A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS

BY FRANCHEZZO

TRANSCRIBED BY A. FARNESE.

Oh, Star of Hope, that shines to bless
The Wanderer through Life's Wilderness!
Angels of Love—say are ye come
To lead the Weary Wanderer home?

Preface by the Transcriber.

The following narrative was written more than a year ago, and in giving it to the public I do not claim to be its author, since I have only acted the part of an amanuensis and endeavored to write down as truthfully and as carefully as I could, the words given to me by the Spirit Author himself, who is one of several spirits who have desired me to write down for them their experiences in the spirit world.

I have had to write the words as fast as my pen could travel over the paper, and many of the experiences described and opinions advanced are quite contrary to what I myself believed to be in accordance with the conditions of life in the world of spirits.

The Spirit Author Franchezzo I have frequently seen materialized, and he has been recognized on these occasions by friends who knew him in earth life.

Having given the narrative to the public as I received it from the Spirit Author, I must leave with him all responsibility for the opinions expressed and the scenes described.

A. FARNESE.
London, 1896

Dedication by the Author.

To those who toil still in the mists and darkness of uncertainty which veil the future of their earthly lives, I dedicate this record of the Wanderings of one who has passed from earth life into the hidden mysteries of the Life Beyond, in the hope that through my experiences now given to the world, some may be induced to pause in their downward career and think ere they pass from the mortal life, as I did, with all their unrepented sins thick upon them.

It is to those of my brethren who are treading fast upon the downward path, that I would fain hope to speak, with the power which Truth ever has over those who do not blindly seek to shut it out; for if the after consequences of a life spent in dissipation and selfishness are often terrible even during the earth-life, they are doubly so in the Spirit World, where all disguise is stripped from the soul, and it stands forth in all the naked hideousness of its sins, with the scars of the spiritual disease contracted in its earthly life stamped upon its spirit form—never to be effaced but by the healing powers of sincere repentance and the cleansing waters of its own sorrowful tears.

I now ask these dwellers upon earth to believe that if these weary travelers of the other life can return to warn their brothers yet on earth, they are eager to do so. I would have them to understand that spirits who materialize have a higher mission to perform than even the solacing of those who mourn in deep affliction for the beloved they have lost. I would have them to look and see that now even at the eleventh hour of man's pride and sin, these spirit wanderers are permitted by the Great Supreme to go back and tell them the fate of all who outrage the laws of God and man. I would have even the idle and frivolous to pause and think whether Spiritualism be not something higher, holier, nobler, than the passing of an idle hour in speculations as to whether there are occult forces which can move a table or rap out the Alphabet, and whether it is not possible that these feeble raps and apparently unmeaning tips and tilts of a table are but the opening doors through which a flood of light is being let in upon the dark places of earth and of the Nether World—faint signs that those who have gone before do now return to earth to warn their brethren.

As a warrior who has fought and conquered I look back upon the scenes of those battles and the toils through which I have passed, and I feel that all has been cheaply won—all has been gained for which I hoped and strove, and I seek now but to point out the Better Way to others who are yet in the storm and stress of battle, that they may use the invaluable time given to them upon earth to enter upon and follow with unfaltering step the Shining Path which shall lead them home to Rest and Peace at last.

FRANCHEZZO.

PART I.
Days of Darkness.

CHAPTER I.
My Death

I have been a Wanderer through a far country, in those lands that have no name—no place—for you of earth, and I would set down as briefly as I can my wanderings, that those whose feet are pointed to that bourn may know what may in their turn await them.

On earth and in my life of earth I lived as those do who seek only how the highest point of self gratification can be reached. If I was not unkind to some—if I was indulgent to those I loved—yet it was ever with the feeling that they in return must minister to my gratification—that from them I might purchase by my gifts and my affection the love and homage which was as my life to me.

I was talented, highly gifted both in mind and person, and from my earliest years the praise of others was ever given to me, and was ever my sweetest incense. No thought ever came to me of that all self-sacrificing love which can sink itself so completely in the love for others that there is no thought, no hope of happiness, but in securing the happiness of the beloved ones. In all my life, and amongst those women whom I loved (as men of earth too often miscall that which is but a passion too low and base to be dignified by the name of love), amongst all those women who from time to time captivated my fancy, there was not one who ever appealed to my higher nature sufficiently to make me feel this was true love, this the ideal for which in secret I sighed. In everyone I found something to disappoint me. They loved me as I loved them—no more, no less. The passion I gave won but its counterpart from them, and thus I passed on unsatisfied, longing for I knew not what.

Mistakes I made—ah! how many. Sins I committed—not a few; yet the world was often at my feet to praise me and call me good, and noble, and gifted. I was feted—caressed—the spoilt darling of the dames of fashion. I had but to woo to win, and when I won all turned to bitter ashes in my teeth. And then there came a time upon which I shall not dwell, when I made the most fatal mistake of all and spoilt two lives where I had wrecked but one before. It was not a golden flowery wreath of roses that I wore, but a bitter chain—fetters as of iron that galled and bruised me till at last I snapped them asunder and walked forth free. Free?—ah, me! Never again should I be free, for never for one moment can our past errors and mistakes cease to dog our footsteps and clog our wings while we live—aye, and after the life of the body is ended—till one by one we have atoned for them, and thus blotted them from our past.

