Category: Health

Only the watchers of earth-men can exactly tell what is happening to the 45 persons who were killed on  November 1, 2021 when Femi Osibona’s 21–storey building under construction at 44 Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, came down like a pack of cards. But it is almost certain many of them may be behaving as “Wanderers In  Spirit Land”. Earth-men have not ceased to wonder about what may be happening to people they knew who have gone on. My grandmother died in 1980 but I still see her in my dreams, implying that she is still much around. Wasn’t it my mother who left the flesh on  August 5, 1959 who told me in a dream on 24th August 24, 1998 “your father has left the earth?”. Did my father not bow out two days later? Almost 20 years after, did my father not tell my sister “H.A. has gone?”. Pa H.A.Olubanjo was his bosom childhood friend through whose help my father married my mother, his cousin. So, when my sister told me our father informed her “H.A. has gone”, I advised her to keep the news to herself for sometime.

There is none of us who has not experienced correspondence with departed ones in one way or another. Even among the Caucasian (Euro-American) race, who have overcultivated the intellect to the point that they tend to no longer believe anything outside the realms of the five physical senses, concerns about life beyond the earth are not completely eradicated. These concerns have been kept alive among them by persons such as Franchezzo, author of “A  Wanderer In The Spirit Land”. He wrote the book in 1896. At that time, science and the intellect, that is the cerebrum or frontal brain, had not tried to completely usurp the throne of the spirit as they do today, to suppress Spiritual  Reality and establish Intellectua Reality or Material  Reality as the Real Reality.

We must be thankful to persons such as photographer Semyon Kirlian who have made it impossible for man to obliterate his Spiritual Ancestry. He is reported to have “accidentally” discovered a photographic technique which has helped to shed more light on Ghost  Pains and reopen the debate as to whether the physical bodies of men are not mere coarser or denser versions of prototypes and immutable archetypes which survive physical or material demise. When science and the intellect says Semyon Kirlian “accidentally” discovered the now widely celebrated photographic technique, they are trying to deny that there is a higher guidance from the forces which watch over men on earth and guide them.

In Ghost Pains, a man or woman whose leg is amputated from the knee who, therefore, in physical or material reality has no lower leg or foot, sometimes develops pains where his physical lower leg or foot had once existed. Doctors used to write off such complaints as hallucinations. But what does the patient do when the high priest of medicine had spoken but he continues to feel and believe his lower leg or foot are still where they used to be and he is experiencing serious pains in them.

Semyon Kirlian photography showed a whole leaf and, later, other objects in two dimensions. The first dimension was physical reality. The second dimension was real, also, but of a different consistency from the first. When the whole leaf was cut into two and rephotographed, the first dimension appeared as a half leaf physical reality. The second appeared as a whole leaf, as if nothing had happened to it. This sparked a controversy of archetypes and prototypes and of whether physical earth bodies are not mere reflections of prototypes and archetypes.

Of Semyon Kirlian, Google says:

“Kirlian photography is a collection of photographic techniques used to capture the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharges. It is named after Semyon Kirlian, who, in 1939, accidentally discovered that if an object on a photographic plate is connected to a high-voltage source, an image is produced on the photographic plate. The technique has been variously known as electrography, electrophotography, corona discharge photography(CDP), bioelectrography, gas discharge visualisation(GDV), electrophotonic imaging(EPI), and, in Russian literature, “Kirlianography”.

“Kirlian photography has been the subject of scientific research, parapsychology research, and art. Paranormal claims have been made about Kirlian photography, but these claims are rejected by the scientific community. To a large extent, it has been used in alternative medicine research”.

Long before Kirlian photography, the Mediums of old had tried to establish communication between earth persons and the departed ones. It was, and still is, a function of Radiations or of Sensitive  persons who have reported seeing images of persons who had just departed, hearing knocks or footsteps at night around the dwelling of being irradiated or worked up by certain fragrances of inexplicable origins.

In the days of Franchezzo, people paid mediums to help them communicate with departed persons. The book A Wanderer In The Spirit Land is one of such efforts. Here is the author, Franchezzo, telling us about this book:

“I came across this experience written in 1896 London by a medium, Franesse, who was in contact with the soul of a man known as Franchezzo when he was alive who related through this medium his experience after his death on earth. For those who probably do not know, a medium is someone with psychic powers or heightened senses able to see or hear souls/spirits. Through these people or mediums, loved ones or people who have died are able to communicate with their loved ones still living or pass on certain messages to certain people through them.

