There is a wealth of literature on the subject of spiritual communication with beings in the afterlife, known as Spiritism. Spiritism is understood as the study of the afterlife, the main purpose of which is to prove that life continues after death. Spiritualism is based on these findings and shapes the results of Spiritism into worldviews.
While the belief in the existence and manifestation of spirits is very old and can be found in all religions, cultures and epochs of humanity, Spiritism only emerged in the 19th century. The birth date of Spiritism is considered to be 1 April 1848 (source: 'Handbook of Religious Societies'). Two little girls, Leah (10) and Kate (12), heard knocking in the house of their father, the Methodist farmer John Fox, in Hydesvill, near Rochester (USA). In a playful way, they managed to make contact with the 'knocking spirit'. A committee of enquiry made up of Rochester's 'most educated inhabitants', including Lederstrumpf author Fenimore Cooper, was unable to explain the knocking sounds in any natural way. When Isaac Port invented an ABC of knocking, it was possible to talk to the spirit. He said that he had lived in the Fox house as a merchant and had been murdered and buried in the cellar. They dug around and found a skeleton.
The events spread far and wide, triggering other phenomena. Houses began to be haunted, tables moved, voices were heard directly and automatically written. The mediator Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910) wrote a book called 'The Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse' in which he described the possibilities of spiritual intercourse with the afterlife. By 1855, the number of spiritists in America was estimated at 2 million. By 1848 the movement had spread to France, and in the following years to Germany and England. Highly respected personalities became believers, and atheists were convinced.
Over the following decades, Spiritism spread throughout the world. Its adherents included not only ordinary people, but also recognised scientists such as Hans Driesch, Häckel's student and philosopher; Gustav Theodor Fechner, philosopher; Friedrich Zöllner, astrophysicist; Charles Richet, physiologist and Nobel Prize winner; Alf Russel Wallace, co-founder of the theory of evolution with Darwin; Marie and Pierre Curie, physicists and Nobel Prize winners; William James, leading American psychologist; Oliver Lodge and William Crookes, highly respected English physicists. Even today, Spiritism has a considerable number of academic adherents.
Spiritism has led to the formation of countless circles, research groups, communities and national associations, and even a number of churches.
As a study of the afterlife, Spiritism describes the spiritual world as subtle, which, according to the findings of Spiritists, surrounds and permeates the material world. According to this, its radiating substance has different frequencies, which also determine the quality of the subtle world. The spiritual world is said to consist of a number of planes or dimensions. The lower the frequency of radiation of such a plane of existence, the closer it is - not spatially, but qualitatively - to the material world.
“Since it has been experienced that in séances (meetings) 'low level spiritual beings' prefer to speak and fob off the meeting participants with banalities and jokes' (source: 'Handbook of Religious Communities'), 'Spiritists attach importance to contacting 'spiritual beings' from higher and higher spheres. The information they provide extends to all heights and widths of the universe, revealing the inner laws that govern it, describing the individual spheres and answering questions about the nature of God and the reason and purpose of His creative activity. The higher the spiritual being, the more weight is given to its information. This is why the so-called 'father mediators' are so highly regarded - mediators through whom angels or other members of the celestial hierarchies or 'Christ' or even 'God the Father' himself speak. Their 'revelations' are, of course, full of platitudes and pious, empty phrases, which is why critical spiritualists are extremely sceptical of messages that boast of this origin.”
According to the 'Handbook of Religious Communities', the Spiritists worldview has the following basic tenets:
a) The 'gross material' world, i.e. the material world, is only a relatively small part of total reality. It is embedded in the 'subtle' world, which is just as real as the material world, but cannot be perceived by the physical senses and is therefore beyond the reach of scientific research. The 'fine matter' was called 'Od', which, according to its discoverer, Karl Freiherr von Reichenbach (1788-1869), is a hidden world force comparable to magnetism. Today's spiritualists use the terms and findings of atomic physics to describe the subtle matter as a substance made up of rays. The whole universe is made of it. Coarse matter' is merely compressed radiation, and in its smallest atomic components there is a constant change between the corpuscle and the wave state. The ethereal world - also called the astral or etheric world - surrounds and permeates the material world.
