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1On June 5th 1968, my 24th birthday, I awoke to the news that Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated. I do not recall what day of the week that was, (although, with the wonders of modern software, my computer is now telling me that that date was a Wednesday!) but on the following Sunday morning Theresa and I drove out to Olga’s for our Communion Devotions. By this time Olga, now 77 years old, had handed over the role of ‘Officiant’ to me and as I stood before the altar, facing outwards — toward any souls ‘in this life or the next’ — offering the consecrated bread and wine for the students of the ‘Sanctuary of Christ Peace,’ to all who seek after its Light and to all who desire our prayers, suddenly I was overshadowed by Bobby. I ‘knew’ that I looked like him, I felt like him and it was as if there were cobwebs over my head. As I ran my fingers through my hair, to instinctively brush away the feeling of cobwebs, my hair felt exactly like I knew his hair would feel. My own hair is very fine and straight but Bobby Kennedy’s hair was thick, wavy and wiry — a totally different texture and feel from my own. As this was going on and without me saying a word, Theresa looked at me and her expression became very startled.
‘Bobby Kennedy is overshadowing you. Your features have disappeared and his are there.’
She blurted out, ‘Bobby Kennedy is overshadowing you; I can see him. Your features have disappeared and his are there.’ Theresa’s knowledge of such things was gleaned from her family background of her mother being a spiritualist medium for many years, so although she was startled, she readily knew and understood exactly what was happening.
2The feelings I was picking up from Bobby were of confusion. He knew he was ‘dead,’ but he didn’t know what to ‘do about it,’ and he was still Earthbound, stuck in the etheric counterpart of the Earth life, in part at least, because of the traumatic way he had been catapulted from his Earthly body. I believe he knew he was lost and was desperately trying to find his way, looking for help. No doubt there was a beacon of light radiating from Olga’s sanctuary and this had been seen by Bobby, who had been drawn to it, not really knowing what it was but being attracted by the fact that here was Light and he was in sore need of Light.
3The fact that this sanctuary of Light was in British Columbia, Canada and Bobby had been murdered in Los Angeles, some 1,200 miles away, has no significance in the spirit world, where ‘travel’ is instantaneous, by either thinking about where (or with whom) one wishes to be, or by desiring a certain thing or condition, one is instantly transported to such. Further, Jack, Bobby’s older brother, who by this time had been in spirit for about four and a half Earth-time years, will have known ‘the ropes,’ will have been well aware of the plight of his newly passed-over young brother — they were/are very close — and will have been in a position to help Bobby, even if Bobby was not, at that stage in his transition, aware of Jack being close by. This could have been in the form of a response to Bobby’s urgent plea for help, even if he was unaware of anybody being close.
4We spoke to Bobby, explained what had happened, and blessed him in the name of Jesus, counselling him to ask Jesus to help him and that this would either bring Jesus himself, or that he would send someone under his authority to help him. After a few moments, during which I had the feeling that this counsel was ‘sinking in’ — bearing in mind that Bobby was in a state of deep shock and bewilderment — he was suddenly gone.
***
5Later that month I had one of those ‘dream’ experiences that are very real and that I interpret as events taking place out of the body during sleep, although they can just as readily take place other than during sleep time. In this experience, Olga, Theresa and I were enjoying a most pleasant Sunday afternoon cup of tea, along, of course, with accompanying English biscuits, in my flat. It was a bright, sunny afternoon and we three English people were in our element. But there was a fourth person there, equally enjoying the fellowship and joining in the conversation. This fourth person was Jesus of Nazareth. By now, of course, I knew very well who he was, and he was so ‘real,’ but at this still relatively early stage in my relationship with him, I still felt slightly uncomfortable. I loved him with all my being, and his very existence was manna for my life and soul, yet here, right in my flat (again!) was the mighty Lord, and I was not sure how to address him, how to ‘behave’ toward him, how to act in his presence, especially in a ‘social’ setting. He was so obviously relaxed and enjoying himself, but I was somewhat tense and uneasy. This was causing me to feel ‘on the outside, looking in.’
