ALANS ARTICLES

I have written the following articles since becoming a spiritualist and learning about the afterlife. My knowledge comes from personal supernatural experiences - the channelled writings of James E. Padgett and other spiritualist literature - and thirty years of investigating mediums and mediumship, predominately in Great Britain. I have written some of the articles in response to items I read in Psychic News that I was compelled to respond to. Other articles are of a more personal nature about experiences that have brought me to my present spiritual enfolding.

My purpose in writing these articles is to inform people that there exists spiritual knowledge that they have not been exposed to or have had the opportunity to examine. I hope these articles will be of interest and perhaps contribute to your progress on your spiritual journey.

What Comes Next

It was the mid 1970s; I was living on the Strand block in Hermosa Beach. I can remember watching with great interest two series being broadcast at the time on World War II - Victory at Sea and The World at War. As I sat in my safe, comfortable surroundings, I watched as people were senselessly blown apart. The fascination I had with this war was probably because it happened before I was born, and because it was so worldly shattering. As well, as a baby boomer, in a sense, I was the product of this horrific conflict.

As I witnessed incalculable cruelty and indifference, something deep down told me that it couldn't or shouldn't be possible that such unmitigated evil had the power to destroy innocent lives, yet they were dead. At the time, I had no way of knowing, but years later after finding Padgett's channelling and experiencing spirits, I realized that these people were not actually dead, only their bodies died, their soul survived, though sent to the spirit world prematurely.

I was now a firm believer in the survival of the human soul after physical death, the eternal part of man that cannot be destroyed. I learned that when the body dies, the soul does not; instead, it is released and goes to a great spiritual world in another dimension. This idea helped me and brought me solace and gave me hope that there was a benevolent God, and a place of divine justice. Where every human soul continues its existence with the goal of achieving perfection of the mind in the knowledge of God's truths and the purification of the human heart through the possession of God's love.

 

Difference Between Soul and Spirit

In response to the question posed by Mrs. C. O'Connell in the September 15th, 2007, issue of Psychic News, on the difference between a soul and a spirit, I would like to offer some clarification.

To answer properly, it is necessary to know in what reference the term "spirit" is being used. Spirit can mean either energy or a person that has transitioned to the spirit world. The former is not a person; the latter is a person, the real person in spirit form, never having died.

The soul is fashioned by its Creator and is made from the material that exists in the spiritual universe, of which the spirit world is a part. The soul is created in the image and likeness of its Creator, though not a part of the Creator, anymore than man is a part of what he creates.

In Spiritualism the term "spirit" refers to an energy or a spirit person, and can also refer to the spirit world itself. For example, "He suddenly passed to spirit."

I hope my effort to explain this somewhat confusing term has been helpful.

 

When Does The Soul Come In?

I simply cannot agree with Miss. H. Phoenix's statement in the September 15th, 2007, issue of Psychic News that the soul comes into the body at conception. I do not agree, but believe the incarnation of the soul takes place approximately three months into the pregnancy, and I will explain why.

When the soul incarnates, it attaches to the central nervous system of the fetus via the silver cord. This attachment cannot take place until the nervous system and brain are sufficiently developed to allow the soul something substantial with which it can connect. When the soul does attach, it becomes the source of the energy behind the chemical reactions that fire the nerves and power the brain. Prior to this time, the fetus borrows its life force from its mother.

Since the fetus apparently begins to make purposeful movements at about ten to twelve weeks into the pregnancy, and since an intact, functioning nervous system is required to do that, it can be inferred that electrical conductivity is present starting at approximately this age. This presents scientific evidence when the soul is first present.

The implication of this is that if a fetus is lost prior to the incarnation of a soul it would mean that no soul was released to the spirit world. On the other hand, if a fetus is lost and an infant soul does go to the spirit world, it will be adopted by spirit parents or family members and raised as their own.

