By Stephen Russell-Lacy
Judging by the popularity of the American fantasy television series Ghost Whisperer, many people would like to believe in death survival even if they haven't made a jump of faith. Some are willing to talk privately about having felt a presence, heard a voice, or seen a ghost of a loved one and sometimes it is a child ghost that appears. This kind of thing seems more likely to be experienced by the recently bereaved.
So, if we all survive death what happens to children after they die?
Thelma Wexler lost her 3-year-old son, Benjamin, when he drowned in Perkiomen Creek USA. Wexler, who lives near Collegeville, believes that Benjamin communicates with her and other family members by leaving feathers in different places. One time at Kmart, Delia, Wexler's 3-year-old daughter, pulled apart a display of basketballs and found a feather sitting behind it. In the diner where her husband, Mitchell, works, a customer found a feather that had somehow become deep-fried. During a recent golf game, Mitchell followed a ball that had gone into the rough and found it sitting on top of a feather. Since Benjamin's death, Wexler has acquired enough feathers to fill a grocery bag.
You might wonder whether there is anything in this. Or is it all just selective attention paid to certain objects based on wish-fulfillment?
Grant Schnarr's brother Bruce died at age 2, six years before Grant was born. At a meeting in Bryn Athyn when age 40 Grant recalled moments when he felt Bruce's presence. "It's something between a mental process and a vision," he said, describing incidents others might regard as paranormal, such as a television or stereo turning on suddenly, or a vision of Bruce appearing in a hallway or a bathroom.
I believe this sort of testimony is more difficult to dismiss unless we believe we are being deliberately hoodwinked.
Jordyn Morrison-Clason is a medium. She says that when she connects with the spirit of an infant or child who has crossed over, it is always being held or accompanied by a "guardian being". These are said to be beings of pure light and love and they are protectors who radiate light, peace and comfort.
Swedenborg's book Heaven and Hell reports on his prolonged extraordinary experiences of what he calls 'the spiritual world'. It is interesting to read what he has to say in his own words. For him all angels were once born like us in the physical dimension of life.
"As soon as children are reawakened (which happens immediately after their death), they are taken to heaven and given to female angels who had loved children tenderly during their physical lives and had loved God as well. Since in this world they had loved all children with a kind of maternal tenderness, they accept these new ones as their own, and the children love them as their mothers as though this were inborn in them. Each such angel has as many children as her spiritual maternal nature wants."
Swedenborg says that little children who die are just as much little children in the other life, having a like infantile mind, a like innocence in ignorance, and a like tenderness in all things. He reports that from their angel-carers those children who died in infancy learn to speak. All their feelings come from their innocence.
"I have in fact been allowed to see children clothed most becomingly, with garlands of flowers around their chests glowing with the most charming and heavenly colors, and similar ones around their slender arms. Once I was even allowed to see some children with their nurses, in the company of some young women in a paradisal garden - not a garden of trees, but one with vaulted arches of something like laurels making the most intricate doorways with paths offering access inward - and the children themselves dressed with like beauty."
In what sounds to the modern ear like good quality public-broadcast tv designed for children, Swedenborg reports the spirit children were engaged for example by watching plays suited to their minds through which they were led into awareness of what is true and affection for what is good.
Swedenborg mentions other spirits who tried to lead them, or compel them to speak. "But this was resisted as often as attempted, and the (little children)... were, as it were, indignant that others should think to rule them and compel them to speak. I observed their resistance as often as the attempt was made....This, I was informed, was their temptation, that they might be kept in a constant repugnance towards those who might wish to lead and rule them, and might be initiated into the habit of regarding the Lord alone as he that is to lead...from whom they are to think and speak; thus they grow up."
We are told the children grow in stature and clear thinking into young men and women and having gained wisdom themselves become angels. Also that they remain with that appearance forever.
Copyright 2012 Stephen Russell-Lacy
As a clinical psychologist, Stephen Russell-Lacy has specialised in cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, working for many years with adults suffering distress and disturbance.
He edits Spiritual Questions a free eZine that explores links between spiritual philosophy and the comments and questions of spiritual seekers. You can share your views and find out more about making sense of life.
His book Heart, Head and Hands draws links between the psycho-spiritual teachings of the eighteenth century spiritual philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg and current ideas in therapy and psychology.
