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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

When you have solved all the mysteries of life you long for death, for it is but another mystery of life.

—KAHLIL GIBRAN, 1883–1931

One of the great mysteries of life for most people is what will happen to us when we die. Do we just disappear into a black void, never to be seen or heard from again, or is there an afterlife?

Throughout history religions have held out the promise of heavenly rewards to obedient followers who earned the keys to paradise. For others who did not adhere to the rules, the road ahead was full of eternal suffering and pain as punishment for their sins. Sadly, many people still have these beliefs today.

Fear and uncertainty surrounding death prompted me to explore the mysteries of our final journey. As a broadcaster and journalist researching program material, I found my interest piqued by spiritual and metaphysical subjects, prompting the study of astrology in 1991. The uncovering of my psychic abilities soon followed, taking me down many fascinating paths. I conducted a spiritual development group for ten years, connecting with spirit guides and also doing readings.

In 1993 I met Judy, who helped me change my life. Her sudden death only four years later, though devastating, was the catalyst for my latent abilities as a medium to emerge. Judy, now residing in the world of spirit, has inspired and encouraged me to explore and write about the afterlife. Accepting the logical concepts of life after death and reincarnation, I was happy to oblige.

My metaphysics studies have proved to me the power of intention, paramount in any human endeavor. Once I’d committed to writing my first book, Afterlife, unexpected opportunities arose, astounding me with their scope, amazing me with insights, and bringing spirits and new people to my life-affirming quest.

When I opened my heart and mind to write, I was honored and excited to connect to the bountiful, loving, and inspiring energy of a new guide, simply called M. More about my relationship with this highly advanced master spirit will be explored and revealed later.

The afterlife—or as Judy appealingly called it, “the Heaven World,” when she spoke to me through the medium Ezio De Angelis—is invisible to us on earth. It exists in what is essentially another dimension.

After reading Afterlife, many people contacted me to say how they had been inspired to make positive changes to their lives. Others said how grateful they were to be able to release the fear of death that they had previously felt. Once we accept the fact that we do reunite with our loved ones when we pass over, we can take another load off our minds. When we accept that the soul is indestructible and life is eternal, we realize there is no such thing as “death.” We can let go of our fears and truly live each day to the fullest. Judy and I have shared many past lives, and will see each other again when I, too, return home to the Heaven World.

We may regard the earthly civilization we have created as complex, but it is just a tiny reflection of the vast size and scope of the spirit world. As my contact with those in the spirit world continued, I soon discovered that Afterlife had only scratched the surface.

No Goodbyes now takes us much deeper into this fascinating world.

Part One

1

My partner Judy died in 1997 after a brief illness. We had been together for four intense and tumultuous years, which were fortunately also full of fun, loving, and laughter.

Judy’s sudden passing shattered me for a long time. I had finally been reunited with my soul mate, only to lose her again so quickly. But a few months later we reconnected, as her spirit reassuringly spoke to me across the divide from the afterlife, via the medium Ruth Phillips. This connection with Judy was the beginning of a whole new life for both of us. As with most deaths, there is a hidden gift as well as the grief we experience when our loved one departs. When we are emotionally ready, we just have to look for this gift, which is not always an easy task, as it may not be obvious. My gift from Judy was the realization of my abilities as a medium, a process that has unfolded over the intervening years and continues to this day.

We have stayed in touch ever since. In a way Judy has become my spiritual muse. At first she was what I termed my “spirit wrangler,” as she gathered together other spirits in the afterlife for one-on-one readings and for the group development work that I was conducting.

An amazing series of events then unfolded. As the new millennium opened, I had “graduated” from working solely in mainstream broadcasting and journalism to produce and host an Internet radio show, Radio Out There, which covers all aspects of mind, body, and spirit themes. In many ways this proved to be the backbone for Afterlife, as I have been fortunate enough to interview hundreds of people from all over the world, many of whom specialize in life after death.

