The Structure of Heaven

An encyclopedia of the paranormal, How Spirit is organized and how it affects your daily life

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  • About The Structure of heaven
  • Introduction
  • 1. Skepticism and Classical Physics
    • Skepticism/Humanism
    • Skepticism/Relativity and Quantum Physics
    • Skepticism/CSICOP
    • Skepticism/Why the Skeptics are Wrong
    • Skepticism/The advantages of belief
  • 2. The Human Soul
    • Why do we live in a material Universe?
    • The Human Soul and its Relationship to the Body
  • 3. God and Theodicy
    • Does God cause bad things to happen to good people?
    • Guardian Spirits and the Life Plan
    • What is Theodicy?
      • Zoroastrian Theodicy
      • Jewish Theodicy
      • Christian Theodicy
      • Why is Theodicy important?
      • Can Love conquer all??
  • 4. Psychics and mediums- an overview
    • What are psychics and mediums?
    • Why mediums can’t seem to agree about the afterlife
  • 5. The Structure of Heaven
    • The Universe according to Emanuel Swedenborg and Frederick Myers
    • A Map of the spiritual realm
    • Spirit Portals
  • 6. Heaven, Hell and the planes of illusion
    • Introducing The transitional plane (The Earth Sphere)
      • The functions of the transitional plane.
      • Crossing over
      • Time traps on the transitional plane
    • Evolution within the planes of illusion
      • The Summerlands and above
      • The Winterlands
    • The Hells
      • The Conditions in the Hells
      • Who goes to Hell?
      • Hell and the transitional plane
    • How spirits from different levels perceive each other
    • Vertical Stratification of the Spiritual Realm and How Spirits Progress
    • Horizontal Stratification and Spiritual Social Groups
  • 7. What happens when we die?
    • There is no external Judgment in the Afterlife!
    • Death doesn’t change a soul’s attitude
    • The life review
    • What do spirits look like?
    • Ghosts and their clothes
    • Zombies
    • Time 
    • Time in the planes of illusion
    • Memory in the world of spirit
    • What’s it like to be dead?
  • 8. Spiritual laws/The Law of Divine Love
    • Spiritual Laws/The law of compensation
    • Spiritual Laws/Spiritual Gravity
    • Spiritual Laws/Spiritual Frequencies
    • Spiritual Laws/The Law of Attraction
    • Spiritual Laws/The Law of Free Will and Good vs. Evil
    • The red devil and the white angel
    • The spiritual advantage of Living in a Material World
    • Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
  • 9. The Human Aura and Theosophy
    • The Aura as a Protective Spiritual Skin
    • The Aura and Spiritual infection (Obsession)
  • 10. Dr. Carl Wickland and Thirty Years Among the Dead
    • Dr. Wickland’s Spirit Dialogs
    • Spirit Related Insanity
  • 11. Spiritual Infection and Modern psychiatry
    • Emanuel Swedenborg’s Spiritual Insight
    • Wilson Van Dusen
    • Wilson Van Dusen’s Heavenly and Hellish Voices
    • Entities that invade the minds of the living
  • 12. Earthbound Spirits
    • Will I end up an earthbound spirit?
      • Three reasons that GOOD souls get stuck on the transitional plane.
    • Where do ghosts get their energy?
    • Human Spirit Obsession
    • Human Spirit Possession
    • Criminal culpability and spiritual infections
    • Enthrallment by the living and Hypnosis
      • Enthrallment and Abusive Relationships
      • Enthrallment: Cults
      • Enthrallment in the afterlife
      • Enthrallment by God and angels
  • 13. Angels and demons
    • The Provenance of Angelic Beings
    • The War in heaven
    • Angels and their function in religion
    • Magic and Wicca
    • Demonology
      • The structure of Hell
      • How demons infect a person or place
      • The five stages of demonic attack
