M0465
Through the Gates of Death — Sleep and Death
by Martinus
1. The Christian dogmatic view of life after death
We all know that we are born into this world and that one day we will die.
Usually this is not something we go around thinking about, but, now and again, the thought crops
up, mostly when we experience the death of others, but more especially when the dead person was
someone we were attached to, and whom we will miss in our daily life. In most cases it is with
fear and sorrow that people then think about death. The thought of utter extinction, and perhaps
also the thought that one may one day have to answer for sinful actions committed during one's
life, actions one has long regretted, contribute to making the thought of death a gloomy, sad
and unpleasant one. Through the materialistic view of life one is led to believe that there is
no life after death, for, according to the materialistic view, consciousness is merely a result
of combinations of matter. But as nobody wishes to cease to exist — even if there may be certain
types of life on earth that might well be dispensed with — the idea of complete extinction makes
one feel ill at ease, indeed it fills one's mind with fear and horror. Through religion we are
told that after death we are to remain in our graves "till the last day", when Christ
will come to judge between "the quick and the dead", and to separate "the sheep
from the goats". The "sheep", or those Christian believers who have blindly
believed that God had redeemed their sins because Christ sacrificed himself on the cross for
their sake, will then enter into the eternal bliss of Paradise, while the "goats" —
the unbelieving sinners — will be made to suffer the torments of an everlasting hell! There are
immense numbers of people nowadays who find this dogmatic view of life after death difficult to
accept. They find it easier to believe that death is "the end of life" — not only as
regards their organism, but also as regards thought and consciousness. They talk about entering
the "eternal sleep" or "eternal rest".
2. During sleep one lives totally in the world of thought and
imagination
There are many people who are so tired of the hurry and worry
of life that they feel a certain kind of relief at the thought of such rest and quiet. But
eternal rest is, however, not rest; it is annihilation and complete cessation of life. Rest is a
condition we enjoy for a time as a contrast to activity and thereafter become satiated with, and
once again we long to be active, to create and experience, because we now feel rested. When we
have slept well at night we awake feeling refreshed and in good spirits for the duties of the
coming day. After such a deep, dreamless sleep we often remark, "I have been far
away", and there is far more truth in such an expression than the person uttering these
words may be aware of. When asleep we are indeed out of our physical body, and are living
entirely in the world of thought and imagination This world is an electrical one consisting of
rays and waves. But even if man has some knowledge about electricity, rays, waves and magnetic
forces, it is but very little he knows when it comes to the question of those forces and rays
that constitute his own consciousness and mentality. When we feel tired and sleepy it is
because, in the course of the day, our nervous system has been exposed to so much wear and tear
that it now needs repair and renewal. But such renewal cannot come about if energy is still
streaming through it. The "current" must be switched off for a time, and we lie down
to rest. We cease to receive impressions from the outer world through our sensory organs — we
try to compose our organs for sleep. The latter may, however, sometimes prove a little
difficult. It is a good plan to recapitulate and take stock of the events of the day, and
consider how one may possibly improve one's less fortunate actions, and thus in doing so
gradually let go of them and drop off to sleep. When the energy of our day-consciousness for a
while does not pour through the nervous system, the necessary restoration can come about, so
that everything will be ready for the life-unfoldment that will take place during the coming day
in interaction with the outer world. But where is our consciousness while we are asleep, when
there is only just sufficient life left in the organism to keep certain automatic functions
going?
