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Margaret Flavell Tweddell
 Margaret
Flavell Tweddell was born with a clairvoyant ability that
is so unique, during World War II
she was commissioned
by Lord Hugh Dowding,
Marshal of the British Royal Air Force to use her ability
to successfully trace missing RAF pilots. She is
well known and respected for her accomplishments
in the realm of paranormal psychology. Unlike
Edgar
Cayce,
Margaret is one of those rare positive mediums
who receives telepathic messages while in full
control of her senses and not as a result of
out-of-body experiences. As a Methodist, she is
a deeply religious person, a spiritual counselor
and a healer. As a friend of Margaret,
Ruth Taylor asked Margaret to use her unique
ability to contact Ruth's deceased father, the Reverend
A.D. Mattson. Mattson was a highly respected Lutheran
theologian who, before he died, promised his daughter
Ruth that, if it was possible, he would communicate
with her from the Other Side. Ruth's father fulfilled
that promise when Margaret successfully received
messages from him. The messages were long and detailed
of what life on the other side is like. This information
had such an impact on people that the messages were
published in 1975 and became a classic. The book
is entitled,
Witness From Beyond, and
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
remarked that this is "an important book to help
in the understanding of life and the transition
we call death - which is not the end of life but
a new beginning with continued growth and challenges." The following excerpts from this book will show
you how unique this spiritual information from the
Other Side really is.
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1. Where is Heaven and Hell? |
Concerning heaven and hell, it
is not true that when we die we wait for a judgment
day. Heaven and hell are not places - they
are spiritual states of being. They are not static
states but are states in which there can be growth
and progress toward ultimate wholeness of being.
As there are degrees of heaven
or hell on Earth, so there are degrees of heaven
or hell in the spiritual world. The spiritual state
of being you have on Earth is the spiritual state
you take with you to the world beyond when you die.
There is no sudden metamorphosis
from an idle person into an active person, from
a nonreligious person into a religious person, from
a money-centered person into a God-centered person.
This is not an automatic thing. Your personality
- your likes and dislikes, your hopes, your
fears - are still attached to you, although
in a more nebulous form than when you are on Earth
in a physical body.
I see people come over. They
arrive and have high hopes that everything is going
to be different for them. However, nothing
can be different for them because they have brought
with them what they are. There is so much harmony
here, and if they have brought a disharmonious personality
with them, they find it very difficult to link in
with the harmonious existence that we have. This
is something that grieves me when I see it.
It is not true, as some people
think, that if we only give verbal assent to belief
in God, well, that's fine - that is our passport
to heaven and everything will be all right. What
we have to remember is that Jesus showed us the
path by which it will be all right. He doesn't say, "It's
all right, brother, come along in. Sit down
now and relax and do nothing." He says, "It's
all right. You are on my way. There are a lot of
stones in it, but you are on my way. If you ask
me, I'll help you over the stones."
The old teachings that "as you strive, so you'll
be helped" are right. The Lord helps those
who help themselves.
If you truly try to follow the
laws of the Kingdom which the Lord has revealed,
and ask for his help, he will aid you in becoming
a whole person. As I see it from here, there is
a rod of light - a pulsating power, the vital force
of the Holy Spirit - right down through you.
It is the self-centeredness of the personality which
erects blocks and disturbances which make it impossible
for the Holy Spirit to function through you. If
you ask for help from the great physician, the Lord
Jesus, he will help you to unlock the inner, healing
power of the Holy Spirit which is within you so
that it can be diffused and can spread throughout
your being. The Lord will help you to achieve the
attunement, the shalom, the peace, the wholeness
which is heaven.
Heaven is not sitting down and 'casting
down your golden crowns' and singing 'Hallelujah.'
However, I did notice that there is a tendency among
certain sects or religious people over here to congregate
in their little groups and have their little sessions
of what they feel are 'heaven.' This is an interesting
fact. I am told by my teacher here that eventually
they become very bored with this narrowness, and
then their own helpers and teachers here try to
give them another thought and another idea and help
them to break away from this narrow approach.
We tend to feel that when we
die, heaven is as we thought it - and
it certainly is. As I've said, you can be received
exactly the same way you always thought you would
be received. You may remain in that narrowness if
you want - you need never change unless you
wish. God gives us perfect freedom in spirit.
The old notions are that you
go 'up to heaven,' and you go 'down to
hell.' We have not understood that it is merely
a matter of vibration. The finer the vibration is,
the nearer we are to heaven. Heaven is a state of
being joyous, light, loving, harmonious, vibrant,
God-centered and others-centered. The heavier the
vibration, the nearer we are to hell. Hell
is a state of being heavy, dull, dismal, gray, and
glum - as when you are heavily depressed
and self-centered.