b) The human being consists of three parts: the physical body, the astral body and the spirit. The astral body is a true counterpart of the physical body and therefore has the same limbs, sentience and sense organs. However, because it is made of a more subtle substance, it is not subject to the same fate as the physical body in terms of sickness, ageing and death. It is the actual dwelling place of the spirit. It is made of an indestructible substance and therefore has a life without end.
c) Life on earth is a station on the spirit's path to perfection. It is a school, and the spirit incarnates to learn, to pass tests, and thus to become ripe for further ascent. The incarnated spirit has the task of freeing itself from the bonds that bind it to the material and hinder its progress. These include: selfishness, instinctive sensuality, envy, pride, jealousy, arrogance, hypocritical piety and fanatical belief in dogmas. The most important requirement to be fulfilled is charity. Its practice is 'the only true religion'. For selfless love is the fundamental law of the universe. The value of religions and denominations is not measured by their doctrines, but by the measure of love they awaken and practice.
d) Death is neither the end nor the destruction, but only the transition from the earthly stage to another stage of existence, a change of scenery. Clad in the astral body, the spiritual being enters the world beyond. For this transition to be smooth, it is important that the spiritual being believes in the afterlife during its earthly existence. For if a person dies in the delusion that death is the end of all things, he will be confused after his physical death and will not believe that he has died, since he is still alive; he will therefore try to continue his earthly activities and habits, and in doing so he will realise that something is no longer right, and he will end up wandering around at a loss.
e) The astral world is like the earth in terms of landscape, so it has mountains, valleys, water, animals, trees, flowers, cities, etc. Terrible images are described from the lower spheres. Good spirits take care of the tormented as soon as they are called. They help them to see reason and, if they repent, lead them to purer worlds. But the higher spheres are already filled with peace and beauty and offer many more comforts than the earthly world. The isolated spiritual being enters an environment appropriate to it, and its desires for home, garden, lifestyle, etc. are immediately realised. There is a vibrant spiritual, cultural and social life.
f) The spiritual being's path and mission in the hereafter is a direct continuation of its earthly path. It is placed on the plane of existence that corresponds to the level of development it has reached on earth. This can also be explained physically: spiritual progress or regression during earthly life also affects the astral body, giving it a higher or lower frequency, and after physical death the spirit enters the sphere that has the same frequency - this is a kind of automatic judgement, the spiritualist counterpart to the biblical Last Judgement. The whole journey of the spirits is characterised by a pedagogical evolutionism, which has the following features:
The spiritual being is free in its choices and its destiny is in its own hands.
It is by nature destined for spiritualisation and achieves this through increasing knowledge and moral refinement.
Stagnation or regression on this path of self-perfection automatically leads to descent to a lower plane of existence, and ascent only occurs when the yearning for spiritualisation is reawakened. Each higher sphere surpasses the lower in scenic splendour, in the wealth of opportunities for education and broadening of horizons, and in the spiritual-ethical qualities of its inhabitants.
Parallel to the ascent, knowledge, purity, joy and bliss increase. The path of ascension thus opens up limitless possibilities for spiritual beings to realise and develop themselves in the boundless abundance and glory of the divine universe. This self-realisation is the work of the spirit itself, and pedagogical evolutionism ensures that all spiritual beings will eventually achieve this goal.
The books of the former priest Johannes Greber (1876-1944) have become very important for Christian Spiritualism. Someone also gave me his book 'Communication with the Spirit World, Its Laws and Its Purpose' and I read with fascination how the priest came to know mediumship and the unusual events that occurred during mediumship. The books of the Frenchman L. H. D. Rivail, alias Allen Kardec (1804-1869), also helped to spread Spiritism. I subscribed to 'Messages from the Beyond' from the Spiritual Lodge in Zurich, received the book 'Personal Survival of Death' by E. Matthiesen and the volume 'This Side and the Other Side of the Wall' by Friedrich Härdle. In Vienna I visited a circle that practised communication with the other side. I quickly lost any chance of checking whether the dead were really speaking to the assembled group by asking too direct questions too soon. But even in retrospect, I doubt that I would ever have had the opportunity for a scientific investigation. The leader took the process for granted and did not feel the need to verify it. He wanted his work to help people understand that there is life after death, something he himself had long been convinced of. He certainly meant well and tried to help in his own way.