“Franchezzo lived a very materialistic life, in his own words, while on earth, living only for the highest earthly sensualities and had very strong addiction to material possessions. He paid little attention, if any, to anything regarding spiritual matters or life after death. He tells his story, through the medium, of the effect of materialism on his soul, how he got stuck after death and the efforts he made in the afterlife to rise through being stuck. Franchezzo tells his story through the medium as a lesson to earthlings still living on earth about the dangers of getting addicted to materialism or earthly distractions.

“His story is quite interesting that it tells a different reality of the so-called ‘hell-fire’ as popularly brandished in organised religion (Islam, Christianity). ‘Hell fire’, so to speak, does not exist. An unconditionally loving God would never condemn any of his own to ‘burn forever’ just because they made the wrong choices while on earth. The theory of hell fire is a wrong teaching introduced by the early church fathers that has been cycled around for generations, however experiences like this or from people who have been near death (near death experiencers), tell a different story altogether. The afterlife is not all bliss and there exists another place full of darkness and lack of love, often called the void and this is, oftentimes, where souls who accumulated heavy negative karma through their actions while on earth go to for temporary restitution, reflection on their just concluded life, etc. There is hope for these souls to progress as our unconditionally loving God never condemns any of his own to eternal damnation.

“For those who think that there is no life after death, the soul does not exist or after death is nothingness, you may need to have a rethink…”.

 

Dr Raymond Moody

True humanity has had the gift of Raymond A. Moody, a firm believer in the paranormal, philosopher, psychiatrist and author of Life After Life who has reopened this subject more powerfully in our time. He interviewed several people who had near-death experiences, who were thought by their doctors to have died, but who “woke up” in the mortuary and told stories of their existence in other worlds from which, in some cases, they did not wish to return to the earth. The near-death subjects Dr Moody interviewed came from different backgrounds…age, gender, social, economic, linguistics, religious, nationality, profession etc. Their stories about how they left the earth, they passed through a “dark tunnel”, in a brightly lit environment lit up not by a sun, of how the lighting was not scorching, neither dawn nor dusk nor night, of how they did not realise they had “died”, saw their pets and relations who had long “died” or of some persons standing by to help but who would not unless he was asked for help. This (Life After Life) was the book Obafemi Awolowo at his last birthday on earth asked to be given by anyone who had a copy, and which for me, an honour to give him, free of cost, one of the two copies in my library.

According to a review of Life After Life by Goggle:

“Raymond Moody is the “father” of the modern NDE (Near Death Experience) movement, and his pioneering work Life After Life transformed the world, revolutionising the way we think about death and what lies beyond. Originally published in 1975, it is the groundbreaking study of one hundred people who experienced “clinical death” and were revived, and who tell, in their own words, what lies beyond death. Life After Life introduced us to concepts including the bright light, the tunnel, the presence of loved ones waiting on the other side that have become cultural memes and have shaped countless readers notions about the end life and the meaning of death”.

 

Dr Moody’s critics

We would not be the humans that we are, standing at various heights of the perception of reality, if Dr. Moody’s work was not roundly criticised by the doubting Thomases. The criticisms re-enacted the battle of old between Mechanists and the Vitalists understanding of existence. The mechanists believe nothing exists unless they can see it, touch it, smell it and taste it. They call themselves Realists and their civilisation was termed the age of realism. They thought the human being was no more than his/her bones, blood and brain and that he/she was no more than a collection of organs working mechanically, like the parts of a mechanical device such as a motor-car. The vitalists recognise the existence of bone, blood and brain and…something else which makes them to function the way they do, the human soul, a vital aspect in the equation of human existence on earth.

According to the critique of Life After Life extracted from Dr Moody’s biography in Wikipedia:

“The philosopher Robert Todd Carroll has written that a characteristic of Moody’s work is the omission of cases that do not fit his hypothesis, confirming the aspect of cherry picking. Carroll writes that what Moody describes as a typical NDE may be due to brain states triggered by cardiac arrest and anesthesia. Moody believes NDEs are evidence for an afterlife but Carroll states they can be explained by neurochemistry and are the result of a “dying, demented or drugged brain”.

