- 13 - We must imagine our own fate as human beings in a similarly varied fashion when death throws us into a strange land, whereby our past here on Earth is a determining factor in regards to what our further life’s path and our development in our new home will look like. Remember that the chances of an emigrant’s life in a foreign land here on Earth very much depend on the preparations made for living in a new environment. What is of importance is whether he already knows the language of the new country, whether he familiarised himself with its customs, ways and laws and whether he has an appropriate vocational training. As all of us have to die one day, each of us has the opportunity, if we continue to live after our demise, to compare the diverse narrations of the after death experiences in this book with what is happening to ourself or what we see happening to others. The narrated experiences of people that have passed away before might help a little. But those that approach the whole subject very sceptically, and nobody can blame them for it, should read the following sections with a completely neutral mind and simply store its content away in case they might be able utilise it in the future under certain circumstances. The experience of death and of life after it. – Reports from the deceased In my book “Der Tod, die Brücke zu neuem Leben” I stated that human beings already have s second “body” next to their physical, carnal body whilst on this Earth, namely the astral body (sometimes also called ethereal body, spirit body or something similar). It consists of an invisible, up to now physically indetectable substance and it is normally embedded in the physical body and connected to it via a thin, but very strong cord. This astral body also has a “memory”, wherein all memories of our terrestrial existence are stored in equal measure as within our physical brain. The astral body can separate itself from the unconscious, physical body under life-threatening circumstances. The “experiences” of the astral body can in exceptional cases enter the consciousness of terrestrial people after they have been resuscitated (17, Chapter VII). Such cases have been published in a series of books during the last years. They deal with the “death experiences” of patients that were temporarily clinically dead, ergo they were very close to their final terrestrial demise, but they could be brought back to consciousness and their terrestrial life. Some of these patients were able report about their experiences after in spite of their preceding physical unconsciousness, experiences that have a certain relationship to the world of the hereafter, ergo the after-death regions. Amongst the authors of such books, we find that Dr. Raymond Moody (14) and Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (10) have gained some fame. Their reports give us the impression that terrestrial death is a relatively pleasant experience. Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross writes in her preface to Moody’s book (14, P. 10): “All of these patients experienced the sensation of being lifted out of their physical body and of having experienced a deep feeling of peace and wholeness. Most of them perceived another person that helped them during their transition to a different level of being. Most of them were greeted by relatives they were close to and that had passed away before them, or a religious figure that had played an important part in their life, one that naturally coincided with their own religious convictions.” About the process of the final demise from this Earth, Dr. Kübler-Ross writes in her own book “Über den Tod and das Leben danach” (10, P. 76): “After we have been welcomed by our relatives, our spirit guides and also by guardian angels in the hereafter, we undergo a symbolic transformation that has often been described as a kind of tunnel. Others express this transformation as a river, whilst others express it as a gate, all according to each individual’s relative symbolic value.” A specially distinct example of a near-death experience should be reported about here, because it already shows all the hallmarks of a real death experience. It especially furnishes the first experiences from the after death sphere, the so-called “hereafter”. The rapporteur is Arthur Ford6, an American medium through whom a lot of deceased people have made themselves known. He had the following experience during his own lifetime and he reports (6, P. 215): 6 Arthur Ford, 1896 – 1971, originally a minister of the Christian-Science Community, a very well-known spiritistic medium in the USA since 1924.
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