Outlook for 2023 – Part 6

Posted on 3rd January 2023

by Heinz Grill

What is the relationship between the living and the dead?

For the coming year hell wants to emerge more strongly than before. In everyday language, there is heaven and hell and more enlightened people will class them only as traditional symbols that may have applied to outer life or, if the terms were still somewhat philosophically imbued, represent a certain general expression for the afterlife. What dimension, however, can actually be identified behind these terms as simple and almost infantile as they may seem? The soul lives on after death; this assumption must be our starting point. In the afterworlds, after the body passes to earth in its decay and the soul migrates out, into finer primordial realms of the so-called existing astral world, there is no more physical suffering. All physical torment, for example, feelings of suffocation or even torture cease for the soul, that finds itself there anew. The body remains on earth and since there is now no mediating nervous system, no physical suffering can take place. It is like a permanent anaesthesia, yet human beings remain present in their soul existence. Only they enter a completely different sphere, which is therefore unknown to earthly existence, because it is detached from all physical fixations and all ordinary processes of perception.

Nevertheless, perceptual processes and feelings of so-called connectedness or also loneliness, feelings of inadequacy or competence remain for the soul, and needs remain that can be of the most diverse kind. When the Gospel passage describes poor Lazarus, who, while alive, was driven by hunger and longed for the scraps of the rich lord, being now full, this passage is referring to the life after death. The lord, who was wasteful with food, received another position, which is described as feeling a terrible thirst. Lazarus was to dip his finger in water and dampen the lord’s tongue because he was suffering from extreme thirst.¹⁾ Gospel of Luke 16:19-25 The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” This suffering, that is described in the after-life, refers more to the soul feeling of thirst and not to the physical. To some extent the feelings of the earthly and the soul plane are similar, but they differ in that the soul plane is actually a pure pain of the psyche, like the master’s feeling of thirst, or as a joyful experience, as experienced by Lazarus.

There is a saying that people will see each other again in hell. But this is not correct, for it is precisely because people do not know they are in connection, because they have committed bad acts and have not pursued any obligations for proper development, that the soul enters a lonely sphere in the afterlife. Those who have ideologically connected through groups and have not brought about a rise of truth, find themselves completely separated from each other in the afterlife. Likewise, families who develop their own sense of identity, only through an egotistical enthusiasm with one another, after death find themselves separated and even completely isolated from each other. Whereas, all healthy sacrifices made in real terms for a higher goal make possible those heavenly feelings based on connection and joy. They are a kind of strength and force of light in the afterlife.

What will be the relationship between the earthly spheres and the afterlife in the period ahead?

Events will quickly emerge in this coming year. In 2023, feelings that are given through a sense of suffering experienced by the deceased in the afterlife, a pure soul suffering, will come closer to people. Hell descends into earthly life. In 2023 people will have to cope with considerable suffering in their souls and they will yearn and hope that this time can transition again into a happier one. The experience of the meeting of the world after death with this world is not happening by chance, but through the weakness that prevails in humanity today. In times not so long ago, for example 30 years ago, the so-called body-soul relationship or, in other words, the consciousness was still more strongly connected with the body. It was firmer, more solid and thus less vulnerable. The events of the last few years have shaken people with fears, and with this have brought dissociations in the psyche and individuals are increasingly losing their perspective for the future and their strength in decisive action. In this state of dissolution processes, hell, that is the suffering in the world after death, comes together with these existing conditions of life. This dissociative relationship has already become visible in many children and young people in the past year. However, this relationship, as it increasingly enters, even with shocking speed, almost like a falling of the stars, does not yet give any information about whether there will be a war or other further problems.

Basically, this close encounter between the world beyond and this world can be described as an experience of a threshold in humanity. The divide of this threshold between above and below, or between life and the afterlife, is dissolving at alarming speed and is far too widespread.

These events have happened many times in history. One of these events was even indirectly written down in the wonderful Eastern poetry of the Bhagavad Gita. In these times, so-called, evil could stream out of people much more easily. The more people feel that they are in hardship, the more unpredictable they become.

Furthermore, there is a so-called guardian of the threshold who works mysteriously in the unconscious of the human being and can come to the surface depending on the life situation, life conditions and spiritual development. The Bhagavad Gita describes in the best and most precise form a kind of crossing of this threshold and speaks, without mentioning it by name, of a guardian figure who encompasses these events. In any case, a relatively large number of people will find themselves in a situation that corresponds exactly to the battlefield of the Bhagavad Gita. A so-called Kurukṣetra, a battlefield, opens up. The Eastern scripture is set within a surging warfare.

How can these conditions be understood in relation to the growing occurrences of war?

