Article by: Walter Semkiw, MD
Source: Communication from the deceased in this case was facilitated through the direct voice mediumship of Leslie Flint. George Woods and Betty Greene were present during tape recordings of Flint’s mediumship sessions and they asked questions of the deceased, who spoke in their own natural voices. Neville Randall reviewed these recordings and summarized the dialogues in his book, Life After Death. Dialogue in the article provided below has been slightly edited to make it more concise.
To learn more about the mechanism of communication with the deceased, go to: Leslie Flint and his Direct Voice Mediumship
In a Leslie Flint direct voice mediumship session that took place in 1953, a London flower seller named Rose came through. George Woods asked Rose what her existence in the spirit would is like.
Rose describes the Spirit World and How Plants Grow in Heaven
“You’ve asked me to describe our world in a material language. I don’t know which way to start. I suppose if you could think of all the beautiful things in your world, without all the things that aren’t pleasant, you’d have some vague idea of what it’s like. Beautiful natural surroundings, you know. Flowers, birds, trees, lakes.”
Woods asked, “Is it easier to grow flowers over there than it is here?”
“Well, you plant them, and they come up, but you don’t have seasons. You don’t need to water them. All I know is that they grow, sort of natural.”
Woods asked, “Is your world very much like this world only much more beautiful?”
“Mind you, I can only speak about my own particular place where I am. I mean it’s a vast place altogether. I mean there are many spheres and conditions of life, you know. But where I’m at its very much like a beautiful English countryside. But I understand there are all other forms of nature, you know, as regards to scenery and that.”
“Have you villages and towns?” Asked George Woods.
“There are places that you’d call towns, where there are thousands of people that congregate together, you know. But there’s no buses and trams, and all that nonsense.”
Woods: “How do you travel?”
“Walk or if you’ve got at any distance, well you just think of the place you want to be in, close your eyes, and well, in a split second I suppose you might say, you’re there.”
Woods: “Do you live in a house?”
“Well, I do live in a house, but you don’t have to. But I’ve never seen anybody who didn’t.”
Woods: “What kind of houses are there? Like here?”
“All types of houses, dear. Some are small little cottages like you’d see in a little country hamlet, and some are quite big places where whole families live. The point is that it’s a matter of your choice of architecture and all that sort of thing. Of course, the houses are very real. I mean they are built by people over here. They didn’t just happen you know. You just you don’t just think of a country cottage and you’ve got it.”
People in Heaven Work at What They Love
Rose: “I mean here you’ve got architects and designers and so on, and they create and they build. It isn’t hard labor like it is on your side, but it’s a real formation that goes on.”
Woods: “They don’t use money over there, do they, or anything like that?”
“Money! You can’t buy a nothing here with money, mate. The only thing you can get here is by character, and the way you lived your life, and the way you think and act.”
Woods: “So how do you get your architects to do your work?”
“Well, you don’t pay him. He does it because he loves to it. He loves to design houses. The same way as the musician loves to play the violin. He’s happy to entertain his friends and people, and people who like music they form orchestras and choirs.
Everything is done for love, and anyone, for instance, on your side who never had a chance in life, perhaps they want to be a musician or an artist, they can study over here, you see.”
Woods: “They are doing all the things they wanted to do?”
“That’s right. I mean after all you think of the millions of people that go through life and have to do a hard-slaving day’s work, and never have a chance to do anything they would really like to do, never get the time, or never have the background or the money or education. Over here they can take up something that really appeals to them. It’s work, but it’s a joy to them.”
Food and Flowers in the Afterlife
Woods: “Do you eat anything?”
”We have fruit and nuts. We have fruit trees and all the things that you’d associate with your world regarding food, but you don’t kill animals and eat them over here.”
Woods: “What do you do with your flowers? Do you use them to beautify places?”
“Well, of course you can if you want to. You can cut down the flowers and you can use them in your homes, but very few people do that after a time. It’s usually people who haven’t been here long. They see the flowers and think would be nice to have a few indoors and so on. But the point is that you begin to realize it’s not necessary, and it isn’t perhaps a good thing.”
In Heaven or the Afterlife, Travel is Done by Thought
“The flowers are natural. They have a life. And it’s not the right thing because you can have all the beauty of nature and the flowers without cutting them and taking them inside. And if you’re sitting in your house and you want to see the flowers outside, you don’t necessarily have to go inside and see them. You can just sort of think about them and you can see them. I don’t know whether this makes sense to you?”
Woods: “We would open doors or windows.”
