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 Longtime Edgar Cayce researcher and an
A.R.E. Board
member, Harvey A. Green looks at the broad spectrum of the soul's existence. He uses
the Cayce readings as well as references from Rudolf
Steiner, Emanuel
Swedenborg, and
others to describe the realms after death and the transcendency of the soul. As the
author presents this awesome sweep of the soul's experience after death, he covers the
movement of the soul through death and into the higher levels of the
afterlife.
Harvey Green has been involved with the Cayce material since the early 1970s. The
following is an excerpt of his book,
Life
and Death: The Pilgrimage of the Soul. It is his analysis of what happens after death using the important metaphysical
knowledge of others.
Introduction
 It cannot be stated too often
that the spiritual perspective is inward and not outward. Once we leave
the physical realm we will view reality inwardly and not outwardly. All
that we have placed inside ourselves will act as a lens, a filter. All
that we see will be seen through and be distorted by these things we have
stored within ourselves. This is why it is important to remove as much
clutter as possible so as not to obscure our reality. The dimensions which
immediately surround the Earth
have been called the mental realms by both Edgar
Cayce and Rudolf
Steiner. It is here we face, we inhabit, we experience what we have
built into our minds as a result of our activities. It is in the mental
realms where our minds embody our souls. In this reality we do not leave
behind the attitudes we held in the Earth
but we inhabit them. This was
illustrated many times in the Cayce discourses when he said that we not
only take our attitudes with us into death, but we inhabit them. They
will, however, become much, much larger in death, much harder to bear,
with no way to set them aside easily.
In essence,
after death, Steiner said we expand into the planetary
spheres. The moral
disposition we carry over with us allows or prevents us from moving on in
a conscious manner. After this experience, we fall asleep and the cosmic
forces act directly upon us preparing us for the next earthly experience.
Our cosmic sleep regenerates us. There comes a time when the desire to
reincarnate starts to work on us. When that happens, we begin the process
of going back through the planetary spheres picking up what we will need
from each in order to fulfill our purpose in the next Earth
life. The "soul
kernel" is carried in to the embryo, forgets the whole trip and
is born again on Earth.
In the end, our
transition after death is like stepping into our own thoughts where we
have existed all along. This is an inward step, so small, so natural; yet
from a material perspective it is so abrupt, and so extreme. At the moment
of change some of us are completely aware of what is happening, some of us
only partly aware, and yet others totally unaware. Ultimately we meet and
greet our own death with the same awareness and attention to detail we
gave to our experiences in life.
Since taking
leave of the Earth realm, we have been traveling throughout many realms of
reality. In each dimension we experienced that which was helpful, in some
we reviewed and evaluated our experiences, but in all we were
resuscitated. The realms in which we made our temporary homes and the
order in which we experienced them were exactly what we needed to complete
our earthly experience, to be refreshed, renewed, and prepared for our
next material adventure. Each of the realms we visited were focal points
from which certain basic qualities of our being emanate. We not only
worked in the unique surroundings, but we mixed with the essence of each
quality of which each realm was comprised. These qualities are not
external things to which we responded, but they are what we are.
[The following
discussion is] not meant to promote an attachment to the wonder or
splendor of any particular dimension of reality. All that [will be given
is] for the better understanding of who we really are. We are the sum
total of all of our experiences from the very foundations of our beginning
up until this moment.
Each experience
is but another thread woven into that fabric of which we are composed. No
realm is any more important than another, nor is our habitation or
incarnation into any realm more important than any other. Our experiences
in reality are continuous and although certain happenings may seem more
momentous than others, it is the accumulation of what we do with creation
which is our quest. For it is only in that accumulation of experiencing
the various expressions of our God that we truly fulfill our destiny. It
is important to note that we carry all of our experiences into each
dimension because we are the focal point of their accumulation. Further,
although each dimension operates under different sets of basic laws, they
are but variations of laws we already know. There is one Creator, one set
of principles of life we call laws, and one direction in which to grow.
The infinite variety in creation is largely due to the limitless ways in
which the same things may be manifest. If we would just watch the patterns
of what we know unfold before us, we would see ever so clearly the most
important aspects of what seems both behind and ahead of us.
