When a good friend, a staunch born-again Christian (her description), was dying, she sent word to me that she would reserve a seat for me. I was touched. When another close friend was dying, I convinced her to let go of Earth, as she would be going to a better place. I suggested that we could meet there soon to enjoy a seafood barbecue by a lakeside. Yet, there are other close friends who, in spite of their faithful attendance at their church, are not sure that they will be going anywhere. That surprises me; do not the 3 desert religions offer everlasting life in a wondrous location?
Recently I talked at length with a minister of a Christian church. Where most people (so I assume) have a 2-part reality – the physical and the mental/ideational – some of us have a third level of reality through experience, the spirit world. This is potentially confusing to everyone, initially even to me. The minister warned me against being involved with the spirit world, quoting the Old Testament. To my surprise, I discovered that the spirits are assumed to be malevolent (obviously not all). Why so? What happened in that desert terrain more than 2,500 years ago?
To me, evil is only in the hearts and minds of mankind. In this modern age, when we know so much more than our forebears, no matter how clever they were, do we need to conjure up, or accept, evil as personified, and thereby externalised? Are we only shifting blame? Or, is it the case that those who are evil on Earth will, at death, enter the spirit world and continue with their evil ways? If this is correct, then does everyone more into the spirit world at death?
Is this what that clairvoyant meant when he said to me 25 years ago that where I will be going ‘will not be that different’? That would be disappointing, even for a Re-cycling Depot or Way Station, or an R&R Post. Yet, life (wherever it is) is for living and learning, isn’t i?
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 