There is really no such thing as death. We are all eternal spiritual energies attaching ourselves to a physical body in order to have a human experience. We enjoy many lives, and our basic purpose is to have a full range of experiences so that we can grow and develop. We all return to the same place, a vast Heaven World, which is often referred to as the afterlife, comprising many levels and planes of existence, which surrounds our earthly world.

The Heaven World vibrates at a much faster rate than does the dense energy of the earth. This world is invisible to us on earth, existing in what is essentially another dimension, and is our real home. We leave it only to reincarnate and have a multitude of experiences by attaching our spirit to a physical body on earth, and also on other worlds.

Every contact I have had with spirits in the afterlife reinforces the fact that there is no such place as hell. However, adhering to the principle of “As above, so below,” there are lower levels where some dark spirits find themselves after leading violent, toxic, or degenerate lives. But forget any images of demons in a fiery pit armed with nasty pitchforks and evil grins—here the dark spirits are helped in a loving way by advanced spirits. Any “punishment” suffered is self-inflicted by the spirit once they look back in a life review with a Council of Elders on their previous activities. No matter what they have done, these dark spirits are given loving assistance to grow and develop before returning for another life.

When we return to the afterlife after each incarnation, we automatically find ourselves at the appropriate level of our soul development. We are able to communicate here only with the power of thought, as of course not having a body means no vocal cords. We communicate and create the environment in which we live through our thoughts.

The Heaven World is a place of love, peace, and spiritual support, helping us understand and embrace our full power as individual souls. The way we live our lives on earth directly affects our life and position in the world of spirit when we return after each sojourn. There is an old saying, “You can’t take it with you when you go,” but I beg to differ. Yes, we do leave our material things behind when we transition to the afterlife—they are of no use there—but what we do take with us is the spiritual legacy of the life we have just lived.

As an astrologer, psychic, and Johnny-come-lately medium, I was able to delve deeply into this fascinating world. Fueled by a curiosity to know as much as I could about life after death, I underwent some intense past-life regression. One notable exploration took me back to my last incarnation as Brian, a young British soldier who died in the bloody Battle of the Somme in July 1916. Remarkably, Brian took me on a huge voyage of rediscovery as I experienced his return to the world of spirit after his painful death in World War I.

When we return to the afterlife, every spirit passes through a healing center to release any residual effects of that past lifetime. Looking on from the sidelines, I followed Brian as he went into the healing center to cleanse his spirit after his grueling wartime experiences, afterward meeting the Council of Elders for his life review. There are many such councils comprising advanced loving spirits who oversee our spiritual progression. Finally he reconnected with his soul family in the afterlife to begin a period of rest, revision, and eventual preparation for his next life. Along the way Brian revealed to me how people live in the afterlife, their work, how they interact with their guides and other spirits, and also how they relax and enjoy their spiritual respite.

The wonderful thing about connecting with those who have passed over into the afterlife is that nothing can be taken for granted. Just when I thought I had all the answers I needed about the world of spirit, the powers that be decided to bring me back to earth with a thud.

When Afterlife was published, my natural thought process was to wonder . . . what next? Despite the fact that nothing immediately leaped into my mind as I cogitated and put out for guidance, Spirit obviously had it all mapped out.1

I was still communicating with the spirit of former screenwriter and film producer John Dingwall via the trance mediumship of his son, Kelly Dale. John had contributed a lot of fine detail to my earlier research on the spirit world documented in Afterlife, and Kelly wanted to keep channeling his father for personal reasons. We both felt this ongoing contact would also help Kelly as he developed his considerable talents in this area.

Kelly is a natural trance medium, and I have been working with him for many years, assisting him to use his skills in connecting with Spirit. Trance mediums allow spirits to communicate by using their physical body while they are in deep trance, unlike those who communicate with spirits while fully conscious. He’s now able to reach deep within himself to a place of peace and security, one where he is happy to rest quietly and allow an appropriate spiritual contact to share his body. Sometimes he remembers at the end of the session who has come through, but details are always sketchy at best. He refuses to listen back to our recorded sessions, to honor the integrity of the information received. He later became familiar with details of his father’s life in spirit after reading Afterlife.