3. Our memory is near its winter stage in the cycle; we have
therefore no recollection of our experiences during sleep
When we are
asleep, our "I" finds itself still able to experience but, as all sensory impressions
made by the outer physical world have been shut off, it is naturally no longer this world that
we experience. In the same way that our physical body is surrounded by a physical world where
the physical bodies of other living beings are present, so that an interaction between the
beings is made possible by means of their physical organisms, so too our world of consciousness
is surrounded by a larger world consisting of radiant matter. In this radiant world surrounding
us we are also able to meet the worlds of consciousness of other living beings, if we are on the
same wavelength as the thoughts and views they contain. But is it not then necessary to have a
body to be able to experience? Most decidedly it is. But a body need not consist, of course, of
physical matter. There are bodies that are built up of far finer matter or energies - the
so-called spiritual bodies. These are purely electrical in character, and we all have such
bodies in addition to our physical body. Through the process we call sleep our consciousness and
thus our ability to experience is transferred from the physical body to the spiritual bodies, so
it is thus true when one says that while asleep one was "far away", for the ability to
experience while in this condition is not limited by time and space in the same way as when
experiencing through the physical body. But why is it then that we are usually unable to
remember what we have experienced while our physical body was asleep? It is because our faculty
of memory is a very degenerated faculty, which is very near its latent stage in its cycle. There
are quite other energies and abilities that are at present dominant in terrestrial man's
consciousness. As a rule you cannot remember your former incarnations, indeed, you cannot even
remember everything you have experienced in your present incarnation. Can you remember what
happened on a certain day only a fortnight ago at half past two in the afternoon? It is an
exception if you can. Our memory is at the "winter stage" in its cycle. Considered
from the point of view of memory, terrestrial man is like a leafless tree in winter time. But
after winter comes spring and summer. There will even come a day when this same being, by means
of his memory, will be able to move thousands, even millions of years back in time and see what
he then experienced. But by then he will naturally no longer be a terrestrial human being. Then
he will be conscious of his cosmic origin as being one with the Godhead, and thus identical with
Eternity, and will recognize himself as a master of time and space. By then the primitive
replacement of organisms through the process we call "death" is a stage long over and
done with since the being on the step in evolution on which it then finds itself will be able to
rule all-powerfully over all matter in the universe; indeed, he will need but a thought to
change the form of matter by his mere word of command.
4. Over and above a certain limit the living beings cannot grow
in knowledge and ability without growing simultaneously in morals and
love
But for a living being one day to be able to experience such a
wonderful existence it will, of course, first have to learn to think in one-hundred-per-cent
conformity with the Laws of Life. Imagine what would happen if present-day terrestrial man had
the same sovereign power over matter as the aforesaid being! What a terrifying Armageddon could
not be the result? Fortunately such a thing is totally impossible. Over and above a certain
limit living beings cannot grow in knowledge and ability without growing simultaneously in
morals and love. Terrestrial man's repeated incarnations into the physical world may be likened
to attendance at a school where he will be trained to be able, one day, to fully experience and
create in spiritual matter. But cannot, then, the being learn all this in the spiritual worlds?
No, he cannot, he must experience a world where matter offers resistance and must therefore be
conquered, in order to develop his thought capacity, and he must learn to meet and associate
with beings to whom he does not feel attuned with tolerance understanding and with neighbourly
love. All this can be experienced only in a physical world, and as all physical energies are
subservient to the law of cycles, the living being must attend the "school" or the
physical world in the way that, through alternating periods, he creates a physical organism for
himself which, in a way, may be likened to "a cosmic school uniform" through which he
can create and experience on the physical plane. This "school uniform" can last a
certain time — the period we know as terrestrial man's average lifetime — if not laid open to
too many, or too severe, injuries. In such case, it will be worn out before its allotted time,
and its usefulness will be reduced, sometimes so much so that it must be completely discarded.
Accidents and illness may cause the death of terrestrial man long before he has reached the
"threescore and ten" when he would normally leave this physical world, ripe in years
and well satisfied to abandon an organism which is now so worn out that a proper manifestation
and experience of life in it can no longer be enjoyed.
5. Insufficient sleep gives bad nerves and reduced ability to
experience and work
One of the contributory factors enabling our organism
to be kept going and to remain not only a useful but an ingenious instrument for our living
spirit is that we get the necessary and needful amount of sleep. As mentioned above, the nervous
system is exposed to wear and tear every single day, and as it constitutes the "wiring
system" forming the connecting link between our spiritual or electrical structure and our
physical structure, it is very important as regards our ability to experience, and create in the
physical world, that this wiring system is in order. Without sufficient sleep we soon develop
"bad nerves", we lose our good form, and both our ability to experience as well as our
working capacity will be reduced. It may be some physical illness, e.g. indigestion that is the
reason for our getting too little sleep, but there may also be mental reasons. When we lay down
to sleep we shut out the impressions from the outer world. But it is not always possible to shut
out impressions we have already received. Our thoughts circle around the events of the past day,
among which there may be annoyances and unpleasant occurrences, or people who have irritated us.
