” page.

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'know thyself'

"Know thyself" represents some of the most ancient wisdom of this world. It was inscribed upon the Greek temple of Apollo at Delphi.

And today, a leader in the new science of consciousness, Dr. Federico Faggin – also the inventor of the first microprocessor in 1971 – asserts that the most fundamental characteristic of Universal Consciousness is that of self-knowing. All of cosmic evolution, Faggin suggests, is driven by Consciousness desiring to know itself.

We ourselves are derivatives, "made in the image," of Universal Consciousness, possessing, in embryonic form, all of its major traits.

And isn’t it interesting that, if we self-obfuscate and refuse to “know thyself,” the very first thing that happens to us upon crossing over is to be “sent to remedial education”, dark detention, where we will remain, until we agree, agree with ourselves, to fulfill our primary mandate.

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hey man, let's hear about God realization for a change 

Concert for George
Royal Albert Hall
November 29, 2002 

Horse To Water

the psychology driving those who wish to return 

The following is from "The Religion Of The Spirit World" (1920) by Prof. G. Henslow. 

... as the animal body disappears at death ... [and the new astral body] is now solely adapted for the existence beyond the grave. There, the spirit is everything, the terrestrial existence has gone forever. The great lesson of earth-life is, therefore, to adapt ourselves ... i.e., to live in harmony with the requirements of the next world.

This is why we are told that many on the other side long to return. It is because they find themselves unprepared and ill-adapted for the new existence, and [to their great dismay] they realize that they have neglected to begin to prepare by spiritual cultivation of the soul for the next world while on earth...

Editor’s note: The professor is exactly correct. When we cross over, we become aware of an entirely new environment, one that is regulated by our higher sensibilities. And if one is unprepared for the “software upgrade,” one might be thrown into panic and despair as what to do next.

In communication with me after his transition, my own dad asserted that he felt wholly out of place in the next world. His message essentially expressed, “this is nothing like I thought it would be,” moreover, “the Church made a fool out of me with their empty teachings.”

the desire to reincarnate is a silent frenzy, an unspoken admission that one really botched this trip to planet earth, and 'can't we just start again'

Amidst perceptions of “I’m not ready to deal with this”, laced with grey feelings of self-loathing and cognitive dissonance, many are tempted to craft an immediate ad hoc “ego-repair” strategy – reincarnation. Instead of squarely facing the music of what one has done to oneself, there can be the attempt, or the wish, to run and hide, to play the victim, to annihilate one’s “spoiled self” by casting oneself into the hopper of one more go-round of mortal existence: “Maybe I’ll come out better the next time, what do I have to lose”?

On the "cultism" page, we spoke of the near-universal, untoward tendency of the dysfunctional ego to refashion reality, as it seeks to bolster itself in its delusional ways:

there is but one, only one, choice open to us

But reincarnation is not an option, no matter how much one wishes for its bizzaro-world meaning. Each soul is required, with open heart, to forthrightly and honestly judge oneself concerning one’s failings, and then to resolve to make amends by choosing – and this is the only choice open to oneself – choosing to live a life of service, of soul-perfection, of sacred introspection, of opening a channel to be taught, of moving forward toward one’s destiny as a mature son or daughter of God.

Special note: In one of the ancillary articles related to “the 500 tape-recorded messages from the other side”, we discussed Dr. Viktor Frankl’s psychology, “man’s search for meaning.” Human beings are driven to find meaning for their lives, and they will do this in a sane or otherwise manner. See the full discussion there.

Reincarnation is a pathological expression of this hope for meaning. It’s an attempt to manufacture meaning, but in a diseased manner. It’s an evasion of one’s personal responsibility to grow up, an attempt to run and hide from the soul’s mandate to open-heartedly deal with the consequences of what one has made of oneself.

'I called out wildly and struck myself and tore my hair in passionate horror'

The following is channeled information from the other side offered in the book, A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS, by spirit-author, FRANCHEZZO; transcribed via the mediumship of A. FARNESE, 1896.