“Well, we don’t even have to do that if we don’t want to. I means I can sit in my chair and think to myself that I would like to go to Flint’s circle, so I just think and close my eyes and the next minute, you might say, I’m here with you. It may sound a bit farcical, a bit odd, but I can’t help that. It’s true. Time and space don’t mean anything. “
Marriage and Children in Heaven
Woods: “Do people get married there?”
“When two people really love each other and they are suited to each other, and they’re naturally happy with each other, a man-made law, or ceremony is not needed, to make them man and wife. We don’t have marriage laws here”
Woods: “Are there children there?”
“Well, there are children over here, but no children born of marriages, born over here. It’s not a physical thing in the same sense that you understand it.”
(Note by Walter Semkiw: In other Flint sessions, it is explained that when children die on Earth, they continue to be children in the afterlife and in heaven, they grow to be adults. See the case of Alfred Higgins.)
Animals in Heaven
Woods: “Are animals tame there?”
“Oh, tamed dear, good heavens yes. I expect that first when you come here you might think, oh dear, I wouldn’t like a lion to come to my door step, but you wouldn’t think anything of it. Animals are as tame as your pet cat is.”
Woods: “Animals don’t kill each other, do they?”
“No, that’s a merely a material thing, desire for food, and hunger. Material desire in that respect drives them to kill each other, but that doesn’t exist over here, because the desire for food is soon lost. There are some people who come here, at first, feel a desire to have a certain food. Well, they can have it. But they soon get out of the habit of wanting it, and after a time it all sort of passes away from them, you might say.”
Sleep and Time in the Afterlife
Woods: “Do you sleep?”
“Oh yes, you can sleep if you feel so inclined, but it’s not necessary. IIf you’re mentally tired, you just sort of mentally relax, close your eyes and you rest and you reopen your eyes after a time. You don’t feel tired anymore.”
Woods: “Do you measure time?”
“Well, I don’t know. There isn’t any measurement of time as I understand it. We are not conscious of time. I know you can’t realize, I mean you think oh well, afternoon and evening and night. Well those things don’t affect us. We don’t have time as you have it.”
Woods: “Do you have night and day over there?”
“No, but if you close your eyes, you go into a condition which you can call a kind of twilight.”
Planets, Spheres and the Sky in Heaven
Woods: “Rose, have you ever visited any other planets?”
“I have been to some of the lower spheres, dear, but I haven’t been to any planets as you understand it. Is that what you mean?”
Woods: “Have you been to Mars and Venus?”
“No, I haven’t been to any of them, my dear. I don’t know anything about Mars and Venus, and all the rest. Some of the scientifically minded people might know. I don’t.”
Woods: “Is there a thing such as law and order over there?”
“There is the natural law, dear, which we all begin to realize soon after we arrive. There aren’t any laws and rules and regulations like governments and so on, but there are common laws, which we all recognize.”
Woods: “Are there clouds?”
“There are clouds in the sky from time to time, beautiful effects in the sky, much more wonderful than anything you ever dreamed of, and it isn’t necessarily blue. Oh no, sometimes the sky can be green and red, or all kinds of magnificent colors. Some of the colors we have I’ve never seen on Earth. We’re not limited like you are, you see.”
Apparel in the Afterlife
Woods: “Rose, do you wear clothes?”
“Of course, we wear clothes, dear. People cloth themselves in the type of thing they feel happy in. Of course, in the early stages of coming over here, when a woman perhaps passes on in a particular century, they think that that particular type of dress is essential to them and for a time they wear it. But after time they realize that it’s not important. Gradually they change their outlook and change their apparel.”
Woods: “Well, at this moment Rose, what you have got on?”
“I’ve got a very pretty white dress on from top to toe. It’s got a border around the bottom, it’s got longish sleeves, very wide sleeves, and a I have a kind of a belt around the middle, of gold.”
Woods: “What is the material?”
“It is like a kind of silk. And my hair is not short, like it used to be, it is quite long.”
Rivers, Lakes and Swimming in Heaven
Woods: “Do you have to wash your clothes or hair?”
“No, but you can swim. You can go into the water if you want to, but you don’t get dirty. There’s no dust, dirt or anything like that here.”
Woods: “Do you have the sea just as we have here?”
“Well, I haven’t seen any sea, but there are beautiful rivers and lakes.”
Woods: “Do you have boats on them?”
“Oh, good heavens, yes. Beautiful boats. I don’t mean great liners, but very pretty boats, like they have in Venice.”