Or it may be something we have done or said that we now regret or are annoyed at. Many people
can lie worrying for hours on end with such thoughts in their consciousness, thus preventing
themselves from relaxing and giving their nervous system a chance of being reorganized. They
doze intermittently only to wake up again every moment, and continue sliding back and forth
between sleep and wakefulness in such a way that, in truth, they ruin both their physical as
well as their spiritual state. They ruin their physical state by laying their nervous system
open to further wear and tear, instead of giving it peace to repair the previously incurred
deterioration. And they ruin their spiritual existence, i.e. the experiences they might
otherwise have enjoyed on the psychic plane while their organism was resting, by continually
disturbing or suspending its enjoyment, as they glide back into the half-awake condition. It is
under such abnormal conditions that we experience dreams which are either pure nightmares or
some terrible mess. The reason for this is that certain glimpses of the experiences gained on
the spiritual plane have become mixed up with the worries, annoyances or the agony or irritation
with which our consciousness was filled at the moment just before falling asleep. What then can
we do to avoid this? Here, as in so many other cases, it is a matter of concentrating on the
Godhead in prayer just before going to rest, then we can regain our peace of mind. We can for
instance pray for help in meeting and overcoming in coming days the difficulties which have been
the cause of our worries and annoyances.
Every time we fall asleep at night we
"die", even if it is only for a single night that we are to be away from the physical
world. Our physical body is kept going by means of certain automatic forces and function, but
our consciousness should have nothing to do with the body at night, and the only real difference
between sleep and death is that the automatic maintenance and renewal process that is carried
out during sleep from the spiritual plane ceases when death occurs. By learning to fall asleep
in the right way we learn, in fact, how to die in the right way, for, just as we may have
nightmares and bad dreams at night if we allow our thoughts to run around in a vicious circle
from which it seems impossible to extricate oneself, we may also, when we fall asleep never to
wake again in this physical world in the same physical body, be plagued by such unpleasant
mental thought grooves that, for a time, they will create a kind of "hellish"
experience or "purgatory" for us.
6. "Death" is a sleep which lasts somewhat longer than
ordinary sleep
In the process which we here in the physical world call
"death", we also sleep away from the experiences of the physical world, and this sleep
lasts somewhat longer than that which we are accustomed to understand as "sleep". But
just as it is only our physical body that must rest when we sleep "the little sleep" —
while our consciousness is fully active in the spiritual world — so too are there certain
faculties and talents that must rest for a time while we are "dead" from the physical
world, to which we are to wake again later, though this time in a completely new physical body
through which we obtain new possibilities for experiencing and creating things which, in our
previous incarnation, we only got as far as to dream of.
7. What we call death can be like a glorious sunset from the
physical world and a wonderful sunrise in the spiritual world
Irritation,
disappointment, resentment, fear, guilt and similar mental climates may give rise to bad dreams
and nightmares during sleep if one has not previously overcome such thoughts and feelings in
one's mind. Here prayer is an immense power because, by learning to fall asleep in the right
way, we actually teach ourselves how to die in the right way, that is to say without any
"vicious circle" of negative thoughts. If we honestly try to cast out all dark
thoughts from our mind, and pray for help to go through our difficulties, we shall not only come
to realize that our daily life will feel far easier and brighter, but, when the time comes to
leave our physical organism entirely, the process of doing so will be like a glorious sunset
from the physical world and a radiant sunrise in the spiritual world.
8. Every human being can do a lot to make his departure from
this world both harmonious and beautiful
We know how a sunset may be so
completely enveloped in dark clouds that one cannot see the glorious scenery of golden colours
which, for many people, constitutes the loveliest sight that can be experienced in Nature. In
the same way, the mental sunset we call death may be so darkly obscured that it lacks all
pretension to beauty, peace or harmony. I do not say this to frighten anyone, I would rather
emphasize that everyone can do quite a lot to make his departure from this world both harmonious
and beautiful, and to make his "birth" into the spiritual world a happy welcome, where
the being is received by relations and friends he was fond of, and who have previously passed
through the Gates of Death. But to be able to prevent death from being a dark and gloomy
occurrence it is important to know what kind of thought combinations might be the cause of a
possible "purgatory" or a "hellish experience" during the initial period
after one has abandoned one's physical body, and before one passes through the cycle of the
spiritual worlds which every living being — even the worst criminal — will come to pass through
before he is once again to incarnate into the physical world. Naturally, I am unable to say what
each individual being will experience in detail. That will depend completely upon the kind of
thoughts and feelings that occupy his mind, upon the level of development his intuition has
reached, and upon the special faculties and talents he has particularly developed during his
life in the physical world. But I can tell something about the laws governing these experiences,
and can roughly describe some of the possibilities awaiting various categories of human beings
after death, depending on whether they leave the physical world while they are still children,
or die in early youth, or whether they pass over in the prime of life, or as elderly people ripe
in years.