Once Afterlife was published, I moved to a very peaceful area close to the Australian Casa, a branch of John of God’s healing center in Brazil. Situated on Kelly’s property, Eagles Nest, the casa is on an elevated ridge with sweeping views to the ocean, and the energy there is strong and pure. The calm and luxuriant natural environment is very conducive to quiet reflection and meditation, and we decided that whenever time permitted, Kelly would come to my house. He wanted to continue our sessions, as he felt a strong emotional bond with his father in the afterlife, and wished to maintain it. In our first session I thanked John Dingwall and his spirit friends for their contribution to the book, presuming that I had gone as far as we could go on the subject of the afterlife, and was just there for a chat. However, with John’s response, I was smartly pulled into line. He told me my book was just the beginning! There was a lot more information from Spirit that needed to be put into at least one more book.

To say I was taken aback is quite an understatement. I sat there with my mouth agape, for once in my life almost speechless. John went on to say that the advanced spirits in the afterlife are in the process of a concerted information drive to help people worldwide release their fears about death and embrace the fact that life is a continuing process. They also believe the time is right for people to be given as much information as possible about the continuing thread of eternal life, by revealing detailed facts about life in the world of spirit. John was selected as just one of many spirit communicators to work with people on the earth plane in every possible way to get the message out.

Subsequent research shows that Spirit was very active in this regard from the late nineteenth century through to the 1920s, a few years after the end of the Great War. In those years, there was a huge interest in the afterlife, because of various factors, including the huge loss of life in the war. Unfortunately this interest faded with the pursuit of scientific subjects taking over from the spiritual.

However, things are changing again, as people are asking questions that remain unanswered by science and other belief systems. We are constantly being sent messages from many different sources in spirit, embracing everything from more widespread contact with loved ones in the afterlife to the much-publicized subject of raising consciousness to new levels of awareness. The ongoing flow of information about our relationship with the world of spirit is an important part of our personal growth as well as that of society as a whole. Most important, with the increasing sophistication of communications technology, more and more people are starting to seek out this information.

Well, that certainly answered the question of what to write for the next book.

It was also the beginning of a series of communications with John Dingwall acting as the “spokespirit” for a specially selected group of spirits whose combined wisdom was channeled through his son, Kelly. There is nothing new in this procedure, as spirits communicating with mediums at séances conducted a century ago always referred to a “spirit control” as their inspiration. Whether mediums work in their conscious mind in a trance, they still work through a spirit control.

As our sessions unfolded over many months, John took us deeper and deeper into his world, revealing more aspects of the afterlife and exploring some of the mysteries of life itself. I soon discovered the truth of the saying “As above, so below.”

After a few sessions we decided the energy was more powerful for Kelly to do the sessions in a healing room adjoining the Australian Casa. Our spirit connection was immediately enhanced and became stronger as the weeks progressed. Kelly’s wife, Kristin, joined us in each session, as she and I needed to generate as much energy as possible to help John and Kelly maintain the levels needed for clear communication during the trance mediumship. Kristin usually conducts the regular meditation meetings at the Australian Casa and has become a strong channel. In the higher vibration of the afterlife, many spirits are needed to focus the energy levels required for trance sessions of this nature.

With Kristin’s strong support we were able to delve more deeply into the world of spirit than I had in the past. I was also inspired by the collective energy of a team of spirits to ask questions on subjects that I had not previously even thought of, obtaining fascinating extra layers of information about our ongoing life in spirit. Often these questions suddenly “popped” into my head, taking us into exciting new areas of exploration. I have since become convinced that this is part of the communication by thought that is available to us all when we are able to clear our mind of the barriers and distractions of our fast-paced daily lives and open ourselves to the possibility of spirit contact. As no voice boxes are available to spirits, most communication is done through thought transmission and physical sensations, unless they can speak through a trance medium. Some mediums use instruments to help spirits speak in séances, and a voice box device was very popular in Victorian times and is sometimes still used today.

