from 1969.

As for all of his books - he claims they are absolutely true - and the people who KNOWS IN THEMSELVES - can recognize the wisdom…then there are no question of believing - because the inner intuition TELLS YOU that SO is it…

(the title refer to that the normal, common earth-people is only 1/10 conscious)

The astral plane and life on the other side

…our first request is about life after death, or death, or contact with those who have left this life. First of all let us deal with a person who is leaving this Earth. The person is very, very sick usually, and 'death' follows as a result of the breakdown of the human body mechanism. The body becomes untenable, in-operable, it becomes a day case enshrouding the immortal spirit which cannot bear such restraint, so the immortal spirit leaves. When it has left the dead body, when it has left the familiar confines of the Earth, the - …what shall we call it? Soul, Overself, Spirit, or what? Let's call it Soul this time for a change - the Soul, then, is in strange surroundings where there are many more senses and faculties than those experienced on Earth. Here on Earth we have to clomp around, or sit in a tin box, which we call a car, but unless we are rich enough to pay airfares we are earthbound. Not so when we are out of the body, because when out of the body, when in this new dimension - which we will call 'the astral world', we can travel at will and instantly by thought, we do not have to wait for a bus or a train, we are not hampered (hemmet) by a car, nor by an aeroplane - where one waits longer in a waiting room than one spends on the actual journey.

In the astral we can travel at any speed we will. "We will" is a deliberate pair of words, because we actually 'will' the speed at which we travel, the height and the route. If, for example, you want to enjoy the wondrous scenery of the astral world with its verdant - and its lushly(frodige) stocked lakes, we can drift as light as thistledown just above the land, just above the water, or we can rise higher and soar over the astral mountain tops.

When we are in this new and wonderful dimension, we are experiencing so many changes that unless we are very careful, we tend to forget those who mourn (sørger på) us on that awful old ball of Earth - which we have so recently left.We tend to forget, but if people on Earth mourn us too fervently (sterkt/ivrig), then we feel inexplicable twinges (uforklarlige stikk/smerter) - and pulls, and strange feelings of sorrow and sadness. Any of you who have neuritis or chronic toothache, will know what it's like; you get a sudden vicious (ondt rykk) jerk at a nerve which nearly lifts you out of the chair. In the same way, when we are in the astral world and a person is mourning (sørger på..) us with deep lamentation, instead of getting on with their own affairs, they hinder us, they provide unwanted 'anchors' which retard our progress.

Let us go just a little beyond our first days in the astral, let as go to the time when we have entered the Hall of Memories, when we have decided what work we are going to do in the astral, how we are going to help others, how we are going to learn ourselves. Let us imagine that we are busy at our task of helping or learning, and then just imagine a hand jerking at the back of our neck-tweak, tweak(napp), tweak, and pull, pull, pull - it distracts the attention, it makes learning hard, it makes helping others very difficult, because we cannot add our full concentration or attention to that which we should be doing - because of the insistent tug and interference caused by those mourning us upon the Earth.

Many people seem to think that they can get in touch with those who have 'passed over' by going to a backstreet medium, paying a few dollars or a, few shillings and just getting a message like having a telephone answered by an intermediary (mellommann). Well, even this telephone business; try telephoning Spain from Canada! Try telephoning England from Uruguay!! First you have the difficulty that the intermediary, that is the telephone operator on Earth, or the medium, is not familiar with the circumstances, may even be not very familiar with the language in which we desire to speak. And then there are all sorts of hisses, clicks, and clunks on the wire, reception may be difficult, reception, in fact, is often impossible. Yet here on Earth we know the telephone number we desire to call, but who is going to tell you the telephone number of a person who recently left the Earth and now lives in the astral world? A telephone number in the astral world? Well, near enough, because every person on every world has a personal frequency, a personal wavelength. In just the same way as the B.B.C. radio stations, or the Voice of America stations in the U.S.A. have their own frequencies, so do people have frequencies, and if we know those frequencies - we can tune-in to the radio station - PROVIDED atmospheric conditions are suitable, the time of the day is correct, and the station is actually broadcasting. It is not possible to tune-in and be infallibly (ufeilbarlig) sure that you can receive a station - for the simple reason that something may have put them out of action.

