Universal Lessons: A Journey Through the Afterlife
How individuals in spirit are prepared for the task of guiding humans on earth.
The School of Guidance
I walked towards the nearest door after noticing a sign above it that said: Becoming a Junior Guide. I opened the door and stepped inside. Here I found a group of students sitting around a teacher dressed in white. He invited me to join the class, and as I sat down he said, “We are talking about becoming a junior guide.”
I settled down to listen, as this subject was new to me. A large screen came down that covered one wall of the small room, and scenes were projected onto the screen for the class to see and comment on.
A young man appeared on the screen. We were told his name was Joseph. He was about thirty years old, with a pleasant face. We saw him walking hurriedly through a city. As he was crossing a busy street he looked up at the sky as it started to rain.
At that moment he was hit by a vehicle whose driver had not seen Joseph walking across the street looking up. Joseph’s body was killed instantly. We saw Joseph’s guides and angels encouraging his spirit to leave with them. After a few moments of hesitation and bewilderment, Joseph’s spirit accepted the help that was offered, and he was lifted up away from his body and the scene of the accident, upwards to the spiritual realms.
We were shown Joseph’s spirit, which looked like his physical form but was more ethereal. We saw him at rest in a pleasant white building that looked like a spiritual hospital. Here light streamed through rose windows, there was sunlight and color and beautiful music. Joseph was asleep and all around him angelic influences were helping him release the stress and trauma of the accident, so that when he woke up he would feel refreshed and at ease.
We then saw Joseph leaving the hospital and being taken to the life review room, where he was shown scenes from his last life and encouraged to examine them in depth in order to discover what he had really learned. By now Joseph was comfortable existing as a sprit, free from the limitations of the Earth plane.
We then zoomed in on the conversation Joseph was having with his guides regarding his last life. “I left too soon,” he was saying. “I was only thirty. There was so much still to do. I had only been married a year. My wife is expecting a child. Now the two people whom I love most have been left without my presence, my love and my financial support.”
The guide who was standing beside Joseph said, “This was your plan, Joseph; you left at the right time. You agreed with Emily before incarnation that you would die a year after your marriage. This was so that she could have the experience of raising a child alone and learning how to survive in difficult circumstances without a partner. This was a choice she made because she needed to learn certain lessons about independence and responsibility. You chose to die early because you knew from previous lives that it was very easy for you to lose your way in middle age. This was the time when in former lives you had turned to addiction in order to console yourself, once the enthusiastic dreams of youth had faded. So you incarnated on condition that you would die young. And we, your guides, agreed to this condition.”
“No, no,” said Joseph. “I would have had Emily and our child with me; I would have found meaning and purpose in life through them. I don’t agree that this was my decision, my plan.”
Joseph was now led into another room, which had a dome-like ceiling separated into many segments like an orange. He was shown a series of his past lives on different segments of the dome.
As he was shown each past life, we witnessed him growing in understanding as he remembered his lifetimes. It was as if every past life memory was waking up a part of his soul so that the Joseph whom we saw after the review of his many past lives was a different individual: wiser, deeper and more illumined. He had reclaimed so much of his soul memory that he now existed as an integrated totality, rather than being a single part of a larger whole.
Through the various past lives, Joseph was shown how in middle age he had frequently lost his way. At the end of this review he remembered his original plan for the lifetime just lived. Then his guide asked him:
“Do you remember what else you agreed with Emily before incarnation? You agreed that after your early death you would continue to support her and her child from the spiritual realm. You planned to be one of her guides. She willingly accepted this arrangement.”
“But I don’t know what to do!” Joseph protested. “I am not ready to guide anyone!”
“Not yet. But this will be one of your tasks eventually in this realm when you have completely recovered from the experience of transition and fully integrated this last life with all your past life learning. You will be meeting with the rest of Emily’s guides, and they will help you work out how best you can help her.
“She is missing you very much at the moment, so we suggest that you begin your guiding work with visits to her while she is asleep, in the dream state. Then her spirit will be able to hear you. You will be able to give her words of comfort and reassurance, tell her that all is as it should be, and encourage her to find the strength and perseverance to go on alone, for this is what she incarnated to do.”
The screen faded and I found myself once more back in the small room with the students and their teacher. The teacher began to speak.
“When you become a junior guide you have limited responsibilities. You are under the supervision of a more mature, experienced guide who will oversee your work and be available to answer questions. Junior guides usually start by guiding a member of their family, someone they were close to on earth. This is because the person left behind will be comforted by having a loved one in their life, even if their conscious mind is unaware of this. It is also because the junior guide knows this person, so it is a less daunting prospect for them.”