9. Death is not something the human being should
fear
When a human being has experienced cosmic consciousness, and has thus
extended his ability to experience to such a degree that he is able not only to experience
day-consciously on the spiritual plane, he will also be able to experience death in such a way
that he is fully aware of its structure, as well as its mission. Considered from this cosmic
experience of death, the process may be defined as a great gateway leading into a new form of
life or experience. All physical beings must pass through this gateway - something everybody
knows with certainty, even if it is not something one bothers much about in everyday life. As
long as death remains something human beings think of with nothing but awe and terror, it is, of
course, only good that most people can put the thought of it so lightly away from them. But the
consequence of this unconcern is that when the same being is confronted by the irrevocable fact
that one of his immediate circle - or he himself perhaps - is about to die, he is quite
unprepared for death, which may make it all the harder for him to get through this process. Yet,
in actual fact, death is not anything we should fear. If we try to accustom ourselves to the
thought that one day it will be our turn to leave the physical world — a process which,
incidentally, we have been through numberless times before, even if we cannot day-consciously
remember it — and if, at the same time, we try day by day to cleanse our consciousness of dark
thoughts, then death cannot be anything but one of the most beautiful experiences we can meet
with.
10. In the main entrance to the spiritual worlds there are four
smaller gateways
Though the Gates of Death we are able to reach many
greatly varying worlds or spheres. They are not localities in the same way as those we know here
in the physical world, they are conditions or wavelengths, for the spiritual world is an
entirely electrical world. This is why we will all meet the kind of conditions in the spiritual
world to which each of us, according to his or her state of consciousness, can attune. Neither
more nor less. Christ's words "In my Father's house are many mansions" are thus an
exact expression of all the possibilities there are in life after death in agreement with the
longings, wishes, beliefs, thoughts, imagination and creative ability of every individual being.
One could say that in the great Main Entrance leading into life in the spiritual worlds there
are four smaller gateways: one for beings who die in childhood, one for those who die in early
youth, one for those dying in the prime of life, and one for old people who die a natural death,
ripe in years in the physical world. From each of these four gateways the living beings can pass
on to the various zones or spheres to which, by virtue of their individual mental state, their
character, talents and faculty of love, they are attuned.
11. The laws and principles which become effective in the case
of the death of a child and its life in the spiritual world
The reasons
why a human being leaves his physical organism already in early childhood may be many, and here
I will mention only a few. In some of his former incarnations he may have destroyed his ability
to build up a new healthy and normal physical organism, so that the body he now manages to
evolve in his mother's womb is rapidly impaired by illness, if indeed the child is not actually
stillborn. He may also have created a fate for himself which entails that he is not protected
against accidents, and thus loses his life in this way, or he may himself once have been the
cause of other children's deaths. There are many possibilities. But whatever the fateful cause
of someone's death in early childhood, the unpleasantness he has created for himself is not to
be found in the actual process of death. Naturally, there may be fear in a child's mind if it
suddenly gets killed, but any such fear will instantly be suggestionized away by beings on the
spiritual plane. No, the unpleasantness is to be found in the fact that the person in question,
who had recently created a physical organism for himself through which he was to experience,
create and make new experiences for the benefit of his further development, suddenly has all
such possibilities cut off, and after a comparatively brief stay in the spiritual worlds, must
again burden his talent kernels by creating a new physical organism in order to make the
necessary experiences in the physical world where the beings must incarnate again and again, as
it is here they must all learn how to think. But the actual process of death, when in connection
with the death of a child, is not a gloomy one. It is usually free from any
"purgatory", for the child has no dark thoughts in its consciousness, and if there are
any such, they are usually of such an ephemeral character that the guardian spirits will
immediately be able to suggestionize them away.
