Spirituality

[KayC]

I wanted to start this thread for those wanting to express their spiritual views...those who do not need not enter.  I hope this helps!

[Boggled]

Okay, so I'm "bent on expressing my view."   not that I'm preaching.  hahaha!  

I read a really CONVINCING book!  _Afterlife Revealed_ by Michael Tymn.  It was convincing enough that I have started doing things I haven't done since my husband ... departed this world over 15 months ago now.    I read books.  I've bought a bunch of "grief books" in this past 15 months.  They've had points that helped but none of them brought back my mojo.  This "Revealed" book I THINK is what brought some of it back.  It's a long read, about the afterlife (no kidding) ... about how back in about 1847 (iirc), spirits in the afterworld had grouped together to contact this world, many of them famous people in this world, to help the living to understand and avoid some of the grief we go through.  

After we die, our spirit has to wake up in the next world.  We go through a "life review," where we see what we've done in our lives and judge it impartially.   There are seven levels to the afterlife.  Then we go through a "second death," sometimes very quickly, sometimes very slowly.  We go to one of the seven levels depending on how much light our spirits can tolerate.  And we are greeted by "smiling faces" and there will be "helpers."  The point seems to be to "deeply contemplate."    and I THINK/SUSPECT learn to love?  

How this relates to Christianity.  We humans ALL, of whatever religion or belief, end up in this "afterlife.

I personally (not from the book) remember Jesus' long prayer to God (yes, I have read the Bible, though not straight through) where he asked that (John 17) :  

" 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. "  

and somewhere Jesus also said something along of the line of:  "I go to prepare a place for you" ... 

really it fits together with this _Afterlife Revealed_ book talks about, that this world of "reality" in which we are living, is a bodily world for us, but we are spirits having a bodily experience, not bodies, not entirely chemical and physical.  

There's a new idea these days far's as I understand, that our minds are not all physical.  (book:  Amazon.com: Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century: 9781442202061: Edward Kelly, Emily Williams Kelly: Books )

So I'm a-gonna quit now.  There's a lot.  To figure out.  But I myself believe that I will meet my precious precious husband again.  

[KayC]

There is no doubt in my mind there is afterlife.  It gives me that hope that I could not live without of seeing George again. I've had two NDE's, plus a dream of one one time, but I've always been a believer, and no I was not raised that way.  I'm not sure where I got it, I remember singing How Great Thou Art in the back yard at the top of my lungs when I was a child.  My parents were Atheists that believed any of us believers were ignoramuses, so that made it challenging, but my mom turned when I was 20 and my dad just two days before he died.  At some point he told me he'd been called to preach, he didn't say why he didn't, maybe because he married my mom, his brother's wife, IDK.

I remember when I was 16 and first read this 

16 minutes ago, Boggled said:

"I go to prepare a place for you" ... 

but it was the next part that really hit me:

"If it were not so, I would of told you."

It meant so much to me that we could count on Him to tell us the TRUTH!  

[Gator M]

I truly believe in an afterlife/Paradise/Heaven for those who believe.  

There are numerous NDE's that confirm this.

Biblically, when we die, we are immediately with Jesus in heaven.  Although we do not have a "body" until Jesus returns and brings us with him.

How does this not give grievers hope is baffling?  We will be reunited with our loved ones.    

For those who don't believe this...fine.    We are not here to judge.  But we are commissioned to spread the "Good News"

 

[Jemiga70]

Been studying this subject the day after my wife passed.

Was raised Catholic.

Unfortunately, in my rejecting the church, I chucked out everything that wasn't material science.

To me, for most of my life, NDEs, deathbed visions, out of body experiences, psychic functioning and mediums were all just either wishful thinking or hogwash. But that all changed when my wife transitioned.

Besides being inundated with signs, especially during that first year, I sat with a medium - my first and only sitting - last March. She knew nothing about me and I made sure of that beforehand.

I booked under a false name, false email and paid with a friend's credit card - he cannot be Googled and traced to me.

The medium did not have my phone number, so even if she was unethical it would've been impossible to Google my number and trace to me.

The reading was via Zoom. My camera was off and my screen name wasn't even a name, but something silly like Toxic Banana.  I did not tell the medium who I wanted to hear from, not beforehand and not at the beginning of the reading.

Finally, the medium was affiliated with Forever Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nondenominational org whose only mission is to help people in grief. I was satisfied the medium was ethical, was the real deal, and that I'd done my due diligence with keeping anonymous.

Well.

She told me things she had no way of knowing, including my wife's name. Calculate the odds of just that.  That's like hitting a grand slam in mediumship. I can only conclude she was either reading my mind to get the info - which would contradict her ethics - OR she was communicating with my wife's spirit. For me there are no other explanations.

