Soul Group Parables IV: The Man Who Went To Funerals – Part II

A Pre-Joseph Philosophy.

The first part of this article can be found here.

Suddenly the scene around him dissolved then reformed as something else…

…and he found himself standing with The Man Who Went To Funerals in a solicitor’s office. He could see his three sons and his daughter sitting at one side of a large desk and, on the other side, his solicitor. It was evident that none of them could see or hear him or his spirit companion. The will was being read out and the man was delighted. He felt privileged to be allowed to witness the reading of his own will, but was a little less excited to find that he could also read people’s thoughts and that the thoughts emanating from his children were not at all what he would have expected them to be. As the solicitor read out the will, one of his sons was thinking, ‘Well, yes, I will take this money from you, Father, and it will make up for all the times you weren’t here for me!’ 

His daughter was thinking, ‘I never wanted your money, Dad, I only wanted you. Where were you when I needed you?’ 

The man turned to The Man Who Went To Funerals looking quite perplexed as the scene around them changed again. It was as though he had travelled back through the years and was witnessing a time when he and his wife had been married only a short while. He saw himself as an even younger man tearing away the packaging that surrounded a shiny red tricycle. Saw his eldest son, who at that time was only four, excited at the prospect of his father teaching him how to ride his new bike …ecstatic because father and son would be together for a whole afternoon.

Suddenly, the phone rang in the house and he saw his younger self going inside and heard himself talking on the phone to someone. His younger image came outside again and said to his wife, ‘I’m so sorry but I have to go in to work again. They need me for something only I can sort this out and it’s likely to take some time.’ He then watched his younger self leave and was shocked at the look of utter devastation on the face of his eldest son.

The scene morphed once again. It was now the present day and he found himself standing next to his ex-wife who was holding the keys to the home he had left her. She looked up at the beautiful house in front of her and thought: ‘I didn’t want your house. I just wanted you to tell me occasionally that you loved me. Was that too much to ask?’ 

The scene changed again and now he was standing beside his chauffeur who had just parked the Daimler outside his modest home. The man was covering the car with a tarpaulin and pulling it tight. The former businessman followed him into the house and saw him hang up the Daimler’s keys on a nail in the kitchen knowing, because he could somehow read the man’s thoughts, that he would never, ever drive it.

He asked The Man Who Went To Funerals, ‘What is wrong with these people? Why are they so unhappy? I’ve left them good things. Expensive things. Lots of money.’

‘But you didn’t give them your time when you were here. You didn’t express your love for them. You weren’t there when they needed you. You never once praised your chauffeur for his years of selfless service You never lavished attention on your children or your ex-wife. And that’s one of the main reasons she divorced you.’ 

At that point the portal of white Light appeared in front of the two men and they both stepped through it. On the other side, the now-young businessman was amazed to discover he was standing in the driveway of his brother’s house. ‘How can this be? He asked. ‘My brother died ten years ago.’ 

‘This is a replica of his house on earth,’ his companion replied. ‘This is the house he prepared for himself on the higher side of life as a result of his actions whilst he was on earth.’

At this point the man’s brother appeared in the doorway, ran up the driveway from his house to greet him and the two men embraced. His brother took him into the house, leaving The Man Who Went To Funerals to admire the beautiful garden of this splendid, semi-detached home.

His brother said to the former businessman, ‘I would like to move forwards into eternity with you. We can both move onwards together. There’s nothing to stop us. I’ve been waiting for you to come here for quite a while. I knew you were going to pass over and at what point because I asked Higher Authority if I might have that information. For now, however, you look tired. Why don’t you go into the guest room – you know where it is – and lie on the bed and get some sleep?’

The man realised he was indeed very tired. He lay on the bed in the guest room and tried to sleep. Unfortunately, every time he closed his eyes it seemed as though there was some sort of weird television transmitting images in the corner of the room, and through it he could see his sons and his daughter and tune into their discontent. He could also feel and see the unhappiness of his chauffeur and his ex-wife. He tried to turn away from the images but they seemed to follow him around the room.

