Curious Questions - Insightful Answers - 2
More questions we all ask with answers we can run with.
FEEDBACK
After the first in this series was published, I received some positive feedback from readers that were happy to finally read answers to questions that had been bugging them.
As I will always clearly state though, there are often not always precise answers available. So in receiving an answer to a question you pose, always accept that it might be wrong. I hate to admit it, but absolutely yes, I could well be wrong with my answers.
Let me ask you a question, as an example. What is the role of a medium? I’ll bet your answer is very different to many others’ answers. Are you or others wrong? Not at all. You’ve based your answer on your current understanding and based on your experience. That is the same with my answers to these questions.
QUESTION 1: If earth is the base layer, and spirit the next, is anything known of the other layers, and are they infinite? Do we just keep climbing up the layers learning as we go? Is it like a game of Snakes & Ladders and we go down or back to earth if we need to relearn something and put past mistakes right?
As I recently wrote in a The Inspired Spirit article about this topic, the challenge we have with our language is that once we label something, we set with it a picture of what we believe that means, according to our mind reference. What is a layer? Perhaps it’s as visible in shortcrust pastry? Or perhaps as in one sheet of paper within a ream. Perhaps the layers of an onion.
To consider the various realms of life after this one on earth, someone once described the other world as being made up of layers. That was the most simple way the person could describe it for the sake of giving an answer that could be understood. Truth is, there aren’t really layers of existence as such. It’s just that is the easiest and most common way to explain our journey in the afterlife and on earth.
If you know me well enough, you’ll know that I like to simplify by using parallel analogies as examples. Here’s one for this question. Imagine in front of you now, there is a transistor radio. You turn it on and your current radio station is playing. Perhaps it’s BBC Radio 2. The voices and sounds you are listening to are coming from that radio station’s environment. It’s set in London. By listening, you are tapping into that location and the sounds emitted on that frequency.
Imagine you choose to change the station to another one. You adjust the frequency, and stop when you come upon another radio station. It’s Classic FM, for example. Everything about this radio station is different. The music is more peaceful. The presenter is more laid back in style and the vibe feels more relaxing. You absorb the energy from that chosen radio station. But it’s in a different location to the first, possible many miles away. In effect, you’ve moved layers in the same way as those in the spirit world do - simply speaking.
A better way of understanding our lives in the hereafter is by recognising the Divine force, or God, as being at the heart of everything that ever existed and ever will. In an often considered romantic notion, we see the Divine as the source of love and light. The great white light emanating out to all.
Each of us has a soul at the heart of our existence. It is believed that our soul has a mission and purpose. That is to return some day back to the source, to the Divine. In accordance to our soul’s growth, we move towards that great all-ness of the Divine source.
Going back to the exact wording of the question, the querant suggests that if earth life is the first layer . . . ? Our existence on earth is exactly that - our existence at this time in our soul’s journey. It’s better considered as a platform that is not fixed to any layers. It’s not necessarily the source of our first existence, and most certainly is not the source of our last. Earth is one realm, one platform, one place where we are right now in our soul’s journey.
There are other elements of the question that should be removed from it. Directional statements, such as up or down, through, across etc are not part of the picture. We are where we are in our soul’s journey to the Divine.
Another part of this question is rather contentious in meaning and involves the topic of karma. To undo previous wrongs. To experience pain and suffering. To learn for the sake of the soul’s growth. This entire sub-topic is a breakaway from our main topic of becoming a better person and medium. As the person answering this question, I can only offer an answer based on what I’ve come to understand, so don’t be shocked if I suggest that I’ve no evidence to support those claims I’ve just mentioned above.
I have read enough about people that have evidence that they once lived on earth in previous lives. I believe many of those claims. But regarding the entire topic of karma or learning through suffering in another life on earth, I’m sceptical. Why, if the next life is such a wonderful place, would I want to return to earth to suffer pain and to grow? Perhaps that’s where I need to learn more, but so far, I’ve seen no evidence to support such claims.
Let me wrap this question up with another analogy that I believe offers the best method of considering our live. Imagine each of us as a single drop of water that was born to this earth from above, from the source we came. During our life as that drop, we enrichen it with our life experiences, our learning, our personality, our characteristics and all the elements that make who we are. The drop of water that we started out as has changed. Our molecules, elements etc have changed the water drop from what we were. But we are still primarily that single drop of water.
When we complete this part of our life cycle, we return to the earth, or evaporate to the skies, or whatever analogy fits your thinking. We re-join the cycle of life. We return from where we came. We reunite with a puddle, a river, a cloud, or a great ocean, taking with us all those molecules and elements that made the unique us. We become part of the whole once more.
From that great source, we may again drop to the earth one day and start the cycle of life over again. But that new drop, will retain some elements, some molecules of our original self. And those molecules are also now present in the great source.
Our current understanding of eternal life is that our purpose is to reunite with the Divine source, the universal force, the greater good, God, if you like. The process involves learning, evolving and becoming.
As I understand it, our purpose in the afterlife eventually changes. We grow and become. When we do this, we are automatically aligned with others of the same understanding. Like attracts life, a universal rule. Mother Teresa, for example, was already advanced from her life on earth and so moved to a way of life most suited to her alignment with God. The same is true of all of us, including Hitler and other bad people from earth.
When it comes to the learning and understanding that is expected of us, this is more to do with understanding love and the way of God, as I choose to understand it right now. It's about advancing our soul through growth. The God element, you might consider it as. God is everything and everywhere. We have God within us and we are God. Deep stuff I know!