The
Material Land
 When in the Earth, we live
simultaneously in all regions of the soul and spirit lands. We are not
aware of our presence in other realms at the same time as we are embodied
in the Earth, but our lack of cognizance does not in any way inhibit our
multi-presence. It is from the Earth that our desires, our ambitions, and
what we do about them sends waves of life resonating through all regions
of the soul and spirit lands. As there is no time and space outside of the
material universe, we have ample opportunity to experience these waves of
our own soulness when we arrive in the regions where they are manifest.
From the soul and spirit regions we draw life as well as send it; here we
experience ourselves as well as all of life.
Life in the
Earth is not only experiencing ourselves, within the confines of universal
laws, but it is done in a much more focused fashion. As we live in the Earth realm we are at the same time building conditions in succeeding
realms. The building process in materiality is therefore multidimensional.
The Edgar Cayce source expressed it best in discourse 5749-3 when the
entranced psychic stated, ".. with error entered that as called
death, which is only a transition or through God's other door
into that realm where the entity has built, in its manifestations as
related to the knowledge and activity respecting the law of the universal
influence."
As all of life
is a gradual metamorphosis, so is that period of transition we call dying.
From a physical perspective we might say one was alive one moment and gone
the next. We may comment that death came without warning. Because we see
only those external happenings which are perceptible to the physical
senses, we often assume there was no activity outside of this perspective.
As we grow in stages from infancy to maturity, we likewise grow from life
in material realms to life in spiritual dimensions. The pattern here is
ever the same: We do not instantly arrive at, occupy, or depart from any
condition in reality.
Dying is a
process which begins before the soul takes leave of the body and in fact
begins before any illness, accident, or happening which may cause physical
death. In that rest we call sleep, the soul departs and prepares for the
transition it is moving toward. How far in advance of our departure do we
begin our preparations? In a sense, one is preparing for death through all
of life. Again, let us refer to the Cayce work and psychic discourse
5488-1 which states, ".. in the midst of life one is in the midst of
death, for death is but the beginning of life, as life is but the
beginning of an opportunity to manifest that as is innately built within
the soul of an individual itself.
Immediately
After Death
 There is a definite happening
at that point we call death, the least of which is the falling away of the
physical body. Our awareness, emotions, memories, likes, dislikes,
desires, and fears all live on within us. We have tried to make a case
thus far to illustrate that our consciousness more than our physical
senses is what we are. We have used materiality but we are not material.
Our material
experiences are to our soul what food is to our bodies. The memories, the
relationships, the tastes of life are all carried over unadulterated in
the first stage of death but as the digestive process continues they lose
their prominence and our attention turns to other things.
In the first
stage following physical death we find ourselves in the realm which is
made of and held together by the mental activity of life in materiality.
Here, in what we will call the nearest reaches of what Cayce termed the
borderland, life is bigger than life. It is a narrow reality bordered on
one side by a gradual density and on the other by a likewise gradual
quickening or elevation. It is the state occupied by Dr.
George Ritchie, which he describes in his book, My
Life After Dying. Further, it is the divide between life in the
Earth
and life in the mental realms. This divide is in fact that part of the
mental realm completely overlapped by the material realm. One can move
into closer proximity to the Earth and become so fixed by desire, as
Ritchie observed, that one is unable to extricate oneself. One may move
toward a quickening into finer realms or one may slide into one of the
densest realms we call "outer darkness."
The
Earthbound Realm
 Many people who die surely do
not do so willingly. For some, their deaths, like their lives, are
rebellious and their minds are fixed on materiality. Before gaining a
cognizance of what and where they are, they try to fly on the wings of
their misguided values back into the density of materiality. One thing,
however, is amiss; they are not material. As they go about trying to
function, the newly discarnate entities do not understand why they cannot
communicate with others; as a result, they are gripped by fear. The Cayce
discourses contain much material on this state of confusion. Some think
they have lost their minds, others think those around them have gone mad,
and others adapt in the world of semi-reality. They do encounter objects
that are manifestations of thought but they have no way of separating
those objects from denser ones with which they cannot interact. This
extreme edge of the mental realm is so close to materiality that it
intertwines with it at every turn. The fact is that interaction with
mental counterparts of material activity that exist in this stage of
consciousness is so like materiality, so closely conjoined to the
physical, that the lost soul cannot tell where one stops and the other
begins. This confusion, or blurring of divisions, lends credence to the
perception that the troubled soul is in the same physical state it held
while embodied in the Earth.