There was a flash of puckishness in his eyes and in the way his mouth moved as he smiled. Then he spoke, ‘I am the avenger.’
6I wanted to join in the relaxed atmosphere of fun and pleasantness of the situation but this was proving difficult, feeling so on edge. Clearly this was no good and something had to be done to redress the situation. With some trepidation I said to him, ‘How should I address you; by what name or title should we call you?’ He looked at me and there was love, tenderness, understanding in his countenance. But there was more, also. There was a sparkle of fun, a twinkle of humour, even a flash of puckishness, betrayed both in his eyes and in the way his mouth moved as he smiled. The moment was fleeting but somehow seemed to be timeless. Then he spoke, ‘I am the avenger.’ That was all he said, but he knew the impact those 4 words would have upon me. This was the 1960s! The Avengers was a global-phenomenon TV series about the British secret service. This was the era of James Bond; when derring-do with style, with flair, with bowler hats and furled umbrellas and figure-hugging leather trousers on karate-kicking, breathtakingly gorgeous ladies, was all the rage. I knew it only too well and he knew that that was the image that word would instantly bring to my mind — and it did.
7How the scene, the experience, ended I do not recall but that was enough to have a huge effect on me. It jolted me to the core. Later, I looked up the word avenger in the dictionary and also in the Bible concordance.
8The dictionary said ‘Avenge’ meant to inflict retribution, exact satisfaction, on behalf of (person, violated right, etc.) According to my then understanding of Jesus’ ‘job description,’ that seemed to be as apposite as possible.
9The concordance showed several New Testament references to ‘Avenge’ and ‘Avenger:’
10Lk 18:7-8 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
11Rom 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
121Thes 4:6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, …
13Rv 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth?
14Rv 18:20 Rejoice over her, thou Heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
15Rv 19:2 For true and righteous are his judgements: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the Earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
16There are a number of other places in Old and New Testaments where the word avenge, or various derivatives, are to be found, but those shown above — all of which were new to me at that time because I was not extensively familiar with the Bible scriptures — clearly indicate that Jesus was well familiar with them when he used the word to describe himself to me.
17My perspective on such matters now has grown somewhat, and I prefer to see the word and its application in the context of Jesus of Nazareth as being a person who puts right that which is ‘wrong,’ or is not serviceable to the well-being of all. In a broader perspective it could be described as restoring to balance that which is out of balance (with the perfection of the Creator Spirit’s eternal scheme of things), which helps to remove the rather negative shadow around the word avenge caused by the etymological association of it with revenge.
18I now see that words like ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are subjective judgements rather than absolute, unchangeable, fixed realities. We are all continually creating our own reality, and that changes, evolves on a moment by moment basis, until we have remembered fully who we really are and returned to our rightful inheritance of perfection in the Kingdom of Heaven. In the interim, as we journey back toward that place of being, it is a growing, ever-becoming process, just as is the growing of any organism — a baby in the womb, a lettuce in the garden, or anything else. It is something more, something greater in ‘this moment’ than it was in any ‘previous moment.’ We may all say, for example, ‘killing another person is wrong and that is an unchangeable truth,’ but history is full of killing where the killer justifies his actions as being ‘righteous.’
19For instance, the loving spouse, whose partner is terminally ill, in pain, whose quality of life is less than zero and who, motivated by tender love and compassion, ‘helps them to end it all.’ The law of the land may see that as a crime of murder — although this is under careful scrutiny and review now and it does not seem unreasonable to consider that the law may well be changed at some not-too-far-off date, even as it already is in some jurisdictions.
20If we are rigid and inflexible in the posture that the ending of another’s life is murder under any and all circumstances, then it prohibits the expression of this so-vital a quality of the higher nature of humanity known as compassion toward another’s suffering. And if that suffering, terminally ill person wishes to end their suffering and is accepting of ‘death’ as the only realistic way to do it, it could be reasonably viewed as an act of great compassion to assist in this release. An act of compassion is an act of love, which enables growth of the soul. Denial of such an act for reasons which may be based on self-imposed restriction of perception could therefore be construed as denying oneself an opportunity to grow spiritually. This is neither a statement for nor a judgement against euthanasia, but is an example of how attitudes are often taken for or against a particular matter without consideration being fully and fairly given to all sides and angles of the issue.
