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Message 1
From: spiritrebel23 (Original Message) Sent: 8/13/2006 1:49 PM

I'll start with the two best-known ancient texts in this field: "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" and the "Tibetan Book of the Dead". I assume that most readers of a Board like this on will already have some familiarity with both of these works, but if you don't, you can find numerous articles about them just by doing a Google search on the names.

On the other hand, a lot of people have read lots of material about these two works, but have never taken a serious look at a complete copy. And I'll admit that both books are more than a little formidible. However, since there are complete copies of
reasonable-looking translations of both available for free download on line, I decided to post the links in this first message and see what happens:

Papyrus of Ani; Egyptian Book of the Dead
Online text translated by EA Wallis Budge. One large text file.
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Books/Papyrus_Ani.html

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, E-book and video
translation by Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup. Edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz
http://www.summum.us/mumm...tion/tbotd/book1.shtml#p1

Message 3
From: angular_sound8 Sent: 11/4/2006 7:43 AM

Whaou the tibetan brings me a strong but managable fear :

I see the word "Light" wich i used to associate with knowledge and wisdom until now, written almost evrywhere in a text that looks like a tibetan theocratic guide to enslave the deceased into a buddist theocratic band.

A lot of the content of this book seems familiar to me : the Rays, the flames, Enlightment, Buddahood, Radiance, the path of Light ect... when i dance i exactly visualize such things.

But i'm still trying to understand why it seems so : i know that one of my favorite trance artist is the band Shiva Shidapu, that their album "The Light of Shidapu" sound like the best trance album ever for me....

Spirit Rebel told me to think about the old adage " know thyself "...

Well i assume i should make an serious effort to read the content of the ABSA & RR sections of RC to learn more, so if i'm not currently active in term of posting i'll be active by reading all the material there is on RC.

Here are 8 messages from the "Necronomicon Reality Check" thread on the RC MSN Group.

Message 3
From: muutherr80 Sent: 8/13/2006 7:59 AM

so Necronomicon means THE law or writings of the Dead?

i have never seen this word until now so its very interesting and make me want to look at books i have with maybe this ref. But i doubt i have such a book.

The only thing that fits from my life experience is the Study i did of the Ancient Egyptian Divination and the rules and such of the soul journey that they wrote and painted on pots and walls and such.

The class was amazingly interesting in college but i will admit i had a hard time keeping it all straight. My memory is bad on the whole subject but i could google or dig out the books.

I guess it would fit in the RITES of PASSAGE from earlier civilizations. I know i read a book with this title.

something for me to think about today but just had to comment here even if it doesnt fit well......Im trying to understand........

Message 5
From: muutherr80 Sent: 8/13/2006 10:43 AM

Oh Rebel rebel rebel......ahhahaha i am laughing because you have no idea how simple i feel here but then you always make me feel like i am super poster.......It makes my day and makes me feel like i am saying something cool and relevant beyond my boundaries of Ghosts, paranormal pursuits and haunted things where i base most of my thinking or where i tend to start things from.

You are actually the one who has pulled me out of that box and make my words and simple logic sound grand......and i thank you for that my friend even when i know that is not what you seek or look for! Okay here is some more extreme simple:

When you said HOW TO manual the next thing that popped into my head was that movie i loved Beatlejuice where the people didnt know that they died and were haunting their own house they lived in and their guide gave them a "Manual for the Deceased' and they were to follow that in their new afterlife........that was my favorite part. One funny side note on it wasin that manual, People who commit suicide become government workers/servants on the other side...hehehe

So a topic thread on manuals or BOOKS of the Dead, will be really interesting to read and learn about.

Message 9
From: Colette3652 Sent: 8/13/2006 7:20 PM

I've got the Tibetan book of the Dead but only read the first twelve pages and fell asleep!

Message 11
From: muutherr80 Sent: 8/14/2006 3:01 PM

oh my god that is funny about the "Beetlejuice" reference! I just love that movie and remember that scene and wanting that book they were following in the movie...ahahhaha it just tells me we are all on the same wavelength.......So is that an actual chapter heading in your book rebel? I need to get hoppin and read that book.

I will admit months ago (june) when i started this new board posting stuff back in U&P, i went to the clicky for your book and started to read the first 10 or so pages............I was feeling really dumb and thinking i would have to go back to school just to learn to read it! ahahah

But i will again, fresh told me just to stick with it or go to it here now and read chapter by chapter and read peoples comments.......right now its just a time factor keeping me from it.