It is natural to
ask why these souls who make their home at the edge of the borderland do
not realize they have died and passed on to another reality. How often do
dreamers realize they are dreaming even though their activities are not
what one would consider consistent with waking reality?
Some souls
adjust to this confusion and as a consequence, are tied to the Earth
for
years. They derive their satisfaction by mingling with those forces, those
energies which are given off from life in material realms. They live
vicariously, as Dr. Ritchie noted, in the emotions and mental activities
of those who are in the Earth realm.
Those souls who
have trapped themselves in this region endlessly try to influence matters
in the Earth realm. Some are from time to time successful as they mix with
thought patterns emanating from the Earth realm
and some are not. Some
souls have even become self-destructive enough as to occupy or possess the
body of a material human being who has, by its own uncoordinated
activities, separated its mental from its physical forces.
God and all of
creation personify patience and await those souls turning back to the road
they began to travel after awakening in the borderland. To assist their
return, there are countless ministers of mercy all about them in their
existence in the borderland. These who would help them need only for them
to will that help, for us to let go of their fixation on materiality; then
they will set their shaky feet on the path they must follow.
Outer
Darkness
 Let us now take a detour into
a yet denser reality so we can better understand another of our options
upon awakening in the borderland.
There are some of us who have lived our lives in such a way that we have
turned completely within ourselves. We have blocked out all love, all
warmth, and all spirit from our daily doings; we have created a void
within and around ourselves. We chose to deny our responsibilities to
others and to ourselves; we choose ourselves at all cost. Upon passing on,
before we become conscious that we have entered the borderland, we swiftly
move on to that realm to which our life choices in the Earth
resonate.
This region is void of love, life, and light, void of all of those things
we cast out from our lives in the Earth. The region in which we find
ourselves is approximately our wish come true. We are truly alone, with
ourselves, within ourselves; it is pain beyond pain for us. Edgar Cayce
described this region of void as "outer
darkness." The name of this dimension describes it very
accurately, as we find no love, hope, friendship, kindness, benevolence,
or any of what we have come to know as human qualities. Instead there is
nothing but ourselves, and it is unbearable. In the absence of that which
we term "fruits of the spirit" truth, love, patience,
gentleness, kindness, long-suffering, and brotherly love we fill the
void with an irrational and unbelievable amount of pain and fear. It is so
dark in the realm of outer darkness that the dark hurts and panic grips us
without our knowing why. Like our material universe, outer darkness seems
endless and without any meaningful boundaries. There is nowhere we can go
to escape the agony and horror which fills almost every part of our being,
and the desire to flee consumes us. The farther and faster we travel
through this realm the greater the feeling that it is endless. Even outer
darkness has degrees, and it is darker and denser at the center than at
its outer fringes. Helen Greaves describes these degrees as hells.
Likewise, this is the hell described by Emanuel
Swedenborg in
Heaven
and Its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen. The closer we are
to the outer edges, the more interaction there is with others in the
realm, while the closer to the center we find ourselves, the darker and
more painful we find the solitude. One who finds himself in outer darkness
cannot move toward the center by force of his own motion. The center
represents levels of reality and are not linear. One cannot travel across
this dimension; one must grow through the levels of this realm.
Outer darkness
is not one of those realms which must be overcome in stages, although we
can choose that method of growth. One may find himself on a particular
level after death that most closely corresponds to his activity and the
degree of absence of those fruits of the spirit in his life, and there is
no need to experience other levels here. No level of outer darkness is
without pain and fear, but, as we have noted, the very center is the most
agonizing. In the reality we call outer darkness, we have very little
memory of our earthly lives. We remember little, if anything, of our
earthly relationships, and we are so absorbed in pain and fear that our
suffering exacts every last ounce of our attention.
This lower
region of outer darkness is not a punishment. It is a region which
operates lawfully for the benefit of those agonized souls. This region is
not a realm which was created for any soul to experience, but one which
came about as a consequence of the negative activity of souls in creation.
So great has been the desire for self, so monumental across time and space
has been the selfishness of some of God's creatures, that this realm is
the creation or manifestation of their own collective activities. Outer
darkness and the reality with which it is associated were created and are
held in place by collective self-interest.
