In the Light of Truth

41. Departed this Life

Uncomprehending, lonely, a soul stands in the chamber of death. Uncomprehending because, while on earth, the human being on the death-bed refused to believe in the continuation of life after the shedding of the physical body, and he had therefore never seriously considered the matter and ridiculed all who spoke of it. Confused, he looks around. He sees himself lying on his death-bed, sees people he knows standing about weeping, hears the words they speak, and feels their grief as they lament his passing. He would like to laugh and call out that he is still alive! He calls out! And he is surprised to observe that they do not hear him! He calls again and again, louder and ever louder. The people do not hear him, but go on lamenting. Fear begins to arise within him. He himself hears his own voice quite clearly, and is also distinctly aware of his own body. Again he calls out in anguish. Nobody pays attention to him. Weeping, they gaze upon the lifeless body, which he recognizes as his own, yet suddenly regards as something strange that is no longer part of him; for he now stands beside it in a body free from all the pain he had suffered up till then.

Now he lovingly calls the name of his wife who is kneeling beside the death-bed. But her weeping does not cease and there is no word or movement to show that she has heard him. In desperation he walks up to her and shakes her shoulder vigorously. She does not notice it. He does not know that he is only touching and shaking his wife’s ethereal body, not her physical one and that the woman, who like him never gave a thought to the existence of anything beyond the physical body, therefore cannot feel him touching her ethereal body.

An unspeakable feeling of dread makes him shudder. Weak from feeling abandoned, he is forced to the ground, his consciousness wanes.

The sound of a voice he used to know gradually awakens him again. He sees the body he used on earth surrounded by flowers. He wants to get away, but finds it impossible to sever himself from this cold, lifeless body. He distinctly feels that he is still connected to it. Again he hears the voice which awoke him from his slumber. It is his friend speaking to another person. They both have brought a wreath and are talking together while laying it down. No one else is in the room. His friend! He wishes to attract his attention, and also that of the other man, who, along with his friend, had often been welcome guests in his home! He must tell them that strange as it may seem, he is still alive, that he can still hear what they are saying. He calls out! But his friend calmly turns to his companion and goes on talking. But what he says gives him a shock. Is that his friend! Is that the way he talks about him now. Petrified, he listens to the words of these people with whom he had so often caroused and laughed, and who only flattered him while sitting at his table enjoying the hospitality of his home.

They left and others came. How clearly he could now see through people! Many whom he had highly valued now filled him with disgust and anger, and several who he had never paid attention to, he would like to shake hands with gratefully. But they neither heard nor felt him, although he yelled and raved at them to prove he was still alive! —

In a great procession the body was carried to the grave. He sat astride on his coffin. Embittered and desperate, he could only laugh and laugh! But his laughter quickly gave way to deepest despondency, and a feeling of great loneliness assailed him. He became tired and fell asleep. — — — —

When he awoke, darkness surrounded him. How long he had been asleep he could not tell. But he felt that he could no longer be connected to his physical body, for he was free. Free in a strangely oppressive darkness.

He called out. There was no sound. He could not hear his own voice. He sank back groaning. In so doing struck his head hard against a sharp stone. After a long time, when he awoke again, there was still the same darkness, the same ominous silence. He wanted to jump up, but his limbs were heavy and refused to work. With all the strength born of fearful desperation he struggled to his feet, staggering and groping his way to and fro. He often fell down, injured himself, and bumped against corners and edges right and, but it left him no peace to wait; for a strong urge drove him to grope on-wards unceasingly and to seek. To seek! But what? His thinking was confused, tired and without hope. He was seeking something that he could not comprehend. He was seeking!

It drove him onward, ever onward! Until he sank down again, only to rise once more and resume his wanderings. Years passed in this way, decades, until finally tears welled up and sobs shook his breast and... a thought arose in him, a petition, as the outcry of a tired soul yearning for an end to this dark hopelessness! This outcry of utter despair and hopeless suffering, however, gave birth to the first thought of longing to escape from this condition. He tried to understand what had brought him to this terrible plight, and what had so cruelly forced him to wander in darkness. He groped about: Stark rocks! Was this the earth, or perhaps the other world after all in which he had never been able to believe? The other world! Then he must be physically dead and yet be alive, if he could call this condition being alive. He found thinking tremendously difficult. And so he groped on-wards in his seeking. Again years passed. Away, away from this darkness! The wish grew into a powerful urge, which gave way to longing. Longing, however, is the purer intuition born out of the coarse urge, and out of this longing very timidly a prayer arose. Finally this prayer out of his longing burst forth from him like a spring, and a feeling of quiet, soothing peace, humility and submission, entered his soul. When he arose to continue his wanderings, intense experiencing coursed through his body; for now, twilight surrounded him and suddenly he could see! Far away in the distance he recognized a light, like a torch that greeted him. Jubilantly he stretched his arms towards it, and filled with deep happiness he again sank down, his heart overflowing with gratitude, he gave thanks to Him Who had granted him this light! With renewed strength he then strode towards that light, which came no nearer to him, but which, after what he had experienced, he still hoped to reach, even if it should take centuries. What had just happened to him might happen once again, and finally lead him out of this stony desert into a warmer and lighter region, if he humbly prayed for it.

