There are many descriptions by people living in the afterlife of what they experienced when they awoke in the afterlife. This article contains the descriptions by three people. The descriptions come from the recordings of sessions with the 20th century direct-voice medium Leslie Flint.
Leslie Flint had the remarkable ability of having people from the afterlife come into the room where he sat and communicate with sitters who came for the sessions. Today, we have thousands of the recordings. Flint’s mediumship was validated many times, and despite intense study by skeptics, no one was ever able to find a problem with his activities.
Queen Alexandra of Denmark Describes Awakening in the Afterlife
In this recording from the archive of sessions in which Leslie Flint had people from the afterlife speak, Queen Alexandra of Denmark, Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, spoke from the afterlife about what she experienced when she awoke in the afterlife. Betty Green, who sat with Flint during his sessions and ran the recorder, asks Alexandra a question. She responds. A transcript of the recording follows the controls.
Transcript of the Recording
Betty Greene: Can you tell us actually when you passed over, where you found your self, in what…uh…I was going to say, not exactly ‘country’, but how you found your self?
Alexandra:
I…remember very vividly awakening in a room which was very reminiscent of a room that I’ve been very fond of, many years previously in my earthly existence. In every way it seemed to be an exact replica: the colourings, the materials, the furnishings. In fact everything about it was a perfect reproduction; in fact, so much so, that I did not realise at first that I passed on at all. And I remember only too well the very beautiful view from the window, with the beautiful green grass, lawn and terrace and at the bottom, far in the distance, the river.
It was a spot which I had been most fond. And in this room on my awakening were many of my relations and friends that I had known. It was almost like a kind of reception, which of course it was. And I must admit it was a great joy to me, to meet all these friends and all these souls that had meant so much to me in my Earthly life, and to have the feeling of peace and the realisation that it was an environment in the very room in which I was most happy. It was a room that had given me great joy and pleasure many, many years previously.
Alfred Higgins Is Told He Has Passed Away
A man named Alfred Higgins came through in a Leslie Flint session. He explained that he awakened in the afterlife and saw a man who explained to him that he had passed away. The transcript of his session follows the controls. He begins after Betty Greene asks him how he found himself when he crossed over.
Transcript
I was… couldn’t make head or tail of it. I couldn’t make out where I was. I didn’t recognize the spot and I couldn’t think how I got there. And then I saw someone coming towards me dressed… well, it looked to me as if he was a monk. But I realized, of course, later he wasn’t a monk. But he’d got a sort of long habit on, and he looked to be a benevolent gentleman, and quite young.
I thought this… I remember when I first saw him I thought, “Oh dear” when I realized that he… or at least I thought he was a monk, I thought, “He’s a young man, a young person to be a monk”.
As a matter of fact, quite frankly, I thought to myself at the time that he looked just like Jesus. At least what I’d seen pictures of Jesus. But I realized, of course, that it wasn’t afterwards. And he came and stood beside me and spoke to me.
He said, “Ah, you’ve arrived.”
I says, “Arrived? I don’t quite know what you mean.”
He says, “You don’t realise then that you’re here, where you are?”
So I says, “No. All I know is I don’t recognize this place. It’s very beautiful.”
And he says to me, he says, “You’re dead, you know.”
I says, “What?!”
He says, “Yes. You’re… you’re dead.”
I says, “Ah! I’m not dead. How can I be dead? I wouldn’t be able to see.” And I felt myself. I says, “Look, how can I be dead? Look, I’m solid,” you know. He says, “Ah, a lot of people seem to think on your side that when they’re dead they’re either nothing at all or if they’re dead that they go to heaven or they go to some other place like hell. There’s no such place as heaven and there’s no such place as hell. You are in a condition of life which is as real – as you can see for yourself – as anything you’ve ever known before.
Life beyond what you call death is a state of mind. Your condition at the moment is perhaps a little bewildered. But you’re not unhappy and certainly you seem, as far as I can tell, quite at ease. You seem quite calm and placid. You’re not over anxious about anything in particular are you?
I says, “No, but now I’m beginning to realize what you say is so, I must admit I’m a bit concerned about my people. It must be a terrible shock for them, you know. I have no recollection of dying. I don’t remember anything bar falling. At least I had a feeling I was falling and then I don’t remember no more.”
And he says to me, he says, “Well, of course, you died in hospital you know.”
George Wilmot Awakens in a Field and Jennie Was There to Greet Him
A man named George Wilmot came through in a Leslie Flint session describing what happened to him after he awoke in the afterlife. A transcript follows the audio controls. Betty Green begins with a question.
Transcript
Betty Greene: Mr. Wilmot, how did you pass over ? What happened ?
George Wilmot:
Oh, I caught pneumonia one bad winter, going around you know. Got a bit of a cough and chest trouble started up. And before I knew I was in the local hospital you know. Wasn’t there more than about, oh… I suppose about a week. Ah ! It was too far gone, you know. I’d always had a bit of a cough and that. Me chest was always a bit of a weak bit, you know. But, oh dear, oh dear, do you know I might make you laugh but it’s perfectly true.
Mind you I was always fond of people. I always took an interest in people. As a matter of fact I think I can say this with honesty, that often people would come and ask me proper questions if they were in trouble. I was always glad to help people, very fond of people. But the odd thing was – and in a way I’m not surprised because I was so fond of her – but my old Jenny was the one I first saw when I come here.
Greene: Oh, yes ?
