Perhaps I lived before
In some strange world where first my soul was shaped,
And all this passionate love, and joy, and pain,
That come, I know not whence, ans sway my deeds,
Are old imperious memories, blind yet strong,
That this world stirs within me...
George Eliot(1819-1880)
The Spanish Gypsy

No matter how sophisticated earthlings may become, they cannot escape concern about what happens after they die. In the last few decades many stories have been told by and about those who have come back from the dead. How many of these stories are sheer fabrication and how many have some factual side is difficult to establish. But, as the old saying goes, Where there is so much smoke, there must be fire.

In Reincarnation, Papus submitted what surely must be one of the first of these accounts as well as one of the best and most instructive. It is presented here with only minor changes to meet the language demands of today.

He wrote, "In spite of what others may say, there are many cases of the dead having returned to the world after passing through what the Egyptians called the ‘Gates of Death'--RO. This name, RO, was also given to a variety of black-spotted beans, which accounts for the dislike of the Egyptians and Pythagorians for these legumes, which symbolized, to them, the Gates of Death and the mysteries of Proserpine.

Figure 4: Physical death and birth in the Æthereal world.

"In these later mysteries the initiated individual was ‘undoubled' and passed consciously through the Gates of Death. He, then, by methods still known only to the Egyptian priests, was brought back safely. From that time on, he was as convinced of life beyond the grave as he was of the existence of the Sun and Moon. That is why he assumed the title of ‘Scribe of the Two Lives' or ‘Twice Born' (Dwija in Sanscrit) or ‘Baptized.' (1)
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(1) This would, indeed, be a baptism of immense value. Think of the many fears that would be removed by such an experience. Unfortunately, it would not be accepted in today's climate, even if it could be accomplished. Skeptical science would call the results self-hypnosis, or the like, in order to preserve the integrity of their material world concept. That the Nazarene was familiar with this sort of thinking is manifest in His statement, "None are so blind as those who will not see."
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The "Death" Of Louise Michel

"Below is an account of the impressions of one who was
resuscitated from death, as given by the celebrated materialist of our own time, Louise Michel.

" ‘It is probable that, apart from certain general details, each one of us experiences feelings peculiar to himself at the approach of death. I give you mine, together with the circumstances which accompanied them.

" ‘I had undertaken, in February l904, a prolonged lecturing tour with Comrade Girault. I had chosen for my subject, ‘Taking Possession' and Girault, ‘Towards the Happier Life.' The two lectures complemented each other. They could be given a hundred times without being the same, since the taking possession of the Earth by humanity commences in the midst of the ruins of the old world, through which the new seed grows. It is among these ruins that nations are trying to guide themselves towards a better, fuller, and nobler life.

" ‘The tour was to include about thirty towns in France, also Corsica and Algeria.

" ‘As I had crossed over from England, we gave our first lectures at Calais, Roubaix, Tourcoing, and Liancourt.

" ‘A snowstorm having overtaken us at Liancourt, I was beginning to struggle against a severe chill, of which sometimes I got the upper hand, while at others it got the better of me.

" ‘I spent a few days at Troyes, as the doctor and my colleague were against my giving the lecture at Chaumont. I did not wish to give trouble by refusing, although I felt that my will power would be weakened, as the will becomes warped like the blade of a sword if it is compromised, and it seemed to me that by going to Chaumont I should be cured. It was at Chaumont that I had pursued my studies, and Chaumont and Paris were the only towns I had seen before my journey to New Caledonia.

" ‘When I went for the lecture at Toulon, I thought I had triumphed over my illness, and it was in this belief that I spoke at the end of my lecture. But when I reached the Hotel Terminus where I was to take a couple of days' rest, it was I who was conquered, as the cold had developed into congestion of the lungs.

" ‘I was soon reduced to such a state that I called to mind that phrase which expresses the annihilation of all bodily strength, "a human wreck." It seemed to me indeed that my body was dragging along like a rag; my mind was exteriorized, and seemed to be gazing upon the body as it would a stranger....

" ‘At the approach of death everything becomes a sensation. First of all, under conditions comparable to those of the needle of the compass seeking the North during a cyclone, the senses can be employed indiscriminately. Later on, there seems to be one sense only, which includes all the others.