Editor’s note: This is the story of a young Italian man, Franchezzo, who had seduced many women. Before his untimely death, however, he had fallen genuinely in love. Upon arriving in the next world, he encountered total darkness and silence. The following excerpts reveal a portion of his misery, especially, his dreaded realization of having lost the love of his life.

"And I knew not that I had died. I passed from some hours of suffering and agony into sleep — deep, dreamless sleep — and when I awoke it was to find myself alone and in total darkness. I could rise — I could move — surely I was better. 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. There was nothing but the stillness — the darkness — of Death around me."

please click on each link-icon 

The transcriber, A. Farnese, reports to his readers that he received the text of this book, via automatic writing, from Franchezzo on the other side.

An overview of Franchezzo's story and his road to recovery

he finds reason to change, to grow spiritually, in order to be with his Twin Soul mate

Franchezzo in the Dark Realms finds that his main impetus to repent and change is his desire to one day be with his beloved. To do this, he must rise to a higher level of spirituality.

The Guides may have opinions, even, studied and well-conceived, but neither they nor anyone else has the authority to write the script of our lives. We, only we, ourselves, have the last word; the sacred self only will determine what it shall do and with whom.

Franchezzo is invited to improve himself by joining a service organization. Membership is always voluntary, with the option of dropping out at any time as one’s right. We ever reserve the right to return to a way of sin and increase suffering, or to move forward along the very difficult path of moral recovery.

the dark realms: not a penal colony, more like a rehab-center

He is taken to an instructional facility of the Brotherhood of Hope, a service organization. Still reeling from his terror of groping alone in the darkness, Franchezzo is feeble and can hardly see or hear. The learning center is very huge, made of dark grey stone, with the barest of furniture or amenities.

Eight months after his transition to the other side, Franchezzo leaves the “rehab” center. His missionary work begins.

To indulge an attitude of revenge or retaliation is to align one’s spirit with, to open oneself to attack by, wicked discarnates.

There is a 'special place in hell,' as the phrase is used, for those, such as political or religious leaders, who used their power over people to deceive, enslave, and aggrandize themselves.

Franchezzo discovers a cave of slumberers, a great many bodies in stasis, those who had killed themselves with overdoses of opium.

'the lust of sin, ground out of their souls'

The backsliding of some, a sinking into lower levels of hell, became, in reality, the shortest route home for them. Good conduct and polished manners, per se, are not enough. Unless the desire for sin is extirpated by some form of aversion therapy, “ground out of their souls” by associated suffering, the majority will secretly long for the way of selfishness and self-gratification, and will find a way to return to it.

Kairissi and Elenchus discuss the concept “the lust for evil ground out of the soul”, Part I

His beloved’s sheer desire to reach him released latent mediumistic powers. Franchezzo comments again on the healing force of her love. This connection, a union of their truest intentions, constitutes a very great mystery of life.

Kairissi and Elenchus discuss the concept “the lust for evil ground out of the soul”, Part II

the super-powers of the ancient Spirit Guides

The advanced, ancient Spirit Guides possess super-human powers not so unlike that of a comicbook hero.

heroic altruism: “ambitious for the sake of others”

“Spirit-persons cannot know everything, and there is no more absolute certainty in the spirit world than on earth. None can give final answers, concerning the universe which itself has no limits, nor of the nature of that Supreme Being of whom no man or spirit can know, save in so far as that He is Infinite Spirit, limitless in all senses, Unknowable and Unknown.”

The missionary team surveys the geography of the lower reaches of hell: smoke-spewing volcanoes and a lake of black ink; moreover, they could sense the sorrow of those trapped in this land.

As we consider the words and actions, as we examine the purposes and efforts, of missionary Spirit Guides working in the shadowlands, we slowly begin to gain answers to ancient questions: why does God allow evil and how will it be eradicated from the world; why are evil ones not immediately stopped and what is the purpose of suffering; why does living have to be so hard and why is goodness often disrespected or even punished; why are the wicked allowed freedom to deceive and enslave and how does a good person benefit by avoiding the path of the unjust; will the arrogant and proudful ever be held accountable for all the sorrow and hurt they've created or will they escape a requirement for restitution by legal loophole; what's the purpose of apparent gross unfairness and where is all this seeming chaos leading?

