Observations placeholder
Whiteman, J H M
Identifier
007716
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
This is a very very gentle rebirth - he got off very lightly, but it is a rebirth rather than purification as he felt it, it 'hurt'.
The reason he was spared the more horrific processes was that he had done a tremendous amount before this happened to change himself, as such there was not so much to be changed in him.
Furthermore, he was given it in stages, not as one overwhelming experience. This was done, I suspect, because he was completely on his own during all this, so had no help at all to come to terms with what was happening or to get an explanation.
He was also taught what annihilation means without experiencing it.
A description of the experience
The Mystical Life - J H M Whiteman
Three or four revelations of great power may be mentioned, though they cannot be described here in any considerable detail.
On one occasion, which was prepared for over a month or more, there grew in me an impression as of the imminence of death. In the night, a succession of periodic stresses continued for over an hour, the interval between each stress and the next being two or three minutes.
The stresses were built up in the region of the solar plexus, spread over the lower part of the body, and reached a kind of limit of bearability before being relaxed.
This was followed by the sudden releasing revelation of a divine Fire at the centre of the spiritual body, spreading through the body healingly and awakening other centres. For another hour or longer this purging and healing continued, with other disclosures, till, set at ease and with a sense of fulfilment, I fell asleep..........
During [another experience], when the 'higher dissociation' had been still further intensified, I was once held for a short time in the all-obliterating Idea of Absolute Opposition. Nothing was knowable then except the Eternal Limit of Pain, if anything which so blotted out space and time and all the springs of personal life could be called by that name. Yet I knew that this also was divine; and by knowing that there was indeed an eternal limit, its purpose could be accepted as also very good. A full six months passed before the effects of this revelation, like a deadly wound at the solar plexus, had worn off or become healed.
Lastly, the occasion was given for teaching me the limit of shame and the death of selfhood. An overwhelming consciousness of my own ignorance, mortal fault and presumption in taking it upon myself, as it were, when full of imperfections, to act in the certainty of justification, was flung upon me and quite crushed down the heart.
All strength was taken from the body, and I could only say, 'This is the end. Let me be annihilated, if it be your will.' And I fell asleep.
When I awoke, the 'higher dissociation' was ended; and in its place was the knowledge of a poised and peaceful double-consciousness. The redeemed outer being looked at the world, and found all things beautiful.