In "Everything was better before" under the heading "Man does not live by bread alone", the path of the human spirit in the post-creation is briefly discussed.
Now, following the Grail Message "In the Light of Truth" by Abd-ru-shin (1), let us look at the first steps of a person after his demise.
A person is dying...
He should be allowed to pass away in peace, without interference from loudly grieving relatives. In ancient cultures, the body of the dying person should not be touched in the last hours.
When the heart stops beating and the brain ceases its activity, the detachment of the "soul" (we stick to this familiar term) from the earthly body begins. For earthly death is nothing other than the shedding of the outer shells.
Depending on the inner conviction of the person, this solution can take shorter or longer time. Those who are attuned to the hereafter and a continued life after death on earth may need only hours. People who have rejected everything transcendent and focused entirely on the earthly may need days or weeks until they can detach themselves and slowly come to the awareness that although they have died earthly, they are still alive.
When the soul detaches itself from the earthly body (the shell of gross matter), a shell of medium gross matter is pulled out with it, but not very far. This shell disintegrates and is followed by the disintegration of the earthly body with which it was closely connected.
Soul and body are initially still connected by the "silver cord" (already known in the Bible; Ecclesiastes 12:6), a highly elastic band of radiation. If this connecting cord is broken, there is no longer any connection between the soul and the earthly body. Only then does the soul no longer feel anything from the body, and a recall, a resuscitation, is no longer possible after the breaking of the silver cord, even with divine power (as Jesus had).
During the first hours after death, almost every human soul still feels in a weakened way what is happening to his or her body. When a transplant doctor removes organs, this can still be painful for the deceased, who hopefully does not regret that he gave his consent to the removal of organs in his ignorant willingness to help. Cremation can also be unpleasant for convinced materialists who are still attached to their earthly body for a long time.
The soul wanders...
After the dissolution, the soul initially still wears five shells, the outermost shell being a shell of fine gross matter (esotericists speak of the "astral body"), which it must shed before it can enter the subtle matter.
Now it must be seen what burdens are attached to the soul:
During their lives, their Acts manifested primarily earthly. But the deeds were accompanied by words, thoughts and sensations that took shape in transcendent space.
Words formed in the Middle, the Thoughts in the fine coarse materiality, and the Sensations in the subtlety.
Words and thoughts form the places and the levels of the Medium and the Fine Coarse Matter in which the soul must move before it is able to enter the Fine Matter.
It may take time for the soul to live freely, that is, to realize that all these earthly things do not have the value or importance that it has attributed to them.
In return, she has to realize - sometimes painfully - that she has overlooked or even failed to notice many really important things.
How often during her life on earth did she think about the afterlife and wonder what would happen after her death on earth? Did she prepare herself inwardly for the inevitable entry into the other world?
Has the spirit, the real man who can attain eternal existence, already awakened in his earthly existence, and has he been able to overcome the intellectual ties to gross matter?
Now the soul probably has some catching up to do before it can move on.
Only when - following the law of balance - all inhibiting threads of fate, which chain the soul to the gross materiality, are loosened, the soul can take off the cover of the fine gross materiality and enter into the fine materiality.
Some, especially convinced materialists, remain "earthbound" - i.e. bound to gross matter - and may soon be incarnated on earth again.
In the best case scenario, a clairvoyant or "spirit researcher" can also reach this point on their own. Those who are gifted for this can only learn about higher levels through special announcements, unless a human spirit has developed to such an extent that it can be given spiritual vision.
Finally in the subtle
Forms of sensation have condensed here that are more powerful than the corresponding condensations in gross matter.
The path of the soul now leads through the levels with which it is connected and through which it must pass: Friendly and unfriendly.
Step by step or level by level, the soul - spurred on by the longing of its spirit for its light home, the spiritual kingdom - shall from now on go upwards. Thereby it must experience what it has wanted in its sensations. Hopefully predominantly light sensations, which lead upward.