And then it was—when I deemed myself secure from all love—when I thought I had learned all that love could teach—knew all that woman had to give—that I met one woman. Ah! what shall I call her? She was more than mortal woman in my eyes, and I called her "The Good Angel of My Life," and from the first moment that I knew her I bowed down at her feet and gave her all the love of my soul—of my higher self—a love that was poor and selfish when compared to what it should have been, but it was all I had to give, and I gave it all. For the first time in my life I thought of another more than of myself, and though I could not rise to the pure thoughts, the bright fancies that filled her soul, I thank God I never yielded to the temptation to drag her down to me.

As so time went on—I sunned myself in her sweet presence—I grew in holy thoughts that I deemed had left me for ever—I dreamed sweet dreams in which I was freed from those chains to my past that held me so cruelly, so hardly, now when I sought for better things. And from my dreams I ever woke to the fear that another might win her from me—and to the knowledge that I, alas! had not the right to say one word to hold her back. Ah, me! The bitterness and the suffering of those days! I knew it was myself alone who had built that wall between us. I felt that I was not fit to touch her, soiled as I was in the world's ways. How could I dare to take that innocent, pure life and link it to my own? At times hope would whisper it might be so, but reason said ever, "No!" And though she was so kind, so tender to me that I read the innocent secret of her love, I knew—I felt—that on earth she never would be mine. Her purity and her truth raised between us a barrier I could never pass. I tried to leave her. In vain! As a magnet is drawn to the pole, so was I ever drawn back to her, till at last I struggled no more. I strove only to enjoy the happiness that her presence gave—happy that at least the pleasure and the sunshine of her presence was not denied me.

And then! Ah! then there came for me an awful, and unexpected day, when with no warning, no sign to awaken me to my position, I was suddenly snatched from life and plunged into that gulf, that death of the body which awaits us all.

And I knew not that I had died. I passed from some hours of suffering and agony into sleep—deep, dreamless sleep—and when I awoke it was to find myself alone and in total darkness. I could rise; I could move; surely I was better. But where was I? Why this darkness? Why was no light left with me? I arose and groped as one does in a dark room, but I could find no light, hear no sound. There was nothing but the stillness, the darkness of death around me.

Then I thought I would walk forward and find the door. I could move, though slowly and feebly, and I groped on—for how long I know not. It seemed hours, for in my growing horror and dismay I felt I must find some one—some way out of this place; and to my despair I seemed never to find any door, any wall, anything. All seemed space and darkness round me.

Overcome at last, I called out aloud! I shrieked, and no voice answered me. Then again and again I called, and still the silence; still no echo, even from my own voice, came back to cheer me. I bethought me of her I loved, but something made me shrink from uttering her name there. Then I thought of all the friends I had known, and I called on them, but none answered me. Was I in prison? No. A prison has walls and this place had none. Was I mad? Delirious? What? I could feel myself, my body. It was the same. Surely the same? No. There was some change in me. I could not tell what, but I felt as though I was shrunken and deformed? My features, when I passed my hand over them, seemed larger, coarser, distorted surely? Oh, for a light! Oh, for anything to tell me even the worst that could be told! Would no one come? Was I quite alone? And she, my angel of light, oh! where was she? Before my sleep she had been with me—where was she now? Something seemed to snap in my brain and in my throat and I called wildly to her by name, to come to me, if but for once more. I felt a terrible sense as if I had lost her, and I called and called to her wildly; and for the first time my voice had a sound and rang back to me through that awful darkness.

Before me, far, far away, came a tiny speck of light like a star that grew and grew and came nearer and nearer till at last it appeared before me as a large ball of light, in shape like a star, and in the star I saw my beloved. Her eyes were closed as of one in sleep, but her arms were held out to me and her gentle voice said in those tones I knew so well, "Oh! my love, my love, where are you now; I cannot see you, I only hear your voice; I only hear you call to me, and my soul answers to yours."

I tried to rush to her, but I could not. Some invisible force held me back, and around her seemed a ring I could not pass through. In an agony I sank to the ground, calling upon her to leave me no more. Then she seemed to grow unconscious; her head sank upon her breast, and I saw her float away from me as though some strong arms had borne her. I sought to rise and follow her, but could not. It was as if a great chain held me fast, and after some fruitless struggles I sank upon the ground in unconsciousness.

When I awoke again I was overjoyed to see that my beloved one had returned to me. She was standing near, looking this time as I had seen her on earth, but pale and sad and all dressed in black. The star was gone, and all around was darkness; yet not utter darkness, since around her was a pale, faint glow of light by which I could see she carried flowers—white flowers—in her hands. She stooped over a long low mound of fresh earth. I drew nearer and nearer and saw that she was silently weeping as she laid down the flowers on that low mound. Her voice murmured softly, "Oh, my love! Oh, my love, will you never come back to me? Can you be indeed dead, and gone where my love cannot follow you? Where you can hear my voice no more? My love! Oh, my dear love!"