They rescue a repentant individual serving as slave to an Emperor-like master in what appeared to be an old Roman-Empire city.

Spanish conquistadors and Jesuit inquisitors pay, in Hell, for their crimes, their slaughters, torturings, and pillage, against the New World natives. They suffer in a manner very similar to that which they inflicted upon the innocent indigenous tribes-people.

Kairissi and Elenchus discuss how sacred natural law, along with answers to life's biggest questions, are revealed in the policies of the Spirit Guides: Part III

It is possible for a wicked person in the Dark Realms to act through an agent on the Earth, to commit evil through another. This can happen, however, only if the earthly instrument is of the same negative, vicious vibrational mindset.

Franchezzo tries to argue and reason with a wicked man to change his ways. But it was all useless. The experienced Spirit Guides have learned not to argue but simply wait for that first glimmer of repentance.

Those who lived their Earth-lives immersing themselves in violence, deception, manipulation, and cruelty, sink to such low estate that they appear as wild beasts with claws, bodies bent like apes, snarling like wolves (candidates, in our world, for such devolvement would be the “worst who get on top”, the totalitarians posing as benefactors as they pillage the nation). Is there hope for those who suffer such degradation?

Those of the Dark Realms, having so perverted themselves as to appear as wild beasts, do not consider immortality, living forever, to be an advantage but a great and “awful curse”. They wish to die, they try to kill themselves, try to get others to kill them, but without success. If they could escape by reincarnating, they would immediately choose to flee from their suffering, but “R” is not an option.

The Great Sea of Black Slimy Foulness: Franchezzo learns that the putrid and filthy conditions of the lower Dark Realms came into existence as an emanation of the abominations and exceeding vileness of the Earth’s wicked.

A Spirit Guide assigns Franchezzo a new mission, taking him to those “whose evil propensities were equalled only by their intellectual powers and ingenuity in works of evil.” These, the Guide advised, “were rulers of men and kings of intellect in all branches, but who have perverted” themselves.

The power of authentic love and marriage leads Twins to higher levels of intelligence and sentience. As a Spirit Guide instructs Franchezzo, each mate owes “this power of clearer and purer vision to” the other, “whose pure love flows ever to you as a constant stream of crystal water, giving you the power to perceive higher things and [also a clear] perception of [evil] from lower spirits in all their foulness.”

We’ve seen that an association of relationship, good or bad, forms what the Guides call a ‘magnetism’ between individuals. Encountering a new form of this bondedness, Franchezzo meets a famous but perverted ancestor, and becomes painfully aware of how chains of affinity can work to one’s detriment.

Universal principle, for good or ill, rules the Dark Realms. We’ve seen, in play, the exacting “grinding the lust for sin out of the soul,” but there is also a universal shining star of delight beginning to rise in those calamitous climes. It is “what we stay alive for.”

Aftermath, Part I: His dangerous missionary work in the Dark Realms completed, Franchezzo enters Summerland. There, he’s honored both for his heroic altruism and spiritual recovery. Many would say, the demanding experience of rescuing others is what advanced him. And, if this is the case, is not the concept of reincarnation strengthened with this seeming efficaciousness of experience?

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.

The following testimony from Summerland, a tape-recorded account, was facilitated by the direct-voice mediumship of Leslie Flint. His work was featured in the article “500 tape-recorded messages from the other side.”

actors, the once-celebrities from Earth, now seeking to improve themselves by offering charitable works, create theatrical productions, take them 'on the road' into the Dark Realms, as a missionary effort to educate those of the lower spheres

George Woods, assistant to Leslie Flint: “How do you spend your life on that side? What do you do?”

Lionel Barrymore [Hollywood star, died November 1954]: “Well, I'm still interested in the theatre. We do have entertainment, I suppose you'd call it, although it is not exactly that. Everything we do here has a motive, has a [charitable] purpose. Every play that is produced, and everything that is achieved and done here has a real purpose - not only just to give people pleasure and entertainment.