@Boggled  Michael Tymn's book is on my reading list.  You might wanna check out the work of Julie Beischel PhD at Windbridge.org and Dr Gary Schwartz at University of Arizona. They have both studied mediums under controlled conditions using watertight protocols.  For more about the spirit realms, you might wanna check out Life In The World Unseen, communicated by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, a  former Catholic/Anglican bishop (!!) and channeled by medium Anthony Borgia in the 1940s.  Victor Zammit, a lawyer, presents evidence for the afterlife on his website. His Friday Afterlife Reports usually have something worth contemplating.

[Boggled]

30 minutes ago, Jemiga70 said:

She told me things she had no way of knowing, including my wife's name. Calculate the odds of just that.  That's like hitting a grand slam in mediumship. I can only conclude she was either reading my mind to get the info - which would contradict her ethics - OR she was communicating with my wife's spirit. For me there are no other explanations.

Jemiga70, as soon as I got to this part in your post, I started crying.    I think it's a good kind of crying though.  Thank you!

3 hours ago, Gator M said:

We will be reunited with our loved ones. 

I agree.    

[Boggled]

33 minutes ago, Jemiga70 said:

You might wanna check out the work of Julie Beischel PhD at Windbridge.org and Dr Gary Schwartz at University of Arizona. They have both studied mediums under controlled conditions using watertight protocols.  For more about the spirit realms, you might wanna check out Life In The World Unseen, communicated by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, a  former Catholic/Anglican bishop (!!) and channeled by medium Anthony Borgia in the 1940s.  Victor Zammit, a lawyer, presents evidence for the afterlife on his website. His Friday Afterlife Reports usually have something worth contemplating.

oh my, much reading to find!  Thanks for the references ... I'm copying this paragraph to print out so I don't lose it.

[Sim7079]

I also believe that death is not the end and that we will see our loved ones again. This thought definitely gives me comfort. My faith in God give me strength & keeps me moving forward when most of the time I feel like standing still.

I treasure the dreams where my husband is in them & honestly feel it is him showing that he is with me, especially when I didn’t really have dreams before he passed & also the times  he communicates with me through light 💡 and sound.

There is so much that is unseen & that we don’t fully understand but one thing is for certain my heart & spirit will be fully joyous when we are reunited again x

[Gator M]

I believe death is the beginning.

 

[Gator M]

Angel studios has a new movie out this Oct..."After Death"

 

 

[Sim7079]

On 9/15/2023 at 10:46 PM, Gator M said:

 

I believe death is the beginning.

 

This is interesting thought & very powerful.

[Boggled]

Welp, this author has written a relatively short article published online in "Psychology Today" that probably expresses something of what he wrote about in all his long difficult BOOKS.  (which I sincerely doubt I'll ever read, because they're too darned long and difficult.)

Is Death an Illusion? Evidence Suggests Death Isn’t the End | Psychology Today

[Boggled]

And neurosurgeon Eben Alexander, very well known for his Near Death Experience, and his blog, discussing our "minds" and how they are not physical (under 'WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS" on here):

Dr. Alexander's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) (ebenalexander.com)

[Gator M]

For a believer, death is only the beginning.  The Gospel is the "Good News".    I find it puzzling, how many people are offended at that.  We are given a gift...a free gift.  

There is more and more "scientific" and statistical research to back this up.  Most NDE's confirm this.  Many times, there is no medical explanation for NDEs.  People hear and see things that are technically impossible to have occurred.  

I would think, faith and the afterlife would give people hope.  Absent from the body means present with the Lord.  

Religion (Man made) has done more to harm the Gospel then non-believers.  

[KayC]

I'm turning 71 in 2 1/2 weeks...the older I get, the closer our reunion day!

[KayC]

So, a neighbor, Mike, took Iris in to visit Iris' best friend, dying of cancer, Sunday.  They prayed with her.  They went back yesterday as it was her birthday, she was unconscious and never recovered consciousness...last night she went.  

[Gator M]

4 minutes ago, KayC said:

So, a neighbor, Mike, took Iris in to visit Iris' best friend, dying of cancer, Sunday.  They prayed with her.  They went back yesterday as it was her birthday, she was unconscious and never recovered consciousness...last night she went.  

Oh, I am so sorry.  Prayers for you and Iris.  You both have been through so much.

 

[Boggled]

If we take this idea? belief? that we are all spirits having a bodily experience, I'm just opening my "mind" up to the idea PERSONALLY ... 

so.  I'm a SPIRIT.  Somehow over the twenty years we were together, my spirit (which is the real me) intertwined with my husband's spirit (which is the real him).  Just thinking and believing, "I'm a spirit" is mind-blowing in my humble opinion.  It's not the way I thought "before."  I'm a spirit!  There's this extra - other - ongoing "me" that I AM and HAVE BEEN all my life ... again, it's weird.  Not eerie weird, though.  

Not quite the same thing you get through churches either.   