21Further, in the eternal perspective there is no such thing as ‘death,’ since living things, including humans, are not essentially bodies, but spirit, functioning in the physical world through the vehicle of a physical body. It is, therefore, the spirit that is the livingness of each being and the spirit does not die when it lays aside the physical vehicle through which it has found expression, because life is God — pure and perfect Spirit — and God is indestructible.
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22Later in that summer of 1968, I was becoming more and more disenchanted with the world of advertising. I felt one was expected to say what it was expedient to say rather than how it really is. I was waking up feeling sick and getting home from work at the end of each day with a migraine. Clearly, it was time to move on; you couldn’t have a conscience and be in advertising.
23My former boss had been headhunted to run the British Columbia operations of Canada’s biggest chain of office supplies retailers and he kept phoning to ask me to join him there. The idea did not appeal to me. My heart and soul were set on activities that would ‘fulfil the inner man’ and somehow the prospect of ‘peddling paperclips and glue’ to the local businesses did not seem to offer much chance of achieving this goal! Nevertheless, my disenchantment with present employment was reaching unbearable levels and Paul kept on pestering me to join him. It seemed at least an escape-hatch to something tolerable, even if not inspiring, and I had always got on very well with Paul. Finally I accepted his offer, and at 8 o’clock on my first Monday morning as a sales rep. for Willson’s Stationers, found myself sitting at the desk allocated to me in the large sales office.
24There was bedlam going on all around me as the other 20 or so reps greeted each other and discussed the weekend’s events or other matters of varying import. I knew no-one, so sat there, silently wondering what I had got myself into. Instantly I heard a voice, loud and clear, speaking from about 6 feet away to my right, say, ‘Don’t worry, you won’t be here for long.’ What a greeting on my first day in a new job! This was a voice from the spirit world but it was as clear as if spoken by any of the other incarnate souls in the room. Moments after that the meeting was called to order by the sales manager and my new ‘career’ was under way.
***
25At the end of one evening in August 1969, after I had driven Theresa home, we sat in the car talking outside. She had been telling me of her years of nightmares — sleeping and waking — caused by intrusions from Earthbound spirits. In one of the experiences she was in a Nazi death camp and the all-pervading, nauseous, terrifying fear was smothering all senses like a pall. As we discussed this I was suddenly aware of the features of another woman overshadowing Theresa’s appearance. No words could adequately describe the look of stark terror in her eyes. There was a pleading, begging cry for help in them. I instantly knew this dear soul was the cause of Theresa’s experience. This lady, of whom I had the impression that she was a Dutch Jew and whom we now believe to be named Rachel, had been living this terrible nightmare for, in Earth time, well over 25 years; no doubt, without a single moment’s respite.
26Theresa had no awareness of being overshadowed; all she knew was that she was experiencing everything this lost, tormented soul was experiencing and had no idea why, nor any awareness of its origin. Without saying a word to Theresa I began speaking silently to this lady, explaining that she was now departed from the Earthly life, that she was ‘stuck’ in the events prevailing at the time of her demise and was, perhaps unwittingly in her stark terror, overshadowing Theresa; that this was no longer necessary because she could call upon help from the Realms of Light and help would immediately be sent to her; that even if she was Jewish and not of the ‘Christian’ faith, she would do well to call upon Jesus of Nazareth for that help and that either he himself would come or he would send other help under his authority and she would then be instantly released from her torment.
27She looked at me with a look that portrayed partly disbelief and partly a desperate desire to believe what I had said. I assured her, still silently, that this was absolutely true and that she should now call upon this help without further delay. With barely a moment’s hesitation she was gone. Theresa, who had no knowledge of this silent communion, and who had herself been in terrible distress, let out a gasp and a sob of relief, for her torment had ceased at that exact, selfsame moment. I explained to her what had taken place.
