You said:

There are at least 4 possible explanations for Houdini's broken promise: (1) Houdini never survived death.  (2) He survived but was trapped in a lower (perhaps hellish) plane where such transcommunication was inconceivable.   (3) He lost his memory of his promise to the wife he loved. 
(4) He was dissuaded from trying to contact her by spiritual considerations such as Ryan suggested.  Perhaps he was informed of the danger of opening his wife to the dangers of contacts with impersonating evil spirits.
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What about (5)
Houdini's identity as "Houdini" did not survive. He reincarnated soon after his death. (Perhaps he exists now as a great magician in C1 of a parallel universe? Just one of many possibilities...)

B-man

Brendan,  anything that earthly reincarnation could accomplish might be accomplished in other worlds in parallel universes or heavenly planes.   For example, the Bible and the early church teach evolutionary soul progression with a multiplicity of heavenly planes to challenge the newly dead to make progress towards union with God.   Perhaps, you recall my lengthy thread on this subject entitled "A Fresh Look at Heaven."   During his NDE, atheist Howard Storm is specifically informed by Jesus that other worlds generally provide more suitable challenges for our newly dead.   

The early church father, Origen, taught that there are countless worlds in which the deceased acquire bodies appropriate to the environment for fresh opportunities for spiritual growth.   Though controversial on some issues, Origen was no Gnostic, but rather a teacher in Christianity's first theological school, Alexandria, a school that produced the first Christian systematic theologians. 

I  guess digressions must be expected, but I do hope this thread will mostly focus on its original topic.

Don

Quote:


I can't make claims for other people here, but for me, the BSTs and what I at least think is F27 are relatively easy to distinguish between, although the differences can be subtle and you do have to look closely.

The single biggest difference in my own mind is that the BSTs were/are usually designed with the express purpose of resembling a physical, Earthly environment as closely as possible, (even the Hollow Heavens) and are inhabited by spirits still thinking primarily in linear/corporeal terms.  There are some differences of course, but such are normally relatively minor.  As such, materials/objects will tend to have an identical or almost identical appearance of mass and solidity to physical materials/objects.  Attributes of physics tend to be identical, as well...gravity in such places is only overridden by a conscious act of will/recognition of where you in fact are.  This is because in order to defy gravity within a BST, as one example, it involves directly challenging the inhabitants' perceptions of what the given BST is like.  So if the inhabitants of the BST you're in firmly have the idea that in their realm, flight is impossible, you're possibly going to find flying there a bit more difficult than you normally would, because it involves actually challenging that perception.  Being an astral environment of course means that the fabric of the place itself is constructed of nothing more than the perceptions of whichever individuals are present.

F27 in my mind (or the reception area anyway...I don't claim to have been further within F27 than that, and arguably consider it audacious/arrogant to claim that I've even been that far) on the other hand is designed to resemble a physical environment to a sufficient degree that it is unlikely to cause panic in a new person initially arriving, while at the same time letting a person know that they're fairly definitely *not* actually in a corporeal environment.  In my own perception of the Park, the lighting in particular *is* different to either the BSTs or C1.  I wouldn't say that there is a huge glare...I'd more describe it as a moderate corona or wispy sort of haze/fog covering everything, but with a light source present within said fog.

Another difference between the Park and BSTs in my experience is that it can be physically/geometrically dynamic.  By that what I mean is that its' shape/layout can change, depending on how many people are in it at once, what a given group/individual needs to see for their own sake, and various other factors.  Most, if not all of the BSTs I've been to contained spirits who either
a) genuinely had forgotten they were dead,
b) wanted to forget, or
c) knew they were dead but still wanted to think/perceive in entirely corporeal terms anyway. 

Most of the hollow heavens I've read about/seen contained people in the third category; that is, individuals who knew they were dead but still expected heaven to be identical to something physical, simply because they weren't developmentally at a point where they could conceive otherwise.  While the BSTs allow people to continue having this perception exclusively for as long as that is what they want, to me while it respects free choice, F27 is also at least partially about growth/getting accustomed to something new.  I think that is at least part of the reason why F27 is visually/sensually distinguishable from the BSTs/C1.