When Miss. Phoenix states that a miscarriage is a prearranged agreement of the mother, I cannot believe that any woman would enter into an agreement to give up her child, and with whom is this agreement made? Are there spirit lawyers ready to take the case if the agreement is not executed properly?

No, I am sorry, but this is not how nature works. When a child dies prematurely, it is because of a defect in the mother that prevented the perfect development of the fetus in her womb. This defect is just one of the many to which the imperfect world of the flesh is subject.

 

What Body Does One Have in the Spirit World?

I found it most interesting the commentary on the second body by Sir Oliver Lodge in the April 19th, 2008, issue of Psychic News, and I would like to add to what he said.

As spiritualists, we know that people who have transitioned to the spirit world have an identifiable body. This is a known fact because spiritualists have experienced spirits in various ways and forms, and because mediums can offer accurate descriptions of loved ones to prove that they have survived the change called death.

As certain as spiritualists are of the existence of a spiritual body, for some, of what this spiritual body is made and from where it comes may remain puzzling. I would like to share what I have learned about this subject. This body is real and existing, and, depending upon the discipline, it can be known as the astral body, the etheric body, the subtle body, the vital body or the spirit body - these are all the same thing, the active energy of the soul that covers, protects and gives the soul a recognizable appearance.

At death, the appearance of the spirit body may remain the same as the mortal looked, or it may improve, immediately or with time. For example, a person who died when elderly can be restored to his/her appearance at the prime of life. An infant or child who passes will grow and develop, and its spirit body will reach maturity. And a spirit person can become even better looking than the best years of their life.

When the soul is released to the spirit world, it brings with it all the person's faculties: their mind, not their brain, their memory, conscience, affections, appetites and passions, character, and personality. This is possible because all these things are all seated in the soul and constitute the real person.

Spirits have their same five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell in the spirit world, and these senses are actually more acute because they are in their pure form and not dependent upon, or limited by, the proper function of physical organs to manifest them. All five senses are used in the spirit world, and it stands to reason that sight, hearing and smell are utilized during visitations to the earth.

Although the spirit body is made of energy, spirits are solid to one another and to the things in its plane of habitation in the spirit world. Thus, spirits have the capacity to interact with one another similar to mortals. They can visit each other's homes; greet each other with a handshake, hug or even a kiss. They can catch up on old times, sing and dance, play games and engage in a variety of recreational activities.

Now, there is something reserved exclusively for spirits who are soulmates, which cannot be done with any other spirit. That is the merging of their spirit bodies and reuniting of their souls in an act of soulmate love and spiritual union. Although this is temporary, it is my understanding that it surpasses even the purest expression of love on the earth, and very well could be the expression for which people on earth long.

This soul merging is possible because just prior to incarnation the soul splits into two separate parts - a male and a female soul. They incarnate into respective male and female bodies and will eventually find each other, if not on earth, then in the spirit world, where they are destined to live together in perfect love and harmony.

 

Seven Planes

I agree with Tony Stockwell's comment about the seven planes of existence in the March 15th, 2008, issue of Psychic News. I agree that there are seven planes in the spirit world, but, to be more accurate, they are spheres. This is because these levels of habitation in the spirit world encompass the earth - a globe.

The first sphere is nearest the earth; the second is outside that, and so on. The spheres increase in circumference as well as in width, vibration, brightness and beauty the farther they are from the earth.

Tony says, "I like to think our onward progression as never ending," I agree with this because there is a realm beyond the seven spheres that is without limit. This realm has been spoken of by every religion and, regardless of what name is used, it is a heavenly place.

As in the outer space of our physical world, there is no distance one can travel to reach a brick wall with a sign hanging on it that says "the end". This principle also applies to the spiritual world that this heaven is a part.

The seven original spheres are more ancient and existed long before this heaven was created. Heaven, or the kingdom, came into existence just over two thousand years ago, when a prophet appeared who had knowledge of this kingdom, and taught to others the way to it. The mansions spoken of do exist there and will be occupied by those spirits who have progressed beyond the seven spheres to enter this heavenly kingdom.