28The next evening, as we sat in the car outside her home again, the lady suddenly was back. This time there was a Heavenly radiance about her and her face was full of joy and gratitude. Truly she had been released from her torment. She had come back to give her thanks for the guidance I had been able to impart the previous evening and to let us know that she had received the help, just as I had assured her she would. There was also a vibration indicating deep and profound apology for the distress with which she had unwittingly been burdening Theresa. Her soul was now soaring in rapture. I felt the thanks and the blessing that her heart was pouring out. Then, in an instant, she was gone again.
29The following day Theresa told me that Rachel had come to her as she knelt at her prayer sanctuary before bed, to thank her. Theresa said it was as if Rachel had ‘kissed her soul.’
30We have had no further awareness of contact from her, although I dare say she has never forgotten the help given, and has been or even still is sending her blessings and help in some way to us. It is my guess also that she will be now able to help others to find release from similar experience and that such ‘work’ will be bringing joy and fulfilment to her life. Such a prospect is blessing enough for us that we may have been contributory in enabling it. Anyone who thinks that Earthbound souls who ‘possess’ the bodies of incarnate souls are all ‘evil spirits’ is sadly mistaken. This lady had no evil in her. She had fear beyond imagining and was in the most desperate need of help. The most helpful things she could be given were love, compassion, understanding and a rational, meaningful explanation of what was happening to her, and what she could do to bring this condition to an immediate and blessed end.
31In a so-called civilised world, full of the clever, the proud and the scornful, the lack of understanding of such matters, although documented in thousands of books around the world, and available to all, is truly of epic proportion. The church equally has access to such documentary evidence and is resolutely ignoring it and remaining, by its own free choice, in complete ignorance. That is sad enough, but what is immeasurably more sad and unserviceable to humanity is the way the church has persuaded the populace at large, and particularly its congregants, that all contact with the spirit world is evil and that any such is the work of Satan, luring God’s children into a snare.
32No wonder church attendance is at an all-time low and falling in Britain and much of the rest of the world. Even in countries where it is not falling, the narrow, exclusivist attitudes of the Catholic Church and many of the various schismatic Protestant denominations runs entirely counter to the embracing, unconditionally-loving example and teaching of Jesus. How applicable are his words to the Pharisees for today’s religious leaders: But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. (Matt 23:13). How much a reminder to us of the unserviceableness of denominational religions are the words given to a Light-seeker in Australia: ‘…I have called them by their names but they have de-nominated themselves.’
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33Theresa and I were married a few weeks later. We lived in the upstairs half of a house that had been converted into a self-contained apartment. Life was not quite idyllic but it had much to create an overriding sense of joy and contentment; I was newly wed to my much beloved Companion of the Way, and my relationship with my dearly beloved Jesus was growing all the while into an ever more palpable reality. What more could any living soul ask for?
34One evening after we had got home from work and prepared our evening meal, we sat at the table to eat. As I was about to give thanks for the good food and bless it to our health and strength, the same voice that I had heard in the Willson’s sales office on my first morning there, spoke, this time from my left, about 6 feet across the room, ‘Prayer is an attunement, not a pleading.’
35In December that same year, Pop, who had been to New Zealand to help the commercial development of the seaweed products there, stopped in Vancouver on his way home. A new distributor from Vancouver Island had recently been appointed for Canada and the headquarters back in England had asked Pop to visit there to induct the new distributor into product knowledge and sales techniques. Pop spent a few days with us, then we took him to the island, showed him around and delivered him to the distributor, where he stayed a few days before returning to Vancouver for another few days with us before flying home.
36On his last night with us Theresa’s parents had invited us all out for a meal. Theresa sat between Pop and me and between courses Pop moved his chair back, and reaching behind Theresa, tapped me on the shoulder. ‘Why don’t you come back to England and join the firm?’ he said. Before I could speak Theresa blurted out, ‘Oh, yes please!’