" ‘I seemed to read between my fingers the telegrams which my friend Charlotte held in her hands.

" ‘The agony consists in a state of bewilderment, rather than of pain. There is a feeling of slipping into the elements, with two impressions - one which carries you away with the stream, and the other which scatters into space the body, whose molecules break up just as an aromatic substance spreads into the atmosphere, or a coloring substance mixes with a liquid. This sensation is not altogether unpleasant, and it seems as if it might continue for a long time.

" ‘Thought is materialized into symbols or pictures, and in this form becomes stronger and nobler.

" ‘Memory consists of impressions that have been formerly experienced, and which are renewed with increased vigor. Thus, sensations of a kind similar to those which I was experiencing in the present recurred to me, but with greater forcefulness, on account of the situation itself.

" ‘In New Caledonia, during a cyclone, the Earth, sky, and ocean had become one great darkness, in which the unfettered elements were howling, while torrents of rain were pouring into the waves that rose in haste, trying to climb to the shore with their foam-covered claws. I clung to the rocks, in order to resist the roaring abyss which was drawing me down into its depths. Thinking that in remote ages our home was in the elements, I gathered a similar impression while I was slipping into the infinite, feeling sure that death is a return to the elements.

" ‘I also remembered an impression of the infinite, though of a different kind. One of our friends, Mr. Huot, was playing on his violin a composition of a Nihilist who had died without passing on his name. Again I experienced the sensation of an abyss, against whose narrow and damp walls I struck my arms in the darkness. Again I heard the voice of the elements, as during the cyclone, but this time they were singing.

" ‘When speech becomes difficult, when the voice is merely a breath that can hardly produce a sound in the throat, when thirst ceases, when the limbs become as heavy as lead, a great calm falls. Things seem natural. You see yourself from the summit of the mind, the body is stretched out in front of it. You do not wonder whether you are going to live or die. You look on - nothing more. You look here and there, all over the world, which seems to have become smaller, too small for the human race not to be one people.

" ‘You look far and near, at the dead and the living, and like a stone thrown into the water, you see yourself surrounded by concentric circles (doubtless waves of electricity) which travel far, far away. . . .

" ‘Time weighs like lead, the past seems still to exist, the future is now, the personality has vanished, and you go on looking; you yourself are a look.

" ‘A nebula spread before my eyes like a thick fog. I no longer saw the people who were in my room, except by their outline and stature, as if each one had become a shadow. . . .

" ‘In the distance, thought still materializes itself as pictures. War appears as a huge bloodstain strewn with the dead and the dying, and the riderless horses with their manes flying in the wind. Further away the great disaster is in full swing - mothers, children, and forsaken old people; fire lighting up the ruins, famine, pestilence, as in olden times, and yet, humanity having attained to its first youth, the old cavern is gradually invaded by the Light, by Science, and by Truth, just as the caves full of wild beasts were invaded by the human families, torch in hand, after they had discovered Fire.

" ‘How I climbed out of this abyss I cannot say. It is a real and cruel pain, after the molecules have been or are on the point of being dispersed, to come together again, to reascend the stream of life; for the stilled voice to pass again through lips that had become motionless.

" ‘Was it the sympathetic current coming from all directions towards me, which helped Charlotte and my clever doctor, Bertholet? One thing struck me particularly, that is, that while so many others die forgotten by everyone, I should try to deserve this sympathy too great for one creature.

" ‘In this study of myself, I had made a mistake in my reckoning of the time. In spite of the vicissitudes of my illness, the time seemed shorter than it actually was.

" ‘When I began to feel better, I estimated at eight days the agony that had lasted nearly four weeks, and I thought of the stories in which sleep that had lasted for a century or more, had seemed only a few hours.(2)
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(2) Here is another example of the difference between God's time and the time we as humans know. These differences are such that, as we advance in our personal growth, we come to realize there is, in fact, almost no interrelationship between the two forms of time.
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" ‘Meanwhile, far away in the East, the question is being solved with blows. The rice in Manchuria would grow in blood for the benefit of Russian and Japanese financiers, and the greater glory of the tsar, were the students and moujiks (Russian peasants) to permit a repetition in the North of the days of l789 and l793.

