Source texts from the books by Jozef Rulof for the article ‘spheres in the hereafter’.
These sources presume the prior reading of the article ‘Spheres in the hereafter’.
As inside as outside
As a result of his out-of-body experiences, Jozef Rulof could explain the spiritual laws that apply ‘beyond the coffin’ as is written about him in the following quotation from the book ‘The Cosmology of Jozef Rulof’:
He can explain those laws to the academic, because he has seen them since he possesses the gift for disembodying.
Who are you beyond the coffin?
You are like you are on earth there. You go to a world which has attunement to your inner consciousness and you continue to live there.
The Cosmology of Jozef Rulof Part 1, 1944
During his out-of-body experiences, Jozef saw that after dying we transfer to the sphere which corresponds to our inner life:
And then we enter a sphere according to what we feel.
Questions and Answers Part 5, 1950
In this way, we determine ourselves where we end up, our place is not allocated by someone else.
This fact is described in the first trilogy by Jozef Rulof ‘A View into the Hereafter’:
You learned by means of ‘A View into the Hereafter’ that the human being put himself down there.
Lectures Part 2, 1951
In this trilogy, the spheres of the hereafter are described in such a way that we can feel where we ourselves are attuned to.
When we listen to the words with which we interpret our feeling, we can determine our own sphere from this:
‘A View into the Hereafter’, the three parts, this wonderful trilogy attunes you to a space and a sphere.
And now you can, when the word passes your lips, immediately determine yourself from your life of feeling to which world you belong.
Lectures Part 3, 1952
People who not yet radiate any harmony and light can end up in the Land of Twilight.
There is no longer any earthly sun there which gives heat.
There are no longer any warm people there whom you can talk to.
There people may be satisfied if they see a blade of grass:
In that you can, if you read those books properly, madam, sir, then you will know exactly where you will end up there.
Your sphere, your feeling, your character lies infallibly in that.
If you go against the grain, you will certainly not be in that little light, in that sphere of harmony and consciousness.
Because then you will be up to your neck in the Land of Twilight.
And that is certainly not so nice, you know.
Because, you know, here you have enjoyment, here you have people, light, sun.
But that sun has gone.
The people have gone.
Here you have warm-hearted people.
You can still find your own kind?
No, you now have other kinds.
You still have harmony here, you meet people whom you can talk to; you can no longer do that there.
You have your own kind there, your own thinking and feeling.
And you suffocate in that.
That is a wailing there, that is terrible.
Because they have the consciousness: I should not have done that, and I must do it like this.
And they cannot do it.
And they are stuck there.
There is no blade of grass, sir, a bare barren plain.
Because there is still no life.
Yes, that one and that one, he says there to one of them – I followed those people there, books are so big again – he says: ‘There is grass there.’
I think: he is a Dutchman.
You hear French, German, Spanish there and you hear everything there, also all the languages and all the dialects of the world, there in those spheres.
Questions and Answers Part 4, 1952
It is only in the first sphere of light that the earthly languages make room for a universal telepathy:
The spiritual language, that is the first sphere, that is universal, macrocosmic, feeling, telepathy.
Questions and Answers Part 4, 1952
The division in the hereafter consists of spheres of light and dark spheres:
Everyone arrives here in the state he is in, deep within, and he will arrive in the sphere where he belongs spiritually.
In keeping with the law of cause and effect, man reaps what he sows.
Very many arrive here in an unhappy state and often have to spend a long time in the dark, chilly spheres before they can progress spiritually and reach a higher area.
Others however, who already understood on earth that it’s God’s intention for us to spend this life for the good of others and who act accordingly, will, immediately after their transition, feel happy and at home in the sphere that corresponds to their inner being.
I came back to this matter because it’s of tremendous importance.
People should know that those who have lived a good life will dwell in the spheres of light and love, but that those who forgot themselves will find their dwelling place in the spheres of coldness and darkness.
Tell them, André, that everything they encounter here corresponds to their inner life on earth.
A View into the Hereafter, 1936
The purpose of the spheres
People can see a sphere as a spiritual word, but also as a grade of consciousness and feeling:
So then you must feel what that sphere means.
It says clearly in all the books: a sphere is a world, is also a grade of consciousness, a part of God, a space, feeling.
Questions and Answers Part 3, 1952
People can also imagine a sphere as a universe:
‘If I sensed you clearly, I imagine each sphere as the universe, is this a good comparison?’
‘Very precisely felt.
A sphere is like the universe.
Your house, the sphere in which you live and yourself have a cosmic attunement.’
The Cycle of the Soul, 1938
Within a sphere an inhabitant can travel endlessly far, but it will still come to an end one day:
You come through those worlds.
They are worlds, infinities, but with an end.
Because you suddenly start to experience that deed, those feelings differently again.
You devote yourself to that differently.
And gradually you lay foundation upon foundation.
Questions and Answers Part 6, 1951
The end of a sphere appears when the inhabitant has prepared himself for transferring to a higher sphere.
The seven dark spheres are transition stages for reaching the first sphere of light:
The human being as the astral personality has to conquer seven stages of transition before he can enter the luminous sphere.
The Cosmology of Jozef Rulof Part 5, 1944
In the spheres of light the soul prepares itself to reincarnate to the next planet.
The stage of the earthly evolution is called the ‘Third Cosmic Grade’ in the books by Jozef Rulof.
This implies that the soul has already experienced two cosmic grades before it incarnates to the earth.
The earth is not the final point of its eternal evolution either.
The spheres of light serve to prepare the soul for the next step in its evolution, the ‘Fourth Cosmic Grade’.
And then seven Spheres of light and happiness and love follow, in order to prepare himself for the Fourth Cosmic Grade.
