The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives. (cont.) Gospel of John, Chapter 8
- Chapter 58 -
Soul and body. State of a secularized soul in the afterlife. The moon and its inhabitants.
Said Nicodemus: "O Lord, this Your merciful question is answered by itself according to the feeling of every person; the clearest answer lies already in the question itself, and it would be very needless to provide any answer. But I take it, that You most graciously wanted to indicate, that a perfected soul after leaving the body will see Your whole creation in an endlessly clearer light, as it would ever be possible in the temporal life, and that such a soul will have a many times clearer recollection of everything it ever experienced, took part in and gone through on earth than it ever could be possible in the body. - O Lord, have I answered correctly?"
2
Said I: "Completely, and therefore I would like to show you the reason, so that in future nobody should say: 'Yes, He as the Almightiest has told it to us to believe it, and most likely everything will be so, as He Himself has taught us, without telling us in more detail the how and the why!' No, I do not wish to teach you like this! Because I want to give you an understanding of the secrets of the kingdom of God. And so listen to Me!
3
The body, as it is, could not on its own as dead matter, see anything, nor hear, feel, smell and taste without a living soul within it. It is therefore only a necessary instrument of the soul, thus build and properly fitted for the soul to use it in the outside world. By means of the body it can see outwardly, hear and feel which is unpleasant and pleasant. It can move from one place to another and can do manifold work with the hands.
4
The driver of the body's limbs is the intellect of the heart and its will; because the body does not have on its own a mind or a will, except if the soul itself melts into the flesh by its worldly and sensuous desires, and gets thereby very much lost in its flesh, so that it therein loses the consciousness of its spiritual identity. Then of course its entire intellect and will has also become completely flesh. In this case the soul is nearly as good as completely dead, and if it hears something of a pure spiritual independence and of a spiritual life after death of the body, it considers it to be absurd.
5
But even such a fleshly soul does not actually die after the painful death of its body, but continues to live in the spiritual world; but its life is then just as meagre as its recognition and self-awareness in a purely spiritual sphere. Now, such a soul continues to live of course just as in a somewhat brighter dream and often does not know that it has already lived in another world, but it lives and acts according to its accustomed sensuality. And if it is admonished by brighter spirits revealing themselves to it, it does not believe them and mocks and treats those who tell her the truth with contempt.
6
It takes a very long time in the beyond, until such a world-loving and fleshly soul reaches a higher level of brighter recognition. As it becomes brighter and brighter, its recollection returns in the same degree as it becomes brighter, and it then can see, hear and feel everything what happens above and in the earth.
7
But if a soul is already here on this earth perfected through the spiritual rebirth and has thereby obtained the ability to see and clearly observe the purely spiritual and heavenly things, it also reaches the correct and completely true view of the whole material creation in itself and knows everything, even what happens on the moon, what happens on the sun, what the stars are and why they have been created, and everything that is on and in them.
8
When such a perfected soul has been released from its heavy body, its viewing becomes completely similar to God, and it will then become - if it wants to - all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing and all-sensing. But if so, how should it therefore lose its recollection, because it can and shall in its godliness, create its own world to live in?
9
So that you can see and more deeply recognize, that what I just have told you is the fullest reality, I will for a few moments free your soul and the souls of some who are present here, and you can in this state say, what you have seen and what you have heard and have observed, - and thus it shall be!"
10
At this point a few were placed in a bright magnetic state, and at first they found themselves in an unfamiliar surrounding, which all liked a very much, so much that they were begging Me to leave them forever in this heavenly region; because they did wanted to return to this world at all anymore.
11
I asked them, if they could also see this world.
12
And all answered: "Yes, Lord; but we see it as if behind us and we seem to look through it!"
13
I asked them, if they could see the great city of Rome.
14
All affirmed this and described everything they saw.
15
When the Romans present heard this, they were surprised in how much detail the enraptured were able to describe the city of Rome, despite none of them ever having visited Rom, nor ever seen a picture of this city.
16
And I also asked them whether they could see the very far east of Asia.
17
And they all gave the answer: "Yes, Lord, we can see the actual end of this large part of the world; since further to the east we see nothing other than water and more water with the only exception of a few islands! But this is a very large empire, and we also see a tremendously large city, which is enclosed by a wall a day's journey long, with countless many people inside!"
18
Said I: "How are they dressed?"
19
Here they quickly described the clothes of these people very precisely, and one of the old Pharisees, later Greek Jews, was highly surprised, because he had the opportunity to see several Chinese in the extreme east of high India.
20
After that I let them have a look at the moon, and they described in short this dismal and bare world, in which they could see nothing other than a few groups of wretched, grey goblins. There was no tree and no grass nor an animal visible.
21
Upon that I awakened them again with the full recollection of everything they had seen.
22
When they were back in a completely natural state, Nicodemus said: "O Lord, this is wonderful! We were here, saw You and all the others clearly, but, nevertheless, we saw everything we have described very precisely and clearly, and I have now truly myself experienced, how indescribably clearer the vision of the free soul is than when it is tied to the body. We did not only see everything with more clarity whether it was close to us or very far away, but we also heard everything. And when we saw a tree or a house or a ship on the sea or a person or an animal, we saw it completely in its natural outer form; but we also saw through it, although the object was not transparent.
23
Yes, with people we even saw their thoughts, which in the beginning were visible as tiny pictures in their hearts. When such ascended like a swarm of mosquitoes to the head, they became clearer and more thoroughly formed, descended again back to the heart where they became larger and more defined and soon left the sphere of the person, grew larger and larger and formed a proper world around the person. But with the animals nothing of this kind could be seen.
24
But what is it with the poor moon? That it is a material world is obvious, - but so bare, arid and desolate like the highest peak of Mount Ararat! Who are those poor small, grey goblins? They have more or less the shape of a person; but, nevertheless, they seem to belong more to an animal species of this world body, although they seem to be rather spirits than any kind of material beings. For I noticed how one such goblin greatly increased in size and then again became small like a midget. If such a goblin were purely material, I think such enlargement and reduction of its body would be possible. - Thus, Lord and Master, what is it with the moon?"
25
Said I: "This, My friend, you will find out soon enough and you can discuss this with My disciples, who are quite familiar with all this. But I have to show and tell you much more important issues, - but this only after the morning meal. But for now the thirty Greeks will anyhow come up, will take a morning meal and discuss various matters with the youth over there. They arrive early, because the appearance of last night has also excited them."
26
Said Nicodemus: "Very good, very good, Lord and Master, only Your will be done! Only this I would like to know before, who is this so magnificent youth, where is he from, and what is his name."
27
Said I: "This you will find out at this opportunity! His name is Raphael."
28
Said Nicodemus: "According to the old scriptures this is the name of one of the archangels! In the end this is the archangel himself? If so, I could be overcome by a great fear! Yes, yes, I have said this right from the beginning!"
29
Said I: "And I have not contradicted you, but explained to you and all the others what and who an angel of God is. If so, why should you now be afraid of this angel, since you are also called to become an angel yourself? So that you are not in any doubt about this angel, know, that he is the spirit of Enoch! His body is now My will. Therefore I told you, that in heaven no other archangels exist and will forever not exist, except those who already lived in the flesh on one or the other world. - But now nothing further about that; since the Greeks are coming already! Do not tell them about Me; because their time to get to know Me has not yet come,!"
30
After that I went aside a little and the arriving Greeks were seated in the nearby tents. It is hardly necessary to mention that the morning meal for the thirty Greeks was already prepared on the table in the tent. It was also soon consumed by them."