We receive our understanding of what happens in the moments and days after a full transition from Earth School from descriptions conveyed through mediums by people who have made the transition. Today we have a great many descriptions. We know what happens.
When each person comes to the appropriate pre-planned exit point in their life, the body ceases to function in some way. The individual is not affected by this change, except to be released from the conditions, imperfections, and rules of life in Earth School. The person is the same person an hour after the transition as an hour before. The Mind doesn’t change.
What happens in the moments after the body stops functioning without resuscitation is different from what happens in a near-death experience (NDE). In an NDE, the person is still learning lessons and progressing in this life. As a result, the experience prepares the person for a more loving, compassionate life after the experience. At times, the NDE contains elements not at all in the experience after transition, such as the negative NDEs. Everything that happens as long as the person remains in Earth School, including the events in an NDE, happen for reasons relevant to the person’s progress.
People Speaking from the Next Life Remark How Easy the Transition Is
The transition is quite smooth and without incident. The person may not realize they have transitioned, however, and need help understanding the change. Some are bewildered for a period of time until they make the adjustment. A number of those living in the next life who have spoken about their transitions have described how, in the moments after their bodies died, they felt that they must be dreaming and would wake up.
People who are materialists, with no belief in the survival of consciousness and no understanding of the life they will enter after the transition, may have difficulty accepting the reality of their transition. Their adjustment may be difficult because of the fears they create within themselves about where they are and what will happen to them. It is important for us in Earth School to help people understand who they are in eternity and what happens after the transition to make their transition smoother.
After the transition, people describe a feeling of expansiveness, or having vast knowledge, of having a highly developed memory, and having acute sensory experiences. They have a feeling of being unified with the universe. They remark that the reality of where they are has all the feeling of being the true reality; earth is an imperfect facsimile.
All People Have a Joyous Realization They Are Alive
All people who have made the transition have the same joyous reaction to finding that they continue to live after the body dies. One example is from a woman known only as “Mrs. M.” speaking through the talented medium Gladys Osborne Leonard.
I cannot tell you much about my first days here because I seemed to be living in a dream of joy, yet dream is not the correct word since it was more real than any hour or moment I have had on earth. I was rather an alive person on earth, as you will remember, but I feel so much more alive here. Why I said “dream” was it seemed almost too good to be true, but I had no fear of it ending like a dream, I knew it was going to be everlasting. It was the kind of experience which on earth might be termed a dream of joy. I simply walked on air for several days, to use the old phrase, I lived in happy reunion with my dear husband, a little later meeting with many old friends. You may remember that I did all I could to spread the knowledge of communion with the beyond and help people by sharing with them my own happy experiences. Many told me I had helped them. Well, here those people gathered around me by and by and gave me quite an impressive reception. They told me how right I had been to speak straight from my heart to them, that what I had said, even when not evidential, had carried weight because of my intense conviction. All that was most pleasant.[i]
People who have made the transition describe a feeling of being light and free. Any maladies they might have had in Earth School are gone. They experience no pain, even if their bodies were wracked with pain in the last moments of Earth School.
Crookall describes the sentiments of people after the transition. When they become aware of their transition, the reaction is very positive.
Many do not describe a “partial awakening”: their awareness of a stable environment emerged simultaneously with their assurance of personal identity, and of having survived the death of the body. In such accounts the first feeling described is one of “peace,” “security,”, “well-being,” “expansion,” “release,” “intense reality,” etc. Many declare that they were “astonished” that death had not been what had been expected … on the contrary, it had been “natural” and the new environment was “real,” “familiar,” “pleasant,” “beautiful” and “earth-like.”[ii]
When They Realize They Have Transitioned, They Must Adjust to the New Reality
The first perspective of the newly transitioned is that it’s very strange to suddenly leave Earth School and be in this new world that is so much more wonderful. Cyrus Kirkpatrick, an afterlife researcher, out-of-body traveler, and author, writes about encountering his mother in the life after this life during one of his out-of-body experiences. He describes her reaction to being in the next life:
It’s actually very difficult adjusting to what happened. That’s been the hardest thing for me, is comprehending where I am and how it all works. Like, that I used to be THERE, and now I’m HERE. It’s hard to understand and it’s hard to think about.
… this new reality is fine. There’s nothing altogether that different about it, there’s nothing I can’t do here. It’s a normal and fine place to be. It’s just realizing where you are, in an “afterlife.” It’s very strange sometimes![iii]
People Do Not Suddenly Change after the Transition
The person’s Mind does not change after the transition. The transition is like getting on a plane and landing in another country. The traveler is the same person, just in a different location. Some people believe they are going on with their lives as they were before their transition, although they are mystified by the odd occurrences resulting from not being in the familiar environment. Others believe they are dreaming and will awaken. And still others move smoothly into the new next life.
The person has the same feelings as before the transition. If the person was angry and hostile in this life, the anger and hostility remains. If the person was humble and loving, the humility and loving nature are still part of the person’s nature. All the person’s skills, memories, attitudes, preferences, and desires remain the same. The person does not become all-knowing. The person is still the same Mind, just in a different environment.
The Swedish visionary philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg corroborates the fact that the person remains the same after dropping off the body.
The first state of man after death is like his state in the world, because he is still in like manner in externals. He has therefore a similar face, similar speech, and a similar disposition, thus a similar moral and civil life; so that he knows no other than that he is still in the world, unless he pays attention to the things that he meets with, and to what was said to him by the angels when he was raised up—that he is now a spirit. Thus one life is continued into the other, and death is only the passage.[iv]
Mike Tymn has a marvelous description of the fact that even additions and cravings carry on after the transition.
