The Deceased speak out. Dieter Scharnhorst

the strangers in this limited space. Now I finally asked them if there would not be the possibility to get in touch with the saints of heaven. For, I said, I was taught on earth that whoever prays a lot, the gates of heaven will be opened to him, his sins will be forgiven and he can then enter into heavenly glory.

      And so I asked them:

      "Where are the saints in heaven? Is there no one left but you? Must I truly live with you?"

      They confirmed it to me, and said I had to make amends as they did. I should try to live in harmony with them. I replied that I was used to nothing but living harmoniously. But I noticed that they now looked at me half dismissive, half questioning, and then they looked at each other again. Now I asked them if they would not pray here in the Kingdom of Heaven, if it was not more necessary to pray in the Kingdom of Heaven, because I could not imagine that it was necessary to work in the Kingdom of Heaven. I expressed my disappointment that they had not prayed with me first.

      They only looked at each other, and then the brother who had received and greeted me stood up and spoke:

      "Of course, we also pray. But we must pray and work here. Now I asked them to get up for prayer and they also complied with my request and got up with me for prayer, because we were sitting together before. I had said the prayer as I was used to during my lifetime. Then I asked them to kneel down and they did. It did not escape me, however, what looks they exchanged among themselves. When I rose, the others also rose and said that now it was time to work. I should come with them and they would introduce me to the work. But I could not and would not understand that one should work in heaven. I was convinced that they were all misbehaving and I replied that I would not accompany them to work but stay here in the house and pray. I would also pray for them that God would forgive them their sins. But again I saw how they looked at each other just wondering. I did not want to understand that, because I was of the opinion that one prays predominantly in heaven. For my desire was to come to the saints of heaven as soon as possible. For this only prayer seemed to me to be the right way.

      And now I began to pray again until the others returned from work. Then I asked them to pray with me again. But they refused and said that they would only be willing to pray if a high spirit, an angel being came to them and asked them to pray. For here in the world of God life itself must be equal to prayer. So I was taught that charity, benevolence and understanding here was as much as a prayer. I did not want to get that into my head, and I did not want to understand it either. Now they said that I could pray alone, as I was used to, but they would do as they pleased. Then I began to reason and told them that it was their own fault that they were not yet with the saints of heaven because they failed to pray.

      Now they asked me to leave this house for the sake of peace. I could pray outside the house in the same way and I would not disturb their peace any more. They were used to living together in peace and no one from the spirit world had ever disturbed them, nor had they ever been rebuked.

      Now that they had asked me to leave the house I did not want to stay any longer. For I regarded the others as disobedient and unbelieving brothers and sisters. They did not even want to pray in the Kingdom of Heaven. I expressed my horror at this.

      So I left the house and went to freedom. Outside the house there were still many spirit brothers and sisters wandering around. Here and there I came into contact with them and they were very strange. So first I asked everyone about their confession of faith and whether they prayed. Some said yes to praying, others said no. So I did not want to have anything to do with either of them. I wanted to go my own way, for I had to realize that those I met all had a fixed opinion and would not be dissuaded from their intentions and opinions.

      Now, since I had not been in the spiritual world for long, I had the desire to return to the people. I felt attracted to them. Since I did not find piety in this new world as I had imagined it and the way to the saints remained blocked for me, I only wished to return to the people. There were enough people who shared my piety with me and prayed as I did. So now I just wanted to visit the people. And strangely enough I had found this way to them so easily, for I was drawn, as if by a magnet, straight back to the people on earth, and exactly where I had lived. I also re-entered my house on earth, but immediately I had to realize that various changes had been made here. I was not at all satisfied with them. I also noticed that there were many other spirit brothers and sisters around me, all of them were looking for something better. So sometimes I got into conversation with this and that, but nobody could give me the answer I would have liked to hear. Some were apathetic, others rebuked me, others sent me back to where I had come from, others said they wanted nothing to do with me at all. I had the impression that they were all on the wrong track, that they were not striving hard enough and that they would not turn to God.

      Now I met a person whom I now intended to follow. I wanted to see his day's work and as I noticed how many other spiritual brothers and sisters accompanied people and took interest in them, I wanted to do the same for them.

      So I went after this person to observe him. But I was not the only being who was willing to accompany this person. Where these various others belonged I had no idea. At that time I did not know these spirits yet. I observed two such beings who were especially interested in a person and did not leave him. These two beings were simply dressed. I had the impression that they were dressed like people or something similar. I could not see anything special about them. So I followed them. But these two had also been watching me. They had to see that I was also running after this human brother. They let it happen, but sometimes they had a look at me, but at first they did not speak a word to me. Wherever I saw this brother go I always accompanied him in prayer. I had prayed for his protection. All the time I did that for him and so I assumed that this brother would also pray. I had only accompanied him for a short time, then I made the following observation:

      These two, whom I did not see anything special, also began to pray. And so it seemed to me that I had finally found the right company, which after all was also praying to God.

      But I watch the brother in his actions and soon I had to realize that this was a sin. I had prayed for him again and the other two followed my example. But I also noticed that at a greater distance behind me stood a tall, slender being.

      I could not look at it closely, for it was too far away from me. The two others were much closer to me, I could observe them better. Now I had taken the floor and turned to them:

      "How is it possible for this brother to commit a sinful act while we prayed for him?"

      And they answered that it was not so bad after all, one only had to keep on praying, but that the action of this person was not a sin. He would not even be aware of what he had done, nor would he consider it a sin himself, especially since he was under their blessing. They pointed at me and said:

      "You are a spirit of prayer and you see that we are also good spirits. We accompany the person with prayer that nothing will happen to him. "

      So I was perfectly fine with that. I also accompanied this brother to church on Sundays. He prayed there, and we prayed with him. However, I always found that during the day he committed so many acts that were contrary to the spiritual law. I could not understand that our prayer did not influence him any more to do the right thing. So I began to talk more and more with these two other companions and they told me that I did not have to accompany him, there were so many other people who could also be accompanied and they were ready to lead me to another person. I was in complete agreement with them.

      Here I only see how weak a person can be, one can accompany him with prayer and blessing, and yet he is still capable of doing only evil. So it is necessary to pray constantly for people.

      But now I could make another observation. When this person was at rest, we were not allowed to enter him. Neither I nor my two companions could go near the sleeping person. The surroundings were darkened and so we had to look for something else that might interest us. We then went to people who were not asleep, or we wandered to such places where people were awake and thus remained with them. But I was not satisfied with them for a long time and I had to see again and again that it was precisely those people who committed sinful acts for whom we prayed. I had then decided to leave these two, but I promised them to come back, but first I would like to look around