THOSE WHO CAME BACK
FROM THE DEAD

Jozef Rulof

Chapter III
The return of a mocker

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

IN a similar condition another being who passed away tells of his life on the side beyond. He returned to me as the result of a talk about life after death we had shortly before he departed. Gerhard was an acquaintance whom I met occasionally and who worked as a coachman for an undertaking business.

I had been at a cemetery and on my way out I met him, he had carried someone to his final resting place. He beckoned me from a distance to come up to him.

After exchanging the usual pleasantries he asked: ‘I have heard that you are doing strange things, is that true?’

I knew right away what he was getting at and asked: ‘Strange things, you say? What do you mean?’

‘Oh well, I mean that spiritualism. Do you practice that?’

I smiled and asked: ‘Is it strange to do that? Do you know what spiritualism is and means? Surely you don’t think that it is a kind of game, do you?’

‘I don’t know’, he said, ‘but you hear quite a lot about it. I don’t know much about it and I think it is ridiculous. I heard that you draw and paint through the dead.’

I clearly felt his sarcasm but I let it pass.

‘Do you fool people?’ he continued. ‘Is what you hear people talking about really true? I do not believe in it at all. I’ll tell you something’, he said and he looked at me.

I meanwhile searched his mind and when I felt his condition I had to laugh. Seated on his wagon high above me, covered in blankets, the whip in his right hand he went on: ‘Why do you laugh? Do you know already what I’m going to say? Is it a hoax? I thought as much.’

I did not answer and let him finish, it was too comical!

‘Dead is dead’, he said and he looked me straight in the eyes. ‘You know what work I do, every day I’m with the dead, but not one of them opens his mouth. How can a dead body speak anyway? The dead should be left in peace. People who have dealings with it’, he brought his hand to his forehead, ‘are mad.’ He burst out laughing. ‘People don’t know how to entertain themselves, it is so boring that they look for something else. So you mean to say that the dead draw through you?’ He smirked and looked at me as if he felt sorry for me.

‘Have you finished?’

‘Yes, that’s all.’

‘Very good, then I’ll answer you. You are not a bad bloke but you don’t know anything about these things and you should not make fun of it. You are a mocker of the worst kind and an ignorant person. You laugh at something you don’t know nor understand and of which you cannot sense the origin or truth. Many people act like you and that is not to their credit. I ask you, do I look like a madman? Have I changed? Do I look insane? Well, answer me.’

‘No’, he said, ‘I see nothing peculiar about you.’

‘Well then, I paint and draw through the spirits. That is through people who died on earth but live on. They return to us and make the most wonderful paintings through me. You know that I have never painted and that I can’t paint myself. Anyway, when I receive these paintings I don’t even know that I’m doing it.’

‘It’s a mystery to me’, he said, ‘a great mystery. But you have changed.’

‘That’s what you think but I have not changed in any respect. I have only become a little wiser about the great problem: Death. Really, Gerhard, you should not mock these things.’

He was apparently not convinced and said: ‘Be honest with me: Do you really believe that it is the truth? As I said dead is dead to me. There is surely enough rubbish in the world without making more.

‘Rubbish?’

He felt that I was annoyed but I said: ‘Do you like reading?’

‘Yes, I read now and then.’

‘Then I advise you to read books about spiritualism, a lot has been written about this subject and perhaps you’ll change your mind.’

‘Have you read them too?’

‘I have read little but I see the spirits.’

‘What are you saying?’ he asked in astonishment, ‘do you see them?’

‘I see and hear them’, I continued calmly. ‘I know their life because I see it and I hear them speaking to me.’

This was too much for him.

‘But you don’t do these things, do you?’

‘Do what? What do you mean?’

‘Well table-dancing like those others.’

‘Which others?’

‘Don’t pretend you don’t understand me, you know very well what I mean.’

