Orientation conferences with our guides allow us to begin the long process of self-evaluation between lives. Soon we will have another conference, this time with more master beings in attendance. In the last chapter, I referred to the ancient Egyptian tradition of newly deceased souls being taken into a Hall of judgement to account for their past life. In one form or another, the concept of a torturous courtroom trial awaiting us right after death has been part of the religious belief system of many cultures. Occasionally, a susceptible individual in a traumatic situation will say they had an out-of-body experience with nightmarish visions of being taken by frightening specters into an afterlife of darkness where they were sentenced in front of demonic judges. In these cases, I suspect a strong preconditioned belief system of hell.
In the quiet, relaxing state of hypnosis, with continuity on all mental levels, my subjects report that the initial orientation session with their guides prepares them to go before a panel of superior beings. However, the words courtroom and trial are not used to describe these proceedings. A number of my cases have called these wise beings, directors and even judges, but most refer to them as a Council of Masters or Elders. This board of review is generally composed of between three and seven members and since souls appear before them after arriving at their home base, I will go into this conference in more detail at the end of the next chapter.
All soul evaluation conferences, be they with our guides, peers, or a panel of masters have one thing in common. The feedback and past life analysis we receive in terms of judgement is based upon the original intent of our choices as much as the actions of a lifetime. Our motivations are questioned and criticized, but not condemned in such a way as to make us suffer. As I explained in Chapter Four, this does not mean souls are exonerated for their acts which harmed others simply because they are sorry. Karmic payment will come in a future life. I have been told that our spiritual masters constantly remind us that because the human brain does not have an innate moral sense of ethics, conscience is the soul's responsibility. Nevertheless, there is overwhelming forgiveness in the spirit world. This world is ageless and so too are our learning tasks. We will be given other chances in our struggle for growth.
When the initial conference with our guide is over, we leave the place of orientation and join a coordinated flow of activity involving the transit of enormous numbers of other souls into a kind of central receiving station.
6
Transition
ALL souls, regardless of experience, eventually arrive at a central port in the spirit world which I call the staging area. I have said there are variations in the speed of soul movement right after death, depending upon spiritual maturity. Once past the orientation station there seems to be no further travel detours for anyone entering this space of the spirit world. Apparently, large numbers of returning souls are conveyed in a spiritual form of mass transit.
Sometimes souls are escorted by their guides to this area. I find this practice is especially true for the younger souls. Others are directed through by an unseen force which pulls them into the staging area and then beyond to waiting entities. From what I am able to determine, accompaniment by other entities depends upon the volition of one's guide. In most cases haste is not an issue, but souls do not dawdle along on this leg of their journey. The feelings we have along this path depend on our state of mind after each life.
The assembly and transfer of souls really involves two phases. The staging area is not an encampment space. Spirits are brought in, collected, and then projected out to their proper final destinations. When I hear accounts of this particular junction, I visualize myself walking with large numbers of travelers through the central terminal of a metropolitan airport which has the capacity to fly all of us out in any direction. One of my clients described the staging area as resembling "the hub of a great wagon wheel, where we are transported from a center along the spokes to our designated places."
My subjects say this region appears to them as having a large number of unacquainted spirits moving in and out of the hub in an efficient manner with no congestion. Another person called this area "the Los Angeles freeway without gridlock." There may be other similar wheel hubs with freeway-type on and off ramps in the spirit world, but each client considers their own route to and from this center to be the only one.
The observations I hear about the nature of the spirit world when entering the staging area have definitely changed from those first impressions of layering and foggy stratification. It is as if the soul is now traveling through the loosely-wound arms of a mighty galactic cloud into a more unified celestial field. While their spirits hover in the open arena of the staging area preparing for further transport out to prescribed spaces, I enjoy listening to the excitement in the voices of my subjects. They are dazzled by an eternal world spread out before them and believe that somewhere within lies the nucleus of creation.
When they look at the fully opened canopy around them, subjects will state that the spirit world appears to be of varied luminescence. I hear nothing about the inky blackness we associate with deep space. The gatherings of souls that clients see in the foreground in this amphitheater appear as myriads of sharp star lights all going in different directions. Some move fast while others drift. The more distant energy concentrations have been pictured as "islands of misty veils." I am told the most outstanding characteristic of the spirit world is a continuous feeling of a powerful mental force directing everything in uncanny harmony. People say this is a place of pure thought.
Thought takes many forms. It is at this vantage point in their return that souls begin to anticipate meeting others who wait for them. A few of these companions may have already been seen at the gateway, but most have not. Without exception, souls who wish to contact each other, especially when on the move, do so by just thinking of the entity they want. Suddenly, the individual called will appear in the soul mind of the traveler. These telepathic communications by the energy of all spiritual entities allow for a non-visual affinity, while two energy forms who actually come near one another provide a more direct connection. There is uniformity in the accounts of my subjects as to their manner of spiritual travel, routes, and destinations, although what they see along the way is distinctive with each person.
I searched through my case files to find a subject whose experiences along this route to an ultimate spiritual destination was both descriptive and yet representative of what many others have told me. I selected an in sightful, forty-one-year-old graphic designer with a mature soul. This man's soul had traveled over this course many times between a long span of lives.
Case 14
Dr. N: You are now ready to begin the final portion of your homeward journey toward the place where your soul belongs in the spirit world. On the count of three, all the details of this final leg of your travels will become clear to you. It will be easy for you to report on everything you see because you are familiar with the route. Are you ready?