 

Dr Steinpach

Dr Richard Steinpach took Raymond Moody’s study one step further with his book Why We Live After Death.

Amazon.com says:

“Why We Live After Death is one of those rare books that encapsulates deep and far-ranging ideas with an articulate and engaging style. Austrian-born Richard Steinpach was an attorney by profession, a seeker-after-truth by inclination and temperament. From 1979 until shortly before his death in 1992, Dr. Steinpach delivered hundreds of lectures throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

“Why We Live After Death is a small book with a big message…the author has added value to understand the experience of death, a subject long denied and little understood. Steinpach’s explanations are consistent with the prevailing ecumenical thought on spirituality and the essence of the soul. He challenges the reader to expand preconceived ideas about religion and spirituality, and to allow understanding to establish firmer foundations in our lives and in our world.

“Why We Live After Death accomplishes what no other book on life after death does. Steinpach takes the basic Laws of Nature and applies them to the ethereal realm. By doing so, he demystifies the world beyond, and opens the door to a fuller understanding of the totality of our existence. Why We Live After Death makes it possible for readers to answer the eternal question, What is the meaning of life?”

 

Remarks

The foregoing were thoughts which made me wonder what could have been going on under the rubbles of Femi Osibona’s 21–storey building in Ikoyi, Lagos. Many people do not know they, or rather their bodies, have “died” when they vacate these bodies. In the battlefield, some soldiers who have been “killed” still go on fighting, dodging bullets and hiding from their enemies believing they are seen. They are surprised their enemies do not see them. They try to kill an enemy nearby, severally shooting him and are shocked the bullets have no desired effects. Weeks or months later, they may break down. They may not realise they now exist in their astral bodies, which, sooner or later, they may also discard in their ascent homeward.

Tired of it all, they may send out a genuine prayer for help to understand what is happening to them. A helper may approach them and inform them that they have died. They may fall on their faces and cry in disbelief. To help their unbelief, helpers may bring them to their homes to see their families. Their widows and children may be at breakfast table. The woman’s head may swell, her blood radiations irradiated by the visitor’s. Some of the children may develop goose pimples. Some may see images. He may speak to them. But no-one may hear him. He may try to embrace his wife, and his hands and arms may pass through her. He may get the message and begin to cry again. He may now be led away to that part of the universe, usually for many people just around the fringes of the earth plane, where his Spiritual Gravity permits him to rise not beyond. In this place, as in other places, there are rehabilitation centres where care givers help in-coming souls to settle down in their new environment or plane of existence. Often, the convinction that they have died on earth comes when they are taking on visits in their new environment to the homes of friends and relations who had left the earth a long time before them. Their existence in this new world becomes a new reality which the human brain left behind on earth cannot visualise or recognise. These teaches us that only the instruments of the same consistency with an environment can investigate or navigate it. The brain which produces signs is consistent with the material world. It is the inner cloaks which many of us live undeveloped that are consistent with the worlds of new realities beyond the earth and can investigate them. It takes the new comers to the worlds beyond the earth time to learn about The Law Of Thought, for example. They may not realise they need no food, sleep or have no need to walk. They may take time to learn their helpers and caregivers “float” along.

At 44 Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, will the disembodied souls accept that they deserved to end their earthly lives the way they did? Would they accept that there is No Accident in the universe? Will they be at Femi Osibona’s throat, accusing him of bringing about their fate? Are there squabbles going on there that our mortal eyes are not beholding? Will the site be haunted by “ghosts” for sometime? There are official records of public places in the Western world even till this day that are haunted by soldiers killed inside them. The internet has a list of haunted places in Rome, London, Edinburgh, Bucharest, Madrid etc. Will Femi Osibona seek help to detach from the decaying body, forgive his wife and siblings feuding over his property within one week of his gruesome death, and go on his journey to wherever he deserves to be, or will he become earthbound, still chasing the material after the music has stopped playing and risk the chances of another incarnation?

