Hello Alan:

I was searching for an article at the www.near-death.com site, and found that your NDE is there.

http://www.near-death.com/forum/coma/000/01.html

I was looking for the below article. I have the book. It has more extensive information than the attached article. Generally I'm not into channeled information, but I like Margaret Tweddell's book. Don might find it interesting, eventhough he's not into channeled information. A spirit didn't speak through Margaret's body. Just sent messages.

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/paranormal08.html

The reason I refer to this article, is because it says something similar to what you said. See the below.

"There is no sudden metamorphosis from an idle person into an active person, from a nonreligious person into a religious person, from a money-centered person into a God-centered person. This is not an automatic thing. Your personality -  your likes and dislikes, your hopes, your fears - are still attached to you, although in a more nebulous form than when you are on Earth in a physical body.

I see people come over. They arrive and have high hopes that everything is going to be different for them.  However, nothing can be different for them because they have brought with them what they are. There is so much harmony here, and if they have brought a disharmonious personality with them, they find it very difficult to link in with the harmonious existence that we have. This is something that grieves me when I see it.

It is not true, as some people think, that if we only give verbal assent to belief in God, well, that's fine - that is our passport to heaven and everything will be all right. What we have to remember is that Jesus showed us the path by which it will be all right. He doesn't say, "It's all right, brother, come along in. Sit down now and relax and do nothing." He says, "It's all right. You are on my way. There are a lot of stones in it, but you are on my way. If you ask me, I'll help you over the stones."  The old teachings that "as you strive, so you'll be helped" are right. The Lord helps those who help themselves.

If you truly try to follow the laws of the Kingdom which the Lord has revealed, and ask for his help, he will aid you in becoming a whole person. As I see it from here, there is a rod of light - a pulsating power, the vital force of the Holy Spirit - right down through you. It is the self-centeredness of the personality which erects blocks and disturbances which make it impossible for the Holy Spirit to function through you. If you ask for help from the great physician, the Lord Jesus, he will help you to unlock the inner, healing power of the Holy Spirit which is within you so that it can be diffused and can spread throughout your being. The Lord will help you to achieve the attunement, the shalom, the peace, the wholeness which is heaven."

This is all very interesting but I'm not sure it clarifies things for me.

If you create your own reality, then manifesting a life of luxury in C1 must reflect that you believe you deserve it. To go on to live in a slum after you die seems a little strange.

On the other hand, if somehow you are manifesting luxury because you are afraid you DON'T deserve it in C1 and you are trying to prove to yourself that you do, then maybe it makes sense if you end up in a slum on the other side.

It seems to me that there is some more subtle lesson about how conciousness works hidden in these stories.

(Alan, your moral does remind me of something I once read; that the Golden Rule uses the verb "do" in the active sense, where other statements of that rule are passive and involve avoiding harming someone else; and though Christians who take the "do" part a little too literally can be rather obnoxious and harm their own cause, or even harm others, being active about doing good might be ...significant. Especially when you recall we are all supposed to be interconnected).

It's just one view Lucy. But if you go with it as a model then a lot depends on what stage of the afterlife is involved.

It's taught that shortly after life we create from much the same urges as we did in life. If we liked fishing, we might create a fishing hut, and so on. If we wanted a hareem we might create one full of houris, or make ourselves very rich, or whatever. Or we might set ourself up as a robber baron in a dog eat dog reality.

It's only subsequently when (i think the way its described says) the winds of karma start to blow and dissolution starts that the ego splits away from the composite (of higher and lower/misled selves and spirit) we think of ourselves more truly.

When that happens, and we're genuinely faced with both what we are and have been, and the guilt kicks in it makes sense that we might be inclined to create very differently - to feel that we only deserve pretty rough circumstances.

It seems like it may be a lot to do with stage - some  it seems are for example so fearful and so attached to earth life that it can take a very long time for them to move on even to the free creation stage.

The million dollar question for me regarding the afterlife travel reported here, and by the likes of Robert Monroe is that of whether or not it's possible to get past a certain point in the bardos, or to access realities created by minds very different to ourselves. e.g. if you believe firmly in benign realities then that's what you create, but what if vice versa is true.....