She was kneeling down now, and I drew near, very near, though I could not touch her, and as I knelt down I, too, looked at that long low mound. A shock of horror passed over me, for I knew now, at last, that I was dead, and this was my own grave.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
Conclusion

My task is done, my story told, and it but remains for me to say to all who read it, that I trust they will believe it is as it professes to be, the true narrative of a repentant soul who has passed from darkness into light, and I would have them ask themselves if it might not be well to profit by the experiences of others and to weigh well the evidence for and against the possibility of the spirit's return. And you who would think the gospel of mercy after death too easy a one, too lenient to the sinners, do you know what it is to suffer all the pangs of an awakened conscience? Have you seen that path of bitter tears, of weary effort, which the soul must climb if it would return to God? Do you realize what it means to undo, step by step, through years of darkness and suffering and bitter anguish of soul, the sinful acts and words and thoughts of an earthly lifetime?--for even to the uttermost farthing must the debt be paid; each must drink to the last dregs the cup that he has filled. Can you imagine what it is to hover around the earth in helpless, hopeless impotence, beholding the bitter curse of your sins working their baneful effects upon the descendants you have left, with the taint of your past lurking in their blood and poisoning it? To know that each of these tainted lives--all these beings cursed with evil propensities ere they were born--have become a charge upon your conscience in so far as you have contributed to make them what they are, clogs which will continue to drag back your soul when it attempts to rise, until you shall have made due atonement to them, and helped to raise them from that slough into which your unbridled passions have contributed to sink them? Do you understand now how and why there may be spirits working still about the earth who died hundreds of years ago? Can you imagine how a spirit must feel who seeks from the grave to call aloud to others, and especially to those he has betrayed to their ruin as well as his own, and finds that all ears are deaf to his words, all hearts are closed to his cries of anguish and remorse? He cannot now undo one foolish or revengeful act. He cannot avert one single consequence of suffering which he has brought upon others or himself; an awful wall has risen, a great gulf opened between him and the world of living men on earth, and unless some kind hand will bridge it over for him and help him to return and speak with those whom he has wronged, even the confession of his sorrow--even such tardy reparation as he may still make is denied to him. And is there, then, no need that those who have passed beyond the tomb should return and warn their brethren, even as Dives sought to return and could not? Are men on earth so good that they require no voice to echo to them from beyond the gates of death a foreshadowing of the fate awaiting them? Far easier were it for man to repent now while still on earth than to wait till he goes to that land where he can deal with the things of earth no more, save through the organisms of others.

I met a spirit once who in the reign of Queene Anne had defrauded another of a property by means of forged title deeds, and who when I saw him was still earth-bound to that house and land, utterly unable to break his chains until the help was given him of a medium through whom he confessed where he had hidden the true title deeds, and gave the names of those to whom of right the property should belong. This poor spirit was freed by his confession from his chain to that house, but not from his imprisonment to the earth plane. He had to work there till his efforts had raised up and helped onward those whom he had driven into the ways of sin and death by his crime. Not till he has done so can this spirit hope to leave the earth plane, and there he still works, striving to undo the effects of his past sin. Will anyone say his punishment was too light? Shall anyone judge his brother man and say at what point God's mercy shall stop and that sinner be doomed eternally? Ah, no! Few dare to face the true meaning of their creeds or to follow out even in thought the bitter and awful consequences of a belief in eternal punishment for any of the erring children of God.

I have in these pages sought to show what has been the true experience of one whom the churches might deem a lost soul, since I died without a belief in any church, any religion, and but a shadowy belief in a God. My own conscience ever whispered to me that there must be a Supreme, a Divine Being, but I stifled the thought and thrust it from me, cheating myself into a sense of security and indifference akin to that of the foolish ostrich which buries its head in the sand and fancies none can see it; and in all my wanderings, although I have indeed learned that there is a Divine Omnipotent Ruler of the Universe--its upholder and sustainer--I have not learned that he can be reduced to a personality, a definite shape in the likeness of man, a something whose attributes we finite creatures can argue about and settle. Neither have I seen anything which would incline me to believe in one form of religious belief rather than in another. What I have learned is to free the mind, if possible, from the boundaries of any and every creed.

The infancy of the race of planetary man, when his mental condition resembles that of a child, may be called the Age of Faith. The Mother Church supplies for him the comfort and hope of immortality and takes from his mind the burden of thinking out for himself a theory of First Cause, which will account to him for his own existence and that of his surroundings. Faith steps in as a maternal satisfier of the longings of his imperfectly developed soul and the man of a primitive race believes without questioning why he does so. Among the early tribes of savages the more spiritualized men become the mystery men, and then the priests, and as age succeeds to age the idea of an established church is formulated.