In Vienna, Raimund Kubasek founded the 'Cosmological Club', experimented eagerly and tried to shed light on the darkness of the secret sciences. He was an extremely critical person and wrote a series of works characterised by nobility of mind, love of truth and charity. In the last words of his work 'A Ray of Light into the Darkness of the Secret Sciences' he says: 'To be a sincere counsellor and guide to one's neighbour in truth and kindness is the noblest work of man. It seems to me that he felt and thought as he wrote.
In my opinion, Spiritism has been repeatedly questioned and rejected not without good reason. You don't need spirits from beyond the grave to move tables, make strange noises, knocks and light effects in darkened rooms lit by candles; a few banal tricks are enough to astonish people who expect a few tricks from alleged spirits for a change. There is no need to think seriously about it.
Spiritists, who see communication with the spirit world not as a form of entertainment but as a path to greater knowledge of life, naturally reject these mundane activities, any form of obscuration and any secrecy. These spiritists are honestly and sincerely trying to find out the truth about the meaning of life and the possibilities of life after death.
But can't even the most truth-seeking spiritists be wrong? Isn't it possible that even the most honest seeker of truth can fall into the trap of spiritual deception?
Looking back, I can say that in the many years that I have been involved with spiritualism and the like, I have repeatedly succumbed to deception, although I have tried to discern the truth and nothing but the truth. There are hidden desires and hopes within us that create expectations in one direction and disappointments in the other. It is only slowly and gradually that our personality matures, that our desires and hopes fade, that our vision is widened and our eyes are sharpened.
Spiritual communication with the beyond has always existed. Even Yahweh speaks of fortune-telling spirits who must be killed immediately because they do not confirm the religious lies of the desert god, but warn people of his mischief. Among the peoples who believed in good and evil gods, it was common practice to consult the gods. Many people turned to soothsayers for advice before making important decisions.
The problem is that very few people are interested in the truth, and those who seek it face almost insurmountable problems. If you want to know more about this, read the works of Johannes Greber and Raimund Kubasek, two people who were truthful and sought the truth wholeheartedly. Pastor Johannes Greber came into contact with beings who knew that many of the teachings of the Catholic Church were false. They tried to enlighten him about what seemed wrong to them. Raimund Kubasek seems to have been the first seeker of truth to realise that true knowledge can only be found through insight and not through faith.
I once read a comment in a psychic report that made me think. I do not remember the title of the work or the exact wording, but it was about the fact that there are worlds beyond where the inhabitants do not believe in God. Raimund Kubasek had apparently been in contact with beings who had realised that faith was false and believed that Christ was the true god. Through his writing mediator he received a report on the life of Christ, which he published under the title 'Life Recognition II'. This report was later published with some changes by Franz Woller under the title 'Factual Report from the Eternal World for all Peoples of the Earth'.
The editor of the work 'Life Cognition II' by Raimund Kubasek describes the efforts that Raimund Kubasek undertook on his way to Life Cognition. I would like to reproduce this preface in part because it shows how almost impossible it is to penetrate to the truth. Even if you reach true beings, it does not mean that they are free from error. Just as you can believe what you want, so you can 'know' what you want. Humans, like beings in the afterlife, can err, put forward all sorts of theories and be convinced that they have realised the 'truth'. This is what happens when one is not thoroughly honest, when one accepts excuses and turns a blind eye here and there.
Now you may think that there is confusion everywhere, here in this world and 'over there' in the hereafter. We feel this way because we live in earthly reality and do not see too far. However, this earth and the spheres near the earth are only a very small part of the whole of creation. If we were elsewhere, we would be more than surprised at earthly thinking.
Our mistake is to expect some kind of central office where the truth is stored in a colossal archive and can be retrieved. Such an archive, where information about world systems and galaxies is stored and supervised and administered by God, does not exist and is superfluous in terms of truth. Therefore, there is no retrievable information about the life of Christ. If someone asks about it - like Raimund Kubasek, for example - then the beings in the hereafter try to answer the questions as correctly as possible. They ask different beings who they think should know, and they may ask others, and so on, and the result looks as it should.
Two thousand years have passed since the life of Christ. Much of it has been falsified, twisted and obscured. Countless people have taken this spiritual hodgepodge with them into the afterlife and spread it further. So it is understandable that soon no one on earth or in the hereafter will know what really happened. When asked, people try to tell people 'the truth'. They try hard, but the result is again only a belief, albeit now formulated in the spirit of knowledge.