The principle of "guardian
spirits" is a universal principle. It applies both in the physical as well as in the
spiritual world and, just as there are midwives or obstetricians at hand when we are born into
the physical world — a process which is, in fact, a death from the spiritual world — there are
also "birth assistants" present when we die from the physical world and are born into
the spiritual world. These helpers, guardian spirits or guardian angels — or whatever you prefer
to call them — are beings who particularly have the talents and the desire to help others, and,
in conformity with the universal principle of attraction and repulsion, they come to help just
those beings who they are specially suited to help. In others words, the spiritual beings who,
immediately after the process of death, take care of a child that has left its physical
organism, are beings radiating an intense love of children, and who exhibit a special ability in
guiding and helping such beings. The child's world is a world of games and fairy-tales, and that
will also characterize the child's first experiences after it has left its physical body. It
will arrive at a kind of kindergarten where loving beings will care for it, and where games and
fairy-tales will dominate its existence. But while the child in the physical world had to have
fairy-tales read to it from a book, the experience of fairy-tales in the spiritual world is far
more alive and realistic. In the spiritual world conditions are such that matter obeys the power
of thought or will. The story-teller need only imagine his fairy-tales, and there they are as
large as life before the children, not merely as pictures, but in mobile and plastic states,
surrounded by the most wondrous landscapes and scenery. Among these guardian spirits who care
for the children there may be some who have been great authors or narrators of fairy-tales in
the physical world. While they "tell" their fairy-tales their thought-concentrations
may sometimes be so powerful that they themselves vanish behind their own thought energies, and
all that can be seen are the changing mental images in the narrator's imagination. This sphere
of fairy-tales is naturally not only for children, but for all beings on the spiritual plane who
are freed from darkness and "purgatory", and whose thoughts, feelings and interests
are in tune with such a world. And this sphere borders so closely on the physical plane that its
energies may well affect receptive people here e.g. poets and creators of animated cartoons who
are thus often inspired from this mental world, which certainly is anything but dull. To the
child, however, there will come a time when it becomes satiated with the experiences in this
playground and fairy-tale world, and then, with the assistance of its guardian spirits, it will
be guided through the intellectual spheres where it does not have so much to experience, but
where everything experienced will be bright and radiant. Thus the child will soon come to
experience the sphere of memory or the kingdom of bliss, from where it will once again incarnate
into the physical world. Memories of its former physical lives will fill its consciousness with
bliss and its "energy of longing" will be more and more concentrated on the physical
existence. These energies of longing and bliss will then join up with the radiance of bliss
emanating from the two physical beings experiencing the culmination of their mutual love. It is
of course not decided by mere chance which man and woman will be the being's parents in a new
physical incarnation, for here also the universal law of attraction and repulsion applies
between the energies radiated by living beings, deciding the fate of both parents as well as
that of the being for whom they are now to be guardian spirits in the physical world, until such
time that the said will be able to fend for itself.
12. How the process of death will shape itself for the being who
dies in the middle of his youth
If a human being dies in the middle of
youth, what he comes to experience during the initial period immediately after his death will,
of course, be somewhat different from what would have been the case if he had left his physical
body in early childhood. A young person's consciousness is filled with quite other kinds of
thoughts and feelings than those of a child, and this will also influence his or her experiences
on the spiritual plane. As youth can often be at a difficult age when one's consciousness is
filled with opposition and criticism, and can, at the same time, be strongly concentrated on the
physical world, making a career, being in love with the opposite sex, etc., a breaking off of
the physical existence at that early age may well entail some difficulties, especially if death
comes suddenly. If this death is caused by illness the young person will have time to get
prepared for it. Even though one may not notice it directly through the person's
day-consciousness, it will take place at night on the spiritual plane. But in cases of sudden
death, e.g. through a traffic accident or some similar cause, quite some time may elapse before
the person in question realizes that he or she has died. What happens in detail in each
individual case is naturally specific, but the same laws and principles will hold true for every
single person's passage through the Gates of Death. Young people can often differ greatly in
spiritual maturity, and there may be young people who are far more advanced in spiritual matters
than many much older people, and to such young people the passing over to the other world will
not prove very difficult, for they will quickly pray for help, and the helpers will come at once
to their aid. But in the case of young people whose entire consciousness is occupied with
physical matters, without the slightest belief in a life after death, their thoughts may
continue to circle for some time around the latest events that took place before they died, just
as may often be the case in an unpleasant dream. They are surrounded by their own world of
thought, like a mental prison from which they are unable to escape. Possibly, for instance, in
their concentration of thought, they drive along the road towards the site of their accident
over and over again, in order, as it were, to attempt to reconstruct events, and determine what
has happened. On the physical plane people with the power of clairvoyance will be able to see
the victim of the accident driving towards the site of his accident where he suddenly vanishes
from sight, because his concentration of thought comes to an end just there. This is what people
normally call a "ghostly vision", which is based on special laws and principles, which
science will one day come to understand. The young person in question will finally come to
realize that something has happened which he cannot understand. A succession of thoughts from
his physical life will pass through his consciousness, not as something within himself, but as
something surrounding him. And however materialistic or atheistic the young fellow may imagine
he was, he will pray for help in his distress — and help will be there instantaneously. The
guardian spirits have been waiting all the time, only too ready to help and aid him, but he must
himself attune his own mind to their wavelength. Only then can the desired help be released.
