Last time we spoke about dying and what happens immediately after that. Once you’re in the Next World what will you find? What will you spend your time doing? Let’s take a look.
We speak of the Spirit World in terms of ‘Spheres’, ‘Planes’ and ‘Realms’. This may be hard to wrap your head around, but it’s worth persevering because it makes the Other Side of Life a much more tangible place.
Some describe the heavens as ‘Spheres within spheres’, but I don’t want you to necessarily think of an onion with many skins, as the Spirit Realms are far more gradual and subtle than that. Of course, what we’re wrestling with is trying to understand something immense, something infinite and so different to our usual experience, using physical language, weights and measures.
For starters the Next World is NOT somewhere else. We are sharing the same space with it right now. All dimensions interpenetrate one another, as they exist on different frequencies we can happily share this space, usually none the wiser that we are doing so.
The idea that heaven is ‘up there’ has come about for many different reasons which I won’t go into right now. Suffice enough to say, the reason that Sensitives are able to tune into the Next World and communicate with its inhabitants is because that realm and its occupants are always weaving their way around and about us. So try not to think of the Spirit World as being in a different location, it is not.
There is not only one ‘heaven’. If you have been brought up under the influence of one of the main world religions, you may have assimilated the notion that there is one place we go to after so called physical ‘death’. You may have heard stories of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’.
Just as the Next World is a slight increase in vibrational frequency from this one, there are many, infinitely subtle gradations of increasingly higher, finer and purer vibration within the Next World. Hence the idea and language of ‘Spheres’ etc. It does not mean that they are spherical in nature, just that we lack the language to define them in all their nuanced glory.
Starting closest to this, our own current dimension, we have the Astral Realms. These are the first few levels of consciousness in the Next World and vibrate at a resonant frequency that is closest to the physicality of the earth. Hence, the solidity of the initial Spirit body and surroundings upon passing.
These are where the vast majorty of Souls find themselves after ‘death’. They closely mirror that which we are used to in this present life, in order that any shock or difficulty in orientation to the new life is reduced as much as possible.
I have personally been told of people eating, smoking and drinking in the Astral. They may own and drive cars and motorcycles, ride in bicycles, fly planes. They may choose to live in houses similar to those they have known during their earthly lives. All of these things are unnecessary, but seem to make the adjustment to life in the Next World easier and more palatable.
All of these acquisitions and desires; the craving to still eat food, smoke, drink, engage in sexual relations, are a continuation of attachments to the physical life and are largely ego driven. If an individual has led a particularly materialistic existence prior to passing, then such cravings are harder to shake off. For some, they may spend many, many years (in time as we know it here), indulging in this earth-like plane, known to some as ‘The Summerlands’, however, as the Spirit body needs no food for energy or water for hydration, nor does it need housing for shelter or ownership of property, all of these things are illusory, and although very solid and tangible, through Soul Growth on the Other Side, the individual will eventually come to an understanding that these material objects and pursuits are neither important, nor necessary.
As a medium, when I connect with the Spirit loved ones of a sitter, nine times out of ten, they are resident in the Astral Plane. (Although I do also communicate with much more advanced Beings who reside in higher and finer frequencies.)
You may reside in the Astral Realms for as long as you are a vibrational match to them. As soon as you have loosened your attachment to the momentoes of your earthly life, you will be vibrating at an ever so slightly, higher frequency and will then naturally and magnetically gravitate to another plane of reality.
Although some believe it to be true, I do not believe that graduation to the next Sphere is like death in the physical all over again (although this may account for theories around reincarnation.) When you are ready and have come to new realisations that the purpose of your existence is Soul Growth and evolution, you will be ready for the next stage, but there is no one who will force this upon you, it can only happen from the inside out.
I imagine that this knowledge is why the Buddha taught why it was so important to learn to let go of our physical, emotional and spiritual attachments and cravings in this life. The more work that you can do on refining your Self here in this lifetime, the less encumbered and more fitted you will be for the next.
That is why as a Spiritual Teacher I tell people that you are creating your next life right now. Not in bricks and mortar, or property and ‘things’, but in your attitudes and wisdom, your compassion for all living things- that is what you will take with you when you transition. The Soul you grow here dictates the life you will have there.
It is why self awareness and development and spiritual development is so important in this life. Work it out now while you have these opportunities and you may create a much more beneficial experience for when you pass.
It is not about perfection either, that is something placed upon the shoulders of common man by organised religions seeking to punish them for being human. Perfection exists as latent potential within your Soul, but it simply cannot operate through the material, physical world. So try to banish thoughts of being ‘good enough’. You were created as more than enough and you are on a journey to remembering that.