My partner Judy transitioned to the afterlife in 1997, leaving me the gift of the opening to mediumship. When we are able to come to terms with the grief of people very close to us passing over, we will inevitably discover they have left us a spiritual gift. It may be self-awareness, forgiveness, freedom, realization of unconditional love, or one of countless other benefits that we were not aware of previously. With John giving fresh instructions to assist with a more in-depth afterlife exploration, I determined to find out as much as I could about Judy’s new life. A serendipitous meeting with UK medium Val Hood provided the catalyst for this exciting new series of contacts with Judy in the world of spirit. My good friend Ezio De Angelis made a further connection with Judy some months later. These wonderful communications proved to be a very important part of my research, and will be covered in detail in later chapters.

Most of us have had many past lives. Who and where we are in this lifetime is the karmic culmination point for all of our experiences so far. However, with the large population on earth now, new souls are constantly arriving here as well. Those people who have been around the traps many times are often referred to as “old souls.” New or old, we can all learn a lot about ourselves by exploring our past, as I was able to do after discovering my incarnation as Brian. The journey that his spirit made through the Heaven World, described in detail in Afterlife, whetted my appetite for more revelations, so I decided to delve further into the mists of time to explore more of my past. I received several shocks, which have provided fascinating material for many chapters later in this book.

One afternoon, during this period of past-life research, I was in deep meditation at the Australian Casa when I received a very strong message from Spirit: “The seeds of each life contain our past, and our lessons can be disguised as pain.”

My guide, simply known as M, later confirmed that this thought was given to me by Judy’s spirit, who I have been told is around me a lot of the time, along with M, especially while I am researching and writing about the afterlife.

The message resonated strongly at the time and stayed with me for several weeks, but as I dived deeper and deeper into the whirlpool of my own past I came to realize the truth of this revelation.

Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.

—SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ, 1897–1981,
2

At first it was difficult to establish regular connections with John and the spirit group. Kelly is not a full-time medium. He attends to the upkeep of his property as well as running the Australian Casa and is also a devoted family man with many demands on his time and energy. Taking a couple of hours out of his day to go into trance was not always easy, and Kelly also had to be in the right spiritual energy for it to work. Trance mediumship can also be physically draining, so we had to plan our sessions carefully.

As the sessions with John’s group progressed, the energy needed for clear communication between our two worlds intensified. John told us that a spirit cannot just decide to connect through a trance medium; support energy from other spirits is needed.

We quickly realized that John had not suddenly become the font of all knowledge, but was part of a combined and highly organized effort to impart information. John told us that advanced spirit helpers and teachers were working with him in each session to generate the energy required for our communications, as well as providing a reference source. As our sessions progressed John was soon able to virtually channel instant information from these higher sources as well as give us his own personal observations. If he didn’t know the answer to a question he would ask more advanced spirits in his support group, or for the more complex questions he was able to go away and gather information for our next session.

John described himself as a facilitator or host for his particular energy group. Often he did not know what was going to be said or relayed in our sessions; he said that sometimes it felt almost as if the information flow had been taken out of his hands. Because communication in the afterlife is purely by thought, with John as our host we were able to tune in to the thoughts of the whole group. My guide M later confirmed that the group energy we are communicating with comprises many advanced spirits at various levels in the afterlife. According to M, John is apparently also advancing rapidly in his own soul development, which is why he was chosen to host this group.

Just as we have a hierarchy on earth, so are there many levels or planes of existence in the afterlife. Advancement for each person to higher planes is determined by the growth of his or her soul over many lifetimes. This differs from the skills, contacts, and corporate and political means that we need to employ to progress in our daily lives on earth.

The highly evolved spirits working with the group are not actually congregating in the same place, but can send their energy and their thoughts to the main group from wherever they are located. They are able to fragment their energy, so that they can be working with John as part of the information flow while still carrying out many other activities at the same time.

Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself, and never mind the rest.

