(5) THREE INITIAL STATES AFTER DEATH

I take seriously what ES's astral explorations have revealed on this subject because of his many awesome verifications of his conversations with angels and other discarnate humans.  My source here is ES's classic book "Heaven and Hell" (= HH) from which I will now quote extensively:

"When we die, we are still alive and just as human as ever.  To convince me of this, [the Lord] has allowed me to talk with almost all the people I have ever met during their physical lives, with some for a few hours, with some for weeks and months, and some for years.  This was primarily so that I could be convinced and bear witness (437)."

"There are three states that we pass through after death before we arrive at either heaven or hell.  The first state is one of more outward concerns.  The second is one of more inward concerns, and the third is one of preparation.  We go through all three states in the world of spirits.  Some people do not go through these states, but are either raised into heaven or cast into hell immediately after their death (HH 491)." 

The "world of spirits" is a transitional state between the heavens and hells and seems to be the equivalent of Focus 25 and 26 in the Monroe-Moen nomenclature.  The highest level of the world of spirits seems to be the equivalent of Focus 27.  In biblical terms, the world of spirits embraces Hades (not to be confused with Hell) in its lower planes and Paradise, an old Persian term for "park", in its upper planes. 

(1) OUR FIRST STATE AFTER DEATH

"We use the outward aspects of our spirit to adapt our bodies in the world--especially our faces, our speech, and behavior--to our interactions with other people.  The more inward aspects of our spirit are the ones proper to our intentions and consequent thought, which rarely show in faces, speech, and behavior.  We are trained from infancy to present ourselves as friendly, benevolent, and honest, and to conceal the thoughts of our own intentions.  As a result, of this habitual behavior, we scarely know our inner natures and pay no attention to them (HH 492)."

"Our first state after death is like our state in the world, since we are then similarly involved in outward concerns. We have similar faces, voices, and character; we lead similar moral and civic lives.  That is why it still seems to us as though we were in this world unless we notice things that are out of the ordinary (HH 493)."

Most NDEs are marvelous experiences.  But ES chillingly insists that the initial postmortem state is normally wonderful even for people who will ultimately find their way to a hell.  ES's mention of their trips to gorgeous gardens and parks in the first state recalls descriptions of Focus 27:

"Their friends...take them around to various places, into the company of different people.  They go to different cities, to gardens and parks, often to gorgeous ones because things like that appeal to the outward concerns they are involved in.  Many of them think they will make it into heaven because they led moral and civic lives in the world, not reflecting that both good and evil people lead similar outward lives (HH 495)."

ES adds that "the first state after death...rarely lasts more than a year for anyone (HH 498)."   This fits neatly with modern research on contacts received by the recently bereaved from deceased loved ones.  One study indicated that 50% of Americans and 48% of the British report convincing contacts with their deceased loved ones within the first year since their death.  After that, the number of such contacts dramatically dwindles. Making such contacts is much harder for those who have moved on from the world of spirits to a heaven or a hell.

(2) OUR SECOND STATE AFTER DEATH

"Our second state after death is called a state of our deeper interests because then we are given access to the deeper reaches of our minds, or of our intentions and thoughts, while the more outward interests that engaged us in the first state become dormant (HH 499)."  "We as spirits are brought...into the state of those deeper intentions and consequent thoughts we engaged in when we were left to ourselves in the world and our thinking was free and unfettered (502)."

At this stage we shed aspects of self that were shaped by social expectations, peer pressure, and the need to present an acceptable presenting self that can mask our inner self.  As a result, "people who were inwardly devoted to the good...then behave..more wisely than when they were living in the world...In contrast, people who were focused on evil...then behave more insanely then when they were in the world (HH 505)."  It now becomes impossible to act one way and inwardly be another.  The person pauses at this threshold world long enough to become one with her own nature. 

"Once people like this are in the second state, they are let back into the state of their more outward concerns for brief periods of time.  They then retain a memory of how they behaved when they were in the state of their more inward concerns.  Some of them are embarrassed and admit they were insane.  Some of them are not embarrassed at all.  Some of them resent the fact that they are not allowed to be in the state of their more outward concerns all the time, but they are shown what they would be like if they were continually in this state.  They would constantly be trying to do the same things covertly, misleading people of simple heart and faith with simulations of goodness, honesty, and fairness.  They would destroy themselves completely because eventually their outer natures would be ablaze with the same fire as their inner natures (HH  506)."