I don't know if this is true of everyone, but I actually tend to think of (what I have seen of/think of as) F27 as being a much cleaner equivalent of the Mos Eisley spaceport on Tatooine, from the Star Wars films.  To me it serves roughly the same purpose.  I'd also point out that I don't see the Park/Reception Centre as an end point at all, but I do see it as an end point for human beings, in terms of where we can go *while we're alive.*  I had a dream a while back where I was building a house with other members of my family, and (due not only to the quality of the light but also several other non-linear aspects, which I think cause my difficulty in recalling such dreams, because of how different I am mentally There to how I am when awake) I've tended to believe that it took place in F27.

To me F27 is the point at which the part of astral space which is dedicated specifically to humanity converges with those areas that are the domain of various other kinds of beings; hence the spaceport or space station analogy.  I also realise that this is a linear representation of it, but I can't really come up with a better one in C1 thinking.  It's worth noting of course that the only reason why I need to try and represent it in a textual/linear manner anyway is *because* we're in C1...If we weren't, we could either simply go there, or I could send you a visual/sensorial stream of exactly what I meant, rather than having to refer to the incredibly clumsy/limiting method of communication that is verbal/textual language.

In terms of what happened with my grandfather recently, it probably was just a dream.  The only real reason why I thought it might have been otherwise were because of some of the dream's characteristics...but it's true that that in itself is not validation.
These responses have been a positive reminder for me to avoid being excessively impressionable...and also to try and maintain humility, which I will admit I do have problems with at times.

 
      In 1926 Houdini died,   at this time a famous medium was on the horizon by the name of Arthur Ford.  Let it be said, that Arthur Ford did not care for Houdini, he found him bigoted, flamboyant and unfair with his feelings towards mediums, so it took Arthur Ford by great surprise while in trance to be connecting and delivering a message from Houdini's mother, she told him that the word between her and son was the word " forgive".  Because of Fords dislike of Houdini he decided to do nothing about the message, but others in the group decided to contact Beatrice Houdini, wife of Houdini and relay this to her, Beatrice published this correct message "forgive" in the newspapers across the country  and asked publicly if Houdini would have a session with her, the messages that followed during those session weeks turned  out to be one of the greatest communications in the annals of psychical research, an editor of the Scientific American was present throughout all of the sittings, he brought with him a shorthand expert who took down every word spoken from Houdini to Ford, when the entire communications were finished it was attested by Mrs Houdini to be in actual facts, and the long awaited precisely worded communication from husband to wife delivered in code  was to the tee correct. This made big headlines back then and in the newspapers for weeks. linn

Linn,

I would just love to believe that your account of what happened is valid.  But I am reluctantly convinced by the consensus that Ford "actually found the `secret' code on page 105 of a book that was published the year before (1927).  .. The code was not specially prepared by Houdini and Bess.  IT WAS VERY OLD AND HAD BEEN USED IN THEIR MIND-READING ACT FOR YEARS."  

Initially, both Arthur Ford and Bess understandably denied complicity in fraud.   But in the final Houdini seance, broadcast worldwide, Houdini's wife Bess finally and unequivocally implies that Ford's disclosure of the "secret" code really was a fraud.  
"
"Coverage for the final Houdini seance was provided by radio and it was broadcast all over the world."  At the conclusion of  the broadcast,
"The mournful voice of Bess Houdini then echoed through radio receivers around the world.  `Yes, Houdini did not come through,' she replied.  `MY LAST HOPE IS GONE.  I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT HOUDINI CAN COME BACK TO ME--OR ANYONE.'"
In my mind, this is a tacit admission of guilt preserved on radio for all the hear.   Sigh!   Well, at least we still have William James's Ouija board verification for his friend James Hyslop.  

Don

P.S. I quote from http://www.prairieghosts.com/ houdini.html

Hi everyone,
As a followup, I have a possible validation for the dream contact with my grandfather that I mentioned earlier in this thread.

In the dream, my grandfather was driving a convertible.  I asked my father just this evening whether or not my grandfather had owned a convertible, and he said not in his lifetime...but that he thought my grandfather had possibly owned an old Ford convertible before he was born.  He said it would be something to ask my grandmother when I see her next.

If it turns out he did have one, then that could be a validation from the point of view that I didn't actually know he'd had one prior to the dream.  My uncle owned a car that my grandfather had had previously, but it was closed/hardtop and so if it had been my imagination, I would have seen him driving that car if any.