May our prayer be granted that the departed souls wander not in the land of spirit which Franchezzo’s book, A Wanderer In The Spirit Land, describes to us but awaken to joyful and beautiful activities in consonance with upbuilding in the wonderful and magnificent Creation of the Almighty Creator and Ruler of All the Worlds. May it be granted, also, that all of us still on the earth learn from the experience of the collapsed building that there is only one step between life and death and, therefore, make hay for the development of our spirits while the earthly sun still shines upon us. Whoever learns no useful lesson in the events around him/her lives in a Fool’s Paradise.

 

When a skyscraper collapses, as happened at 44 Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, on Monday, 01 November, 2021, human casualties may occur. About 45 persons were killed and 15 were rescued in the Ikoyi disaster. Several others were physically hurt in several ways with bone fractures and excruciating pains. Some were psychically broken and would require trauma therapies. For yet others, the impact would be heartbreaks and grief or psychological disorientation. It would not matter if the victims are alive or dead!

For sometime to come, we would be talking about the experiences of the survivors and their loved ones. Many of us will very quickly forget the persons who were killed, or what they went through, even in death under the rubbles, because many of us do not seriously believe that life goes on after physical death on earth. Before I come to the dead, I would like to make some remarks about Life beyond earthly existence.

ONE: At 24, I had an Out of Body Experience (OBE). I came out of my physical body and consciously observed that my body lying in bed was fast asleep. Later on, I attained day consciousness in a few dreams. Day consciousness in your dream means that you are as conscious in that dream as you are day conscious behind the steering wheel of your motor vehicle in fast moving traffic. It opens the door to a wide range of psychic experiences in which earth life is no longer seen as a cage and a mystery, but as part, though infinitesimal, of a single existence which transverses many worlds that may be simultaneously experienced even when we are still earth beings.

These higher realms of existence govern human activities on earth for good or ill, depending on where earth men and women incline towards. The Universe is beaming to the earth different broadcasts from different power centers, some pure and good, some dark and evil. These broadcasts are what we call INSPIRATION or GUIDANCE. Whatever Inspiration or Guidance we receive depends on the power centers we incline towards or tune to like radio or television receiving sets. We can now configure from which power centre came the idea to build a 21–storey building on a foundation suited for only five floors. We can also conjecture where the idea comes from when we use inferior or inadequate materials in building constructions simply because we wish to cut corners. Such power centres give us the ideas we searched for by opening up to them, enlarge these ideas and encourage us to perilously walk over the edge and down the cliff.

TWO: Another evidence for me of existence beyond earth-life was the death of my father at about 3:30a.m on 26 August, 1998, a Wednesday. I rose from a dream about 20 minutes after in which he told me he had gone and reminded me to tidy his affairs, he even handed his family to me at the last family meeting he called. I planned to check on him by 6a.m. But at about 5:30a.m, one of my brothers who lived with him at Obanikoro, Lagos, came to break the news to me at Ikeja, where I lived. One of the things he wanted was for his earthly remains to be interred not later than the Saturday after his departure. I obliged this wish for his funeral which we had only two days to plan for. For this, I will ever be grateful to Mr. Jide Ogundele, my colleague at The Guardian newspapers, Rev.Adenugba, who made Emmanuel Church, Isonyin, accept the short notice, Brigadier Buba Maruwa (RTD), at that time Governor of Lagos State, who sent his chief press secretary, Mr. Sina Ogunbambo, to represent him, even without an invitation, my co-siblings for their unreserved cooperation, many relations who waved funeral tradition for me and many friends who attended the funeral in full force as though we had planned it for months.

THREE: Like my father and his mother before him, many people do not want their bodies kept in the mortuary. So was a former boyfriend of a young woman who lived with her brother at 39 Elmina Cresent, off Toyin Street, Ikeja, Lagos. They had disengaged for sometime, and she did not know he had died. They were both Igbos. His eldest brother lived in the United States. So, he could not immediately come for the funeral. Accordingly, he requested that his younger brother’s body be kept in the mortuary until he was ready. The departed brother tried to reach many members of the family to request that the burial be carried out immediately, so he could go his way. Apparently, something connected with his funeral had made him become earth-bound, which he must have hated to be. Finally, he turned to this former girlfriend of his in a dream, urging her to help him tell other members of his family to persuade his eldest brother to conduct the funeral immediately.