Communicating through a medium, Dr. Frederick H. Wood asked his discarnate mother how victims of drink fare in the afterlife. “The craving goes over with the etheric body,” his mother replied, “and it goes over with the mind, too. Disease of that kind affects the whole personality. It is true of other vices, too and also the mental ones of greed, malice, vanity, or selfishness. These become part of yourself unless you conquer them.”[v] She added that such addictions are sometimes more difficult to eradicate on her side than on earth.[vi]
In the days and weeks after the transition, the person’s perspective changes. After all, this person now knows the reality that life continues after the body stops functioning, and the importance of everything on earth diminishes.
People who have transitioned to the next stage of life do have a change in perceptive abilities. They communicate telepathically with each other, animals, and even plants in what the ITC pioneer Friedrich Jürgenson described as “direct perception.”[vii]
The Person Does Not Go into “Soul Sleep”
The belief among some Christians that people who have left Earth School are sleeping is based on Paul’s statements that Christians who had transitioned have just fallen asleep and are “sleeping in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). This belief that people who have left Earth School sleep until the resurrection is commonly referred to as “soul sleep.” The term for this belief given by John Calvin is “psychopannychia.”[viii]
There are reports of Christians living in the next stage of life who have not given up on this belief. They are banded together feeling they are sleeping until the resurrection. The collective of minds in the higher levels of being who spoke through the medium Maurice Barbanell as Silver Birch remarked about these Christians.
There is no eternal sleep, because we disturb the dead. There are some who go to sleep because they are taught that that is what will happen. … You are taught some funny things in your world. They cannot sleep forever, though.[ix]
People Are Given Help after the Transition
In the period after the transition, some people are bewildered and must become accustomed to the new reality. Loved ones provide perspectives for the newly arrived person and help that person understand the realities of the life after this life. Mrs. M., referred to earlier, explained from spirit through Gladys Osborne Leonard that people who have no loved ones to guide them are given help by caring counselors.
[We went to] one of the centers where guidance is given to newcomers who have no relatives to welcome and instruct them. Kind people take them in hand, answering questions and talking things over with them and guiding them to find any relatives whom they speak of as having predeceased them, but who did not come to welcome them on arrival. In some such work as that I shall soon be taking part.[x]
The Most Prominent Occurrences after the Transition
After the transition, people experience a wide range of occurrences.
Being Aware of the Body and Leaving It Behind
The first of these prominent occurrences happens after the person has risen out of the body fully conscious. The person then may continue away from the room and may encounter someone who acts as a guide. The whole time, the person is as awake as during a normal wakefulness.
Robert Crookall explains that the transition out of the body is so natural the person usually doesn’t realize what has happened.
Many insisted the act of dying involved no pain, and said that they saw the physical body lying on the bed, reminding them of the discarded garment. Everything was so natural that the fact of transition was often unrealized at first. They found that they could not be seen or heard by friends still in the flesh.[xi]
Edward C. Randall, speaking through medium Emily French, describes what happened after he had risen from his body.
Some of those whom I recognized as persons who had died, asked me to go, and with that thought I was outside and apparently could walk on the air. My next thought was that it was a dream and that I would awake and feel again the terrible pain. I was gently told what had happened, and I felt that God had been unjust to take me when I had so much to do, and when I was so needed by my family. I was not satisfied with the place I was in. About me there was a fog, and I started to walk out of it, but the farther I walked, the more dense it got, and I became discouraged and sat down by the wayside in deep grief. I had ever tried to provide the very best for those dependent on me. Where was my reward? Then someone approached, came as it were out of the fog, and I told him of my life work and complained of the condition I was in, and questioned the justice of it. He replied, “Yours was a selfish love; you worked for self. You should have made others happy as well as your own.” He promised to help me in my great trouble, if I would help myself.[xii]
A farmer named George Hopkins in the life after this life came through in a Leslie Flint session on April 11, 1959. He explained that he dozed off and when he awakened saw his body and tried to awaken himself. He “shook” his body and entreated it to “wake myself up.” You can listen to him speaking the following and more at https://earthschoolanswers.com/hopkins/.
Well, I just had a stroke or seizure or heart attack or something of the sort. As a matter of fact I was in the harvesting. I felt a bit peculiar, I thought it was the sun and well, I sat down in the ‘edge. As far as I was concerned I felt a bit drowsy and peculiar and must have dozed off.
But dear, oh dear, I had such a shock. I woke up, as I thought, and the sun had gone down and there was me, or at least what appeared to be me. I couldn’t make it out at all, I was so puzzled. I just didn’t know what to do. I tried to shake myself—if you can do such a thing—I …wake myself up, sort of thing. I thought, well this is funny, I must be dreaming. I tried to sort of get, you know, some sense out of meself. I tried to talk to meself, try and understand what had been going on. I thought this must be some sort of crazy sort of dream or something. I couldn’t make head nor tail of it.
It never struck me at all that I was dead. Anyway I wondered what I am I going to do now. I don’t know. Anyway I found myself walking, as I thought I was, I went along the road to the doctor’s. I thought well, perhaps he can help me. Perhaps he can sort of, sort it all out, like, you know.
Anyway I got to the doctor’s and I knocked on the door, but no one answered. I thought well, I shouldn’t have thought he would have been out, because he had surgery hours. Then I saw people coming and going in the surgery door and I thought, I dunno, nobody seems to take any notice and I saw one or two of my old cronies. They all sort of seemed to walk through me almost, you might say. No one seemed to make any comment about me. Course, I don’t know I thought “Well this is a funny how-de-do.”
Anyway I stood there for a bit trying to work it out. Then I saw someone hurrying down the road like mad to the doctor’s. He got to the doctor’s rushed in and pushed past me and everybody and next moment, I heard them talking about me. Which puzzled me. I thought what the hell’s wrong with them? I’m here. I heard them say I was dead!
The doctor went in his car up the road, and I thought “Well I don’t know about dead. I can’t be dead. I’m here. I can see what’s going on, I can hear what they’re talking about. How the hell can I be dead?”