      • Why do demons want to possess people?
      • The characteristics of demons
      • Thought Forms
  • 14 exorcim
    • Major exorcisms (also called imperative exorcisms)
    • False, or fake possessions
    • How Religion Views Demons Vs. Ghosts
    • Avoiding Demonic Repossession
    • Who can Remove Demons?
    • Removing Human ghosts
    • Exorcism and poltergeist activity in disturbed children
    • Haunted Dolls and Other Objects
    • Dealing with Family and Marriage Disturbances Caused by Ghosts
    • Goodness and ghosts
  • 15. Poltergeists, Ghosts and Hauntings
    • Poltergeists versus Ghosts
    • How spiritualists view ghosts
    • How Parapsychologists view ghosts
    • Children and Poltergeist infestations
    • Poltergeists that make the news
    • Ghosts and spiritual imprints
    • Ghosts of famous people
    • Why do ghosts seem bound to the same location?
      • Ghosts and sensory deprivation
    • A Ghost Story
    • Differentiating between Human and Demonic hauntings
      • Hauntings by Human ghosts
        • Ghost hangouts
      • Hauntings by Demonic spirits
  • 16. All about Psychics and others prone to spiritual infections
    • 1. Psychic Sensitives
      • Psi and the human brain
      • The five general categories of psychics
    • 2. Spiritual infection and mental illness
      • Are the spiritually infected mentally ill responsible for their criminal acts?
    • 3. Spiritual infection and Acquired Negative Lifestyles
      • Spiritual infection and drug and alcohol addiction
      • Spiritual infection as a result of negative personality traits
    • 4. Spiritual infection and childhood abuse
  • 17. Criminals and Spirits
    • Why are criminals more prone to spirit obsession than other people?
  • 18. Religion and Government
    • The birth of Morality
    • Religion = Spirit + Politics
    • The paranormal and religion
    • Human Nature-The REAL reason for religion
      • Sex and Religion
      • Religion and War
      • Religion vs. Secular law
    • Religious Dogmas
      • The Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal
    • Spiritualism
    • Why are the dark spheres necessary?
  • 19. Spirit Lies and Tall Tales!
    • Edgar Cayce
    • Edgar Cayce and Atlantis
  • 20. Suicide and its Spiritual Consequences
    • Nondiscretionary Suicides
    • Discretionary Suicide
    • Why you should never choose to commit suicide
    • Suicide Terrorists
  • 21. Reincarnation (An Introduction)
    • Spiritualism and Reincarnation
    • Allan Kardec and the Spirits’ Book
    • Allan Kardec, a warrior for reincarnation
    • Theosophy and Reincarnation
      • Madame Blavatsky
    • A House divided
    • Karma
    • Swedenborg on reincarnation
    • The group soul (the oversoul)
  • 22. Reincarnation: The evidence
    • The evidence for possession as an alternative to reincarnation
    • The early church and the history of reincarnation in the West
    • Past Life Regression
    • Is reincarnation really a part of God’s plan?
      • Why would a soul choose to reincarnate?
      • The Pitfalls of Reincarnation
      • If a soul reincarnates, what happens to the old personality?
      • The ultimate fate of old personalities 
  • 23. The Cross Correspondences
  • 24. The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism Page 1
    • The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism page 2
    • The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism page 3
    • The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism page 4
    • The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism page 5
    • The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism page 6
    • The Fox sisters: Original report of the Hydesville Haunting
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The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism page 6