This thread is being copied from the "Secular Spiritualism" Forum in the RS Archives because I recently found some very interesting material that serves as supporting evidence for certain details of the cosmology described in War in Heaven I'll start with excerpts from some articles on "Pretas" and "Kagi" in Asian religious cosmologies, and then post the relevant passages from WiH.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Preta

Preta
From New World Encyclopedia

Preta (from Sanskrit: Meaning "hungry ghost") is the name of a class of supernatural beings described in Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain texts that continue to suffer as ghosts in the afterlife because of their insatiable degree of hunger and thirst. The traditional religions of India are based on the belief in rebirth (known as "samsara"). Within these religious systems, it is said that being reborn as a hungry ghost results from excessive greed in a previous life. Due to negative past karma, Pretas are afflicted with an unstoppable hunger for a particular substance or object. Traditionally, this desired substance was the seen as something quite repugnant or humiliating, such as human corpses or feces.

Unlike ghosts and demons described in other religious traditions, however, the Pretas found in Buddhism are generally not seen as frightening or malevolent spirits. Rather Buddhists often feel pity for these beings and try to help them by offering them food on special festival days.

Though with unique differences, all religions and spiritual traditions communicate insight into the reality of an afterlife, and its relationship to how we live our lives while in a corporeal state. Most or all religions note an active relationship between corporeal and incorporeal spirits, and often show that actions on one side can influence beings across the boundary on the other.
Contents

Etymology

The word "preta" is derived from Sanskrit pra ita, literally "(one who is) gone forth" and originally referred to any of the spirits of the deceased analogous to the English use of "the departed." It later became confined to a type of unhappy or malevolent spirit, and as such, it was particularly taken up by Tibetan Buddhists to describe one of six possible states of rebirth.

Description

Pretas are invisible to the human eye, but some believe they can be discerned by some humans in certain mental states. Pretas are described as human-like, but with sunken, mummified skin, narrow limbs, enormously distended bellies and long, thin necks. This appearance is a metaphor for their mental situation: They have enormous appetites, signified by their gigantic bellies, but a very limited ability to satisfy those appetites, symbolized by their slender necks. Accordingly, Pretas are often depicted in Japanese art (particularly from the Heian period) as emaciated human beings with bulging stomachs and inhumanly small mouths and throats. They are frequently shown licking up spilled water in temples or accompanied by demons representing their personal agony. Alternately, they may be shown as balls of smoke or fire.

Pretas dwell in the waste and desert places of the earth, and vary in situation according to their past karma. Some of them can eat a little, but find it very difficult to find food or drink. Others can find food and drink, but find it very difficult to swallow. Others find that the food they eat seems to burst into flames as they swallow it. Others, if they see something edible or drinkable and desire it, find that the material withers or dries up before their eyes. As a result, they are always hungry.

In addition to hunger, Pretas suffer from immoderate heat and cold; they find that even the sun scorches them in the summer, while the moon freezes them in the winter.

The sufferings of the Pretas often resemble those of the dwellers in Naraka (Buddhist Hell), and the two types of beings are easily confused. The simplest distinction is that beings in Naraka are confined to their subterranean world, while the Pretas are free to move about.

Six Realms of Rebirth

According to Tibetan Buddhism, a person can be reborn in one of the Six realms of rebirth (The six realms are as follows: rebirth as a deva, an asura, a human being, an animal, a hungry ghost, or a being in Naraka (hell). This six-fold system is most commonly seen in Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism. In Theravada Buddhism there are only five realms, because the realm of the asuras not being regarded as separate from the realm of the devas.) (Tibetan: rigs drug gi skye gnas), some of which are better than others. One of these realms is being reborn as a Preta (hungry ghost). What determines which of these six realms one is reborn in, is one's previous actions and thoughts, one's karma. Briefly, these realms are described as follows:

Deva realm

The Deva realm is the realm of bliss and pride. The disadvantage of this realm is that things are so very comfortable there, that these beings completely neglect to work towards enlightenment. Instead they gradually use up the good karma they had previously accumulated, and so they subsequently fall to a lower rebirth.

The Deva realm is sometimes also referred to as the gods' realm, because its inhabitants are so powerful within their own realm, that compared to humans, they resemble the gods of Greek or Roman mythology. However, while the Devas may be referred to as gods, they are not immortal, omniscient, nor omnipotent, and they do not act as creators or judges at death, so they are notably very distinct from the monotheistic Western concept of God.

Asura realm

The Asura realm is the realm of the demigods. They are here because of actions based on jealousy, struggle, combat or rationalization of the world. They may be here because in human form they had good intentions but committed bad actions such as harming others.

The Asuras are said to experience a much more pleasurable life than humans, but they are plagued by envy for the devas, whom they can see just as animals can perceive humans.

