As we burrow into the topic of preparing for Ascension, let’s take a moment out to review some historical descriptions of known Ascensions.
SaLuSa told us in 2009 that “you can … ascend at any time.” (1) However he added:
“Whilst individual Ascension is possible at any time, it is an unusual event only achieved by greater Beings who have dedicated themselves to rising up into the Light.” (2)
There have been a few recorded Ascensions but they’re uncommon.
Ascension simply means leaving one dimension and entering another, but the term is usually reserved not for our transition on “death” to the Fourth Dimension or Astral Plane, but for our upliftment to a higher dimension.
In our case, apart from Matthew Ward, most of our sources hold that, with the coming Ascension, we’ll travel to the Fifth Dimension. This destination means in turn that we’ll leave dualistic consciousness behind for unitive consciousness.
In past Ascensions, the ascender has usually died first, but not this time, as SaLuSa points out.
“As many of you are now aware this [Ascension] is unique, as you take your physical body with you. Not as your existing carbon based body, but one that has become crystalline and can function in the 5th. Dimension. One that has become lighter, and has moved into a near perfect expression of itself.” (3)
The Arcturians through Suzanne Carroll also discuss this difference between the current Ascension and past instances of it.
“Many of the members of the Planetary Ascension Team [i.e, Starseeds] have had the experience of ascension in one or more of their parallel realities.
“However, in these other realities, you died and abandoned your physical body in order to soar into your true Home in the higher dimensions.” (4)
An example of Ascension after death is the case of Balaram Bose, whose spirit was escorted to heaven by Sri Ramakrishna. The master was seen descending in a chariot to the roof of the building where Balaram lay. Here is that description.
“At the last moment, we were seated around [Balaram Bose], while his wife, stricken with unspeakable grief, was in the inner apartment with Golap-ma, Yogin-ma, and others. Just then she noticed something like a piece of black cloud in the sky, which became denser by stages and began to descend. Soon it assumed the shape of a chariot and alighted on the roof of Balaram Babu’s house. The Master [Sri Ramakrishna] came out of that chariot and proceeded towards the room where Balaram Babu lay.
“Soon after, he issued forth, taking Balaram Babu by the hand, and entered the chariot again, which then ascended and vanished in the sky. This vision raised [Balaram’s wife’s] mind to a very high plane where there could be no touch of grief or sorrow. When she returned to normal she related this to Golap-ma, who came to apprise us of the fact. Balaram Babu had passed away just a little while before.” (5)
Elijah was also alleged to have been taken up to heaven in a chariot, which some speculate may have been a spaceship. Elijah’s is the only case I’m aware of in which death did not precede Ascension. Here is that description.
“And it came to pass, as they [Elijah and Elisha] still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” (6)
It’s my personal opinion that the spirit who was Elijah was also John the Baptist and the spirit who was Elisha was also Jesus. If you read some of the miracles of Elisha they were also performed by Jesus [raising the “dead” for instance]. And the scene where Elisha reveals to his servant the legions of angels ranged on the nearby mountain is reminiscent of Jesus’ observation that he could summon legions of angels if he wished. We also know that Jesus told his disciples that John the Baptist was Elijah who was to come.
Jesus ascended to heaven twice, once after “death” and a second time after appearing to the disciples. We know that an ascended being has the ability to materialize a third-dimensional body so Jesus’s second disappearance is perhaps not an Ascension proper.
“And [Jesus] led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.
“And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.” (7)
I’m persuaded that the Buddha’s mahasamadhi was also an Ascension. Here is that description.
“Thereupon The Blessed One rising from the cessation of his perception and sensation, entered the realm of neither perception nor yet non-perception; and rising from the realm of neither perception not yet non-perception, he entered the realm of nothingness; and rising from the realm of nothingness, he entered the realm of the infinity of consciousness; and rising from the realm of the infinity of consciousness, he entered the realm of the infinity of space; and rising from the realm of the infinity of space, he entered the fourth trance; and rising from the fourth trance, he entered the third trance; and rising from the third trance, he entered the second trance; and rising from the second trance, he entered the first trance; and rising from the first trance, he entered the second trance; and rising from the second trance, he entered the third trance; and rising from the third trance, he entered the fourth trance; and rising from the fourth trance, immediately The Blessed One passed into Nirvana.” (8)
The nun Disciola was seen by a witness to have been carried up to heaven by Archangel Michael upon her death in 583 A.D.