Unfortunately, great acts of violence are to be expected. Not only those souls who today dwell in the afterlife, but even to a particularly large degree those souls who are fixed to a body, contribute either to peace or to a potential for growing conflict. Every single human being has a soul and with it they are capable of thinking, even of logical and contentful thinking, they are further capable of feeling with a broad and compassionate character and they are finally equipped, in their will, for action. Those forces which are most deeply rooted in the soul, and these are the will forces, are as a rule unconscious, and from this unconsciousness they constantly act out upon the environment. One can also say that the decisive motives of people rest in these deep primordial roots of the consciousness. They are great forces and want to find their realisation.

A short example can illuminate how the human consciousness can be determined in various ways, right into the will. People hear the news and receive impressions about the present world. They evaluate these and inevitably draw their conclusions. Now one of these conclusions, which can arise from what is heard and perceived, is that of self-protection. In a hoarding frenzy, people buy supplies to protect themselves against the threatening danger of war. Others emigrate from Germany and still others abandon their self-activity, falling into drug use or even have suicidal tendencies. Finally, there are quite a number of people who protest against the politics and want to develop a more favourable information culture for the future. But what are the real conditions of the will in the depths of people? Doesn’t everyone know the little self-lie of pretending that their motives are solely directed towards others and, in reality, they are only seeking to legitimise their own egoistic behaviour? Those forces, in any case, which lie in the depths of the motives of the will, radiate out every day to the surroundings and not only to there, but also into the whole cosmos. Everyone, regardless of whether they are important in the public eye or less well known, with their true will radiate decisive forces towards a whole.

How does this relate to the living and the dead? A short example can shed light on this. Someone needs to take a developmental step, but because they do not want to fulfil it due to a lack of awareness or laziness, they take refuge in an attachment to their own children. The person chains the children to themselves and notices a great gain in energy. Even a feeling of well-being arises with this attachment. While the environment suffers, those escaping into a dependency gain a personal uplift. How many mothers or fathers are there who really tie their children to themselves and gain a great energy boost on this level? There are quite a number of people who are strong without achieving anything and secretly have a powerful effect on those around them because they have been able to enter into a state of dependency. In a very particular way, however, those who have plummeted into dependencies, experience after death a kind of enclosed soul-wall. This soul-wall, which represents a kind of suffering in the afterlife, however, brings a powerful advantage in the earthly world to those who can skilfully use this egoistic behaviour. This process, of people placing themselves in particular dependencies, can be described as a hidden lie. At the same time, they unconsciously use the effects of forces that actually correspond to the afterlife. They use the suffering of the dead to their advantage. Mostly they style themselves in earthly life as victims of others.

Now, the more these advantages take place through skilfully achieved dependencies, intentions to form attachments and the resulting zealous hoarding, quick rebellions and self-protective gestures in response to the times, the more the zeal for materialism and its violent gratification in the sense of warlike actions shine out into the world. The living and the dead, however, work together unseen. An above and a below are united in the soul of the individual and in a whole. When one lives out the attachments, the souls in the after-life suffer a hopelessness, a complete upsurge of being isolated. For this reason, the most extreme feelings of hopelessness are coming to many people for the year ahead.

There are quite a number of people, however, who are so reduced in their souls that all they can do any more is produce lies, postulate false positions with money or attachments, and thereby in their wills considerably support driving war. They are literally as if dead and because they are dead, they further the death toll in an extreme way. People will have to die. If decision-makers are inclined to use nuclear weapons or dubious biological weapons, this hidden potential for violence, stored up in many people with attachments and keeping security reserves, is a driving force. These people, seeking only their own narrow selfish behaviour, quietly whisper war in the ears of politicians and decision-makers.

Violent aggression awakens not from strength but from hardships, deliberately chosen dependencies and continuously omitted duties. Through these deliberate dependencies, people strangely create states of well-being for themselves. These states of being content without perceiving the other are a sign of the times. They will be particularly prevalent in a year of collapse. People wallow in their own self-satisfaction and some know how to pretend, nevertheless, to be victims to the outside world. A certain psychopathy cannot be overlooked. False spirituality will promote these states of psychopathy and people’s feeling of well-being within their own shieldedness.

Heaven is that dimension which could develop on the basis of a clear logical thought with high goals and ideals. A place for egoistic attachments cannot be afforded by those who see well-being for the whole. Humanity in the sense of a heaven would then awaken if the limiting self-protective actions were to rise into a courageous and broad consciousness of an aesthetic, moral and contentful culture. But we will not be able to speak of culture for the next year, because first of all we need to develop the foundations for an orderly thinking, feeling and willing.

For some there will be real blows in terms of conflict and violence, while others will be immersed in a feel-good state and will indulge in egoism.