THOSE WHO CAME BACK
FROM THE DEAD

Jozef Rulof

World Wide Web version
© 2014 'De Eeuw van Christus'

Do you feel how terrible this condition is, Jozef? Could it be otherwise? Maddened with fear because of the strange phenomena I laid down to have a rest. I could no longer concentrate. Suddenly I thought I saw more light. Now they’ll soon come and see me. How amazed I was when at that moment a door opened which I had not seen and a human being entered. Astonished I looked at the man who stood in front of me. He was an energetic young man with a handsome face, so that I thought I saw a wonder. At last a human being.

He looked at me for a while, smiled and said: ‘Brother of the earth’ and kept looking at me.

What does that mean, I thought. Brother of the earth, I repeated to myself.

‘Brother of the earth’, he repeated, ‘Don’t be afraid. Is it so strange to see a human being?’

This man made me even more nervous than I already was and I asked him: ‘What does this mean?’

‘I’ll explain that to you, but first you must keep calm and listen. Do you want to know where you are?’

‘Yes, I’d liked to’, I answered, ‘but who are you? Tell me where I am. In a madhouse?’ I added. ‘What are these clothes? Why was I put to bed with my clothes on? Why is there no light? Why didn’t I see the door? Why is everything so mysterious?’

He kept looking at me and said smiling: ‘I’ll answer all those questions. Who I am and what my task is will soon be clear to you. I have strange things to tell you.’

‘Strange things you say? Isn’t everything mysterious enough?’

He looked at me and I sensed that he was a good person.

‘You have died on earth.’

‘What?’

‘You have died’, he repeated and kept looking at me. ‘You are now living in eternity and I have come to convince you of that.’

In eternity?, I thought. But that’s impossible, because I’m alive. I pitied the man and I got nasty misgivings about him. He is a lunatic! You see, I was right, I live among madmen. One of them had come to see me. However sorry everything was I burst out laughing. But I soon composed myself for his eyes penetrated me and stopped my laughing.

I thought again of my own condition and asked: ‘Do you know that I’m not well yet, that I have been seriously ill? Do you want to add more misery to that? Don’t you see how serious my condition is, that you are making it worse? I was just feeling a bit better and here you are with the story of death and brother of the earth. Be honest, what sort of nonsense is this? Have you been here long? Is that how you entertain yourself?’

My visitor did not answer and continued looking at me. I looked up at him and saw two eyes full of love looking at me.

‘Listen, brother! I advise you in your own interest to accept that you have died on earth. Otherwise we won’t get anywhere and I’ll have to leave you for a while. You will be alone again and return to your previous condition. Do you want me to go?’

‘No, no, don’t leave me.’

‘It is in your own interest to listen to me. I am not mad as you think, I have come to help you.’

What was that? He expressed my thoughts. However I did not see anything extraordinary about him and he continued calmly.

‘I have to start again, so listen: You died on earth and now live in the spirit.’

He looked at me as if he expected me to speak again but I had made up my mind to let him finish first.

‘You are not in a hospital and you are neither mad and your clothes are not made of rubber. That is what you were thinking, isn’t it?’

Did the man know what I was thinking? My own thoughts, how did he know? How is it possible?’

‘You thought’, he continued as if it did not concern him, ‘that I was a madman, but I’ll prove to you that you are wrong.’

I felt foolish, I could not think properly and was frightened.

But he continued calmly: ‘Once more, your clothes are not of rubber’ and he laughed heartily which made me feel better after so much stress and misery I had experienced in so short a period. His smile performed miracles. It encouraged me and a spark of light came in me so that the misery I had suffered and felt only a moment ago had gone.

‘Do I talk like a madman?’ he asked again.

‘No’, I said becoming very passive, ‘not really. But what does all this mean?’

‘Listen’, he said, ‘you need not do anything else at this moment. Your thoughts are focussed on your life on earth and that is why you can’t get rid of all your misery, of everything belonging to the earth. I ask you to accept this for the moment. When a person dies on earth he enters this life. So you live in eternity but you have not realized that you have died.’

‘How could I’, I interrupted him, ‘I’m alive.’

