by George W. Meek

“Finding myself to exist in the world, I believe I shall in some shape or other always exist; and, with all the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new edition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be corrected.” – Benjamin Franklin

The material that follows is possible only because of the inquisitive minds of dedicated researchers during the past century. First I honor the most dedicated of the serious (and honest) deep-trance mediums, primarily in England, Scotland, Brazil, the United States, Canada, Ireland, Italy, and South Africa. Second, I acknowledge the work of thousands of persons traditionally known as “sitters,” whose presence seems to provide subtle energies that facilitate the best contacts with communicators from other levels of life.

These valuable contributions would have been lost, however, had it not been for dedicated psychic researchers and scientists who had the moral courage to investigate and report the work of these mediums and their sitters or circles. These researchers, even down to this year of 1987, have had to suffer ridicule from their peers and loss of their professional status. Men like Sir William Crookes in England, Schrenk-Notzing in Germany, Nobel prize winner Charles Richet in France, Ernest Bozzano in Italy, Dr. Hotacher in South Africa, T. Glen Hamilton, M.D. in Canada, Carl Wickland, M.D., Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D. and William Tiller, PhD., in the United States, and Dr. Hernani Andrade in Brazil are the better known of scores of their kind.

Although the accumulated communications and data were fragmentary and often extremely contradictory, in time it became possible to piece together a reasonably consistent and experimentally valid picture of life after death.

Finally, in the past ten years, this type of research has intensified. Communications under laboratory conditions from recently “deceased” communicators with medical and scientific backgrounds have added still more validity to the emerging picture. These have greatly enhanced our understanding of the process of death and rebirth. It has pushed our knowledge far beyond that which grew out of the first hundred years of Spiritualism.

Hence, I acknowledge my indebtedness to all those referred to above, without whose effort the material that follows would not have been possible. Their conclusions appear to be substantially correct in their broadest aspects. In general, they confirm age-old teachings that form the core of the world’s great religions. Of equal importance, however, they strip away a vast accumulation of dogma and creed with which these religions have been profaned over the past 3,000 years.

Regardless of race, color, religion, creed, caste, sex or educational level, we are beginning to see more clearly what happens when each of us, totally alone, passes through the door labeled “Death and Rebirth.”

Q: Let’s take first things first. After all this talk about life and death, what is the purpose of life?

A: I promised in the opening pages to cut out all of the philosophical, religious and scientific jargon. So here is the answer, just as simply as I can state it [from my research]: The purpose of each individual life is to grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually back toward the level of creative intelligence from which it was originally issued.

Q: Is it painful to die?

A: No. Even those whose terminal illness caused prolonged and excruciating pain find that at the time of death all pain is gone. This is one reason it is often observed that the face of a dying person relaxes and even has a smile.

The actual transition is so smooth and painless that often one cannot believe he is dead. Frequently when a patient goes to sleep during a painful illness he awakes to continuing pain. When he awakens after death, and finds no pain, the first thought is, “I must be dreaming” – or he may wonder if a sudden and miraculous cure has taken place. He has a feeling of lightness and buoyancy. The person sees his physical body lying still and dead and he observes the actions of the nurse or family members. Then it occurs to him, “I suppose I am dead! I did not expect it to be anything like this! I feel fine!”

Q: Will I become a ghost? If so, how can I be released?

A: It is most unlikely that you will be a ghost. Ghosts, apparitions, shades or astral shells result only in relatively rare cases when the etheric body (or “etheric double,” as some call it) fails to separate from the physical and then disintegrate. Separation normally takes place in minutes, but may take up to 30 to 40 hours. Some persons, ignorant of this fact, may have a tendency to hold onto the etheric body and may appear as ghosts. Some people will be able to see this energy field as a bluish-white mist.

Until the etheric body double has separated completely from the astral body, the person cannot proceed to his earned existence in the astral world. This failure to shed the etheric body often results from a very traumatic event – murder, fatal injury, or unpleasant emotional experience. Such a failure can also result if a person has never thought about an afterlife and has been wholly centered on his possessions and personal affairs.

A ghost can be released very easily from the area it is “haunting” by a good psychic. The psychic needs only to get in tune with the ghost and in a friendly, loving manner explain that death has taken place and that there is nothing to be gained by lingering in these old haunts. The psychic then encourages the soul to relax and look for any sign of light from persons who are willing to lead it into the realm where it should now be living.

Q: Is there an actual place called hell? If so, where is it?

A: Yes, there is such a place. It is definitely not the fire and brimstone place of the New Testament, nor the place depicted in the famous Hieronymous Bosch painting. It is really more like the traditional purgatory that has for centuries been referred to by the Catholic church. It is a dark, dismal uninviting place filled with countless numbers of souls who are lost and wandering about in great distress.