" ‘Brotherhood among the nations is cemented by so much bloodshed that none of the onslaughts of autocrats and their innocent herds can ever break up a particle of it.

" ‘As regards war and disaster, if the lessons taught the human race by all the great slayers of men have not been understood at last, we might believe that humanity is more stupid than the animals. With the new generation of the twentieth century, however, a new era of knowledge and peace is commencing, in which each and all will employ for their own happiness and that of others, the Arts, Sciences, and discoveries that will be made by more developed brains and larger hearts.(3)
" ‘Louise Michel.'"
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(3) Pope's line,
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast,
"Man never is but always to be blessed,"

has rarely been shown so poignantly to be true than in this statement. We can but wonder what this Soul would now say about the twentieth century. Her desire for mankind was certainly a worthy one, but humanity at that time had already sown too much evil Karma to be let off the hook easily. The twentieth century has, in fact, proven to be the bloodiest in history. We are nearing the final reckoning of these deeds. Evils will increase for a time, however, until all civilization has made a conscious choice to follow either good or evil. This choosing should be completed by the end of this century so that the twenty-first century should, indeed, fulfill the dream Louise Michel held for the twentieth. First will come the Age of Reconstruction as the establishments of the world are rebuilt following their rending during the last days of this century. Once the reconstruction is under way, the long-awaited New Renaissance will commence.
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Other Accounts of Death

From the experiences of Initiates, and from accounts given by those who have returned, we may surmise much concerning the state of a human being immediately after death.

In normal cases, the sensation of death is not painful, except in suicide. The sensation is analogous to that which is experienced in a boat gliding upon water, hence the barque of Isis, the barque of Charon, and the mythologic conceptions that pictured to ancient peoples the sensations of the world after death. To people of the present day, the sensation may be likened to a journey in a smoothly gliding jet plane as it crosses the stratosphere. The deceased does not know he has undergone the transition we call death; he believes he is asleep.

At the same time, as death on this plane is a real birth on what we here call the invisible planes, the dying person meets his relatives and others whom he had considered lost. These gather around him and celebrate his arrival with bursts of enthusiasm, even as the forsaken ones on Earth weep and believe that the separation is final.

During three days, says the tradition of the Initiates, the spirit, accompanied by its guide, may visit all the places on Earth it would like to see. It may appear either in a dream or directly (phantoms of the living) to the loved ones it has left on Earth. It may even - and this often happens--follow its own funeral from its ethereal vantage point. Then sleep comes.

The new spiritual organs must accustom themselves to the planes on which they are to function in the future, and as Nature never omits a stage in its progression, this adaptation to the new conditions takes place gradually, in accordance with the previous degree of evolution of the individual human Soul.

For those who have reached Soul Consciousness and those who are already familiar with the Soul World, this evolution is dispensed with, and the passage through the Gates of the Zodiac is easily and quickly made.

For the uninitiated, evolution is slower, and it may be a month or a year before the awakening comes. Here, again, all depends on the person. The ancient Hindus, who thoroughly studied these differences of time, maintained that one year on the spiritual plane is equal to 365 years on the physical plane.

Therefore, it is easy to see why, when beings from the Soul World visit Earth, they may be disoriented as far as time is concerned. This concept is not as difficult for us to comprehend today as it was in the time of Papus, as we now accept as fact the possibility that time stands still for the space traveler.

Details regarding the activities of the spirit in the Soul World are matters of individual evolution. Some departed humans may take part in the evolution of other Heavenly Beings. For example, to participate in the life of RA (the Sun God or chief Deity) was the ideal of the Egyptians.

Those who do not have much Soul development at this time may take part in the evolution of a mineral. Others may help in the creation of Earthly inventions. It would take volumes to describe the details of these subjects whose existence is merely outlined.

When the initial sleep is over and awakening has taken place, the new being in the Soul World first uses his now fully developed Ætheric organs to help the general evolution and, later, to prepare for his own future Earthly home. We say "Earthly," but some knowlegdeable Initiates have held that reincarnation can take place on any planet, in any system, presuming that the system of astronomy taught by contemporary scientists is correct.
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