SKEPTICISM - HEALTHY AND OTHERWISE

Now that I’m beginning to market my book about the afterlife, I’m noticing signs of skepticism in some who hear about it. Since my book contains specific details about the lower heaven worlds that seem brand new, a natural first question is “Where did you get this information?” Some immediately lose interest after hearing “telepathic communication.” (This, despite scientific evidence of telepathy: https://anomalien.com/scientific-evidence-of-telepathy/.) That’s unfortunate, as there have been numerous telepathically-conveyed sources of information that offer many afterlife details consistently, despite coming from different people.

  When I spoke with Dannion Brinkley, the author of the popular Saved by the Light, about my forthcoming book, he pointed out how it will fill a big void, since most afterlife books today, including his own, are about near-death experiences. Yet a century ago, there were several very popular works based on telepathic communications about the afterlife.

The NDE’s of today consist of just a short visit to the other side. For that reason, they do not provide more than a few details about the various aspects of the lower heavens. Many of them hardly mention what the environment is like. This is why I chose to also include select accounts from the telepathic writings that were widely read during the early twentieth century. These souls weren’t just visiting the afterlife briefly. They had “died” and been in the afterlife realm for some time.

I have tremendous respect for the natural and healthy skepticism that everyone should have about questionable sources of information. We absolutely need it, especially today, when there are lies and corruption everywhere. Everyone needs to be able to distinguish what truth is, which can be extremely difficult now when our entire nation is divided due to an apparent inability to sort out real facts.

I hope everyone can be “open-minded” skeptics, rather than “close-minded” ones. I’d like to now share a few snippets from the Appendix in “Our Magnificent Afterlife” entitled “The Purity and Accuracy of our Sources.” Source materials were chosen from those who have lived exceptional lives of service to others while on Earth.

One source used was Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914). During his physical embodiment, Benson was a priest who had a psychic ability, which disturbed him since it conflicted with his orthodox beliefs. His church believed that anything “psych was the devil’s work. After passing, he felt the strong need to report the realities of the afterlife to make up for promoting certain false ideas about life when he was a priest.

William Stead (1849-1912) was a gifted medium who said the following about his ability to do automatic writing to receive information from souls in the afterlife:

  I have many friends who, being still in their bodies, can write with my hand automatically at any distance. If this capacity be inherent in the soul of man, independent of the body, when incarnate in flesh, why should it perish when the bodily vesture is laid aside like a worn-out garment?... If my friends’ minds do not need to use their own hands to write to me but can control my hand for that purpose while they are still in the physical body, why should they lose that faculty merely because they have put on a spiritual body?

More recently, we have Sister Frances Banks (1893-1965), who lived a life of service to others and also co-founded a group for the practice of “Group Meditation for World Goodwill.” She was held in great esteem by everyone who knew her. At her memorial service, she was visibly seen by several people in her nun’s habit. Helen Greaves, a close friend of Frances Banks on Earth, recorded Bank’s reports about the afterlife. She stated that it was not her choice to be the receiver of telepathic messages, but they were so strong from her dear friend that she felt she couldn’t refuse to record them. People who knew them both reported that the phrasing and content of the messages from Banks sounded just like her, and quite different from the writing style of Helen Greaves.

Reverend G. Vale Owen (1869-1931) became famous in England for his popular work, The Life Beyond the Veil, and was described by others as having a “Christ-like nature.” The London Daily Mail reported on June 16, 1920 that thousands of people wrote to Owen, congratulating him on his writings.

Mr. H. W. Engholm, the editor of Owen’s work, reported the following about the character of Reverend Owen:

To Mr. Vale Owen, the authenticity of the messages is not only a vital matter but also a fact that means everything to him. He, I know, realizes only too well the tremendous responsibility that falls upon him in permitting them to be given to the world… Without seeking any gain for himself he has regarded it a duty to his faith to associate his name with these messages, and to know G. V. O. as I know him, is to realize that he has done this in all humility.

Owen himself describes his earnestness in validating the truth of the messages from souls in the afterlife:

As the messages proceeded, my confidence in their authenticity gradually increased. This confidence was confirmed by communications sent to me through other people of psychic faculties of various kinds. Those quite independent lines of testimony all converged on the script and constituted so strong a case as to prove to me: 1) that the title had been given from people who all had passed into the larger realm of spirit; 2) that these people were the individuals they claimed to be; 3)that I had taken down their messages correctly. I came to the conclusion that to reject such proof would be to discount the value of all that the world accepts as evidence of fact. Then, and then only, did I feel myself justified in undertaking the responsibility of giving this script to the public. 

Let us remember that “with God all things are possible,” and that our loving Creator wants only the very best for His children. That means goodness, love and kindness. When we visualize and apply His divine and holy desire into these afterlife descriptions containing great beauty, brotherhood, divine justice, loving service, growing knowledge and fulfillment, I believe any open-minded skeptic will strongly consider the truth of these afterlife descriptions.

Why are so many of these inspiring messages from the past no longer popular? Much time has gone by. Most afterlife books today are about NDE’s which have largely eclipsed the older afterlife sources. In addition, we’ve had well-known scientists claiming that God does not exist. We also have a degree of “dumbing down” in the general public due to mind-fogging diets with poor nutrition and chemical additives, as well as information overload from the media. And, we have the rise of atheism, whereby people no longer look to God, our Creator and the Source of Life, for direction, hope and love, thus blocking His entrance into their lives. Others believe that there is no way to know anything about the afterlife because “no one has ever come back to tell us about it.”

There is also the belief in some religious groups that no further revelation can be received, that once the Bible was written (or the sacred texts of other religions), that no further new information can be trusted.

Afterlife sources report that souls who make their transition in ignorance of the afterlife require much more care when they first arrive than those who are informed.

Let us practice our natural skepticism by questioning new material and its source, but let it be a healthy, open-minded skepticism, that will not pre-judge or reject information without due consideration. Instead, let us weigh its merit, its logic, and its love, in our hearts and minds, and then decide.