Only a few souls are so pure that they can pass over dreary, murky or dark planes completely unencumbered and immediately enter lighter planes, which in ancient times were called "Elysium", for example. Unfortunately, this ancient knowledge has been suppressed by the priests of the monotheists, who do not want to know anything about the huge worlds that lie between God and the gross material creation in which we find ourselves. Instead, they threaten their believers with hell, which appears to be closer to such ignorant priests than the brighter levels of the afterlife.
Two laws of creation in particular have an effect on the material sheaths of the souls, both in the gross and in the fine materiality:
The law of gravity:
This works especially in the materiality. Depending on its nature, the soul floats upward, into somewhat lighter areas, or it sinks downward into dark levels. Souls of the same gravity land on planes of the same height or density.
By "heaviness" is meant the condition of the soul. Is it surrounded with dark, "heavy" sensations or with light, "light" sensations, or burdened by karma or hangings to be detached.
In a symbolic representation, the ancient Egyptians had the "heart" of the departed cradled by deities. With it they were not so completely wrong. Because with the "heart" is probably meant the solar plexus, over which the sensation of the spirit speaks to us, and with it in last consequence the inner life, on which it depends in the first place. And the "deities" of the Egyptians represented the working of the laws of creation.
The law of attraction of the like kind:
At the same time, this law also works and brings together like souls on the appropriate levels.
Above all, the slopes also have an attractive effect: alcoholics, fanatics, gourmets, miserly people, violent people, haters, smokers, drug addicts, sex maniacs, gambling addicts, sports fans, angry people, etc. get together and make things more or less difficult for each other.
In deeper levels, things can get very nasty. Here, for example, wild thugs meet each other and fight until they fall down exhausted, only to start all over again after a recovery break.
It may take time for souls in dark lowlands to realize that they have not landed in the paradise promised by the churches.
The mind, on which we have almost exclusively listened on earth, with it the feeling and its learned knowledge, have gone out with the brain. Now some inhibitions of the mind are missing, as well as its situation analyses.
The souls vibrate completely in the sensation neglected on earth and live out their sensations uninhibitedly. If a soul lets itself be seized by negative sensations, it falls into a deeper level - according to the corresponding heaviness and its kind. Thereby also its horizon narrows. The way back can then cost strength and time. There is even the danger that it goes further downward.
If a soul awakens the realization, the deep desire for improvement and reparation, and the humble request for help, this soul can also be led out of a dark level. It then enters a somewhat lighter environment in which it can continue to learn and make amends in order to finally be reincarnated on earth. This can be a long, difficult path and time can be short. Contrary to what Buddhists teach, we do not have infinity at our disposal, but only a limited amount of time for our development, which has already become scarce.
A karma does not arise for the souls when they live out their inclinations in lower levels. For they only harm the like, let each other experience the wrong of their lower will in order to come to a better insight.
An ample level might be the soccer level, where players and fans indulge their passion without restraint. If they are not very burdened with karma, they can find the whole thing quite entertaining. After all, they don't know that they're just wasting time that they hopefully won't miss in the future.
In the more mobile, finer materialities, many things happen faster than on earth, and the soccer teams there would easily beat the earthly world champion - if the two worlds could meet.
Personally, I won't be spared having to go through the fencer level. I can't allow myself to be stopped there. Not even when I meet old friends and partners and the fencing is faster and more elegant than I have ever experienced on earth.
But also light striving souls meet on levels which correspond to their will and their kind. They encourage and help each other to work through the purifications that are still due.
These transcendent levels of both gross and subtle matter consist of landscapes:
Mountains, rivers, seas, lakes, valleys, forests, meadows, etc.; but also villages and towns of various kinds. Bright and friendly in lighter plains, repulsive and ugly in the dark lowlands, into which one hopes not to be drawn oneself.
At lower levels, you can end up in half or completely dark deserts of sand or rock. Then you are still better off than souls who are up to their chests in mud that has arisen from ugly thought or feeling forms created by themselves and others like them. Working your way out from down there can take time, it can be difficult, and time can be short.
