Friday, May 20, 2005

A fascinating essay entitled How to Die

A fascinating essay entitled How to Die
>
> The following 1942 essay/address was included in an
> interesting book I
> have been reading entitled, "After We Die--What
> Then?" by George W.
> Meek. I was able to locate this online (the essay
> has been out of print
> for years) and want to share it with all those who
> are dear to me. If
> you are interested in commenting, I would like to
> hear from you what you
> think of it. I agree with it. It seems sensible
> and practical to me.
> In my opinion, preparing for death is not something
> to be avoided. I
> have had friends and a daughter who were taken very
> quickly, in the
> blink of an eye and realize that could happen to any
> of us. Perhaps you
> will agree or disagree with some or much of the
> following, but it is
> still wise, don't you agree, to be thinking about it
> at all? For those
> who may be disturbed by the subject, I apologize in
> advance for
> including you in this e-mailing. I have tried to
> leave off from this
> mailing the names of those who I thought might be
> upset by the subject.
> Personally, I have not been able to understand why
> people want to avoid
> the subject of death, because it comes to all of us.
>
>
> Probably because of so many leave-takings of people
> I have loved in
> life, this subject has been of paramount interest to
> me. That may not
> be the case for some of you to whom I am sending
> this today. If it is
> not a subject of interest to you, or it bothers you
> to think of it, or
> your beliefs are different from it, please delete
> this without reading
> it. For those who decide to read it, I hope it will
> give you some
> hope. For myself, I am certain that we live on
> after earthly "death."
> I have had far too many proofs in my own life by
> visits from loved ones
> who have made that passage, to ever doubt it. For
> those who find the
> essay interesting, I recommend George Meek's book.
> He was extremely
> intelligent and curious, of a scientific mind, and
> he did not accept
> anything without delving deeply into it. He left
> his earthly body in
> 1999. You might find his book as fascinating as I
> did, as you read
> about the different experiments he and fellow
> scientifically minded
> colleagues made into this deep and most important
> subject. If you are
> interested, Meek's book can be ordered from
> amazon.com
> Love,
> Eileen
>
>
> How To Die
>
>
>
> Substance of an address
>
> by
>
> Mabel Rowland
>
> Author of
>
> "HOW TO LIVE"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
> you free".
>
> John 8:32
>
>
>
> "Regardless of who we are and how we feel about it,
> each one of us must
> one day leave the body. But there is absolutely no
> reason to fear this
> change, for LIFE is continuous and, what is still
> more comforting,
> CONSCIOUSNESS and individuality are continuous.
>
> What happens is that the soul leaves the body
> we now dwell in and
> starts anew in its next phase of existence,
> vibrating at a different rate.
>
> The change is as natural as breathing and we should
> be as trusting and
> fearless concerning it as we are about breathing.
> There is nothing to
> fear any more than when we lie down to sleep for the
> night.
>
> As God's creatures, we are PRIVILEGED to live LIFE,
> and this privilege
> includes stewardship of a body--a body housing this
> dynamic, precious
> and most wonderful thing in the world--LIFE.
>
> We must take care of the body, but we are not to
> presume that we own it.
> We dwell in it. We do not own it. The Creator put us
> into these bodies
> "for the duration" of our earth lives, and we are to
> follow the first
> law of Nature and strictly observe
> "self-preservation."
>
> We are to fight for our lives to the very last
> ditch and to protect
> our bodies to the very best of our ability. Even an
> insect does as much,
> instinctively.
>
> Painless as we know "dying" to be, it is
> nature's own process and is
> arrived at upon the Creator's exact moment scheduled
> for us in the great
> plan. When will it be for ME? --- Forget it! It is
> none of our business,
> but preparing for LIFE afterward IS.
>
> It is only fair to yourself to take in these
> few facts which I
> shall give you and remember them---you may not
> believe them--- nor do
> you need to---but it is necessary for you to read
> and remember them.