It is the same with people who have passed beyond this life. You may be able to get in touch with them if you know their basic personal frequency, and if they are able to receive a telepathic message on that frequency. For the most part, unless a medium is very, very experienced indeed, he or she can be led astray (ført på villspor) by some nuisance-entities (plagevesener) who are playing at being humans and who can pick up the thoughts of what the 'caller' wants.

That is, supposing Mrs. Brown, a new widow, wants to get in touch with Mr. Brown, a newly-freed human who has escaped to the Other Side, one of these lesser entities who are not humans - can perceive what she wants to ask Mr. Brown, can perceive from Mrs. Brown's thoughts how Mr. Brown spoke, what he looked like. So the entity, like a naughty schoolboy who didn't get the discipline that he sadly needed, can influence the well-meaning medium by giving her a description of Mr. Brown which has just been obtained from the mind of Mrs. Brown. The medium will give 'startling proof' by describing in detail the appearance of Mr. Brown who is 'standing by me now'. Well, the very experienced person cannot be deceived (narret) in that way, but the very experienced person is few and far between, and just does not have time to deal with such things. Furthermore, when commerce (forretninger) comes into it, when a person demands such-and-such a sum for a mediumistic sitting, a lower vibration is brought into the proceedings and a genuine message is thus all too frequently prevented.

It is unkind and unfair to let your sorrows harm and handicap a person who has left the Earth and who is now working elsewhere. After all, supposing you were very busy at some important task, and supposing some other person whom you could not see - kept jerking (rykke) at the nape of your neck and prodding (stikke) you, and blaring silly thoughts into your ears, your concentration would go and you really would call down all sorts of uankind thoughts upon your tormentor (plageånd). Be sure that if you really love the person who has left the Earth, and if that person really loves you, you will meet again - because you will be attracted together when you also leave the Earth. In the astral world you cannot meet a person whom you hate or who hates you, it just cannot be done, because that would disrupt the harmony of the astral world and that cannot be. Of course, if you are doing astral travel you can go to the LOWER astral which is, one might say, the waiting room or entrance to the real astral world. In the lower astral one can discuss differences with some heat, but in the higher regions - no.

So remember this; if you really love the other person and the other person really loves you, you will be together again - but on a very different footing. There will be none of the misunderstandings as upon this Earth, one cannot tell lies in the astral world, because in that world everyone can see the aura, and if an astral-dweller tells a lie, then anyone in sight knows about it immediately, because of the discord (dissonans) which appears in his personal vibrations and in the colours of the aura. So one learns to be truthful.

People seem to have the idea that unless they have a lavish funeral (overdådig begravelse) for the departed and go into ecstasies of sorrow, they are not showing a proper appreciation (takknemlighet) of the deceased. But that is not the case; mourning (sorg) is selfish, mourning causes grave interference and disturbance to the person newly arrived in the astral plane. Mourning, in fact, could really be regarded as self-pity, sorrow for oneself that one has lost a person who did so much for those left behind. It is better and shows greater respect and thought - to control grief and avoid hysterical outbursts, which cause such distracts to people who have really left.

'Dr. Rampa, you have told us so much about the astral world in your books, but you haven't told us enough. What do people do, what do they eat, how do they occupy their time? Can't you tell us this?'

Most certainly I can tell you because I have eidetic memory, that is - I can remember everything that ever happened to me. I can remember dying and being born, and I have the great advantage that I can astral travel when fully conscious. So let us look at this matter of the astral worlds and what one does.

In the first case there is not just one astral world, but many, as many in fact as there are different vibrations of people. Perhaps the best way of realising this is by considering radio; in radio there are many, many different radio stations in all parts of the world. If those stations tried to share a common wavelength or frequency, there would be bedlam(spetakkel), everyone would interfere with everyone else, and so radio stations each have their own separate frequency, and if you want the B.B.C., London, you tune-in to those frequencies allotted (tildelt) to the B.B.C. If you want Moscow - you tune-in to the frequencies allotted to Moscow. There are thousands of different radio stations, each with their own frequency, each a separate entity not interfering with the others.

