The Processes of Death and Ascension
Martin Cecil July 20,
1977 Class
Della Robertson passed away on Monday. To put it
another way, the angel came forth but the form was inadequate to allow the
revelation of the coming forth of the angel; so the form fell away. Rightly so.
It is an interesting point but, I think it was after supper on Sunday, Della
insisted upon speaking to me and to Lillian and to Grace, and there was
something sensed at that time. She was in effect saying farewell for the
moment. In other words, the coming forth of the angel influences the human consciousness
in various ways. As we allow that coming forth to be more naturally experienced
while we live and serve then we certainly, in the earthly sense, become aware
of what it is that the angel is about and we find that it is increasingly an
experience of our own true expression. In this particular instance there was an
expectation and a sense of urgency, one might say, appearing through her
consciousness which required that she make this contact. And as many of you
would do, I'm sure, if you were going someplace else, you would wish to say
goodbye for the moment. So this is in effect what occurred. The coming forth of
the angel at that point influenced the consciousness to that extent so that
there was an awareness of certain proper tying‑up of loose ends, so to speak.
The particular means which was in effect by which the physical form might
easily fall away is beside the point, really. What happened happened very
quickly and we praise the Lord for Della's ministry on earth, and when the time
comes to conclude it, well that is the way it should be.
That is the way it should be with respect to all of us, as far
as that is concerned. But we need to be able to handle such things as they
arise with other people. By the same token we need to be able to handle such
things as they may arise with respect to ourselves; and there is some awareness
as to when ones particular term of incarnation is completed, properly so. This
does not mean that one should become morbidly interested in such things or
indulge in speculation or imagination—which human beings are prone to do—but
where there is a calm stability in expression in one's living there would
naturally be an awareness of when the term of incarnation would rightly be
completed. Now, in the present state of affairs, in the world the way it is,
that completion is called death, death of the physical form. And things being
the way they are there is nothing wrong with death. It is a very essential part
of the creative process. While self‑centered human beings may try desperately
to stay alive a little longer for their nefarious purposes, it would be a terrible
thing if they were to succeed indefinitely in this regard. Let the waste pass
away. And when the term of incarnation is complete what is left is waste insofar as that incarnation
was concerned, but it is not waste insofar as the creative processes are
concerned.
So, as I say, the way things now are there is an expectation
that the one sure thing is death—death of the physical form—the separation of
the physical flesh from its source of life, so that life is no longer being
born in that physical form. This does not mean that there is any less life; in
fact it just is not being born insofar as that physical form is concerned. Now,
these things need to be understood as being quite natural under these
circumstances so that there is no great song and dance about it. It is because
human beings do not understand—they don't for the most part, have the substance
available so that they could understand—that it seems to be such a big deal and
such a tragic thing. It isn't really. It is a natural process the way things
are. Now, in the true state there is properly what is called ascension, but in
that circumstance where ascension replaces death of the physical form there
would likewise be a term of incarnation. The term in such case might be
considerably longer than is presently known by human beings, because something
more effective would in the creative sense be being done by all concerned; the
angel incarnate revealed on earth and achieving what needs to be achieved. And
whatever length of time is required to complete the particular cycle of
achievement, well that will be the length of the term of incarnation. And while
at the conclusion of that term there might rightly be farewells extended, there
is no consciousness of finality in the matter.
Presently with respect to death it seems so final to human
beings because they are merely looking at it from the earthly sense. From the
angelic standpoint there is nothing final about it at all. To put it in a way
that I think Uranda put it many years ago, incarnation is like eating a meal—when
you have finished the meal you getup and go out and do something else. That
does not mean you do not come back and have another meal. Now, that is not
reincarnation as human beings understand it presently, because being earthly
oriented they think of everything in terms of the physical form which is
necessary but in one sense rather incidental. The incarnation is of the angel
and the incarnation is not for the purpose of somehow improving the angel or
that the angel may be becoming more angelic by incarnating. The point is that
an angel is an angel is an angel and there is no need to improve on that state;
but there are things to be done in the creative way. And so part of that doing,
at least as it relates to this particular planet and creative field, requires
incarnation in human form, and on this basis the creative purposes of God may
be fulfilled.