Now, how do these guardian spirits reveal themselves to those they are about to help?
13. Guardian spirits show themselves in the guise that will be
most helpful in any given situation
Do they show themselves to the being
they are about to help as the white-robed angels we saw pictured in the illustrated Bibles of
our childhood, with luminous haloes, draperies and angels' wings? Only if the person to be
helped expects them to look like that will they do so, but not if he or she does not realize
what has really happened. In the spiritual world psychic matter obeys the commands of will and
thought, and thus the ministering spirit, by the power of its will and thought, is able to shape
its spiritual body and show itself in the guise that in the given situation will be most
suitable and helpful. Possibly a guardian spirit may be someone who knew the person to be helped
when they were both alive in the physical world together, and in such a case, he will show
himself in his old familiar aspect, so as to be able to comfort, help and guide his friend in
the best possible way. There is also the possibility that the person needing help feels that a
doctor, a nurse or similar helpers from the physical world, would be the right kind of help.
Beings resembling the desired category will therefore show themselves, and they will
suggestionize away the dark thoughts from the consciousness of the unhappy person. In doing so,
they will gradually acquaint him or her with what has actually happened, and they will help the
person and guide him or her to the spiritual sphere, which for the moment will be attuned to the
same wavelength as the thoughts and feelings which dominate the state of mind of the person in
question. In our time when so many young soldiers die on the battlefields with their
consciousness filled with terror, where events have occurred so quickly that they do not know
that they are dead, the ministering guardian spirits will in many cases appear in the guise of
Red Cross orderlies, nurses or doctors and they will wake up in a hospital, where they will
gradually realize that there is in fact nothing wrong with them as long as they don't think so
themselves. Something similar happens in the case when a person dies after a long protracted
illness. In the initial period after their death, they may also experience the atmosphere and
surroundings of a hospital and being surrounded by loving nurses and doctors, until they
discover that the illness exists only in their own imagination. Once such thoughts have been
overcome, the guardian spirits will no longer need to appear in the guise of nurses etc. in
order to be able to tune in to the wavelength of those that need their help and guidance.
14. The religious conceptions of Paradise
If
conditions are such that a person's religious feelings are awakened when he realizes that he is
experiencing the state after death, his consciousness may possibly concentrate on his childhood
faith, if he had one, and on conceptions of angels and a paradise. Such spheres do exist and
they are just as colourful and beautiful as any depicted by the old masters in their wonderful
religious paintings. In such pictures God the Father is often seen seated on his throne
surrounded by a throng of angels and holy men and women, all arrayed in splendour and glory.
Christ is sitting at his Father's right hand and the Holy Ghost is floating above them in the
likeness of a dove. The person experiencing all this will himself be one of the great white
flock which is playing harps or waving palm branches amid chanting and rejoicing, until this
beautiful scene becomes tiresome for want of renewal. Then it is no longer paradise, but would
actually be hell if it were to continue for all eternity. Just imagine doing the same kind of
thing over and over again for all eternity. Or to experience the selfsame conditions, however
beautiful they may be, for ever and ever? Such a heaven would be anything but a paradise, it
must be a hell. But things are not like this. Life is incessant renewal and transformation.