Wilmot:
Yeah. Now, that’s got you guessing, but Jenny wasn’t neither of my wives, thank God, it was my horse.
Greene: Oh, really ?
Wilmot:
Yeah she… old Jenny, she used to pull my cart in my earlier years, in the thirties, you know. I was real upset when poor old Jenny collapsed and died, you know. She was as near to me as any woman could be, in fact more so. I had great affection and regard for old Jenny and she knew everything that I ever said to her, I’m sure she did. She was as cute as they come. She was a real “beaut”. She wasn’t much to look at, I suppose, as horses go, of course, but she was a real nice old nag, she was. And the first thing I remember when I woke up over here was being in a – well, I suppose you’d call it a field.
I seemed to be sitting, lying, under a tree and I remember, sort of, waking up. And I could see this horse coming towards me and there was my old Jenny. Cor ! She looked younger, of course, and she was… oh, she was so thrilled and so happy, you could sense and feel it. I can’t say how, I mean this is something I can’t explain. But it was almost as if she was talking to me. It was extraordinary. I couldn’t hear any voice and you don’t expect to hear a horse speak. But it was somehow mentally, I suppose, now I realise. It must have been as if she was speaking to me and welcoming me and she came and stood beside me and was licking my face. Goodness me, I’ll never forget this as long as I live. I was so thrilled and so excited and I was patting her and fussing her. And then it was as if I heard a voice behind me and I turned round, and there was a fine looking chap. I should think he was about six-foot-two, tall, fair-haired, young. And he was such a nice fella.
And he says, “I’ve come to look after you.”
So I says, ”Come to look after me ? What are you talking about?”
You know, I was sort of so taken aback what with Jenny and the rest of it.
He says, ”Yeah, I’m going to look after you. I’ve been put in charge of you.”
I said, ”What do you mean in charge of me ? I’m always capable of looking after myself. Always had to, anyway.”
He says, ”No, you don’t understand. You know you’re dead.”
Of course, for a moment it struck me like a thunderbolt, you know. And it suddenly came to me. Of course, Jenny had been dead some years and I’d had another little nag after her you see. A nice horse, but never to me like Jenny.
So he says, “You’re dead.”
And I thought, “Well, I don’t know what to make of this lark.”
Then it seemed as if he was able to show me something. I don’t know whether he showed it to me, I suppose he did. But I could see myself lying in a bed, stiff and stark, you know, and it was as if… well, it was as if I was looking at my own body. And yet I wasn’t there and yet I was there. And I saw them put this body on a trolley… take it out the bed, put it on a trolley and wheel it away. And I was walking behind this body being wheeled out and then it all disappeared and I was back where I was with this bloke.
And then I found out afterwards that his name was Michael. And so he said, ”My name is Michael.”
So I said, “Oh yes ?”
So he says, ”Do you realise you’re dead ?”
So I said, ”Well, I don’t know what to think.”
He says, ”Well, you’ve just had that realisation, didn’t you, that vision, like, of your body, like ?”
He says, “You know you died in that hospital.”
So I said, “Well, I recollect now I was very ill in hospital, but how can I be dead when I’m here and I’m talking to you, and I’ve got Jenny ?”
He says, ”Well, isn’t Jenny, in itself, some evidence to you that you’re dead ?”
So I said, ”Well, it seems very strange but then again, if I’m in Heaven, if that’s it, you don’t expect to find horses there. They ain’t got no souls, have they ?”
So he said, ”Ah, that’s what they tell you when you’re on Earth, that they ain’t got no sort of other life, only just the old material life,” as you call it, like, you know.
So he said, “That horse, because of its nearness to you and the love and affection you showered on it, it’s given it something which helps it to extend (as he put it) its life span.”
I didn’t quite get all this lark, you know: “extend its life span” and all the rest of it.
He said, ”But while you have love and affection and regard for that horse, that horse will have an existence. Human beings don’t know their responsibility to animals. Ever since I’ve been here, which is hundreds of years…”
Course, I looked at him when he said that. I thought, “Well, this is a bit much,” you know, “looking so young and spruce and nice looking – hundreds of years ?” I thought… well… anyway I thought, “Well, it don’t do to interrupt this gentleman,” like, you know. After all I felt a bit lost and I thought I had to mind my qs and ps, you know.
So he says, ”Oh, time is nothing, you see.”
So I said, “Evidently, you know. It’s nothing, mate,” you know.
So he says, “I’ve been here for hundreds of years, and part of my responsibility and my job (as he put it) is to see and care for animals. I often go down into the pits.”
I wondered what the hell he meant when he said pits. I thought he meant hell or something.
So he says, ”No, pits where they have the animals down in the mines. I tend to them and try to help them, but there’s not a great deal you can do. A lot of them are very badly treated, you know. Over here we have great plains,” that’s what he put it, like, “and places where animals congregate and where there is love and affection, and they can be cared for.
People have this stupid idea that because they are human beings they’re the only ones that have got any right to a future existence, should there be one. Of course, a lot of people on Earth don’t believe there is one. Then you get the religious ones who think there must be and there is, but they haven’t much of a conception of it either.”
Course, he was talking a lot of stuff here, you know, and I was getting very intrigued. And I thought all the time he was talking I was half listening and half thinking about meself. What I was going to do, you know, being dead and all the rest of it. It was as if he was illustrating things and I was trying to take it in. At the same time I couldn’t stop thinking about meself and me own worries.