This young woman kept this dream to herself, assuming it was one of those stupid dreams. I was a distributor of some of the products her brother was importing in those days. These products included ALKALIVE GREEN, ALKALIVE RED, ALKALIVE BLUE and SILVERGEN. Alkalive Green was a mixed grill of about 60 green plants for alkalization and detoxification. Alkalive Red was for purification and strengthening of the blood. Alkalive Blue was for calming and strengthening the nervous system, and for pain. Silvergen was colloidal silver which was absorbed from under the tongue into the bloodstream to fight and to kill all types of germs. This young woman came from Port-Harcourt where the business network of her brother was well established to work with him in Lagos where the business was just being developed. When she knew about my interest in transcedental matters, she began to ask me life questions everytime I showed up in their office. It was in the course of one of such meetings that she related to me the dream in which she saw her former boyfriend. I encouraged her to enquire about his wellbeing from members of his family. Lo and behold, he was dead and his funeral had not taken place. This young woman was almost devastated. I informed her to immediately narrate her dream to every member of his family including his eldest sibling. How the matter ended I do not remember. But it reminded me of one or two lessons I had learned about the departed.

I am narrating these experiences because we may assume those who died under the Ikoyi rubbles have gone for good. That may be why, within one week of his death in gruesome circumstances, the wife of Mr. Femi Osibona, owner of the collapsed building in which he was killed, and his siblings are ferociously involved in a bitter battle over his exotic cars and other properties. These are people who should be mourning and possibly bed-ridden in hospital because the dust of the gruesome death of their husband and sibling had not yet settled.

Read Also: Collapsed Ikoyi building wasn’t insured

One of the lessons I was referring to is that we, the living essence, are attached to our physical earthly bodies with an astral or unseen SILVER CORD. This cord is similar to the UMBILICAL CORD which attaches a baby in the womb to the pregnant woman through the placenta. If the Umbilical cord is not severed, the baby is not freed from its would-be mother. If the Silver cord is not severed, the departing soul is not freed from the physical body it is discarding. When we still live in the physical bodies, the Silver cord is elastic, which is why we may be asleep in Lagos and find ourselves in New York in dreams. When the body is dead and the soul stands outside it, the Silver cord becomes inelastic, and the soul is bound to the body until the Silver cord is detached. Anything which happens to the physical body can still be experienced by the soul through vibrations which flow to him/her from the body through the Silver cord. This is why the cold in the mortuary freezer can be torturing to the departing soul. That is, also, why cremation is awful. That is why the souls may also feel the pain of Post Mortem surgeries. That is, also, why embalment, in which all the internal organs are removed and the cavity is stuffed with cotton-wool or other material, may be an unpallatable experience for departing ones. Some do not even know they have “died”. They find themselves still existing, experiencing pain, and are confused, unless they receive help to understand what is going on. How soon a departing soul will be freed from the Silver cord and from the corpse will depend on how light or heavy the soul is. Souls that are entangled with earthly matters and with many troubles to sort out with many persons on earth on account of attachments are usually heavy souls. Souls that are not entangled are usually light souls. The conditions of some souls are so heavy and bad that they are actually drawn back into the body they had existed. Imagine Mr. Femi Osibona becoming terribly shocked that his wife and siblings are thinking less about him and more about his property, and wishing to express to them his disappointment! The only way he will be able to do this is to communicate with them through the physical body, using the brain. On the other side of earthly existence, the brain does not exist. That is why those who have departed can walk in and out of our residencies, even through the walls as the Lord Jesus did in the upper chamber after his Resurrection. We cannot see them with our physical eyes. We can only feel their effects when they are around, but they cannot touch us physically. To communicate with us in the death chamber, they require their bodies and the brains. As they desire to do so, they will be linked up with an appropriate power centre that will encourage them to go on. They may be pulled back into the bodies and be unable to free themselves from it, since they voluntarily went in, and reside in there for months or even years witnessing the horrible decay of the bodies they had once priced highest over other values when they existed in blood and flesh. What a terrible fate!

FOUR: A 15-year-old girl whose experiences I am discussing with her mother heard knocks on the entrance door of their house one day two months ago. She went out to open the door, saw her mother, tried to embrace her but found that her hands passed through her mother, and then lapsed into a state of surprise and shock. She found herself back in the house sleeping on a couch then got up as the knocks persisted, and followed the exact processes she earlier undertook. This time, she embraced her mother, and the contact was physically real.