‘Exactly, you are alive and yet you have died. Have you ever heard on earth about eternal life?’

I thought I would sink through the floor because I suddenly remembered you, Jozef, but I said nothing.

‘I read in your thoughts’, he continued, ‘that you were told about everlasting life but that you ridiculed it.’

There was a short silence; I looked at him and we searched each other’s souls so that our thoughts merged. How did this man know all this? Who was he? A human being, but of what sort! I could not speak a word, I shrunk back with fear, for I saw myself on earth, I heard myself talking to you and I felt my own sarcasm. It hurt me, my heart throbbed in my throat.

‘You see’, he went on as if it was quite simple, ‘that I know everything about your life on earth. I’ll tell you some more, but you must keep calm and try to understand. It will be clear to you that I am not a madman and that I’m trying to explain the truth and nothing but the holy truth. You were told about eternal life but you could not accept it. Now listen carefully: In order to be able to change over to this life you must have the essential powers. That is: You must be able to adjust spiritually to life in this world. We know that your way of thinking and feeling is earthly and that you do not even realize that you died on earth. How then could you have an idea of your eternal attunement? That is out of the question! You now live in eternity and you have discarded your material body. The clothes you are wearing do not exist, they are unreal, unnatural on this side. So you live in an unnatural condition for you do not possess the spiritual powers for this attunement, that is for this life. You have to acquire these powers and I’ll help and support you. Yet it is simple when I tell you that our way of life is one of mind power. The way you think about things you’ll attract them and you pass on to that condition. Everything will be the way you are and feel. When I think of earthly clothes, of something I wore on earth I can dress myself in that garment because my concentration is focussed on it. I pass on into that condition. You’ll learn all this. I have to convince you so that you can get an idea of your present life. Is it possible on earth to know everything of someone else?’

‘No, it isn’t, I have not yet met anybody who can.’

‘But we can. You think of something and I’ll tell you what you think.’

Now what? I thought of our talk at the cemetery, it was foremost in my thoughts and I was sure he would not know anything about it.

But how surprised I was when he said: ‘When you were at that cemetery and you were told about our life you thought it was the work of the devil.’

Stop it, I thought, are you a devil yourself?

‘Our life, as I told you just now, is a life of mind power. When I pass into your life I know everything about it. Surely I’m not a devil, but your brother in the spirit and if you really want to you can make rapid progress. When you were told about spiritualism it embittered your life. Subsequently you became ill and you saw shadows on your deathbed. When your end drew near these shadows became clearer so that you noticed that they were human figures. They moved around you which meant the end of your life and at that moment you died on earth. Then you imagined that you were falling deeper and deeper. Your earthly life passed through your mind up to the moment of death and you slipped into unconsciousness. In that condition you were taken here and you woke up several times and fell asleep again.’

‘How do you know all this? It is as you say, I experienced that, but how do you know?’

‘I said just now that I can read in your life, try to remember, don’t forget or I shall have to repeat myself. I can therefore experience what you have gone through and what happened on earth. I’ll give you more proof that I know everything about your life: You were a coachman!’

‘You know that too?’

‘Yes, didn’t I say that I know everything about your life. You cannot hide anything from me. Nor from anyone who has these powers.’

I bowed my head to such power and wisdom.

He continued: ‘I’ll try to convince you of your own condition which you do not understand. But everything, your own happiness and life and your misery are in your own hands. When you are prepared to think differently you must first of all accept that you died on earth. Then we’ll soon make progress. As long as you are unable to do that all those earthly phenomena will return and make your life on this side like hell. Your wife is still living on earth and will not come to visit you.’

‘You know that as well?’

‘Once again I know everything, we on this side, my dear friend, know everything of everyone who enters this sphere.’

Jozef was right then after all, I thought.

I had hardly finished thinking when he said: ‘Yes, your brother on earth spoke the truth!’

I understood then that this man knew everything about me and that his intentions were good. I felt respect for his knowledge, although I could not grasp it. It had struck me that he had remained polite in every respect. However, I still could not accept that I had died on earth. Couldn’t he have learned these tricks? Lunatics could tell the most eerie things and believed themselves that they were true.