Woods: “Gondola type?”
“Yes, very pretty, all festooned with flowers. Sometimes we have galas or celebrations on the water and everything is illuminated, not by electricity or gas, but illuminated by the minds of people. It’s the only way I can describe it.”
Cities and Entertainment in the Spirit Realm
Woods: “Do you have cities?”
‘There are beautiful cities, but they’re not like your cities, dirty and grimy and all the rest. Some of the cities are absolutely wonderful. And we’ve got plays in theaters and places with music, but of a much higher order. Everything has a purpose. There’s nothing frivolous about it.
Yet we do laugh. We have comedy things you know too. After all, we don’t lose our sense of humor because we’re here.”
Woods: “Are there schools of learning?”
“Oh, great schools, museums, places where you can go and turn up all history of nations and people. All sorts of marvelous places there are. Nothing is lost, you know.”
Talking and Telepathy in the Afterlife
Woods: “Do you talk?”
“Well it isn’t necessary, but people do talk. But after you’ve been here a few years in Earth time you realize there’s no need to talk. You can send out thoughts that are picked up. It’s a kind of telepathy.”
Rose faded out in the Flint mediumship session in 1953. She returned ten years later on September 9, 1963. Betty Greene recognized the voice of Rose.
Rose: “All kinds of people come to talk to you from week to week. You always seem to attract a lot of people. Whenever you come here there’s always crowds. I haven’t had a chance to get anywhere near for ages, you know. I haven’t forgotten you.”
Domestic Life in Heaven
Woods asked: “What are you doing now?”
“I spend quite a bit of my time with the youngsters. I’m very fond of children. I do quite a bit with them.
I like little quiet hours when I sit and do a bit of needlework and I read.”
Woods: “Are you living in the same house, Rose?”
“Yes, and I’m quite happy. I have no particular desire to move. Of course, you to get these people who all the time are wanting to get further on. It doesn’t appeal to me all that much.
I suppose I’ll get the urge one day to shift. But why should I? I’m all right. I’ve got a nice little place of my own, all my own interest and friends.”
Woods: “Have you got a garden?”
“I have and it suits me. I grow my own flowers and I never pick one.”
Woods: “You don’t?”
“No. I let them stay in their own natural surroundings and I get the greatest happiness and joy just looking after them and watching them. They never seem to die. They’ve got vitality and life of their own.”
Woods: “What is your house like?”
“’It has got four rooms, quite enough for me to look after. Funny thing, you don’t ever get dirt. People tell me you only get dirt or dust in your place if your mind is wrong! I’m quite content to let everything grow and do what it wants to. The birds come into the garden. They are as tame as tame.”
Social Life in Heaven
Woods: “Do you visit many places, Rose?”
“Oh, occasionally to see friends of mine.
People come and talk to me sometimes about different places and spheres as they call them. It all sounds very nice, but I don’t feel educated up to it yet. I am happy where I am.”
Woods: “Are there neighbors around?”
“There are people who live around and about, who are very much as myself in outlook. Probably that’s why they are there and I’m with them. We get together occasionally.
I’m quite happy to relax and be quiet. I’ve learnt to read, a thing I couldn’t do much when I was on your side. I get books. There are people who bring me books. We sit and we talk and we read. Sometimes we go to the pictures.”
Woods: “Can you describe some of these pictures?”
“You can see things that you saw on your side, pictures you were very fond of. But a lot of them have some sort of moral, they’re very interesting and helpful.”
Weather, Grass, Corn and Giant Flowers in the Afterlife
Woods: “Are there fields and things there? Are they beautiful?”
“Oh yes, gorgeous. Very beautiful green grass we have and I know it will surprise you if I tell you we have cornfields. Yet the funny thing is we don’t have any seasons. For instance, I have never seen any rain. Neither have I known it be hot. It’s always very pleasant. Nice, pleasant warm atmosphere. And yet I’ve never seen the Sun. So I don’t think our illumination and light can be from the sun because I’ve never seen it.”
Woods: “Is the grass like ours or is it a finer texture?”
“Well, it’s springy underfoot and it’s very, very nice. A beautiful green. And I’ve been to places where the flowers are so high that—oh I should think they are a good seven or 8 feet high. It’s like walking through a forest of them. And the trees are beautiful, and the blossoms on some of them are beautiful. And the perfume! The scent’s marvelous.”
Woods: “Really? Rose, what do they do with the corn? Do they cut it, or do anything with it at all?”