Suddenly, The Man Who Went To Funerals appeared, sitting on the edge of his bed. ’Your brother would like you to move on and to evolve with him as a spirit, but you can’t do that, can you? You can’t leave your family and colleagues behind yet, can you?’ he asked. ‘I have, therefore, asked permission on your behalf and it has been granted. You will be allowed to return in spirit-form now and again to the Earth to inspire your children and your chauffeur and your ex-wife and all the other people who were important in your life. To advise them at certain points in their lives when they need help. To try to guide them via their intuition. They won’t physically see or hear you, but perhaps they will be able to pick up your intentions through their hearts and, this way, you can put right what, in your own view, you feel you got wrong whilst you were on Earth – the fact that you didn’t pay them enough attention, for example. …Didn’t openly tell them how you felt about them. Eventually, and if you wish, you will be able to move on with your brother but it could take a lifetime, relatively speaking, before you are ready to do so. I suspect that not until all those people you cared about – your children, your chauffeur, your ex-wife and others – are happy and have returned to higher vibrations themselves, will you feel your task has been accomplished and that you are able to move on yourself. It is such a pity. A few precious moments spent wisely whilst you were on Earth would have saved you so much time and angst here in the higher spheres. It is so much harder from here to reach and affect the lives of those close to you on earth than it would have been when you were in an earthly body.’ 

The Man Who Went To Funerals left the businessman lying on the bed looking troubled and moved towards the Earth again, this time to visit the most modest of the three funerals he had been instructed to attend that day… the funeral of an old lady. She had been in her late nineties – and you would have expected the church to have been practically empty save for the vicar and one or two surviving relatives. Instead, it was packed. Crowded with people. The pews were absolutely full. Men and women standing at the back of the church craned their necks to see and hear the clergyman taking the service. People had obviously come from work as well, taking a couple of hours off to pay their respects. Here was a policeman in uniform. There a nurse. At the front a fireman. At the back a secretary, together with so many other souls who had taken the time to attend this modest little service. Leaning on the coffin, peering around from behind thick spectacles, was a white-haired old lady. The Man Who Went To Funerals made his way through the crowd unseen and stood in front of her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

As he did so, her white hair turned to a beautiful auburn colour and her wrinkles fell away. Suddenly, he was standing in front of a young woman. About twenty-eight years old. Beautiful. Upright. Vital. She smiled a sweet smile and said, ‘Thank you for doing that. I don’t know how you managed it but thank you! And thank you for coming. I take it you have come to take me to “the next place”?’ 

‘I have indeed,’ the man replied. ‘But before I do so, I would like to ask you a question. You see, in a sense the only thing you will take with you to the next world is what you have left behind on Earth. What would you say you have left behind, sister? What is your legacy to this world?’ 

And she replied, ‘I wish I could say I have done great things but really I haven’t. I haven’t any family to speak of. They have all gone on ahead of me. I haven’t had any money to leave anyone because I only had a modest little job to keep me and maintain the roof over my head… and so I’m sorry but I haven’t done anything. I’m ashamed. I wish I had.’ 

Suddenly, the scene melted then reformed around her as something new, and she was no longer standing in the church. Instead, she found herself sitting, watching her younger self on the top deck of that bus where, quite by accident, she had sat next to the distressed young girl who, for whatever reason, had poured her heart out to her and said, between sobs, that she was feeling suicidal that day because her boyfriend had left her and she didn’t know what to do. She then watched her younger self talking to the girl and counselling her and somehow knew the girl hadn’t committed suicide after she had left her. 

Next, she witnessed her younger self in her own little kitchen on various days from the past pouring cups of tea for a variety of people who always, for some reason, seemed to come to her when they were in trouble. She heard herself saying to people things like: ‘Of course you can stay for the night. …Of course, I will be there if you need me. …Of course, I will go with you to the place you are so afraid of visiting, to support you there, if you want me to go with you and it will make you feel better.’

She turned to The Man Who Went To Funerals and said, ‘I don’t understand, why are you showing me these incidents from my life?’ 