In the same way astral worlds are different planes of existence having different frequencies, so that upon astral world X, for example, you will get all people who are compatible within certain limits. In astral world Y you will find another set of people who are compatible within their own limits. Lower down, in what we call the lower astral, there are conditions somewhat the same as on the Earth, that is there are mixed types of people, and the average person who gets out of his body during the hours of sleep and goes astral travelling, he goes to that lower astral where all entities may mix. The lower astral, then, is a meeting place for people of different races and different creeds, and even from different worlds. It is very similar to life upon Earth.

As we progress higher we find the frequencies becoming purer and purer. Whereas (derimot) in the lower astral you can have an argument (krangel) with a person and tell him you hate the sight of him if you want to. When you get higher in the astral planes you cannot, because you cannot get people who are opposed to each other. So remember that the astral worlds are like radio stations with different frequencies, or - if you wish - like a big school with different classrooms, each succeeding class being higher in vibration than the one before, so that class or grade - One is a common denominator class, or astral world, where all may meet while the process of assessing (vurderinger) their capacities goes on. Then as they do their allotted tasks - we shall deal with that in a moment - they become, raised higher and higher. Until eventually they pass out of the astral plane of worlds altogether, and enter into a state where there is no longer rebirth, reincarnation, and where people now deal with much higher forms of being than humans.

But you want to know what happens when you die. Well, actually I have told you a lot about it in my previous books. You leave your body and your astral form floats off and goes to the lower astral, where it recovers from shocks and harm caused by living or dying conditions on Earth. Then, after a few days according to Earth time reckoning(beregninger), one sees all one's past in the Hall of Memories, sees what one has accomplished and what one has failed to accomplish, and by assessing (taksere) the successes or failures - one can decide on what has to be learned in the future, that is, shall one reincarnate again right away, or shall one spend perhaps six hundred years in the astral. It all depends on what a person has to learn, it depends on one's purpose in the scale of evolution. But I've told you all about that in previous books. Let me mention another subject for a moment before saying what people do in the astral world.

A very pleasant lady wrote to me and said, I am so frightened. I am so frightened that I shall die alone with no one to help me, no one to direct me in the Path that I should take. You, in Tibet, had the Lamas who directed the consciousness of a dying person. I have no one and I am so frightened.

That is not correct, you know. No one is alone, no one has 'no one'. You may think you are alone, and quite possibly there is no one near your earthly body, yet in the astral there are very special helpers who await by the deathbed, so that just as soon as the astral form starts to separate from the dying physical body, the helpers are there to give every assistance. Just as in the case of a birth, there are people waiting to deliver the new-born baby. Death to Earth is birth into the astral world, and the necessary trained attendants are there to provide their specialised services, so there is no need for fear, there should never be fear. Remember that when the time comes, as it comes to all of us, for you to pass from this world of sorrows, there will be people on the Other Side waiting for you, caring for you, and helping you in precisely the same manner that there are people on Earth awaiting the birth of a new baby.

When the helpers have this astral body which has just been separated from the dead paysical, they treat it carefully and help it with a knowledge of where it is. Many people who have not been prepared think they are in Heaven or Hell. The helpers tell them exactly where they are, they help them to adjust, they show them the Hall of Memories, and they care for the newcomer as they, in their turn, have been cared for. (Comment: remember this was written long before all the "near-death-experience-books" came here in the western world in the late 70's - and later there has been published a lot of such books, that confirms that Rampa described the very exact death-progress long before any other - if we shall compare it to these later books from all over the world. That is the best "truth-guarantee" - I feel in many connections with what I later have studied - that Rampa really account for the actual truth!! Or "AS IT IS" - like a title of another Rampabook: AS IT WAS. R.Ø.remark.)