‘Aren’t spirits real spirits, isn’t influence real influence? But you don’t understand anything about it. That same little table you laugh at and which you call rubbish has comforted many mothers and fathers and children and contacted them with each other. But when people don’t understand it they ridicule it. In whatever way the spirit manifests itself, spirits are spirits and there is no death. You say that none of them opens his mouth and that is true, could it be otherwise? A dead body will indeed not speak, but the spiritual body can and that is eternal. As I said, you are not a bad chap and a good family man but stay off these things you don’t know anything about.’

‘Don’t you attend seances, or whatever you call them?’

‘Rubbish’, I said and now I looked him straight in the eyes, waiting what he would say.

‘I mean it seriously now, I don’t know anything about it, do I?’

‘Yes’, I resumed the discussion, ‘I have experienced quite a lot in that respect. You wouldn’t believe it but if it interests you, come and see me sometime. You can have a look at my paintings which were made by spirits through me.’

He did not reply but said: ‘When I’m there, and started mocking again, I’ll come and tell you.’

‘What do you want to tell me then?’

‘That I’m alive and I’ll knock like this’, and he thumped his whip a few times against his carriage and called: ‘Knock, knock, knock’ and he burst out laughing.

I controlled myself.

He felt he had gone too far and asked me: ‘Are you angry?’

‘Not with you, people who speak in that way don’t bother me.’

‘I can imagine’, he said, ‘but it gives me the creeps.’

‘It gives you the creeps, eh? Do you know, Gerhard, what gives me the creeps?’

‘No.’

‘That mockery of yours about the dead.’

‘Now who is mocking worse, you or me?’ His words were hard and he continued: ‘Every day we see new faces, but no one says a word.’

‘Are you starting all over again?’

He could not be convinced however hard I tried. Yet I did not give up so easily and I said to him: ‘Don’t forget that when your heart gives up you’ll enter that life as a mocker. And that can happen any time, every second and then you’ll face eternity as you are now, most unhappy. I think that then you’ll give up all that mockery.’

He said nothing, he looked straight ahead and prepared to leave. ‘Look, there are my colleagues. Are you angry?’

I shook my head and his last words were: ‘All the best, old chap, and good luck with the spirits.’

I only partly heard him, for I was too absorbed in thought. What a mocker! That is how people think of holy spiritualism and ridicule it. He is not a bad fellow, but ignorant of the great truths. I had not known him in this way before. Dead was dead to him and he knew nothing about spiritualism. They should be left in peace, it was the old story. I found it sad.

Surely all those great scientists who had given themselves were not insane! I had known Gerhard for years, but hardly ever saw him. A mighty discussion, I thought, but he cannot be convinced. He knows death, but death will remain dead for him. How simple it was for him to remain ignorant, it made life easier. A strapping fellow, and yet what is he really when he speaks like that. They laugh at their own ignorance. Never yet has one opened his mouth! Not for him and neither for all those other undertaker-assistants who thought like he did. Every day he was among the dead, he was familiar and not frightened of them. They were dead, but he did not know death though he carried the dead to their final resting place. Bones could not speak, it was as simple as that. An other, an eternal life did not enter their mind. Anything in connection with spiritualism and death was eerie and yet spiritualism was the most sacred gift from God. Poor spiritualism!

But one day their eyes will be opened, though not until on the side beyond. They’ll see here and experience that they live forever. Death was still a terrible thing causing sorrow, grief and misery. He pulled the wool over people’s eyes and they will continue grieving at funerals and were broken. They don’t know any better and don’t want to. They remain deaf, blind and unfeeling.

Life that had existed in the material body returns to eternity. From there it supported those people willing to come in contact. How grateful people should be for that wonderful connection. Spiritualism has nothing to do with the devil. It is their friends and loved ones who return to them in order to tell them that they live and are happy. Is there anything more sacred than this? I know spiritualism as radiant as a sun, as pure as eternal life itself.

