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The World Beyond (10) Last words from Raymond Lodge.
As Raymond explained in the previous excerpt, spirits watch us writing and communicating and reading these reports, and by doing that some of them are encouraged to find a medium to help them communicate with their loved ones still alive on earth. Also, some lost souls realise at last that they are not really dead, but can continue their existence at some level Beyond. So our interest in the afterlife is probably helping some spirits on their way. We are doing rescue work without being aware of it !
In my investigation over the past twenty-five years of communications from the World Beyond in which spirits of the so-called dead describe their experiences once they have left this material planet, I have discovered a vast amount of information in published books, journals, private letters and other documents. None of us has the time and resources to acquire or even look into more than a very small amount of this. Some information will never see the light of day, unfortunately hidden or forgotten in family archives and private libraries. Of course, new information comes to us daily from our present-day mediums, and from direct experiences of our own. So we are never alone, and are forever building up a wealth of experience. The few descriptions of the Life Beyond which I have managed to collect here hopefully will be enough to convince a newcomer to the subject of survival, that there is indeed a magnificent future and continuing life for all of us Beyond Death.
Raymond had a very private religious side to his character, which was revealed when an annotated Palestine Pictorial Bible was found among his possessions at the front in France. Perhaps after his death his faith helped him to progress quite rapidly and have a vision of Jesus, who talked to him when he visited a higher plane. He mentioned this again in the sitting with his father on March 3rd, 1916, which continues below. After that, in a later sitting he gives an account of another visit to a higher plane.
RAYMOND - Father, do you remember what I told mother about the place I had been to, and whom I had been allowed to see ? What did they think of it ?
SIR OLIVER - Well, the family thought that it wasn’t like Raymond !
RAYMOND - Ah, that’s what I was afraid of. That’s the awful part of it.
SIR OLIVER Well, I don’t suppose they knew your serious side.
RAYMOND - Before I gave that [account] to mother, I hesitated and thought I wouldn’t. Then I said, Never mind what they think now, I must let mother and father know. Some day they will know, and so, what does it matter ? I know that you might think it was something out of a book, not me; but perhaps you don’t know that side of me so well.
SIR OLIVER - No. But among the things that came back [from France] there was a Bible with marked passages in it, and so I saw that you had thought seriously about these things.
RAYMOND - Yes. Yet there’s something strange about it somehow. We are afraid of showing that [religious] side; we keep it to ourselves, and even hide it.
SIR OLIVER - It must have been a great experience for you.
RAYMOND - I hadn’t looked for it. I hadn’t hoped for it, but it was granted.
SIR OLIVER - Do you think you could take some opportunity of speaking about it through some other medium, not Feda [and Mrs Leonard] ? Because at present the boys think that Feda invented it.
RAYMOND - Yes, that’s what they do think. I will try very hard.
SIR OLIVER - Have you ever seen that Person otherwise than at that time ?
RAYMOND - No, I have not seen Him, except as I told you; Father, he doesn’t come and mingle freely, here and there and everywhere. I mean, not in that sense; but we are always conscious [of] and feel him. We are conscious of his presence. But you know that people think that when they go over, they will be with him hand in hand, but of course they’re wrong.
I don’t think I will say very much more about that now, not until I’m able to say it through someone else [through another medium]. It may be that they will say it wrong, that it won’t be right; it may get twisted. Feda does that sometimes. That’s why I say, go carefully.
SIR OLIVER - Have you been through another medium to a friend of mine lately ? [Actually the friend was Mr. Hill at a sitting with medium Alfred Vout Peters which turned out to be on the same day as this sitting].
RAYMOND - I can’t say much about that. I haven’t got much power, and I’m afraid that I might go wrong. Good-bye, father, now. My love to you, my love to mother. I am nearer to you than ever before, and I’m not so silly about [not] showing it. Love to all of you. Lionel is a dear old chap. My love to all. Don’t forget to tell mother about the roses I brought her. There’s nothing to understand about them; I just wanted her to know that I brought her some flowers. Good night, father. I am always thinking of you. God bless you all.
Sitting with Mrs. Leonard at the Lodge’s flat in London, 24th March, 1916. from 5.45 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sir Oliver and Lady Lodge present.
FEDA - Raymond’s here !
LADY LODGE - Is he here already ?
FEDA - Yes, of course he is ! He says he hasn’t come to play with Feda, or make jokes; he’s come about serious things.
RAYMOND - Do you remember about that beautiful experience I had ? I’m so glad that you both know about it, even though the others can’t take it in. Years hence they may. Over here, we don’t mind talking about the real things, because they are the things that count. I think that the one that took it in mostly was Lionel. Yes, it seemed to sink in mostly; he was turning it over afterwards, though he didn’t say much. He’s more ready for that than the others. I would never have believed it myself, when I was there [on earth], but he [Lionel] is [ready].