Note: The Structure of Heaven is a 325-page book that can be downloaded from Amazon.com in Kindle format by clicking here. It is also available in paperback format by clicking here.

All three sisters had been examined  for their entire careers by committee after committee, undressed, tied up, placed in cages and humiliated beyond endurance, and the results in their later years always depended on the intentions (and honesty) of the investigators. One group of critics had even prepared a barrel of tar for use on the girls after they were debunked, and were extremely disappointed when they were unable to prove their case to the audience so they could use it.

Kate, sister Leah and Maggie later in their career

It is assumed by most people with personal experience of psychic phenomena that the confession itself was a hoax coordinated by the skeptics who rented and rigged the hall.  One of the event organizers was a dentist who was an amateur magician.  He tried, without much success, to warm up the audience for an hour by revealing the tricks of the trade, but was booed off the stage by a rowdy crowd who really wanted to see the main event. 

It is also interesting to note that $1500 in 1888 would be worth $56,355 in 2022 dollars.  It was a sum which would be very enticing to a pair of impoverished, chronic alcoholics.  Accounts of the event at the New York Academy of Music suggest some serious cheating on the part of the skeptics that sponsored it. Maggie confessed onstage that the girls had produced all the raps by “cracking their toes.”  She proved this at the Academy by “producing” loud rapping noises which emanated from various remote locations all over the huge hall.

NY Academy of Music

Today, only committed skeptics would be willing to believe that this was not done with stooges stationed under the stage and around the walls of the hall, but in 1888, the public was awash in the mythology that vaudeville ventriloquists could “throw their voices” to remote locations.  If they could do this with their voices, why couldn’t the girls do it with the cracking noises from their toes?  This mythology actually persisted through the 1950’s before it became common knowledge that ventriloquists, like modern magicians, use distraction techniques to produce the illusion that their voices emanate from the dummy on their laps.  

In any case, Margaret recanted her confession in writing in November 1889, about a year after her toe-cracking exhibition at the New York Academy of Music.  She asserted that she had been under the sway of the movement’s enemies and under extreme financial pressure when she falsely confessed, and she adamantly reaffirmed her faith in the spirits.  

“Would to God that I could undo the injustice I did the cause of Spiritualism under the strong psychological influence of persons who were opposed to it.”

The recantation caused barely a whisper and the newspapers, by and large, buried the story.  Within five years, both sisters had died of alcohol related illnesses.  They were buried side by side at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

It must be remembered that there have always been false prophets and crooked psychics out to make a buck.  The fact that many of the nineteenth century mediums were proven to be fakes does not mean that there are no real psychics!  To put it in William James’ words:

“If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, you must not seek to show that all crows are.  It is enough if you prove one single crow to be white.” 

James, one of the founders of the American Society for Psychic Research, debunked large numbers of fake mediums in his day, but he felt that he had found his “white crow” in a famous medium named Leonora Piper who was never shown to cheat and who was an astonishing medium.  After his death, James was also one of the spirits who participated in the cross correspondences (chapter 23).

Spiritualism did not die with the Fox sisters.  It still thrives in smaller and more intimate settings today because psychic facilities and mediumship never die.  As old mediums and psychics die off, new ones are born.  There are always thousands of legitimate mediums all over the world that can demonstrate astonishing feats of mental mediumship, and who can be tremendously helpful, allowing people to come to terms with the death of a loved one.  There are thousands of honest psychics working with paranormal investigation groups who can be very helpful in ridding homes of unwanted ghosts.  Unfortunately, there are still many fakes!

There will always be naïve people willing to believe in anything, leaving them susceptible to fraudulent claims.  And fraudulent claims of paranormal phenomena still turn people against spiritual beliefs.  But a growing number of intelligent and literate persons continue, right up to the present, to self-convert to a belief in the endurance of the spirit after death either because of the extensive literature on the subject, their own personal experiences, or because of the experiences of someone close to them.

Note: The Structure of Heaven is a 325-page book that can be downloaded from Amazon.com in Kindle format by clicking here. It is also available in paperback format by clicking here.

A Report of the Mysterious Noises Heard in the House of John D. Fox, in Hydesville, Arcadia, Wayne County>>>>

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Science, Math and God

Science, Math and God is the companion book, originally written as a preface to The Structure of Heaven. It's a book that explains why the skeptics are wrong, and why modern science no longer rules out the paranormal. Learn why God now has a place to live. (Also available as an eBook and paperback at Amazon.com)

The Lower Reaches of Heaven

The Lower Reaches of Heaven is a modern rendition of an of an old book; Thirty Years Among The Dead by Dr. Carl Wickland. It is essential reading if you want to understand Earthbound Spirits and the dynamics of their environment. It also contains lots of editorial comment and historical facts, as well insight into how ghosts think.

The Structure of Heaven is a 350 page book that can be downloaded from Amazon.com in kindle format by clicking here. It is also available in paperback format by clicking here.

If you have a question for me, you can email me at: author@thestructureofheaven.com. Be aware, however, that the answer to almost all your questions concerning this subject are best found by downloading the e-book or purchasing the paperback direct from Amazon.com

You can contact me directly by email: author@thestructureofheaven.com