The news of 44 Gerrard Road reminds me of COMFREY, the “bone-knit” and tissue generating or healing herb of which not much is heard nowadays. Bone-knit refers to the healing powers Comfrey exercises in the healing of bone challenges ranging from fractures and rheumatism to arthritis and much more. The building disaster also reminded me of APPLE-CIDER VINEGAR which mobilises CALCIUM into fractured bones for speedy healing. Pain is almost inescapable in those circumstances.

GRIEF is in the domain of the heart, nay spirit! The history of the collapsed building is making many people angry, and anxiously looking forward to how everyone responsible for it would be brought to book. The owner of the property, Femi Osibona who died in the disaster has lost substantial money. So would the banks which financed it if they did not professionally scrutinise the project. The engineers who resigned from the project may go free. But what about the ones who took over from them, believing they could add two plus one to make four? Then, there are the civil servants who are trapped in the net. Grief and anxiety will at this time trail many persons, living or “dead”. Trauma is an emotional response to an event. It may be immediate or long-term. In the 1970s, some corpses were discovered at the Anthony Underbridge on Ikorodu Road, Lagos. Till this day, about fifty-something years after, the images still tense me up wherever I am there!

The owner of the building, Femi Osibona, died under the rubbles. He will be remembered as an unwise man or as one of those rich persons who were made by money to be unable to think straight. That was the understanding of him by a 20-year-old girl. Had she all that money, she reasoned, she would stop the building at only five floors the foundation could withstand, and buy five more plots of land on which to expend the remaining funds. Or, if he wanted a skyscraper by all means, perhaps because he ran into more money while the construction was going on, could he not uproot the five floors and the foundation and reconstruct a foundation for 21-storey building? Has the foundation not been excavated now in his absence?

The site will be haunted by grief for a long time to come. As a Christian, I believe in the continuation of existence beyond physical earth life. The Bible gives us many examples of it. A vivid example is the appearance of Moses and Elijah with the Lord Jesus at His Transfiguration. They were long gone from the earth and were with Him in non-earthly bodies. Jesus told His Disciples Elijah came back but men had done with Him what they wished. There could be seen an illogicality in the two images of Elijah, one of him at the Transfiguration and the other as John the Baptist, who the Disciples erroneously thought Jesus refered to as the reincarnation of Elijah. This discomfiture is corrected in the knowledge that it was NOT JESUS, but the REPORTING DISCIPLE, who reported that “….IT BECAME CLEAR ONTO THEM THAT HE SPAKE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST”. That was “interpretative” reportage by the Disciple and not the exact words of the Lord. Thus, we can infer that Elijah returned not as John the Baptist but as someone else long before the Transfiguration.

Forgive the digression. We are looking at the site of carnage, and cannot escape talking about life and death. As a person who believes in the continuation of existence after physical demise on earth, I am trying to imagine what could be happening to the people who died in that disaster. Femi Osibona invited his friend, WALE BOB-OSENI, who was to travel abroad later that day to visit him at No 44, Gerrard Road. Something must have linked them together for a common fate or the other man may have been careless about guidance to avoid Gerrard Road. We know “CARELESSNESS AVENGES ITSELF BITTERLY”. Under the debris and on the other side, outside of his physical remains, WALE BOB-OSENI, must have been wondering about why he altered his travel plan. I learned something in this regard a long time ago from a gentleman who concerned himself about the world we do not see as much as he did the world in which we still live. At that time, I closed from the office between 1a.m or 3a.m. He said on no account should one transit from one place to another without first not physically clearing the route. Most people do this through prayer. His illustration touched me. Would a President travel on a route that its security details had not cleared? Does he arbitrarily alter his itinerary? He taught a group of us that, once we had prayed for our route to be cleared up of any mishap, we could still cause some challenges for our unseen friends who were helping us if we allowed in our entourage someone who was not meant to be in it.

We do not know the karmaic debt(s) hanging from the necks of people around us. We do not know if one or more persons were meant to depart in a gruesome circumstance such as happened at 44 Gerrard Road.