I basically believe that if we didn't live our life in this World in a positive way, we'll end up in a realm that matches our overall state of mind, and stay in such a realm until we decide to change our way.

Changing our way might take some work, and will require us to be honest about how we affected others.

A lot of harm is created by overly simplistic interpretations of the afterlife attraction principle, like attracts like.  One must ask about the precise nature of the attracting energies.  In my view, the Monroe-Moen concept of BSTs has some merit, but is misleading.  More basic is the purity of one's core desires; but these desires are an amalgam of both conscious and unconscious longings.  For many, these unconscious longings mask well-defended selfish agendas and attitudes of which we are unaware.  For example, some form of confession of sins is essential to spiritual progress, but many Christians in effect plea-bargain with God; that is, they confess "respectable sins" like pride and self-absorption to avoid focusing on shortcomings and weaknesses that create their UNIQUE barriers to spiritual progress.  In short, inadequate self-knowledge is a major obstacle to a more advanced postmortem fate.  For this reason, the right kind of meditation is crucial to spiritual advancement.  Meditation must include a willingness to hear the inner truth about subtle attitudes that permanently negate progress towards pure unconditional love (PUL).  PUL is more than a virtue occasionally displayed; it is a core desire that becomes the essence of one's personality.  One should meditate on possible reasons why Swedenborg found several self-deluded bishops trapped in hellish planes and on the relevance of this tragedy for other naive seekers!

Jesus' restatement of the like attracts like principle is very important: "You will be judged by the same judgments you pronounce, and the measure [= standards] you dish out will determine the measure that is dished out to you (Matthew 7:2)."  My core desires create the lens through which I view others.  To the degree that my core desires are self-serving, I make unconscious judgments about who supports and retards my goals and agendas.  In the afterlife, this pattern of judgments will attract other spirits to my plane who display a similar pattern.  Also, the various ways I unconsciously measure the worth, beauty, and usefulness of others will attract to my plane others who measure me in the same ways.  Personal beliefs are merely one piece of the puzzle of our postmorten fate. 

This brings me to the heart of the Christian Gospel.   The true Christian views herself as the unworthy recipient of Christ's limitless grace and relates to others out of a sense of privilege rather than mechanical duty.  The resulting pure unconditional love and acceptance creates a high vibration harmony which produces the true  heavens.  It is not so much the identity of Jesus as the essence of His unique PUL vibration that makes Him a Savior.  Put differently, it is not moral rules, but the underlying laws of consciousness from which they are inferred that are decisive to spiritual progress.   This is true because these laws of consciousness create potential for life at an optimal quality of high vibration and harmony.

Don   

Alan McDougall,
"We here on Earth have been warned!"

The writer talks about professional jealousy, then goes on to describe his own jealousy. A fair warning to him is that the spirit could care less about a fancy car, though the body does. Another fair warning is that some spirits carry body concepts such as living in dirty houses with them to the astral. If he had been help-pul he could have described the different areas of the astral to him, like focus 27. Sometimes spirits are in the lower regions because they dont't know about other areas.

To forgive someone because they will pay a price for their actions shows he's selfish and not as holy as he perhaps would like to be. It'd be ironic if he ended up renting a room in the dirty, dark and squalid area.

Don-

Beautifully put.

One of my major questions about what Swedenborg said relates to the importance of our inner, core makeup.  Specifically, it is not clear whether this core character is a condition of birth or whether it can be changed via our own efforts.  ES did make it clear that it cannot be changed once we enter the afterlife.

Here is a pertinent quote:

"Everything about us comes from the primary tendency of our life......If we are good we make our heaven according to it, and if we are bad we make our hell according to it.  It is our basic motivation, our personality, and our character, since it is the reality of our life.  It cannot be changed after death because it is our essential self." 
From Heavenly Doctrine S57

If it's our "primary tendency", how do we change it?  You recommended meditation to gain self-knowledge.

My question would be, once we gain that knowledge, and once we recognize our unconscious inner longings, how do we go about changing them? 

Btw, it's no mystery re. the bishops ES wrote about.  They were hypocrites.  They preached one way of life and behavior, but didn't live their own lives accordingly.

R