In my last column, I boldly stated that heaven is for everyone, that all you have to do to go there is die, forgive yourself, release your guilt, make peace with your life and your death, and ascend. This statement was a real, “But of course!” thing for me, but it raised A LOT of questions for my husband. In particular, he wanted to know what happens to the spirit of a person who is incapable of feeling guilt, like a psychopath or serial killer? Do they have to stick around in an Earth-bound state until they get a conscience? Does the stuff that they did during their lifetime weigh on their soul, even though they have no remorse? Can those people ascend without acknowledgement of and forgiveness for their crimes? Do they go somewhere else for awhile? Does death have a way of opening a person’s eyes to right and wrong? Can death change a person?
Ah geez, those are some big questions. Let me establish a framework for my answers first: all people have a conscience, and all people have a soul — in life, in death, in life beyond death, always and forever. In general, people who choose a life of crime and violence, and in particular, psychopaths and sociopaths, live in denial of their conscience, and really, in denial of their humanity. It is a sad and disturbing state of affairs, that so many of us wind up like this, but it is not irreversible. People can — in life or in death — be brought back to themselves, out of their denial and back to their humanity, back to knowing right from wrong and love from hate. It is not an easy thing, but it is possible.
Also, there is no hell, no fire and brimstone place that the bad people go to when they die. If there is a purgatory (and I believe there is), it is the in-between state — in-between the here and the hereafter — that I deal with in my psychic work. All un-ascended spirits of the dead exist in this state as a transition. It is healthy and important for this purpose, but corrupting and rather foul if endured long-term.
Again, no spirit is beyond help, even one that has existed in an Earth-bound state for a very, very long time. BUT…. Really Bad People — like psychopaths and sociopaths who have little respect or love for their fellow humans and who choose a life of murder, mass-execution, cannibalism, extortion, torture, all manner of mafia crime, terrorism — in a dead spirit state, generally don’t make their peace and ascend, and instead stick around until their spirit energy is extremely corrupted. In this state, these spirits move even farther away from their humanity and seek out dark, abandoned places, where they can continue their nefarious activities without being seen or stopped. These nefarious activities can vary, but have at their heart the promotion of fear and violence. It is not surprising, then, that there are gangs of these types of Earth-bound spirits in areas where terrorist cells and mafia families operate.
I thought (briefly) that I should take a field trip for this column, to be able to provide a woman-on-the-street account of what one of these places is like. But I came to my senses in time. These are very, very dangerous places — not so much because of the spirit activity, but because of the influence the bad spirits have on the living. The corrupted, corrupting energy of bad spirits is disruptive to the natural order and natural energy of a place and works to corrupt the living people in that area to a life beset by mistrust, hatred, paranoia, crime, brutality, vengeance, and despair.
I am sensitive to all spirit energy, and I like sleeping at night, so I passionately avoid the places where the spirits of dead bad guys congregate. In my braver and more audacious moments, I think I shouldn’t do this, because like I said up top, there is no soul that can’t be helped. Particularly by me and others like me. It gives me chills to say that, though. My resident house-ghost Joe has been gone for two weeks, and this is the very thing I am afraid he will bring back with him when he comes — a dead crime family or terrorist cell. I will deal with them if he does, but oh boy, that will be a tough piece of work, getting a group like that to come back to their humanity, to feel and acknowledge their guilt, to take responsibility for their actions, to learn from their actions and inactions, to see the truth, to release their guilt and shame, and to let love in. It could easily take years. BUT….it could be done.
Remorse or no remorse, criminal activity weighs on the soul, and you don’t get to ascend until you acknowledge it, take responsibility for it, deal with it, learn from it, and make a commitment not to do it again. The twist in this column comes here, though: I have encountered souls that ascended with the burden of an injustice done to them, weighing on their soul; I have encountered souls that came into a new life, on the lookout for someone with whom they had “a score to settle” from a previous life; and I have encountered souls that reincarnated without taking responsibility for past wrongs against others. I have a hard time reconciling this with what I know to be The Rules For Ascension. And so I called upon Archangel Michael. And he said this: that we are a warrior race. And problems arise when someone believes themselves to be a warrior for good, fighting for truth and justice, fighting to right wrongs, but who isn’t doing that at all. True wisdom on these matters comes with the maturing of a soul through many lifetimes, and some souls just haven’t done that yet.
My husband’s questions started this column, and with his permission, his response to my first draft will close it. I should clarify that he is an ordained United Methodist Minister, and moves easily between the secular and the sacred. He said, “It is the nature of the soul to want to return to God, to yearn for heaven/spiritual reunion/universal unity, like water always wants to return to the sea. It’s like gravity, a law of nature; it’s how the soul is made. Even if water is polluted, even if it lies stagnant in a pool or trapped underground in a cave system, it wants to return to the ocean because that is where it came from to begin with. Sometimes it takes a long time. The soul of a severely damaged person, one so damaged that it doesn’t even know it’s damaged, may take a very long time to filter through layers of change and cleansing before it can return to the source. And the soul may have to engage in a quest or a battle to achieve it’s goal; but of course it would have to be motivated to do so. There are Biblical scholars who believe that the book of Revelation is actually an allegory of the journey of the soul after death as it travels towards heaven, or “the City of God.” In other words, this idea of the journey of the soul is an ancient concept. I see your work as one who helps the souls who have gotten caught in an eddy in the stream, or in a stagnant pool, find their way back to the journey and ultimately to the source of all life. For these very damaged souls, you help open their eyes to the reality of who they are and what they have become, and motivate them to consider that there is even a journey for them to take. It sounds silly, but I keep remembering the spirit of Mufasa in The Lion King saying to his son, Simba, ‘Remember who you are.’ This is what you do.”
True, that.