 

Animals Deserve Our Respect

Being a vegetarian and a worker for the animals, I must commend Colleen McDuling for the love she shows when making the statement in the July 21st, 2007, issue of Psychic News, "We have a duty to animals, and they should be respected within their own right and afforded our compassion."

I agree entirely with what she has said and believe that the best way to show compassion for animals is to refrain from eating them. Becoming a vegetarian will not only show respect, but also it will also help the planet and is the greatest act one can take towards bettering the environment more impactful than trading your car in for a hybrid or electric.

Animal agriculture requires copious amounts of resources to produce. An astonishing 2500 gallons of water, and 12 pounds of grain are required to produce one pound of beef, while a pound of wheat requires only 25 gallons of water. Also, distressing is that 5 million acres of rain forest are felled every year in South and Central America to create pasture lands to raise cattle to ship to the United States for cheap burgers.

Animal agriculture is the single most polluting industry in the industrialized world. Livestock contribute to global warming by producing methane, a greenhouse gas second only to carbon dioxide in abundance. Modern farms have been converted into concentrated factories where the animals are confined in crowded, unhealthy conditions. Their feed is laced with growth hormones and antibiotics to prevent the spread of disease. The waste that livestock produce is ten times that of humans and goes untreated, seeping into the ground water and polluting rivers and streams.

Although I regard animals highly and respect them, I disagree with McDuling's statement that, "There is really no difference between animals and humans, and humans have generally no advantage over animals at all," I believe to the contrary, and this is where McDuling and I must part company because animals are not the equals of humans and there are distinct differences between the two.

Animals are wondrous creatures created for the ecology and beauty of the planet. They perform many functions for the earth and are essential to its well-being, and should be treated as our partners and not exploited and made into products. They are sentient beings capable of thought and emotions, and have amazing strength and abilities. However, as wondrous as they may be, they are still lower animals.

Granted, humans are members of the animal kingdom, yet, they are of a higher creation with a superior intellect because of the human soul. This soul is the reason why humans have the consciousness and the free will that they enjoy. Animals do not have these qualities, and can only act instinctively, as they were created.

 

Do Mediums Know More?

I was quite surprised to read in the May 10th, 2008, issue of Psychic News the quote by Gordon Higginson in an article written by Dennis Jones that heaven and hell are not places, but levels of consciousness. I have had the privilege to see Gordon demonstrate his mediumistic talent, and, as is well known, it was formidable. He was also an eloquent speaker, and his passing was certainly a great loss to Spiritualism.

I do agree with him, that a corresponding consciousness is required to inhabit the heaven or hell spheres of the spirit world, though they are real and existing places, not just states of being or consciousness. The things in these spheres are real and tangible to spirits who live there. Heaven and hell are not all that exists in the spirit world there are seven numbered spheres in total that extend out beyond the earth, but in a different dimension. Heaven and hell are simply the extreme places of this spirit world. Between them exists every imaginable environment to suit those people who were not good enough to deserve heaven and for those who were not bad enough to warrant hell.

Regardless, what a spirit's initial position is in the spirit world all have the opportunity to improve their condition with the help from a more advanced spirit than themselves. No spirit is denied this help though it is never forced upon one. This improvement will offer the spirit a new location in a higher plane with nicer surroundings and better companions. The spirit world is a place of earned privileges and with this improvement will also come increased opportunities - travel, recreation, education, etc.

I believe that because a person is a good, excellent or even a brilliant medium does not necessarily put him or her in any better position to know how the spirit world works than does the ordinary spiritualist who studies. In Spiritualism, there are not priests, but mediums that act as its spiritual authorities. These mediums are knowledgeable but, perhaps, their information should not be taken as the final authority.

 

Becoming Vegetarian

Shortly after I arrived in Los Angeles, I worked downtown for a nursing-home supply company. My job was to call on the nursing homes in the area to offer the company's extensive catalogue of supplies that were used regularly. I had been in sales previously, but never in the field of medical supplies.