The Lower Astral Realms
Every frequency of vibration exists as a level or realm of the Next World. Of course, it only stands to reason that there are also places of lower vibration. Some exist that have a lower vibration than our earthly plane, these are not nice places and are probably where writers, philosophers and theologians have gotten the idea of a ‘hell’.
It will help your understanding enormously if you are able to let go of the Judeo-Christian idea of a wrathful and judgemental ‘father-like’ God. This is simply not the case.
Over millenia and for many different reasons (some of them positively mind blowing), humanity has anthropomorphised the Creator Spirit into an old, angry man, with a head of white hair and a long beard, throwing down lightening bolts upon sinners and handing out angel wings to the good.
The Great Spirit, as I believe it, is an infinite field of creative energy, conscious, ever-growing, eager to learn, intelligent yet not personified. It is incapable of judgement, punishment or anger. It knows and understands only completeness, contentment and love.
Nobody is ever ‘sent’ to heaven or damned to hell.
You will find yourself in the Sphere of the Next World which matches your vibration.
You are creating that vibration here, daily, in every choice that you make. Either leading yourself toward, or away from the Light of the Great Spirit.
For those who have not used their earthly time wisely, those who have acted poorly towards others, those who have been cruel, murderous, abusive, genocidal, they will gravitate to a place which they have made for themselves via their own thoughts, words and deeds. Some levels are, of course, worse than others, but NONE are there as a prison or punishment, it is just the natural, spiritual and universal law in action; Like Attracts Like or The Law of Attraction, means that it can be no other way.
Progress is always offered.
As Source is all benevolence, assistance to progress in one’s Soul Growth is always on offer. Groups of compassionate guides and helpers regularly venture into these darker realms in order to offer the Light to individuals who are ready to ask for help and work towards changing their behaviour, but they must be sincere. Some people trap themselves in the lower realms through their earthly addictions, substance abuse and emotions such as anger, vengeance, guilt and shame or a belief that they do not deserve better. Once the light of understanding dawns on them, help always appears and they may be offered assistance to transition to another place.
Again, let us remember that this is not punishment from any external source, but the way in which we see ourselves and all things, our level of conscious awareness.
It is worth noting here that this is why I do not believe that ‘Rescue Circles’ (psychic circles designed to help so-called ‘lost souls’ into the light) are at all necessary. No Soul is ever ‘lost’. There is outstanding help on the Spirit Side of Life for all, no matter what the circumstance. Those Spirit People who cling to the Earth, places they owned, establishments they frequented in their earthly lives etc do so because they have chosen to. They largely need to understand this and then accept that there is work to be done to lift themselves out of such attachments. When this realisation dawns (and with the help of Spirit Guides and Helpers) they will graduate to another place. Ego is often at work in such circles, patronised as they are by kind and compassionate people who often need to feel ‘needed’, helpful and ‘worthy’.
New life, new job?
I’ve spoken to many people resident in the Spirit World who simply wish to relax! We spend our earthly lives working for a wage, paying into a pension scheme, paying bills, buying food etc just to sustain ourselves and our families.
The Great news is, there is NO money in the Next World, NO bills to pay, NO need to earn a living in the material sense. Phew, what a relief!
Many Spirit People appear to treat the first few years in their new lives as a type of extended retirement; it is a time to take up hobbies that they didn’t have enough time to pursue whilst upon the earth. Whatever it is you have always wanted to try but never had the time or money for, you can do in the World of the Spirit.
The maestros, master painters, pro-golfers, operatic divas, are all on hand to teach their subjects to anyone with a mind to pursue them. I myself play the piano in Spirit and often spend my sleep time sat at a baby grand piano in the Next World, playing to my heart’s content (I have never mastered the piano in my waking life).
There are outdoor pursuits galore in the Next World; concerts, walking, swimming, boating, horse riding, golfing, fishing…. If you can think of it, you can do it! There are subtle differences, of course. Firstly, you will not tire from walking, it is only the physical body that gets depleted in energy through activity. You will eventually be taught how to travel, not by walking, but simply by thought, projecting yourself from one place to another, or even by flight. You will be able to travel to places that you never had a chance to see whilst you were on the earth. Any hobby or skill taken up after passing over will be mastered thoroughly and in half the time. Fishing will be with the permission of the fish, as no animal may be harmed in the Next World, where there is no deterioration or death. Swimming is also fun and a novelty at first as you learn that water in the Next Life does not make a person wet! Because of the vibration inherent in the liquid and your Spirit Self, water simply slides right off, leaving you dry.
I have spoken to those who have taken up sailing, gone scuba diving, enjoyed gardening, learned chess, the violin, guitar, how to paint beautiful water colours… and those who had mastered such skills in their earthly lives are able to teach these to others after passing if they so choose.
Inula Austin Soul Growth 