The room had become very quiet. Then the teacher continued: “You are all here today because it is time in your development for each of you to become a junior guide, if you so choose. You were shown this story so that you understand that you do not have to be perfect to be a junior guide, as you can see that Joseph is not an advanced soul. But you do need to be open to instruction and supervision. Are there any questions?’
“Yes,” said one of the students. “I did not get on with any of my family members. Do I have to guide one of them?”
The teacher smiled and the class tittered.
“There is no compulsion. We will never force you to do anything, and you could always choose to guide another person you have known. But let’s put it this way: some guiding input from you would help your birth family advance, it would have a positive effect on their lives. So far they have been impervious to other guidance. Because of their familiarity with you it will be easier for you to get through to them. So the real question is, ‘Do you want to help your former family members evolve spiritually, or not?’’
The student sighed and we wondered if he would accept the challenge. Another student asked, “What if I mess it up? What if they get more lost because of me?”
“For the initial period you will be following another guide, so that you learn the ropes. You will always work as one of a team of guides and your involvement will be overseen by a senior guide, who has detailed understanding of your task and its problems. They will be able to see if you are on the wrong track in your perception, and talk to you before you have had a chance to put your thoughts into actions. Don’t worry, you will be well supervised.
“And bear in mind that the role of a guide, whether junior or senior, is to encourage, assist and advise through your benign influence. But that does not mean that you will succeed in changing people’s minds or changing their life course if they are determined to go in a certain direction. All you can do is be a helpful, loving influence. So it is best to have realistic goals and not expect your human charges to change overnight because of your presence.”
The teacher stood up and I understood the lesson was over. The other students all went out by a different door, where older guides met them and took them away to discuss their future work as junior guides. I was left alone with the teacher.
“Do guides get discouraged when humans don’t listen to them?” I asked.
“It depends on their level of experience. An experienced guide knows that their energy is really what helps the human, not something they say. Most humans cannot hear their guides anyway, although they are aware of them when asleep. A junior guide is less likely to realize that their energy level is the key to helping the human change. Being a guide will help the less experienced spirit to elevate their level of vibration, to change their energy so that they one day understand this. Then they are ready to be a senior guide.”
I thanked the teacher for the class and walked back through the wooden door into the cloister. I walked under the arched doorway and out into the square. Here I found Sofia sitting on the bench.
“Have you been a guide for people on earth?” I asked her.
“Yes. I now supervise senior guides. This is one of my roles.”
“Is it a difficult job, being a guide?”
“It is if you have unrealistic expectations. But you soon lose these.”
We sat together in silence and I thought about guides and guidance. I thought about all the times in my previous incarnation I had sensed the influence of helpful, uplifting energies and how I had always assumed this was from Mary and the angels.
When I told Sofia this she said, “It does not matter what name you give to those who bring you true guidance. What matters is that it helps you. In fact, you were guided throughout your last life in an overarching way by the elevated spirit of Mary. You were also helped by your guardian angel. But your personal guides were also always there. They were with you in the everyday details of your life, all the little things. Indeed your personal guides knew you better than you knew yourself.”
After thinking about the guidance I had received without even knowing it, I began noticing some of the other buildings on the square. Sofia told me that you could learn many different disciplines here and be taught by illumined teachers, many of whom had been foremost in their field in their past lives. She knew that the scientific world held little interest for me, so she did not suggest I attend one of the lectures in the schools of science or mathematics. Both these schools, and the school of philosophy were found on different sides of the square.
Near our bench were a number of white paths leading away from the square into open countryside. Some of them had sign posts. Sofia told me that learning in the sphere of wisdom took many different forms. You could learn about subjects in a class, but you could also go on a personal journey to understand different things experientially.
She said that in this sphere, all progress made understanding the outer universe was accompanied by an increased understanding of the inner world of your own soul. She said such balance was important, for a brilliant intellect alone did not make you wise. True wisdom was a blend of intelligence, feeling and clear vision.
She told me I could choose one of the many paths and follow it. I looked at the signs and saw one which said “The Path of Self Knowledge.” I began to walk along it…
Excerpted from Universal Lessons – A Journey Through the Afterlife by Caroline McCutcheon (Ring of Grace Publications, 2015). Reprinted with permission of the author. Available in paperback $14 and Ebook $3.99 from http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013GZORD6 and iBooks.
Caroline McCutcheon is a healer, counselor and writer who lives in rural Portugal. Through her healing work she developed the gift of mediumship, and has written this book with the assistance of healing guides in spirit. Find more about Caroline and her work at www.carolinemccutcheon.com.