37I was flattered of course, but wasn’t sure what to say. I had given my life into the care of Jesus and was committed to living under guidance from him. He had given no indication that this, or anything like it, was on the cards. It was my understanding at that time that to take ‘precipitate’ action without first receiving some indication from ‘above’ was putting myself out on a limb, placing myself outside the Master’s protection and guidance. I asked Jesus for guidance and direction in this matter but received nothing whatsoever. No word, no feeling, no dreams, visions, ‘throw-away lines’ from anyone else that might have been some sort of affirmation one way or another. Never had I felt such lack of any sense of contact when I could most have used it. After all, this would have been a big move geographically, a total change of direction career-wise and would, of course, have removed us from direct contact with Olga, a constant source of spiritual fellowship and mentoring, and in spite of a 54-year age gap, a real joy to be with.
‘Why have you led me into this?’
‘I don’t lead you into these things; I lead you out of them.’
38Meanwhile, Pop returned to England, and when we went back into work at the beginning of 1970 the vibes there had undergone a radical change. As we walked through the front door (Theresa had, a few months before, joined Willson’s in their telephone sales department) it was like being slapped in the face, the change was so palpable, and the whole atmosphere had suddenly become unbearable. I felt as if this was like stepping out of the advertising frying pan into the stationery fire. I felt let down by the Lord and said to him, ‘Why have you led me into this?’ His instantaneous reply was ‘I don’t lead you into these things; I lead you out of them.’ I heard him very clearly and was in no doubt about what had been said, and who had said it, but I was in grave difficulty over it. It most certainly did seem as if he had led me into it because when I got into bed on the night I had accepted Paul’s job offer, the Master said, ‘Well done, Little One.’ I had taken that very much as his seal of approval on my course of action. Now, barely 15 months later, the job had gone very sour on me.
39Over the years I have come to realise that in the ‘eternal scheme of things’ there are what appear to us from our Earth-life, finite perspective, many subtle nuances and, when we are starting out along the path of spiritual awakening, our ability to see and understand these apparent subtleties is very limited. Truly, ‘Earth-life’ consciousness and perception is very literal-minded. With the benefit of time my perception of these eternal realities has grown and I now see that there are several Laws of Creation, to which the Lord Jesus has referred on many occasions to me as ‘the Principles of Life of the Father’ (PLFs), which apply in a situation such as this:
40We have free will to live as we choose and to decide in which direction to move at any and every moment; that a single step does not radically alter the overall direction of that journey, which is ultimately guided by our own desire, deeply embedded in our heart and mind; that Jesus and all the others from the Realms of Light who love us and are there to help us — including those of us in the Earth life who love and choose to follow the Lord Jesus — never impose their desires or choices upon us against our own will; that they always honour our choices and decisions; that they will help to redirect us if we have taken a step that is not in the general direction of our life’s journey and we have consciously chosen to co-operate with them and allow ourselves to be guided/redirected by them in such an event; that that redirection may be by the outworking of circumstances rather than by their speaking.
41I had taken the Master’s words ‘Well done, Little One’ as meaning that this was his choice for me. The reality, I now perceive, was that this was not the case. He was simply saying that my decision to move on was something with which he was pleased, for my sake, not because it was his objective for me. This was a stepping-stone by which he could lead me out of the world of advertising. When the time came for me to move onto the next stepping-stone, he would, by the authority over my life that I had given him by my committed willingness to be guided by him, once again lead me out. Never mind that each stepping-stone is not in itself our ultimate objective. Suffice it to be a way out of that from which we have become ready to move. Life, in the illusory realm of time and place, is a journey, which is comprised of a series of sequential steps, each one being an experience in itself. It can start as being a positive and exciting experience, but in due course it has served its purpose and it comes time to move on. This is growth. It is like the baby in the womb. At first it is comfortable, roomy and secure. But as the baby grows, it starts to feel confined and its freedom restricted. Eventually that place becomes like a prison and it is time to move on to the next place, or stepping-stone, of life’s journey of unfolding, sequential creative experiences that mark our route back Home to God.