In the world the way it is death is the natural experience,
the separation of the human form from its source of life. Now, this relates to
pneumaplasm of course because pneumaplasm is the connection between spirit and
form; therefore there must be some sort of a disruption insofar as this
connection is concerned if life ceases to be born anymore in the flesh. And so
what occurs occurs in relationship to the pneumaplasmic field, and we just see
the results of what occurs when the body is said to be dead. There is some dispute
these days as to what it is that is the point of death. There are different
levels of death, according to the human view of things. Someone may be
pronounced dead and yet not be dead. Of course we see that the point of death
is the point where there is a disruption to the connection, through
pneumaplasm, between spirit and form; and that cannot exactly be measured, or
there are not instruments that human beings have invented so far to discern
that point because it is not recognized as being there anyway. But it is spoken
of in various ways in the Bible, for instance in the Old Testament. In the 12th
chapter of Ecclesiastes: “Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl
be broken,” and so on. The silver cord has a relatedness to the focalization of
pneumaplasmic substance which provides the essential connection through the
endocrine system. As long as that is unbroken that physical body is not dead,
however it may appear. An example of this was with respect to the body of
Jesus. The silver cord was not broken; the body was not dead even though it
appeared to be dead and was accepted as being dead. The silver cord was still
present; the connection through pneumaplasm was still a reality. And so,
because of this, the resurrection was possible. Once the silver cord is broken
the physical form is dead and it cannot be resurrected in that form again. The
resurrection will take place, the second resurrection will take place, because
the substance that composed that form is offered in one way or another to other
forms of manifestation.
At the point of death the silver cord is loosed. There is a
separation between the physical body and the pneumaplasmic body. The
pneumaplasmic body has a relationship to the various mental levels of the
individual, so that what is present at those various mental levels is still
present in the pneumaplasmic substance. You may recognize that this has
relatedness to what is called spiritualism, a most useless undertaking and
endeavor, a fiddling around with dead things. Instead of fiddling around with
dead bodies—sometimes people do this; they think it is useful in one way or
another—there are other people who fiddle around with dead pneumaplasmic bodies
and by the use of the available life force in living people these records that
are present in the pneumaplasmic substance that is being associated with may be
played back, so to speak. It is like a tape, playing back a tape. Well that is
not the person.
You have heard many of Uranda's tapes and you recognize that
they were originally spoken by him but they are obviously not him now. It is a
tape of what he said. This is not to say that his spirit may not be touched by
reason of these tapes. But the same principle relates to this matter of so‑called
spiritualism. It has very little to do with spirit, just the spiritual
substance which properly is in the processes of disintegration, just the same
as the physical substance of the body is. They disintegrate separately. That is
why most people have an aversion to walking through a graveyard at night,
because while some pneumaplasm hanging around there which is contactable above
ground, so to speak, and a person may have a sensing of this and it has been
the origin of much fear and many stories.
Ghost substance. Well, ghost substance, if it is
disintegrating substance, has no life of its own, any more than a corpse has
life of its own. If it appears to have life of its own it is because someone
gave it life, someone, some living person, gave it life; because obviously we
all, being alive, have the experience of living pneumaplasmic substance. So
pneumaplasmic substance may be alive in our own experience and we can by reason
of this life force transmit life to pneumaplasmic substance which otherwise
would not be alive. If there are ghosts which hang around in ancient mansions,
clanking their chains and so on, it is because there is someone on hand who keeps
them alive. Where there has been intense emotion involved—in relationship to
death particularly, when the separation takes place—this maintains the
pneumaplasmic substance in existence. A sort of aura of substance is available
to affect the emotions of somebody else who will then become emotionally
involved and will animate whatever this other substance was.