One day, as I was studying the catalogue, I noticed something called incontinent diapers. I didn't know what they were, so I asked Ethel, the owner's wife. I remember as she leaned close to me and in a low voice said, "The old people have to be diapered". I said, "They do?" She said, "That's right". I felt as if someone had pulled a chain above my head and a light went on, I knew right then that there was something very wrong with this. I thought, "We come into this world diapered, and go out of it diapered." One thing I was certain of is that I did not want to be diapered.

After nearly a year at the job it was clear that I could not compete with another company's prices and service. I knew there was no future for me in this business, and besides I had heard enough moans and groans and smells of urine during sales calls to last a lifetime.

Instead of taking another job, at least right away, I went on workman's compensation while I decided what to do. I was ready for a lifestyle change and I began taking yoga classes. After class, I would spend my afternoons at Fern Dale, a haven in Griffith Park, by a babbling brook, reading spiritual books, talking with others, and contemplating life. Gypsy Boots, a colorful Hollywood fitness figure, was a regular at Fern Dale. I can remember watching him do his health routine, exercising with rocks in the stream.

At the yoga school, in a talk given by the couple that ran the school, I learned that they were vegetarians. I had never met or spoken to a vegetarian before. I can remember them saying that the asanas (postures) were not all that yoga had to offer, there was breathing techniques, meditation and diet. They explained that the body has a cellular vibration that is determined largely by thoughts and diet. They said, "If one eats meat it will lower ones vibration, but if one eats a vegetarian diet it will raise one's vibration". They went on to say, the higher one's vibration, the closer one comes to the spiritual things with the goal of attaining enlightenment.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure what they were talking about, but I was ready for a change, and besides I had nothing to loose. That Friday, I became a vegetarian. I finished the hamburger and baloney I had in the refrigerator, and went to a neighborhood produce market and bought a variety of fruits and vegetables. For dinner that night, I had a large salad with avocado for fat. I soon discovered tofu, brown rice, vegeburgers, and the Source, a vegetarian restaurant on the Sunset Strip, after that I was fine.

When I went for lunch with my buddies, we usually ate Mexican. They snickered because I would just have a bean burrito with guacamole, and they would order steak fajitas, chicken enchiladas or something else with meat. I explained to them that I was doing a test to see if I could raise my vibration and not eating meat was part of it.

I was invited by some yoga friends to a lecture by an Indian  Swami who had an ashram in the Cahuenga Pass. I went, thinking this would be a spiritual evening, which is how it began, with oming to raise the vibration in the hall. But then, Swami Satchidananda proceeded to talk about hen's eggs the entire time. I was surprised; this was not what I was expecting. I remember him well, in his long white robe, long white hair and long white beard, saying, "In India eggs are called liquid meat. They are not an animal by-product like dairy or honey, but are unfertilized chicken embryos." He said, "Eggs are why people smell." "This is because inside your body it is 98.6 degrees and the transit time on average is thirty-two hours and during that time the eggs spoil and the person smells." He went on, "If you stop eating eggs, you do not need to put chemicals under your arms." Well, I heard enough, he convinced me. After that, I never ate an egg again.

Now that I was a vegetarian, I began to study the problem with eating meat. I learned that flesh is the perfect food for a carnivore, but are humans carnivores? There are some clues to help one decide. No carnivore chews its food. It does not possess the jaw motion or the molars to grind the food up, and for that matter it doesn't have to because it has powerful enough digestive juices to dissolve flesh and bone. Carnivores have short intestines so that the waste is eliminated quickly and does not have time to putrefy.

Herbivores are just the opposite in that they have grinding molars to chew their food and long intestines with an alkaline ph. to digest it slowly. This means that humans are not true carnivores, but have became omnivores. The problem with this is humans do not have sufficient naturally occurring hydrochloric acid to break meat down entirely, and a portion goes uneliminated and is smeared onto the walls the large intestine - colon - due to the organ's action of absorbing water. This accumulation of waste is compacted over the years, and, at the internal body temperature breaks down into dangerous carcinogenic chemicals that leach through the colon wall to the neighboring organs and glands.