Next comes the Age of Reason, when the development of man's intellectual faculties causes him to be no longer satisfied with blind faith in the unknown, the mother's milk of the Churches no longer assuages his mental hunger, he requires stronger food, and if it be withheld, he breaks away from the fostering care of Mother Church which once sustained but which now only cramps and cripples the growing and expanding soul. Man's reason demands greater freedom and its due share of nourishment, and must find it somewhere, and in the struggle between the rebellious growing child and the Mother Church, who seeks to retain still the power she wielded over the infant, the Faith that once sufficed as food comes to be regarded as something nauseous and to be rejected at all cost, hence the Age of Reason becomes a time of uprooting of all the cherished beliefs of the past.

Then comes another stage, in which the child, now grown to be a youth who has seen and tasted for himself the joys and sorrows, the penalties, and pleasures and benefits of reason, and has thereby learned to put a more just value on the powers and limitations of his own reasoning faculties, looks back at the faith he once despised, and recognizes that it also has its beauties and its value. He sees that though faith alone cannot suffice for the nourishment of the soul beyond its infant stage, yet reason alone, devoid of faith, is but a cold hard fare upon which to sustain the soul now becoming conscious of the immeasurable and boundless universe by which it is surrounded, and of the many mysteries it contains--mysteries reason alone is not able to explain. Man turns back to faith once more and seeks to unite it with reason, that henceforth they may assist each other.

Now Faith and Reason are the central thought principles of two different spheres of thought in the spirit world. Faith is the vitalizing principle of religion or ecclesiasticism, as Reason is of philosophy. These two schools of thought which appear at first sight opposed to each other, are none the less capable of being blended in the mental development of the same personality, the properly balanced mind being that in which they are equally proportioned. Where one predominates over the other to a great degree, the individual--be he mortal or disembodied spirit--will be narrow-minded in one direction or the other and incapable of taking a just view of any mental problem. His mind will resemble a two wheeled gig which has a big and a little wheel attached to the same axle, and in consequence neither wheel can make due progress, the mental gig coming to a stop till the defect be remedied.

A man may be thoroughly conscientious in his desire for truth, but if his intellectual as well as his moral faculties have not been equally developed, his mind will be like a highway blocked by huge masses of error, so that the ethereal rays from the star of truth cannot penetrate it; they are broken and refracted by the obstructions, so that either they do not reach the man's soul at all or they are such distorted images of the truth that they are simply a source of prejudice and error. The intellect may be called the eye of the soul, and if the sight of that eye be imperfect the soul remains in mental darkness, however earnest may be its desire for light. The mental sight must be developed and used ere it can become clear and strong.

Blind ignorant faith is no safeguard against error. The history of religious persecutions in all ages is surely proof of that. The great minds of earth to whom great intellectual discoveries are due have been those in which the moral and intellectual powers are equally balanced, and the perfect man or angel will be the man in whom all the qualities of the soul have been developed to their highest point.

Every attribute of the soul, mental and moral, has its corresponding ray of color, and the blending of these forms the beautiful and varied tints of the rainbow, and like it they melt into one another to form the perfect whole.

In some souls the development of certain faculties will take place more rapidly than that of others; in some certain seed germs of intellect and morality will lie fallow and give no sign that they exist, but they are none the less there, and either on earth or in the great Hereafter they will begin to grow and to blossom into perfection.

Evil is caused by the lack of development of the moral attributes in certain souls and the over development of other qualities. The souls which are now inhabiting the lower spheres are simply passing through the process of education needful to awaken into active life and growth the dormant moral faculties, and terrible as are the evils and sufferings wrought in the process they are yet necessary and beneficent in their ultimate results.

In the sphere where I now dwell there is a magnificent and beautiful palace belonging to the Brotherhood of Hope. This palace is the meeting place for all members of our Brotherhood, and in it there is a fine hall built of what is the spiritual counterpart of white marble. This hall is called the "Hall of Lecture," and in it we assemble to listen to discourses delivered to us by advanced spirits from the higher sphere. At the upper end there is a magnificent picture called "The Perfect Man." That is to say it represents a man, or rather angel, who is relatively perfect. I say relatively perfect, because even the utmost perfection which can be imagined or attained, can only be relative to the still greater heights which must be eternally possible for the soul. Unlike Alexander who mourned that he had left no more worlds to conquer, the soul has no limits put to the possibilities of its intellectual and moral conquests. The universe of mind is as boundless as that of matter, and as eternal. Hence none can use the word perfect as implying a point beyond which progress is impossible.

In the picture this relatively perfect angel is represented as standing on the highest pinnacle of the celestial spheres. The earth and her attendant spheres lie far below him. His gaze is turned with an expression of wonder, delight, and awe to those far distant regions which lie beyond the power of mortal mind to grasp, regions which lie beyond our solar universe. They are become for the angel his new Land of Promise.

On his head the angel wears a golden helmet, symbolizing spiritual strength and conquest. On one arm he bears a silver shield typical of the Protection of Faith. His garments are of dazzling white showing the purity of his soul, and the wide outstretched wings symbolize the power of intellect to soar into the highest thought-regions of the universe. Behind the angel there is a white cloud spanned by a rainbow whose every tint and shade blended into perfect harmony shows that the angel has developed to the highest degree every intellectual and moral attribute of his soul.