Not to speak of the fate of human spirits who have incurred a particularly heavy debt, have seriously harmed many others and have a correspondingly great deal to make up for.
Very many realize too late the meaning of the word of Abd-ru-shin:
"Keep the hearth of your will and your thoughts pure. You will create peace and be happy."
Earthly education, titles, merits, recognitions and awards, just like the dogmas of earthly religions or denominations, have largely lost their meaning in the hereafter. No recognized religious community fully resonates with God's will and can guarantee its professors a secure ascent in the hereafter.
However, deeply internalized materialistic misconceptions and esoteric or religious heresies on earth can still weigh heavily on the soul in the afterlife and make it very difficult for it to ascend.
Very few preachers and priests seem to know what responsibility they are taking on when they pass on age-old heresies from generation to generation.
As already said, only the true, the inner quality counts over there, which is inevitably revealed in the weaving of the laws of creation. And almighty creative forces provide for the lawful balance. Every soul meets its, most finely weighed interaction according to its true will and its deeds - already here on earth, in the fine coarse materiality, or in the fine material world.
The way of the human spirit through the after-creation
As already indicated in "Everything used to be better", the spirit germ that unconsciously emerges from the spiritual realm must pass through post-creation (fine and gross matter) in order to develop into a fully conscious, mature spirit. In accordance with the laws of creation, it must experience material creation in order to understand it. In doing so, it develops from the unconscious to the conscious and self-aware.
During this world wandering, the spirit, i.e. the actual human being, wears a total of seven shells on earth, which it had to put on one after the other - as a means to an end. Each of these shells is equivalent to a body. Each shell offers the soul (the spirit with shells) protection in the respective levels of post-creation and enables it to work outwards. As it ascends, the soul gradually sheds these shells.
Originally, it was supposed to be a varied, cheerful hike, with continuously new impressions: Beginning as an unconscious spirit germ in the essence ring, then through the fine, medium and coarse fine matter, as well as the fine and medium coarse matter up to the coarse coarse matter light of our earth as the end and turning point.
The earth is something special:
On our gross material earth - protected by the earthly body as the outermost and densest of the seven sheaths - human spirits of quite different degrees of maturity can meet each other, which on other planes, by the laws of gravity and uniformity, would have to remain strictly separated.
Thus, created or primordial beings from higher planes, even sons of God, can also be incarnated to serve as trailblazers, prophets, or emissaries of light to offer example and help to evolving human spirits.
These differences in the spirit of the earth people should bring a special experience, with strong development impulses for the ascent. The soul should return from the earth, as the lowest point of the soul's journey, to the spiritual realm.
Darker levels, commonly called "purgatory" or "hell", which lie deeper than our earthly plan, a human spirit does not have to get to know for its maturation. One can get into it quickly, e.g. by persistent malice. But the way back will be time-consuming and laborious.
To prevent a widespread misunderstanding right away: Everything evil, including hell, is a work of man. Only good things come from God; love and promotion.
The failure of humanity:
Unfortunately, a catastrophe has occurred on the path of development intended for the human spirit:
On earth, people discovered the possibilities of the earth mind to penetrate the purely earthly. They were fascinated by its possibilities, became vain, self-centered and materialistic. They forgot that they are spiritual in the core and have to listen to their feeling.
Thus, in the course of millennia, they finally became "primates" in their self-image with particularly highly developed brains, which stand out from the rest of nature due to their superior thinking ability, and proudly call themselves "men of reason" and "materialists".
In other words, a fundamental misjudgement of the nature of man as nothing more than an "intelligent ape", from whom one can hardly expect altruism, empathy, trust in God, humanity, spiritual striving, religiosity.
Those who stamp themselves as brain animals, who allow themselves to be guided by desire and arrogance, deny all genuine humanity, which can only lie in spiritualization. For the spirit is the real human being. Only the spirit with its feelings (not the gut feeling) can make contact with higher powers, reach superior insights or even recognize God.