I thought, if this is true, what about all my years of meat eating. I had better do something about it. So I studied how to cleanse the colon of food residue, toxins, metals and parasites. I learned that fasting, then some type of water irrigation, would clean it out. This stood to reason because when people pour grease down the drain, it eventually clogs up and needs to be flushed out. So, I decided to do a cleanse. I did not eat for a week, but drank shakes with herbs, and natural degunking agents three or four times a day mixed with apple juice, and otherwise I drank only water.

At the end of the week, I went to a health clinic in Desert Hot Springs that preformed colonics. I remember the female operator sizing me up for the speculum. Then she inserted it, turned the valve and gravity supplied the water. After three or four fills, colon massages and drains, I started to feel a pain on my left side. It continued to get worse; I broke out in a sweat, it really hurt. I thought this must be what appendicitis feels like. Then all of a sudden I felt something break loose, and I saw a hunk of brown material go through the clear section of the drain tube in the mirror provided for this purpose. At that moment I had a flash and knew that this was something that had been inside of me for a long time from my high school cafeteria.

 

The Red Hair

Two nights before I was to take my mother from her retirement home in West Palm Beach, Florida, to Detroit, Michigan, for her doctor's appointment, my lady friend and I had dinner with her, at the Olive Garden. The doctor's visit was for my mother to be euthanized. She had suffered from multiple sclerosis for nearly thirty years, and, now that her husband was gone, she had no reason to go on living. She had heard about Dr. Kevorkian and wrote to him for help. Dr. Kevorkian, dubbed "Doctor Death" by the press, because he has assisted a hundred and fifty souls escape the confines of their tortured bodies.

I had been a spiritualist for some years and knew considerable about its history, so during dinner I told my mother about the Houdini code that he had arranged with his wife before his passing. My mother took interest, so I said, "Mother, why don't we set up a code of our own because in a few months I will be in England, and you can come there and talk to me through a medium." To my surprise, I had her full attention; in the past she did not think much of my ideas about an afterlife, but now that she was on the threshold she seemed spellbound by my proposal and agreed. We thought and thought, but could't come up with anything we liked. We had finished dinner and my mother had to leave, so I said, "We don't need a code, if the medium tells me that there is a woman here with red hair, I will know who it is." And with that, we left the restaurant.

After a year of waiting to be accepted by Dr. Kevorkian, and a mountain of details, the fateful day had come. The van arrived to take us, wheel chair and all, to the airport. On arrival in Detroit, my brother, still living in Chicago, met us with a rental car. We drove to the outskirts of the city to a pre-arranged Holiday Inn, literally in the cornfields. We waited until no one was around and took her up to the room in a service elevator.

If one wonders, Dr. Kevorkian does not have an office and he does not make house calls, but uses various hotels in the Detroit area to see his patients. And yes, he leaves them there to be discovered by the staff. This of course does not make him popular with the Michigan Hotel Association. I did feel badly for the house keeper, who discovered my mother, but it was her wish for me to take her, and I thought that it was a better alternative than for her to continuing the dreadful suffering.

As we waited for the doctor, my mother had a worried look on her face and said, "Doesn't this all seem unreal, like a dream"? My brother agreed. Then a knock at the door, I went to get it and standing there was a large powerful-looking man (to lift the patients) who introduced himself as Mr. Nicol the doctor's assistant. I asked him in. He entered and proceeded to check the washroom, the closet and under the bed. Once satisfied, he said, "I will return within twenty minutes with the doctor."

