Inula Austin Soul Growth

As I sit in my favourite garden chair, overlooking our long garden, I relax and close my eyes.

It is not my intention to slip into an awareness of things which lie beyond this reality, but it comes easily to me now and no more difficult than sliding my feet into a comfortable pair of slippers.

My inner vision is lights upon a view of the Next World which interpenetrates our own. It is as if, with eyes closed I have overlaid an acetate sheet on top of the normal garden picture. I practice opening my eyes and the vision is gone again.

I sit, eyes shut, marvelling at the wonderful scene laid out before me. There are no houses or fences, no hedges and washing lines, no tarmacced roads or pavements, no vehicles of any kind can be seen or heard. This is an entirely peaceful place.

I look out across miles and miles of gently rolling countryside, dotted with trees and flowers. In the far distance there are mountains and beyond that, at this time, I cannot see. The sky is a clear, sapphire blue, the sun is warming and energising and there isn’t one particular source of sunlight, it is everywhere at the same time.

A small stream runs slowly past me and in the middle distance is a wide river, meanders through the landscape like a silver thread, stiched across the vista.

Here and there are small temples made of a brilliant, gleaming white material, bringing to mind the marble temples of the classical world. Not very far away is a small columned pagoda with a domed roof and open sides.

People walk in twos and threes, here and there, having conversations and smiling. They seem to be discussing the Bigger Picture and the topics seem mostly philosophical in nature. The people wear plain long robes of different pastel colours, white, creams, peaches, lavenders and wisterias and pale blues, no one is in a hurry, everyone walks at a slower pace taking the time to enjoy each others company and shared wisdom.

I see small animals occasionally too, a lamb and it’s mother, a couple of rabbits hopping lazily and birds who sing from the tops of the trees.

I know that this World exists and that for a short while my inner vision has been afforded a glimpse of what is all around us. This is a realm of the Next World, yet it is not in another place, it is right here, overlaying and interplaying with our own.

The air in this other place appears to shimmer with pastel rainbow hues, the iridescence of a streak of oil on the surface of a puddle, catching the light. There is something much finer and purer about this place.

I open my eyes again to the scene before me. The leaden grey sky above, heavy with rain, the chill air and scruffy lawn. The two scenes are visually, far from one another, yet so close as to only be a quiet breath away.

It is the difference in the quality of light that strikes me the most. Here, there is a dark, dank heaviness that is palpable under our skies, the sun Struggling to pierce through the sheets of steel grey. There, the light is extraordinary, powerful yet not harmful, warming, yet never could never burn the skin.

When the Spirit People return to communicate, they sometimes speak of the difficulty in permeating our atmosphere in order to register upon a Medium. I know that they speak of the density here on the material plane. There is a greasiness to our surrounding ether which is fortunately missing from theirs.

In registering the difference in vibrational frequency and it does feel stupendous, though I know, not insurmountable.

When I am able to glimpse from this world into a realm of the Next, the differences are glaring. Writers have spoken of the ‘Shadowlands’ of the Spirit World, the lower planes which may be far denser and darker than the earth. Today I felt sure that this World is that of shadow. It certainly is a world of great greed, sadness and rank materialism.

It is a comfort to know that brighter and more beautiful Worlds do exist and that they are Here and Now, all around us in every moment.

One day you will inherit a life on the plane that is a vibrational match to your True character. It is true that you are fashioning your next life with every thought, word and deed in this one. The more selfless, less materialistic, more Spiritually minded and compassionate life you have led, the more refined your Next Sphere of reality will be.

There are an infinite number of subtle gradations of realms when we cross from this one. I sometimes wonder where in those Worlds I have my home.