Messages 2001

Various questions concerning passing over

September 9th, 2001

Received by H.

Cuenca, Ecuador

My dear brother H___, having now concluded the description of the earth planes, which is not exhaustive at all as you will understand, I think it is worth while dealing with the questions Geoff has asked in this context.

The first question is about the tunnel of light that so many people describe in their near death experiences. In the description of my own death, I did not mention this phenomenon.

The second question deals with the spiritualists’ recommendation that the dark spirits of the earth planes should go to the light. If those spirits live on the earth planes, it is due to their soul condition. So what is the meaning of going to the light? Should they approach the limits of their awareness, or is it that they should go to some bright spirits?

And the third part of Geoff’s inquiry refers to a message received by James Padgett, where a husband and wife seem to have been “lost” in the earth plane, that is, on earth, after their death and separation from their physical body. How is this possible?¹

Let’s start with the tunnel of light. There is the idea that this tunnel is a very special phenomenon, because people who experienced such a near death experience describe that tunnel which attracts them forcibly. Some even manage to pass through, as they describe, and at the other end they find an atmosphere of absolute peace and happiness. And this experience does not depend on people’s culture, religion or education.

Well, this is not exactly the truth. Many people perceive what I have just written, but not all, maybe only half of them. Others perceive a tunnel of darkness; others visualize no tunnel at all. The reasons for the similar and divergent points in near death experiences are many.

First, we have to understand that the moment of death, or even of “almost death”, is a moment of great stress which involves a variety of physiological changes.

When the oxygen level decreases in the blood and at the same time the carbon dioxide increases, due to the lack of respiration and the continuation of some level of metabolism, the brain reacts with a series of subjective experiences. For example, people see their life passing in front of them, as in a movie. This phenomenon is described very frequently, and its explanation is absolutely physiological, or rather pathological.

Additionally, in the state of stress and pain which frequently accompanies this kind of experience, the brain produces and releases certain substances which cause an effect very similar to that of the hallucinogenic drugs like heroin. Among these substances are the endorphins, which remove pain, and in high concentrations they even induce sensations of absolute euphoria.

Another effect is some enzymatic defect in the context of neurotransmitters, causing what we could call “short-circuits”, if this expression is allowed. But besides these purely physical-chemical effects, which alter the subjective perception of reality, there is a lot of objective truth in near death experiences.

The light and the great attraction that they feel are true. The light in fact comes from spirits of great soul development who are in charge of receiving those newly arrived spirits, if death really takes place. And it is also correct that frequently the injured or severely diseased people most definately want to leave their physical bodies, and those spirits tell them that they have to return, that their hour has not yet come, and the mortals feel obliged to obey, although they would have liked to stay in that atmosphere of peace and happiness which they are experiencing.

In the moment of death the mortals are surrounded by spirits who perform the service of transforming this transition into a pleasant rather than a traumatic experience. They are the light that is seen, they attract, and they are truly perceived in many cases. What happens in this kind of experience is that the spirits have not completely left their material bodies, and they continue being subject to the impressions which their brains transmit to them. These experiences, in short, are a mixture of real happenings and of hallucinations, produced by an extremely stressed or even moribund brain.

It is also interesting to observe that many Christians, who “die”, see Jesus as he awaits them. How do they know that he is Jesus? Have they seen him once before? How is it that the Hindus or Muslims who die do not see him? As a matter of fact, Jesus rarely engages in this task, he does so only in exceptional cases, in order to express his great appreciation and gratefulness, as it happened when James Padgett died. Jesus was very close to him, and he wanted to accompany him at this important moment of transition in our life. When you die, H___, you can be sure that I will be by your side. And there are already so many mortals who are developing their soul perceptions magnificently, and they will all have the possibility of knowing their guide personally. And at the moment of their death, the mortals’ guides will be by their sides, together with the spirits whom I have described.

At the moment of real death, the spirits leave their physical bodies and are received by other spirits who appear like bright lights, due to their great soul development, and these spirits transfer the newly arrived ones to one of the reception places in the spirit world, where they have to stay a certain amount of time, until they arrive at the full knowledge of their having died and of now living in a new stage of their lives.

As for the second question, the light means bright spirits, who can be found at all planes of the spirit world. As I have explained, dark spirits many times, even in most of the cases, commit the error of escaping from these higher developed spirits and hide, out of a sense of shame or out of simple immaturity. They cannot approach the light in the sense of getting closer to a higher sphere. They may temporarily visit areas of more light, which may have the effect of awakening their longings for progressing, for leaving their miserable condition, but for this they need some guidance, and who better to offer this guidance than those spirits of higher soul development? You should also not forget the fact that spirits in the hells perceive a spirit from the second sphere as being quite bright.

In fact, in James Padgett’s communications with dark spirits you may observe some very illustrative examples, when the spirits who surrounded Mr. Padgett, spirits along the Celestial path or even from the Celestial spheres, seemed like beings from another world, radiant and dazzling. They were the light to which the less favored spirits headed in order to find help.

As for the third question, of those spirits “lost” on the earth plane, it is true that many people die without any preparation, with never having spent a single thought on spiritual things, and for them it is very difficult to find their way in their new surroundings. They feel lost, and simply through their strong desire of returning to their husband or wife, or to their children, they can return. I returned to the place where my corpse lay, and such things happen frequently. Many return to their relatives or friends to stay with them without realizing that their loved ones can neither see them nor hear them. It is an altered mental state, but only temporarily. All this happens before the spirits head for the place where they will start their trip through the spheres of the spirit world. Spirits who do arrive at this starting point already have a full knowledge of their condition as spirits.

I want to add however, that there are dark spirits who do visit earth frequently because they are attracted by something that they left behind, for example money that they buried or hid. They want “to protect” their treasure, and many stories about such ghost phenomena have some foundation in truth. They are spirits fully aware of their condition as spirits, but completely bound to the material, with a very poor soul development, if any. They are spirits from the lower earth planes.

I hope that I have answered the questions of our dear brother Geoff thoroughly. I wish to repeat that much of what is told in connection with near death experiences is due to extreme and pathological phenomena of the brain, but that much also has a real base. We could say that there is an alteration of real perceptions through the brain, modified by expectations and by chemical and extreme pathological processes. We have stated that in mediumship the brain may alter what mediums perceive, introducing their own ideas. In a much more drastic way, this is what happens at the moment of near death. Considering that the mediums are prepared, and that they are in a state of relaxation, even sometimes of trance, we may say that there are good probabilities that the spirit’s thoughts pass through in an acceptable way. In near death experiences the accompanying factors are so unfavorable that perceptions are practically always transmitted in a highly altered way.

From what I have said we can conclude that this kind of study constitutes a very shaky base for establishing reliable knowledge, but as most scientists reject mediumship as an object of their studies, what else should they do?

It is time to say goodbye now. Before leaving you, I would like to say that all of you who work on behalf of the Kingdom and for the spreading of the message of Love on earth are constantly surrounded by spirits from the Celestial spheres. I wish that you could visualize them, you would already feel like in Heaven right now.

With my deep-felt gratitude to all those who contribute to this great work, I say goodbye and pray that the Father lets His immeasurable blessings rain over you.

Judas,

a true follower of Jesus

1 On January 27th, 1915 this issue is raised by Helen.