Does moral behavior matter?

This is the question that I have been pondering in recent months. Although many questions that I pound at eventually lead to an answer of sorts, this one doesn’t.

Every person born to the physical plane does so with differing levels of development (I want to avoid the term “spiritual development”) and differing genetic and environment influences and stressors. They view reality through different templates and self-evaluate their behavior by different measures. Most people would probably give themselves a grade of passing, a C+ maybe, though objectively, their behaviors would be vastly different. A criminal might claim the extenuating circumstances of a bad childhood and life of poverty, while a conventionally religious person might fault himself for not attending church services, but might otherwise be circumspect.

Near-death accounts are ambiguous. Some experiencers are chastised for poor behavior, while others are excused and told that no guilt is assessed in the afterlife. Michael Newton and other researchers state that evaluating actions in life is a complicated process that hinges on fidelity to individual life plans and “intent.”  Frequently, near-death experiencers mention that “intent” is important. The recent suicide of an old friend caused me many hours of worrying about where he might end up in the afterlife. He had had a difficult life, and while he made mistakes as a youth, he had turned himself around and tried to live a virtuous life. He also suffered from mental illness and took several medications for it. I had one post-death dream of him; the dream seemed to come from far away, a dream memory of a deeper dream, in which he was telling me happily that he had won a “blue ribbon” for a recent project. (I never use the term “blue ribbon” or have ever dreamed it. It’s not a personal symbol.)  On the other hand, an old director nemesis of mine who treated me and others cruelly and had affairs with subordinates, appeared in several of my dreams after his death, one in which he explained why he did what he did. (I rejected his explanation and often imagined him landing in hell.)  So two men, of different backgrounds and behaviors, with complex histories, seemed to have turned out “okay” in the afterlife.

Fortunately, I am not their judge—I would be lenient on one and harsh on the other. I also acknowledge that some people would judge me harshly. Many near-death experiencers are told to avoid judging others based on internal moral compasses. This does not mean that there are no measurements—just that our concepts of good and bad behavior are limited. My youth was spent in a fundamentalist Christian church, and though I left the church decades ago, I can’t purge myself of the belief that there will be a Biblical rendering of accounts after death—a belief that seems to be reinforced by some near-death accounts that show exactly that. So, despite a lifetime pondering this question, I still can’t find the answer to it. I have some half-formed theories, but can find no absolutes. Like many others, my conditioning makes me want to condemn others, but my sincere hope is that I will personally be granted mercy.

Book corner

It seems to be time to talk about my recent reads. Although the books have been interesting, they haven’t pushed forward my understanding of various issues relating to the spirit world. I haven’t learned much more than I’ve already read elsewhere. It could be that, collectively, humanity has hit a wall. We can’t absorb more information than we can collectively understand. Or it could be that the spirit world has placed an embargo on additional knowledge until we can sort things out.

 I’ve read several Silver Birch collections, which apparently everyone knew about before I did. As far as I can tell, the information that “he” provides seems to be valid. The books compile his answers to questions posed by visitors to the mediumship circles that he presided over for a number of years. A good summary of his teachings can be found at White Crow books. He does tend to repeat himself, but he never contradicts himself, which is worth noting. 

From the White Crow publishers comes “The Survival of the Soul and Its Evolution After Death,” which is a progressive series of mediumship channelings conducted by French artist Pierre Emile Cornillier in the early 20th Century. The book is mostly a documentation of the channelings with a young French woman, Reine, with efforts to verify the information physically. The part that I found most interesting consisted of a few paragraphs, where her “Guide” reveals the spiritual law loosely called karma, or what Silver Birch calls “natural law”:

Terrestrial life (incarnation) is an ordeal imposed upon us for our evolution. During this life we may be influenced by Spirits superior or inferior, as our own tendencies and aspirations determine. We attract or repel the good or the bad by our very way of being and thinking. In short, each one creates his own astral society.

The Spirit protectors (or stimulators) are themselves under the direction of others, still more evolved, who seem to have a certain power of modifying human destinies; and these, in turn, are subject to an order that is higher still. (So, then, it would seem that a very precise hierarchy exists in the astral plane?)

This sounds like a better way of saying “you create your reality,” a phrase I’ve never understood or liked. It makes sense, and most observers (skeptics and believers alike) can maybe see the validity of it. Robert Crookall talks about spiritual “helpers” and “hinderers” who propel or impede us through our various activities. I personally believe that there is a nonphysical overlay that influences not only our experiences, but also the range of choices available. As we move into the brave new world (or over hyped promise) of Artificial Intelligence, we might wonder if there is a cosmic AI that serves as a governor of human behavior. I’d like to hope so.

Next is a book that did not strike me as living up to its title, but reviewers on Amazon.com seem to disagree: “An Urgent Message For Humanity: Received During A Groundbreaking Scientific Mediumship Research Project From The Spirit Realm.” I won’t go into detail about my problems with it, but interested readers can make up their own minds. Throughout history, hominids have sought to communicate with the spirit world, with varying degrees of success, to get advice and discern the future. The organization behind “An Urgent Message” applied a complicated double-blind process  of obtaining these message from beings on TOS (the other side) to update this process. Basically, we are told that Earth’s overseers have sought to advance our evolution through the millennia by sending us ice ages, world wars, and the Ten Commandments, but we have failed to evolve enough, and our species is at great risk of extinction. And if we destroy ourselves, the overseers won’t step in to prevent it, because it is our free will.

Finally, there’s “At the Stroke of Eternity: One Woman’s Remarkable Near-Death Experience and the Divine Messages Received,” by Amber Cavanagh. Lately I’ve become skeptical of many book-sized near-death experience accounts for various reasons. For one, there seem to be too many of them, all telling the same story. However, I think Ms. Cavanaugh’s story is valid, particularly her account of her life prior to her NDE. The account of her stroke is harrowing (made more believable by her battles with medical bureaucracy) and when I re-read the book, I may skip over that part, if that’s okay.