—BEATRIX POTTER, 1866–1943,
My spirit guide, M, who is a highly advanced spirit, is once again by my side, and every now and then my fingers on the keyboard respond unconsciously to his thoughts and directions. As I write about John and his group, M reminds me of my former work as a newsreader, for the purpose of comparison. While the audience sees or hears someone reading the news, the broadcaster is really only the front person for a whole team of people who have prepared the bulletin to go to air. Reporters, journalists, and producers, all backed by a support staff and headed by management, combine to bring the message to the audience. Their individual experience and skills are needed to ensure a successful team effort.

M tells me that it is a similar situation with John’s messages, and like the multitude of radio and TV stations broadcasting regular news bulletins in countries all over the world, ours is one of many such groups broadcasting from the afterlife. However, the intrinsic message is universal: Life continues beyond death, and soul evolution achieved through a multitude of experiences is the main reason we undergo life in a physical body.

One of the questions that puzzles many people is the difference between the soul and the spirit. It was important for John’s team to answer this question at the start of our new quest.

Essentially they are two separate energies that combine as one. The soul is the indestructible and perfect essence, which originally emerges from the Creator Spirit, or the Source, and embarks on a series of earthly adventures to explore and learn as much as possible until it eventually has no further need of a physical body. The spirit is the vehicle that the soul uses to have these experiences, both on earth and in the afterlife.

The soul, utilizing the energy of the spirit, attaches itself to the heart of our physical body so that it can have as many human experiences as possible in each lifetime. After each lifetime the soul returns to the afterlife to rest, reflect, and prepare for the next adventure. As John pointed out, that is why everything begins and ends with the heart. The two words heart and soul are often linked in our everyday conversations, such as “embracing something with all your heart and soul”; there have been countless popular songs, also a few films, with that title; many businesses also are registered under that name. At some level it appears we are happy to believe that the heart and soul are one.

Once we can accept that the soul is indestructible and life is eternal, we realize there is no such thing as “death.” We can release our fears and truly live each day to the fullest.

3

Perhaps it is my curiosity as someone who loves interviewing people that has led me down the track of investigating the afterlife. All I can say is that the more information I am given about the world of spirit and our relationship to it, the more questions spring up in my mind.

Feeling a little like Lewis Carroll’s famous literary character Alice, I invite you to join me as we further explore this timeless wonderland that we are all part of, and to which we will all return—again and again. So without further ado let us go behind the looking glass of our earthly life on an exciting voyage of discovery.

One of my favorite activities is people watching. Sitting in an outdoor café, sipping a coffee and watching the passing parade is a fascinating way to spend some time. As each face drifts or rushes by, absorbed in its own reality, it is intriguing how many unique stories are being played out all over the world every day. Every person is the star of his or her own personal drama.

Each of us experiences the end of life in a unique way. Some people are well prepared and ready to make the return journey home when the time comes, happy to reconnect with friends and family in spirit. Others cross over in great fear and denial. Some have no expectations of an afterlife, and spend the first part of their new journey coming to terms with the fact that life actually continues. These deceased people usually spend a period of adjustment in a sphere of reality they have created for themselves. This can often be a gray, misty world or even a place of complete darkness, sometimes referred to as the “shadow lands.”

The one thing we all have in common is that we eventually return to the world of spirit, no matter what our earthly status.

Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.

—ITALIAN PROVERB

The experiences we have in the afterlife, along with the contacts we make and the way we view our new conditions, depend on the individual spirit. It is no different from the way we lead our earthly lives, in which our environment, education, and the people around us, together with the choices and decisions we make, combine to create our reality. Each one of us represents the sum total of all our past experiences, and our actions and reactions reflect this history. We also live and work mainly in groups of people, family, friends, and colleagues, each of whom has a widely differing outlook on life as well as their own diverse activities and behavior patterns.

So it would be naive to think that we would all have the same experiences in leaving our body and crossing over into the world of spirit. It is perhaps similar to visiting another country on earth; each person has a unique experience with the people and events encountered, and shapes them accordingly. At the end of their travels, all people return home with their own special memories and photographs.