People who have an orientation
of hate, for instance, find themselves unable to
appreciate a realm of love and harmony. Therefore,
they continue in their state of bitterness and are
'closed' to the glory which exists around them. I
am told by my spiritual inspirer that they have
to wait. These people wait and gradually they appreciate
the fact that it is very destructive to hate like
that. When they have had real hates and have been
emotionally upset like that, or have had a real
bitterness toward someone, then it takes them quite
a period of time to get the light and the power
around them again, to be able to appreciate this
place or that, or go to the Valley of Praise, or
go and hear beautiful music. They just hear discords,
and eventually they come to the realization that
'this isn't much of a life, is it?' And the moment
that happens, those who are dedicated to work with
this sort of person come and they have their methods
of easing them away from the state they are in.
It is like taking a skin off an onion. They will
gently peel off this layer that is formed by hate -
this shutting-in, restricting coat that comes on
them with their violent, negative emotion.
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2. Is There a Devil? |
Just knowing the bad mistakes
you made through your carelessness or your selfishness
is a hell. You don't need a devil prodding you with
a fork. Believe me, your own anguished mind is a
prod that is more hurtful than any prodding with
a devil's fork.
I met a
man over here who said that he would gladly
exchange good old Dante's Inferno for the mental
anguish he was experiencing over guilt feelings
from wrong actions he had taken on Earth in
certain business matters.
In Dante's Inferno he would be
able to complain that the devil was doing this to
him, whereas now he had no devil to complain of
because the devil was himself.
Whether there is a negative personal
being who can be called the devil I cannot say.
I have not seen anyone personified as the devil. There
certainly is an evil force which builds up from
the negative aspects of life and has a tremendous
influence. Thought forms which are evil certainly
play a part, but I don't think they are the whole
answer.
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3. What is Jesus Like? |
I have seen the Lord Jesus in
all his radiance, in all his glory, but not immediately
on arrival because then you are still with the dust
and vibrations of your own thinking.
When I first saw him, the light
and the glory and the surging of power was so tremendous.
It was like an avalanche of feeling over me. At
the present time I just don't feel that I have found
a way in which to describe what it was like - an
indescribable contentment and uplifting, a tremendous
ecstasy of feeling on all realms, being completely
out of yourself, an unusually vivid knowledge of
the intense, sympathetic love around you - the warmth
of it, the light of it - something that is
not external but is part of you. It is like a sunrise
on a mountain that is covered with snow, when the
colors come down and reflect on you - a dazzling
brilliance that would make you close your eyes and
yet feel it in every pore of your body. This is
the feeling that you have as you come toward the
LIGHT.
And then suddenly to hear the
voice that says, 'Look at me.' And when
you look - there, just as you've always imagined
- you see him. He shows himself to us according
to our own understanding. If I want to think of
him as a man who walked by the lake and a man who
looked as the Jews looked at that time, then I'll
see him that way. If in my thought I think he's
modern and bright, then I'll see him that way. We
do not see him as the medieval painters made him.
We see him as we, in our own selves, have pictured
him, because otherwise we wouldn't recognize him. How
would we know unless we have the picture already
in our own being - in our own minds, in our
own hearts.
To me he came walking across
the air - across the tops of the buildings,
the trees. I'd always known he'd come toward me
with his arms and hands outstretched. He said, 'Come,
let me show you' - because I have an insatiable
curiosity and I must see and I must know. But there
was no 'falling asleep in the arms of Jesus.' There
was the knowing warmth of BEING that I've always
known would be. It was so much beyond what words
can tell.
It is true that the Lord Jesus
can take a form so solid that those who are in the
body may see him - those who are in the dream state
may see him and be called by him. But when I saw
him transcendent, I was days and days just marveling
and sensing and knowing. This was my rebirth. The
body in which I now function was strengthened - made
resilient, firm, aware. When I first came over here,
I only knew what I had known and seen, shall we
say, in a vision. But that was to see and not to
experience. Until you have experienced it and been
caught up without the ties and the cord that keep
you with the physical body, it is very difficult
to comprehend.
Until you are released from the
bondage of the physical body, you have no way of
knowing the feeling and the uplifting and the thoughts
that come into your head. The body is so much heavier
than the personality which goes on. But even in
your personality, there are times when you are completely
detached - we call it a mystical ecstasy. Every
time I turn my mind toward him now, I am engulfed
in the power and time has no limits or meaning.
It may be a flash, it may be hours - I know
not. It is just a great knowing. I ask and
he's there. He says, 'Follow me,' and we follow.