It is also occupied by some rather frightening life forms of non-human lines of evolution. It is cluttered up with thought-forms accumulated over the centuries as a result of humanity’s hatred, greed, lust, jealousy and other unvirtuous passions. These thought-forms can be as “real” as the shadowy “bodies” of the poor souls whose lives qualified them for this plane of existence.

Q: Is there a devil?

A: No, at least not a red-skinned character with a tail, a pair of horns and a pitchfork as has been pictured in centuries past. The lowest astral level – like all other levels in the worlds of spirit – is largely a world created by thoughts. This does not make it any less real. Far from it! Mental torments can be far worse than actual physical torments – as in the case of a person with delirium tremens.

In the darkness of the lower astral, imagination and conscience can create the most frightening devils of all shapes and sizes. To these are added the very real astral bodies of strange creatures of non-human lines of evolution.

In any event, if you do find yourself in the lowest astral planes, you can escape these torments if you persist in striving to find the light and in calling out for assistance. Sooner or later an encounter will occur with one of the compassionate beings who willingly give of their time to lead tormented souls to a place of rest and enlightenment.

Q: What can or should I do to make certain that I am on a path which will bypass that dark and dismal level of existence you call the lower astral?

A: Quite frankly, you should not accept my answer to such an important question as this. In fact, you should not accept any person’s answer! The only thing to do is to look at the question from every angle just as carefully as you can, considering all of the evidence that has been accumulated. Then, and only then, listen for guidance from that still small voice that is within you.

All I can do is to help you collect further information upon which to base your answer to this question.

Perhaps the most helpful single thing I can do is to share information that has come from wise old souls who have traveled much farther along life’s high road than I have. One can place belief in far less than ten percent of the information that comes from spirit entities through mediums. It is very rare indeed to obtain direct communication from those highly evolved persons currently living on the mental, causal and celestial planes. In our research in communication between the interpenetrating levels of life and consciousness, we have found and repeatedly tested a mere handful of communicators living on the higher levels. We have followed faithfully the admonition in the epistle of John to “try the spirits (to see) whether they be of God.”

In Fig. 34 below, I present not my answer, but theirs, to your important question. Only time will prove for each of us whether these wise old souls know whereof they speak. All I can say is that our “still small voices” have told us we can safely consecrate our current lives to such a course of action.

Persons now residing on the higher astral and the mental-causal planes confirm the “central core” spiritual teachings of the world’s great religions, once they have stripped off the dogma and creed that each has acquired with the passing centuries.

From their vantage point, they have stated that the concept depicted in Fig. 34 is a time-proven, safe, quick and enjoyable route for each soul to travel – now and throughout the coming centuries.

Q: I am miserable and unhappy. Will I be better off after I die?

A: Sorry, but the answer is no.

When you someday cast off your physical body, the real you – your mind, memory banks, personality and soul – will be precisely what they were before you left the physical body. If you are miserable and unhappy when you make the transition, you will still be miserable and unhappy in your new surroundings!

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. This is the day to start to follow Jesus’ gentle admonition to “lay up for yourself treasures in heaven.” By building into your life and actions many of the qualities listed in Fig. 34 surely will you enjoy this life and assure yourself of an exciting adventure in the centuries ahead.

Q: Does a suicide succeed in escaping his troubles?

A: No, he only compounds them. There is no escape for any individual from the requirement that each one must evolve mentally, emotionally and spiritually. A person who fails to cope with everyday problems does not escape by suicide. He cannot “kill” himself. He is just as alive after destroying his physical body as he was before he pulled the trigger, jumped out the window, or took an overdose of sleeping pills.

He finds himself in the darkest, most dismal and frightening level of the astral plane. A long, hard and lonely struggle lies ahead before this soul achieves the level on which it would have arrive by natural death.

Q: How long might a suicide or a murderer remain in the lower astral plane?

A: We have been told that there is a big difference in the time spent on the lower astral by these two categories. The suicide has harmed only himself and his loved ones, if any. Usually he or she is immediately filled with remorse. When an offer to help and guidance is given, the suicide is likely to respond readily. How fast he absorbs the teachings offered will determine how rapidly he moves to a more hospitable level.

The murderer is in much, much deeper trouble. His act in cutting short an earth life indicates that he has not only failed to learn much in his past lives, if any, but that he has not evolved spiritually in present life. Usually, he has little readiness to accept teaching when offered, so his stay on the lower astral may be from many years to many centuries of our time.

Q: I have learned that if one has chosen to have the body cremated, it should not be done immediately after death. Is this correct?

A: Yes. However, some of our knowledgeable friends on the mental and causal levels have reminded us that in the Orient it has for countless centuries been the practice to burn the body before sundown on the day of death. This practice came about because in warm climates decay of the physical body starts promptly.

