The Perspectives

SUN., NOV. 3, 1991, 6:12 AM
FARM, STUDY

Yesterday you made your now-familiar presentation yet again… that introducing and describing five perspectives in death. Since death is a part of life, say I, these also should be described as perspectives on life. In your explanations you talk about life as well as death, so why not expand the title? Hear My comments on these perspectives on a cold morning, with a room warmed by a small stove.

Obviously the Christian perspective is My favorite. I, as the Almighty and Creator God, initiated the creation process, and I put within this human creature an immortal soul. Each soul is ultimately a part of Me and seeks a return to Me, but earth life is very seductive, so that only a relative few accept Me as the redeeming Christ and live lives in accordance with My ways. At death there is a judgment, particularly for those who expect such. Life does go on, in spirit form, the nature of it influenced by the earth life just completed. Heaven and hell are experiences that some Christians truly have, for “a while.”

The life after life perspective affirms that there is a transition between fully conscious life in a body and a spiritual life without a body. The spirit can leave the body and can have quite active experiences while the body remains unconscious and apparently lifeless. There is often the experience of being met by some who had been known in life but who preceded the one in death, encouraging the truth that relationships can continue “beyond the grave.” The experience of having a “spiritual body” assures one that identity is not lost in the “after life” experience. Some time with Me in reviewing the earth life that has been “led” is an important urging to assess your life as you are living it, not so much in negative judgment as in assessing balance and directions.

You have learned about the reincarnation perspective in various ways, and I have not objected to this learning, even as it is not Christian orthodoxy. I have urged you to see its reality in the Christian concept of eternal and everlasting life. Remember that one of My central Teachings to you is that I love variety. I have purposely made humans in a great variety and have allowed many different cultures to develop. There are many ways of perceiving Me, and most of them have some merit. And thus it is in “after life.” Some, as they die their earth life, expect to continue active living, with the desire to live a truly selfless life. (And note that this doesn’t mean that you have no self, but that your self is quite fully linked with My Spirit, and all that you do, you do or Me… and this is the fullest and most satisfying way to live any life.) Some of these will return to another or other earth lives. Some will eschew the body experience but be active as spirits. Many devoted Christians, even some who deny the possibility of this kind of eternal life, have been in the earth previously. Some, when they die and come on over, are amused at how strong their objections were to what they had actually experienced. They just played their orthodox Christian roles a little “too well.”

The humanistic perspective denies the actual continuation of life and instead concentrates on the improvement and prolongation of earth life. I am generally pleased with governments that attempt to help people live more fully and with medical care that has prolonged lives and helped them to be more pain free. There also is concentration on memories of those who have died and of their positive contributions to life.