“Well, I don’t know. I’ve never seen it cut, and yet it always seems to be there.”
Woods: “Never seen bread made from it?”
“No, and that’s another thing. I don’t feel the urge to eat. I did when I first came here, but it was mostly fruit and that sort of thing. I suppose you lose your desire for something, you realize it isn’t so important, and then it ceases to exist for you.
But I was one for my cup of tea, and I like it and still have it.?”
Woods: “How do you get your tea?”
Well, it’s a funny thing, you know. I don’t go into a kitchen and put the kettle on and make myself a cup of tea in that sense. But if I feel the need for a cup of tea, now all I can say is it’s there.”
Music and Hobbies in Heaven
Woods: “Do you have music there?”
‘Oh yes, I’ve been to lots of concerts and things. Beautiful music. Not highbrow, but nice, you know. Not jazzy muck but pleasant stuff. Don’t hear much of religious music.”
Betty Greene: “You said you did needlework. Do you make any of your clothes?”
“Yes, I do. I’ve made quite a few things and people bring me material. A very nice gentleman I’ve met over here, oh, he is a very nice man. He’s a bit highly placed, but he visits, he visits some of my friends too. And he never comes empty-handed. Oh, very generous he is. He recently brought me a beautiful place piece of stuff, a lovely shade of blue, just the color I like. He told me that the material will make a nice outfit.”
Animals in the Afterlife can Communicate
Woods: “When you walk out in the to walk out in the country, do you see animals?”
“Oh, I’ve seen animals in the fields, of course I have. And I’m not scared of them. Over here they’re gentle and it’s almost as if they can talk to you. I haven’t seen anything like gnats or flies, but I’ve seen butterflies that are very beautiful.”
Nothing Dies, but People can Move On to Higher Spheres
“I’m told they never die. Funny business, you don’t die you know. Nothing dies. When I first came here, once I settled in that was, I thought, well how long is this going to last, you know. I wondered how long this is going to last? I wondered if it was another sort of life where you go on for so many years, you get antique again, and then you kick the bucket. I wondered if there was anything beyond that. But there is no dying here. It is most peculiar.
While on Earth we used to say poor old so and so, she’s gone you know. Well over here, it’s much the same. Someone will tell me that so-and-so has gone on. Of course, that means they have gone on a bit.”
Woods: “To another sphere?”
“Yes, I’ve lost a few of my friends like that. They’ve gone on. But I don’t know, as I am staying put.”
Architecture and Movie Stars in the Spirit World
Woods: “What are the towns like?”
“Oh, beautiful, I must say. Not that I live in one. But they’re beautifully laid out, I will say that. Beautiful gardens and all sorts of parks and places for children especially. All very nice. Nothing common. Nothing cheap and nasty.
All real nice, classy stuff, but entertaining, you know. I’ve been to one or two of the theaters and seen plays. I’ve seen lots of famous people that I used to read about, as I never went much to the theater. Couldn’t afford it. Occasionally, I see some of the old stars. I’ve seen quite a few here. A lot of them still do the same type of work.”
Woods: “How is the architecture?”
“Oh, it’s very nice and varied, all kinds. The stone looks like mother-of-pearl. Another thing, there’s no traffic. You don’t get any cars, no motorcycles and nothing like that. People are all content to walk. Nobody rides. No need for that. No effort in walking here.”
Woods: “But if you want to go a distance, you go by thought, don’t you Rose?”
“I don’t know whether you go by thought, exactly. No, I suppose it is that you can sort of feel that you want to go to a certain place, and find yourself there. There’s no effort.”
Woods: “Are there woods up there?”
“Yes, lovely woods. It’s a wonderful place.”
We Should Look Forward to Death
“No one need fear dying. It’s something everyone should look forward to, unless they’ve got something terrible in their mind or in their background. Of course, I suppose everybody’s got some skeleton in the cupboard. But the average person has nothing to worry about coming over here.
Even the very wicked, from what I’ve heard, although its very sad and probably in a sense it’s very bad for them, yet they don’t get lost, poor dears. They are helped and guided, and eventually come out of the dark.
The average person has got nothing to worry about. I mean I wasn’t particularly good and I wasn’t particularly bad. But I must say I’ve done quite well for myself, and that’s why I don’t want to change.”
Woods: “You’re very happy where you are?”
“Yes, I am. And that’s why I don’t feel disposed to make any changes. Well, I must go. Anyway, look after yourselves. And I’m glad to hear all the good work you are doing.”