But we don't follow with our feet. The whole
being of you follows him because he is everywhere
- in and through and around and everywhere. He is
a manifestation of God.
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4. What is Eternity Like? |
We don't talk about time here.
We talk about opportunity. We cannot think
about time here because it is not measured off in
days and nights and months and years."
I want to put on record that
I find life here more interesting than one could
dream possible, but it does detract from quiet thinking
periods. I am slowly realizing that there is a greater
need for self-discipline than when a physical body
made its demands known. Then I had time divided
up into sleep and waking, and the latter part divided
into eating, talking, studying, teaching, walking,
thinking, etc. Here there is so much to see, so
much to hear, so much to do. One has to learn to
set aside some 'time' for one's own personal self-discipline,
because if the mind doesn't control the body you
can be in the same state of utter discord as you
are when you are in the physical body. Discipline
brings order, and it is absolutely imperative to
have orderliness.
Here there is an overall awareness
of what is going to happen on Earth six weeks, six
months, or perhaps two years ahead. At times it
is rather like being in an airplane looking down,
and we get an overview or prevision of what is going
to happen, due to our being able to see things in
broader perspective. However, do not for one moment
imagine that, now that we are here, we automatically
have completely extended vision and have become
seers. That is not true. However, we do have
some who are seers here. They are souls who, through
much trial, tribulation, and service, have been
permitted to see in a more extended way.
Humanity has to think of life
everlasting, manifested now in the present. This
is very important. Life has been held very
cheaply. Millions of people have been killed
through devastation, torture, war, and man's inhumanity
to man. This has brought spiritual pollution on
all levels.
We are just as much morally obligated
to help our brothers on Earth when we are without
a physical body as we were within a physical body. This
is an aspect of truth that few people want to face. They
think, 'Oh, when I'm dead everything will sort itself
out. There will be no troubles, and that will be
that.' That is not true. God still gives us the
opportunity and responsibility in the spiritual
world to observe and to choose and to serve.
It is not going to be pleasant
for a lot of people to know that, whether they like
it or not, they are their brother's keeper. We are
each other's keeper. We are each other's deterrent.
We are each other's goad and help, because we are
all part of the ONE pulsating, living, glorious
WHOLE.
I say glorious in spite of the
terrible things that are still happening in the
world, because humanity is progressing up the spiral
of evolution. From here we know that there
is no problem, there is no pain, there is no ill,
there is no disharmony in the whole of the created
universe that eventually will not be made into harmony. This
is an awareness that one gets here which is harder
to achieve on Earth. It is something I want
you to try to remember.
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5. Is Heaven Limited
Only to Christians? |
Jesus reveals the way, the truth,
and the life. However, unless we can give someone
the true Christian experience of the Christ, it
is not right for us to say to them, 'You must not
be a Buddhist - you must be a Christian.'
Unless we can give the true Christian experience
of the Christ, then it is far better for us to leave
them with the Buddha and that approach to God and
to the word. It is wrong for us to say to a Hindu, 'Oh,
no, all that is wrong. You must be a Christian.'
Unless we can give that person a true and deep understanding
of the meaning behind the words that Jesus said
- the sense of the knowing of the power of
the meaning behind the word - then we
have no right to take away their faith because there
is an old saying that nature abhors a vacuum.
I am still utterly amazed at
what I find here. Utterly amazed! There is
love and there is harmony. There is music that transcends
all thought. There is color, light, belonging, and
there is being. It isn't only in the one path of
Christianity. You find it in many, many other
faiths. All faiths which stress love have this focus. It
is like reaching out to a sun and light comes down
along different rays.
We are all walking. We Christians
walk here, the Hindus walk there, the Buddhists
walk in another place, and so forth. All have their
own paradise, goals, aims, and objectives for so
long. Then suddenly they are into the tremendous
experience of knowing that all is one under God
and that there is no division in purpose. There
is one God of us all.
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6. What are the Afterlife
Realms? |
The world in which we find ourselves
immediately after death we call the 'astral world.'
From this point we can progress to higher realms
- to higher levels of consciousness. By 'higher' realms
I do not mean spatially higher but rather those
realms which have a finer vibration.
All of the various realms of
consciousness have different frequencies of vibration. For
instance, you assume that the matter of Earth is
composed of atoms and that these atoms are composed
of energy which vibrates. This matter of Earth is
denser than the matter of the higher realms. As
you can see light waves which vibrate at a 'visual
observing' rate, so you can see the matter
of Earth. However, as you cannot see radio or television
waves which vibrate at too fast a rate to be seen,
so you cannot see the matter of the world beyond,
unless you are clairvoyant.