These things mostly happen subconsciously, so the individual
may say, “I wasn't emotionally involved.” Well there are emotions which relate
to the conscious mind, certainly. There are spiritual emotions. But there are
subconscious emotions at many, many levels, so one is not always consciously
aware of what it is that is happening. The poltergeists which put in an
appearance usually relate to the period of puberty of some young person and
that young person has no idea whatsoever as to what it is that is going on and
yet that person is responsible. We are responsible for a lot of things we know
nothing about. That is something to consider.
But anyway, there is little value in spiritualism. We have
those who are called mediums and if it isn't outright fraud—which a lot of it
is of course—if there is some basis for it, it is still an unreal basis. And
there may be some information gleaned from playing back these tapes. I suppose
a very obvious instance of this was in Edgar Cayce's situation, and there are
groups of people who are very interested in playing back his tapes. Well, all
right, maybe they will learn something, but not anything particularly spiritual—information
of various sorts, how to treat this disease or that illness, and so on.
Now, the way things are angels incarnate on earth in human
form with a clear awareness of the restrictions that such incarnation will
involve. This has been going on for a long time. There has been something
unfolding in the creative sense by reason of the incarnation of angels, which
has been completely beyond the comprehension of the human mind. How and why
these things are brought to point at particular times it is not understood
generally speaking, but obviously there are cosmic factors involved, far more
than little fiddly things that go on in human lives.
In our various fields of service we will be faced with various
things, all necessary. You can say, “For this cause came I into the world.”
Regardless of what it is that arises, for this cause you came into the world:
to handle that as an angel; that is why you are here. You begin to have this
orientation, and one of the things it is necessary to handle now is death
insofar as others are concerned at the moment, so that you know what is going
on and you can be helpful in assisting a person to stay centered in the right
place.
Now, this is difficult very often with people because there
are so many relatives around who are throwing in a lot of junk that simply does
not belong. If this point of cleavage between the physical form and the spirit
is coming the person needs to be quiet, needs to be in position to move in this
transition, and your concern is to help keep that person's consciousness, as
far as possible, centered in the Lord so that he may remain connected in that
way, because at the point of disruption, the point where the silver cord is
loosed, physically speaking there is a separation between the pneumaplasmic
body and the physical body. But the pneumaplasmic body may still be connected
to spirit, and it will be in the ordinary course of events from the standpoint
of those with whom you will be working, because no doubt there will be some
fine substance there that will maintain the connection. And you will find that
when the disruption occurs, the silver cord is loosed, there is a point of what
one might call glory because the physical form is no longer interfering with
the angelic expression through the pneumaplasm; and there is a sensing of
something very beautiful. This is very beautiful insofar as the experience of
the individual is concerned to the extent that the connecting substance is
still present so that the spirit and the substance are still one.
Now, this, if it is sustained, allows a continuing process of
ascension. Not physical ascension anymore; the physical ascension, such as it
was, was going on while the individual was alive; there was a movement upward,
a transmutation, into the pneumaplasmic substance. We say pneumaplasmic
substance is generated out of physical substance. If the generation is of finer
levels, we begin to see here an ascending, process, incense ascending before
God. Well that can continue after what is spoken of as the point of death. All
it is is the physical form separated from the pneumaplasmic body; the silver
cord has been loosed. If a person is thoroughly oriented in the earth then the
disruption will not only be with respect to the silver cord between the
pneumaplasmic substance and the physical substance but it will be between the
spirit and the pneumaplasmic substance, because the individual had no angelic
consciousness, virtually none at all. All the consciousness was simply of the
human nature state and that is passing away.