KayC, Iris's friend has passed through the veil, right?   On to "the next world."    One message in that Michael Tymn book I found interesting, when a person is physically dying, food is not helpful, but WATER IS HELPFUL.  Why?  Remember Jesus talked about "ye must be born again of WATER and the spirit."    Just one more interesting thing, maybe a sort of a clue.

[Boggled]

Found the part in the Tymn _Afterlife Revealed_ book where water is mentioned as being helpful (p. 75 in the paperback).  

"Gladys Osborne Leonard explained that it is sometimes difficult for the etheric body to dissociate itself from the physical envelope.  She pointed out that those who lack a spiritual understanding and fear death are more "fixed" in the physical, and thus there is much more of a struggle in the release.

"According to Leonard, drinking plenty of water strengthens the etheric body and enables it to more easily separate itself from the physical body. 

. . . 

"The administration of drugs also hinders an easy transition from the physical to the etheric body, Leonard added, again stressing the need to give the dying person water, even if only a few drops at a time by means of a syringe.  "Water is the one thing that the etheric body can make use of when trying to free itself from the physical at the approach of death of the latter."  "

[Gator M]

2 Corinthians 5:8 ESV 

Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Philippians 1:23 ESV 

I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

Luke 23:43 ESV /

And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV 

And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

John 14:2-3 ESV 

In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

[Sim7079]

Good bible verses. The last one especially & one I read often.

[Boggled]

Reading on Wikipedia about Emanuel Swedenborg, he was very interesting on a lot of spiritual subjects.  This, for instance, is interesting:

"Swedenborg spoke in virtually all his works against what he regarded as the incomprehensible Trinity of Persons concept. He said that people of other religions opposed Christianity because of its doctrine of a Trinity of Persons. He considered the separation of the Trinity into three separate Persons to have originated with the First Council of Nicaea and the Athanasian Creed. " 

Emanuel Swedenborg - Wikipedia

And on marriage!   from the above link:

"One often discussed aspect of Swedenborg's writing is his ideas on marriage. Swedenborg himself remained a bachelor all his life, but that did not hinder him from writing voluminously on the subject. His work on Marriage Love (Conjugial Love^[g] in older translations) (1768) was dedicated to this purpose.^[118]

"A central question with regard to marriage is whether it stops at death or continues into heaven. The question arises due to a statement attributed to Jesus that there is no marriage in heaven (Luke 20:27–38, Matthew 22:23–32, and Mark 12:18–27). Swedenborg wrote The Lord God Jesus Christ on Marriage in Heaven as a detailed analysis of what he meant.^[119]

"The quality of the relationship between husband and wife resumes in the spiritual world in whatever state it was at their death in this world. Thus, a couple in true marriage love remain together in that state in heaven into eternity. A couple lacking in that love by one or both partners, however, will separate after death and each will be given a compatible new partner if they wish. A partner is also given to a person who loved the ideal of marriage but never found a true partner in this world. The exception in both cases is a person who hates chaste marriage and thus cannot receive such a partner.^[120]

"Swedenborg saw creation as a series of pairings, descending from the Divine love and wisdom^[121] that define God and are the basis of creation. This duality can be seen in the pairing of good and truth,^[122] charity and faith,^[123] God and the church,^[124] and husband and wife.^[125] In each case, the goal for these pairs is to achieve conjunction between the two component parts. In the case of marriage, the object is to bring about the joining of the two partners at the spiritual and physical levels, and the happiness that comes as a consequence. "

 

 

[Jemiga70]

@Boggled  I'm surprised Wickedpedia didn't character assassinate Swedenborg, because from what I recall he astral traveled to other realms to learn these things.  I was under the impression Wickedpedia had long been co-opted by dogmatic materialists that claim anything spiritual is a fraud. Nonetheless, interesting reading. Thanks for sharing.

[widower2]

21 hours ago, Jemiga70 said:

@Boggled  I'm surprised Wickedpedia didn't character assassinate Swedenborg, because from what I recall he astral traveled to other realms to learn these things.  I was under the impression Wickedpedia had long been co-opted by dogmatic materialists that claim anything spiritual is a fraud. 

....something you clearly have bought into, though I can't imagine why. I never noticed "wickedpedia" to be dogmatic in any way whatsoever.

[Gator M]

What I find interesting is that believers, if they are true believers can't separate their faith from who they are.  In my faith, we are told to go and reach hurting people in LOVE.  I have found grief and loneliness to be some of the most painful conditions we humans face.  Even Jesus wept for Lazarous KNOWING he was going to raise him from the dead...WHY?  The Bible instructs us to care for the widowed, specifically. 

Most of us who post spiritual material do it as a helpful suggestion.  Jesus, went to the sick and hurting.  I doubt, many of the hurting grievers, would even search here for answers.

I went to a real good bereavement class last night.  I can't even post what I learned as "Positive" without risking being banned.  Even the spiritual section has now been segregated.     

I'm offended and at a loss.