As noted
previously, universal law is perfect and works for the benefit of all, all
of the time. An excellent example of the
law of
grace is that no evil, no
negativity, whether single or collective in nature, exists without a way
of redemption being simultaneously imprinted by the Creative Forces
throughout its fiber.
Nowhere is it
more obvious than in the realm of outer darkness that no one needs to
remain here beyond one's own will to do so. We might conjecture that no
one wishes to suffer such misery but that simply is not so. We constantly
do things on the Earth realm
that cause us difficulty, unhappiness, pain,
and illness. We do not wish to suffer the discomfort of our actions, but
this does not keep us from those activities. In the Earth
realm, as in
spiritual realms, until we turn our attention from ourselves, we cannot in
any way change our estate.
The occupants of
outer darkness are there for various lengths of Earth
time. It is peculiar
to discuss length of residence by a measure which does not exist in that
dimension. For most of us it is very difficult to relate to a timeless
condition, so the use of finite terms helps us to better understand. Some
residents feel they have been in outer darkness for weeks or months,
others for eons. No doubt, all are correct in their assessment of length
of time spent in this realm. In a reality of pain and torment, even a
moment can seem like an eternity and there is no way to judge length of
stay until after one has long departed. Doubtless, some souls have
occupied outer darkness for what we would measure as hundreds, even
thousands of years. But it is more likely that most stay for a
considerably shorter period. It is not possible for souls to be forever
confined to outer darkness since, in such a case, there would be no hope
of redemption. Further, Swedenborg noted in his book, Heaven and Its
Wonders and Hell from Things Heard and Seen, that it is God who keeps
the balance in the realm of outer darkness so that all things would not be
destroyed. Again, outer darkness is not a punishment, rather it is the
ultimate manifestation of our own undoing, and he who is Mercy would never
abandon us to such spiritual agony.
The
Borderland
 Let us return our attention
to the realm that we call the "borderland". The borderland is
the outer edge of the mental realms overlapping materiality. All that we
experience in materiality is manifest in its purity in the mental realms.
When one is in any of the mental realms, reality seems so much purer, so
much more real. One arriving here would become aware that there has
definitely been a change, an awakening. What we would perceive as our
senses in this realm would seem infinitely sharper, and we would be much
more sensitive. All that is material is but an expression of what is
manifest in the mental realms. So here we find ourselves with the
authentic original and not the copy. As we look around and absorb our
surroundings, we feel as though we have just emerged from a haze. We do
not see anything we did not see on Earth and everything is quite familiar.
There are those around us that we know. Some may have been friends or
relatives who passed on before us, and others may be souls that do not
incarnate with us but with whom we shared a genuine connection. We do not
notice all of the souls around us, only those for whom we have sympathy or
have shared experiences.
We notice that
sleeping and waking seem to be faculties still with us, as Ruth
Mattson Taylor noted. We feel that we have just wakened, and we go
through periods of what appear to us to be states of awake and asleep.
Certainly, we do not need sleep outside of the Earth
realm. But we are
accustomed to periods of rest and seize the opportunity when first
entering the mental realms. Gradually this cycle of sleep and work leaves
us. But we do find periods of refreshment akin to rest. We have a major
adjustment to make and all of those we meet in the borderland are there to
help us. In every realm in which we find ourselves between lives on Earth,
there are those who are resident in those dimensions, except for those in
the borderland. This state of reality is unique in that it is a transient
state for all who inhabit it. There are those souls and beings who choose
to work for the betterment of souls in the borderland, but they are
visitors there, not residents.
In the
borderland is where we review in detail the life just lived in the Earth
realm. We see our lives with a clarity obscured from us when we were in
the Earth realm. We see the potential, the ultimate possibilities of all
the choices we didn't make. Although this is an emotional experience,
Steiner notes that we are protected by those beings around us from
immersion in our own emotions and from becoming lost. There is not one
review, but several; each exacts yet another focus. Although we are free
from the fetters of time and space, we still take this review process
gradually so that we are not overcome and immobilized. Part and parcel to
this review, a healing takes place. As the scars left on the mind become
evident, a healing takes place so that the soul will be able to move on.
Now we take note of great Beings of Light for the first time, and we are
struck by how we recognize them. There is total familiarity and the
realization of their always having been with us, whether before, during,
or after our Earth life.
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