So you can see that there is an important service to be
rendered to people as they approach this time. Of course there isn't very much
that can be done if the person has had no prior opportunity of understanding;
however, there is something always, in any case. Fundamentally it is saying, “Look
up. Don't look down; look up,” and you provide something worthwhile in this
regard beyond the words if when they look up they see you, they see the reality, of
you. If all they can see when they look at you—and there is a refining process
of vision going on here at that time—all they can see is another human nature
person all bogged down, which is what is mostly seen at that point, relatives
weeping and wailing and all this sort of stuff, which is deadly. It is an
indication of the self‑centeredness of the people concerned—thinking of
themselves. They are unhappy about what is happening. They don't understand it
and usually they translate it in relation to themselves. And it is almost invariably
a thoroughly self‑centered business, and that is no help to the person who is
moving out of the earthly picture. Look up—calm
stability—look up and see an angel at hand, see the angel who is
ministering. Well, that will be seen by a person who looks up. And that is, one
might say, the comfort, the assistance, during this transition period—to
provide assurance: “It is working out quite naturally. This is fine.” Then the
individual begins to discover that it is so, if they are not distracted by everything
else going on around. And this business in hospitals is appalling, really. They
are trying to keep someone alive at the point where they would naturally be
bowing out of the picture. Of course most people have so little angelic
consciousness that they do not know how to handle the situation; they do not
know how to bow out of the picture in spite of all the fuss, because most
people are in the habit of allowing other people to take over, at least insofar
as their medical needs are concerned.
This incarnation of the angel is very clearly indicated in
these words, familiar to you I am sure, the words of the Master: “I came forth
from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go
to the Father.” Where is the big deal? Just a simple, natural process; only
unnatural to the extent that the physical body disintegrates instead of
ascending. Obviously, in the ascension of the physical body there is the
ascension of the pneumaplasmic body and there is the incorporation of this then
into the angelic experience.
Now, we may have particular opportunities of serving those who
are completing their term of incarnation and we can do it effectively if we
have a real understanding of what it is that is happening. We can observe what
is happening, we can sense what it is that is happening: we can sense when the
silver cord is loosed, for instance. Very often the last breath is a factor in
this. People talk about, “Well, he drew his last breath.” Well of course there
must be a last breath—but it is rather a remarkable thing in a way. There is a
first breath and the last breath. When the babe is born there is concern for
the first breath. The last breath relates to the loosing of the silver cord.
Air is the symbol of spirit and when a person ceases to breathe of course
there is usually a long outflow of breath involved and that is heard, one might
say, as a sigh of relief: “It is good that that is over.” The silver cord is
loosed. One—the angel that you are—is still on hand. One has been working with
the pneumaplasmic body in any case. That is what you do when you are giving an
attunement. You are not working with the physical body directly. You are still
working with the pneumaplasmic body and helping to sustain the connection with
spirit, so that there may be a continuing process of ascension. Where a server
is on hand to do this it is a blessing indeed. Perhaps something may be done in
this regard from the standpoint of the priest who puts in an appearance at such
times, but he does not really know what is going on. He is doing it by rote.
But the person may have faith in this, and that is the main ingredient again.
He looks up. If you look up you go up.
In the processes of ascension insofar as the pneumaplasmic
body is concerned it is absorption of that pneumaplasmic substance out of the
dimensional world into the world which is dimensionless. That may continue for
a period of time if the connection is sustained, but with most people, in the
world the way it has been, the disruption has not only been insofar as the
physical body is concerned but insofar as the pneumaplasmic body is concerned
too, so that the pneumaplasm is left floating around, disintegrating. Of course
there are those who keep such pneumaplasmic bodies alive—the pneumaplasm of relatives—ghosts—hanging
on to dead relatives. And an older person very often becomes weighed down with
all this rotting pneumaplasmic substance. Not a very pretty picture, but they
are giving their life force to this and they have less of life force consequently
for their own expression. And they drag around all these ghosts out of the
past.
Older people very often live more and more in the past, don't they,
sustaining these ghosts. And sometimes a younger person's mother perhaps dies,
and they have been very close to their mother and they wrap this—ghost
substance of their mother around them and carry it on into their living. What a
deathly state! Any emotion will keep dead people around, their pneumaplasmic
substance. But let it go, let it disintegrate. What was right and true is right
and true still. The angel is still living and well and probably glad to be rid
of the physical form, to take a rest from all the nonsense that has been going
on.
Our concern is to allow the true forms to appear on earth, and
to do that we have to be oriented in heaven and share the responsibility of
allowing that heaven to be revealed because we live on earth, so that when
people look at us with any degree of perception they are looking up. And if
they look up and keep looking up, they will go up.
© emissaries of divine light