Afterlife Revealed, and why didn't they recognize Jesus after he died?

[Boggled]

I'm a new believer in the afterlife, mainly because after my husband died on June 3, 2022, I FELT him.  The most clear feeling of him was when he hugged me in my kitchen, and it felt just like when he would hug me in life, but he was not alive in this world.  

This sense that "the he that was he" is still SOMEwhere, AFTER he "died," has totally altered my worldview.  Looking online, I found some recommended guy (I think named Paretti?) who in an article recommended _Afterlife Revealed_ by Michael Tymn.  I finished the book yesterday.   It's a compendium of multiple sources as Mr. Tymn has apparently studied the subject for a long time.  One important bit is that back in the late 1800s the spirits got together and decided to try to get through to the living to help the living with their grief and fear of "death," and they succeeded!, by contacting via mediums and "automatic writing."  It's difficult because spirits have a higher frequency than the living, so it takes four "entities" to communicate for most spirits, (1) the alive person who goes to a medium, (2) a medium, (3) a spirit who wants to communicate with the living, and (4) a spirit that is able to lower their frequency enough to get through to a medium.   

How my husband was able to hug me, I just have to wonder.  Maybe because it was in the early months?  

Anyway, having read much in the Bible, I remember that many times after Jesus was crucified, he was seen by disciples, BUT THEY DID NOT INITIALLY RECOGNIZE HIM.    First of all, to me, this seems a verification of these Bible accounts because ... if it was all a lie, would liars want to admit they didn't recognize Jesus after he appeared to them?  nope IMHO.  

So using the power of the great internet, which is a resource WE have that so many people have not had for so long, I searched ...  how many times in the bible did jesus appear after death and not be recognized... and whammo, immediate gratification ... the internet is a wonderful thing!  This link has the places in the Bible where it was mentioned:

john - Why was Jesus consistently not recognized by those who knew him after his resurrection? - Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange

the question itself is unnecessarily lengthy, seems to me, but the ANSWERS below the question are all about how the spirit is not the flesh, and man, oh man, this is illuminating, that the Bible in so many verses, so describes the afterlife.  

[Boggled]

Another set of Bible verses, Jesus' longest recorded prayer, in John 17, and to me, the description of being IN ... and "we" who are now living, would be "those who will believe in me through their message", "they" being those living at the time who believed in Jesus:

 

^"20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. . . . "

John 17 NIV - Jesus Prays to Be Glorified - After - Bible Gateway

[Jemiga70]

On 9/11/2023 at 6:28 AM, Boggled said:

Looking online, I found some recommended guy (I think named Paretti?)

Maybe it was Dr Piero Calvi-Parisetti?  I've found his resources helpful.  www.drparisetti.com    He created a grief workbook / video course called Love Knows No Death and donated it to Forever Family Foundation.

[Boggled]

That's him.  Thank you, Jemiga70!   It was one of his articles where he said something like, "if you want to know about the afterlife, great book is _Afterlife Revealed_ by Michael Tymn.  

So I bought the book, set it aside, and finally (it took me a while to actually do it!) opened it and started reading ... and it was VERY read-able.  

[Boggled]

Even when Mary Magdalene saw the tombstone rolled aside, and Jesus appeared right next to her, she had to hear his VOICE saying "Mary" before she recognized him.  ... and he told her not to touch him for he was not yet ascended to his Father.

" Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹² and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³ They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵ He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

¹⁷ Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. ... "

John 20 NIV - The Empty Tomb - Early on the first day - Bible Gateway

And on the road to Emmaus, Jesus joined his disciples for the walk ... and they did NOT recognize him!  If I were joined in a walk by a stranger, I would ... you know, check them out(???) ... and there would be time over the walk ... but ... they didn't recognize JESUS?  

 

[Jemiga70]

I'm not religious or Christian, but it occurred to me that perhaps why Mary M and the disciples didn't recognize Jesus was because they thought death was the end and / or they were blinded by their grief.  I've heard the same reasons offered for when people say they haven't received any signs. Just my 2 cents.

[Sar123]

@Jemiga70 I did have a zoom reading with a medium- my kids were also there at different locations. Anyway, the medium was very good and came recommended by 2 friends. She knew things no one else could have (none of us are on Facebook). He brought up about a specific time that I’m unable to share on a public forum (it was an unusual and unique sign) and wanted me to know it was him (I figured it was and even if it hadn’t been, he would have done something like that, lol).
 

She also said that I would see deer within a week of the reading and it would be him. I waited all week and doubted I would see one since I rarely drive at dusk or nighttime. I thought she got it wrong and it left me depressed that Saturday night and I was missing him. The next morning when I was driving to the grocery store around 10:20, I saw 2 deer near a neighborhood by a busy road! I have traveled this road for years and have never seen a deer so I knew it must have been him. It helped me feel better for a while, but now I’m back to feeling depressed again and have had no signs. 

I’m still not sure what to believe anymore. I don’t belong to a church and when people go on about their religion or quote from the Bible, I tune out. I almost envy them in a way because they have something to believe in. I do find reincarnation  an interesting concept. I like the idea that we’re here to learn. 