The Cosmology of Jozef Rulof Part 5, 1944
The ‘Fourth Cosmic Grade of Life’ is a more rarefied solar system where the soul will obtain a material life again, but with a heightened attunement:
The spiritual spheres were therefore exclusively created, because a person cannot make the leap from the earth to the Fourth Cosmic Grade of life at once, he has to expand for this purpose, to spiritualize, if he wants to find attunement to that higher consciousness.
Jeus of Mother Crisje Part 3, 1952
This and the following spheres are in order to prepare us for the fourth cosmic grade of life.
That is also a material planet, where those people live who once completed their cycle on Earth and then passed through the seven heavens in order to now experience Divine laws on the fourth cosmic grade the same as once on Earth, but now spiritually.
The Peoples of the Earth seen by the Other Side, 1941
Grades of feeling
The hereafter is also called the astral world in the books by Jozef Rulof.
The astral spheres reflect the grades of feeling of the inhabitants.
Upon entering the astral world, it appears to which grade of feeling the personality has attunement:
Now your spiritual attunement speaks and your personality comes forward.
Now it appears whether you have attunement to one of the pre-animal-like, animal-like, coarse-material, material or spiritual grades of life.
This, your spiritual grade, establishes how you lived on earth and how temporary your astral world will be!
Spiritual Gifts, 1943
In the books by Jozef Rulof, the four grades of the inner life that the human being can experience on earth are successively called pre-animal-like, animal-like, crude-material and (fine) material:
And by means of this world, from his spiritual attunement we now recognize the inner personality, the life attunement for the soul for the spiritual life.
For that purpose, the soul has to experience and conquer seven depths as worlds, if she wants to enter the Spheres of Light.
So we also see here the pre-animal, animal, coarse-material and material grades of life again.
The Cosmology of Jozef Rulof Part 5, 1944
In the book ‘Those who came back from the Dead’, when Gerhard wakes up in his twilight sphere, he hears to which attunement he belongs:
You are now in a state that is the crude-material attunement.
Those who came back from the Dead, 1937
He can then begin to work himself up to the material and spiritual attunement:
The beings that have reached the material attunement, and live in the first, second and third sphere, to then enter the fourth sphere, which is the first happy spiritual attunement.
Only then are they freed from earthly thoughts.
I therefore want to make it clear to you that you are between all these attunements and are busy mastering the first sphere of existence.
After the fourth sphere comes the fifth, sixth and seventh and all those spheres possess one cosmic grade and namely the third, which is the universal attunement.
Those who came back from the Dead, 1937
Now already beyond the coffin
On earth people speak of the hereafter as the eternal life that awaits us:
People of the Earth, Eternal Life awaits you!
The Peoples of the Earth seen by the Other Side, 1941
Here on earth we already live ‘beyond the coffin’:
I will say it again, ladies and gentlemen, here you live ‘behind the coffin’, and not when you stand before that occurrence which is called ‘you will die’.
Because there is no death.
Questions and Answers Part 4, 1952
In the article ‘dying as passing on’ the similarity between dying and falling asleep is considered.
While asleep on earth, we can already spend time on the Other Side in the hereafter:
You must first experience and see the other side properly, and it is only then that the masks fall, sir and madam.
You still live too much on earth.
You still want to be here, you do not want to let yourself go, do not want to accept that thought absolutely: I now already live ‘behind the coffin’.
Because if you die, if you sleep, then you leave; you go to the border - you have the books again - to which you belong, you step into a world which is yours, with your masks, your hatred, your destruction, your devastation.
Questions and Answers Part 4, 1952
Our astral consciousness is not dependent on our body:
And then there is no more fear, no more unconsciousness, now life becomes beautiful, because now you make space from all of your thoughts.
Isn’t it true?
‘Beyond the coffin’ you live on.
This is already being ‘beyond the coffin’.
Can you feel this?
After all, that body has no meaning.
You are only human-material here; ‘beyond the coffin’, inwardly, I speak.
This material organism falls, rots away, and the spirit stands next to it and has wings.
Questions and Answers Part 6, 1951
In the following quotation, a lady asks Jozef Rulof whether a happy spirit can also feel suffering.
Jozef points out that in the hereafter our feelings have not changed in any way.
What we feel on earth is exactly the same ‘beyond the material’.
In that sense, we can say that we are already ‘spirit’ on earth, because our spiritual inner life does not change as a result of dying:
I have here: ‘‘A View into the Hereafter’, part II, page 106.
A mother descended from the spheres in order to visit her seriously ill child.’
That is nice, isn’t it?
‘She, the happy one, suffered, because her child had forgotten herself.’
Madam, some mothers see that.
‘As it happens, she saw that her child was going to die, and would go to the dark spheres, and so would be separated for a long time.’
That is the worst thing there is.
‘Question: Does a person as a happy spirit have as much suffering as the earthly being?’
Madam, you are spirit.
Your life of feeling is exactly the same behind the material.
You are a mother.
And now you come to the other side ...
Questions and Answers Part 4, 1952
We will shortly not have changed in any way in our inner life:
I am talking to people who start to make something of themselves, to build up something for themselves, for directly, for now, the life ‘beyond the coffin’.
In fact, it is a false carry-on, a false talk: ‘the life beyond the coffin’.
For, here is the life ‘beyond the coffin’, here, now, you live in it.
You will not have changed in any way soon.
Lectures Part 2, 1951
We already live in our sphere on earth:
You are that sphere yourself.
That sphere lives here, doesn’t it?
That is your light, that is your feeling, that is your thinking, that is your love, that is your harmony.
Questions and Answers Part 6, 1951