"The things they [evil people] had done and said in secret are now made public, too, because now,  since outward factors are not constraining them, they say the same things openly, and they keep trying to the same things without any fear for the reputations they had in the world...They [visually] look to angels and good spirits like the [evil] people they really are (HH 507)."

(3) OUR THIRD STATE AFTER DEATH

Our third state after death is one of instruction.  This state is for people who are entering heaven and becoming angels and not for people who are entering hell, because the latter cannot be taught
(HH 512)."  Their close-mindedness prevents them from sensing the vast heavenly world beyond the world of spirits.  "As a result, their second state... ends in their turning straight toward...the hellish community that is engaged in a love like their own."  The general intention of the hells is to ignore God and vault the interests of self above all others. 

Heaven is not just reserved for Christians.  On the one hand, ES casually mentions bishops he has encountered in hell.  On the other hand, humble and teachable agnostics who have lived the equivalent of a loving Christian life will then be "taught things like that God exists, that heaven and hell exist, that there is a life after death, that God is to be loved above all, and our neighbor as ourselves, and that we are to believe what is said in the Word because the Word is divine (HH 512)." 

 

Matthew, I have moved on to another site, but have nowhere encounter any poster whom I respect as enjoy as much as your thoughtful posts.

Frank Kepple used to regularly post his retrievals on this site.  Quite apart from the fact that I consistently found his retrieval scenarios implausibly "cartoony," his alleged verifications were most unimpressive, a far cry from ES's.  To me, ES seems far more gifted than any modern adepts.  But Matthew is right: our limited capacity to explore other worlds makes it premature to definitively play ES off against modern adepts and vice versa.  ES's methods and times differ so markedly from modernity.  We must remain alert to the possibility of an unanticipated synthesis that might yet explain discrepancies in terms of differences in method and time-conditioned overviews. 

Where I remain most hopeful is that a New Miss Z might emerge who can repliciate reading a randomly selected 5-digit number.  I also remain hopeful that better answers thaqn mine to questions like why guardian spirits often seem impotent during tragedies and why more discarnate souls don't dramatically communicate with their loved ones.  {Yikes! My burglar alarm is about to go off!  I'd better get out of here!]

For me, Emanuel Swedenborg's writings are a revelation in part because he predated what is known as "New Age" thought by over a century.  Yet he relates a structure of consciousness and an understanding about love that are both internally consistent, and understandable in our own lives. 

What I am uncertain of is whether his brilliant mind deduced the hierarchy and structure or whether he truly "saw", or "visited" the various areas as he wrote.  He often said he discussed one or another situation with angels "for hours" on end.  Yet his writing was so prolific from age 53 or so on (when the spiritual world was opened to him), that one wonders how he could have had all those spiritual discussions, journeys, and yet still written the huge number of volumes he did (and still traveled around the world, and performed other common day to day activities).  I know spiritual time is not like earthly time.  But sometimes, I do wonder what portion of his cosmology comes from his own deductions and what comes from personal experience.

Just from my readings, I would have to say that he presents it as real experience/conversations verified by his own witnessing of events.  I don't know why a similar adept hasn't been seen with the same talent.  Even people like Cayce (who gave thousands or tens of thousands of readings) can be shown to have missed the mark for certain "verifiable" events.

I too am troubled by the lack of communication from the other side.  A college friend of mine died three months ago, and I tasked him the responsibility of making verifiable contact.  Initially, I saw images of him in my mind's eye after death, but nothing I could hold as proof.  Betson made contact, and found certain details about Bill, which could not have been known to her.  (Bill had died of sudden acute pancreatitis, and his family told me that he wasn't eating well, and had a bad stomach prior to his death.  When Betson spoke to him, he related very similar words about this as he had said when alive two weeks before). 

I yearn for the concrete contact too, but I choose to believe, even with the uncertainty.  I am curious about bizarre "materializations" of people and objects cited by Victor Zammitt's website, which sound so fantastical as to cry "fraud" or "deception."  If those contacts are real, no questions would remain about an afterlife.

M

ES experienced a "group soul" phenomena, but explains this in terms of original distinct souls in union rather than in terms of an Oversoul of reincarnating selves.  His superior verifications and lack of a New Age axe to grind mean that his perspective warrants serious consideration.