“For instance, we take down kinds of plays that you'd call ‘morality plays’ into the lower spheres, and we reproduce the lives of certain individuals that we may perhaps see in the audience. It helps them to see themselves as they really are. In consequence, they begin to think more deeply and it helps them to sort themselves out and desire a better existence.”

Channeled information from the other side by the mediumistic agency of Mrs. Elizabeth Sweet, as reported in “The Future Life,” the chapter “The Erring One,” June 23, 1854. 

A spirit person on the other side offers her testimony concerning her fate when she entered the next world. She found herself in darkness, surrounded by those who had lived a life of evil, as she had done. Then, a shining lady Spirit Guide appears and offers her the facts of life, how she might better her situation, if she desires to do so.

“And now others approach me. How kindly they look upon me! They do not frown; they do not shrink from my presence, as though I were pestilence itself. Oh, no! but [assuming the best from my motives] they hail me as one who wishes to live a new life [as if I'd already repented]. They cannot live [the new life] for me [they say]; they cannot perform my labor; that can be done only for myself: but they speak for me words of encouragement, they sympathize with my past sufferings, and they point me upward, to where I may one day ascend also…

“My words are feeble, to tell you of the feelings which are gushing up from my heart. Oh! how happy and buoyant I feel, when I know that the fetters of sin, which were bound about my spirit so firmly on earth, have burst, and my spirit is free. No strong hand to pull me back and threaten me, if I want to do right… the bright spirits come near me, and wipe away my tears. They lay their soft hands upon my aching brow, and whisper words of bright hope to my desponding heart; for, they say, that I shall yet outlive all the bitter memories of the past in my efforts to do good to myself and others. And I shall ascend up to that beautiful place, where my brow will be decked with a never-fading garland of flowers, and my robe will be spotless as the snow and dazzling as the sun…”

Editor’s note: It is often said that the true spiritual teacher can do nothing but encourage and point her student in the right direction. Free will is never violated. We find this message, here, explicitly laid out:

“…they hail me as one who wishes to live a new life. They cannot live it for me [they say]; they cannot perform my labor; that can be done only for myself: but they speak for me words of encouragement, they sympathize with my past sufferings, and they point me upward.”

See William Barclay's essay, based on the New Testament, concerning all one day to be saved.

Also see a short treatise by Florence Nightingale, exceedingly eloquent and well reasoned, asserting this same universalism:

If God punishes me for doing evil by doing me evil, how is he better than I? And it is hard to answer, for certainly the worst man would hardly torture his enemy, if he could, for ever.

'all good men would save others if they could'

And unless God has a scheme that every man is to be saved for ever, it is hard to say in what sense He is not worse than man; for all good men would save others if they could…

But the New Testament says that God is able, willing, and intends to save all humankind.

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Editor's note:

from the Gospel of Thomas:

[Thomas said] "These sayings that you utter are laughable and ridiculous to the world, for they are misunderstood. How can we go forth and preach them, since the world does not respect us?"

[Jesus said] "I tell you the truth: whoever listens to what you have to say and turns away, or sneers, or smirks at these things, will be held in a cramped dark place... They will be imprisoned there..."

For What It's Worth

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step outta line, they'll come and take you away...

Julia on the other side states that losing one's soul is the same as losing one's true self 

The following is channeled information from the other side via the mediumship of William T. Stead (automatic writing), reported in the book After Death, or Letters From Julia (1905).

William T. Stead (1849-1912) was one of the greatest crusading journalists of the late 19th century, and also one of the most vocal supporters of Spiritualism. He promoted spirit photography, championed the causes of various mediums, and established the "Julia Bureau" for communications between the bereaved and their loved ones. Stead published a series of hugely influential campaigns whilst editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, and he is best known for his 1885 series of articles, The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. He died on the 1912 ill-fated voyage of the Titanic; after which he communicated via various mediums his experiences in the afterlife.

Editor’s note: The communicating spirit Julia (below) employs the term “soul” to mean, in her own words, the “real self,” or, as we have denoted in these writings, the “true self.”

ON THE LOSING AND THE FINDING OF THE SOUL

The Worst Evil of the Day (communicated July 11, 1897)

The worst evil of the present day is not its love of money, nor its selfishness. No, but its Loss of the Soul. You forget that the Soul is the thing. And that all that concerns the body … is of no [fundamental] importance.