How surprised I was when he said: ‘Now you are sliding back into your previous condition and we don’t want that, we won’t progress like that. I have indeed learned those ‘tricks’ and you’ll have too as well otherwise you’ll remain a living dead.’

He appeared to know everything which made me feel quite inferior.

‘I know it is very difficult’, he continued, ‘to discard your life on earth, it takes time. But you must accept that you have died on earth, otherwise you keep going around in circles.’

I decided to do what he said and to accept and I said: ‘Don’t leave me alone any more for heaven’s sake.’

‘I won’t leave you alone except when it is necessary. You are not such a rough character as you tried to make out. Try to discard that as well. The purer one thinks, the more beautiful his surroundings on this side are. You are in the country of the side beyond, which we call the spheres. The sphere where you are is the first sphere of existence in the spirit, in other words: Those living here have no spiritual knowledge yet. In this sphere as in all others millions of people live together. You’ll see them when the time comes and when you have passed on into this sphere. It is not possible before that time because you first have to come to yourself. When you are prepared to accept we’ll soon achieve this aim. Always remember that everything I tell you is the holy truth. We do not mock life, it is too important. You’ll soon know what our life is like. It is different from earth, but you are the same person here as you were there. You see that you are alive and you’ll live eternally. Gradually you will learn to understand this life and acquire it. Passing over and entering this sphere, feeling that you live eternally all this is still beyond you, but after a while it will become clear to you. Now I have to tell you a few other things and you will be surprised when I tell you that you have slept for three weeks according to time on earth.’

‘I have slept for three weeks?’

‘For three full weeks.’

‘It is unbelievable.’

‘Some people sleep for months at a stretch, wake up and fall asleep again.’

‘Do all people experience the same things?’

‘No, for each person the arrival, the awakening and the acceptance of this life is different, it is individual. Your present life is an attunement in the spirit which you do not yet understand. But you soon will. Some people we take back to the earth as soon as possible, others cannot be given these proofs. We can convince them but we have to act in accordance with their inner powers. As I said, you slept for three weeks and nobody forced this sleep upon you. This is your own inner condition. Your attunement to this life is material, you lived in an earthly way and now you feel and live life in the spirit. As I told you I can read your mind and because my own life was like yours I can help you. All of us who live here were once on earth and have died there. When I entered this life I slept for a longer time than you, so let that reassure you. There are people who need months and years before they wake up. Their lives on earth were ruined, but they caused it themselves. Nobody else inflicted that punishment on them. God does not punish anyone and no child of God will be lost.’

‘Remarkable’, I said.

‘This is really the most natural experience of all. I have come to you to convince you of your own life and to explain eternal life to you. You’ll have to awaken and that awakening means to adapt yourself to life in the spirit, to take possession of this sphere.’

‘I’ll do everything I can’, I said, ‘to adapt.’

‘Good’, the brother said and I felt that he was sincere. Then he added: ‘We are making progress already, you must carry on in that way. In the first place you must be able to control yourself.’

‘Yes’, I said, ‘I’ll behave myself. May I get up now, I feel much better?’

‘You can try.’

Try, I thought, wouldn’t I be able to walk? I had walked already! So I tried to pull myself up but before I could get one foot to the floor I was overcome by dizziness and I felt the lump in my throat and the fever return. How terrible, I thought, what’s happening again. Was I still ill? I cursed inwardly because I was in great pain. Would I never get my health back?

The brother looked at me and said: ‘Don’t curse, you curse yourself, you curse your own life. If only people knew and accepted this. You curse God, for your life is divine. You curse your eternal attunement.’

I was startled, for he had not hear me curse, I had forgotten that the man knew everything.

‘Have a bit more respect for your own life. Man is like that and those thoughts are earthly and material. You curse the tranquillity of the spirit and life and all that life is God. So you curse your heavenly Father and that is wrong, my friend. I could go on for hours to make you see that it is wrong, but let this be enough. As you see, you cannot move yet by your own strength.’

‘But I did when I was alone, I walked up and down and I felt all right.’

The brother smiled and said: ‘You did all that on my power.’