The rich coloring of this picture, the purity of its dazzling white, the brilliancy of its glowing tints, no pen can describe, no earthly brush could ever paint, and yet I am told it falls far short of the beauty of the original picture, which is in the highest sphere of all, and which represents a former grand master of our order who has passed on to spheres beyond the limits of our solar system. Replicas of this picture are to be seen in the highest circle of each earth sphere in the buildings belonging to the Brotherhood of Hope, and they show the connecting links between our Brotherhood and the celestial spheres of the solar system, and also to what heights all may aspire in the ages of eternity before us. Yes, each one of us, the most degraded brother who labors in the lowest sphere of earth, and even the most degraded soul that struggles there in darkness and sin unspeakable, is not shut out, for all souls are equal before God and there is nothing which has been attained by one that may not be attained by all if they but strive earnestly for it.

Such, then, is the knowledge I have gained, such the beliefs I have arrived at since I passed from earth life, but I cannot say I have seen that any particular belief helps or retards the soul's progress, except in so far as this, that some creeds have a tendency to cramp the mind and obscure the clearness of its vision and distort its ideas of right and wrong, thereby preventing those who hold those beliefs from possessing the perfect freedom of thought and absence of prejudice which can alone fit the soul to rise to the highest spheres.

I have written this story of my wanderings in the hope that amongst those who read it may be found some who will think it worth while to inquire whether, after all, it may not be, as it professes to be, a true story. There may also be others who have lost those who were very dear to them, but whose lives were not such as gave hope that they could be numbered with those whom the churches call "The Blessed Dead who die in the Lord"--dear friends who have not died in the paths of goodness and truth--I would ask those mourners to take hope and to believe that their beloved but erring friends may not be wholly lost--not utterly beyond hope, yes, even though some may have perished by their own hands and under circumstances which would seem to preclude all hope. I would ask those on earth to think over all that I have said and to ask themselves whether even yet their prayers and their sympathy may not be able to help and comfort those who need all the help and comfort that can be given to them.

From my home in the Bright Land--so like the land of my birth--I go still to work upon the earth plane and among those who are unhappy. I also help to carry forward the great work of spirit communion between the living of earth and those whom they call dead.

I spend a portion of each day with my beloved, and I am able to help and protect her in many ways. I am also cheered in my home in the spirit land by the visits of many friends and companions of my wanderings, and in that bright land surrounded by so many memorials of love and friendship, I await with a grateful heart that happy time when my beloved one's earthly pilgrimage shall be finished, when her lamp of life shall have burned out and her star of earth has set, and she shall come to join me in an even brighter home, where for us both shall shine eternally the twin stars of Hope and Love.

(The End.)

GONE WEST

More on life after death with excerpts from this book by J.S.M. Ward (1917)

I dreamt I saw Uncle like, and yet unlike, he was before he died; something between what I remember him as before, and what he looked like after death. He said: "...I am more alive than before I died; ...mentally clearer than I was for some time before I died. But here I have had to set to work to learn, as if I were a child again, much of what I should have learnt on earth. I am with those who did just believe, but had not much real belief.

"It was lucky for me that I did believe to a certain extent, as otherwise I should have been with the 'set' who are below us, i.e. those who did not believe. I used to say that it did not matter much what a man believed, but I am learning I was wrong. It makes a big difference, at any rate at starting. The set above us are those who believed but did not fully act up to their beliefs."

"What do you mean by these sets?"

"After I died I found we join that set of people to which we naturally belong--that is, those who hold the same sort of belief or unbelief. We have a teacher, somewhat like the angels of the parsons, but they (the teachers) don't look a bit like the silly pictures you usually see. This teacher instructs in what we are lacking, and when that lack has been made good, we move on to the next set, which includes many more different people than our own. We get very bored with meeting only those who think exactly like we did. There is much more variety in the next set."

"What is that set?"

"Those who believed, but did not fully act up to their beliefs."

"Is there Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory?"

"I do not know whether there is a Hell. You see, I know nothing at all save about my own set, and the ones above and below. There are plenty of old friends I expected to see and have not; but, of course, they may be and probably are only in another set. Those who did not believe are in the set below; after a time they come to us.

"As to Purgatory, that corresponds roughly to where we all are. Only it's more a place of learning than of punishment. Still, we are punished, because I can't help regretting the time I wasted on earth which would have gotten me into a more congenial set. We are too much alike to be companions, and want to get on, so as to meet our old friends, who, we believe, are in other sets.

"I am learning, but it's slow work. I feel like a schoolboy again. It's funny--I died on my birthday and was really born here on it."

"What do you mean by "believe"? Believe what?"

"I mean belief generally, belief in a future life and God, and in fact 'belief'. The first thing to do is to believe something. It does not so much matter what, so long as you believe. A native believing in a fetish is better than a man who believes nothing at all. Believe!"

