Published: Monday 7th of July 2025
Through the Veil
We are accustomed to thinking of our presence here in the earth as our natural life, and life after death – if we believe in it – as some type of supernatural existence in regions far removed in time and space. Throughout history, people have typically thought of two places where they might expect to go after passing, naming them Heaven and Hell. Today we know that there are not just two, but countless different places, of which some are heavenly and others are hellish. These places, ranging from the lowest to the highest, are known as planes of consciousness, or planes of life.
The earth itself is also a plane of consciousness in its own right. And it may surprise us to discover how closely all the various planes are interwoven with each other and with the earth, and that when we are asleep our inner body is set free to move amongst them.
When I use the word ‘discover’ I mean exactly that, because every individual has the capacity to investigate and prove for themselves the truth of life, using the inner body – the body we have when we sleep or even when we are sitting quietly. This is what Gladys Franklin, our founder, encouraged her students to do, to prove things for themselves instead of just taking hers or anyone else’s word for it. I count myself fortunate to have had the following experience in meditation, coming up to the Christmas period. This was more than two years after Gladys had herself passed from the earth life into Spirit.
After getting my brain quiet I realised I was then functioning with my inner self, but still in the same chair my earth body was in. There were some Christmas cards on a side table next to me, and seeing one with a heart symbol in the top right corner I picked it up. Inside the card I recognised Gladys’ writing. It began, “My Dearest Colin,” and although I read everything that followed I could later only remember the words, “Look to what is truly in your heart.”
I took a second card and saw that it featured a small cellophane window, transparent but slightly frosted. Then I heard a voice say, "Through the veil." What happened next was nothing short of incredible. I found myself looking through the cellophane into a room, and I could both see and hear a number of people, one of whom was Gladys. I then returned to my earth body.
We often speak of the veil as what separates us from the other side of life, the worlds unseen. It isn’t a physical barrier as such, but more to do with what keeps us alive in the earth while there are lessons still to learn. I realised I had been shown how close at hand are those unseen planes of life. This doesn’t mean just the next one up or down from the earth, for it includes all those very much higher if our mind is in harmony with the people who are there.
The cellophane was slightly frosted, and to me this means that the brain – if cluttered with too many things of the material life – can so easily get in the way of our seeing clearly. It meant there would always be things of the self I needed to work on. In this respect Gladys’ advice was uplifting and helpful, for what is truly in our heart is what drives our personal creation day by day. To understand it and to purge our desires of harmful emotion and frustration will bring us an inner happiness that rises above the ups and downs of daily existence. Other people will feel it too, perhaps being inspired to commence their own seeking for truth.
An experience which helps us to learn is rarely repeated in the same way – especially if we take notice of the lesson contained within it. Having seen through the cellophane window, like seeing through the veil, I never expected to get quite the same thing again. Then almost exactly twenty years later I had the following, once more in meditation.
I somehow knew I was suspended in the air, looking at a tower with a light that was not yet lit. I happened to glance down and could see a large sumo wrestler sat in my chair. My attention was then drawn to a pair of green-handled scissors being used to make a vertical cut in a large veil hanging down from on high. I couldn’t see who was using the scissors, but I moved towards the veil and then went through the opening that had been made. Immediately I was in a world of colour, in the midst of countless long strands of beautiful ethereal colours, all different. I don’t know how long I stayed there, perhaps only a moment, and then I was back in my chair.
Reflecting on what I had seen, I realised that this experience went a step up from the one before. That had been about the continuing need to work on ourselves. This one added to it the importance of the light in the tower, which needed lighting to become a beacon of help and encouragement to others. A beacon such as this can only be lit with the light of the soul, something which comes from us by keeping our feelings in harmony, and using our initiative to bless others as well as ourselves. The sumo wrestler was another detail, pointing out that protection will always be there when serving the light.
The green-handled scissors cutting the veil symbolises that by allowing our love to be unimpaired by emotion, heaven and earth will come together, so to speak. Though we are living in the earth we can still draw beautiful colours from the ethers into our own aura. To do so we should watch our feelings, to work towards being tolerant and patient, kind and generous-minded, and to endeavour to push out any lingering, negative feelings. In this way will the light of the beacon be lit, and although we might trip up, perhaps many times, the determination to always get back up and carry on will keep the beacon alight.
Author: Colin