The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Der Herr in der Stadt am Nebo
- Chapter 174 -
Experiences in the beyond.
On this, the supreme judicial city officer asked his father: "Then where is the place you are staying and what does it look like?"
2
The father said: "In our realm there is certainly no place of which one could say: 'Look this is it, or there, and this is what it looks like, and this is the way it is arranged', for with us, everyone is the place himself where he lives, and the scene and characteristics of that place correspond in every respect to the inner characteristics of the person.
3
According to an earthly calculation I am already quite some time on the other side and should have seen and experienced special things, but until now I did not see something that somehow corresponds with what this world believed, thought and invented about the world of the beyond. I searched for the river Styx and the skipper Charon and found neither of them. For some time I also had a Tartarus -fear of a fury and of the 3 relentless judges Minos , Aeacus and Rhadamanthus , but nothing of all that. I searched for the Elysium , traveled around far and wide as if through a big sandy plain, and look, no Elysium could be found. In short, I did not see or found anything or no one except myself and the very loose ground on which I stood.
4
After searching for - according to an earthly calculation - about 2 years, during which I searched in all directions through that endless sandy plain, I finally saw someone at a great distance who seemed to be in exactly the same condition as I was. I quickly walked to that person and was soon close to Him.
5
When I came to Him, I immediately asked Him: 'You seem to be in the same condition as I am. Nothing but a sandy plain under our feet, and it seems that there is no end to it. A haze above our heads which is more dark than light gray, and besides that, we only can see ourselves and our footsteps in the sand. Also, there is no wind, and certainly no water or another object. According to an earthly calculation I am wandering around for about 2 years in this sandy desert and cannot find anything with which to satiate myself or to quench a possible thirst. I know that I left what was temporal and wander around as a real poor soul in this desert, which is truly very unpleasant to me. I really tried in this apparently spirit or soul world to seek and discover everything in which I partly believed in the world, but nothing of all that.
6
After 2 years You are now the first appearance who are like me. Maybe You can tell me what can be done here and what can be undertaken to finally find a place that is more or less bearable, for I am tired of searching in this vast sandy plain and I do not like to make any more step forward or backward?'
7
Then the person, who seemed to be like me and in the same condition as I was, said: 'Yes, my fiend, there are numberless people like you in this realm who searched for many centuries for what you are searching. If you want to find something here, you should not do it in the same way as in the material world where one searches everything only outside of himself. The one who will do that here will eternally not find anything, for there is no other place or region here except himself, even if he would search it in all places of endless space.
8
So you should return into yourself with your thoughts, with your striving and willing and begin to search, to think and to form yourself. Only then will you find a place that corresponds to your thinking, forming, willing and your love. So behave as if you do not see this sandy plain and this gray haze above you, but go into the fantasy of your inner mind, then soon everything will come into another form for you. I let myself be found by you to tell you this.'
9
After these words, that person suddenly left me and let me standing on my sandy plain again. I took his words to heart and went into myself and began to think very lively, and as well as I could I drew in my fantasy a region and a place, and see, it did not take long to see my fantasy actually stretched out before me.
10
It was a valley through which a brook was flowing. Left and right were pastures and also trees and bushes, and at a certain distance I also discovered a village made from simple huts of farmers, and I had the feeling that I should go to that village.
11
But I thought by myself: 'If I will walk again, I finally will lose everything again that I created for myself with difficulty. Instead of that, I just will try to form such hut near this place. Then I very gladly will forever live in it and keep it.
12
I imagined something like that, and soon there was the hut, surrounded by a garden full of fruit trees with which I was completely satisfied.
13
I entered the hut to see in a certain way into myself what else there would be. Coming into the hut I saw that it was completely empty, and went even deeper into myself and thought about things upon which soon all kinds of objects appeared into that hut: chairs, benches, tables and also a resting bed, completely as I had thought.
14
And I further thought: 'The table is there now but there is no bread, wine or other food on it.'
15
While I was intensively thinking about it, there was already the bread and the wine on the table in sufficient quantity. When I looked at it I did not hesitate very long, grabbed quickly the bread and also the wine, for I was already very hungry and thirsty. And look, soon after that, I felt greatly strengthened, and my thinking and fantasy was much more lively and stronger.