There are many books available, written by authors who have a deep understanding of the afterlife, that will assist our learning and knowledge. Seek them out and research the topics. This is how we expand our understanding. But equally, be careful who you listen to and question their qualifications. As you’ll read in the next question, not everything we are told is true!
QUESTION 2: We know that there is communication between us and the next level, but there doesn’t seem to be any beyond that, or between the layers?
Again, allow me to break the question down. Yes we absolutely know there is communication possible between us and what we consider as the afterlife. But we can only assume that this communication is happening on a ‘next layer’ basis. If you’ve read the answer to the first question, you’ll be aware now that referring to the afterlife as ‘layers’ or ‘levels’ is a hard pill to swallow just on that description.
However, we are moving into questionable grounds with this student’s question. To rephrase the question in layman’s term, the question is asking can we connect with angels or other bodies beyond the average person in spirit?
Over a decade ago, when I first moved to the north of England, I was seeking a private tutor I could continue my unfoldment with. I came across a wonderfully beautiful website belonging to a local medium who lived a few miles from our new home. I contacted her and arranged to go and meet her at her home. Her home was festooned with all the trappings of someone working with spirit! There were dream catchers, incense sticks burning, candles, models of angels, crystal balls and so on scattered around the living room. To be honest, I liked it!
During that introductory session, she shared her mediumship story with me. Within a few minutes of listening, red flags started to pop up in my mind about her abilities. To bolster her claims of being an amazing medium, she told me how she only has angels as guides. Archangel Michael, Archangel Gabriel and several other higher bodies, were apparently working with her on a daily basis. She claimed to be speaking to them and allowing them to guide her through life.
As the interview session continued, I decided to ask her if she could quickly do a little reading for me. I had hoped to be able to judge her abilities, though of course this is probably the wrong way to find out. Over the following fifteen minutes, she gave me a reading. Honestly, there wasn’t one single element of truth or evidence in any of what she said. I knew she was not the teacher for me. But, as I was preparing to leave, she asked me if I could do a reading for her, so she could judge my abilities.
I rose to the challenge and over the next ten or so minutes I gave her a reading. It was filled with evidence, messages from her passed friends and family in the spirit world, and resulted in her releasing tears of emotion and probably joy. We parted company, and I’ve never had any reason to contact her again. She was most certainly not the teacher for me!
There are a few mediums that trade their wares on the theory that they are connected to some form of higher source that makes them different. Do I believe them? No. I believe in most cases they are delusional and possibly dangerous as mediums.
Let me share another absolutely true story with you. Many years ago, a friend and fellow student new to this work, arranged to have a £75 reading with a well-known local medium. My friend asked to take a recorder with him for the reading. When it was over, he came to my home and asked me to listen to the recording, to offer my opinion of the reading. He said he was unconvinced with the content of the reading.
I listened to it and agreed with him. It was far-fetched in content. The medium had claimed that he/she only connect to a much higher source than mere ordinary spirits. During the reading, the medium had suggested that my friend was once a disciple for Jesus in a previous life that he’d lived on the planet Sirius. My friend was told other amazing stuff about why he was here on earth this time around.
I found the recording content very unbelievable and being fairly new to this work, I said I would like to investigate it further. Some weeks later I booked a reading with this same medium, and coughed up the £75 it cost. I also recorded the session.
During the reading, the medium made some weird faces and noises as she connected to her unique higher source. For the following fifteen minutes, this medium told me how I was . . . yes you’ve guessed it! I was once a disciple for Jesus and had lived on the planet Sirius, and my roles in this lifetime were exactly the same as they were for my friend.
Even now, some twenty years later, I believe that medium was talking complete nonsense. But he/she were well known in that area and nobody, even the quality mediums of the area, had confronted and questioned them. He/she had, and still are, at will to make these outlandish claims to unsuspecting victims - for £75 a throw! By the way, Sirius is a gaseous star, one of the brightest in our skies, not a planet! Rookie error!
Now, back to the question more directly. The querant suggests,” …but there doesn’t seem to be any beyond that, or between the layers?
That statement is inaccurate. There is much evidence of communications being made to higher realms. Emmanuel Swedenborg, for example, is one of the most well known mediums of all time. He wrote extensively on the subject of the afterlife from his own visitations. There are many great mediums that have connected and communicated through mediums on earth and brought forward evidence of their existence. Even the great ‘Silver Birch’ mentions this topic in many of his lessons to his medium.
So the answer is, yes, some ‘earth’ people can and do communicate with higher beings. Again, part of the understanding is in also appreciating that layers or levels aren’t exactly as the words describe.
I believe that the student that asked these questions will one day look back and appreciate how far his or her learning has evolved. I encourage that, from the depth of my heart. I hope the student continues to ask such questions, and continues to explore this exciting phenomena we call the spirit world.
There are important guidelines that you as an individual student must always respect and appreciate. When learning about mediumship, and the next life, there are no hard and fast givens. Everything that you hear from others, including me, is often based on personal opinions and experience. That which I share with you in these answers may well differ from that which others believe.
It is up to you to find your own truth on all matters. Only set in stone that that you've proven for yourself. Otherwise set your answers, your learning, in sand. Even my opinion might change over time as I too continue to learn.
Over my time of learning and development I've learnt from some of the finest tutors. I’m satisfied that my knowledge is based on sound principles and good foundations. But I've also had to un-learn much from a few tutors that hadn't the knowledge at the time they were teaching me. Let that be your mission - to learn and occasionally un-learn.
YOUR QUESTIONS INVITED
If there are any questions you’d like to submit to this series, you can send them via email to psychictrev@gmail.com