It is desirable that the etheric and astral bodies have ample time for a completely natural and total withdrawal from the physical body. Hence it is perhaps advisable whenever possible to wait for two or a maximum of three days before cremating the body. Where this is not possible and the soul or spirit is forced to make a sudden departure from its physical body, it will again become normal after a period of rest.

Q: Where is the “next” world (or “astral world”) located?

A: Only in the past few years have we become able to answer this question with a scientifically satisfying statement. Our five senses have given us a false, or at least totally inadequate, concept of reality, as if our material world were the whole of it. The material world – and our physical bodies – are not the “solid matter” we think we see and touch. All matter – the chair you sit on, the building in which you find yourself at this moment, the “solid” foundation upon which the building rests – consists almost entirely of empty space. That is why your vision can pass through “solid” glass several inches thick. This is why hundreds of radio and television signals carrying speech, music and pictures are at this moment traveling right through the solid walls of your room and your “solid body.”

Only if you can comprehend the above concept can you begin to realize that it is possible to have two or more things occupying the same space at the same time. Your physical body dwells in our common, everyday, three-dimensional world of space and time. Your mind and soul live in another space-time system that interpenetrates your physical body and occupies substantially the same space as your physical body.

Hence the “next world” is the one in which your mind and soul already lives and in which your mind and soul will continue to live. When you have shed your worn-out physical body, you will be aware of the surroundings in which your mind and soul are living – the astral planes.

Q: Will I have to meet immediately that alcoholic spouse who mistreated me and the children, and whom I divorced?

A: No. You will find yourself in a group where you are in harmony with all the other members. In due course, we do have to meet those with whom we have unfinished business. Each must sooner or later “balance accounts” if he/she is to grow emotionally or spiritually.

Q: Do persons addicted to alcohol, tobacco and hard drugs lose their craving for such stimulation when they arrive on the next plane?

A: No, not right away. For example, an alcoholic, being on the lowest astral plane, is in close touch with the physical or earth plane. Often he is not truly aware that he is “dead.” He may seek out his old haunts and get a vicarious thrill from visiting a bar. In fact, if he finds a patron who is depressed, muddled and psychically sensitive, he may obsess that person. By this merging of their respective energy fields, the dead person may become more directly locked into the physical aura of the bar patron and experience more directly the feelings to which he had become accustomed. If the possession of the patron continues, it may completely wreck his life, and in some cases may even cause the patron to commit suicide.

A person addicted to hard drugs is in the deepest possible trouble. He will be resistant to any offer of help and will persist in his craving. He will experience torments that equal anything pictured in the old ideas of hell. He may remain in this dreadful condition for what could be centuries of earth time.

Q: Can a “dead” person look in on activities of a child or mate?

A: Yes, this happens all the time. For a period of days, months or years, the deceased person is very much attuned to the earth plane. If the transition is an unusually smooth one, the deceased may even look in on his own funeral! The records are full of examples of a mate or parent who lingers for months and enjoys daily contact with surviving family members.

It is not uncommon for a deceased mate to want to complete some item of unfinished family business. In those rare cases where a good trance medium is consulted, the deceased may reveal where a missing and badly needed last will and testament or other document can be found. The settling of more than one estate has been accomplished by this means.

As the deceased becomes fully reconciled to his or her new life, the earth ties (primarily personal love and affection) become less binding. The deceased then becomes fully absorbed in the increasing challenges of the completely new world of living that has opened.

Q: Is there any factual basis for the idea that the spirit of a dead person can intrude into the mind of a living person and adversely affect that person’s behavior?

A: Absolutely, even though modern psychiatry has laughed at this concept. However, for those who were open-minded enough to do serious research on this matter, it quickly became clear that there is a solid basis of fact for the age-old idea of spirit of demon possession.

Perhaps the best single piece of research on this subject is Wickland’s Thirty Years Among the Dead. In it he tells of the technique he developed for getting into two-way conversation with the possessing entity and then proceeding by persuasion to induce the intruding spirit to depart on its way.

Wickland’s work has been confirmed by research in which I have been personally involved.

I have reason to hope that in less than a decade, “modern” medicine will have come to realize that there are at least some persons now locked up in mental institutions because of spirit possession. Today these poor unfortunate souls receive no help because many psychiatrists are unable to recognize and treat this problem.

Q: Have beings in the worlds of spirit described what they see as “material things”?

A: Yes, this literature is full of such reports from dwellers on the different planes. A typical report from the middle astral planes about 60 years ago stated: “The surface of the zone is diversified. There is a great variety of landscape, some of it most picturesque. We, like you, have lofty mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, lakes, forests and the internal correspondence of all the vegetable life that exists upon your earth. Trees and shrubbery covered with the most beautiful foliage, and flowers of every color and character known to you, and many that you know not, give forth their perfume. The physical economy of each zone differs from every other. New and striking scenes of grandeur are presented to us, increasing in beauty and sublimity as we progress.”

Excerpt from After We Die, What Then?