‘On your power?’ I asked in amazement. How is that? I could live and move on his power. It remained a mystery to me.

‘You are living on my power and through my will and you have nothing yet of your own. Didn’t I tell you that you still have to acquire all this? You are not free yet from your life on earth and train of thought.

In thought you are still living on earth and that is why you feel ill and why those sufferings keep returning. When you were alone I supported you from a distance. You also will learn to understand these powers. From the moment you entered here I connected myself with you and I’ll remain connected with you continually until you have acquired those powers. You do feel that our life is quite different from that on earth. You live in the spirit but spiritual powers are still unknown to you. I told you all this before, but you do not comprehend. Think, keep thinking, dear friend, otherwise we won’t get anywhere, but you must think more naturally. Natural thinking takes you into this life. A moment ago I withdrew my powers and will, that is why you fell back into your own life. You did not feel anything, did you?’

‘No, I felt quite all right.’

‘But those were my powers, I’ll prove that to you.’

Suddenly I thought I would die for thirst and I asked the brother for a drink. He smiled and said: ‘I’ll give you a spiritual drink.’ A short pause followed and I waited for things to happen. He then asked: ‘Are you still thirsty?’

‘No, I’m not.’

‘Would you like to know why not?’

‘Please tell me.’

‘Pay attention then: I concentrated on your mind and put the suggestion that you were thirsty. That’s what you felt, it entered your mind and yet it was only my will and concentration. You have to discard feeling hungry, thirsty and other sensations which I could induce in you. I only want to show you that first of all you are not ill or need not be and secondly that you need not suffer any hunger or thirst. These are nothing but earthly thoughts because you still think and feel that way. It is your sense of feeling that asks because you do not yet possess the spiritual attunement. Here we do not know illnesses, hunger or thirst, nothing at all of the bodily needs on earth. Maintaining your material condition may cause sorrow and sadness and even ruin in this life. So you see that our life is not so simple and that you lived on earth in an unnatural condition. We have discarded that life and yet you feel your heart beating, yes, blood even flows in your body, but all spiritual substance. You’ll have to learn all these things. Step by step we follow the path of spiritual development. If you could concentrate on an other suit the one you are wearing would vanish but you can’t yet. You can try if you wish.’

I did what the brother asked and I saw that my black suit faded but that was all I could manage.

‘Your concentration is not strong enough yet, but as soon as you can attune to this life all those conditions and also your illness will disappear. Your concentration now disintegrates and you’ll have to accept one condition of consciousness in the same way as on earth. It will be clear to you that nothing can be hidden here. I advise you to concentrate on me for by doing so you will attune yourself to me and everything will become easier for you. I’ll be in a better position to help you acquire these powers.

When I concentrated on you at the beginning after your arrival pain and thirst, fever and all other symptoms disappeared and you were able to move. Now you feel this sickness again because I drew back my concentration. That is why entering this life is the most difficult time for those who arrive here from the earth. To convince them of their eternal life is, as you understand, not so easy. You’re living here on your own level which are your surroundings, your house, your room and your light on this side. You tried to turn the light on, but you could not find the switch.’

‘No’, I said and felt like broken. Here they knew everything, what surprised me yet again.

‘It would not be possible, my friend. We have light according to our inner feelings. Your house is built in a spherical form and I cannot just explain now why, for you would not understand. Accept however that it is your inner life, the way you think and feel and possess love. Love, my brother, to possess love is light and happiness on this side. When I tell you that there are people living here who own the most beautiful temples and buildings and can call these their spiritual homes you’ll feel how far away we are from that. What you observe, your spiritual light is according to your love, your attunement. You tried to find an exit but there was none and you felt imprisoned in a cage. Yet I entered, so there was an opening for otherwise I could not have come in.’

My heart was beating in my throat, I was at a loss for words.