This matter of Hell - there is no such thing, you know. Hell was actually a place of judgement near Jerusalem, Hell was a small village near two very high rocks and between the rocks and extending for some distance around was a quaking bog (myr), which sent up gouts of sulphurous vapours, a bog that was always drenched in the stench of burning brimstone. In those far-off days a person who was accused of a crime was taken to this village and 'went through Hell'.- He was placed at one end of the bog and was told of the crimes of which he had been accused, he was told that if he could cross the bog unharmed - he was innocent, but if he failed and was swallowed by the bog he was guilty. Then the accused (anklagede) was goaded (drevet) into action - perhaps a soldier poked him in a delicate part with a spear - anyway, the poor wretch ran 'through Hell', through all the swirling fog of sulphur and brimstone fumes(damp), along the path surrounded by boiling pitch, where the earth quaked and shook, inspiring terror in the strongest, and if he reached the other side - he had passed through the valley of Hell and had been purged(renset) of any offence and was innocent again. So don't believe that you will go to Hell. You won't because there is no such thing. (But some mix described experiences from NDE's "hell" - with "adventures" on the lower astralplane where confused, rancorous entities stay until they reincarnate or are cleaned for the normal "holydays" on the astralplane. R.Ø.remark.) God, no matter what we call Him, is a God of kindness, a God of compassion. No one is ever condemned (fordømt), no one is ever sentenced to eternal damnation, there are no such things as devils who jump up and down on one and plunge pitch forks into one's shuddering body. That is all a figment in the imagination of crazed priests who tried to gain dominance over the bodies and souls of those who knew no better. There is only hope and knowledge - that if one works for it, one can atone for any crime, no matter how bad that crime seems to have been. So - no one is ever 'extinguished', no one is ever abandoned (forlatt) by God. Most people fear death because they have a murky (dyster) conscience, and these priests who should know better, have taught about hell - fire and aternal torment, eternal damnation and all that. And the poor wretched person who has heard those stories thinks that immediately he dies - he is going to be seized by devils and horrendous things wreaked upon him. Don't believe it, don't believe it at all. I remember all, and I can go to the astral at any time, and I repeat, there is no such thing as Hell, there is no such thing as eternal torment, there is always redemption (forløsning/hjelp), there is always another chance, there is always mercy, compassion, and understanding. Those who say that there is Hell and torment, well, they are not right in the head, they are sadists or something, and they are not worthy of another thought.

We fear to die for that reason and for another; we fear to die because the fear is planted in us. If people remembered the glories of the astral world - they would want to go there in droves, they wouldn't want to stay on this Earth any longer, they would want to shirk their classes, they would want to commit suicide, and suicide is a very bad thing, you know, it hurts oneself. It doesn't hurt anyone else, but one becomes one of life's drop-out's when one commits suicide. Think of it like this; if you are training to be a professional person of some kind, a lawyer or a doctor, well, you have to study and you have to pass examinations, but if you lose heart half way through -you drop out of your course and then you do not become a lawyer or a doctor, and before you can become a lawyer or a doctor you have to cease being a drop-out and get back into the class and study all over again. And by that time you find the curriculum (undervisningsplan) has changed, there are different textbooks, and all you have learnt before becomesuseless, so you start at the bottom again. Thus it is, that if you commit suicide, well, you have to come back, you reincarnate again, which is just the same as entering college for another course, but you reincarnate again and you learn all the lessons all over again right from the start, and all you learnt before is now obsolete(foreldet), so you've wasted a lifetime, haven't you? Don't commit suicide, it's never, never, never worth it.

Well, that has taken us quite away from what people do in the astral. A lot depends on the state of evolution of the person; a lot of it depends on what that person is preparing for. But the astral worlds are very, very beautiful places, there is wonderful scenery with colours not even dreamed of upon the Earth, there is music, a music not even dreamed of upon the Earth, there are houses, but each person can build his or her house by thought. (But they are therefor not only "castle in the air" - but solid and compact enough for the inhabitants of that frequency-world. R.Ø.remark.) You think it, and if you think hard enough, it Is. In the same way, when you get to the astral world - first you are quite naked just as you are when you come to the Earth, and then you think what sort of clothes you are going to wear; you don't have to wear clothes, but most people do for some strange reason, and one can see the most remarkable collection of garments, because each person makes their own clothes according to any style they are thinking about. In the same way, they build their houses in any style they are thinking about. There are no cars, of course, and no buses, and no trains, you don't need them. Why be cluttered by a car when you can move as fast as you wish by wishing? So, by thought power alone, you can visit any part of the astral world.