***
42Soon after Pop got back to England he wrote confirming that the Company was interested in employing me and asking for my response, indicating interest or otherwise, so that a formal offer of employment could be made. But still there was no word of guidance or direction from the Lord. I was in a complete quandary. Theresa was really excited about the prospect, and so was I, but I felt it was only appropriate to make such a major move in accord with the authority and directing of Christ, under whose guidance I had voluntarily placed myself. To decide independently, it seemed to me, would remove me from that authority and the protection it afforded from the world’s snares and pitfalls, into which I had no desire to fall. Days turned into weeks and Pop wrote again, expressing some surprise at my lack of response. So, under pressure to do something, I sat down at home after supper with pen and paper, not having the faintest idea what to say. I asked the Lord for guidance and began writing. It appeared to be rambling, taking no direction and I was aware of no inspiration coming in at all.
the guidance was there even though I had had no conscious awareness of it
43After writing maybe a couple of hundred words and still not knowing how to answer Pop’s invitation, I put down the pen and decided to at least read what had so far been committed to paper, if but to see if it was complete gibberish and worthy only of consigning to the ‘round file’ and starting over again. At first it seemed to be a somewhat circuitous line of approach to the subject but after a while, having explained that there were a number of commitments that needed our attention — such as finishing off the repayments for Theresa’s loan for university studies (that would take a few more months) I read the words ‘… but this is the direction towards which we will be working.’ I was absolutely flabbergasted. I had apparently written that — meaning that we would be bringing our affairs into order in Canada so that we would be in a position to return to England to take up the job offer — without having any conscious awareness of having done so. This clearly indicated to me that the guidance was there — in my own within — even though I had had no conscious awareness of it, and that this was the way forward.
44It was going to take us some months to get everything in order, and it was the spring of 1970 by the time my official job offer had arrived and I had responded affirmatively to it. In April we went with great excitement to the travel agent to book our sea passage home via the Panama Canal, departing in November and arriving about a month later. As we had had our annual holiday before we got married, there had been no chance for time away on honeymoon, so we asked the travel agent if we could have a table for 2 in the dining room on board ship because we had not been able to take a honeymoon at the time of our marriage, and that therefore we would be treating this month-long voyage as our honeymoon. He was delighted at the idea, and gladly complied with our request.
45Meanwhile, Theresa, who had had all sorts of ‘female troubles’ since adolescence, and also a rotated pelvis as a result of being walloped in the base of the spine in her late teens by a hit-and-run driver in the university car park, and had been told by more than one medic that she would never bear children, had fallen pregnant! Having understood she could not conceive, we had taken no contraceptive precautions. By the spring of 1970 she was several months pregnant, but all was not well. She began to feel ill physically, but more sinister, she felt a serious and distressing sense of unease about the baby, and that something was wrong with its development. Her physical state was much more than just routine morning sickness. I was becoming deeply concerned and asked the Rector for his help and guidance as to what to do in this frightening situation. He immediately said in a very kind but firm and authoritative way, ‘Do nothing. All is in our care and we will attend to this matter.’ A day or so later, on a Saturday, I went off to do the weekly grocery shopping, leaving Theresa lying on the sofa in some pain and distress, trying to get some rest.
46When I came back she was in a state of great excitement. She said, ‘As soon as you went out, the Rector came in with a number of other people from spirit. I was lying on my front, trying to get comfortable, and one of the men came up to me and rammed a huge hypodermic into my buttock. I felt the sharp pain of the needle going in and then the serum being injected. It was such a real experience that I checked afterwards and the red mark where the needle went in is visible.’ She showed me and there, large as life, was indeed a red mark from the injection.
47Within a few days Theresa started to experience uterine discharge, not just of blood but of fragments of human tissue. A further few days and a partly developed fœtus, badly deformed and partly broken down, came fully away. It was a boy.
48Theresa’s periods had always been very erratic. She often went many months without one, and often they were very slight. On other occasions they ran one into another with hardly a break between. Having had surgery to remove grapefruit-sized ovarian cysts in her teens, and been told she would never bear children, and since she was allergic to ‘the pill’ we hardly knew what to do, but with her history it came as no surprise when she had no period for several months after the loss of this fœtus. As summer turned into autumn and we were getting excited about our upcoming journey back to a new life for us and career for me, she began to get strange feelings in her abdomen, and by October we agreed she should visit the doctor. After a while he came out to me in the waiting room and enquired, ‘Mr Longhurst?’ When I replied in the affirmative, he stuck out his hand and said, with a huge grin on his face, ‘I don’t know whether to clout you round the ear or congratulate you; Theresa’s 5 months pregnant — you’re going to be a dad!’