The brother approached me, and laid his beautiful hand on my shoulder. I felt a blissful power enter me and he said with a soft, loving voice:

‘Your life on earth was not spiritual, yet you were not a bad person. You did not want a spiritual life because it was too difficult. Living an earthly life and feeling materially is not difficult. You lived your life and felt nothing of that great and divine life that resides within you which is called cosmos and of which you are a part. That life is God and we human beings have the divine attunement and we can be as that great and mighty life is. However, we are still far away from it but we already sense something of these powers and laws which are of God. We lead a life as we feel it. You feel earthly, many others feel animal-like and coarse-materially and all build themselves a house. This is the explanation of how a spiritual dwelling is erected. He who feels divine builds a temple in harmony with the universe. But if you feel materially you’ll find your house after death on earth the way you felt on earth, in a material and yet spiritual level. Can you follow me?’

‘Yes’, I said, ‘how mighty all this is!’

‘Now listen. I made all this clear to you because I connected myself with you, I brought you up to my own level, otherwise it would not have been possible for you to understand. Now I ask you, why couldn’t you find the exit whereas I was able to enter even though there was no apparent opening? That exit was not visible to you because you did not inwardly open yourself to this life. You locked yourself up, spiritually speaking you shut yourself in a cage because you did not want to live spiritually. Is all this clear?’

‘I feel it, brother, but I can’t put it into words.’

‘I don’t need to talk further about your clothes, I already explained that to you. Everything will become clear to you later on when you will understand your own spiritual home. Your surroundings will change when you try to understand this life. I’ll leave you now for a moment but I’ll come back when you think you need me.’

The brother left. I was by myself again with thousands of thoughts, afraid to be alone. I had got to know one human being. I began to think. One thought followed the other, some taking me back to the earth and when I had finished thinking I returned to this life until finally I could no longer remember anything. A turmoil of thoughts whirled through my weary mind. Thoughts about my house, clothes, the universe and all those spiritual levels float into each other, at the same time I felt the fever and pain return. Yet I wanted to remain calm, I was not yet convinced of the life I was living. Would that be possible? Could I immediately pass into an other life which was entirely new to me, and which I did not understand nor feel, as he said? Would I have been able to do that, Jozef?

No human being from the earth who enters here can do so, even if he has a different attunement. Oh, I thought, how hard it will be for people who know nothing of spiritual life! I ask you, can a human being enter right away into that large unknown world? You will understand me. When on earth I did not believe in it, my life was earthly and I had no assets for this life. I did not possess these powers as the brother told me. I had to learn life in the spirit to be able to adjust to my new surroundings. It was a new and unknown world to me. A world full of secrets but natural and real. I was unnatural and unreal and because of that I mocked my own life, cursed myself and closed myself so that I was blind, spiritually blind and could not find a way out.

It was misty around me and I had no light, I was a long way away from that high level. I saw myself in a labyrinth of human development. I had to find a way out, but how? I was dead and yet alive. I was living, but a living dead!

I was convinced that it would be fatal to me not to accept what I had been told. It was as if I stood in front of a high mountain which I had to climb to see light on the other side. Not until then would I see life with all its beauty and possibilities. The brother had the ability to see right into me and I wanted also to learn that and many other things. That was the ability, I thought, that he meant. He would help me find my way out of all these unnatural things. The way I followed on earth was the wrong one. In the brother I saw the light that would enlighten my path in this darkness. I had to follow him and I wanted to, but I felt that I was not yet able to. However much I thought and concentrated I could not grasp his explanations which resulted in regressing again to chaotic thought, so that I gave up. The brother as he called himself, was a strange person. But in and about him was such a natural power as I had never known. I had to take back the idea that he was mentally disturbed.

I wanted to see him again, for I did not want to miss this unknown mighty person for anything. I needed help, a great deal of help. I thought of him and of the words he had spoken but I could not understand them any more.

While I was thinking of him the door suddenly opened and he came in. Now I saw the door. Would it stay open? I startled because he stood so unexpectedly in front of me.

‘Did you call me?’

‘I don’t know’, I said, ‘I was thinking of you.’

‘Focussing your thought towards me connects you with me. How are you? Feeling a bit better?’

‘I feel fine’, I said.

‘You see that we are already making progress.’

What wonders I have experienced in such a short time, I thought, to which he answered: ‘You will learn to acquire all these wonders’, and I understood that not a single thought could be hidden.