I would not have thought for a moment that Gerhard was to pass over so soon. A fortnight later he was dead. Death had caught him right away, far from wife and child. The mocker now lived in life after death. I was shocked when I was told. How strange are the laws of God, of which so little is known. It was as if someone had called him and said: ‘Come, friend, see and observe, see whether you are dead or if there is eternal life. Observe, human being of the earth, nothing can be hidden here, here you’ll learn to know yourself. See and feel that eternal life is within you.’

Many thoughts passed through my mind. It was indeed most remarkable and I was glad that I had talked to him about it. That simple meaningless discussion full of sarcasm and mockery would be something for him to hold on to. I could still hear the smacking of his whip which on the other side would be knocking on his soul until he would awake. I knew that he was alive. How surprised he will be, I thought, when he also realizes that he is alive.

As regards his illness I heard the following. A few days ago he didn’t feel well. In the morning his throat had swollen and he had died that same evening. It was as quick as that. From familiar life he had entered the unknown. How would he be feeling? I would soon be seeing him, I thought, for he will visit me as Jane, father X and many others I had known had returned. But would he have the necessary power? I doubted that because he had not advanced that far. Through my journeys which I had been able to make with my leader by departing from the body, I knew that one has to possess the power of love in order to be able to manifest on earth. He would know little or nothing about that yet. He would remember his conversation with me for nothing of life on earth is lost when one enters that other life. I prayed for him and waited, but he did not return.

It was not until several months later when I was engaged as a medium to attend a seance that Gerhard came through with a short message of his life. It was a great pity that I was not present that night as I had to attend a patient seriously ill. The next day I received this message: ‘Tell Jozef it is me.’ He mentioned his name and said that I would recognize him. Yes, I knew him and I thought it strange that he had said nothing about our last meeting. Now I’ll see him soon, I thought, but another week passed and it was not until the next seance that I came in contact with him. The people who attended the seance were all intellectuals and had not known the simple coachman. This took away any idea of telepathic influence when he came through when they heard later that I had known him. This was proof that he was alive, but it puzzled me why I had to wait that long, for if he had come to me I would have been able to see him. However, my leader told me to wait and that I would find out the reason for it.

The following week I went as usual to my friends to the seance. They discussed the previous session and also Gerhard, which they had hardly understood. I saw Gerhard even before we started, which pleased me very much. When I took my seat he stood beside me. I did not concentrate on him, but as usual on my leader and waited for what was going to happen.

After a while I was connected with Gerhard and I asked: ‘Is it really you, Gerhard?’

‘Yes, it is me. I live, Jozef, I’m alive.’

I thought of our conversation. Here he stood, the mocker! He kept his head bent down. I felt a deep and sacred respect in him. How human and how great this meeting was. I felt the sincerity of life in him, he was awake, open to all that was living. How you have changed, I thought.

Gerhard was overjoyed. ‘Do you feel me, Jozef?’

‘Yes’, I said.

I felt he put his hand on my shoulder. A gentle, intense feeling of pure love flowed into me. This love came from the heart of a human being who had learned to understand life. It encouraged me and I felt very happy. We could not say much but he remained by my side for the rest of the evening. But we were one in feeling, I felt him, he felt me. I noticed that he watched everything that happened very closely, while an other spirit stood beside him who spoke to him from time to time. I did not learn anything about his life but I kept hoping that Gerhard would come through but he did not so that the evening passed without another word of Gerhard. Strange, I thought, why does not he say anything? Wouldn’t he remember our conversation? But that was impossible, for nothing is ever lost. Somewhat disappointed I went home. I concentrated continually, perhaps, I thought, I would see him at home and he would speak to me then. But that did not happen either.

I asked Alcar why Gerhard had not spoken anymore to me, or through the cross-and-board. Hadn’t he come through the week before? But Alcar said: ‘Do you find all this strange?’

‘Yes, Alcar, I do, he can speak to me, can’t he?’

‘He would have liked to, but it was not possible. Our laws are not like the laws on earth and our life is different from yours. His time has not come yet. Try to understand, in everything there is guidance, also in this. Wait patiently’, Alcar said to me, ‘he will return and tell you a great deal about his life on this side.’