The Asura realm is also sometimes referred to as the Ashura realm, Titan realm, Jealous God realm, Demigod realm, or Anti-God realm. Asura is also sometimes translated as "demon," "fighting demon," "those without wine," or "frightened ghost," which can cause confusion because beings of the hell realm are also sometimes referred to as demons.

Human realm

The Human realm (also known as the Manu?ya realm) is based on passion, desire, and doubt.

Buddhists see this realm as human existence. A human rebirth is in fact considered to be the by far most advantageous of all possible rebirths in samsara because a human rebirth is the only samsaric realm from which one can directly achieve enlightenment. This is because of the unique possibilities that a human rebirth offers. A human rebirth is considered to have tremendous potential when used correctly, however human rebirths are very rare in occurrence. Many humans descends to a lower rebirth after a human life, rather than immediately going on to another human birth because we usually waste our human lifetime in materialistic pursuits, and end up reinforcing our unhelpful emotions, thoughts, and actions.

In the lower realms, such as for example the animal realm, it is a very slow and difficult process to accumulate enough merit to achieve a human birth once again, so it may be countless lifetimes before one has another chance.

Animal realm

The Animal realm is based on strong mental states of ignorance and prejudice cultivated in a previous life or lives. Buddhists believe that this realm is the realm of existence of the nonhuman animals on Earth. Humans can, however, see the animals, in the same way that the Asura can see the Devas.

Hungry Ghost realm

The Hungry Ghost realm (also known as the Preta realm) is a type of rebirth based on strong possessiveness and desire which were cultivated in a previous life or lives. The sentient beings in this realm are constantly extremely hungry and thirsty, but they cannot satisfy these needs. In Tibetan versions of the Bhava-cakra these beings are drawn with narrow necks and large bellies. This represents the fact that their desires torment them, but they are completely unable to satisfy themselves. In Tibetan Buddhism, Hungry Ghosts have their own realm depicted on the Bhava-cakra and are represented as teardrop or paisley-shaped with bloated stomachs and necks too thin to pass food such that attempting to eat is also incredibly painful. This is a metaphor for people futilely attempting to fulfill their illusory physical desires.

Naraka realm

The Naraka realm, or "hell realm" is a rebirth based on strong states of hatred cultivated in a previous life or lives. The Buddhist view of the Naraka realm differs significantly from that of most monotheistic religions in that those being punished in this realm are not trapped permanently. Rather, they remain there until their negative karma is used up, at which point they are reborn into another realm.

Relations between pretas and humans

Pretas are generally seen to be little more than nuisances to mortals unless their longing is directed toward something vital, such as blood. However, in some traditions, pretas try to prevent others from satisfying their own desires by means of magic, illusions, or disguises. They can also turn invisible or change their faces to frighten mortals.

Generally, however, pretas are seen as beings to be pitied. Thus, in some Buddhist monasteries, monks leave offerings of food, money, or flowers to them before meals.

Local traditions

In Japan, the Sanskrit word preta was translated as gaki (Japanese: ??, "hungry ghost"). In the modern times, the word gaki is also used to mean "spoiled child" or "brat."

Since 657 C.E., Japanese Buddhists have observed a special day in mid-August to remember the gaki by making special offerings called Segaki ("feeding the hungry ghosts"). Through this practice, it is believed that the hungry ghosts may be released from their torment. This ritual is traditionally performed to stop the suffering of the gaki, or to keep the spirits of the dead from falling into the realm of the gaki. Today, the ceremony also gives participants an opportunity to remember those who have died and to symbolically sever ties with past sins. The segaki may be performed at any time, but it is traditionally part of the O-Bon, a festival held every year in July or August to remember the dead. Due to Western influence, however, the ceremony is today often held around Halloween.

According to legend, the segaki began as a way for Moggallana (Maudgalyayna), on instruction of his master, the Buddha Sakyamuni, to free his mother from gaki-do, the realm of the gaki. Alternatively, Sakyamuni ordered Moggallana to preach the Lotus Sutra or to travel to hell himself, a feat that resulted in the escape of all gaki into the world and necessitating the segaki to force them to return to their realm.

http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Gaki

The Gaki is a race of Japanese ghosts appearing in Buddhist preaches.

A gaki is described as a very thin, only-bone-and-skin man. Pretas are often depicted in Japanese art (particularly that from the Heian period) as emaciated human beings with bulging stomachs and inhumanly small mouths and throats. They are frequently shown licking up spilled water in temples or accompanied by demons representing their personal agony. Alternately, they may be shown as balls of smoke or fire.

When somebody died, he is reborn as another creature, in another world. There are six courses for rebirth below.

