About me
After my son's sudden death aged 22, I and my family were led on an unexpected spiritual journey which made me question all that I had believed up to that point. This is what caused me to create this site. I was a traditional Christan, but now you might call me a Spiritualist, which is the closest in terms of a 'religion' to what I believe, though I find that even Spiritualism has some set beliefs that I question.
I do not have all the answers - nobody has on this earth. Beware of anybody who says they or their religion do.
What is God?
God is not an old man in the clouds! The word 'God' is already misleading. Better to say The Source or The Creator. The Source has no finite physical form, and is most likely All That Is, ie. the universe itself, (the Universal Consciousness?) and is pure, truly unconditional love, without judgement or punishment, because, by logical conclusion 'they' would be judging and punishing 'themself'. What's more, The Source is experiencing along with us, since we are part it. Therefore 'God' is not static - 'he/she/it' is expanding, rather like the universe(s)!
What are we?
We are souls/spirits, temporarily incarnated in a physical human body. We are divine beings, as all life is. However, we are not (yet) complete. In our pure essence, though, we are complete and perfect, because we are actually 'bits of God' living a individual existence until we re-unite with the creator after almost an eternity of experiencing and remembering who we really are. But after that re-uniting, we will still have our unique individuality and all our memories, whilst experiencing being part of All That Is, ie. 'God'.
The purpose of life
We are on earth to experience, to learn, to grow as spiritual beings in order to become more like The Source, which means becoming more loving towards ourselves, each other, the animals and the natural world. I said this above, but I repeat it because it is crucial to our understanding - The Source is experiencing along with us, since we are part it. This is the real, ultimate purpose of life - 'God' is not static - 'he/she/it/we' are expanding. Otherwise there wouldn't be any point in this whole life-experiment thing.
The most important things in this life are (a) experiencing things uniquely from our perspective (b) learning to (or, more accurately, remembering how to) love unconditionally in the most difficult of circumstances, and (c) acquiring understanding. The completion of this process takes a very, very long time - but far from being an arduous task we are supposed to have fun and enjoy it - most of the time! Being incarnate on earth is sometimes a difficult experience, but it is through these difficulties that we are able to make faster progress than in the spirit world, where everything is bliss, for the majority of people. However, those who lead cruel and selfish lives may find themselves in a cruel and selfish place with like-minded others after death, simply because like attracts like, not because they have been judged and placed there as a punishment by some god. See below under Heaven and Hell.
Life after death
There is no judgement by an angry God. After death we return to our true home, the spirit world, meet our loved ones who 'died' before us, meet our spiritual guides, (advanced spirits who have helped us along our way - or tried to help us when we have been stubborn!), review our earth lives, hopefully learn from our mistakes, and rest and recuperate in the spirit world until we decide we want to return to earth or go on to other places in order to progress further. Life after 'death' can be a place full of entertaiment and opportunity, if we so choose.
Re-incarnation?
I believe that we do re-incarnate - if we choose to - after as much time in the spirit world as we need. By re-incarnation, I mean that our soul comes back as a different human being, though still part of the same soul, and so it depends on whether or not you call this actual re-incarnation. I also believe that we plan the major points in our lives before we incarnate - who will be our nearest and dearest; who we will help with a particular task and who will help us, and some of what we will experience along the way. This is called Soul Planning. Due to free-will we can change the plan, but when we do it is not always to our ultimate advantage...
Heaven and hell
Heaven and Hell are not cut and dried opposite destinations that people go to for ever when they die. There are many spiritual places according to soul development, and we progress from one place to another as we learn and experince. The 'average' person will go to a place more pleasant than earth, perhaps much more pleasant. The earth is counted as one of the more difficult planes to be in. There are worse places, but there is no place of eternal punishment, neither is there a Devil (with a capital 'D') There may be malevolent spirits, but if there are, they are like us, only nastier! (I speak for myself, lol) You may have met or heard of some 'nasty' people on earth - they will be the same after death, until they choose to progress. Do not be quick to judge, though - we often do not know what other people have been through to make them like they are or seem to be, nor do we know what we have been like in past lives.
The Bible and other holy books
The Bible is not the 'absolute word of God' but is a book written by men with varying degrees of inspiration and understanding. We should take the best and leave the rest! The same goes for other 'holy' books. There, now I'm damned forever. Not! :)
Communication with departed loved ones
We can send and receive messages to/from those who have 'died'. There may be fake mediums, but mediumship at its best is a truly wonderful gift and the personal experience of getting incontrovertible messages from our loved ones in spirit can be life-changing, as it was for me. It may take quite some time to develop, but we all have the ability to do this, if we want to, though it comes more easily to some than others. Many people nowadays are less hesitant to say that they sense the presence of their loved ones with them. I believe that the ability to do this is becoming stronger with each new generation.