"Now it is difficult for you to understand our arrangements here; it is very different from what you are usually taught. It is not, however, so much that the original teaching of the Church was wrong, but that it has been misinterpreted by its teachers. At the best, however, they only show a part of the truth. Not even here do we know all the truth. Truth is like a diamond with many facets. Each facet contains part, but only part, of the truth. Some facets are larger than others; so all creeds exist because of the 'facet' of truth, however small, which they possess. No faith which had no element of truth could exist at all for any space of time on earth. Often, however, the 'facet' is very small. The larger the amount of truth, the stronger that faith will, as a rule, grow. Thus the Roman Catholics are a numerous body, but neither they nor any sect possess all the truth. They simply form one of the communities which exist in the sets where men believed. There are also Buddhists and 'heathen' there, and, indeed, all religions. From this stage we advance until we have gathered in all truth, and then we shall really know what is meant by God. But that is far hence.

"Since, however, it is easier for you to comprehend the new facts with which I am about to deal you if you can attach them to some theory with which you are acquainted, I shall adopt the general plan of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. Be under no misunderstanding, as depicted by many persons these names are wholly misleading. But if accepted as a convenient and rough classification, they will be helpful. One fact, however, you must clearly grasp. So far as I can discover there is no evidence of the eternity of Hell. Drop that idea and the rest will be easy to understand. At the same time spirits may be in what I will call Hell for countless ages. For example, Nero is there still, and likely to remain for many an earthly age.

"The officer has just come up from Hell, and so that proves it is not a place of perpetual torment. But as most spirits who communicate with the living are fairly spiritual ones, they have never been in Hell, and so can tell you nothing of it. Many do not know of its existence. For we do not know everything, only what is necessary for our own progress. They need no pains of Hell, and so know not of its existence. Herein lies the interest of what the officer will relate. I myself could not tell you what he can from his own experience. Under Hell therefore I group all those who did not believe. Purgatory begins with our set. Until you have received the first glimmerings of faith you can make but little progress. When this has once been received the spirit enters our realms. Hence Christ went down into Hell to teach the spirits 'belief.' So to-day exalted spirits sometimes go down thither to teach them to believe.

"Of Heaven we know little here; it is to be with God, and that is enough for us. We are on the lowest edge of Purgatory, and have far to travel before we reach there.

"Don't misunderstand me when I speak of Hell; I mean simply the 'Realm of Unbelief,' the hardest hill the spirit has to climb. When that is surmounted the slope is easier. When speaking of Purgatory you must not think we are unhappy. True, we suffer, but so long as we are progressing we are happy. Our sufferings merely purge away the earthly dross which would drag us down.

"Another fact that may come as a surprise to you is that we can still fall into sin, or at any rate slip back instead of making steady progress. It is no case of rest and fall asleep. We are very busy striving to mount higher. But for us there is little temptation to carnal sin; of that we are free.

"But the unfortunate beings in Hell are still subject to their temptations, and to their own harm can sometimes gratify them.

"Do you have light and darkness here?"

"Not as you understand the words, for this is not a material world, therefore material light has no place here. But there is a kind of spiritual darkness. In Hell is utter darkness, for there is no belief. As to what is here, look, open your eyes--see." (Suddenly I perceived we were in a kind of twilight or soft evening light.)

"Here we do not perceive so clearly as those who do believe, therefore we are in this twilight. But as we progress the light becomes stronger. The light, if so you can call it, is within ourselves.

"When the soul has reached the highest division of the highest realm of this plane, it goes through something that is akin to a second death for there it leaves behind its spiritual body. But the soul who attains to that state rejoices in its coming relief--it does not fear it as the mortals do death, for those souls who are not ready do not cross the barrier.

"Once they have passed into the next plane, they cannot return. There are, including earth, seven such planes, of which the highest is to be with God.

"We who are here know only of the plane we are in, which we will call the second, the first being earth which includes the astral plane. We cannot go to the third until our time has come, and then we cannot return.

"Still, to this rule are certain exceptions. Very rarely messengers are sent down to us from the planes above, but this only happens for some good reason, and is comparable to the visible and audible return of one who is dead to earth.

"The other and more usual method is through a medium. Just as we communicate through you, so those in the third plane use a spirit in the higher realms of the second through whom to communicate. Any message from the third plane would thus have to pass through two mediums to reach earth.

"Each realm in the second plane is divided into various divisions, and sometimes these divisions are divided into spheres. I will show you a kind of diagram so that you can grasp it better."

Then a huge sheet seemed to appear before me, with the (following) diagram written in lines of fire. The sheet appeared gray.

PURGATORY
Mid-day Light (Belief with works)

3. /Monotheistic / Pantheistic /

2. /Monotheism / Christianity / Unitary Pantheism / Polytheistic Pantheism /

1. /Monotheism / Mormons / Western Christianity / Eastern Christianity / Unitary Pantheism / Polytheism / Ancestor worship/

Morning Light (Belief lacking works)

3. /Mohammedans / Jews / Mormons / Protestants / Catholics / Eastern Christianity / Buddhists Teaching / Aryan Polytheism / Egyptian resurrection / Primitive Polytheism / Ancestor worship/

2. /Shiites / Sufism / Jews / Mormons / Protestants / Anglicans / Catholics / Buddhism / Confucianism / Hindoo religion / Aryan polytheism / Egyptian (resurrection) / African religion / Polynesian / N. American Indian / Ancestor worship/