The astral insights of Emanuel Swedenborg and Robert Bruce, combined with the consensus of classical spiritualism, repudiate the facile ease with which many mediums put sitters in contact with their dead loved ones.  

On the one hand, Emanuel Swedennborg seems capable of contacting the recently dead at will and bringing back verififiable information.  On the other hand,  as ES's biographer, Ernst Benz puts it:
 
"The inhabitant of the world of spirits, with whom Swedenborg is talking, has lost all knowledge of the natural world and its earthly mode of being.  He had become a pure idealist because he has neither contact with the natural world nor any means of comparison with it [Benz, 328]."

The world of spirits in ES's astral geography is roughly equivalent to Focus 25-26 in the Monroe-Moen scheme.  To a more limited extent, Robert Bruce confirms ES's insights on memory problems of the dead.  The problem is that RB seems to be alluding to memory problems in Focus 27:

"...Many of the people/spirits I have met there [in the Healing Center] seem to be quite real.  All are visiting or waiting for a patient in the hospital . . . Spirits I have spoken to in this situation do not seem to be aware of the length of time that has elapsed since they passed over, or of many details concerning the afterlife since that time. . . Often they will speak of a warm brightly lit, interesting place where they have many friends and loved ones, but with little more detail than this. The most common response I get from asking spirits what it's like where they come from is: `It's really lovely there and everyone is so nice.  I don't understand this. I'm very sorry.  I know it well and can picture it in my head, but I just can't describe it to you. . .
MEMORIES OF THEIR EARTHLY LIFE ALSO SEEM VAGUE, MUCH LIKE A HALF-FORGOTTEN DREAM IS REMEMBERED BY A LIVING PERSON (RB)."

The problem here is that classical mediumship envisages the progressive sequence "the illusion of summerland (roughly equivalent to Focus 25-26), followed by "the Judgment" (extensive past life review), followed by gradual ascent through three heavens.  After the past life review one would presume that earthly memories would be restored for promotion to the Heavens.  If so, we must ask if Focus 27 designates a level below the Heavens.  

Insights from the best comparative analysis of classical spiritualism (Paul Beard, "Living On") might help resolve this contradiction:

"Telepathic rapport is common in the early days after death, and can initiate itself either from those on earth or from the one on the other side of death; the links of feeling and thought remain, and for a brief while seem particularly easy to activate. .. Later it will require a closer tie or affinity or the sharing of a common task, and may lessen or cease through the competing pull of other tasks in the world beyond death (Beard, p. 63)."

This insight might help explain why contacts from deceased loved ones become much more rare after the first year.  It might also explain the ultimate failure of Edward Meeks EVP device, Spiricom, which initially recorded the voice of deceased engineer George Mueller, complete with impressive verifications, but which eventually fell silent because, as Mueller himself warned, he was about to progress out of range for new communications.

Classical mediumship also hints at why even loved ones in Heaven might have difficulty in descending to our vibratory frequency to communicate with us.
Beard's explanation of the retrieval problems faced by spirit guides may apply to communication with us from the heavens as well:

"To enter these areas [the lower astral] fills rescuers with a deep sense of distress; these helpers...can themselves become affected and drawn into some of the purblind emotions thay seek to lift from others, and if they remain too long in this area, they...can, to some extent, be temporarily overcome by them.  For the price to be paid in order to reach these minds is to lower their own consciousness and concepts to a level acceptable to...those they hope to rescue.  Evil is powerful in its own level, and clearly a rescuer needs sterner qualities that those of the self-congratulatory do-gooder (Beard 89)."  

This resonates with the complaint of an OBE adept on this site a couple of years ago.  He complained that his visits to the lower astral overwhelmed him with evil impulses that were hard to resist--so much so that was reluctant to continue his astral explorations.  Independent corroboration of Beard!

RB's OBE isights might explain why more evolved loves are reluctant to communicate with us:

"Angels and advanced spirit beings, unlike most astral inhabitants, do not appear limited to any particular plane or dimension level.  They have the ability, I believe, to manifest in any level, even in the real time zone and the physical dimension itself. . . The biggest difference between negative and positive spiritual forces, including all lesser spiritual beings, is that the positive forces seem less willing to interfere directly with humankind.  Positive spirits almost seem to have some kind of non-interference policy in force.  They will sometimes intervene, but this is rare."

These issues are fascinating but very difficult to sort out.

Don



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