> That is the intelligent thing to do. Then when you
> need the information,
> it will suddenly pop up out of your subconscious
> mind and be useful.
>
> Now when we have completed this cycle of our
> earth life and it is
> over---finished, we awaken in the next state of
> existence, discovering
> that our thought and feeling reactions are exactly
> the same as they
> always were! Remember that. You are YOU. There is no
> death. There is
> only a change of apparel, so to speak. You have shed
> the body, but your
> thoughts and feelings do not undergo any change in
> the passing over.
>
> However, you become quickly conscious of the
> fact that things other
> than yourself are slightly, but definitely,
> different, and it is for
> THAT VERY REASON I am making this talk. So please
> heed this, that you
> may not be at all PANICKY , but know exactly what to
> do.
>
> You probably at some time have dreamed you were
> falling. If so, you
> know that the dreamer never hits and hurts himself.
> He wakes up. In the
> experience of "dying," sometimes the individual
> realizes he is going-or
> he may merely suspect it--but the truth is, that
> while people rarely
> admit it, even to themselves, most of them FEAR it.
>
> There is no need to. There is no death: it is a
> misnomer. The TRUTH
> is that the actual passing over is not only
> painless, as I told you a
> few moments ago, but often beautiful--a natural
> transition, never to be
> dreaded.
>
> We do not get whisked to a city with "golden
> streets" and see
> angels flying around--no. If there is any such
> place, which was held out
> to us as "bait" to be "good" in the theologies we
> were raised on, then
> we are certainly not ready, in our present state of
> being, to take up
> residence there, anyway.
>
> The REAL of the person leaves the body--very
> much as a butterfly
> leaves its old chrysalis. Many, many persons
> everywhere have seen this
> passing over. I have seen it myself. Ask any
> experienced nurse. She will
> probably tell you of seeing a vaporous cloud of
> ectoplasm--that's what
> it looks like to our human vision. It is the silver
> cord that holds us
> to our bodies. Everyone has it and here in our earth
> life it is never
> severed, but it stretches when we are asleep to let
> our souls or
> entities, the real of us, go from the body and
> experience dreams. Then
> it shortens again and comes back to the body. It
> holds "body and soul"
> together. There might be four or five people present
> at a bedside when a
> soul passes out and maybe only one or two of them
> will have their human
> vision stepped up to the frequency even to see this
> much.
>
> Some of us have seen a great deal more. There
> IS no death.
>
> Now you understand that you are the same
> individual after you leave
> the body as before. No wings, no thrones, no crowns.
> You may be pleased
> with conditions, or you may at first be a little
> disappointed. It just
> depends on what you expected.
>
> For the first few days, everyone's fate is the
> same, whether saint
> or sinner, and after that there are spheres of life
> where you will
> belong and nothing can keep you out of your sphere.
> You are drawn into
> it by the LAW of attraction; that law which proves
> that like attracts
> like. We will be with people of the same tastes and
> degree of spiritual
> interests as ourselves, just as we naturally
> gravitate to and choose
> suitable associates here.
>
> Individual reactions are just that-individual
> reactions. And there
> are some people who have lived a sheltered earth
> life to a ripe old age,
> steeped in theological tradition and with fixed
> ideas about streets of
> gold, gates of pearl, harps and so forth. These good
> souls are
> oftentimes their own worst enemies, being stubbornly
> unwilling to adjust
> to anything even similar to their earth life
> conditions, although the
> next plane IS similar--surprisingly so.
>
> Some people, through theological training, actually
> expect, when they
> realize they have "died," to find the streets made
> of gold. Certain it
> is that if they believed that literally while here,
> they will be of the
> same opinion still.
>
> Some theologies teach that when we die, the
> body, soul and entire
> entity lie in the grave and sleep until the
> "judgment day." Well, these
> dear souls actually believe that literally. And when
> helpers on the
> other side of life try to tell them they are the
> same John or Annie
> Smith they've always been, but that now their life
> is going to have a
> few changes in its working out, they are skeptical
> and react as they
> might to a Bunko man at the county fair. Some folks
> of this persuasion
> insist on sleeping until "Gabriel" shall blow his
> horn. They often sleep
> for years.
