This little book titled “Listening In” by Olive Pixley, I acquired some 30 years ago from that quaint, no longer extant bookshop off Quezon Avenue called Magus, which was the place to go to for one-of-a-kind esoteric materials.
It was written by a young Englishwoman whose brother was killed by a sniper during World War I. After his death, Jack—that was her brother’s name—had been able to communicate with her, and these conversations, carried on for a number of years, are the subject of her book.
Computing the time elapsed since these events took place, Olive Pixley must by now have gone to her eternal rest or perhaps reincarnated to another cycle of earth life. Anyhow, this is her story:
Days after being informed of her brother’s death, Olive was in bed, sobbing disconsolately, “Jack, Jack,” when she heard inside her head his voice saying, “Yes, here I am.” Startled, she cried, “Jack, is that really you?” He answered, “Yes, I’m here sitting at the foot of your bed.” Then he said he would go down to where the rest of the family was having breakfast. Later he came back and told Olive whom he saw, where they sat, what they were talking about and the food they ate, all of which Olive verified later.
Olive explained the process of their communication. “He used my head and mouth… at first with great force so that my head jerked with every word I uttered. Later he could do it with less force, and then my head hardly moved.”
She always felt him at her right side, but could not lie down while talking to him. She never knew when he was coming but always knew when he was there by “a terribly poignant feeling” that made her cry. When she felt his presence, the tears would come profusely, sometimes in the most inconvenient situations when she was surrounded by many people.
One of the first conditions in his new world that Jack resented at the beginning was that “everything that is inside there is outside here,” meaning all the thoughts that we could keep to ourselves here on earth are visible there. It’s impossible to think one thing and say another. No secrets there.
Laws of privacy
According to Jack, every house on this side has an emanation on their side. He was not living in their old house, but in another with four friends. Olive wanted to know who was living in their house and asked Jack if he could go there and find out, and was surprised at his answer. “Certainly not.” He said there were laws of privacy regarding space which he could not violate.
This puzzled Olive greatly, but apparently the subject was not pursued further.
Being of an artistic nature, Jack was entranced by the beauty of his surroundings but could hardly find words to convey the enchantment to his sister. “More like the Russian ballet,” he attempted a metaphor. “More like the Arabian Nights Tales,” he attempted another. Well, we get the drift.
There are trees and structures, the same as those on earth, but far more lovely and chemically different. It is not correct, Jack said, to think that form exists only in our world because most of our artworks are inspired by the forms that exist in that other world.
He said there is a color there that is not found here—at least not yet. He tried to give Olive the name of the color but she could not get it because it conveyed nothing to her mind and Jack did not have the word to describe it. Something for earth’s artists to wonder about!
When he had newly arrived, Jack saw only people he cared about. “Love is the only link” he said. You cannot get in touch with anybody except through love.
Individuals assume the form they had in the prime of their life. Jack said he was overjoyed to find their brother who died in infancy whom he recognized instantly although he appeared as a young adult. He also met again their grandfather who died long before Jack was born. They enjoyed talking and being with each other probably because both were artistically inclined.
People in that dimension have the power to look at the future, while we on earth can only recall the past. Olive implored Jack to tell her about certain personal things regarding the future, but Jack refused to do so. He was not allowed to tell her anything that would affect her judgment. Sensing that Jack did not want her to press him further, Olive did not insist.
While still in his earth life, Jack did not believe in reincarnation, but over there he accepted it without question.
One time he sounded very thrilled because he had been shown a vision of what his future life would be. Jack was the sort of person who loved life and lived it fully. By contrast, Olive was never too happy with her own life and looked forward to someday being free of the limitations of her existence.
She told Jack, “I’m sorry, dear, but this time you must go alone. I’ve had enough of it.”
Jack retorted,” Oh no, you’re coming too.”
Olive strongly protested, “No, never again.” Jack merely said, “Yes you are, but never mind now.”
According to Jack, there are schools and universities where one can earn degrees like on earth, where they prepare themselves for their future lives. If we are failures on earth, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Ignorance is no excuse there, as well, as here but it’s only after we translate to the next life that we get to know all our mistakes.
Of better use
Up to a certain point of development, we have no choice but to come back to learn things we can get to know only here, but we are also allowed to decide where we can be of better use to help our earth, here with others in their physical form or there as spiritual influences.
Jack said we hardly realize that all energies in both realms are focused on one goal: the improvement of this sad old earth, which has such vast potential that is not used.
Jack revealed he never knew until he passed on what prayer is and what it could do. “It is the force that operates in my world as electricity does in yours. Prayer materially alters our conditions. When you pray for those who have passed on it is like giving them presents. You alter conditions that only the force of prayer can change.”
At the start of their communication, Jack came almost every day during the first year. In the second year he came intermittently, and by the third year Jack said he had only a certain amount of force with which he could get in touch with our world, and he felt he could help us better if he did not use it for talking. He put it this way: “We take nine months to get born, and three years to die.”
It seems the newly dead have a lot of energy to use for communicating, and they know very well the laws of this world so it is easy to do it if you know how. He himself learned how from a comrade in the war but he tried it as an experiment and was very lucky to have done it with success.
But this energy diminished as it was used, and after three years was already spent.
Olive did not mind. At this point the rapport between them was so strong that she could feel his thoughts without the need for speech. While both were still alive they were very close, their minds in perfect sync, so that each knew what the other was going to say before he or she spoke.
Olive asked Jack if he had had direct contact with Jesus Christ. He said no, he was not ready yet. He explained that great events need much preparation there, same as here. Olive understood. What mattered was that life there is “so human and delightful,” and one word summed it up: “radiant.”
Olive wrote in her preface that she does not care if her story is believed or not. “If true, those who read it will be glad one day of their knowledge. If it be a fantasy, no one suffers.”
She felt it may help many others not to fear death as much as they used to. For me, it merely reinforced my belief that “birth is not the beginning, and death is not the end.”