Our beliefs and activities in each life will determine the direction we take when we return to the spirit world. Those people who accept their ongoing existence, or who at least cross over with an open mind, are able to make the transition to the afterlife easily. When factors such as fear, ignorance, skepticism, and fundamentalism come into play, they can create blockages that need to be dealt with before that spirit can advance.

Ignorance is a big factor, especially in the event of a sudden passing. John spoke of children, teenagers, and others who had not thought about what happens after death. Because of that ignorance they often cross over in a state of confusion, but are then met by loving spirits who explain their new situation to them. This new existence must come as a shock to the skeptics who thought they were about to disappear into the world of eternal darkness. It seems to me that families need to talk to their children about all aspects of life, instead of leaving it to others, or letting them find out for themselves the hard way. This includes the transitional process that we call death.

John also spoke of those who cross over with ingrained archetypal beliefs of heaven and hell. When there are no Pearly Gates, no Saint Peter welcoming them, no traditional images of angels fluttering about in the sky, not even a harp on the horizon; quite often they believe they have arrived in hell. They can form a false impression because of the fundamental beliefs that have been programmed into their minds.

Sometimes in these confusing situations guilt comes into play, and then fear may take over, making their arrival in the afterlife very challenging for them and also for their family and friends waiting for them there. For a time many of these people live in denial and fear, according to John, who also works as part of a welcoming group for newcomers as one of his many duties in spirit. He revealed that it can be very difficult to help these new arrivals emerge from their set frame of mind and adjust to what is really happening around them.

John also pointed out that sometimes even evolved souls may have problems adjusting to the spirit world again, as they have left behind loved ones and find their last life very difficult to release. However, when they realize they can still make contact with those on earth, a huge weight is lifted from them. They know they have to leave the earth plane behind, but when they discover that they can still be in a position to eventually guide and help their loved ones, it is a lot easier.

Apparently, though, not all spirits want to stay in close contact with those on the earth plane; some are more than happy to let go of everything and everyone from that past life. They adopt the principle of “been there, done that” and are ready to move on. Contact is an individual choice, but sometimes it may be part of a soul’s destiny to immediately move on, as it is possible to return to higher planes to evolve or perhaps even to teach others in the afterlife. This allows them to release their earthly ties more easily, and also explains why some people communicate with loved ones back on earth, while others are never heard from again.

Just as on earth, everybody in the afterlife has tasks to carry out, and once settled in, is keen to pursue a range of new activities. Many people opt to continue with the activities they enjoyed in their previous life, and these can range from practical pursuits to artistic and cultural interests. Others prefer to pursue completely different activities, perhaps learning new skills or indulging in creative areas such as painting, music, or acting, which they were unable to enjoy in their previous life. Yes, they do produce plays and even films there!

John has continued to write in the afterlife, but chuckled as he told us he does not have to use his old typewriter, saying, “It’s a lot simpler now, as essentially information is gathered and then passed on.”

Spirits are also allotted other duties, which can range from assisting new arrivals to assimilate through to helping in one of the healing centers or places of learning. The level of this work depends on the soul’s development.

As on earth we can choose our leisure activities, so in the afterlife can we explore pursuits that may be creative, sporting, or whatever. John gave the example of a fisherman who still goes fishing every day, not just to catch fish, but to be part of and embrace the natural sights and sounds of his surroundings. The fisherman can enjoy the experience, even without a physical body. John described this as more of a sensation, such as we may experience in a vivid dream. Maybe my golf swing will improve when I get back there.

John said he still chooses to retain a sense of sight, even though he has no physical eyes to see through. He likens it to seeing a picture in the mind’s eye, which is the way a clairvoyant sees images. This method of vision apparently forms a crystal-clear picture in the mind’s eye of each spirit. Memory also plays a part in conjuring up these images for him. This is how he is able to play sports, watch films, and take part in any number of activities.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "No Goodbyes"
by .
Copyright © 2015 Barry Eaton.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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