“In the nunnery ruled over by the blessed Radegund there died a girl called Disciola, who was the niece of Salvius, the saintly Bishop of Albi. The circumstances of her death were as follows. When she began to feel ill, the other nuns nursed her with great care. The day came when she was on the point of death. At about nine o’clock, she said to the nuns: ‘I seem to be lighter in body than I was. My pain has gone. Please do not worry about me any more, or nurse me with such great care. Perhaps you will leave me now, so that I can manage to sleep for a while.’
“When the other nuns heard this, they left her cell. Later on they returned and stood there at her bedside, wondering if she would have the strength to speak to them. She spread her hands wide and seemed to be asking a benediction of someone. ‘Give me your blessing, holy messenger from God on high,’ she whispered. ‘This is the third time today that you have taken the trouble to visit me. Why, holy one, do you take such pains for a poor, feeble woman?’
“The nuns asked her whom she was speaking to, but she did not answer. Some time passed and then she laughed aloud. Just as she did so, she died. [A man possessed of a devil said:] ‘The Archangel Michael has just received that sister’s soul,’ said he, ‘and he is even now carrying it off to heaven. My own master, he whom you call the Devil, has no share in her at all!’ Those who washed Disciola’s body said that it shone with a snow-white purity, and that the Abbess could not find in her cupboard a winding-sheet which was whiter than she was. They wrapped her in clean linen and committed her to the grave.” (9)
Julia Ames described being taken by an angel to Jesus’s side after her death in 1891. Here is a brief portion of her description of that event:
Then I felt as though a great warm flood of light had come into the room and I saw an angel. She, for at first she seemed to be a female, came to me and said –
“’I am sent to teach you the laws of the new life.’
“And, as I looked, she gently touched me and said: ‘We must go.’” (10)
“I found myself in a great expanse of landscape where I had never been before. I was alone; that is, I saw no one. But you are never really alone. We are always living in the presence of God. But I saw no one. Then I heard a voice. I only heard the words. ”Julia, He who saved thee would fain speak with thee.” I listened, but no words other than these were spoken.
“Then I said – “Who is it that speaks?” And, behold, a flaming fire – really like fire though in human shape. I was afraid. Then he spoke and said, “Be not afraid. It is who am appointed to teach the secret things of God.” Then I saw that the brightness as of fire was only the brightness that comes from the radiant love of the Immortals.
“Then the flame-bright One said to me, “Julia, behold your Saviour!” And when I looked I saw Him. He was sitting on a seat close to me, and He said, ‘Beloved, in My Father’s House are many mansions; here am I whom you have loved so long. I have prepared a place for you.’
“And I said, ‘Where, oh, my Lord?’ He smiled and, in the brightness of that smile, I saw the whole landscape change as the Alps change in the sunset, which I saw so often from the windows of my hotel at Lucerne. Then I saw that I was not alone, but all around and above were fair and loving forms, some of those whom I had known, others of whom I had heard, while some were strange. But all were friends and the air was full of love. And in the midst of all was He, my Lord and Saviour. He was as a Man among men. He was full of the wonderful sweet mildness which you are acquainted with in some of the pictures that have been painted by the Italian Fra Angelico. He had an admirable look of warm affection, which was as the very breath of life to my soul. He is with us always.” (11)
I think that all of these can be considered Ascensions.
What unites all these cases is that the subject departed from the usual path of going to the Fourth Dimension or the Astral Planes and was escorted probably to a much higher plane, usually intermediated by an angel or in one case by an avatar (Sri Ramakrishna). In most they died first, but, in Elijah’s case, he did not.
Probably many more instances could be found. But it still cannot be called a common event. The more common route is for people to die and to go to the Astral Plane, there to rest and return to the body after an interval. The transition from Physical to Astral Plane upon death has not usually been considered or called an Ascension.
Footnotes
(1) SaLuSa, Dec. 16, 2009, at https://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/Channeled_Messages_by_Mike_Quinsey.htm
(2) SaLuSa, Sept. 7, 2009.
(3) SaLuSa, April 3, 2009.
(4) The Arcturians, Awaken Now Newsletter, from [email protected], Feb. 16, 2010.
(5) Swami Shivananda in Swami Chetananda, They Lived with God. Life Stories of Some Devotees of Sri Ramakrishna. St. Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1989, 133.
(6) II Kings 2:11.
(7) Luke 24:50-1.
(8) The Death of the Buddha, Translated from the Maha-Parinibbana-Sutta (v. and vi.) of the Dgha-Nikya, at https://www.bartleby.com/45/3/106.html
(9) Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974., 356.
(10) Julia [Julia T. Ames] through W.T. Stead, medium, After Death. A Personal Narrative. New York: George H. Doran, n.d.; c. 1914., 41.
(11) Ibid., 43-5.