I accepted, there was nothing I could change though I found it strange. For a long time I neither heard nor saw anything more of Gerhard. I prayed a lot for him, but I stopped after a full two years. Nothing, nothing at all had I heard or seen from him. I did not understand that, I could not explain it. If one person could return to the earth and receive connection why couldn’t he? It was so simple. I wanted so much to know how he felt and how he had arrived there, but around Gerhard lay and remained a mysterious veil.

A few years passed. I did not think of him anymore, other problems occupied my mind. One afternoon when I was working on the second chapter of this book and the spirit of Jane was interrupted because a brother wanted to see me, I saw Gerhard who came to visit me.

Gerhard said: ‘I’m allowed to tell you that I am here. Do you see me, Jozef? The master says that I may wish you good day and that I may tell you my story after Jane. Did you know this?’

‘No’, I said, ‘I didn’t know.’

‘When the sister has finished I may begin. I’m so happy, Jozef! See you later!’

Alcar said: ‘You did know about it for it was told to you some years ago and now that moment has come. We have planned all this because we knew that this would once happen. Now that moment has come.’

I bowed my head and understood. I had forgotten. I saw a spiritual web in front of me of which all the threads were thought out in advance and woven into each other, of which we people on earth know nothing and could not understand. Spirits can see far, very far ahead if they want to. This was a lesson to me and it also taught me to have complete confidence in them. I felt a deep respect for this great mystery. There was sacred guidance in everything. Those who had lived on earth and now live on the side beyond know secrets and truths that remain hidden to us earthly people until we too would enter that life. Then we would learn all those mysteries. Then mysteries and wonders were no longer mysteries and wonders, we would learn the holy truth. Those who had gone before us lived in that mighty life behind the veil which had been lifted for them. They had learned to know themselves and that life. The truth was revealed to me which is knowledge and wisdom in the spirit. I bowed my head and willingly submitted. I found Gerhard cheerful. His voice was filled with happiness which vibrated deep within me.

The spirit of Jeanne continued, had soon finished and took leave of me. I then waited for Gerhard to come through.

When I sat down at my typewriter the next day I did not have to wait long. I had observed Gerhard early in the morning. He took his place on my right side and Alcar who conducted the proceedings on my left.

Gerhard had tears in his eyes. How he had changed! He could not speak a word, he only looked above him as I clearly saw, as if to ask God for strength for this event. Gerhard had come to fill part of this book. I waited for him to speak. He stood where priest X and Jane had stood, the mocker! He who thought that it was all nonsense.

‘You must leave the dead in peace’, I could still hear him say. But I did not want to think of that now and I opened myself entirely so that he could reach me. I was to receive a spirit, a human being who had lived on earth, whom I knew, saw and felt. He stood beside me, strong, young and handsome. His eyes were shining and he was surrounded by a beautiful light.

The connection had not yet been made, but I felt him coming closer and closer toward and within me. I knew how this was done. To serve as a writing medium the spirit must be able to fully connect himself at least in this case, for there are other possibilities. Gerhard came into me, and we became one in feeling. I was raised into his life and he began to speak. I felt his story going through me and at the same time it was being recorded by me. Through feeling I experienced what he was telling me. While writing I experienced all this, I felt his struggle, sorrow, grief and happiness and his love.

I was not allowed to remain in this condition for long, as I would not be able to cope with it. Within a fortnight that part of the book was completed. I was watched over in everything. During that time my mind was living in the spheres, but I also had to live through my existence on earth and I was continually in contact with people on earth who needed my help. I lived therefore in this double condition until the book was ready.

I felt empty inside now unable to think of anything belonging to the earth. An intense influence came in me so that I felt the tranquillity of their life.