Here is an extract:
"From about 1910 Mr. Raimund Kubasek also began to investigate occult powers. Initially, as a layman and a great sceptic, he visited numerous spiritualist circles as a guest. He then examined countless experiments with various mediators and was finally convinced of the existence of unknown forces. Gradually he became convinced that spiritual beings from the beyond could communicate through a mediator. With the help of this communication, the scientist tried to penetrate deeper into the realm of spiritual knowledge. Rarely did he receive clear and logical answers to the questions he posed to the beings from beyond. Accustomed to rejecting phrases, theories, assumptions and suppositions, as well as dogmas and mere belief in a mysterious Supreme Being, he was not satisfied with the few useful answers he received. Determined to get to the bottom of the madness and ignorance of the otherworldly beings, he continued his intensive research in this direction. In this endeavour, the scholar soon encountered fanatical opposition and often malice from most of the circle members, who would not tolerate any criticism of the manifested spirit. It was noticeable that in all the circles the participants had no interest in profound questions, and were mainly drawn together out of curiosity and sensationalism. Furthermore, the manifesting beings from the beyond only said and answered what the circle leader and the séance participants expected. The researcher realised that the circle leader was primarily responsible for the spiritual attunement of the mediator and that, due to the unified thinking and feeling of those gathered, only beings from the hereafter of the same spiritual disposition and similar character could find an attunement. Furthermore, many beings who have been living in the afterlife for decades, often centuries, have the same ignorance in the spiritual-mental realm, the same credulity and also the same reprehensible character traits as they had as human beings.
In order to be able to continue his research unhindered and independently, Mr Raimund Kubasek trained one of his office colleagues, who showed great interest in this endeavour and also had good mediumistic abilities, to become a hearing, writing and speaking mediator. Other mediators made themselves available for various experiments, and in the following years the researcher had the opportunity to delve deeper into this field of knowledge. He recognised the powers of suggestion, hypnosis and telepathy, the great responsibility of the experimenter and, not least, the dangers of spiritualistic communication for the layman and the easily influenced. He also emphasised that the decisive factor for the correct spiritual attunement of the mediator is above all the leader and director of the mediator. It is imperative that he fulfil the spiritual and character requirements and have the necessary experience in this field to be able to judge the transmitted spirit impartially and objectively.
Mr Kubasek took great pains to attune his colleague, who had hitherto been the most reliable of all mediators, so that gradually beings of higher thought and good character could also communicate through him. With their clear and logical answers, these beings filled many gaps in the researcher's knowledge. It was his aim to contact the former disciples of Christ through a suitable mediator and to receive a factual report of the great event.
He did not want to keep this report and the results of his research to himself or to a small circle of people, but to offer it to all people without exception and let them benefit from it.
During this time, the researcher gave public lectures, wrote a book entitled 'A Ray of Light into the Darkness of the Secret Sciences', wrote relevant articles for newspapers, held discussions with well-known psychiatrists and influential church personalities, and began to work on individual topics for his philosophical-scientific work: 'Life Cognition Volume I'. In 1923 he founded a social organisation which was to become an educational institution for free knowledge of creation, God and the nature of life, based solely on insight. Anyone interested in cognitive knowledge could join the association. In regular lectures, followed by discussions, and with the help of practical examples, Mr Kubasek endeavoured to introduce his listeners to the spiritual and intellectual field of knowledge.
Over the years the number of members grew steadily. Some fanatical defenders of the faith also joined the association. They had come mainly out of curiosity and soon rejected the principle laid down by the founder: 'To be free and truthful in thought and helpful to one's neighbour'. This small group of people managed to influence and mentally attune the researcher's colleague and mediator to such an extent that only spiritual beings with the corresponding way of thinking could adapt to him. At first covertly, but then more and more overtly, the beings from beyond also took a stand against the researcher. He bore the worst threats, malice and slander with the greatest calmness and patience, still striving to restore harmony and not to lose the mediator. But all the scholar's efforts were in vain. The mediator was no longer in the right spiritual frame of mind, and so further positive cooperation was impossible.
Mr Kubasek was not discouraged by the difficulties, disappointments and hostilities. Undeterred, he continued to search, research and teach, and also to work on his first volume, 'Life Knowledge'.