***
49As we boarded the ship and gave our names to the crew member ticking us off on the passenger manifest, Theresa was 6 months pregnant and very obviously so. The crewman looked at her bump very pointedly, eyed us both up and down and said in a voice that could be heard by all around us, ‘Oh yes. You’re the honeymoon couple!’ In those days the norm was to get married and then produce a family and as far as he read the situation we were only just squeaking in under the door for that order of events. So it was, no doubt, for all the other passengers and crew who had witnessed this little encounter.
50During the voyage home, on a number of occasions, I saw a little boy from the spirit world. He was a toddler, just stivering about, and clearly had not been walking very long. He had curly, blonde hair and mostly wore a navy blue toddler’s trouser-suit. He was radiantly happy and clearly belonged with us. He was never far from us and looking to us as one’s own child would look to its parents. I ‘knew’ his name was Peter David. It seemed logical to me that this was the soul-body of the child Theresa was carrying within her and I was over the moon about this. After several sightings I mentioned this to Theresa and she said, ‘Oh, I am so glad you have been seeing him too. I didn’t like to say anything in case it was just my wishful thinking.’ She also had seen him numerous times, and described him and his clothing identically to my observations — including the name!
51That was it. This was definitely our son, Peter David, due to arrive in this world in only a few more weeks.
52In early February 1971 the baby finally arrived, after a long and exhausting (for Theresa!) delivery. It was a girl! I was so astounded when the intern in charge of the delivery announced this that I said, in a state of utter disbelief, ‘No, it can’t be; you must have made a mistake!’ but his amused reply was unequivocal, ‘I’m awfully sorry but she just ain’t got what it takes!’
53But that was not the end of the Peter David saga. Theresa and I continued seeing him. One day, a few months later, as I came home from work at the end of the day, there he was, his little head just visible above the windowsill, looking out of the window at me and waving at his daddy. Theresa and I saw him independently of each other on a number of further occasions and after some time it finally dawned on us that this was her first baby who had not made it through into the Earthly life. It was our new daughter’s older brother, visiting us from the spirit world. What joy that was to our hearts, that he was alive, well, no deformity and full of the joy, exuberance and energy of life and love. Here was a classic case of knowing these things intellectually, so none of it should have been a surprise to either of us, but the actual experience, affirming all that we knew in principle was true, was so much more meaningful, wonderful, joyful to us. In a way, it is rather like saying that to know something in theory is a two-dimensional thing but to experience it adds extra dimensionality to it, bringing it into a living, pulsating reality.
54There are millions of couples around the world whose children do not make it through into this life, either by miscarriage or termination. About one in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage, so that is a lot of souls who never make it through to this world. With miscarriage there is almost always going to be grief and distress for the bereaved parents who have lost a much desired and longed-for child in their lives. For those choosing to terminate a pregnancy, for whatever reason, there will almost always be guilt added to all the other feelings. For most, having no awareness or denying the reality of the living soul of the little one, who will naturally gravitate toward the parents he had chosen to provide his vehicle of expression, is depriving the parents of some very helpful and beneficial easement of their grief and guilt, knowing, experiencing that their offspring is actually alive and well and loves them and desires familial fellowship with them. This is such an unnecessary deprival. Such denial is not a spontaneous or natural state of being but one created by centuries of society being conditioned by dogmas and doctrines of institutionalised religion dominating society. This domination has been based on inculcating fear into the minds and hearts of the populace, not unconditional love. Is this what Jesus desires for his brethren in the Earthly life? It is also worth considering that the soul of the little one will be profoundly confused by the fact that his parents are ignoring him, acting as if he doesn’t exist, when the simple sending out of love and blessings toward the one they love and miss (or feel guilty about), even if they have no perceptual awareness of him, will be a massive healing aid to all.