Then I thought to myself, that’s funny, I saw myself lying down. I don’t know, how can I be? I mean you’re dead and you’re done for and you’re in heaven or hell. I’m certainly not in heaven and not in hell. I mean I’m ‘ere, listenin’ to what they’re talkin’ about. And of course, gradually I suppose it dawned on me that I must be dead.[xiii]
Entering a Period of Sleep without Realizing What Happened
The second prominent occurrence is a period of sleep without the person being conscious of what has happened. People who experience the transition after an extended illness often go through a period of sleep for two to four earth days that helps them make the transition into the next life.[xiv] The length of time may depend on the person’s spiritual development that prepares them for the transition. Someone who understands the transition and anticipates it may experience a shorter sleep.[xv] They may awaken in a recovery area appearing much like a hospital to them, with attendants who greet them upon their awakening and help them adjust to their new condition. This period of sleep is different from the brief unconsciousness some people describe, especially people who have transitioned from the body suddenly.
Robert Crookall cites a writer named Constance Wiley describing the sleep period.
The only sleep there is after “passing” is that given to those who have passed through severe illness with much weakness and pain, who cannot free their minds from thoughts of sickness and weakness . … Many think that there is a long interval between “passing” an active life on this side . … If we are suffering from some complaint that gave us weakness and great pain, then we are taken to a home and tenderly nursed … because, although we can’t with our spiritual bodies feel pain or weakness, yet our minds continue to think we are suffering, unless we are brought back to health . … Then, when we have recovered, we are taken where our lives, ill or well spent, entitle us to be.[xvi]
The period of sleep may be protracted if the person needs the time to adjust to the new reality. The medium Anthony Borgia, author of Life in the World Unseen, writes the explanation of the period of sleep he heard from a person in the life after this life:
Long illness has a tiring effect upon the spirit body and when, at last, the physical body is cast off, the spirit body usually goes to one of the numerous halls of rest. … There the new resident sleeps, ultimately to wake fully refreshed. … With some, a short time serves; with others it takes months of earth-time. In my own case, I was ill for only a brief period on earth; I passed without losing consciousness. I was able to gaze upon my physical body. … A friend who had passed on before me came to me, at the instant of departure, and took me to my new home. After a brief survey of it he recommended a rest period. I awoke in perfect health. [xvii]
The Body Has Died but the Person Continues Acting Normally
The third common occurrence is when the person’s body has died but the etheric or spirit body continues acting as though nothing has happened. This happens after a sudden transition on a battlefield, an accident, a massive stroke, a heart attack, a homicide, or other such unexpected event that thrusts the person from the body without pain or recollection of what happened. The person is conscious and functioning as though still using the body on earth.
They continue with their activities in the moments after transitioning, often watching events unfold around their lifeless bodies. Finally someone comes to them to help them understand that they have transitioned out of the body. It could be a loved one, an acquaintance whom they knew had passed, or a helper who has accepted the role of helping people confused when they have crossed into the next stage of life.
One World War I soldier named Alf Pritchett described himself running toward the enemy on the battlefield, but noticing that the enemy was running past him as though they couldn’t see him. It wasn’t until some time later that he realized he had been killed suddenly, most likely in an explosion, but was still running on the battlefield as the spirit person. His physical body was lying on the battlefield somewhere but all the rest—his Mind, personality, and memories—were exactly the same.[xviii]
Listen to the recording of Alf Pritchett describing his experience in a Leslie Flint session in 1960, 43 years after his transition in World War I: https://earthschoolanswers.com/alf/.
A man named Ted Butler said that before his death he was walking down the street with his wife and remembered seeing something coming at him. He then saw a crowd of people standing around staring at something. He “had a look” and saw someone lying on the street who looked just like him. “Could’ve been my twin brother,” he said. His wife was crying hysterically, but for some reason, she couldn’t see him. The reason was that he had been hit by a runaway truck and transitioned instantly. He got into the ambulance with the body and sat next to his grief-stricken wife, who still couldn’t see him. Then he went to his own funeral. He remarked, “It was all very nice, but it was so damned silly because there I was!”[xix]
Listen to the recording of Ted Butler describing what happened to him at https://earthschoolanswers.com/butler/.
People Who Transition Suddenly Have Unique Experiences
People who transition suddenly and unexpectedly in the prime of life typically describe transitions that are markedly different from those who transition after a period of illness. Crookall summarizes the events in these transitions that differ from occurrences experienced by people who transition over time. He calls the sudden transition an “enforced death.”
(1) The natural death of average man is typically followed by a “sleep” but in enforced death the person concerned tended to be awake and alert at once or almost at once; (2) in natural death consciousness was characterized by such words as “peace,” “security,” “happiness,” “freedom,” etc; in enforced death it was at first “confused,” “bewildered,” etc; (3) whereas in natural transition the environment was described as “beautiful,” “clear,” “light,” and “brilliant,” in enforced death it was often (at first) “misty,” “foggy,” even “watery”; (4) whereas many who died naturally are conscious of having seen (or felt the presence of) the “silver cord,” that feature is very seldom mentioned by those whose death was enforced; (5) whereas men who died naturally were often aware that they were met by discarnate friends (and death-bed visions are common in natural transitions), there was some delay on the part of men whose death was enforced in seeing those who met them (friends and undescribed pre-death visions of discarnate friends).[xx]
When the transition is expected, as at the end of protracted illness, there is a “call” to loved ones to come. They are with the person in the days before the transition and are present to greet the person at the moment of transition. In a sudden transition, there is no time for the call, so loved ones are not immediately with the person. However, there are always “deliverers” who come to help the person make the adjustment.
The clearest description of the work by these deliverers is in Robert Crookall’s Life in the World Unseen.