In other words, a frightening spiritual descent of earthly mankind and a violation of the fundamental order of creation, which cannot remain without drastic repercussions; on earth and in the world beyond.
Such a dramatic, profound error also impresses the inner life; it is taken by the souls to the other world after their passing away and ties them to the gross matter from which the mind originates.
The consequences of this total overestimation of the mind have an effect - in this world and in the hereafter - in a way unimaginable for us.
Under the dominion of the mind, the unbelievable becomes reality.
People ask, "Why does God allow all this?" instead of realizing that it is they themselves who create all the evils they have to suffer from - here on earth and even more so after passing away in the world beyond.
A sustainable improvement requires spiritual awakening!
No matter how well-intentioned, cerebral approaches cannot lead to lasting solutions.
For only works that resonate in harmony with the all-encompassing laws of creation, which are inaccessible to pure intellectual thought, can be successful and enduring.
The coarsest and densest, the earthly part of these laws of nature or creation we explore within the framework of natural sciences and are fascinated by it. But in the enthusiasm about the universal validity of these natural laws in the visible universe, we overlook that corresponding laws also regulate the events in the planes hidden from our eyes. These "spiritual" laws determine life, our fate, in this world as well as in the hereafter.
These "higher" laws are alien to the earthly mind. A rational person who believes in science must shake his head and reject everything that is "not scientifically proven": higher insights, the existence of worlds beyond, life after death, multiple earthly lives (reincarnation), the inevitable interplay of karma and fate, freedom of choice and responsibility, etc.
These science-believing doubters and brain acrobats are in for an unpleasant experience after their earthly demise!
Hopefully they will soon come to a more realistic realization!
On the greatness of creation, the importance of man and the help of God
As we humans have a tendency to overestimate ourselves, a few words about the greatness of creation, the importance of man and the help of God.
Our after-creation is the smallest and lowest part of the creation. The gross material part of this after-creation, with the small earth, consists of seven World parts from which a is our huge universe. The parts of creation above it are all significantly larger than the gross materiality.
If one wants to estimate the importance of a human spirit in comparison to the whole, the single human being is not much more than an atom in comparison to the universe. It remains unconsidered that an atom consists of the same matter as the universe. The human spirit, on the other hand, is of a different, weaker kind than the entities in the planes above its starting point.
People who still believe in God today often get the wrong idea about God's help. They think that God must hear their prayers when they are in problems of their own making and ask for help.
In this context, prayers originating from the intellect - without deep feeling - are futile from the outset.
Few people are aware that we humans ourselves also have duties to fulfill and must not just take recklessly.
However, a person gets into trouble above all when he bases his will and actions solely on earthly considerations and disregards immutable laws of creation. He then has to endure the inevitable repercussions and learn from them.
For the human spirit is a creature dependent on God, which has the duty to grasp the laws of God correctly and to live according to them.
Help can become him only after he has recognized his weaknesses and has changed himself inwardly!
Literature:
(1) Abd-ru-shin, "In the Light of Truth," Grail Message. Publishing house of the Grail Message Foundation, Stuttgart. (Book review).
(2) Thanatos TV. (On the subject "Out-of-Body Experience").
Attachment:
There are also novels that offer reasonably vivid insights into the afterlife. One must consider, however, that every human spirit experiences everything according to its personality individually, and the descriptions are accordingly different. Also misunderstandings and ambiguities can creep in with recordings from the other world by earthly visionaries.
Three Recommendations would be:
(I) Franchezzo: "A Wanderer in the Land of Spirits," Turm-Verlag, Bietigheim, 1961.
(II) Manfred Kyber: "Nachruhm. From "Gesammelte Tiergeschichten" Christian Wegner Verlag, Hamburg. Here in the appendix of "Subdue the earth„.
(III) Estelle Stead, "The Blue Island", G. E. Schroeder, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 1961.
Read about it too "The Violent Man - Victim of his Development?" and "Why does God allow all of this?„.