He’ll begin in a minute, I thought and I felt correctly because I heard Gerhard say: ‘So, here I am, finally a bit calmer! I was a bit nervous, but out of sheer happiness. In addition I have to focus upon my earthly life to be able to give you a clear picture of all my experiences which is not so easy because I am overwhelmed by it all. I thank our Almighty Father, Jozef, that it has been granted to me. I, the mocker, who thought that bones would not speak – the only truth I spoke during our conversation. I still remember, word for word. But now, dear friend, I’m happy, but first I ask your forgiveness. How did I ridicule you and the holiest gift to mankind. I did not believe in eternal life and to me dead was dead. I have had a very bad time, but all that misery is gone now. I have worked hard on myself! The heaviest task was not enough when I realized and accepted that I had died on earth. I did not believe that I had died, but more about that later.

I am just at the beginning of my eternal journey and yet I have a firm base. Really, Jozef, I have a firm base and I can’t sink away. This base is permanent, I experienced it and had to discard myself completely. Do you feel what it means to discard yourself? I had to learn that because I couldn’t. Nothing was given me. Nothing for nothing people say on earth, but it is on this side that you really realize this. I came through it, and how!

I’ll tell you about it, I’ll tell you everything up to this moment, which is for me the most beautiful of all the time I live here. How I have longed for it and what I had to go through! It was a terribly hard time. People won’t believe it, but not an inch of ground is given you on this side. Here you must earn everything, pay with your own spiritual blood, but when you have advanced to a certain level there is happiness, you feel happy you have acquired it, at any rate up to that level, for we proceed ever further. You are happy because you understand life, because you are alive where previously you were a living dead. Not only do you learn to understand life on earth, but also the awe-inspiring life in the universe.

I talk and think differently now as you’ll notice, I have changed. A lot has happened in all those years and I have learned not to laugh at other people anymore. I was stupid, very ignorant. All are who act like I did. I was mad, Jozef, not you and other people who know about spiritualism and accept it as a religion. It is sacred, sacred! He who relies on it does not build castles in the air, but works on his eternal home. Not until here did I understand that. Oh, how have I been able to bear everything, I took back word for word so that I thought I would choke. But I succeeded, however difficult it has been for me.

Our life is natural, false naturalness is only known on earth because people do not know nor feel or want to see the forces of nature that are within us. This unnaturalness brought me in a terrible condition, a condition of madness. I refused to accept what they told me, for it cost me my whole personality. However it was for my own good, for the salvation of my soul and when I finally understood this, I accepted.

But it cost me a lot of energy and exertion because I did not know nor understand myself. Everything would have been different if I had convinced myself of eternal life and would have accepted it while I was still on earth. Man on earth cannot imagine all this, he has to experience it and they all will but not before they are on this side. Nobody who lives like I did on earth can escape this. Here they will learn and the mockers will stand in awe for what they ridiculed. I look upward and have asked for forgiveness a long time ago. I indeed received it because God is love. Now I know this unknown mightiness I once pointed at when I provoked and laughed at you. I must not think about it anymore but how ignorant and narrow-minded I was!

I accepted this a long time ago, but it is not so easy to acquire eternal life. It is great to stand on ground of eternal substance, to know a world in which you never have to wake up and where tranquillity of the spirit embraces you as a mother does her child. Where there is nothing but light which will remain forever and where you only wake up to still higher and beautiful spheres which await you and all children of God. Spheres that appeal to you, and absorb you and where God looks after you, eternally. I awakened through the love of sisters and brothers. When I knew and saw that there was no damnation and never had been I bowed my head deeply to our Father. I could when I realized that I was alive, and sent my prayer, praying as a child of God ought to pray. And I, who laughed about the dead, may now tell of my own life on this side. Could you have thought of anything so beautiful? I could not but as you see this wonder also will happen.

It is tranquil here, Jozef, I know this quietness. It is the quietness of the spirit, of those who work for you, who give you nourishment for the mind, who protect you and want to convince mankind of eternal life. Here in the sphere of the earth, where there is never peace which peace can never be found I find spiritual peace, the peace of the spirit, of the higher being. I come to you from the first sphere and I’ll stay there for a long time to come.

Now we’ll begin.