Again, although the man whose death is enforced may not have time to “call” friends who have “gone before,” he is not without aid; as already said, there are experts who undertake such special duties. Although it may be some little time before he is aware of their presence, these “deliverers” soon take him in charge and in this work they may have the “cooperation” of mortals who are psychic. The newly-dead man thus comes to realize what has happened—that a transition of an abnormal nature has caused a temporary abnormal state. Discarnate friends whom he himself was unable to “call” are then brought by the “deliverers”: as in the case of those who passed on naturally, he recognizes them and knows that they are “dead.” He realizes what has happened to himself. He then enjoys a period of rest under special conditions. This prepares the soul body to operate at a rate higher than that of the physical body. The effect of any shock, due to his sudden transition, is illuminated and the newly dead man enters upon the normal sequence of after-death experiences, shedding the vehicle of vitality, awakening in “paradise,” conditions, passing through his “judgment,” and thereafter going to his “his own place.”[xxi]
The newly dead person is aware of the thoughts and feelings of physically embodied friends through telepathic and clairvoyant senses.[xxii]
Awareness after the Transition
After the transition, people describe a feeling of expansiveness, or having vast knowledge, of having a highly developed memory, and a feeling of being unified with the universe. Many remark that their senses were more acute than ever before. Robert Crookall describes the accounts from people living in the next realm of life:
During earth-life, consciousness, though “normal” to us, is actually limited, “blinkers”- like, by the physical body. At death, this valuable, though restricting, instrument is shed, “normal” consciousness gives place to the “super-normal ” type: there is an “expansion,” and a “deepening” of awareness, and not only do remarkable faculties (of which we may have had occasional effort evanescent activities during earth-life) become normal to us, but we find that we are “nearer” than before to loved ones who are still in the flesh. The true causes and the necessary consequences of our words and deeds, our underlying motives and true characters (which were more or less hidden from the lesser self) become clear to us in the un-enshrouded Soul Body.[xxiii]
The accounts given by many people who have made the transition include their astonishment at how wonderful they feel and how glorious their surroundings are.
Many Do Not Realize They Have Transitioned
After they have transitioned, people are the same as they were before the transition, with all the senses they had and body experiences. When we transition, we will have experiences as we are having now, with no announcements to alert us to the change of status. Monsignor Hugh Benson, speaking from the life after this life through medium Anthony Borgia, explains.
There is a surprising number of people who do not realize they have passed from the earth in the death of the physical body. Resolutely they will not believe that they are what the earth calls “dead.” They are dimly aware that some sort of change has taken place, but what that change is they’re not prepared to say.[xxiv]
Many people believe themselves to be in a dream from which they will soon awaken. A priest named Edwin, now in the life after this life, speaking through Anthony Borgia, describes his impressions of being in a dream when he transitioned to the next realm of life.
His first impressions upon his awakening in the spirit were—to use his own words—absolutely breathtaking. He had visualized subconsciously perhaps, some sort of misty state as condition of a future life, where there would be a great deal of ‘prayer and praise.’ To find himself in a realm of inexpressible beauty, with all the glories of earthly nature purged of its earthliness, refined and eternalized, with the enormous wealth of colour all around and about him; to behold the crystal purity of rivers and brooks, with the charm of the country dwellings and the grandeur of the city’s temples and halls of learning; to find himself in the centre of all such glories without an inkling of what had thus been in store for him, was to cast doubts upon the veracity of his own eyes. He could not believe that he was not in the midst of some beautiful, but fantastic, dream, from which he would shortly awaken to find himself once again in his old familiar surroundings. He thought how he would relate this dream when he returned to consciousness. Then he considered how it would be received—as very beautiful, no doubt, but just a dream.[xxv]
A woman named MaryAnn Ross living in the life after this life described her feeling she was in a dream after her transition. She spoke in a Leslie Flint session on January 20, 1969. You can listen to this portion of her session and the rest of her description of her experiences in the life after this life at https://earthschoolanswers.com/ross/.
And there was my mother, but she did not look the same as when I saw her in ma [sic] dream, as I thought. She looked young, as I’d seen her in the picture that used to hang in my bedroom, when she was married, many years before. And she’d got a white dress and she had a black bow ribbon in her hair, so like I’d seen her in early pictures, when I was very young. We used to have everything, collection of old photos, that mother’d keep in the tin. Yes, it was just as if I was seeing her as she was then.
She said to me that I was alright and that I’d nothing to worry about and I was not going back, and I thought this is just a dream. And then she said no, it’s not a dream, it’s real, you’re alive now, you’re not to worry about anything. And she said, soon, when you’re really recovered over this, she said, we’ll go out we’ll meet all sorts of people that you used to know when you were a wee bairn [baby], you know, when you were young.
I could not quite see and understand, I could not realize at that stage that I was dead. It was like a beautiful dream.[xxvi]
Guides and Helpers Meet with Some Deceased
In most cases, the person is greeted by a loved one or acquaintance. Such is the case with the priest named Edwin in spirit.
As soon as I had had this brief space in which to look about me and to appreciate my new estate, I found myself joined by a former colleague—a priest—who had passed to this life some years before. We greeted each other warmly, and I noticed that he was attired like myself. Again this in no way seems strange to me, because had he been dressed in any other way I should have felt that something was wrong somewhere, as I had only known him in clerical attire. He expressed his great pleasure at seeing me again, and for my part I foresaw the gathering up of the many threads that had been broken at his death. … He, himself, was in the best of spirits as he stood there giving me such a welcome, as on the earth-plane, two old friends accord each other after a long separation. That, in itself, was sufficient to show that all thoughts of being marched off to my judgment are entirely preposterous. We both were too jolly, too happy, too carefree, and too natural, and I, myself, was waiting with excitement for all manner of pleasant revelations of this new world, and I knew that there could be none better than my old friend to give them to me. He told me to prepare myself for an immeasurable number of the pleasantest of surprises, and that he had been sent to meet me on my arrival. As he already knew the limits of my knowledge, so his task was that much easier.[xxvii]
A Variety of Events Follow the Period of Sleep
For those who enter a period of sleep after the transition, a range of events may occur. No single event occurs for everyone. Examples of the variety of events follow.