‘Because these are the times when you made a difference to the world,’ he replied. ‘When you knew what to say to people; when you helped them, and somehow found the words from within you to make them feel better. These were important contributions to the lives of others,’ he explained. 

At that point an oval of white Light appeared in front of them and they stepped through it together. The woman then found herself on a road. Not a highway with cars on it but a perfect, perfectly flat road that led to a city in the distance. The city was amazing. It appeared to be made out of crystal and Light. It glowed with such pretty colours, and she wanted so much to be there, so she set off with The Man Who Went To Funerals walking beside her. She then noticed, as she looked to one side, that there was a second road leading from the city back towards the portal of Light and that along this road all kinds of people were heading for the oval. There was a Native American in full headdress. An Inuit in furs. A Chinese Mandarin in silks. There were more conventionally-attired people too: Doctors. Nurses. Solicitors. People in work clothes. She asked The Man Who Went To Funerals, ‘Who are these people and where are they going? Are they going back to re-incarnate on Earth?’ 

‘No,’ he replied. ‘They are “guides”. People who walk the path with souls on Earth who are having a hard time or who need to make important decisions. They whisper words of advice, help and encouragement to them, or try to place in their minds concepts that will help them to move, through the grace of God, in the right direction for the good of their souls. They attempt to make the course of their lives run more smoothly. To help people evolve as spirits and to become a little more God-like.’

‘That sounds fascinating,’ she said, ‘I would love to be able to do that.’

‘And, so you shall’, he replied. ‘Don’t you remember why you went to Earth?

‘Remember?’ she asked.

‘Yes, as a soul you decided to return to the Earth one last time because you wanted to be a guide and felt you needed more experience in order to qualify for that work. That is why you found yourself talking to and comforting so many strangers. Why you always knew what to say, because the God within you and the guides you have around you that you were never able to physically see, were able to prompt you through your intuition to say and to do the right things.’ 

By this time, they had reached the city and, as she walked through an archway of Light, a man wearing a robe that seemed to be made of the same Light approached her, embraced her and said, ‘Welcome back, Sister!’ 

She looked at him with a puzzled expression. ‘Do I know you?’ 

He replied, ‘Your memory will come back presently. I am part of the soul group – the family – you left so many years ago in order to incarnate on Earth… and we are so delighted you have come back home to us safely and that your mission has been accomplished.’

The Man Who Went To Funerals said, ‘I will leave you now but will no doubt meet up with you again in the future when I attend someone else’s funeral and see you there as a guide sitting unseen next to someone in the congregation.’

* * *

The Man Who Went to Funerals went back to his home in a higher vibrational reality, lay down upon his bed and took a well-earned rest.

He needed that rest because he knew that, day after day in the myriad days that would follow, he would have so much to do for so many departing souls. 

*  *  *

What we take with us is what we leave behind. Not our cars. Or our houses. Or our money, but rather what we have done for ourselves and for others. That is why it is important each day of our lives to try to deal with the people we come into contact with in the best, the most spiritual, ways we can. In the kindest and most loving ways we can, even if people do not treat us with similar kindness. Even if people treat us in quite another way. We must also consider that we are only here on Earth for a short amount of time and that the people who are around us – the people we love and who are important to us …our partners and our friends… should be appreciated openly. How often do we tell them how we truly feel about them? We might not be here tomorrow morning to do so. The time to show them we care is here and now.

We should also consider that we are here for a spiritual purpose and that our nine-to-five jobs are really just a means of filling in time. How do we know, for example, that we are not here to train to be a guide? How do we know who we are here to help and to elevate in consciousness? We don’t! We should, therefore, listen to our inner promptings each and every day and, if we strongly feel we should do something, then we should do it. If we feel we should talk to someone in a particular way, or make time for someone, or counsel someone, or help someone, or comfort someone …we should do it!

Then, when the time comes for us to stand next to our own coffin (because, let’s face it, we will – I, writing this, and you, reading it, will not remain here forever); when the time comes to ask ourselves what we have left behind, we will be able to say, hand on heart:

‘I tried to leave behind the very best for everyone…’  …and that is all that God asks of us.