15 The collective paradisiacal states will disappear in favour
of the creation of a "Kingdom of Heaven"
The above-mentioned
kind of heaven is but a single sphere among many, and it is not part of the advanced spiritual
worlds, but is only a condition to be found in the forecourts leading into these worlds, an
intermediary condition where man's consciousness is still strongly dominated by the ideas he
once entertained with regard to the world to come, when he was living in the physical world. In
this way there are also beautiful paradises for Mohammedans, Hindus, Buddhists and for people
still belonging to more primitive religions, just as there once was a sphere where those who
believed in Odin, Thor and Valhalla sat at meals with gods and heroes. These collective
paradisiacal states based upon dogmatic faith will, however, gradually disappear; they are based
upon man's religious instinct and religious feelings. But as creative thought is developed in
terrestrial man in conjunction with more humane conceptions and neighbourly love, a
"Kingdom of Heaven" will be evolved in his consciousness, a kingdom which will
gradually be created on earth too, a world of intellect, art, logic, peace, liberty and
brotherly love, in short, a truly human kingdom. Such a world could never come to exist in
physical matter, if it did not previously exist in spiritual matter. However it does, and it
constitutes the body of feeling of the earthly globe-being, and in this world terrestrial man
now experiences everything purely human which, at his stage of consciousness, he can tune in to.
It is also from this sphere that the guardian spirits come and man himself can become a guardian
spirit to the extent that his qualities of neighbourly love and his intellectual and creative
abilities have been developed.
16. The experience of the process of death for
the person who dies in his mature age
In the case of people in the prime
of life or of mature age who have left the physical world, their experiences in the forecourt or
intermediary stage will be characterized by the thoughts and feelings possessed by a man or
woman of that age. But this is, of course, quite individual and hence can be portrayed only in
broad outline. In mature years things are often so that the being is very strongly occupied with
physical activities, and most of its consciousness and love is concentrated on such matters. A
man may be the driving force in an important concern — the result of many years' hard work — or
he is just in the middle of some intellectual creative activity — behind which there is also
many years' work and concentration - when suddenly he dies and finds himself deprived of the
physical means which connected him with the world in which his creative work took place; but he
is still fully occupied with the thoughts which bound him to the work in question, with its
development and its success in the physical world. It is not difficult to imagine that when a
person's consciousness is filled with plans and with an urge to carry them into physical effect,
he will feel bewildered when he suddenly loses the only means by which that work can be carried
out. In principle it is the same as if a craftsman suddenly loses both his hands here in the
physical world. It is nothing less than a catastrophe. We have, however, brilliant examples here
in the physical world of how people who have become invalids nevertheless manage to get along,
by virtue of an indomitable will coupled with untiring patience and, of course, also by other
people's loving help and understanding. Is a person an "invalid" then, when he loses
his physical body? Certainly not, but he may well feel like one if his mind has been centred
almost wholly on the activities of the physical world and on his own physical happiness and
career. If, on the other hand, his activities have not been particularly coloured by egoistical
feelings, but have had a strong tinge of altruism through the desire to do good to others, the
transition will not prove difficult, for these activities will be well attuned to the
wavelengths of the spiritual world, and they can be performed through the spiritual bodies. But
if his activities have been based mainly on an urge to gain power and riches — maybe even at the
expense of others — or if his desire for distinction, fame and titles through intellectual
research, has been stronger than his need for finding the truth, or his desire to create
something beneficial or pleasurable for others, he is likely to meet considerable difficulties
until he accustoms himself to the spiritual state. With clairvoyant powers one will be able to
see him "haunt" the places of his physical activities, because he is bound to very
definite lines of thought from which he will, of course, be released the moment he prays for
help, because he realizes that everything is different from what it was before.
In the case
of a woman leaving the physical world in the prime of life, she must also learn to understand
that she needs no longer bother about cooking and cleaning, or many other household activities
she was accustomed to carrying out. Her greatest problem will probably be worries about her
children, who may not yet be able to fend for themselves. But guardian spirits will help her to
see that they are being taken care of; she may even herself be enable to show them her loving
care and interfere from the spiritual world; it is also possible for her to become their
guardian spirit.