Awakening in a Reception Area or Hospital Setting
Some awaken in a hospital-like setting called a “reception area” or “rest house” where people help them make the adjustment to being dead and their loved ones come to visit. It is most often described as having many beds and no walls. Three example descriptions follow.
It was a home of rest for those who had come into spirit after long illness, or who had had a violent passing, and who were inconsequence, suffering from shock. … It was built in the classical style, two or three stories high, and it was entirely open upon all sides. That is to say, it contained no windows as we know them on earth.[xxviii]
A curious characteristic of places where newly arrived souls are brought to recover from the shock of passing—a lack of walls.[xxix]
I “woke up” here in this hospital of the rest home. My room had no walls and the sunlight seemed to flow over one all the time.[xxx]
A woman who gave her name as “Mary Ivan” spoke in a Leslie Flint session describing her awakening in a rest house that seemed like a hospital to her. You can listen to Mary speaking these words about what happened when she awoke in the rest-house setting at https://earthschoolanswers.com/ivan/.
Ah, I woke up and found myself in a kind of place like a hospital. I thought, “Well what’s this?” Because I was in my own house and, you know, I was sick-a-bed and everything. And I had a sister who was looking after me. And I remember waking up here and I was in a kind of ward place in the hospital.
But very nice and very clean, and everything seemed so fresh and airy, and everyone seemed to be so efficient and quiet and peace, and the sun or whatever it was—at least I thought it was the sun then—was shining through the windows, and everywhere around was pretty and clean. There were pictures hanging on the walls and somehow it seemed like a very special kind of hospital.
And I thought, well, this is strange. And then a very sweet woman came to me and said, “You know,” she says, “you just have to rest a little while and then you’ll soon be all right, once you sort of, sort yourself out and get to know things. And your people will be coming in to see you in a wee while.” And I thought, “This is strange.” I felt sure I was at home in my own bed, and here I am in a hospital, so I must have been unconscious and they must have brought me into hospital. I did not think at first that I was dead.[xxxi]
Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson speaking through Anthony Borgia explains why people like Mary awaken in a hospital-like setting. He describes an entire floor of a building, with people he calls “recumbent forms” sleeping on couches. He explains that the people had lingering illnesses or sudden and violent transitions and needed this period because of the debilitating effects of their illnesses or violent event on their minds.
Occupying the whole of the floor space were extremely comfortable-looking couches, each of which bore a recumbent form, quite still, and obviously sleeping profoundly. Moving quietly about were a number of men and women intent upon watching the different couches and their burdens.
I noticed as soon as we entered this hall that we came under the influence of the blue ray, and its effect was one of pronounced energizing as well as tranquility. Another noticeable quality was the entire absence of any idea of an institution with its inevitable officialdom. There was no question of patronage, nor did I feel the least shade of being among strangers. Those in attendance upon the sleepers did so, not in the attitude of a certain task to be done willy-nilly, but as though they were performing a labour of love in the sheer joy of doing it. Such, indeed, was precisely the case. The glad awakening of these sleeping souls was an ever recurrent joy to them, no less than to the people who had come to witness it.
I learned that all the “patients” in this particular hall had gone through lingering illnesses before passing over. Immediately after their dissolution they are sent gently into a deep sleep. In some cases the sleep follows instantly—or practically without break—upon the physical death. Long illness prior to passing into the spirit world has a debilitating effect upon the mind, which in turn has its influence upon the spirit body.
The latter is not serious, but the mind requires absolute rest of varying duration. Each case is treated individually, and eventually responds perfectly to its treatment. During this sleep-state the mind is completely resting. There are no unpleasant dreams, or fevers of delirium. …
Constant watch is kept upon them, and at the first flutterings of returning consciousness, others are summoned, and all is ready for the full awakening. …
We were shown another large hall similarly appointed, where those whose passing had been sudden and violent were also in their temporary sleep. These cases were usually more difficult to manage than those we had just seen. The suddenness of their departure added far greater confusion to the mind.[xxxii]
A man named Dr. Franke had been killed at Dachau death camp during World War II because he would not perform the heinous acts the Nazis required him to perform. He came through in a Leslie Flint session describing what happens in the recovery areas. You can listen to Dr. Franke describing in detail what he does in the facilities where he counsels people still suffering from problems they had while alive on earth at https://earthschoolanswers.com/franke1/.
There were doctors too, I meet. They take me to place where we look after people who are … come here from the earth whose mind is in terrible condition. For they have not been able to rid themselves of the old thoughts old ideas. So they are housed … housed in large place, like a hospital or infirmary and there they are looked after, but it is an education of the mind. It is the transforming of the individual from the old material unhappy self, into a new being full of light, full of joy, full of happiness.
In this I base my work. So, my real work is now in these large places to which sometimes certain people are brought whose minds are in the state of unhappiness and turmoil. And I help, and like many other souls here, to reinstate or to rehabilitate them into this new way of thinking, that they can rid themselves of all the old ideas and horrible things which still cling to them.[xxxiii]
Rupert Brooke, the celebrated British poet, transitioned in military action in Greece in 1915. He came through in a Leslie Flint session on September 15, 1957, explaining that he didn’t awaken in a reception area, but when it was clear he was wandering around perplexed, he was taken to what he called a “cleansing station.” The many who were watching over him decided he was confused enough that he needed a period of rest in a relaxed setting.[xxxiv] You can hear him describe the place at https://earthschoolanswers.com/rupert/.