Judging by the popularity of the American fantasy television series Ghost Whisperer, many people would like to believe in death survival even if they haven't made a jump of faith. Some are willing to talk privately about having felt a presence, heard a voice, or seen a ghost of a loved one and sometimes it is a child ghost that appears. This kind of thing seems more likely to be experienced by the recently bereaved.
So, if we all survive death what happens to children after they die?
Thelma Wexler lost her 3-year-old son, Benjamin, when he drowned in Perkiomen Creek USA. Wexler, who lives near Collegeville, believes that Benjamin communicates with her and other family members by leaving feathers in different places. One time at Kmart, Delia, Wexler's 3-year-old daughter, pulled apart a display of basketballs and found a feather sitting behind it. In the diner where her husband, Mitchell, works, a customer found a feather that had somehow become deep-fried. During a recent golf game, Mitchell followed a ball that had gone into the rough and found it sitting on top of a feather. Since Benjamin's death, Wexler has acquired enough feathers to fill a grocery bag.
You might wonder whether there is anything in this. Or is it all just selective attention paid to certain objects based on wish-fulfillment?
Grant Schnarr's brother Bruce died at age 2, six years before Grant was born. At a meeting in Bryn Athyn when age 40 Grant recalled moments when he felt Bruce's presence. "It's something between a mental process and a vision," he said, describing incidents others might regard as paranormal, such as a television or stereo turning on suddenly, or a vision of Bruce appearing in a hallway or a bathroom.
I believe this sort of testimony is more difficult to dismiss unless we believe we are being deliberately hoodwinked.
Jordyn Morrison-Clason is a medium. She says that when she connects with the spirit of an infant or child who has crossed over, it is always being held or accompanied by a "guardian being". These are said to be beings of pure light and love and they are protectors who radiate light, peace and comfort.
Swedenborg's book Heaven and Hell reports on his prolonged extraordinary experiences of what he calls 'the spiritual world'. It is interesting to read what he has to say in his own words. For him all angels were once born like us in the physical dimension of life.
"As soon as children are reawakened (which happens immediately after their death), they are taken to heaven and given to female angels who had loved children tenderly during their physical lives and had loved God as well. Since in this world they had loved all children with a kind of maternal tenderness, they accept these new ones as their own, and the children love them as their mothers as though this were inborn in them. Each such angel has as many children as her spiritual maternal nature wants."
Swedenborg says that little children who die are just as much little children in the other life, having a like infantile mind, a like innocence in ignorance, and a like tenderness in all things. He reports that from their angel-carers those children who died in infancy learn to speak. All their feelings come from their innocence.
"I have in fact been allowed to see children clothed most becomingly, with garlands of flowers around their chests glowing with the most charming and heavenly colors, and similar ones around their slender arms. Once I was even allowed to see some children with their nurses, in the company of some young women in a paradisal garden - not a garden of trees, but one with vaulted arches of something like laurels making the most intricate doorways with paths offering access inward - and the children themselves dressed with like beauty."
In what sounds to the modern ear like good quality public-broadcast tv designed for children, Swedenborg reports the spirit children were engaged for example by watching plays suited to their minds through which they were led into awareness of what is true and affection for what is good.
Swedenborg mentions other spirits who tried to lead them, or compel them to speak. "But this was resisted as often as attempted, and the (little children)... were, as it were, indignant that others should think to rule them and compel them to speak. I observed their resistance as often as the attempt was made....This, I was informed, was their temptation, that they might be kept in a constant repugnance towards those who might wish to lead and rule them, and might be initiated into the habit of regarding the Lord alone as he that is to lead...from whom they are to think and speak; thus they grow up."
We are told the children grow in stature and clear thinking into young men and women and having gained wisdom themselves become angels. Also that they remain with that appearance forever.
Copyright 2012 Stephen Russell-Lacy
As a clinical psychologist, Stephen Russell-Lacy has specialised in cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, working for many years with adults suffering distress and disturbance.
He edits Spiritual Questions a free eZine that explores links between spiritual philosophy and the comments and questions of spiritual seekers. You can share your views and find out more about making sense of life.
His book Heart, Head and Hands draws links between the psycho-spiritual teachings of the eighteenth century spiritual philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg and current ideas in therapy and psychology.
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