I haven’t been to that [higher] place again, not that same place. But I’ve been to a place just below it. I’ve been attending lectures, at what they call ‘halls of learning’: you can prepare yourself for the higher spheres while you are living in lower ones. I’m on the third, but I am told that even now I could go on to the fourth if I chose; but I would rather be learning the laws appertaining to each sphere while I am still living on the third, because it brings me closer – at least until you two have come over. I will stay and learn, where I am. I wouldn’t like to go on there and then find it to be difficult to get back. I will wait till we can go happily and comfortably together !
Would it interest you for me to tell you about one of the places I’ve been to ? It’s so interesting to me, that I might seem to exaggerate; but the experience is so wonderful, it lives with me. I went into a place on the fifth sphere – a place I take to be made of alabaster. I’m not sure that it really was, but it looked like that. It looked like a kind of temple – a large one. There were crowds passing into this place, and they looked very happy. And I thought, ‘I wonder what I’m going to see here.’ When I got mixed up with the crowd going into the temple, I felt a kind of [pauses to think] I don’t mean to be irreverent, but I felt as if I had had too much champagne – it went to my head; I felt too buoyant, as if carried a bit off the ground. That is because I am not quite attuned to the conditions of that sphere. It’s a most extraordinary feeling. I went in, and I saw that though the building was white, there were many different lights: looked like certain places covered in red, and…was blue, and the centre was orange. These were not the crude colours that go by those names, but a softened shade. I looked to see what they came from. Then I saw that a lot of the windows were extremely large, and the panes in them had glass of these colours. And I saw that some of the people would go and stand in the pinkish coloured light that came through the red glass, and others would stand in the blue light, and some would stand in the orange or yellow coloured light. I thought, ‘What are they doing that for ?’ Then someone told me that the pinkish coloured light was the light of the love-colour; and the blue light was the light of actual spiritual healing; and the orange was the light of intellect. And that, according to what people wanted, they would go and stand under that light. And the guide told me that it was more important than what people on earth knew. And that, in years to come, there would be made a study of the effect of different lights.
The pinkish people looked clever and developed in their attitude and mentality generally; but they had not been able to cultivate the love-interest much, their other interests had overpowered that one. And the people who went into the intellectual light looked softer and happy, but not so clever-looking. I felt more drawn to the pink light myself, but someone said, ‘No, you have felt a good deal of that.’ And I got out and went into the other two, and I felt that I liked the blue light best. I think that perhaps you will read something into that. I had the other conditions, but I wanted the other so much. The blue seemed to call me more than the others. After I had been in it some time, I felt that nothing mattered much, except preparing for the spiritual life. The old Raymond seemed far away at the time, as though I were looking back on someone else’s life – some one I hadn’t much connexion with, and yet who was linked onto me
I felt, ‘What does anything matter, if I can only attain this beautiful uplifting feeling,’ I can’t tell you what I felt like, but reading it over afterwards, perhaps you will understand. Words feel powerless to describe it. I won’t try, I will just tell you what happened after.
We sat down – the seats were arranged something like pews in a church – and as I looked towards the aisle, I saw coming up it about seven figures. And I saw, from my former experience, that they were evidently teachers come down from the seventh sphere. They went up to the end part, and they stood on a little raised platform; and then one of them came down each of the little aisles, and put out their hands on those sitting in the pews. And when one of the Guides put his hand on my head, I felt a mixture of all three lights – as if I understood everything, and as if everything that I had ever felt, of anger or worry, all seemed nothing. And I felt as if I could rise to any height, and as if I could raise everybody round me. As if I had such a power in myself. [He pauses for thought].
They sat and listened, and the first part of the ceremony was given in a lecture in which one of the Guides was telling us how to teach others on the lower spheres and earth plane, to come more into the spiritual life, while still on those lower planes. I think what all that went before was to make it easy to understand. And I didn’t get only the words of the speaker, words didn’t seem to matter, I got the thought – whole sentences, instead of one word at a time. And lessons were given on concentration, and on the projection of uplifting and helpful thoughts, to those on the earth plane. And as I sat there – I sat, we were not kneeling – I felt as if something was going from me, through the other spheres on to the earth, and was helping somebody though I didn’t know who it was. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was; not once it happened, but several times.
I have even been on to the sixth sphere too. The sixth sphere was even more beautiful than the fifth, but at present I don’t want to stay there. I would rather be helping people where I am.
SIR OLIVER - Do you see the troubles of people on the earth ?