Awakening in a Comfortable Home Setting
Some who have transitioned describe awakening in a comfortable room, with beautiful furniture and light streaming through windows. Edward C. Randall, speaking through medium Emily French, described the room he found himself in when he awakened in the life after this life.
The last physical sensation that I recall was one of falling, but I had no fear—it seemed so natural. At the same time I heard voices speaking words of encouragement, voices that I recognized as those of loved ones that I thought dead. For a time I had no recollection. Then I awoke in this spirit sphere, and never will I forget the joy that was mine. I found myself, saw my body, which appeared as usual, except lighter and more ethereal. I was resting on the couch in a beautiful room filled with flowers. I looked through a window and saw the landscape, bathed in rose-colored light. There was a quiet that was impressive, then music, the harmonious vibration of which seemed to rise and fall softly.[xxxv]
Others describe awakening in familiar surroundings, such as a room in which they grew up as children. Their family now in the life after this life is there when they awaken. In a Leslie Flint session, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, Queen Consort of Edward VII of England, described from spirit what happened to her when she awoke in the next life. She found herself in familiar surroundings from her youth. Her family and friends she had known were there. You can hear her speaking this description and more at https://earthschoolanswers.com/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 realization 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.[xxxvi]
Awakening in a Natural Setting
In other accounts given by people who have made the transition, the person awakens in a natural setting and is greeted by a loved one. In one example from Leslie Flint’s session recordings, a man named George Wilmot, who had been a “rag and bone” merchant on the earth realm, described waking after his transition in a field under a tree. You can listen to this account at https://earthschoolanswers.com/jenny/.
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 it 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’s 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 realize. It must have been as though 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. …[xxxvii]
The Reunions
There are always reunions with the people and pets the person loved while in Earth School, although the reunion may be delayed when the transition is sudden or when the person goes through a period of rest or sleep. Family, friends, and even acquaintances have a joyous coming-home experience with the new arrival.
A man named Sam Woods came through in a Leslie Flint session describing the environment he found himself in after awakening and his reunion with his wife. You can hear the recording of this account at https://earthschoolanswers.com/sam/.
The actual idea of leaving your lot, your world, and coming over here, oh it’s nothing, it’s just like going to sleep and waking up into a new environment. You might say that it’s so much nicer and pleasanter than anything you might know on earth. And all your old pals and your relations that you’re fond of standing around and about you, all giving you a welcome. It’s a very nice how d’ya do, I’ll tell you.
I remember waking up in what appeared to be a nice little place, in a nice room, nice flowers, oh, beautiful little house it was, the sort of place I’d hoped one day I might have, but I knew jolly well from my own experience on earth that I’d never have it on your side, because I never had the wherewithal to buy it or even rent such a place. Here, I found myself in a very nice, oh, a lovely little place, it was. It was not too big, it was just my cup of tea. Just very pleasant.
And there, there was my old lady looking as I remember her, oh, many years ago, oh, looking thirty years younger. She was standing there looking down at me. I was lying on this here sort of couch arrangement. And I remember sort of waking as it were from sleep. And first thing I saw was this lovely room and then my dear lady standing there at the bottom of the bed, as it were, or couch rather, and one or two other people that I had known. There was my wife’s brother who died, oh 1914-18 war, he came over, he was torpedoed or something in the first World War aboard ship.
And there was me mother; at first I didn’t even know it was me mother, I didn’t cotton on to that at all. Then I recognized her and realized how much younger she looked. It was my mother, but you know, I didn’t recognize her. She looked like a young woman about twenty. I’d seen a photo taken of her many years ago, but I never cotton on onto the fact that it was me mother. It soon dawned on me who she was. At first, she looked like a beautiful lady that I had some vague idea of but never knew. It’s a funny thing, you know, but a bit. Oh, various people were there, people I’d known.
What amazed me more than anything there, squatted down on the side there was my old dog Timothy. Oh, a lovely old creature Tim was. We had him for about fifteen years and oh, he was a nice old dog. And there was a cat that my wife had always been fond of, ginger cat, it was. We used to call her “Old Marmie,” it was a marmalade cat, “Marmie.”[xxxviii]
Most are joyful reunions with family members. However, Michael Newton writes about the description he received of a reunion event of one of his hypnotherapy subjects organized by his soul group.
After my last life, my group organized one hell of a party with music, wine, dancing and singing. They arranged everything to look like a classical Roman festival with marble halls, togas and all the exotic furnishings prevalent in our many lives together in the ancient world. Melissa (a primary soulmate) was waiting for me right up front, re-creating the age that I remember her best and looking as radiant as ever.[xxxix]
People without Family Have People Assigned to Help Them
A sailor named Terry Smith came through in a Leslie Flint session describing a woman who had been assigned to take care of him. Terry found himself first in the life after this life walking down an avenue. He came to a house and a woman greeted him. She told him she was expecting him, and she would be taking care of him. She explained that he drowned when his ship was sunk, along with a great number of other men. A portion of Terry Smith’s account follows. The entire description in Terry’s voice of his meeting his caregiver is at https://earthschoolanswers.com/terry-2/.
So she says, “Yes and everyone of those lads has got someone, somewhere to look after them. Some have got their own people; relations or friends. Some have got other souls and I’m one [who’s] in charge of you.” She says, “You didn’t realize,” she says, “but you were directed. You thought you were walking on your own up the road,” she says. “But you wasn’t.” She says, “You were being helped by inspiration from a soul whose job it is to help people when they come over suddenly, like you did.”
So I says, “Oh yeah?” You know, sort of listening, like, not quite taking it all in, you know. So I says, “Well I don’t understand this at all.”
So she says, “Well don’t you worry,” she says. “You stay with me. I’ll look after you. I’ll be like your Mum.”[xl]
Meeting People We Do Not Want to Meet
There is no requirement that we meet people we do not want to meet and we will not meet them even though they want to connect.[xli] As with all of our activities forever in our lives, we choose the people we want to meet and those we want to live with.