In the astral there are many jobs that one can do. You can be a helper to those who are every second arriving from the Earth, you can do nursing, you can do healing, because many of those who arrive from the Earth are not aware of the reality of the astral, and they believe whatever their religion has taught them to believe. Or, if they are atheists - they believe in nothing, and so they are enshrouded (innsvøpt) in a black, black fog, a fog that is sticky and confusing, and until they can acquire some sort of understanding, that they are blinded by their own folly (dumhet) they cannot be helped much, so attendants follow them around and try to break away the fog. (Such is it described in the fantastic book SEVEN STEPS TO ETERNITY - taken down by Stephen Turof - and deal with a young soldier that dies in the battle of Somme under world war 1 - and immediately enters a compact mistland - and the confusion is total. This book is recommended. R.Ø.remark.) Then there are those who counsel the astral people who have to return to Earth. Where do they want to go, what sort of parents do they want, what sort of family conditions, a rich family or a poor family?'What sort of conditions will enable them to do the tasks which they plan to do? It all looks so easy when in the astral world, but it is not always so easy when one is on the Earth, you know.

In the lower astral people often eat, they can smoke also if they want to! Whatever they want to eat is actually manufactured from the atmosphere by thought, not so amazing when you think of prana which is believed in implicitly on Earth. So you can eat what you wish, you can drink what you wish also, but actually all that is just folly because one is acquiring all the energy, all the sustenance from the atmospheric radiation's, and eating and drinking is just a habit. One soon shucks (kaster vekk) off those habits and is the better for it. You can take it, then, that one does -much the same in the lower astral as one does upon the Earth.

Yes, Mrs. So-and-So, there is a sex life in the astral as well, but it is far, far better than anything you can ever experience on the Earth, because you have such an enhanced (øket) range of sensations. So if you have not had much of a balanced sex life on Earth, remember that in the astral you will have, because it is necessary to make a balanced person.

Of course the higher one rises in the astral worlds, that is the more one increases one's personal vibrations, then the better the experiences, the more pleasant they become, and the more satisfying the whole existence becomes.

Many people on Earth are all members of a group. You may have, for example (and for example only) ten people whom together really complete one astral entity. On the Earth we have these ten people, and perhaps three, four, five, or six die; well, the person who is in the astral does not become really complete until all the group are united. It is very difficult explaining such a thing because it involves different dimensions, which are not even known upon this Earth, but you have felt a remarkable affinity with a certain person - a person who, of course, is absolutely separate from you. You may have thought how compatible (samklingende) you were with that person, you may feel a sense of loss when that person goes away. Well, quite possibly that person is a member of your group, and when you die to this Earth, you will be united together as one entity. Upon the Earth all these people are like tentacles reaching out to get different sensations, different experiences during that brief flickering (korte blafrende--) of consciousness which comprises a lifetime upon Earth. Yet - when all the members of that group, when all the tentacles (fangarmer) are pulled in, one has in effect the experience of perhaps ten lifetimes in one. One has to come to Earth to learn the hard material things because there are no such experiences in the astral world.

Not everyone is a member of a group, you know, but you probably know whole groups of people who just cannot manage without each other. It may be members of a big family, they are always dashing around to see how the others are doing, and even when they marry they still have to forsake their partners at times and rush back home - as if they are all going in like a lot of chickens under the old hen! Many people are individualists, not members of a group upon the Earth, they have come to do certain things alone, and they rise or fall by their own efforts on the Earth. The poor souls often have a very bad time indeed upon the Earth, and it doesn't necessarily mean that they have immense karmic debts because they get suffering, it means that they are doing special work and incurring (pådrar seg..) good karma for a few lives to come.

Really experienced people can tell what other people have been in a past life, but don't believe the advertisement you read - where, for a small sum of money, you can have all your past incarnations told. Don't believe that for a moment - because most of these people who make such claims are fakes. If they demand money for such a service, then you can be sure that they are fakes - because the really trained person does not take money for these occult purposes - as it lowers the personal vibrations….

by Lobsang Rampa

*