* reborn as another man/woman in this world
* reborn as an animal in this world
* ascend to the paradise, called Gokuraku
* fall to the hell, called Jigoku
* reborn as a shura , suffering endless battles
* reborn as a gaki in Gakido

Those who reborn as a gaki in the world called gakido have dissipated foods in their lives.

In this desolated world, gakis suffer from endless hunger and thirst. They eat everything they can, even their children. This is the punishment for those who wasted precious foods.

It is said that a gaki wanders to this world sometimes. Though he would eat everything, he prefers human flesh and blood especially. Such a gaki is considered as a ghoul-like monster. Of course they are as intelligent as a normal man.

Since 657, some Japanese Buddhists have observed a special day in mid-August to remember the gaki. Through such offerings and remembrances (segaki), it is believed that the hungry ghosts may be released from their torment.

from Chapter 1 of WiH:

31 Did you ever wonder why practically all mediums communicate with the majority of spirits indirectly? Both the old-fashioned Spiritualist mediums and the New Age channeling mediums have spirit guides who assist them in finding and communicating with other spirits, but very few are willing to tell you bluntly why they have to operate this way. The reason is very simple: most spirits on the astral plane are in mental states that we'd label as insane or feeble-minded in a living person. They mumble in baby talk or rave like schizophrenics. Their thoughts ramble and get lost in time like those of a person with Alzheimer's disease. They contradict themselves as if their memories had been scrambled up with the contents of someone else's mind. And above all, they act sick, drunk, or drugged. Some say they are in severe pain; others are frightened; still others are calm, but it's the sickly calm of a person who has taken a heavy dose of morphine or Thorazine.

32 If you've experimented with Ouija boards, there's an excellent chance you've spoken to spirits in this condition. And though the mediumistic literature does mention frequent contacts with "lost souls," "earthbound spirits, "entities from the lower astral," etc., it rarely describes them in detail or reveals that the vast majority of spirits the mediums contact are in this category. The plain truth is that if you're going to accomplish anything at all as a medium, you have to work through a spirit guide.

33 A spirit guide is simply a spirit on the astral plane with sufficient mental stability and psychic powers to communicate easily with a particular medium, and who is willing to form a personal relationship. Another thing to look for between the lines of the literature: this relationship is often overtly sexual. A medium's spirit guide often receives some of the energy raised during physical sexual activity. Only the Eastern Tantric magicians and Western students of sex magic write and talk openly about this, but almost all mediums practice it.


from Chapter 2:

33 If, as all the religious and occult mythologies claim, the astral plane is really governed by benign gods or other highly-evolved spiritual beings, they do not seem to be doing a very efficient job of helping the dead find stability or happiness there. In fact, the messages that supposedly come from the spiritual entities in charge on the astral plane are among the most confusing and frightening communications that mediums receive. Many times, I've made contact with entities that say, "I am God," and then go on into ravings as immoral as Hitler's and as incoherent as something you'd expect to hear coming out of a padded cell.

34 Of course, both the occultists and the religious believers claim that such messages are from demons and other evil or insane spirits, but that doesn't answer the most important question. If the astral plane is under the control of benign forces, why does so much of the observed evidence portray existence there as extremely harsh and unpleasant?

35 Most of the occultists I discussed this with over the years before I made the breakthrough were not interested in doing serious research into this. Many put the blame on me: "You're too political and too concerned with the Earth plane, and this puts you in contact only with the lowest levels of the astral plane. If you'll stop trying to play scientist, and simply submit your will to the spiritual forces that run the Universe, your mediumistic experiences will become calm and serene and you'll start contacting the really advanced spirits and deities."

36 My reply usually went something like this: "Maybe I really am at a lower stage of spiritual development than you are, but if so, then I've got a lot of company. My personal communications with spirits tell me that the vast majority of the human race is not composed of high-level occultists capable of avoiding the evil spirits on the lower astral and going on to a higher plane of existence. Instead, when they die, it's very likely they'll join the lost souls calling for help. My sympathies are with them, and I'd like to learn how to help them."

37 My actual opinion was that both traditional and New Age occultists, and all the believers in organized religion as well, were deluding themselves with false optimism because they were afraid to recognize and fight evil. However, I rarely said this openly because doing so would only be destructive criticism. I had no alternative to offer; just the vague feeling that there is something terrible going on in the spirit world.