Visiting Loved Ones Still on Earth
The first thoughts of many who make the transition is of their loved ones still on earth. They wonder how they are or wish to see them and are either guided to them or immediately are in their presence in Earth School. However, most are very disappointed when their loved ones cannot see or her them. Their loved ones make no response to their presence.
Edward C. Randall, speaking through medium Emily French, explains that when he visited his loved ones after this transition, he was deeply saddened that they could not see or feel him.
My greatest disappointment after my awakening was when I returned to my old home, before I discovered that none could see or feel me and all grieved for me as one dead, and their sorrow held me. I wept with them, and could not get away, until time healed their sorrow.[xlii]
A man named Alfred Higgins came through in a Leslie Flint session describing how he explained to the guide helping him that he was concerned about his family. With his guide’s help, he visited his wife. A short excerpt follows. You can listen to Higgins describing the entire lead-up to the visit at https://earthschoolanswers.com/higgins2/.
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.” …
So he says, “Would you like to go back for just a little while to see your people? Do you think that would help you? …They won’t take any notice of you, you know… they won’t realize that you’re there because they can’t see you and they won’t hear you if you speak to them.” …
So I just held his hand and … I don’t know, it seems so strange, but as soon as I touched his hand it’s just as if everything went sort of peculiar. It was as if everything gradually seemed to disappear. It was as if I was sort of—I don’t know—going to sleep I suppose in a kind of way and yet it wasn’t like sleep. It was just a sort of lacking of understanding and realization of things around and about me. I became sort of unconscious, I suppose.
The next thing I knew I was standing in our kitchen and I was watching my wife.[xliii]
People Often Go to Their Own Funeral
People generally are no longer interested in their bodies after the transition, but those speaking from the life after this life often describe going to their own funerals.
A man named Ted Butler earlier described as being hit by a truck, described his staying with his body for a period of time after his transition, including going to the morgue and his own funeral.[xliv] You can listen to the recording of Ted Butler speaking about going to his funeral at https://earthschoolanswers.com/funeral/. Below is his reaction to going to his funeral.
Then there was the funeral and all that. Of course, I went to that and I thought to meself at the time, ‘well I don’t know. There’s all this fuss and how-d’ya-do and expense for nothing’.
‘Cause there I was. I was in the carriage, an horse-drawn carriage the wife had, ’cause she knew my love of horses. They did have motors, but she wanted this horse-drawn I suppose. And I thought, “it’s all very touching,” but at the same time it all seemed so damn silly to me, because there I was.
Loved Ones’ Grief Holds the Newly Transitioned on Earth
People, especially children, who have left the earth quite often comment that their greatest disturbance after transition is experiencing the grief of loved ones still on earth. Those in the next life receive our thoughts and emotions. Crookall provides statements by several children speaking from the next life about the effect of their parents’ grieving on them.
Phillip urged his mother: “Shake off your dumps; … It hinders me in visualizing you clearly.” He also told her the converse—namely, that her wish to help him (when newly-dead) had had “a great effect” on his post-death experiences. One of Randall’s girl communicators pleaded, “Oh, mummy, don’t cry so. It makes me so unhappy. If only you would smile and be glad I’d be quite happy because I see ever so many lovely people who seem to be waiting to take me to someplace … but I just can’t leave you.” Later this girl complained, “Why do you grieve so? I am well and could be happy, only your sad face keeps me wanting to be near you and comfort you.” A boy-communicator of Randall’s made identical statements: “When earth conditions do not bind me, I can attend lectures, etc. But I am bound to earth by the sorrow of my parents. … That holds me like bands of steel so I can only at times do what other boys do. They don’t understand that I am more alive than ever before, but until they give me happier thoughts … I am as unhappy as they are. I could be so happy, and accomplish so much, if they would let me go!” Catherine, a child commentator (whose identity was also well established) said, “Do not cry for me—it makes me sad.” Freddie Grisewood [a famous British broadcaster] … an honors graduate of Oxford, having described “seeing,” at various times, friends and relatives who had “passed on,” noted that they looked “well and happy.” But he observed: “All made the same requests—that those whom they had left behind should not grieve for them unduly.” He continued: “In Mark’s case this request was reiterated time after time. He would say, “Freddie, do tell mother (Lady Mackenzie) not to grieve so much—she’s holding me back.”[xlv]
Edward C. Randall, speaking through medium Emily French, described the effect of grief on him after his transition to the next life.
The grief of my people kept me so sad at first that I was not able to see or think of anything but earthly sorrow. That is why grief for departed friends and relatives is so wrong, and is so harmful, both to those on earth and to those who come over. The longer that grief continues and the more hopeless it is, the more those mourned for are kept to earth.[xlvi]
Dr. Alice Gilbert’s son, speaking to her from spirit, said “Great grief, persistent and self-centered, keeps the departed ‘tied up,’ yet frustrated and helpless.”[xlvii]
On the other hand, Frances Banks, communicating from the life after this life through medium Helen Greaves, reported that loving thoughts and prayers “could be likened to a draft of healing water for the newly transmitted soul.”[xlviii]
Where Does the Person Go After Leaving the Body?
Everyone goes to “Heaven.” But the commonly understood meaning of “Heaven” is incorrect.
The other realms, including the next stage of life, are in different focuses for the Mind. They are not in a location. Everything is one, but we change focus when we attune from one realm to another. It is much like our Minds when we are sitting thinking. We remember a concert we attended last week, and for that time, the concert is our focus. We hear the instruments and remember the grandiose hall. When we think of what to have for dinner, our focus is on food. When we are focused on the concert, the images and thoughts of food are still part of us, but we are focused on the concert with no thought of food. And when we are focused on dinner, the memories of the concert are still part of us, but our focus is on dinner. They coexist in us, but we focus on one at a time.