>
> Let us consider now, a soul just out of the
> physical body, through
> a natural, leisurely process. It is YOURSELF
> perhaps. You are greeting
> your parents. How wonderful they look and they have
> been gone for years!
> They were quite old and a little bent when you last
> saw them in earth
> life. It used to grieve and tug at you a little to
> see them aging and
> failing. But here they are as lovely looking and as
> smiling and happy as
> you remember them when they were young and you were
> very young, just
> starting to school back in the little home town.
>
> Perhaps you are dreaming--something like this
> has happened to you
> before in dreams. No, they were very brief and
> fleeting flashes, those
> dreams. This is real and enduring. Still, your
> parents aren't saying
> very much--that is like a dream, too. But their gaze
> is fond and steady
> and they smile so reassuringly. It is real. And what
> a nice cool light
> feeling you have! They embrace you. It is real!
>
> Lovingly, they lead you off into their own
> circle or vibration,
> where you will rest and talk. Soon you will
> experience a lovely drowsy,
> but very safe feeling, and letting yourself go, will
> fall into a sleep
> of anywhere from three days or so to several weeks.
>
> Even the most spiritual personalities we have any
> record of remained and
> rested the first sixty hours or a few days, in the
> astral, then
> sometimes reappeared here on earth, briefly, before
> ascending into
> higher realms.
>
> The "dead" person doesn't feel nor act any
> differently for having
> "died," but adjustments have to be made, just as
> they have to be made
> here on earth. For instance, when summer is waning,
> we move in off the
> sleeping porch, wrap up a bit and get out our furs
> and make a hearth
> fire. That is all there is to it: it is that simple.
>
> When you have slept for your few days or so
> after "dying" and
> wakened to start living in your new environment, you
> never sleep again.
> You rest as all do in the spiritual realms, but they
> do not sleep. The
> exception is those people I just mentioned, waiting
> for Gabriel.
>
> Please bear in mind that when the soul leaves
> the body it doesn't
> GO anywhere. The change geographically is no greater
> than you would
> experience in life if you walked from one room to
> another, from a
> darkened room into a lighted one or from a warm room
> onto a cool balcony.
>
> Please realize also that while your body is to be
> protected and
> cherished, leaving it, in God's own time, is no more
> to be feared than
> is sliding out of your overcoat, letting it fall on
> a chair and walking
> away from it. And at first there is no consciousness
> of this "shedding"
> as it were, of the body of flesh.
>
> Our rate of vibration has changed, that is all. And
> the life we have
> entered is so very much like the earth life the new
> arrival is often
> quite confused, particularly if he has been taught
> all his life to
> expect something different.
>
> Should you ever experience the baffling
> sensation of walking up to
> your loved ones, embracing them, while they,
> completely unaware of your
> presence, walk THROUGH you, just do not get panicky.
>
> Do the same as you should do in an earth emergency,
> or any situation
> which you do not understand. We are told by the
> Psalmist to "Be still"
> (Psalms 46:10). It matters not what your religious
> belief is, or whether
> you have any--that is perfect advice. Just be
> perfectly still, within
> your own mind and lift your thought to your highest
> concept--whatever
> you think of a GOD. Call to It or Him or breathe His
> name silently or
> aloud, just so it is from the heart, which it will
> be then-it will be
> YOU "as a little child" and IMMEDIATELY--even more
> quickly than I can
> tell you this, help comes. Pleasant, friendly aid
> and you are never in
> that "spot" again.
>
> The helper finds your relatives and loved ones for
> you. This is
> necessary when deaths occur accidentally and
> suddenly. Remember what you
> are reading PLEASE. Simply raise your consciousness.
> It is your same old
> consciousness you know, to YOUR OWN HEAVENLY FATHER.
> Just say as much as
> "Father" and help will come. The astral realm is
> organized. I repeat:
> you need not believe this that you are reading, but
> please remember it.