On coming through the gates of death terrestrial man first passes
through an intermediary stage or forecourt to the spiritual worlds. His experiences here are a
process of weaning him from his all too materialistic thoughts and feelings, or from fear,
wrath, resentment, an uneasy conscience and similar thought climates, all of which are
vibrations that cannot possibly attune to the wavelengths of the vibrations of the higher
worlds, while at the same time, it is a period of accommodation to the principles and laws
governing the spiritual worlds and applying also to the spiritual bodies which are now to carry
his consciousness. His experiences in this forecourt may take the shape of a kind of purgatory
or hell if the being who has left his physical body has conflicts in his mind, or if he is very
strongly bound to physical thought-habits. But in any case, after a shorter or longer period —
through the help of guardian spirits — these conditions will come to an end and terrestrial man
will, as a cell in the spiritual bodies of the earth experience a wonderful holiday away from
the difficulties of the physical world. He will, in proportion to his abilities and interests,
be able to experience the highest spheres of the art of living and the beings indigenous to
these spheres and at the same time he will be able to be together with beings he has known and
been fond of in the physical world.
17. Man's natural death due to old age
The
most beautiful form of death that can be experienced by terrestrial man is a natural death on
account of old age. He is ready for the spiritual existence, for there is nothing more here in
the physical world to hold back his thoughts. Naturally all old people do not enjoy peace of
mind, and when such peace is lacking they will have to go through their own particular form of
purgatory, but it is an exception. As a rule most human beings are mellowed by old age. They are
more tolerant and able to resign. Life has even prepared them for what is about to come when
they leave the shell that is worn-out and can no longer be used. It is a relief for them; the
natural function of death for terrestrial man is to be relieved of an instrument which can serve
them no longer and to give them an opportunity to use the abilities and talents they have
developed in their physical existence for wonderful experiences in the spiritual worlds. When
they have experienced as much as is possible at their present stage of development, they will
obtain a new organism on the physical plane with which to continue their "studies in
learning how to think in conformity with the laws of life", for this is the true object of
physical existence. When the old person has abandoned his worn-out body — quite often in such a
way that he has passed quietly away in his sleep — he will experience something which — if he
had any possibility of waking up again to tell us what he had seen — he would describe as a
wonderful dream. The details of this "dream" will naturally be individual, but they
may well be something like this: the old person will suddenly feel himself in a hitherto unknown
state of complete liberation, freed from all weight, both physically as well as mentally. He
sees brilliantly illuminated gateway — which he now remembers having seen many times before when
he was asleep, only then he was unable to come quite close to it. But he was able to observe how
this portal opened to admit other beings who had been liberated completely from their connection
with their physical bodies and were therefore able to pass through. On such former occasions he
had nearly been able to glimpse how a brilliantly shining flood of light streamed out towards
the beings who were about to pass in through the portal. This time he himself is illuminated by
this flood of brilliance and he sees that he no longer has an old worn-out body but a new and
youthful body shimmering in luminous iridescence. Within the portal he sees even more radiantly
lustrous beings welcoming new arrivals, surrounded by glorious scenery set in resplendent sheen
of morning and eventide skies, and the newcomer discovers that the beings he first took for
angels are old friends and dearly loved relations he has known, possibly through many
incarnations. Throughout all this there has been the sound of beautiful music and on the far
side of the gateway, wondrous landscapes are to be seen stretching away into the distance. There
are woods and lakes, a rich vegetation and many songbirds whose twittering rises towards the sky
harmonizing with the music of the spheres. The old dying person from the physical plane has
turned into a radiant angel and for a time is to enjoy the world of such beings, he will also
become a guardian angel for beings on earth, or for those in their own purgatories who are in
need of help. But the above vision is but a view of the gateway of death. It is the initiation
into life in the spheres of light. From it, roadways lead to beautiful divine worlds where the
being will come to experience the highest forms of true joy, happiness and peace than can be
experienced at his or her stage of development. They will be allowed to experience the presence
of the Godhead more strongly than they have ever been able to before within the present spiral,
and from here their path will lead to a new physical incarnation, where new possibilities will
be revealed for furthering their development. Thus the spheres of light will one day be not
merely worlds they visit between two physical incarnations, but their permanent home where they
can experience and create for the good of everything and everybody.
From four lectures given by Martinus at the Martinus Institute,
Copenhagen on 16th, 23rd and 30th October and on 6th November 1949. Manuscripts for the
lectures revised by Mogens Møller. Revision approved by Martinus. First published in the
Danish edition of Contact Letter no. 23-25/1959. Original Danish title: Gennem dødens port —
søvnen og døden. Translated by Harald Berglund, 1982.
Article ID: M0465
© Martinus Institut 1981, www.martinus.dk
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