In the same way, while in Earth School, we are focused on the Earth School accessible to us through the Universal Intelligence. Matter and energy are the Universal Intelligence giving substance to the focus called “Earth School” so we can love, learn, and be happy. Our Minds are focused on Earth School in the twenty-first century. However, we could be focusing on Earth School during Elizabeth I’s reign or focusing on another realm entirely different from Earth School. They are not in locations. They are different focuses our individual Minds take on in the Universal Intelligence.
When we have the experience of the body transitioning, the Mind just changes focus from Earth School to the life after this life. The Earth School body experiences are no longer available or desirable. Instead, we have a vital, healthy, young body in the life that is the new focus of our lives. The life after this life is just like Earth School, with its own matter and energy as we know them created by the Universal Intelligence. Earth School is a spiritual plane. The next plane is another spiritual plane, but much better and without the negatives.
We are experiencing Earth School together because we have the same focus. The Universal Intelligence gives us each the same experiences so we can participate in Earth School together.
The answer to “Where does the person go after the transition?” is “nowhere”; there is only here, and there is only now. The person has a new focus with new experiences in realms with experiences, matter, and energy created by the Universal Intelligence that has people, animals, rivers, roads, flowers, and all the rest of the solid substance we have on the Earth School spiritual plane.
[i] Heagerty, The Hereafter, 27.
[ii] Crookall, The Supreme Adventure, 64.
[iii] Cyrus Kirkpatrick Facebook page post, https://www.facebook.com/cyrus.kirkpatrick.
[iv] Emanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell (West Chester, PA: Swedenborg Foundation, New Century Edition, 2000).
[v] Frederick H. Wood, Through the Psychic Door (London: Psychic Book Club, 1954), 67.
[vi] Tymn , The Afterlife Revealed, 137-138.
[vii] Friedrich Jürgenson, Sprechfunk mit Verstorbenen (Freiburg im Br.: Hermann Bauer Verlag, 1967).
[viii] John Calvin. Psychopannychia (Warrendale, PA: Ichthus Publications, 2018; originally published in 1542).
[ix] Austen, The Teachings of Silver Birch, 193.
[x] Heagerty, The Hereafter, 27.
[xi] Crookall, The Supreme Adventure, 17.
[xii] Heagerty, Hereafter, 77-78 (citing Randall, Frontiers of the Afterlife, 2010).
[xiii] “The George Hopkins séance,” Leslie Flint Educational Trust, April 11, 1959, https://www.leslieflint.com/george-hopkins.
[xiv] Crookall, The Supreme Adventure,132.
[xv] Crookall, The Supreme Adventure,136.
[xvi] Crookall, The Supreme Adventure, 35 (citing Constance Wiley, A Star of Hope to Those Who Seek Spiritual Truths, C. W. Daniel Co. Ltd., London [1938], 7, 22).
[xvii] Anthony Borgia , ABC of Life (London: Feature Books, Ltd., 1945), 35.
[xviii] “The Alfred Pritchett séance,” Leslie Flint Educational Trust, November 4, 1960, https://www.leslieflint.com/alfred-pritchett.
[xix] “The Ted Butler séance.”
[xx] Crookall, The Supreme Adventure, 21-22.
[xxi] Crookall, The Supreme Adventure, 68.
[xxii] Crookall, The Supreme Adventure, 100.
[xxiii] Crookall, The Supreme Adventure, 163.
[xxiv] Borgia, Life in the World Unseen, 52.
[xxv] Borgia, Life in the World Unseen, 125.
[xxvi] “The Mary Ann Ross séance,” Leslie Flint Educational Trust, January 20, 1969, https://www.leslieflint.com/mary-ann-ross.
[xxvii] Borgia, Life in the World Unseen, 125.
[xxviii] Borgia, Life in the World Unseen, 23.
[xxix] Allen, The Realities of Heaven, 135.
[xxx] Greaves , Testimony of Light, 12.
[xxxi] “The Mary Ivan séance,” Leslie Flint Educational Trust, August 15, 1966, https://www.leslieflint.com/mary-ivan-1966.
[xxxii] Borgia, Life in the World Unseen, 27.
[xxxiii] ‘The Doctor Franke séance,” Leslie Flint Educational Trust, April 6, 1964, https://www.leslieflint.com/doctor-franke.
[xxxiv] “The Rupert Brooke séance,” Leslie Flint Educational Trust, September 15, 1957, https://www.leslieflint.com/rupert-brooke.
[xxxv] Heagerty, Hereafter, 75-76 (citing Randall, Frontiers of the Afterlife, 2010).
[xxxvi] “The Queen Alexandra séance,” Leslie Flint Educational Trust, 1960, https://www.leslieflint.com/queen-alexandra.
[xxxvii] “The George Wilmot séance.”
[xxxviii] “Sam Woods,” produced by Leslie Flint Educational Trust, YouTube video, 1964, 23:13, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkB3J6JPe8M.
[xxxix] Newton, Destiny of Souls, 4.
[xl] “The Terry Smith séance,” Leslie Flint Educational Trust, July 16, 1966, https://www.leslieflint.com/terry-smith.
[xli] Austen, The Teachings of Silver Birch, 124.
[xlii] Heagerty, Hereafter, 77-78 (citing Randall, Frontiers of the Afterlife, 2010).
[xliii] “The Alfred Higgins séance.”
[xliv] “The Ted Butler séance.”
[xlv] Crookall, The Supreme Adventure, 155.
[xlvi] Randall, Frontiers of the Afterlife, 44.
[xlvii] Alice Gilbert, Philip in the Spheres (Detroit: The Aquarian Press, 1952).
[xlviii] Greaves, Testimony of Light, 58.