1. /Mandists/ Shiites/ Sufism/ Jews/ Mormons / Baptists/ Calvinists / Lutherans/ Congregationalists / Wesleyans / Anglicans / Roman Catholic / Coptic / Greek Orthodox / Parsees / Tibetan Buddhists / Chinese / Burmese / Confucianism / Taoism / Hindoo / Greek Gods / Teutonic Gods / Roman Gods / Semitic Gods / Egyptian Gods / Various Tribal Gods - African / - Polynesian / - Red Indian / Ancestor worship/

Twilight (Half Belief)

3. Those who wish to believe, that they may help others and care not whether they retard their own progress in so doing.

2. Those who wish to believe, that they may progress themselves and also help others to progress.

1. Those who wish to believe, that they themselves may make progress.

HELL
Darkness (Unbelief)

7. Schools for the Lost.

6. The respectable folk who did not truly believe but pretended to do so because it was the proper thing.

5. The out-and-out materialists.

4. The realm of the sins of the flesh, e.g. lust, gluttony, etc.

3. Spiritual sins, the realm of cruelty, pride & hate.

2. Those who have worshipped Evil as their God.

1. The lowest depths. Those who have done the work of devils & tempted men to worship Evil.

"Of course, this is only a diagram, and further, I have made it as simple as I can. Thus I have, of course, not attempted to show every small sect, but only the chief ones; yet you must remember that every religion is there.

"The diagram refers to our state or condition, not to place, which does not exist with us. Further, there are many fluctuations and cross-currents which I cannot show easily. Thus, Sufism has obvious similarities to Pantheism and Mormonism to Mohammedanism.

"So, too, souls fluctuate within their realm. Thus the officer sometimes reaches division 2, but he is usually very decidedly in division No. 1.

"I am in division 2. As you reckon time, I was but a few days in division 1, but to me it seemed many years.

"Here what I call soul-study is the chief business; our relaxation is what was our work on earth. This brings us into touch with men of similar occupations and tastes, though differing in religious matter.

"Thus I get to know a man who is keen on archaeology, because we are both interested in architecture, though from somewhat different points of view....The circles keep men in touch who otherwise would be quite separated owing to different religious outlook. Thus the modern Roman Catholic and the ancient Greek philosopher may meet in the Greek spheres, being both interested in Greek culture from a different standpoint.

"While we are in the region of half belief, the religious sub-divisions are only faintly visible, but when one gets into the set above one finds them very clear. You must first grasp a few truths firmly before you are ready to absorb others.

"Each sect grows towards the others as men progress, because while they retain the vital truth which has called them into existence, all religions lose their errors as the believer mounts higher towards God, who is Himself Truth.

"A point that may not be quite clear is that in division 3 of our set (half belief) the messengers start. These go down for the most part as far as 'the schools.' They are not the glorious ones of fire who go down into Hell itself. They come from far above. The risk for our people would be too great. Even in the schools the earth pull is so strong that the messengers cast back their own progress for many earthly years."

"I had been been inquiring about the realm below and that above, and suddenly a man came to me and said:

'I have been down to Hell on a little missionary work, so perhaps I can give you some information.'

"I was delighted. He told me about the divisions of Hell, and that he had been sent to teach the souls in the schools. He was not allowed to go any lower, but even that had retarded his progress. He hoped, however, soon to be allowed to pass on to the realm above us. He said, further, that the souls in Hell were terribly hard to teach, far harder than the worst types of people on earth, and this in spite of the fact that none had reached the seventh division unless they desired to progress."

"Faith must be shown forth in works. If a man really believes the teachings of Christ, for example, he will strive to follow it out in his life.

"A man who says with his lips that he believes that teaching and then goes on day by day breaking all the moral laws that Christianity teaches is simply a humbug.

"I do not mean by this the man who, though he strives, often gives way to temptation. For that man there is the realm which I call the realm of belief without acts; but I do mean the hundreds of professing Christians who make no attempt to carry out Christ's teaching, the men who go to church regularly on Sunday and spend the week in cheating and lying and so forth.

"These go to Hell. They have not believed, and their evil lives proves it."

"Wherein, then, does this differ from being judged solely by our acts?"

"Firstly, the word judged is misused. It implies that someone outside ourselves judges us. This is not so; we stand self-condemned. Our spirit cannot rise to higher realms than those for which it has fitted itself. There is no necessity to enforce any law, for the law is self-acting. I shall make this point plain if I answer your question. The difference lies in this. Suppose a complete materialist, one who neither believes in God nor in a future life, and one who does his best to dissuade others from believing in these essentials. This man may be a real philanthropist, actuated by a noble desire to promote the material well-being of his fellow-men. This man dies. How can he come even to the realm of half-belief? His spiritual body has not been developed. He could not bear the light. He must develop this spiritual body and lose the materialistic ideas before he can possibly come to us. No hard judge dooms him to Hell. He goes there naturally of his own accord. Like attracts like. His lack of faith bars him out from all realms to which faith is an essential element of existence.

"He goes therefore to division five of Hell; but, though there was no love of God, there was of his fellow-men, and this will save him from sinking lower and help him to desire to rise.