Have you gone back to a medium or was it just a one time thing for you? 

 

[Jemiga70]

@Sar123   Glad your reading was comforting.  That's why mediums do it - well, legit mediums anyway.  It sounds like your husband has been sending signs.  It's the personal things that mediums can bring forth as evidence that leaves us no doubt it was our loved one.  Not sure when your reading was but you're only 10 months out and it's understandable you're on the rollercoaster of emotions.

My reading was nearly 2 yrs after my wife passed.  The medium said the reading wouldn't take away my grief and that I will still have bad days.  I appreciated her honesty and she was right. I still have bad days and ride the grief rollercoaster, however, the reading DID take away part of the pain of grief that counseling never could've.  I say that with full confidence because I did 18 months of counseling with 2 counselors and I'd love my money back.

I havent gone back to a medium, don't really feel the need.  The main thing I needed was to know my wife was okay.  I knew in my heart she was, but validation from the medium cemented it.  I will probably do 1 more reading with a different medium.

It's common to get signs or to have a validating reading and then fall back into sadness and depression when we don't hear from our loved ones. We miss them so much and so badly want to keep getting signs. Everything I've read in 2.5 yrs suggests it's not easy for them to communicate from the other side. Some people there are better at it than others. Some people here are better at tuning in.

Like you I don't know what to believe either, but I can't deny my experiences. I've even tried to debunk myself. Didn't work.

Agree that reincarnation is interesting. There's evidence suggesting it (Dr Ian Stevenson, Dr Jim Tucker, Dr James Matlock).  Personally I've no recollection of a past life.  I tend to think past life regression therapy and lives between lives therapy is a scam.  On the other hand, a close friend told me when he was 4 or 5 he remembered being someone else in a previous life.  Who's to say?

 

[Boggled]

On 9/30/2023 at 4:54 PM, Sar123 said:

I did have a zoom reading with a medium- my kids were also there at different locations. Anyway, the medium was very good and came recommended by 2 friends. She knew things no one else could have (none of us are on Facebook). He brought up about a specific time that I’m unable to share on a public forum (it was an unusual and unique sign) and wanted me to know it was him (I figured it was and even if it hadn’t been, he would have done something like that, lol).
 

She also said that I would see deer within a week of the reading and it would be him. I waited all week and doubted I would see one since I rarely drive at dusk or nighttime. I thought she got it wrong and it left me depressed that Saturday night and I was missing him. The next morning when I was driving to the grocery store around 10:20, I saw 2 deer near a neighborhood by a busy road! I have traveled this road for years and have never seen a deer so I knew it must have been him. It helped me feel better for a while, but now I’m back to feeling depressed again and have had no signs. 

I’m still not sure what to believe anymore. I don’t belong to a church and when people go on about their religion or quote from the Bible, I tune out. I almost envy them in a way because they have something to believe in. I do find reincarnation  an interesting concept. I like the idea that we’re here to learn. 

 

Sar123, that experience with the medium seems to me to have a LOT of validation in it, (and to me, particularly the part about the specific time mentioned by the medium that you can't share on a public forum) (and seeing the deer at 10:20 a.m. too, when you think about it, that the medium and your husband predicted you would see it, and at a time you never see deer!) so it has the "ring of truth" to me!  

I also wish there would be more, and more explicit, communication from loved ones on the other side.   I haven't had any communications from my parents, for example, though I loved them both, but I did not grieve their deaths as I've grieved my husband's death.  

Wondering about an electric light flickering, to make an electric light flicker, how much physical would a spirit have to do?  ... somehow interrupt the flow of A/C electric current  so it swings wildly for a while?  not enough to stop it, but just enough to change its flow so the light flickers?  so would that entail pushing, say, one electron?  I don't know enough about electricity, pure and simple!  maybe electrons are closer to spiritual in nature and can be affected by spirits easier?  

On 10/1/2023 at 2:19 PM, Jemiga70 said:

I havent gone back to a medium, don't really feel the need.  The main thing I needed was to know my wife was okay.  I knew in my heart she was, but validation from the medium cemented it. 

Really it's similar to those experiments mentioned by Robert Lanza in his article, you HAVE TO REALLY THINK ABOUT THEM.  If you really THINK and WONDER about the FACT that a particle can be altered by a consciousness watching it, then you have to integrate that into your whole world view ... but so much of the way we think is just habit.  And when we can't or don't want to do the work to integrate into our world view, (which we're mere humans!  we don't LIKE to bother with these pesky facts that don't fit!)  then we don't get the benefit/s of that integration.

[Boggled]

on the subject of the Bible, one thing I've been thinking and wondering was "what kind of person was Constantine?"  Because under Emperor Constantine, Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire.  I think it was under Constantine that the books of the Bible were brought together into being "the Bible."  So what sort of person WAS this person who authorized the bringing together of the Bible?  Control by "the State" could indeed have been not only from "faith," but also from "politics?"  We will never know whether anything in the books of the Bible was altered!  We can't go back in time!