One paranormal
event may make a believer of the sceptic. Two such events are likely to assure
the believer that there are realms in the heavens we know nothing about in our
present existential dimension.
There have been at least two
such events in my life. The first was an absurdly creepy feeling between a
friend and I when our eyes locked momentarily. We were about 18. Both of us
were instantaneously and simultaneously frightened as to what was experienced
in that moment. The second occasion was equally awesome. I had been dictating in
prayer language of lament using a dictaphone for my use the following day. At
one point I had said something on that recording that did not honour God. It
was only the following day as I played back the recording that I realised an
eerie echo, like God’s audible voice, and it was a rebuking tone. The more I played it, the more I realised it was of the angelic realm. I
played it to others and they agreed it was a distinctly eerie sound. The
recording has since been ‘lost’ and God only knows if I’ll find it again.
I remain convinced by my own
experiences that there is another realm, and possibly several realms, beyond
this realm which we can call existence. It’s not like the other realms don’t
exist, but to us they don’t in tangible terms.
We may say “Who should
care?” but we should care because we are not in
existence for long. Three score and ten and then a few more and then we are
gone; if we’re fortunate. Life is more fleeting than we realise and if we don’t
believe in the angelic realm – God orchestrating eternity – then we may be
rudely shocked; forced to rescind our folly. Much scepticism has no part in the
truth beyond its stubborn ignorance.
The Reality of Otherness
This life shows us what is visible
and tangible and sufficiently real for us to believe in; what we have come to
call reality. But just because we cannot see other things doesn’t mean they
aren’t real. We no longer see that dead loved one and it almost appears they
never lived, but of course they did. Either they have flown away somewhere or
they now cease to exist. The hope of this life contends with the possibility
that there may be some better place where we can rest in peace – in the next
life. Can the atheist truly say “rest in peace”?
We would be fools to categorically
say there is no other realm – otherness – out there. How can we say this when
we have no way of proving it, because we are limited to our realm of
understanding, unless we have been gifted with visions of another realm? But
even then, who is to believe us, and are we to believe even ourselves?
Because we do not know a totality
of understanding we have to assume there is much we don’t know. It brings us
comfort to know there is a purpose to this life that is linked with an eternal
purpose.
Best of all is living with the
hope that we are being urged on and encouraged by a heavenly angelic host, who,
like God, are for us and never against us.
***
There is much we do not know and
will never know until we leave this life. That’s enough to fill us with the
openness that there is a realm beyond this life; one orchestrated by God, for
his glory.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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