55This is not intended to be an advocacy of actively seeking such awareness — that should always be a free choice — but it is not a blanket condemnation either. Rather, it is a cry from the heart to all in such a situation who feel the presence of the souls of their loved ones — offspring who don’t make it to term or much beyond, or older generations who have returned to the etheric realms after a full life on Earth — to acknowledge and allow such feelings, even if they do not include, or lead to, a sensory awareness of the departed soul, to accept and welcome those feelings and/or awareness as being the blessing for all that they actually are. Such a change of attitude can and will move us away from the fear of ‘death’ that so pervades today’s society, and into a much healthier understanding of the eternal continuity of life. This will, assuredly, be one more significant and substantial step forward towards the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
***
56In the spring of 1971 I was busy getting into my stride as a seaweed salesman and Theresa was busy making a home for us and our new baby daughter. Due to complications, she had had to stop breastfeeding after only a couple of months and had switched the little one onto baby formula. When she was about 3 months old, I had gone away to West Sussex for a few days on business; my first time away overnight since she was born.
Theresa snatched her up and this jerking motion caused her to gasp and start breathing again.
It probably saved her life.
57Early one evening Theresa decided to go and have a look at her, asleep in her crib. To Theresa’s horror, she was blue and had stopped breathing. She snatched her up and this jerking motion caused her to gasp and start breathing again.
58It probably saved her life.
59Theresa tore down to the ground floor of the building with the baby in her arms and frantically bashed on the door of the young New Zealand couple who lived there. Fortunately, Janine was in. ‘My baby’s dying, please help me,’ yelled Theresa. Immediately Janine was galvanised into action. Still barefoot, she grabbed her car keys and said, ‘Come on, where’s your doctor?’ Within minutes they were at the doctor’s surgery. He saw them straight away. Taking one look at her he said, ‘Can you drive her to the hospital? It’ll be quicker than waiting for an ambulance. I’ll phone ahead and tell them to expect you.’ Janine raced them to the hospital, where doctors and nurses grabbed her from Theresa’s arms.
60Herein is a further story of how greatly we are helped from the Heaven Realms, here on Earth: Neither Theresa nor Janine knew exactly where the hospital was, although Theresa had an inkling of the general direction in which it lay because that was where she had had the baby 12 weeks earlier. But because I had driven her there — at night — and had driven her home 9 days later, and because she was a newcomer to the area, as was Janine, Theresa had only a very vague idea of where to go. They found their way there with no detours, however, but that was not the end of the story. The hospital was a mass of separate buildings set in a vast site, with lanes in all directions and signs that were at best inadequate and at worst, misleading. In spite of this, they drove unerringly straight to the pædiatrics unit, even though they had no conscious awareness of where it was. Truly they were under very close guidance, because minutes of further delay could have been decisive in the outcome.
61The senior paediatric consultant, Dr Jacoby, was there. I knew him because his son, Richard, had been at school with me and I had once helped Richard when he had badly injured his hand while we were out cycling together. I had called his dad from a payphone and he had come and rescued Richard. He had expressed his profound thanks to me for helping his son. Now it was his turn to help my infant daughter. After checking her heartbeat and finding it to be racing out of control at over 300 beats per minute, he immediately injected digitalis straight into her heart! This stabilised her heart rate and undoubtedly — again — saved her life, although she was to spend the next several days in intensive care.
62After a few days I returned from my business excursion to an empty home, knowing nothing of these dramatic events, since at that time we had no telephone and Theresa had no way of contacting me because I was travelling about and staying at bed and breakfasts wherever I ended up at the end of each day. I was feeling sorry for myself, with a migraine, and went to bed. An hour or so later Theresa came in alone. ‘Where’s the little ‘un?’ I asked and Theresa immediately burst into tears. As soon as she told me what had happened and that she was still in intensive care, I leapt out of bed, my migraine instantly vanished, threw on some clothes and off we ‘flew’ to the hospital. There was the tiny, 12 week old with tubes and wires all over her body, looking as fragile as could be, but as soon as she saw me she began to perk up, and not long afterwards was allowed home.
63It turned out that the baby formula was too rich for her to digest and was going rancid in her intestine. This was poisoning her system and had set her heart racing. Much longer without the digitalis and it would have burnt out. Blessedly, she made a full recovery, with no lasting heart, digestive or brain damage.