38 When I finally made the breakthrough, I found out that it is a literal "War in Heaven," a struggle to the death between two political factions of disembodied spirits; and that spirits from one of these factions had telepathically inspired my life-long fascination with the Shaver Mystery. My new knowledge also confirmed my rejection of Shaver's physical, science-fiction-oriented interpretation of the Mystery. The Caves, the space people, and even the Ray machines do exist, but on the spiritual plane, not the physical plane. Shaver was simply an unconscious medium that received important messages about the nature of spiritual reality from the same group of spirits who are helping me with this book.




from Chapter 10

44 This brings us to one of the most important things we have to tell you in this whole series of communications. The nourishment that disembodied spirits receive from living people as radiant psychic energy is not enough to sustain them by itself. This is why all non-Theocratic spirits reincarnate within ten to fifty years after physical death: if they don't, the astral soul starts to degenerate because of a sort of malnutrition. The astral matter that makes up its tissues can't regenerate itself properly and reverse the effects of entropy. So the choice is reincarnation or illness, insanity, and death.

45 The Theocrats have found an alternative to this, but it is an evil one: cannibalism. They use their telepathic powers to hypnotize spirits less highly developed than they are; then they attach the silver cord to them just as if the other astral soul were the somatic soul of an infant. They can draw out enough energy this way to sustain themselves on the astral plane indefinitely, but the process destroys the other spirit.

46 Q. This is very frightening. Can they do this to just any other spirit, and can they do it to an astral soul incarnated in a body?

47 A. Fortunately, no to both. If they could, neither you nor we would be here talking about it. The Theocrats would have eaten up all of us just to get rid of us. They claim to be gods, but their powers are actually quite limited. Some of them are both more knowledgeable and psychically more powerful than most of the rest of us, living and disembodied, but they are far from omnipotent.

48 They can't damage an embodied soul or override its conscious will, and they usually can't capture and devour disembodied souls who resist them, except for the weak and untrained ones that mediums call "lost souls." And even the majority of lost souls are capable of random psychokinetic bursts that allow them to flee the Theocrats when threatened. The Theocrats obtain victims by posing as gods and persuading religious believers to enter their bands by promising them "eternal bliss in Heaven."



from Chapter 16

34 Let's get back to the description of what the magician spirits in the Invisible College do. Placing information about Theocracy in the minds of living people is only their second most important job. The principal service they perform for the human race is assisting other souls in reincarnating. It's an old Spiritualist tradition that mediums and their spirit guides offer help to the souls of the recently deceased that seem in distress. This sometimes comes to the public attention when it is done after someone has reported seeing a ghost, but many Spiritualists do a lot more of it privately. They consider it a good deed they can do in payment of the good that is done for them by being in direct conscious contact with the spirit world.

35 Unfortunately, the traditional Spiritualists and those of their spirit guides who held similar beliefs during life do harm as often as good when they attempt to aid lost souls, because most of them lack even the most rudimentary knowledge about Theocracy.

36 Q. I know exactly what you mean. Only rarely do Spiritualists make an overt attempt to help such spirits reincarnate. Instead, they talk about such lost souls being "Earthbound" in the sense of being confined to a portion of the astral plane in direct contact with the Earth plane, and they try to assist the distressed spirits to enter the "higher astral."

37 Before I made the breakthrough, I had no intellectual knowledge to make me disagree with this cosmology and the resulting treatment of lost souls, but I always felt an instinctive emotional unease whenever I witnessed or was told about such a ritual. Now I know why: the whole astral plane is in direct contact with the Earth, and the only parts of it that give the illusion of not being closely linked to Earth are those under the control of the Theocrats.

38 A. All too often, when Spiritualists and similar occultists assist souls in "entering the higher astral," they are actually sending them straight into the control of some band of Theocrats, to be enslaved and devoured. That is because the majority of Spiritualists and the magician spirits that serve as their spirit guides are too friendly to deistic religion and too ignorant of the realities of life on the astral plane. This is beginning to change now, but it's still a major problem.

39 In many cases, people who had read a lot of occult literature during life put up more resistance to understanding the true nature of Theocracy than atheists, agnostics, and even some believers in orthodox religion. It's actually easier to show religious people that their gods are impostors than it is to show occultists that there are no "planes higher than the astral." The beliefs of the former are easier to refute because they are simple and clear-cut. The delusions of occultists are more complex and sophisticated.
Many of them tell us, "OK, so some Heavens are really Hells of psychic vampirism. I'm going to keep looking until I find one that's not." Unfortunately, there are Theocratic bands specifically designed to entrap spirits like this, bands run by Theocrats who were occultists themselves during life.

40 Q. In other words, the Invisible College faces the same problems in dealing with people on the astral plane as I have in getting people on Earth to accept the information described in this book. There are thousands of years of false knowledge to overcome, and virtually every body of available spiritual information is heavily corrupted with Theocratic propaganda. It strikes me as miraculous that you were able to start teaching such knowledge widely, both on the astral plane and on Earth. Can you describe how?