“My God, help me in this!” broke forth from his hope-filled breast. And, what joy, he could again hear his own voice! Even though quite weak at first, still, he could hear it! His happiness at this gave him new strength, and full of hope, he again went forward. — —

Such is the story of the initial experiences of a soul in the Ethereal World. This soul could not be called bad. On earth, the man had even been considered very good. He had been an industrial magnate, always busy and meticulously concerned with complying with the earthly laws. —

Let me add an explanation to this case: The man who in his life on earth refuses to acknowledge that there is also life after death, and that sooner or later he will be forced to render account for all that he has done and all that he has left undone, in a way which is not in accord with the world view today, is blind and deaf when he one day has to pass over into the Ethereal World. Only during the days and weeks while he still remains connected with his discarded physical body will he at times be able to observe what goes on around him.

However, once he is free from his disintegrating physical body this possibility is lost to him. He no longer sees or hears anything. That, however, is not punishment, but quite natural, because he did not want to see or hear anything of the Ethereal World. His own will, which can quickly form ethereal matter accordingly, prevents his ethereal body from seeing as well as hearing. For as long as it takes for a change to occur in his soul. Whether this takes years or decades, perhaps even centuries, is up to each individual. He retains complete possession of his free will. Help will only come to him when he himself longs for it. Not before. It will never be forced upon him.

The light which this soul greeted with such great joy when it started to see again was always there. However previously the soul was unable to see it. It is also clearer and stronger than it appears at first sight to the hitherto blind soul. How the soul sees this light, whether strong or weak, depends entirely on the condition of the soul itself. It does not come closer of its own accord, but it is there! The soul can enjoy it at any time, if it humbly and earnestly wishes to do so.

However, what I am explaining here applies only to this particular kind of human soul. Not to other kinds. By no means is the light in the region of darkness and its planes. There, he who advances inwardly is not suddenly able to see the light, but he must first be led out of the environment which holds him.

The condition of the soul depicted here may surely be called torturous, namely because it is filled with a great fear and void of all hope; but it did not wish it otherwise. It now receives only what it forced upon itself. It had refused to believe in a conscious life after physical death. The soul cannot extinguish for itself the continuation of life as such, because this is not up to the soul to decide, but it does build for itself a barren ethereal plane, paralyzing the senses of the ethereal body, so that it can neither see nor hear ethereally until... the soul itself finally reconsiders.

These are the souls which can be found by the millions on earth today, who, apart from the fact that they refuse to know anything about God and eternity, can still be called decent. The fate of the evil-minded is naturally much worse, but we shall not speak about them here, only about the so-called decent people. —

When it is said that God will stretch forth His Hand to help, this is done in the Word which He sends out to mankind, showing them how they can redeem themselves from the guilt in which they have become entangled. From the very beginning His Grace lies in all the great possibilities placed freely at the disposal of human spirits in Creation. This is so overwhelmingly much that the man of today cannot even conceive it because he never concerned himself with it seriously enough; for wherever he did, it was only as a pastime or for the purpose of vain self-aggrandizement!

However, as soon as the human spirits recognize the real value in the Word of God, its deep gravity, they will be able to accomplish great things in all of Creation! Until now they have always preferred only their own knowledge, which is the reason why everything has remained patchwork of the lowest kind compared to the content of the Word of God, which today they again want to push aside without recognizing It; for there is no man who understands the true value of the Grail Message. No one on this earth. Even if he thinks he knows the meaning of it, even after already spiritually sensing the advantages which he was able to attain from partial recognition... he does not know the true value, has not grasped even one percent of it! This I say, I who bring this Message. You do not know what it is that you hold in your hands!

The Message is the way, the gateway and also the key that leads you to Life. To the life that cannot be compared to all the treasure of the earth, all the treasure of the entire universe and which cannot be bought! Draw from the Message which is offered to you now. Take from its treasure, the most precious you will ever meet. Seize It as It is, but do not question and quibble about It. To question and quibble about It will be of no value. It is not this Message which you are to make understandable to yourselves; instead it is your task to simply create a place for It in the center of your soul. There you are to question, to quibble in order to find things that do not adorn this room once the Message enters into you! You are to discover what is still disturbing in this room that must become a temple inside of you. Create this temple within you without manipulating my Message in the process and all who will do so shall be helped! — — — —

[Grail Message by Abdrushin]  [Resonances to the Grail Message]