But what you have to realize is that men and women in this generation have lost their souls. And this is a terrible truth. It is not what we used to think of losing the Soul in hell, after laying aside the body.

It is a thing not of the future only, but of the present. Your Soul is lost now. And you have to find it.

What Lost Soul Means

When I say lost, I mean it. You have lost it as you might lose a person in a crowd. It is severed from you. You are immersed in matter and you have lost your Soul. And the first, the most pressing of all things, is to find your Soul. For until you find it you are little better than an active automaton, whose feverish movements have no real significance, no lasting value. The Loss of the Soul, that is the Malady of the Day; and to find the Soul is the Way to Salvation.

How the Soul Has Been Lost

The finding of the Soul is the first thing and the most important thing. You will never find it unless you give yourself time to think, time to pray, time to realize that you have a soul. … All is rush, and jump, and whirl [in this world], and your Soul gets lost, crowded out of your life. You have so many engagements that you have no time to live the Soul-life. That is what you have to learn. No doubt your work is important, and duty must be done. But what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own Soul?

How to Find the Soul

Now I will go to speak as to how to find the Soul. There is only one way. There is no chance of salvation if you never give yourself time to think on things that are timeless, that transcend time, that will be when time shall be no more… And if you would find your Soul you must give time to the search...

The Importance of the Soul: It's the Real, the True Self

What seems to me quite clear is that the indifference to the Soul is caused by not understanding that the Soul is the Real Self, the only part of you which lasts, the Divine in you, which you are sacrificing to the things of the day.

What you do not understand is that it is through the Soul alone that you can commune with the Spiritual World that is all around you. And the Spiritual World includes all the world excepting the perishing things of time. When we say Spiritual World [where your loved ones are] all these are lost to you when you lose your Soul. For the Soul alone communicates with the Real World.

It is through the Soul you obtain inspiration. The Soul links you with the Universe of God, with the Soul of the World. And when you lose touch with your Soul you become a mere prisoner in the dungeon of matter, through which you peer a little way by the windows of the senses.  

Its Divine Powers

For what I say is that the Soul has Divine powers, but if you will but find your Soul, and develop its Divine potency, there is opened before you a new heaven and a new earth, in which Absence [from loved ones] is not [real], nor Death, and where the whole Universe of Love is yours. Yes, I maintain that what you call miracles are the natural capacities of the Soul. Miracles of Healing, Miracles of Movement, Miracles of Power, which you little dream of, are within the scope of the Soul.

'you are as caterpillars to what you might be'

All that you have read of about the power of Spirit over Matter is nothing to the reality. You are as caterpillars to what you might be.

But the doorway into the Infinite is the Soul, and the Soul is lost. When you have no time to think, no time to pray, you have no time to live…

The Cause of Misery

For the whole of the evils that afflict society arise from the lack of seeing things from the standpoint of the Soul. If you lived for the Soul, cared for what made the Soul a more living reality, and less for the meat and drink and paraphernalia of the body, the whole world would be transfigured; you have got a wrong standpoint and everything is out of focus…

It is possible to lose your Soul in church as well as [in the affairs of the world]. If you have no leisure to be alone with your Soul — it does not so much matter whether the rush and whirl and preoccupation is ecclesiastical or financial — the Soul is lost, and there is nothing to do but to find it again.

Make the Soul the Center

You may sum up what I have to say in one or two words. What I wish you to do is to make the Soul the center, and make time to use the Soul, which alone can do all things. Make Time to save Eternity, nay, to possess it now and to know God [now]. JULIA.

Editor's note: See much discussion on "finding the soul," the "true self," on the "afterlife item #26" page.

time out! - sentenced to detention, a mandated season to recall who we are and what's really important

Every day was as the one just spent. Every day he would sit on the shore of the island Ogygia, thinking of his wife Penelope, wishing to return home. Every day he mourned and wept for his lost love.

But Calypso had taken Odysseus prisoner and refused to grant him leave.

READ MORE on the adventures of Odysseus and Penelope