> In accidental death and in wartime it all happens so
> suddenly that the
> soul may be hurtled out of the body and stand amidst
> a hellish scene of
> disaster and destruction and see his own body lying
> there. It isn't a
> pleasant experience, but it is LIFE. Life is
> progressive. It blooms and
> fades and grows again and lifts us from sphere to
> sphere INDIVIDUALLY
> according to each one's consciousness. Stand still
> and pray. Death is a
> natural part of life.
>
> If your life here has been devoted to the
> accumulation of material
> things or to the making of money, to the extent that
> you have come to be
> steeped in it--to enjoy it, say, more than anything
> else, you are
> building up a hazard for yourself in the "next
> world."
>
> Be wise enough not to have your chief interest a
> material one like
> collecting or selling to make money, because when we
> leave the body, we
> go where there is NO ECONOMIC standard--money is not
> used. You will be a
> fish out of water unless you have a hobby which is
> something less
> material, more intangible and important than buying
> and selling.
>
> Things "of the earth earthy" are just that. Be
> careful not to grow so
> fond of them to be obsessed by them, for once we
> actually LOVE things
> or money, then we are in danger of being drawn and
> held by this earth
> vibration.
>
> Briefly, that would mean that we should, as a
> disembodied soul, yours or
> mine, after we have died, hang around others still
> in earth life, whose
> tastes and activities are the same as ours used to
> be. Our satisfaction
> would be merely vicarious. There are hoards of these
> pitiful earthbound
> souls haunting clearing houses, counting houses and
> money markets and
> trade centers of all sorts. Also we see the souls of
> the morally weak
> and depraved in drinking joints and low places.
>
> While you are still living your physical existence,
> realize that money
> is important to you merely for body-comfort needs.
> This is temporary, so
> don't feed your soul to it. In the next plane you
> see no "business as
> usual" sign. It is then that your artistic
> attainments may be enjoyed
> and you will receive instruction for far more noble
> service than money
> grubbing.
>
> So, my advice is to be prepared--to prepare while
> still living here.
> Cultivate your SOUL SIDE. Learn to love and serve
> your fellow man. If it
> is not easy for you to love people, it can be an
> impersonal kind of love
> until you become a more loving person. Cut down on
> the criticisms of
> others and magnify their desirable qualities. I mean
> just to yourself,
> as they start to "irritate" you when you think of
> them. The way they
> walk or talk or some little fault--forget that and
> refuse to see it. The
> Hindu, when he passes another human soul, mutters
> "pranam," meaning,
> "The God in me salutes the God (part) of you."
>
> I am not being sentimental. I am giving you the key
> to the situation of
> living, more fully, both here and now and AFTERWARD.
>
> World wars have come from little warring feelings in
> the HUMAN HEART.
> People are shocked at first to hear that, but it is
> true. Self seeking
> people here on earth, have compete, connived,
> monopolized and hated in
> their driving urge to control. To be top man; to get
> most; have most;
> regardless of how and inconsiderate of at what cost.
>
> Yes, little wars of greed (called Ambition)
> starting in the
> individual human heart, larger wars in families,
> cities and governments
> finally form the snow ball which becomes a WORLD
> WAR.
>
> The cure for war is peace and it, also, must
> start in the
> individual human heart , with the word
> "UNITY"..oneness, coming to
> fruition in deed as well. We are leaves of one
> tree. Children of the
> same Father. Coals of one fire. And we are each
> endowed with the great
> solvent power of LOVE, which if recognized and USED,
> INDIVIDUALLY, would
> immediately start working to redeem the world.
>
> Let us live with our thought upon God and with
> this attitude of
> mind we shall be living the right way-and then
> surely we will "die" the
> right way. "
>
> ________________________________
>
>
>
> HOW TO DIE was published in 1942 in a 24 page
> booklet that sold for 25cents.
>
> Copyright expired in 1970 and was not renewed.
>
>
>

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