RAYMOND - Yes, I do sometimes. I do wish that we could alter people so that they were not ashamed to talk about the things that matter. I can see people preparing for the summer holidays, and yet something may prevent them. But the journey that they have got to go on some time, [when they die], THAT [journey] they don’t prepare for at all !
LADY LODGE - How can you prepare for it ?
RAYMOND - By speaking about it openly, and living your life so as to make it easier for yourself and others.
SIR OLIVER - Are you still there, Raymond ? Have you got any more tests to give, or anything to say, to the boys or anybody ?
RAYMOND - Did they understand about the yacht and the tent ? [Part of previous test subjects that Raymond mentioned on March 3rd].
SIR OLIVER - Yes they did.
RAYMOND - I’m very pleased – it bucks me up when I get things through.
SIR OLIVER - Have you learnt any more about the Colonel ? [who disappeared in battle].
RAYMOND - He’s not on the spirit side. I feel sure he isn’t. Somebody told me that there was a body found, near the place where he had been, and it was dressed in uniform like he had had. But something had happened to the body here [the medium points to her head].
SIR OLIVER - Who was it told you ?
RAYMOND - Some one on the other side; just a messenger, not one who knew all about it. No, the messenger didn’t seem to know J. K. [the Colonel] personally, but he had gathered the information from the minds of people on the earth plane. I’m not quite sure, but I think that there was something missing from the body – that they took to be him, which would have identified him.
[They continue to discuss the case of the missing Colonel and the help Raymond has given in bringing other spirits along to communicate].
SIR OLIVER - Are you still in your little house ?
RAYMOND - Oh yes, I feel at home there.
SIR OLIVER - You said it was made of bricks - I could make nothing of that.
RAYMOND - I knew you couldn’t.! It’s difficult to explain. It’s something to do with atoms and atomic principles. We seem to be able to draw certain unstable atoms from the atmosphere and crystallize them as they draw near certain [points of] central attraction. That isn’t quite what it is.
FEDA - I have seen like something going round – a wheel – something like electricity, some sparks dropping off the edge of the wheel, and it goes crick, crick, and becomes hard; and then they fall like little raindrops into the long thing under the wheel.
RAYMOND - I call it the accumulator. I can’t call them anything but bricks. It’s difficult to know what to call them. Wait until you come over, and I’ll show you round. And you will say, ‘By Jove, so they are !’ Things are quite real here. Mind, I don’t say things are as heavy as on the earth, because they’re not. And if I hit or kicked something it wouldn’t displace it so much as on the earth, because we’re lighter. I can’t tell you exactly what it is; I’m not very interested in making bricks, but I can see plainly how it’s apparently done.
It appears to me too that the spirit spheres are built round the earth plane, and seem to revolve with it. Only, naturally, the first sphere isn’t revolving at such a rate as the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh sphere. Greater circumference makes it seem to revolve more rapidly. That seems to have an actual effect on the atmospheric conditions prevailing in any one of the spheres. Do you see what I am getting at ?
SIR OLIVER - Yes. You only mean that the peripheral velocity is greater for the bigger spheres, though the angular velocity is the same.
RAYMOND - Yes, that’s just what I mean. And it does affect the different conditions, and that’s why I felt [I had to be] a bit careful when I was on a higher sphere, in hanging on to the ground. [Like trying to walk on the moon’s surface !] Such a lot of people think it’s a kind of thought-world, where you think all sorts of things – that it’s all ‘think.’ But when you come over, you see that there’s no thinking about it; it’s THERE, and it does impress you with reality. I do wish you would come over. I will be as proud as a cat with two tails, showing you round the places. Father , you will have a fine time, poking into everything, and turning everything inside out.
There’s plenty of flowers growing here, Mother, you will be glad to hear. But we don’t cut them here. They don’t die and grow again; they seem to renew themselves. Just like people, they are there all the time renewing their spirit bodies. The higher the sphere I went to, the lighter the bodies White Eagle, Silver Birch and Johannes, and the further experiences of Bertha Harris. Richard R.seemed to be – I mean the fairer, lighter in colour. I have got an idea that the reason why people have drawn angels with long fair hair and very fair complexions is that they have been inspired by somebody from very high spheres.
[Raymond had no more to say on this occasion, and Mrs Leonard came out of her trance, and they discuss other matters. Raymond continued to communicate briefly at future sittings, but the main body of his accounts of his experience of the Life Beyond has already been presented. Readers can judge for themselves how useful this information is. The third section of the book deals with Sir Oliver Lodge’s conclusions after many years of survival research; well worth reading, but there is not room to include that here. Reports of commuications from other "spirits" in the World Beyond to follow.
Richard Rowley
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