We waited with much anxiety. Then, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find Mr. Nicol who took up most of the doorway, shielding a much smaller man who seemed to emerge into the room from beneath his arm. As he straightened up, we recognized him as Dr. Kevorkian, disguised as a tractor driver, wearing the farm equipment manufacturer John Deere's cap and jacket. He introduced himself to us and said to my mother, "It's nice to meet you after all our conversations."

He then proceeded to tell us about himself and the motives behind taking his medical practice from pathology to assisted suicide. When finished explaining he said, "There is no charge for my services, I do it for humanitarian reasons."

After the doctor was certain that my mother understood and agreed, he gave her every opportunity to reconsider. He even went so far to say, "We can take you back to the airport, and you can go home." When I heard that, I held my breath at the thought that all these preparations could not be undone.

Then, for what seemed like the tenth time, he asked her if she is certain that she wants to go through with it. I watched as my mother lowered her head in thought, and then slowly lifted it, and in the tiny bird-like voice that she had left said, "I am sure, doctor." I was not terribly close with my mother, but I did love her, and offered to stay and hold her hand to the end.

In the parking lot, I said to my brother, "We should wait a while to be certain that everything went right." I'm sure he was hungry after the all-day ordeal, and it took all of my persuasive powers to convince him not to leave right away. I said, "What if somebody saw us or the doctor and reported it to the hotel, and they call the police? You are on your way to Chicago; I fly out later to California, our invalid mother is behind bars, will they change her in jail?" That convinced him, and we waited long enough for it to be done.

We had dinner together, and then at the airport said our good-byes. I knew right then that the only thing we had in common was gone, and we would not see each other again. Two days later, I received a call from the police. They asked if I knew my mother had committed suicide. I told them that I did. They asked if I had been present. I said that I brought her there, but did not see anything. I never heard from them again.

Summer rolled around and I was back in London trying to make the channelled writings of James Padgett known to the British Spiritualists. Two weeks into my stay, I was called on at the Rochester Square Spiritualist Church in Camden Town. The medium said, "I have a motherly figure here, who says she is now out of pain." When I heard this, I perked right up. Then he said, "We did not always agree, but that's over now. You had a difficult time in school and a friend in the fifth grade named Phillip." That all fit, but there was no code.

Then, in Stratford upon Avon, the medium said, "I have a husband and wife here, not a man and a woman". I thought that figures after fifty years of marriage, my mother and father would remain together regardless of where they were. As the weeks passed, I continued to get bits and pieces of evidence, until one afternoon at the Greater World Spiritualist Association in London, the medium called on me and said, "I see distant travel in your future, across an ocean." That fit. "You are going to make progress with your work do not give up; and there is a woman here showing me her red hair." Well, to say I was taken aback is to put it mildly. My mother had done it! I could hardly believe it.

After the service I was beside myself. I went up to the medium to thank her and could not help but notice that she was built like my mother and was wearing a Star of David around her neck. When she saw that I had noticed it, she quickly tucked it into her blouse. I said to her, "Ivy, I can't tell you how much that message meant to me." She had a puzzled look. I said, "The red hair." She said, "Oh yes!" and explained, "I saw this woman with her arms flailing back and forth pointing to her hair, and I heard her say, tell him about the red hair." I thought, as I left, "It figures it would take a Jewish medium to bring me the code from my mother."

When I returned home, living in Manhattan Beach I found a notice in the mail from a psychic center I had attended in Orange County. It said the medium Peter Close from Hammersmith, London, whom I had seen on two occasions in England, was demonstrating his mediumship at a hotel two miles away. I waited for a sign and, when it came I scampered on down. I paid the twenty dollars entrance fee and took a seat.

Peter eventually came to me, and my mother started right in, as if the floodgates had opened and a gusher of information came out of him. He talked so fast and perspired so much and he seemed to go on for ages. I became embarrassed because he was spending so much time with me. Then, just as it seemed as if my mother was winding down, he said, "I have a man here, and he says he wants equal time."

If you liked my articles then I invite you to visit my other websites to read more of my experiences and to learn more about the history, science, philosophy and religion of Spiritualism.