"Once the desire to progress in spiritual matters does appear, that progress will be sure and continuous; but unfortunately the materialistic mind remains materialistic after death. Often it denies that it is dead, and considers its astral or its spiritual body to be a physical body, so that it is still alive on earth. Even when it realizes it has passed through death, it may still deny there is a God and refuse to listen to any who could teach it. Thus it will remain in Hell.

"Nevertheless the number of good materialists is far smaller than most people would suppose. Even on earth many a man who outwardly poses as a materialist, in his heart of hearts really believes and comes to our realm.

"Further, after death such a man usually remains for a considerable time in his astral body, and the conditions of life on that plane (i.e. the astral) soon convinces most men of some at least of the most elementary spiritual truths."

A DEBATE IN HELL AS TO WHETHER THERE IS LIFE AFTER DEATH
TRANCE VISION - Sept 7th, 1914.

..I found the officer waiting, and he at once continued his story.

"After wandering through the city for some time I saw a building which appeared to be a sort of Institute. On looking in I perceived that there was a kind of debate in progress. It appeared that some missionaries from the higher realms had been holding meetings, and as a result someone had proposed the theme 'Is there a Life after Death?'

"One man said, 'There is no evidence that men live after death. Some people I know argue that we have died, and therefore since we are now alive this fact proves that there is a life after death. But this is begging the question. We are alive, and therefore this proves that we have not died. We have all been very ill, and on recovering find the whole earth changed. Look how gray the sky is, and how dark it is all day.'

"'Yes,' broke in another man, 'that's why I'm sure we are dead, and I believe we are in Hell.'

"'Preposterous,' cried the first speaker. 'We are just as comfortable here as we were before our illness. I don't believe in Hell, but if, for the sake of argument, we admit that there may be such a place, all will agree that this cannot be Hell. The parsons taught us that Hell is a place of eternal torment, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Well, there is nothing of that sort here. We are of course all rather bored with the same endless round of petty cares and troubles, but that is what we always find on earth. There is no anguish of the damned any more than we experience the imaginary joys of Heaven. That, to my mind, is one of the strongest proofs possible that we are not dead. If there were such a thing as life after death, it would be entirely different to life on earth. Now this life may differ from life when we were younger, but it is not so entirely different as it would be if we were disembodied spirits. Gentlemen, I move that this house considers that there is no convincing evidence in favor of life after death.'

"I will not detain you with the arguments of his opponent, who maintained that there was life after death. They followed the usual lines which might be expected. The speaker declared that he was sure he had died, and so on. He admitted that he was puzzled where they were, but considered that they were probably in purgatory (indignant protests from several staunch Protestants, who declared this was Popish rot). The chairman intervened, and order was restored.

"I felt, however, he only half believed his own arguments.

"The next man who rose had a really ingenious theory, though it failed to convince many of the audience. He said:

"'I know I died, and this life I believe is just a dream. I suppose our brains go on working for some little time after life is declared extinct. Having lost all real control of the body, it spends its time weaving wonderful dreams. Of course I know this cannot last long, but when on earth, I have often dreamed long dreams, in which days and weeks seemed to elapse, and found out afterwards that I had not dozed for more than five minutes. You will say at once, "Then we are merely the phantoms of our brains." You are right. There is no city, no debating hall, no one but myself. I have dreamed you all. Soon my brain will run down, and then the dream will cease. Look how we go on doing exactly the same things as we did on earth over and over again like automatons. No, the only life after Death consists of the dreams of the dying brain; but I waste my time talking to the creations of my own fancy,' and he sat down with a morose frown.

"A roar of laughter greeted this speech. Then I sprang up.

"'Gentlemen, I am but a stranger who has wandered into your city on his journey to another place, but if you will only believe me, I think I can convince you that there is a life after Death, and whether or not there is Heaven, there is certainly Hell, and we are in it. Further, there are lower depths of Hell than this, and in them men suffer torments akin to those which are considered proper to Hell. Listen to my own adventures since I died.'

"But it was no use; before I had nearly finished they shouted me down, and several threatened to haul me off to the battlements. As I went out a man followed me, and as soon as I had got out of sight of the building he came up to me and said:

"'Sir, I know you are right, and as you have worked your way up through so many divisions of Hell, you will doubtless escape in the end; may I come with you?'

"Before I could answer his guide became visible, and said, 'My son, I will guide you out of this realm to a place where loving friends will help you; come, follow me. It was impossible for any to help you till you desired help, but now I may return to you.' And they went away together."

Below is a list of links that you will find at the bottom of the original, GONE WEST, page. A Wanderer in the Spirit Land >Gone West>Links at bottom of page.

Online Book - A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands
by Franchezzo & A. Farnese (trans.), 1924.

Online Book - Thirty Years Among the Dead
by Dr. Carl Wickland, 1924.

Online Book - Life in the World Unseen.
Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914) describes his life after death.

Additional Book links at the bottom of the page above.

Facts
More Light
Heaven and Earth
More About Life in the World Unseen
Here and Hereafter
Zareth's Teachings