One day in 1931, a member of the Association and personal friend of Kubasek's turned up at his home and asked Mr Kubasek to test his psychic abilities. He explained that he wanted to offer himself as a mediator for Kubasek's further research. The test did indeed reveal psychic abilities. However, the scientist took some time to consider the matter, because training and proper spiritual attunement require a lot of time and effort, and the basic psychological character of the mediator is important, and certain conditions must be met by all parties involved. It was only after careful consideration and further extensive discussion with his friend, a quiet, modest man, and his friend's wife, that the scientist decided to take on the training.
In order to be able to devote himself fully to his new task, Mr Kubasek took early retirement. It took him just over a year to complete the training and find the right spiritual attunement. Then the researcher had achieved his goal. He had succeeded in establishing direct spiritual contact with the former disciples of Christ through the new mediator. They were able to express themselves without restriction because the will of the mediator was completely eliminated and his soul and body showed the necessary attunement and condition.
The training had taken place quietly, and in the same way the present report was produced within three years by means of mediumistic communication. The researcher worked mainly with the former disciple John the Younger. With him he discussed all the details and events of the period in question, repeatedly asking questions in order to get a clear picture of all the events of the time of Christ. As far as possible, the scholar tried to speak personally to the former participants through the mediator. Then, in consultation with John, he selected the events that were relevant to the work. Usually late at night, when the mediator was undisturbed, he would go into a trance and, using the other body, John would write down the events and incidents already discussed and selected. The next day, these writings were given to Mr Kubasek, who edited them and then used them as the basis for the factual report. While working on this report, the mediator followed the instructions of the researcher to the letter. He showed no interest or curiosity in what he said or wrote".
The available information suggests that there may be, and has been, a spiritual connection with the beyond, although probably only with the 'world spheres' close to the earthly world. In any case, as an open-minded researcher in the spiritual field for many years, I have never succeeded in obtaining any usable information through a mediator. For example, a mediator who had read my article on the Internet wrote to me that he could contact Jesus and even God. After I asked him a simple scientific question, he broke off contact with me.
I have the impression that it will not be possible in the near future to contact worlds where beings live in the spirit of truth and charity, where harmony reigns and lies, hypocrisy and malice are unknown. Over the centuries and millennia, human beings on Earth have created so many misleading and even malevolent forces with their thoughts, thereby separating the Earth from worlds and world systems of peaceful and harmonious attunement, that it will probably take some time to achieve a breakthrough with true and loving thoughts.
The factual report has driven me to near despair on several occasions. On the one hand, it conveys sublime thoughts that could be one hundred per cent correct. On the other hand, you can see how certain texts have been changed after they were found to be inaccurate. I understand that there have been difficulties in transmission, and I also understand that people want to add their own meaning. But that understanding has to end somewhere. If it becomes clear that those who claim to teach the truth do not always take it seriously, or do not really understand the concept of truth (truthfulness), then this must not be tolerated under any circumstances. Any teaching, no matter how lofty and beautiful it may sound, must be tested in daily life! For example, if beings from the other side claim that they are always happy to help with the realisation of truth, then they should prove it. If they say that they can testify to this or that, then it is not enough to write it down through a mediator (unfortunately you can write whatever you want!), but they must use methods that are comprehensible. For example, if the disciples of Christ knew that Christ's teachings would be falsified, then they should have written down Christ's teachings and kept them somewhere where they could be found two thousand years later. If the writings found two thousand years later, in a cave or elsewhere, agree with earlier medial transmissions, then that is evidence that has scientific significance.
Reality may be simpler than we think. In the abundance of information, we miss the basic facts. We live in one of the many, many worlds that exist in our universe, a world of contrasts, a world where terrible laws of nature prevail. We cannot know why we are here, no matter how hard we try. In this world of ours, we can learn a great deal if we want to, and we can learn to distinguish between what is true and good, and what is untrue and evil. But life is a comparatively short time and then we go to a sphere in the hereafter and then again to a planet in our universe. Perhaps we live only for a limited time in this world that we come to later - it is pointless to dwell too much on such speculations. Let us try to learn in this world instead of escaping into fantasy worlds, let us try to grow spiritually and emotionally and develop compassion and love for other living beings. What is the use of beautiful-sounding information from a supposed afterlife that ultimately serves more to distract and mislead than to find the truth?