The spiritual bodies of those
who have died vibrate at a rate too fast for your
physical eyes to see. However, they can be viewed
by clairvoyants whose sight has been opened to receive
this faster vibration.
You know, the world beyond is
not up there somewhere. It's here - a change of
condition. It is all in one space like a big sponge,
containing all the different frequencies of vibration
- like soapy water, salt water, clear water,
the different densities of water - you can
relate it to the different densities or vibrations
that I have here.
The astral world is almost a
replica of your world, except that it is of a finer
substance and we are not 'bound' by our objective
reality as you are.
On the astral realm we are conscious
of our personalities and the modes of life we carried
out on Earth. Therefore, we have denominations on
this realm and we continue to practice the rites
of our respective churches.
On numerous occasions since I
arrived here, I have been permitted to go into the
higher realms where there is a unity of God-praise,
not a segregation of the praise of God. However,
I feel very strongly that there is work for me to
do here, helping to break down the barriers which
segregate the churches. Therefore, I shall be a
sojourner on this astral realm but the higher realms,
where there is a unity of God-praise, will be my
spiritual home."
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7. What is Hell About? |
There is a condition which could
be termed the "depths of hell." People who have
deliberately chosen to live debased or cruel lives
and have turned their backs on the light of God
find themselves in a state similar to groping in
a dark and depressing fog. Everyone there is wrapped
up in his own cruel thinking. These souls wander
around in this lost state until they, of their own
volition, make an attempt to turn toward the light
of God. Some may be lost for eons of time.
There are souls called the "shining ones" who
dedicate themselves to going into this dark realm
and bringing spiritual light. The souls who are
dedicated to this work of rehabilitation are clothed
in protective garments so that they are not harmed
or pierced by the dagger-like thoughts of hatred
which those in the dark realms are throwing out.
The shining ones are not allowed to go and talk
to these people, but they stand nearby and call
to them through thought - prayer, if you like. The
moment the souls in this dark area respond in a
positive way, the ones who have come to help are
able to bring them out into a less dense, foggy
world and eventually out into the realm of light.
Some people find themselves earthbound after
death. This is a lower astral state. For example,
people who die suddenly by accident, perhaps when
they are young, are often loathe to leave the Earth
as they feel a sense of incompletion of their earthly
life. They stay close to the Earth, "haunting" the
homes and places they have left. It is only through
a process of education that they can be urged away
from this unhealthy condition and helped to progress
and grow in the new state in which they find themselves.
Prayers made on behalf of these people from those
still on Earth can be a great support and help.
These prayers help release them to go on and partake
of the ever-expanding life in the world beyond.
Persons who commit suicide before the time they
are meant to die find themselves in a state of heavier
vibration and closer to the Earth than those of
us who died natural deaths. They remain in this
state of density until the time when they would
have normally died. They then may pass into the
planes of finer vibration. People who have experienced
death through suicide are greatly helped by the
prayers and supportive thoughts from those still
on Earth. They are also aided by those from the
higher planes who are dedicated to help them grow
spiritually during the period of waiting.
Among others, the lower astral planes also contain
people who have been alcoholics or drug addicts,
who find these cravings still with them in the astral
bodies. They stay near the Earth to be near alcoholics
or drug addicts who are still in the physical body,
in order to participate vicariously in the sensations
which alcohol and drugs give. They can be helped
in the world beyond to clear their astral bodies
of these cravings so that they, too, may go on and
progress. However, this is a long and tedious process.
We have to try to convey to people still in
the physical body that they can't expect a sudden
change for the better. They must help themselves
while they are on Earth.
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8. What Happens
to Dogmatically Religious People? |
Many
people, when they come to the astral world, experience
a great deal of turmoil and distress because they
have been too positive and too dogmatic in their
earthly lives and have tried to impose that dogmatism
on other people. I think you can find, if you will
think about it and look back at your own lives,
that there are times when you wish you hadn't been
so forceful in persuading someone to do something.
When one does this he is cutting across a divinely
given attribute of each person, which is free will.
Dogmatic people who always "tell you the truth"
are very uncomfortable people. They don't understand
how uncomfortable they are. When you watch it from
here, you see the body blow that "truth" can be
to people sometimes. If something is said too bluntly
to a sensitive person who is seeking to improve
himself, it can be such a damaging blow that he
can retreat and give up.
People who go around
"telling the truth" and bluntly dogmatizing on what
they believe have fewer converts than they think
they should have. They mistakenly believe that putting
energy and force into what they say will produce
converts. Actually, more converts come from demonstrating
the law than ever come by dictating the law. This
is something worth pondering about.
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"Death
is only passing through God's other door."
- Edgar Cayce
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